Chapter 281: Heart Determined

On one side is the older brother who raised me, on the other side is family bound by blood.

Li Yihu would naturally choose the former.

Thinking of the effort and pain Li Jiaci has poured into this lately, he feels torn again.

The woman limped forward, unable to speak, and could only tenderly touch Li Yihu's face.

Her rough, calloused hand made Li Yihu's cheek ache, as if sliced by a knife.

Li Yihu lowered his head, seeing the wounds on her body from past abuse, and his chest tightened sharply.

Clearly, there is no feeling.

Why does my heart ache now?

Li Yihu's tears burst forth; though he's always been carefree, he suddenly cried like a child.

The woman swept him into her arms, gently patting his back with her rough hand.

Just as his mother used to soothe him when he was a child.

At this moment, Li Yihu's heart was set.

"Mom..."

The woman had no reaction.

Because she couldn't hear.

Li Yihu broke free from her embrace, pressed her shoulders, and shouted, "Mom!"

The woman watched his mouth shape and burst into tears of surprise.

Mother and son embraced, weeping together.

Liu Jiang furrowed his brow slightly—not out of rejection, but...

He felt a certain stirring.

"Son!"

Suddenly, a richly dressed woman walked over.

She looked about thirty, young and beautiful.

Liu Jiang's brows knit: "Who do you call 'son'?"

The woman gave a teasing smile, turned, grabbed a middle-aged man's arm, and said, "This is your father; I am the new bride he just married."

"Oh, so you're the stepmother—no wonder you're so young!"

Liu Jiang said sarcastically.

The woman lowered her head, smoothed her hair, her face made up delicately, and asked, "They're all happily reunited—do you want to come back with us?"

"What about my birth mother?"

All I saw was Liu Jiang lighting a cigarette and throwing back a question.

The woman immediately coughed and covered her nose.

The middle-aged man's face darkened slightly; he whispered, "Your mother's pregnant—don't smoke that in front of her!"

"Which mother is pregnant?"

Liu Jiang still smiled.

"Obviously the one before you—your birth mother died eight hundred years ago!"

As soon as the middle-aged man said that, the woman beside him feigned anger and glared at him.

"How dare you speak like that? Be polite to the child, don't ruin the father‑son harmony!"

"Yes, yes, Shufen, you're the most thoughtful!"

Watching the two of them lovey‑dovey.

Liu Jiang immediately spat at their feet.

Over the past year he's dealt daily with that bunch of petty traders.

He can tell what kind of person they are and what they're thinking at a glance.

This couple simply doesn't want him to go back.

Yet for some reason they insist on joining the fun.

Liu Jiang flicked ash, sneered, "Enough, stop acting in front of me—I'm not going anywhere; I'll stick with my big brother for life."

"Son, don't speak in anger, don't blame your father—he's been apart from you for years and doesn't know how to get along, but Mom knows; from now on Mom will protect you, see who dares to bully you!"

The woman walked over smiling, reaching out to ruffle Liu Jiang's head.

Liu Jiang's expression darkened; he sprang up and dodged.

"Go ahead, try touching me!"

"Son, you…"

"Who the hell says you're my son? You're only a few years older than me!"

The woman was embarrassed by the retort.

She gave the man a coquettish look and said, "I just want to get close to my son, but he…"

She was about to cry as she spoke.

The man couldn't bear to see his precious heart and eyes shed tears.

He immediately pointed at Liu Jiang's nose and snapped, "You little brat, you think I dare not discipline you now? If you come to my house, you must accept her as mother, or there's nothing to discuss!"

"Nonsense, who wants to go back with you? Keeping a fox spirit at home is your business—stop disgusting me!"

Liu Jiang has opposed recognizing kin from the start.

I never expected my own father to be such a scoundrel, openly berating me—his own abandoned son—just to protect a fox spirit.

With a family like that, just passing by feels unlucky.

It's pure fantasy to think he'd let him go back.

The man's face flushed and his neck thickened with anger as he gritted his teeth: "Do you really intend to wander outside for a lifetime? Just like your shameless mother!"

"Which mother? Oh, you must be talking about my stepmother right here!"

Liu Jiang wouldn't tolerate the bullying and immediately fired back with sarcasm.

The man jumped up and shouted, "It's your biological mother!"

"I've never even seen my biological mother, so how do I know if you're telling the truth? On the contrary, this stepmother before me, young and already misbehaving, is tangled up with some old man, even got herself pregnant—those four words 'shameless' fit her perfectly!"

"You… you… you… If I don't beat you to death today, then you're my father!"

The man grabbed a nearby chair, poised to give Liu Jiang a taste of his own medicine.

Liu Jiang stood tall and chest out, unmoving in place.

Zhang Chuqiang smashed the tea cup before him, picked up a sharp shard, held it in his hand, and glared tigerishly at the man before him.

Li Yihu pressed down on the man's shoulder, his eyes fierce and cold.

Zhao Chen rose to block Liu Jiang's front, flexing his fists.

"You… you guys…"

"You heartless lot!"

"Following that gang leader, you've all gone bad!"

The man was stunned by the scene before him.

Although he was too frightened to move, he didn't hesitate to openly disparage them.

Liu Jiang snorted, waved his hand, and said, "Just get lost—don't embarrass yourselves here. I've had no parents my whole life; you don't care whether I live or die, so when you're old, don't expect me to care about your fate either."

"You little bastard!"

The man stormed off toward the door.

Suddenly, the woman's expression changed; she grabbed his arm and warned, "You're really leaving? Don't you want the business of Shengqiang Furniture Factory?"

"What?"

Li Yihu was closest and heard it most clearly.

He questioned, "You came to have my brothers recognize kin just for the business of Shengqiang Furniture Factory?"

"What else would it be? He's my biological son—can't I discuss business with his boss?"

The man never truly acknowledged the brothers' relationship from the heart; he only saw Li Jiaci as their boss and thought they were merely working for Li Jiaci.

Liu Jiang said bitterly, "You think you're qualified to take on work from Shengqiang Furniture Factory? Ha, you'd better give up that notion—take your vixen and get lost!"

"You little bastard…"

The man stepped forward again.

But he was intimidated by the brothers' aura and immediately stopped in his tracks.

The woman dragged him out of the private room by force.

Liu Jiang also became the first among the brothers to fail in recognizing kin.

But he didn't feel disappointed; perhaps he never held any hope from the start, so there was nothing to be disappointed about.