After becoming a widow, I became the apple of a rough man's eye.

When the jeep stopped in front of the Mu family mansion, steam was still rising from the hood.

Mu Wenbin sat in the driver's seat and glanced down at his left shoulder.

The military jacket was soaked in blood; the dark green had turned into an almost black stain, sticking stickily to the skin. Blood flowed down the sleeves, pooling at the elbows, and dripping onto the trouser legs where he was about to press the clutch.

He sat in the car for about five minutes to calm himself down.

For those five minutes, all he could think about was Li Dongye's last look.

Once he was sure he wouldn't do anything impulsive, he opened the car door and jumped out.

The lobby wasn't cleaned up yet.

The shards of crystal scattered on the floor shone blindingly in the sunlight. The expensive mahogany dining table remained overturned, like a turtle lying on its back. The servants were carefully sweeping and dusting, barely daring to breathe.

Hearing footsteps, the group turned around and saw Mu Wenbin enter in this state, nearly dropping what they were holding in fright.

"Young...Young Master..."

Mu Wenbin kept his eyes straight ahead, stepping over the still-sweeped shards of broken porcelain as he walked upstairs. His military boots crunched over the broken glass with a teeth-grinding sound.

At the doorway of the master bedroom on the second floor, Liu Shuyan was carrying a basin of water, her eyes red and swollen, clearly having just cried. Seeing her eldest son standing at the top of the stairs covered in blood, she smashed the copper basin in her hand to the ground with a "clatter," spilling warm water all over the floor.

"Wenbin! Your arm... what happened? Who did this?!"

Liu Shuyan lunged forward, wanting to touch him but hesitant to. The bloody, mangled wound horrified her. "Is that Yun Qi? Quick! Get the car ready! To the hospital!"

Hearing the commotion, Mu Zhenbang rushed out of his study. Seeing the scene, his face turned ashen. "This is outrageous! This is utterly defying the heavens!!"

Mu Wenbin stopped, took a deep breath, and said as calmly as possible, "Neither of you should speak today."

His voice was not loud and had little intonation, yet it instantly silenced the corridor.

Mu Zhenbang was stunned for a moment, then his anger flared up. "Who are you talking to? I'm your father!"

"Where's the third son?" Mu Wenbin ignored his father's rage and looked past them toward the closed door at the end of the corridor.

Liu Shuyan's heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively sensed that something was wrong with her eldest son's aura.

"Hongying... Hongying is resting inside." Liu Shuyan stood in front of Mu Wenbin, her voice trembling. "Yun Qi beat him badly; his nose is broken. He just took painkillers and went to sleep. Wenbin, go and treat his wounds first. Listen to your mother..."

Mu Wenbin raised his hand, pushed Liu Shuyan aside, and strode towards that room.

"Wenbin! What are you doing!" Mu Zhenbang stepped forward to pull him away.

Mu Wenbin dodged to the side, grabbed Mu Zhenbang's wrist with his other hand, and shoved him aside. Mu Zhenbang staggered back several steps.

"Dad, don't force me."

Mu Zhenbang felt a chill run down his spine at the sound of that shout.

The eldest son was very principled from a young age, and after joining the army, he developed an aura that kept strangers at bay. Even his father sometimes felt intimidated in front of his son.

"Wenbin, how dare you talk to your father like that!" Liu Shuyan cried as she walked over, wanting to help him up but not daring to touch his wounds. "Your brother did something foolish, and he's learned his lesson... He didn't really mean to kill anyone, he just wanted to scare him..."

"frighten?"

Mu Wenbin smirked, a smile more chilling than any other. "Drug someone, kidnap them in the warehouse, then lock the door—that's scare tactics? Mom, do you even believe that yourself?"

Liu Shu was speechless, and her tears flowed even more fiercely. "That can't be... Hongying's nose has been broken, and he's still writhing in pain upstairs. Can you let him go today? Listen to your mother, we'll settle the score with him tomorrow. Let him go today. Lin Qingqing is an outsider after all. Why are you and Yunqi both siding with an outsider?"

"outsider."

Mu Wenbin repeated the two words.

He suddenly felt very tired.

He was so exhausted that he didn't even have the desire to explain.

Mu Wenbin took a deep breath and said coldly, "Don't follow me." Then he strode towards Mu Hongying's room.

The curtains inside were drawn tightly shut. Mu Hongying was lying on the bed, groaning softly, her face bandaged. Hearing the door open, she assumed it was Liu Shuyan returning and complained without turning her head:

"Mom, did you bring the water? It hurts so much! You have to make Dad arrest that Li Dongye! I'm going to sue him for intentional assault! I want him in jail! And that Lin Qingqing, that bitch..."

"Who do you want to go to jail?"

Mu Hongying's body stiffened.

He turned around abruptly and saw Mu Wenbin standing at the door, backlit, so his expression was obscured; only his tall silhouette was visible.

"Big...Big Brother?"

Mu Hongying swallowed hard, her gaze fixed on Mu Wenbin's still-bleeding hand. Her voice trembled as she said, "You... how could you..."

Mu Wenbin didn't say anything, and closed the door behind him.

"Click".

The sound of the lock clicking shut was exceptionally clear in the quiet room.

The knocking on the door and Liu Shuyan's cries were instantly cut off, becoming muffled and distant.

Mu Hongying panicked. He sat up in bed, aggravating the wound on his nose, wincing in pain. "Brother, why did you lock the door? Mom's still outside..."

As Mu Wenbin approached step by step, the fear of being dominated by his older brother since childhood instantly overwhelmed Mu Hongying. Ignoring the pain in his body, he scrambled to the corner of the bed.

"Big brother... let me explain... that woman seduced second brother first, I just couldn't stand it..."

"Get down."

Mu Wenbin stood by the bed, looking down at him.

Mu Hongying shook her head tremblingly, "Big brother, my legs hurt... I can't get up..."

Without a word, Mu Wenbin grabbed Mu Hongying by the collar of his pajamas and dragged him off the bed like a little chick.

"Ouch! That hurts! What are you doing, bro!"

Mu Hongying fell heavily onto the carpet, aggravating her wounds and screaming in pain.

Mu Wenbin gave him no chance to breathe, kneeling on one knee and pressing his knee directly into Mu Hongying's chest, while his bloodied hand grabbed Mu Hongying's neck.

"Well--"

Mu Hongying's screams came to an abrupt halt.

His eyes widened in horror as he desperately tried to pry Mu Wenbin's wrist off. But the hand was as if cast in iron, unmoving and instead tightening its grip.

The air in the lungs was squeezed out little by little.

Looking into Mu Wenbin's emotionless eyes, Mu Hongying felt the threat of death for the first time.

"You can disown Li Dongye," Mu Wenbin said indifferently. "You can look down on him, you can think of him as a country bumpkin or a scoundrel."

"But I can't."

Mu Wenbin increased the pressure on his hand, and Mu Hongying's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"The day Yunqi went missing, I waited for him and his parents to come home in this courtyard."

As Mu Wenbin looked at Mu Hongying's distorted face, another face appeared before his eyes.

That chubby little face always followed him around, calling out in a childish voice, "Brother, play with me!" "If you don't play with me, I'll get angry!"

At that time, Mu Wenbin was only a few years old. He found his younger brother annoying and always pushed him away.

Until that day, my younger brother disappeared.

"Brother... let... let go..."

Mu Hongying desperately tried to pry Mu Wenbin's fingers off with both hands, kicking her feet wildly on the ground.

Mu Wenbin remained motionless. The wound on his shoulder reopened due to the exertion, and blood flowed down his arm, past his elbow, and dripped onto Mu Hongying's pale face.