If Xie Qian’s car accident was not an accident but deliberate, then why now?
If it were merely about fighting over the family fortune, Xie Qian already holds 11% of Jinhu shares. Acting now would surely be far too late.
Some people could accept Xie Qian spending 200 million on land.
Some people could also accept him taking over the film and television company.
Even the 11% stake was tolerable.
So what exactly had Xie Qian done that made “certain people” unable to bear it any longer and suddenly decide to strike at him?
On the very day Xie Qian had carefully prepared a gift and planned to confess to that girl, on what should have been a beautiful moment, someone wanted to harvest the young and vibrant life of Xie Qian. Xie Yuping could only surmise that something Xie Qian was currently doing had touched the core interests of those people. To them, letting Xie Qian succeed would have more devastating consequences than the 200 million plot of land, the film company, and the 11% shares combined.
It had to be an absolutely vital interest. Once Xie Qian uncovered the truth, years of ambitious scheming could collapse in an instant.
Wen Ying’s information had come at the perfect moment.
The DNA test would produce precisely that result.
At its root, the turmoil at Jinhu was a battle over inheritance rights. If that brother-and-sister pair were not Xie Jinghu’s biological children, the very foundation of the inheritance fight would crumble. Victory and defeat would be decided in a single stroke, and someone would panic and jump the wall like a cornered dog. Xie Yuping knew Xie Jinghu was stupid, but he possessed every flaw a typical man could have. Xie Jinghu would never accept raising another man’s children, nor would he, for the sake of “love”, sever the tie of blood and hand Jinhu over to another man’s offspring.
Xie Jinghu was merely stupid, not brain-dead from a prenatal stroke.
Even if his relationship with his own son Xie Qian was irreparably broken, the worst case was to divorce and find another woman to have a child, boy or girl, it would still be his own flesh and blood.
Of course some people transcend blood ties and devote themselves fully to non-biological children. Xie Jinghu was clearly not one of them.
It must be said, Xie Yuping understood Xie Jinghu’s psychology perfectly.
Hearing that something had happened to Xie Qian, Xie Jinghu spent the entire journey wondering what it could be.
Perhaps a minor bump, another attempt to squeeze more shares out of him?
Therefore, the moment Xie Jinghu arrived at the hospital his first words were to establish his position. “Big Brother, this was an accident. It has nothing to do with me.”
Slap!
Xie Jinghu took a hard slap across the face. It was not Xie Yuping who struck him, but Zou Weijun.
“Have you no reason…”
Xie Jinghu wanted to roar, but when he turned he saw an expression of despair and madness on Zou Weijun’s face that he had never witnessed before.
Xie Yuping merely stared at him coldly without speaking.
Only then did Xie Jinghu realise.
The corridor was unnaturally quiet.
Apart from Xie Yuping and Zou Weijun, there was no one else.
At the far end of the corridor lay the door to the ICU.
Suddenly Xie Jinghu could not utter a single word. That rebellious son… no, what on earth had happened to Xie Qian?
His heart pounded wildly.
Whether as a husband or as a father, Xie Jinghu was utterly inadequate. Arrogant and stubborn, he wanted the red flag at home to stay flying while keeping colourful flags fluttering outside.
Had his affair not been exposed, he would have had a virtuous wife at home, a beautiful mistress outside, a company raking in money daily, and still be in the prime of life, the very picture of a triumphant winner in life.
Unfortunately the affair came to light. Wife and son both turned against him, the entire family treated him like stinking dog shit, and his wife was trying to drain his wealth with their son in tow. He was left exhausted and overwhelmed.
His former swagger was gone, replaced by nothing but a mess.
In that mess, anyone who pushed him became his enemy.
His own son Xie Qian constantly opposed him, so in Xie Jinghu’s eyes the boy was a “rebellious son”, a termite gnawing away at his fortune bit by bit.
If Xie Qian would just obediently go abroad, stop coveting his money and company, and stop dangling in front of his eyes every day, Xie Jinghu would gladly pay a hundred million to send him packing.
But Xie Qian refused to follow Xie Jinghu’s script.
Apart from choosing Shanghai over Beijing for university after the gaokao, Xie Qian had never once done anything to please his father.
Even so, Xie Jinghu had never once wished for Xie Qian would meet with a fatal accident.
Rebellious or not, “son” was still the noun, “rebellious” merely the adjective. For an unwanted son, sending him far away and giving him a smaller inheritance was fair enough, but dislike him though he might, why would Xie Jinghu want him dead?
On this point at least, though Xie Jinghu failed in every other respect, he had not yet lost his humanity.
The Xie family had failed to raise him properly, but it had not produced a son-killing monster.
“Big Brother, what happened to Qian?”
Xie Jinghu’s gaze darted between the ICU door at the end of the corridor and Zou Weijun’s despairing face. If it were just about shares, there was no need for such a performance. They could name a number, high or low, and negotiate calmly.
Xie Jinghu himself did not notice that his voice was trembling.
Pain and sorrow filled Xie Yuping’s eyes.
That useless third brother, had he made a clean break instead of dreaming of having it all, would Xie Qian ever have come to harm?
But this was not the moment to lecture Xie Jinghu. Xie Yuping had long given up trying to save him. Ignoring Xie Jinghu’s question, he asked instead, “Before you spent family money on those bastards outside, did you ever do a paternity test with them?”
The question caught Xie Jinghu completely off guard.
Far too abrupt.
Utterly inappropriate for the moment.
Xie Jinghu instinctively glanced at Zou Weijun. She was staring blankly toward the ward, eyes unfocused, as if she no longer cared about any of it.
That version of Zou Weijun was even more terrifying than the hysterical one.
Xie Jinghu’s mind began to reel. He mumbled, “We did, abroad. I’m not the sort to believe whatever anyone says. If she hadn’t told me she’d borne me a son, I wouldn’t have…”
Wouldn’t have what?
Wouldn’t have rekindled the old flame so quickly.
At that time, Xie Jinghu and Zou Weijun’s marriage had actually been quite good.
The couple had weathered the difficult early days of starting the business together. The company had gone from debt to profit. Xie Qian, still in kindergarten, was already showing intelligence far beyond his peers. Xie Jinghu’s family life had been happy and complete.
Then his long-married ex-girlfriend’s husband died abroad. She returned to China with her child and ran into Xie Jinghu at a dinner.
Back then, Xie Jinghu felt more hatred than love for her.
When the Zhuo family fell on hard times, Xie Jinghu had not minded. He truly had loved her and wanted to shelter her from the storm.
But she had not trusted his ability and treated marriage as a lifeline out of poverty, marrying the much older overseas Chinese businessman as quickly as possible.
That had dealt a devastating blow to Xie Jinghu’s pride and directly led him to quit his stable job and go into business.
And he had won the gamble.
Starting a company is never smooth sailing, but he was lucky and always had noble help at critical moments.
At that dinner he learned that not only had the old businessman died, his children from previous marriages had ganged up in court and left her with almost nothing… Xie Jinghu’s first reaction was not pity, but satisfaction.
She had chosen money over true love, spent years with the old man, and ended up with nothing. That was her retribution.
Because she had abandoned someone who genuinely loved her for money, only to be abandoned by money in the end, how satisfying!
Perhaps his gloating was too obvious and stung the newly widowed woman.
Before the dinner ended, she pulled Xie Jinghu aside and told him she had received almost no inheritance because the stepchildren had applied for paternity tests and stripped her child of inheritance rights.
She told him the child’s birthday. Xie Jinghu counted backwards and immediately felt a chill.
She did not want Xie Jinghu to take responsibility, but she wanted him to know what had really happened all those years ago.
At the very least, after raising his son for so many years, she deserved not to be kicked while she was down.
Xie Jinghu naturally refused to believe it. She told him to come abroad and do the test with the child.
He personally oversaw the entire process. There was no room for doubt.
Now, pressed by his eldest brother, Xie Jinghu felt the timing was wrong, yet to avoid looking like a complete fool in front of Xie Yuping and to explain to Zou Weijun why he had rekindled things with his ex, he vaguely recounted the story. “…We did the paternity test. How could I not acknowledge them?”
The more Xie Yuping listened, the colder his heart grew.
If this was all a conspiracy, then someone had begun plotting more than a decade ago. This was not a recent impulse.
In the past, Xie Yuping would have cursed Xie Jinghu for a fool.
Even if the Zhuo woman had truly been pregnant with Xie blood when she married the businessman, and was thrown out after his death, how was that Xie Jinghu’s fault?
It was not!
Xie Jinghu was a scoundrel now, but he had not been back then. Young Xie Jinghu had wanted to take responsibility. It was the Zhuo woman herself who refused to marry him. What did that have to do with Xie Jinghu?
Up to that point, Xie Jinghu was blameless.
His mistake was doing the test abroad and then keeping it secret from the family, hiding it from Zou Weijun and everyone else.
Zou Weijun was not unreasonable. Had she learned that an ex-girlfriend, long broken up and unbeknownst to Xie Jinghu, had borne his son, she would have been upset but would not have stopped him from paying child support.
Handled that way, everything would have been different. There would have been no decade-long affair, no two families.
The Zhuo woman would never have grown greedier.
And Xie Qian would not be lying in the ICU.
So when all was said and done, Xie Jinghu was still the biggest bastard.
Swallowing his grief and rage, Xie Yuping spoke as calmly as he could to the bastard. “Since you already did a paternity test once, you won’t mind doing it again. Qian is already… I won’t stand in the way of your pursuit of happiness, but the Xie family will never accept bastards of unknown origin.”
Eldest brother was actually relenting, willing to accept Zhuo Chen and Zhuo Yue?
Ever since the affair broke, Xie Jinghu had desperately wanted the family to accept the brother-and-sister pair.
Having an affair was wrong, but the children could not choose their parents. They were innocent.
Unfortunately, from the old lady down to Xie Jinghu’s youngest niece, everyone ignored the existence of Zhuo Chen and Zhuo Yue. Forcing the Xie family to accept illegitimate children was harder than killing them all.
Xie Jinghu no longer dared to hope for it, yet now Xie Yuping had softened.
But this was hardly the right moment. Xie Qian was lying in the ICU. What exactly was Big Brother trying to do? Had the doctors already declared Xie Qian beyond saving?
Xie Jinghu felt dazed. The son who always opposed him might be dying.
Yet he could not feel happy.
He wanted to comfort Zou Weijun, but seeing her vacant stare, his mind went blank.
Xie Yuping paid no heed to Xie Jinghu’s feelings. After being disgusted by him so many times, Xie Yuping finally had the chance to disgust him back. Or rather, seeing Xie Qian in the ICU had lit a raging fire in Xie Yuping’s chest. If he did not burn someone else with it, the flames would consume him.
Better to burn someone else.
His voice carried no emotion whatsoever. “Cat got your tongue with joy? No need to thank me. This is only my duty. I have already sent Zhong Yong to fetch them. Before today is over, I want to see the paternity test results.”
