Chapter 510

Shush—, at that moment, the bodyguards inside the tomb all raised their guns, but the muzzles were not aimed at Yang Shouyi; they were pointed 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 on top of that 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 take them out 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 said those words, QingSongShu glanced at me and Pangzi, then slowly lowered his hand. However, 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, you didn't say my mother was killed by Yang ShouRen, did you? And Xiao Rui, you told me it was because Yang ShouRen had accumulated too many grudges, so Xiao Rui got implicated and was killed!" Ye Qi likewise stared at Yang Shouyi with a deathly pale face; helpless, she was like a frightened rabbit, stepping forward and grabbing Yang Shouyi's sleeve in one motion.

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

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

"What? She, she is Xiao Hui's daughter." Yang ShouRen reeled as if struck by lightning, his body suddenly staggering 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, urging Yang ShouRen to settle his agitated emotions.

Afterwards, Yang Shouyi glanced over everyone; when his eyes met mine, the corner of his mouth curved. He gave a faint smile and slowly walked to my side. Seeing the cold, snake-like glint in his eyes, 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 both 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, in a heavy tone: "I want the Yang family to die, I want the Yang family to completely disappear," his voice icy, piercing to the bone. Just how deep is his grudge against 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 lunging at Yang Shouyi.

With a bang, Yang Shouyi pulled the trigger without turning his head; 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 roared 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 such an elder brother."

"From childhood to now, there's nothing in which I'm not better than you, nothing in which I'm not as good as you. But just because I'm from 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 day and a night, locking me in the woodshed with a dog." Yang Shouyi clasped his hands together 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 at him: "She merely, because she 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 the well, staging an affair."

"What's hateful is that Yang ShouTian, that brainless scoundrel, actually believed it completely. My mother endured so much humiliation in life, and after death she still had to bear this disgrace, to the point she couldn't even enter the family ancestral hall." A flicker of malice crossed Yang ShouRen's lips: "So, after I returned, I secretly burned your mother's spirit tablet as firewood. I placed my mother's spirit tablet on your mother's outer garments and set it up. You never imagined, did you? For all these years, you have been sincerely worshipping the mother you thought was yours, but she is actually my mother."

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

I and Pangzi were left stunned by Yang Shouyi's words, as if struck by lightning, crisp outside and tender inside. Even Yao WenJu gaped, the Yang family's chaotic history leaving him reeling—so much that even the painful burn of his cigarette butt went unfelt.

"And you—I haven't finished with 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 luck, I would have died long ago. Now you hypocritically pretend to be brotherly toward me. Do you think you deserve to be a competent elder brother?"

The air suddenly grew still; Yang Shouyi kept his finger pointed 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 cold-hearted ruthlessness." Yang ShouRen suddenly heaved a deep sigh, lifted his head, his face a picture of helplessness and exhaustion, and 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 Xiao Hui's 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 do love her—no doubt. But because I am not the Yang family's eldest son and cannot 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 shrugged indifferently: "I killed her. That year, when you were ambushed in Malaysia and lost contact with me and Ye Hui, I took the opportunity to have my way with her. I had originally planned to kill her right away, but I didn't know she was pregnant. So I had to wait until she gave birth to a baby before I finished her off."

"How about it, you think Ye Qi looks a lot like Ye Hui, right? Mother and daughter—how could they not be alike?" Yang Shouyi laughed lightly, intrigued, and asked: "How about it, now that you know the person who has been sharing your bed for all these years is actually your wife, how do you feel now?"

Yang Shouyi did not miss the slightest chance to crush Yang ShouRen's spirit. After painstakingly laying a scheme for twenty‑five years, it finally took effect at this moment.

"Beast, you beast, worse than swine and dog!" Yang ShouRen roared, unable to hold back a mouthful of regurgitated blood.

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

"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, and in an instant his gentle demeanor turned mad; he grabbed Ye Qi's hair in one fist and snarled: "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 may be killed. If Yang Rui does not die, how could Yang ShouRen believe that the problem lies with the Three Slaughter Stelae inside the ancestral tomb, and how 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, face expressionless, slowly extended a hand toward Yang ShouRen.

"You… how did you know that?" 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, the Wu Mu last will again? That mysterious person in Aomen back then also wanted this, didn't they? The so‑called twelve gold tablets aren't they the order that Emperor Gaozong of Song used 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 Wu Mu's last will, Yao WenJu's face flickered with surprise. Yao WenJu should have known about Wu Mu's last will all along.

"Do you think… I'll give it to you?" Yang ShouRen looked at Yang Shouyi with a blank expression.

Yang Shouyi chuckled, snatched Ye Qi up in one motion, pressed his pistol to her temple, and, full of confidence and amusement, asked Yang ShouRen: "What do you think?"

I suddenly feel again that bringing Ye Qi in was a mistake. Damn, the solid evidence that could have exposed 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 kept twitching, muttering to herself: "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, calmly watching his elder brother, showing no trace of urgency.

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

Has he finally given in?

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