The Sickly Villain Only Wants to Survive

87

At the Xia residence, the usually absent matriarch unexpectedly returned home this New Year's Day.

It wasn't just Xiang Shuyi who came back—her parents, the elder Xiangs, were also seated in the living room of the Xia family villa.

The servant poured tea for the three of them.

Madam Xiang, seated on the sofa, glanced upstairs and asked with irritation, "Where is the young master?"

The servant, feeling the tension in the room, spoke with a hint of fear, "The young master left early this morning. He said he was going to meet a friend he hasn't seen in a long time."

Madam Xiang was immediately furious. "Meeting a friend? What friend is more important than his mother? Call him and tell him his grandparents are here to see him. He should come back immediately!"

The servant, looking troubled, said, "We already called him, ma'am. The young master said... he said he had something very important to attend to and would be back later."

"Bang!"

A teacup was slammed heavily onto the coffee table as Madam Xiang glared, her anger palpable. "Well, well! What a good son Xia Weiyi has raised! No wonder he kept the child away from us for so many years—turns out he's nothing but a stray he brought in! Ungrateful! How dare he..."

Suddenly, the cane in Mr. Xiang's hand struck the floor, cutting off her words.

Madam Xiang glanced at the servant beside them, her expression shifting slightly. She forced herself to calm down and said, "You may leave."

The servant, feeling as if she had been granted amnesty, quickly nodded and left the living room.

Madam Xiang turned back to the woman who had been silently sipping tea on the sofa since arriving, frowning slightly. "Shuyi, with something this serious, how could you have not noticed all these years?"

Xiang Shuyi took a slow sip of tea, then replied evenly, "You wanted me to get married, so I did. You wanted me to have a child, so I did. What else did you expect me to notice?"

"You..."

Madam Xiang was momentarily at a loss for words and looked over at her husband for support.

Mr. Xiang remained calm, though the bulging veins on the back of his hand gripping the cane betrayed his anger.

He spoke in a deep voice, "Now is not the time to assign blame. Shuyi, what do you want to do?"

Xiang Shuyi replied, "Divorce."

Madam Xiang's expression changed drastically. "That's out of the question! The alliance between the Xiang and Xia families has lasted nearly twenty years. Do you realize how many interests are intertwined? You can't just divorce because you feel like it!"

Xiang Shuyi looked up. "Interests? And how much of those interests are now controlled by the Xia family? And how much by the Xiang family?"

Madam Xiang: "..."

Somewhere along the way, the Xia family had outgrown the need for the Xiang family, becoming a formidable force on its own. The marriage no longer guaranteed mutual interests, and in recent years, the Xia family's actions had increasingly sidelined the Xiangs. To many, the Xiang family was now seen as merely living in the shadow of the Xia family—a point of ridicule behind closed doors.

Madam Xiang couldn't help but direct a resentful look at her daughter. "Isn't this because you failed to live up to expectations? Since getting married, what have you been doing? You either indulged in affairs or came home drunk. If you had made more effort in this marriage, would Weiyi have doubted whether the child was his and resorted to such deceit? If Yang Yang were truly your son, would we be in this situation now?"