312 Li Yuan Age: 10 (1/2)

Those are rented happiness and faded with time. If it would have been a movie it would be 'THE END' with everything that becomes alright but it was reality. It was his reality and he had just made peace with it.

He was the most important chess piece in the game but still a chess piece...

He wasn't a priority and his guardians never failed to remind him of that vivid fact. He was cautious to draw closer to a woman who had a concentration span of a squirrel, it was just a matter of fact she would move on from him or maybe he will have another bastard sibling, this time from her.

She wasn't there when he needed her and now when she was there, he didn't need her.

Don't we all get what we want somewhere at some point in life but then you feel numb to it, no happiness, and no satisfaction.

Needless to say, his Grandmother was immensely pleased with how he wasn't close to his mother but was rather close to her, or she thought so. To her closeness meant he tolerated her on lunch every day.

The drive was a short distance from his Grandfather's estate to theirs, but it was his only daily interaction with the outside world. Even the sound of rushing cars and dumpster rattling was compelling in comparison to the silence of his dwelling that could compete with graveyards.

He paraded down the familiar path as his nanny followed behind then changed the path to inform the kitchen of his arrival so they can prepare dinner. Just when the similar walls were guiding him to his room he heard his mother hissing and yelling profanities.

He wanted to continue his way up when he heard the word 'Bastard'. More than concerned he was intrigued and decided to see what the fuss was about. You didn't see the glamorous Madam Li lose her cool and it was a different story when her husband was concerned.

He entered the room to see her shaking and yelling at a five-year-old frightened cute boy who had his lips pouted as he glanced up at her with innocent eyes not able to understand why he was treated as he was.

”… Your w*re of a mother left you to do the gold-digging she couldn't…” She was shrieking profanities and shaking the boy a little further with her every harsh word.

Though the boy didn't understand most of her words the hatred her words carry was too sound to be not comprehensible.

”What do you think you are doing?” His cold voice from the doorframe froze her before she turned to him with a helpless expression of a victim because in a sense even she was nothing but a victim too.

They had ripped her heart out of her chest and stomped on it and now they wanted to burn it every single day! Everyone was granted what they wished in the end and what she got was the shorter end of the stick in every aspect.

Her brother was happy and so was his wife, even her absent husband was having the time of his life, only she was left in depression and misery!

She let go of the boy with a jerk, making him fall on the carpeted floor and spill silent tears. His teary eyes searched every face to look for a leg to hug when he wailed his loss.

Taking several steps in his direction, her lips wobbled as she pointed at the boy accusingly, ”Li Yuan, he is your bastard brother…”

With a sharp glare, he cut her off, ”And whose fault is that?”

Her point was sound but even if she didn't want him around her she had scarce right to treat the boy like that.

The pain on her face broke her strong angry façade and she burst out shouting like a lunatic, ”You don't understand! His mother took your father from me and he will take everything else from you! He will ruin us!”

He walked toward her as his eyes flickering between the boy half his size and his mother a couple of inches taller than him, both eyes fixed on him waiting for the final verdict.

He listened to her vent with a straight face, then sighed and retorted, ”Don't fool yourself. What his mother took from you was just a night willingly or not still questionable.”

Madam Li broke down further but before she could say anything else heinous he walked past her to the boy who was isolated than deflated and dispirited in the crowd of strangers.