Chapter 102 The Truth.

Chapter 102: The Truth.

Yu Zhizhou brought Yu Xin back to the Yu family residence.

Perhaps due to the busy preparations for the ceremony, the entire Yu household seemed to have been cleared out. The spacious mansion was empty except for Yu Xin and Yu Zhizhou.

Yu Xin followed behind Yu Zhizhou, observing the home where the original owner had grown up.

In his video diary, the original owner had mentioned feeling absolutely no sense of belonging toward this villa.

Yu Zhizhou led Yu Xin to the door of Father Yu’s study. "Go in. Father wants to talk to you."

Yu Xin pushed the door open and entered. Father Yu was leaning back in his executive chair, facing away from him, and did not acknowledge his entrance.

Yu Xin didn’t mind. He took the opportunity to look around Father Yu’s study.

The room perfectly reflected Father Yu’s personality. It was filled with his precious collections, arranged in a distinctly personal manner. The most prominent displays featured various interviews and recordings of his public appearances, but family photos were noticeably scarce.

The original owner had only been in this study a handful of times. In his recounted memories, this was a place filled with overwhelming pressure.

After deliberately leaving him waiting for a while, Father Yu slowly turned around.

"So you actually came. Yu Xin, you’re even more foolish than I imagined."

Yu Zhengqian was in his fifties. His face was well-preserved, with only a few deep lines etched between his eyebrows, clearly marking him as someone with a volatile temper.

He could be considered fairly handsome, but the way he looked at people was unsettling and discomfiting.

At that moment, he was also sizing up Yu Xin, a mocking grin tugging at his lips. "You’ve changed quite a bit since leaving the Yu family."

"Cut the nonsense. I just want to know why, when you knew about our backgrounds, you allowed this mistake to continue for so many years." Yu Xin had no patience for pleasantries and went straight to the point.

"What else do you know?" Father Yu avoided the question and instead tried to fish for information.

"You found Yu Ning a long time ago, didn’t you? You raised him elsewhere. Aside from not growing up with you, what other hardships did he endure? Why does everyone act as though I owe him something?"

If the original owner were here, this would undoubtedly be what he most wanted to ask.

"Who told you all this? Why are you so convinced?" Father Yu still didn’t answer directly. "Have you ever considered that those people might be deceiving you, inciting you to confront the Yu family while they reap the benefits behind your back?"

"Did I need anyone to tell me?"

Yu Xin recalled the original owner’s video diary. "From childhood to adulthood, did I ever even feel a shred of warmth from you as parents?"

"Yet our family raised you to adulthood," Father Yu snorted coldly. "We’ve gone above and beyond for you."

"Still not willing to talk? Let me guess—the real reason has to do with the mining planet, doesn’t it?"

Yu Xin dropped the most significant bait, watching Father Yu closely, not missing a single change in his expression.

Sure enough, Father Yu’s expression shifted dramatically at the mention of "mining planet."

"Who told you?" His voice was icy, each word forced through gritted teeth.

"The wrongs you’ve committed—do you dare admit them?" Yu Xin met his gaze without flinching. "If you don’t dare, it doesn’t matter. Someone remembers for you."

"Mr. Yu has quite the image, doesn’t he? A rags-to-riches story, passionate about charity, with many admirers." He slowly approached Father Yu, lowering his voice. "Do they know about all the underhanded acts you committed to climb to the top? Does your wife, your son, know what kind of person you really are?"

"You!" Father Yu, provoked, leaped to his feet, glaring at him, his chest heaving with rage.

The tension in the study was electric, both sides locked in a standoff, neither yielding.

Suddenly, Father Yu realized he was being manipulated by Yu Xin.

Now that Yu Xin was completely within his control, to be manipulated as he pleased, there was no need for him to lose his temper.

"I never imagined I’d let you leave the Yu family unscathed back then… In hindsight, that was a mistake." He reined in his anger, his tone gradually calming.

"But it’s fine. It’s time to correct that mistake."

"What do you mean?" Yu Xin asked.

"What do I mean? Isn’t it a little too late to ask now?" Father Yu said meaningfully. "Everyone saw you at the wedding. We can easily announce that you’ve returned to the Yu family. In a few days, we’ll issue a statement in your name saying you’re going to study in another star system and will pause your livestreams for a few years. Do you think anyone will still remember you years from now?"

"What are you going to do to me?"

"Why would I do anything to you? You simply had the ‘misfortune’ of being attacked by an alien species on your way back to the Imperial Capital. No body, no case."

Father Yu relished the change in Yu Xin’s expression. The feeling of having complete control over someone’s life intoxicated him.

"You… I don’t believe you’d dare."

"I wouldn’t dare? Hahahahahaha! As you said, I’ve done far worse and dirtier things. What wouldn't I dare?" Father Yu laughed heartily, his expression suddenly turning vicious. "I already let you go, yet you still don’t know your place. You had to come looking for trouble. How foolish."

"What did those people tell you? Did they mention… that you might be the son of one of those mining planet owners who lost everything?"

"What? What do you mean by that…"

"Forget it, forget it. After all, we were once father and son. I don’t mind letting you die informed."

A look of recollection crossed Father Yu’s face.

"Back then, the third prince was only ten years old, but his faction already had designs of grasping for power. They wanted the privately owned mining planets on the edge of the star system, but none of the owners were willing to transfer ownership. They couldn’t act directly, so they came to me."

"I was young then, more aggressive than I am now. I couldn’t do those things today, but what choice did I have? To rise to the top, you have to be cutthroat."

Though he said this, there was not a trace of remorse on his face—only pride in his path to power.

"What could I do? The usual methods: send people to disrupt the mines, make it impossible for them to operate. During the shutdown, smuggle large amounts of waste into the mines, drive up pollution levels, then have the government conduct unannounced environmental inspections. Of course, they failed. The inspection team seized the entire mining planet, and ownership transferred to government control—which was essentially the same as handing it over to those people."

"The victimized mine owners weren’t happy, of course. Their families, like you, didn’t know their place and kept appealing. What could I do? I had to create another ‘accident’ to make sure they were silenced permanently…"

Hearing this, Yu Xin couldn’t help but ask, "Weren’t you afraid of being caught?"

"Caught? Hahahahahaha! The entire federation was busy fighting aliens at the time. Who had time to care about some backwater star system? Don’t forget who I had backing me. The government was already riddled with their operatives. Who would arrest me? Who dared to arrest me?"

Father Yu’s expression was nearly drunk on pride. Recalling his dark deeds from back then and the helpless fury in the victims’ eyes made him feel years younger.

"What does this have to do with mine and Yu Ning’s backgrounds?"

Yu Xin spoke again, interrupting his reverie.

"Why the hurry? Listen to me slowly. Your only value now is to be my willing audience." Father Yu said. "Once I’m done, your life is over. You ought to beg me to keep talking."

"After that ‘accident,’ I never expected those mining planet people to still refuse to give up. They came to the Imperial Capital, found my home, and kidnapped my wife, hoping to force me to stop." Father Yu’s tone turned grim. "But how could I possibly yield to them? Besides, the entire star system’s guard forces were under my command. They were fragile and easily crushed… except, there was a slight accident. My wife went into premature labor, and the child went missing in the chaos."

"By then, the central government on the Imperial Capital had already noticed something suspicious about the mining planet situation and sent an investigation team. I couldn’t let them find out I was involved. I had to cover my tracks, so I took a random baby boy from a local hospital and brought him back. That child was you."

"Honestly, you should be thanking me. Back then, no one was tending to you in the hospital. Your parents probably perished in that ‘accident.’ If it weren’t for me, how could you have grown up? You would have starved to death long ago. Hahahahahaha!"

"So that's how it is..."

Even for someone as worldly as Yu Xin, the truth about his origins left him stunned by Old Yu's shamelessness and cruelty.

Had it been the original soul standing here, they would likely have already been reeling.

"But this still doesn't explain why you found Yu Ning long ago, yet only revealed who we really were last year."

Under normal circumstances, Yu Xin shouldn't have remained so calm, but Old Yu was too absorbed in his own past to notice this anomaly.

"Well, once a person achieves success and reaches a certain status, they naturally become more cautious in their actions," Old Yu explained generously, keen to elaborate. "That's precisely why I can tell you everything today..."

"Because eighteen years have passed, and the statute of limitations for the mining planet case has just expired, hahahahahahahahaha..."

Old Yu's laughter gradually faded, but the muscles on his face remained fixed in a grotesque, frozen smile, creating a terrifyingly sinister expression—

"Alright," he whispered in a tone of finality, "the story is over. It's time for you to—"

"Take your last walk."

He pressed a button on his terminal, and a hidden door rumbled open between the bookshelves. A dozen or so black-clad, masked figures emerged from the doorway, surrounding Yu Xin.

Yu Xin offered no resistance, allowing them to bind him and take him away.

"Make it clean. Do it in the outer reaches of the galaxy, and make sure there's no evidence leading back to us," Old Yu instructed the team leader.

"Understood," the leader gave a curt nod, leading Yu Xin away through the hidden door.

On the other side, Ji Yixing took off his headset and issued a stern command: "All teams, stand ready to extract Yu Xin at any moment!"