The Grand Secretary has no heir? His concubine gives birth to triplets.

He stopped laughing, his eyes red and almost bloodshot, staring intently at Madam Xiao.

"The favoritism you show him is nothing short of poison for him!"

"Every time he saw me locked in a dark room, every time he saw me being insulted and whipped by you, he would secretly cut his own arm!"

"He felt guilty every time he ate a new pastry, wore a new garment, or glanced at the sun outside!"

"They'll all feel sorry for me!"

Pei Yan was aggressive, speaking each word with extreme clarity.

"The unavoidable favoritism had already left his heart riddled with holes."

"Do you think he lives a carefree life? Although he is gentle and refined, and knows how to behave appropriately, when have you ever seen him smile from the bottom of his heart?!"

Backed into a corner, Xiao Shi turned pale and shook her head in disbelief.

"You're talking nonsense! He has everything, how could he feel..."

"Would you like to hear what he said to me at the end?"

The memory of that fire remains vividly etched in Pei Yan's mind.

When the roof beam came crashing down, his brother shielded him with his own body.

The flames licked at his flesh, but his brother laughed.

"Ah Ying... I'm so tired."

Pei Yan's Adam's apple bobbed, and his voice became extremely hoarse.

He said he no longer wanted to be the eldest son of the legitimate wife, nor did he want to bear your cannibalistic expectations.

"He wants to return all the favoritism he's received over the years, along with his life... to me!"

Pei Yan suddenly raised his voice, raised his hand, and pointed at Xiao's face.

"Even if my brother hadn't saved me that time, you would have driven him to his death sooner or later! Yet you pin the blame on me, making me continue to bear his pain!"

Xiao covered her ears and shook her head in disbelief.

"No...this isn't real, you're lying to me...you're lying to me!"

"It was your twisted favoritism, it was the Pei family's utterly absurd rules, that killed him!"

Pei Yan stared coldly at his distraught birth mother.

There was no sympathy, no pity, only deep disgust and sorrow.

"I've been woken up by nightmares more than once at night, wondering... if I had been the one favored back then, would the ending have been different?"

He curled his lips in a wistful smile, his eyes full of mockery.

"No, the ending will still be the same. It's just that my brother and I will be in different situations...."

Xiao trembled uncontrollably.

Her chest heaved violently, her features contorted, and she raised her hand, slapping Pei Yan hard across the face with a resounding "smack."

"You can't fool me, these are all lies you made up!"

Pei Yan did not dodge.

The slap was extremely powerful, turning his face to one side and leaving a clear finger mark on his fair skin.

A metallic sweetness filled his mouth, and he raised his hand to wipe the blood from his lips with the back of his hand.

"This slap is my way of repaying your kindness in raising me." Pei Yan turned his face, his tone flat and without any inflection.

Looking at her trembling hands and then at her tall son in front of her, Madam Xiao finally broke down.

She clutched her head in her hands, her voice shrill and hysterical: "No, it wasn't me! He insisted on going back to save you! You're the culprit!"

"Why did the attic catch fire? It's because you were playing and knocked over the candles, otherwise..."

Pei Yan laughed angrily: "The fire was caused by fireworks falling onto the attic!"

"When you had the servants set off fireworks, did you remember that I lived in that attic?"

"Have you ever thought about what I would do if the fireworks landed in the attic?"

"No, you didn't think about that... You were only thinking about how to curry favor with your grandmother, how to show off your status as mistress to everyone!"

She shook her head, quickly repeating the words the old lady had said to her again and again.

"This is all for the sake of the Pei family's century-old legacy! I did nothing wrong!"

"What can I do? I'm a daughter-in-law of the Pei family; I have to think about future generations!"

"I'm protecting you all. I'm doing this for your own good, for the greater good... I'm not wrong!"

Pei Yan felt a sharp pain in his heart as he watched her rambling incoherently yet stubbornly refusing to listen.

In fact, he knew very well that the tragedy was not entirely caused by his mother, nor entirely by his grandmother.

The root of the problem lies in the glory that aristocratic families are unwilling to relinquish and the unreasonable and absurd rules of the Pei family.

But he didn't want to waste any more time arguing.

"You're absolutely right." Pei Yan straightened up and straightened his rumpled clothes.

He took a step forward, his tall figure blocking the light coming in through the doorway.

"But I am the current head of the family, and the rules of the Pei family must be completely changed starting with my generation."

He must do it!

Xiao stared at him with wide eyes, as if he were a monster.

"Go back to your Chuyun Temple." Pei Yan turned around, his back to her. "Forget your past, eat vegetarian food and chant Buddhist scriptures there, and you can live a few more years."

The study was eerily quiet.

Xiao's legs went weak.

She knew she couldn't persuade her son anymore, but she hadn't risked coming back for herself.

"You can disregard the rules if you want, or go crazy if you want, I can't control you." Madam Xiao suddenly softened her voice, pleading with a sob in her tone, "But... can you spare the Xiao family?"

"Your uncle pleaded with me in his letter; he was your mentor!"

Xiao took two steps forward, trying to grab Pei Yan's sleeve.

Pei Yan took half a step back to avoid it.

"And your cousin Yuzhen! For my sake, for the sake of our kinship... please give them a way out... okay?"

Pei Yan's eyes were gloomy.

"Xiao Yuzhen touched someone she shouldn't have! I've already done more than enough by not killing her!"

Once the new emperor ascends the throne and has time to spare, the good days for the Xiao and Tan families will be over.

Xiao was so frightened that she shrank back a little.

Did they mess with someone they shouldn't have? Could it be that vixen from Qingyi Garden?

"Ah Ying, when you were little, Yu Zhen used to follow you around and call you 'brother,' have you forgotten all that?!"

"She's liked you since she was little, there's a bond between you two..."

"Oh."

Pei Yan let out a cold sneer.

"She thought she was clever, that she had discovered my and my brother's secret, and then used it to blackmail me."

"Little did she know, she had been self-righteous and considered herself clever since she was a child, and often mistook me and my brother for each other."

Xiao was stunned on the spot.

Pei Yan rolled his eyes mockingly and said without any mercy:

"Back then, my brother was so pestered by her that he reluctantly agreed to marry her once she came of age."

"She can't tell the difference between good and bad talk; she actually believed it and kept bringing it up for years. I'm ashamed for her!"

His brother was already dead, and he couldn't be bothered to explain anything to Xiao Yuzhen, because given her personality, she definitely wouldn't believe him.

The Xiao family completely lost hope.

She walked towards the door, looking lost and dejected.

The hem of the bluish-gray Taoist robe swept across the threshold, picking up a bit of dust.

At this moment, on the bluestone path leading to the study, Jiang Guo'er, supported by Lü Yi, was walking step by step in this direction.