And sure enough, they didn’t let him down.
Ye Chen sighed inwardly, finding the whole thing bitterly ironic.
His father had openly fought the Rothschilds, at its core to spare the Ye family, fully aware that taking on a mighty foe would prompt them to cut him loose.
It was like knowing your lover would cheat, so you set up the chance for them to leave, shielding them from your own troubles.
Even at the end of his life, his father was still thinking of this family.
Thinking of the father who didn’t care if he lived or died, of the siblings who couldn’t wait to see him gone.
Gu Yanzhong, privy to it all, guessed what Ye Chen was mulling over. He sighed softly, saying with gravity, “Chen’er, some people aren’t born to live for themselves. Your father’s mission his whole life was to look after his family, be it the big Ye clan or your little trio with your mum, he did it brilliantly.”
Ye Chen nodded slightly.
He agreed with Gu Yanzhong.
In his years at the orphanage, he’d seen all sorts of pitiful kids.
Some were born with grave illnesses.
Taken in by the orphanage, they’d do what little they could to treat them, but some still died young.
Auntie Li once told them, tears streaming, that some people come into this world not to enjoy it, but to suffer.
Born sick, abandoned by their parents, their brief lives spent battling disease, dying without even knowing their own family name.
His father’s fate wasn’t that harsh, but from youth, he’d aimed to lift the Ye family to its peak. Studying hard, travelling the world, all to pave the way for the family’s rise.
Then, cutting ties with them, arranging an escape for his son, he went to his death with his mother.
Even at the end, he hadn’t thought of himself, everything was for his family.
Ye Chen wondered, if his father were alive, how would he face the Ye family now?
Would he carry the same grudge as Ye Chen, or keep guarding them selflessly like before?
Ye Chen reckoned it’d be the latter.
But he couldn’t do that himself.
Ye Zhongquan, Ye Changmin, Ye Changkong, Ye Changyun up at Ye Ling Mountain, all of them, he could manage not to boot them out of the family, but he couldn’t turn around and care for them, protect them.
Maybe that was the gap between him and his father.
Still, thinking of the Ye family’s selfish streak, Ye Chen felt a twinge of disgust.
This family only rallied when his father was at his peak, bound by profit.
It was time for a reckoning.
With Qingming coming soon after the New Year, he said to Ye Zhongquan, “Grandpa, this Qingming, summon all the Ye family to Ye Ling Mountain for the ancestral rites. It’s time to give them some ideological schooling. If the Ye family can unite going forward, I’ll keep pouring resources into it. Otherwise, it disbands right there at Ye Ling Mountain, cutting all ties and funds with the collateral branches. As for Uncle, Third Uncle, Aunt, and the rest, they’re out of the Ye family. I’ll set up a trust, they and their kids can draw a monthly stipend, but none of them get a say in running the family anymore.”
