Chapter 103 -

Chapter 103: Chapter

Old Madame Bai’s face went completely pale. She stood up slowly from her grand chair, her grip on her wooden staff so tight her knuckles turned white. Her chest heaved with deep, heavy breaths as she looked at her second son standing in the middle of the room.

"Chengbang..." Old Madame Bai whispered, her voice trembling with deep pain. "This estate was built by my own hands and my family’s blood. Every building, every farm, and every single coin belongs to the Bai name, my name! I built all of this to make sure my children and grandchildren would never suffer. And you... you steal from your own mother! You starve our farmers, sell our grain in secret, and fill your own pockets while your brother’s fields rot!"

Tears of heartbreak gathered in her old, wrinkled eyes.

"You and Tianming came from my womb!" Old Madame Bai cried out, her voice cracking. "How could you wish such terrible, evil things upon your own brother’s family?! How could you sabotage his fields and poison his name?! Chengbang... how could you break my heart like this?"

When Second Uncle heard his mother’s painful words, something inside his mind completely snapped. The fear in his eyes vanished, replaced by an ugly, crazy look of pure hatred.

"Break your heart?!" Second Uncle laughed insanely, his eyes bloodshot and wild. "I have broken your heart?! You never cared about my heart, Mother!"

"Chengbang! Shut your mouth!" Old Master Bai Tianming barked, standing up from his seat with a dark, angry look.

"No! I will not shut my mouth!" Second Uncle screamed back, pointing a shaking finger directly at his older brother, then at his mother. "Look at him! Look at Tianming! Ever since we were children, you always favored your eldest son! You gave him everything! You gave him the main estate, the biggest family farms, the top shops, and the family seal! What did you leave for me and Third Brother? Nothing! Just the leftovers!"

"You ungrateful fool!" Old Madame Bai gasped, clutching her chest as a sharp pain shot through her heart.

"Leftovers!" Second Uncle roared back, his chest heaving as he spat on the floor. "Everything my family has today, we worked hard for! We had to fight and scrape for every single coin while Tianming just sat back and inherited everything! It is not fair! It was NEVER fair!"

He turned his body, glaring at the First Branch table with bloodshot eyes.

"Look at his branch!" Second Uncle laughed venomously, pointing right at Zhengyu and then at Wenliang. "Tianming is a failure! His eldest son is a cripple who sits in a wheelchair all day! His second son is a useless drunkard who can’t even pass a simple scholar test! Why does a failure like him get to own the biggest part of the Bai family wealth while my healthy children get nothing?!"

"How dare you!" Madame Chen screamed, jumping up to defend her son, while Yulan hid her face in shame.

"I dare because it is the truth!" Second Uncle yelled, completely out of his mind. "I stole the grain! I took the silver! And I don’t regret a single bit of it!"

Instead of begging for mercy, Second Uncle wiped his face, his expression turning cold, bitter, and detached. He looked around the dining hall like everyone in it was his worst enemy.

"I am done," Second Uncle spat out, his voice sharp and full of poison. "I want to separate from this house! I don’t want to be family with any of you anymore! We are breaking away from the Bai estate!"

The whole dining hall gasped in total shock. Separating the family branch was the ultimate insult to their ancestors.

Second Uncle turned around and stormed over to where Third Uncle Bai Chenghao was sitting. He grabbed Third Uncle by his shoulder, shaking him forcefully.

"Brother! Look at them!" Second Uncle yelled right into Third Uncle’s face. "Brother, open your eyes! Mother doesn’t care about us! This family doesn’t care about us! Can’t you see it?! The Second Branch and the Third Branch are nothing but stepping stones for the First Branch to rise! They use us, they feed off our hard work, and they give everything to Tianming! We need to leave! We need to take our families and separate right now!"

Third Uncle Bai Chenghao sat frozen, his eyes wide with fear and confusion, unable to speak a single word.

Hearing her own son scream about separating the family was too much for Old Madame Bai. Her eyes rolled back, her body went completely limp, and her heavy wooden staff crashed onto the floorboards with a loud CLACK.

"Mother! Mother, wake up!" Old Master Tianming roared, his face red with fear and panic.

He looked over at Second Uncle, who was still standing there with that crazy, cold look on his face. Pure rage took over Tianming’s heart. He laid his mother down gently against Yimei’s arms, jumped to his feet, and charged straight across the hall.

BAM!

Tianming threw a heavy, desperate punch right into Second Uncle’s face. The force of the blow sent Chengbang crashing onto the floor, knocking over a tray of dishes with a loud, metallic clatter.

"You ungrateful bastard!" Tianming screamed, pointing a shaking, blood-stained fist at his brother on the ground. "If anything happens to our mother today, I swear on our ancestors’ names, you will pay with your life! You won’t just be in trouble, Chengbang—I will destroy you myself!"

"Stop it! Stop fighting!" Madame Liu screamed, throwing herself over her bleeding husband, while their children wept in fear.

"Call the family physician! Move! Get out of the way!" servants shouted, rushing into the hall with warm blankets.

Tianming quickly scooped Old Madame Bai into his arms, his body shaking as he carried her out of the room toward her private courtyard, followed by a swarm of panicking maidservants.

Within seconds, the grand dining hall turned into a cold, chaotic mess. Food was spilled on the floorboards, chairs were overturned, and everyone was terrified. The family was standing right at the edge of complete ruin.

Madame Chen held her son Wenliang close, her hands trembling. An Yulan stood near her sisters-in-law, her face pale as snow. Nobody knew what would happen tomorrow.

In the middle of the quiet terror, Third Uncle Bai Chenghao slowly stood up from his seat. His legs were shaking, but his eyes were filled with deep resentment. He walked straight past the crying Second Branch, stepping up to where Yimei stood beside Zhengyu’s wheelchair.

Third Uncle looked down at Zhengyu, his voice tight and bitter.

"Are you happy now, Zhengyu?" Third Uncle asked, his voice shaking with anger. "Did you get what you wanted?! Look at this family! Your grandmother has fainted, your uncle is bleeding on the floor, and the entire Bai household is at the brink of falling apart! Is this the big victory you and your wife were planning all along?!"

Yimei opened her mouth to speak, her dark eyes sharp and cold, ready to snap back at him.

But before she could say a single word, Zhengyu raised a hand, stopping her.

Zhengyu leaned back in his wheelchair, his jaw set like hard iron. He looked up at Third Uncle, his dark eyes pitch black, empty of any warmth or mercy.

"Whatever happens to this family is none of my business," Zhengyu said.

He leaned forward slightly, his cold gaze pinning Third Uncle to the spot.

"If Second Uncle wants to separate, he is free to leave," Zhengyu continued smoothly, without a single trace of regret. "It is a free world. But let me make one thing crystal clear to you, Third Uncle..."

Zhengyu’s lips curled into a small, dangerous smirk.

"Everyone who has done me wrong will suffer. Every single one of them will pay back what they took, tenfold."

Third Uncle took a small, nervous step back, his throat going dry as he felt the intense, dark pressure radiating off his crippled nephew.

"And Third Uncle..." Zhengyu added, his voice dropping even lower, sharp as a hidden knife. "Don’t ever think you are above the system. I know every secret kept inside this manor. If you stand in my way, you will be next."