Professor Xie, isn't this a case of forcing customers to buy products that don't match the

The Xie family is indeed a prominent family.

The mansion was deep and grand, with servants as numerous as clouds.

After the initial excitement of her marriage, she gradually learned about some of the Xie family's rules.

According to Xie family rules, to ensure the inheritance of the family's core skills and resources, the eldest son's marriage must be with a daughter from a well-known affiliated family such as Wen, Lin, or Han, in order to ensure stability.

The other wives, however, must marry women of lower social standing.

This was to show that he would not usurp authority or form factions.

She was the one who was married down.

The eldest son's uncle married a daughter from the Wen family. She was a true lady of high society, with power in her hands, capable of managing both internal and external affairs, and impeccable in her dealings with others.

I would never make things difficult for her, but I would also never get close to her.

The servants treated her with respect, but that respect also carried a clear sense of distance, as if she were merely a beautiful ornament in the Xie family.

She remembered that it was around a holiday when she went back to the Xie family's ancestral home with her husband.

Her husband was busy talking with the elders, brothers, and nephews of the clan, while she sat alone in a corner of the side hall, listening to those conversations that she couldn't join in.

They talked about ancient books, investments, and policies, but she couldn't understand them and found them boring.

After sitting for a while, even the tea beside me got cold.

A young boy silently walked over, removed the cold tea from her side, and replaced it with a warm bowl of sweet soup.

She was somewhat surprised and looked up at the boy.

The boy nodded slightly to her as a gesture of respect.

She couldn't help but ask, "Who are you?"

The young man replied respectfully, with a composure beyond his years: "Replying to Second Madam, I am Lin Zhou, a young man from the Lin family, and I do odd jobs for the old patriarch."

Lin Zhou, the young master of the Lin family.

She knew that the Lin family was like the Wen family, the Han family, and other families that depended on the Xie family.

That's what she thought at the time.

It turns out that even these powerful families who can command respect outside are treated as respectful lads by the Xie family.

Later, she gave birth to Xu'er.

A child with exquisite features.

Her mother came to visit her and said she could finally rest easy.

The eldest son of the Xie family is kind and does not bully the younger generation. His son-in-law is also upright. Now that she has a child to rely on, she will truly have a good life from now on.

But the human heart is never satisfied, especially when it comes to comparison.

As she watched her son grow up day by day, and seeing the stark difference between the eldest and second wives, she gradually felt wronged and resentful.

The eldest son lived in the main courtyard of the mansion, holding the real power of the family and those ancient books that were said to be priceless.

Although the second wife also lived in a sizable villa and had an exquisite lifestyle, and her husband managed a large business, she always felt that she was far inferior to the first wife.

The majority of the Xie family's wealth is destined to go to the eldest son's branch.

Just because her son is the child of the second wife, will he always be inferior to others?

Sometimes she couldn't help but complain to her husband, "People say it's not scarcity that's the problem, but inequality. Wenbo, you're also a legitimate son, the old man's own son. Just because you're the second son, why are you so much worse off than your eldest brother?"

Her husband would always smile and shake his head: "Ah Yun, you don't understand. The eldest branch of the Xie family carries different burdens. Those ancient books, those traditions, are responsibilities, but also shackles. My elder brother... he has it tough too. What's wrong with us living a life of wealth and leisure?"

She retorted, "What's so great about guarding those moldy, worm-infested old books? Are they more important than living people, more important than Xu'er's future?"

"Alright, I can guard them too. Bring them all over, and I'll find a house to store them properly, making sure they don't get bitten by bugs!"

Her husband chuckled at her childish words and pinched her cheek, saying, "Don't talk nonsense. Those things aren't guarded like that."

At that time, she only felt that she and her son had been wronged, that her husband was not up to par, and that the Xie family's rules were unfair.

She never imagined that one day, the eldest son's family would be stained with blood, and that she would not even be able to see her husband one last time before being swept out of the Xie family with her son and a sum of money.

And her beloved son will eventually be imprisoned, leaving her alone, sitting here, chewing on these fragments of the past.

The housekeeper, noticing her expression, cautiously asked, "Madam, the glutinous rice balls are getting cold. Would you... like to eat them while they're still warm?"

She seemed not to hear, remaining motionless as her gaze slowly shifted from the void to the bowl of glutinous rice balls symbolizing reunion.

She suddenly raised her hand and swept the bowl of glutinous rice balls away.

The delicate bone china bowls and plates shattered on the ground with a sharp, jarring sound, and the glutinous rice balls rolled all over the floor, sticky and greasy.

The aunt gasped in fright, took two steps back, and dared not utter another sound.

Zhou Yun seemed to have thought of something.

At the entrance of the police station, a composed middle-aged man respectfully opened the car door for a young boy.

That boy came out with Shen Yan!

What did that boy say again?

It seems so... Thank you, Brother Lin Zhou...

Her chest heaved as she murmured, "...That person...is...the Lin family's boy?!"

Suddenly, tears streamed down her face uncontrollably, and a sharp scream escaped her throat:

"I know... It's him! It's Xie Jing! He still won't let our second branch of the family go!!!"

What does "acting according to the law" mean? What does "ironclad evidence" mean?

They're all just excuses!

It's Xie Jing seeking revenge! It's the Xie family main branch, still unwilling to let their second branch off even after twenty years! They want to wipe them out completely!

She abruptly stood up, knocking over the heavy chair, and paced wildly in the empty living room, digging her fingers deep into her hair, screaming and accusing:

"Twenty years! Twenty years! Wasn't driving us out of the Xie family enough? Wasn't taking Wenbo's life enough? Now they're even after my Xu'an! Are they only satisfied when both my son and I are dead?!"

She suddenly rushed to the coffee table, grabbed her phone, and swiped the screen with trembling fingers.

She's looking for Xie Jing!

She could kneel down and beg him! Beg him to show mercy, beg him to spare her son! She would do anything as long as he spared her son!

However, she did not have Xie Jing's contact information.

She didn't even know where Xie Jing was.

The Xie family's world was long beyond her reach.

Twenty years ago, she was an outsider who didn't fit in at the Xie family.

Twenty years later, she couldn't even find the Xie family's door.

She was even more devastated.

The phone slipped from my trembling hand, fell to the ground, and shattered.

She remembered her mother saying that she was born lucky.

I recall the glory and trepidation I felt when I first entered the Xie family.

She remembered her husband's gentle smile.

I remembered how soft and cuddly my son was when he was little...

Her sobs were muffled.

And outside the window.

The full moon remains.