Chapter 1079 - Nurtured In The Shadows

Chapter 1079: Nurtured In The Shadows

Lin Ruoxi and Guo Xuehua turned towards the noise. What they saw they saw was a dusty, crusty man with patches of bloodstains on his shirts as he stood smiley eyed by the door. It was none other than Yang Chen.

“Son, why do you look like this?!”

First to break the silence was Guo Xuehua. His repugnant, borderline repulsive appearance made it seem as if he had come out of garbage!

To Lin Ruoxi, Lanlan’s temper tantrum paled in comparison with his. “Is that blood on your shirt?!”

But what came next made her gulp down whatever she had left to say.

Her life seemingly flashed before her eyes as Yang Chen rushed through the entrance and embraced her with open arms!

All her senses were instantly masked by his pungent stench, the revolting smell of farmland and biowaste. She was clamped in between his arms so tightly that they were becoming one!

She was just about to scream in disgust, but what came after were a pair of lips clamped onto her own, filling her nostrils with unfiltered waste!

“Uhm…mhmm!”

Lin Ruoxi was so embarrassed she nearly burst into tears as she frantically slapped and struggled from his grasp!

“Uhm…muah!”

After a deep, passionate kiss, Yang Chen reactively spanked his wife on her buttcheek, laughing out loud. “Wifey, I’m back!”

Lin Ruoxi was so furious she was ready to stomp her feet as she howled, “Yes that’s good to know! Goddamnit, what is all this I nearly died from suffocating you brat!”

Yang Chen was perplexed, it never crossed his mind until he noticed his wife pinching her nose in agony. Guo Xuehua was slowly slipping away from the scene and therefore, the smell. The last few days spent in Arnhem as a survivalist did not help his body odor!

“Hehe, I’m just so glad to see you guys again!” Yang Chen was not taken aback by their welcome as he rushed towards the blurry-eyed Lanlan by the couch. “Hi, Chubs! Your daddy’s back!”

Lanlan pouted. “Bad uncle! My name is not Chubby!”

“Alright, stop talking. Go take a shower, change into a new pair of clothes, you smell horrible! Also, throw that pair of clothes away while you’re at it!” Lin Ruoxi ordered as she forced him upstairs.

Yang Chen made his way up, albeit against his own will, while still managing to sneak greetings with Wang Ma and Minjuan in the kitchen!

“Wang Ma! I’ve missed you! Minjuan! Thank you for your hard…gosh what are you doing, stop pushing I’m going…by the way, you wanna join me?”

“Screw you!”

His chaotic return left the women downstairs confused and full of questions.

After they were certain that Yang Chen was forced into his room for a shower, Wang Ma snapped out of her confusion as she asked, “Xuehua, what do you think happened to the young master? He looked like he’s been through a lot…”

Guo Xuehua frowned before she contemplated a little before shaking her head. “Doesn’t feel like it. He would be the last person whom I’d guess would have a rough patch. My guess is that he must have done something awful away from home, so this is his way of relieving his guilt.”

Lin Ruoxi ever so slightly sniffed through her clothes, which led to an almost instant disgust as she frustratedly rushed to her room with a clear decision that her clothes had to be changed too.

It was rather unfortunate that Yang Chen actually went through a life and death event for once, but his unprecedented enthusiasm upon return, however, caught his entire family off guard.

After the ruckus, Lin Ruoxi decided to go against her initial plan of taking Lanlan to preschool today. She decided to get to the bottom of Yang Chen’s peculiar behavior. It was only natural that everyone was skeptical that Yang Chen would be this beaten down on his short venture to search for a herb.

After Yang Chen was done with the shower, dressed in a fresh pair of clothes, he went downstairs, and the family gathered with a million questions in their minds.

Yang Chen had no intention of hiding his harrowing experience in Australia, so he briefly summarised his recent encounter.

Even though Yang Chen narrated with a lighter tone, the chilling climaxes in between events left Guo Xuehua and Lin Ruoxi among others terrified!

Two skilled mystery men, Yang Chen losing his cultivations, trespassing into no man’s land, ambushed by the grey mercenaries, gunfire battles…

And when Yang Chen got to the part where Xue Zhiqing selflessly shielded himself and Liu Mingyu from bullets, Lin Ruoxi was shellshocked but was quickly overwhelmed by an array of mixed feelings as she shut her eyes.

Guo Xuehua clearly was less bothered by the idea that somebody sacrificed themselves for the safety of her son. “I never thought that girl Zhiqing would be such a noble person, if it wasn’t for her, you might not even be here right now.”

Wang Ma conflictedly turned over to glance at Lin Ruoxi, before she sighed. “I always knew that Ms Xue wasn’t a bad person, it turns out it was true.”

“Agreed, when the child gets better, we should arrange a time to invite her over for a meal.” Guo Xuehua said but subsequently hesitated before she patted Lin Ruoxi on the shoulder with a smile. “Ruoxi, what do you think?”

Lin Ruoxi naturally acknowledged her decision, but Guo Xuehua’s approach cemented it.

Xue Zhiqing risking her life for Yang Chen was already a reality, which left Lin Ruoxi with very few options on where she could go according to her wishes.

Besides, she knew first hand how decisive or even stubborn Yang Chen can be, which would be even harder for her to hold a grudge on Xue Zhiqing.

At the end of the day, she was still grateful.

“Hmm, I’m fine with it.” Lin Ruoxi nodded.

And with that, the suggestion came to fruition. Even without anyone particularly mentioning, from hereon it was a unilateral decision to welcome her as part of the family. As for Yang Chen’s ever-growing circle of his harem, Guo Xuehua would avoid any direct mention of it in an attempt to secure the fragile in-law relationship that she currently has with Lin Ruoxi.

Yang Chen was clearly most satisfied with how the decision turned out. While looking about, he noticed Minjuan holding Lanlan in her arms, playing with a rocketship. “I’m guessing Lanlan’s grandpa didn’t stop by the past few days?”

“Nope, not even the slightest news. In that sense, according to our previous agreement, that would mean Lanlan will be with us from here on out,” Lin Ruoxi answered.

Yang Chen was fine with the outcome. “Well that seals the deal, but I was actually looking forward to meeting him in person though.”

“Look at you being all sneaky.” Guo Xuehua grumbled. “Don’t you think he might have actually gotten caught up in something? It doesn’t feel right that he just abruptly left Lanlan here with us.”

Minjuan from afar heard her remark, which prompted her to turn to Yang Chen, with a worrisome tone she asked, “Mr Yang, is Master going to be fine?”

It was after all due to Lanlan’s grandfather did Minjuan get a second chance in life.

Yang Chen awkwardly chuckled. “How am I supposed to know. I don’t even know where he is..”

Minjuan was just about to reply but quickly bit her tongue as she hesitated, before she lightly sighed and ultimately kept her silence.

That, unsurprisingly, however, was caught by Yang Chen, and with a suspicious tone he asked, “Minjuan, is there something you’ve been hiding from us?”

Minjuan anxiously shook her head. “Err no…no not at all, I’m just worried about the elderly Master, that’s all.”

“Is that so…” Yang Chen observed as Mingjuan turned away from them, his mind was burning with questions but eventually chose to keep them for now, strengthened by the fact that he was not too keen on knowing in the first place.

Gangnam, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

The luxurious mansion of Starmoon group’s Park family was the admiration of the wealthy throughout the Gangnam area.

As one of South Korea’s pinnacle enterprises, even among the greatest financial moguls of the Asian continent, the elderly CEO, Park Cheon was a legend in his own right, achieving towering heights one after another.

Nonetheless, death waits for no one. A sudden revelation of his late-stage liver cancer left the entire Park family shrouded in woe and grief.

What quickly followed, however, was the deliberate conversation of his successor.

Who would be the next in line to captain this billion-dollar mega-conglomerate? It was a question that was floating in the heads of many in recent days.

Most would pick among the main candidates, his second son Park Jiki, his daughter Park Jiyeon, or even his second child’s adopted son, the young and charismatic Park Jonghyun.

What absolutely no one saw coming, was that the elderly CEO went out of his way to Zhonghai, China, and reconnect with the grandchild of his exiled oldest daughter, Xu Zhenxiu!

Allowing a girl with a foreign last name in her late teens to fully inherit this financial mega-conglomerate was nonsense! This wildly unpredictable decision making led many to genuinely question if age had finally caught up to the once magnificent Park Cheon, yet ultimately no one vocally opposed!

Understandably due to the fact that Park Cheon was still very much alive, a man whose single word could cast them to the depths of abyss!

Meanwhile in the Park family estate, in its Southeast corner room, a mature but graceful woman dressed in a complete monochrome maid outfit gently opened the door.

It was a spacious room paired with heavy modernistic designs blended with a luxurious setting. It even had a tempered glass panel in the middle of the room for stargazing.

The amiable servant, with light makeup, respectfully bowed albeit with a tinge of frustration towards a big king-sized bed in the center of the room, and on it was the young mistress still in deep slumber.

The child dressed in red polka dots pouted without any sense of guilt as her eyes remained tightly shut, clearly with no intention of waking up.

The female servant cleared her throat before she announced. “Miss Zhenxiu, breakfast is ready. Please wake up now. If you delay any longer you will be late for class!”