Chapter 238

"Swish—," at that moment, the bodyguards inside the tomb all raised their guns, but the barrels were not aimed at Yang Shouyi; they were aimed at everyone else besides him.

It seems these bodyguards are all Yang Shouyi's men; I had wanted to strike first, but I was injured, and besides, the bodyguards drew their guns too quickly, so I had no choice but to surrender meekly.

"Don't move, Wang QingSong, I know you're very capable, but you need to think clearly: your nephew and son are in my hands; as soon as you move, I guarantee I can kill them before you kill me." At the moment the bodyguards raised their guns, Yang Shouyi also drew a gun and immediately threatened QingSongShu fiercely. Obviously, Yang Shouyi still held QingSongShu in great awe.

After Yang Shouyi finished speaking, QingSongShu glanced at me and Pangzi, then slowly lowered his hand. Yet QingSongShu remained QingSongShu; even under threat, his demeanor stayed calm and carefree, his expression unchanged.

"Shouyi, what are you saying? Ye Qi, how could she be my daughter?" Yang Shouren breathed heavily, his chest rising and falling continuously.

"Brother Yi, didn't you say my mother was killed by Yang Shouren? And Xiao Rui, you told me it was because Yang Shouren had accumulated too many grudges, so Xiao Rui got caught up and was killed!" Ye Qi likewise stared at Yang Shouyi with a deathly pale face; helpless, she was like a frightened bunny, lunging forward and grabbing Yang Shouyi's sleeve.

Yang Shouyi gently pushed away Ye Qi's hand resting on his shoulder, his manner still amiable; he did not answer Ye Qi, but turned to face his elder brother Yang Shouren.

"My dear elder brother, if you don't believe me saying this, then let me tell you she is Ye Hui's daughter—do you believe it now?"

"What? She, she is Xiao Hui's daughter." Yang Shouren, as if struck by lightning, staggered backward a few steps.

"Please calm down, don't be so shocked." Yang Shouyi raised his hand like an artist conducting, as if directing music, teaching Yang Shouren to settle his agitated emotions.

Afterwards, Yang Shouyi glanced over everyone; when his eyes met mine, the corner of his mouth curled up. He gave a faint smile and walked slowly to my side. Seeing the cold glint like a venomous snake in his gaze, I involuntarily shivered.

Yang Shouyi clapped his hands, half-praising me as he said: "Actually, you're right—Wu Fei is someone I arranged, and this woman surnamed Han is also someone I arranged; they're all people I hired with money. But you guessed wrong about my purpose; I'm not trying to seize the Yang family's property."

He paused, then leaned close to my ear and said, word by word, heavily: "I want the Yang family to die, I want the Yang family to vanish completely—" His voice was icy, carrying a bone-deep chill. Just how deep is his hatred for the Yang family, and is he truly a blood relative of the Yangs?

"Shouyi, why is this? I am your elder brother, your own elder brother!" Yang Shouren bellowed toward the sky, picking up his cane and making a move to lunge at Yang Shouyi.

With a bang, Yang Shouyi pulled the trigger without looking back; the bullet struck Yang Shouren's thigh, causing him to kneel instantly. No one expected him to be so ruthless, hesitating not at all to strike his own elder brother.

"You ask why? Because I hate you all. I hate you, I hate Ye Hui that despicable person, I hate everything about the Yang family. I will personally bury it all, I will reduce the Yang family to dust." Yang Shouyi suddenly snarled madly: "Nothing feels better than destroying Yang Shoutian and seeing you, Yang Shouren, painstakingly guarding your foundation."

"Why? Why? The Yang family is your home, I am your elder brother, your own elder brother!" Yang Shouren was already crying, tears streaming down his face.

"Hehe, the Yang family, my home. You… my own elder brother?" Yang Shouyi gave a grim smile, his eye sockets reddening. He kicked Yang Shouren hard and, full of hatred, said: "I have no such home, nor do I have an elder brother like you."

"From childhood onward, there's nothing about me that isn't better than you, nothing that isn't as good as you. But just because I was born into the second branch, I've been bullied by you everywhere. Even the Yang family's servants dare to hit me, scold me, insult me; my life is worse than a dog's. Do you remember when we were little? Just because I slapped you, you had your mother hang me up and beat me mercilessly for a whole day and night, locking me in the woodshed with a dog." Yang Shouyi clasped his hands and made an analogy: "A bowl of rice this big—if I want to eat it, I still have to beat that big black dog in the kitchen."

"My mother was killed by your mother. Do you know how she died?" Yang Shouyi suddenly grabbed Yang Shouren's sleeve fiercely, glaring viciously: "She merely suggested to your father, Yang Shoutian that scoundrel, that I be allowed to join the family business. For that, your uncle that scoundrel humiliated her, then together with the servants threw her into a well, staging the appearance of adultery."

"What's hateful is that Yang Shoutian, that brainless scoundrel, actually believed it completely. My mother endured so much humiliation in life, and even after death she had to bear this infamy, to the point she couldn't enter the family ancestral hall." A hint of cruelty appeared at the corner of Yang Shouren's mouth: "So, after I returned, I secretly burned your mother's spirit tablet as firewood. I placed my mother's spirit tablet inside your mother's outer garment and set it up. You never imagined, did you? For all these years you've been sincerely worshipping the mother you thought was yours—actually, she's my mother."

Having said that, Yang Shouyi's expression could not conceal his self-satisfaction.

Pangzi and I were stunned by Yang Shouyi's words, scorched outside and raw inside. Even Yao Wenju gaped his mouth, the Yang family's chaotic history leaving him dazed; even the burning cigarette butt hurting his fingers went unnoticed.

"And you—I haven't said anything about you yet?" Yang Shouyi, like a face‑changing actor, had his smile cut off in an instant, turned and pointed at Yang Shouren, shouting angrily: "Over all these years, when have you ever treated me as a brother? More than twenty years ago, you blackmailed the Japanese gang's goods, sending me out as a scapegoat; if it weren't for my good luck, I would have died long ago. Now you pretend to be benevolent and righteous while calling me a brother. Do you think you deserve to be a competent elder brother?"

The air suddenly grew still; Yang Shouyi kept his posture of angrily pointing at Yang Shouren, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for breath.

"Ah… it's my fault, all my fault. I blame my former selfishness, my utter cold-heartedness." Yang Shouren suddenly heaved a deep sigh, lifted his head; his face was a picture of helplessness and exhaustion. He asked Yang Shouyi: "What about Xiao Hui? She's your sister‑in‑law, she's innocent, and you used to love Xiao Hui, didn't you? Don't tell me her death twenty‑five years ago also has something to do with you."

"Hehe…" Yang Shouyi spread his hands and smiled, saying: "Ye Hui, that despicable woman—I did love her, no doubt. But because I wasn't the Yang family's eldest son and couldn't inherit the family property, she turned to your embrace. So she is no longer the Ye Hui I deeply loved." By the end, his voice grew cold.

"You want to know how she died!" Yang Shouyi spread his hands indifferently and said: "I killed her. That year, when you were ambushed in Malaysia and lost contact with me and Ye Hui, I took the opportunity to sleep with her. I had originally planned to kill her right away, but I didn't know she was pregnant at the time. So I had to wait until she gave birth to a baby before I finished her off."

"How do you feel, don't you think Ye Qi looks a lot like Ye Hui? Mother and daughter—how could they not resemble each other?" Yang Shouyi laughed lightly, intrigued, and asked: "How do you feel now that you realize the person who has been sharing your pillow for all these years, the one you sleep beside, is actually your wife? What is your feeling now?"

Yang Shouyi let no opportunity slip to further crush Yang Shouren's mind. After painstakingly laying out a scheme for twenty‑five years, it finally took effect at this moment.

"Beast, you beast, worse than a pig or dog!" Yang Shouren roared, unable to hold back a mouthful of regurgitated blood.

Meanwhile, Ye Qi beside them stared wide‑eyed, incredulously clutching her own hair.

"Brother Yi, it's not like that, it's not like that." She walked over to Yang Shouyi, helpless and flustered, gripping his shoulder, and shouted hysterically: "Brother Yi, tell me this isn't true, don't joke with me—this joke isn't funny at all. Tell me you're saying this just to anger Yang Shouren? It must be, it must be the case."

"Hehe" Yang Shouyi smiled, turned around, and his amiable visage instantly turned mad; he grabbed Ye Qi's hair in one fist and snarled viciously: "Stupid woman, don't you get it yet? You are merely a pawn, a pawn I have painstakingly cultivated for twenty‑five years."

"And what about Yang Rui? He's your own son—how could you lay a hand on him?" Ye Qi frantically slapped Yang Shouyi.

Yang Shouyi slapped him to the ground, expressionless, and said: "To achieve great things, even close kin can be killed. If Yang Rui doesn't die, Yang Shouren couldn't believe that the Three Slaughter Steles inside the ancestral tomb had gone wrong, nor could he possibly lead me into the Yang family's ancestral grave."

"Now you should open the mechanism on the Three Slaughter Seal and hand that thing over to me!" Yang Shouyi, expressionless, slowly extended a hand toward Yang Shouren.

"You… how did you know?" Yang Shouren stared at Yang Shouyi in astonishment.

Yang Shouyi chuckled lightly: "If it weren't for your old‑dead uncle, I think I couldn't have known this. Blame only yourself for trusting the wrong person and telling that old‑dead the secret. That's how I learned from his mouth that the Yang family tomb actually holds two gold tablets left by General Yue Fei. Only then did I realize that our Yang family ancestral grave has been guarding an astonishing secret."

Yang Shouyi's words left me dumbfounded. Damn, why is it the Yue Mu legacy again? That mysterious person in Aomen back then also wanted this, didn't they? The so‑called twelve gold tablets weren't they the order issued by Emperor Gaozong of Song to recall Yue Fei? How did they suddenly become a treasure?

Not only I was stunned; Yao Wenju was too. I noticed that when Yang Shouyi spoke of the Yue Mu legacy, Yao Wenju's face flashed with surprise. Yao Wenju should have known about the Yue Mu legacy all along.

"Do you think… I'll give it to you?" Yang Shouren looked at Yang Shouyi without expression.

Yang Shouyi gave a hehe laugh, grabbed Ye Qi in one motion, pressed his pistol to her temple, full of confidence and amusement, and asked Yang Shouren: "What do you think?"

I suddenly feel again that bringing Ye Qi in was a mistake. Damn, what should have been clear evidence to expose Yang Shouyi's plot has inexplicably turned into a lever for him to blackmail Yang Shouren. No matter how bad Ye Qi may be, she is still Yang Shouren's daughter. In the end, will Yang Shouren choose the treasure or his own daughter?

Time seemed to drag on like a century. Ye Qi, overwhelmed by stimulation, could no longer speak clearly. Her face was deathly pale, she twitched uncontrollably, and she muttered incoherently: "Impossible, impossible, this isn't real," and similar phrases.

The two sides remained locked in a stalemate for a long time. Yang Shouren stared straight at his brother Yang Shouyi, while Yang Shouyi smiled faintly, quietly observing his elder brother, showing no trace of anxiety.

Amid the stalemate, Yang Shouren gave Ye Qi a complex glance, sighed, and said: "All right, I'll help you open the Three Slaughter Seal."

In the end, did he still give in?

"Cough cough"—just then, a discordant cough echoed inside the tomb.