She insisted on having a late celebration for his ascension to the office, which was quite stupid in his opinion. He never had an ounce of love for this woman, for she was the woman his father chose for him to marry before the bastard died from his illness.

  Ye Xiaozu hated that until his father's death, he remained a bastard and still tried to mess with his life. No wonder his sister, Yimei, had chosen to be an outcast rather than stay in their family. It must be hard for his sister to deal with their father alone.

  He ran and followed the long path leading back to his house, where no one waited for his return. He refused to stay in their ancestral home, where he and his sister had grown up. He didn't need to be reminded of his painful past.

  It had been like this for years now. Once upon a time, he dreamt of returning home, welcomed with a warm and cheery smile from Lu Tianxin, but all those dreams were shattered when she turned her back on him.

  Ye Xiaozu cursed himself for the umpteenth time. The sun hadn't even risen but his thoughts were already plagued by Lu Tianxin. Why? Why couldn't he get her out of his mind?

  He initially thought that he was already immune to women's charm and Lu Tianxin meant nothing to him anymore, but why did his heart ache when he looked at her? Why did this treacherous heart of his still yearn for the woman who broke it close to a decade ago?

  Just how many times did Lu Tianxin need to break his heart for him to convince himself to let go and move on?

  Being here in Shenzhen only made him aware of what he'd lost and what he could never have. He was foolish to think that Lu Tianxin truly loved him. However, he was also surprised that so much had changed since the last time he'd been here.

  Without his vicious father breathing down his neck, Ye Xiaozu only needed to be wary of his aunt, who seemed to have a huge following and support from the board. Ye Xixi was his father's older sister, who never had a chance to inherit the company due to her gender back then, no matter how efficient she was.

  The sun was finally up when he reached his home. After taking a long shower, Ye Xiaozu went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for himself. He made a mental note to give Elaine Wu a call later to apologize for his attitude the other night.

  Perhaps, it was time for him and Elaine Wu to part ways. Ye Xiaozu refused to honor his old man's wishes anyway. He refused to give the old man the right to fuck up his life anymore.

  After breakfast, he went to his study to start working. It was a weekend and most people took the time to relax and spend time with their families, but it was different for Ye Xiaozu. He had no family to look after nor to spend time with.

  Taking a seat behind his desk, he powered up his laptop to check the emails in his inbox. The private investigator he hired to run a background check on Tang Enterprise's top officials had sent his report.

  Opening the file, Ye Xiaozu was surprised to find out that the fallen empress of Shenzhen had two little children instead of one. It seemed like the empress did a good job of covering her tracks. If he hadn't hired an expert who could dig deeper compared to the usual investigators, perhaps he wouldn't be able to find this information about Tang Moyu.

  Aside from her impressive education and career background, there were no issues aside from her nasty rift with Feng Conglomerate five years ago. This was already public knowledge and Ye Xiaozu wasn't interested in getting involved with it.

  Next, he opened Gu Yuyao's file. It stated that she was set to marry a corporate lawyer named He Lianchen. Coincidentally, it was the same He Lianchen who was the second young master of the He family from Chengdu.

  The report said she'd recently joined Tang Enterprise and there was no indication if she would be taking over the Gu family business anytime soon.

  The last one Ye Xiaozu checked was Lu Tianxin's. He faltered for a moment, a little afraid of what he might discover after their eight years of separation, but his curiosity got the best of him and he swiftly opened it.

  Lu Tianxin's record was clean. Her educational background was something he already knew about, but the odd jobs she had after their breakup and before she joined Tang Enterprise four months ago made him curious.

  Wasn't she a Tang? How the hell did Lu Tianxin end up doing menial jobs below her status as a socialite? Why did her family allow her to do it??Just what happened to her after he left Shenzhen eight years ago?

  His unspoken question was answered when his eyes landed on photographs of Lu Tianxin with a young boy around six or seven years old. Ye Xiaozu felt like someone poured a bucket of ice over his head as he stared wide-eyed on his screen.