The Mad King's Heir

Yu Wen expected his mother to blow up or at least ask why he had slept with a guy, but he was wrong. She acted like she hadn’t even heard the gender. She came closer like she was excited to hear the gossip and asked, "So when can I meet them? I would love to see what sort of deity could have you break your vow of chastity."

Yu Wen, "..."

"What vow of chastity. Last night was an accident. There will be no meeting," he said, aggressively washing the dishes. Lu Anu leaned against the counter, her arms crossed on her chest, just looking at him.

She sighed and said, "Fine, I won’t interfere." Yu Wen sighed, thinking she had let it go but when they were walking out of the kitchen, she suddenly said,

"I wonder which handsome man in the imperial city caught your eye." As she said this, she took her phone and tapped the screen. A floating screen appeared in front of her and she started searching on Starnet. "Lulu, search for the ’most handsome single men in the imperial city’."

Yu Wen, "..."

Lulu, her voice assistant, said, "Yes, ma’am. According to Starnet, here is a list of the most handsome single men in the imperial city."

He turned the TV on, ignoring her. She would never guess who it was anyway, so why stop her? Lu Anu said, "Oh, could it be Joris... nah, he is not in town this week. Maybe Andreas Marcos... nope, his leg is broken." She looked at him and said, "You won’t be so heartless as to spend a night with a half lame man, right?"

He sighed and asked, "Are you that bored?"

Lu Anu kicked his leg and said, "Yes, yes, I am that bored. Forgive me for getting excited about meeting my only child’s future husband. If you just tell me, then I won’t waste time playing this guessing game." She thought he would tell her but he fell silent after that, casually watching a mech battle.

Thinking of where Alex said Yu Wen was last night, her brows creased. He had said that Yu Wen had gone to investigate at Club Nova. In fact, she had seen it on Starnet that her son had gone to this club several times.

Who was at Club Nova that he would visit a lot? Looking at the list of handsome men on the screen, she suddenly spotted the highest-ranked one and that was Li Jun and what did Li Jun own? Club Nova.

Li Anu knew her son didn’t like Li Jun and they always clashed when they met. But an enemies-to-lovers trope wasn’t unheard of. She suddenly blurted out, "It couldn’t be Li Jun you slept with, could it?"

Yu Wen choked on his saliva and coughed hard. Lu Anu smiled and said, "Bingo." Never in his life did he think she would have guessed that. He didn’t want her to think he would have something to do with the person who had a hand in her ex-husband’s death, so he said,

"It was an accident. I don’t like him."

Lu Anu snorted before reprimanding him. "An accident, huh? Did you accidentally fall on top of him and accidentally fuck him... or get fucked, whichever one?"

"Mum!!!" he yelled.

Lu Anu wasn’t letting him off. She said, "Even if you hate him, you slept with him, didn’t you? You can’t be so casual. You are acting like a scumbag, and I didn’t raise you like that."

Yu Wen couldn’t allow this to continue, so he said, "After all he has done, you still defend him?" His words were spoken with so much passion, as if they had come straight from his heart.

Lu Anu’s eyes widened and she said, "What has he done that is so bad that you can’t consider him? Sure, he parties a lot and a lot of girls have been associated with him but maybe there are like sisters, you know, like he is their gay friend."

Unable to bear it anymore, he said, "He killed father... he swung that blade and killed him."

Lu Anu was shocked by his outburst. How could Li Jun have anything to do with Yu Hu’s death? It was all Li Mingze’s doing. How could the son pay for the sins of the father? But looking at her son, he definitely believed it, like he had seen it with his own eyes. "Ah-Wen, you-" she said but she was cut off when Yu Wen got up and said,

"I need to go and sleep. This is your home too. You can do as you please." Without giving her time to argue, he walked up the stairs and, with a bang, he closed the bedroom door. Lu Anu sighed. She didn’t understand why Yu Wen was so sure of himself.

He was so determined to avenge Yu Hu but if he knew what he really was like, would he still be hell-bent on making someone pay for his death? There was a reason she divorced him but she never wanted to shatter Yu Hu’s perfect image in his eyes. Seeing the hatred in her son’s eyes, she knew she could no longer keep this from him.

***

PAH!

A loud slap resounded in the imperial study. A loud thud and a soft whimper followed. Xiu Ying loomed over Li Yu, who was on the ground with her hand on her swollen cheek. She hadn’t had time to process what had just happened when another slap came down, striking her other cheek.

Throughout her life, Li Yu had never suffered a beating from her mother. Her father did beat her once and that was because she had touched Li Jun’s things. Back then, her mother had stood up for her, shielding her. Yet today she was the one hitting her. Were they not her parents? Why would they take turns to torment her?

Xiu Ying glared at her, saying, "Do you know your mistake?"

Li Yu crawled further away while stammering, "Mo-mother, I don’t kno-know what I did wro-wrong."

Xiu Ying picked up a porcelain ornament on her desk and flung it at her. It shattered inches from her face and Li Yu broke down in tears. That was the gift she gave her on her birthday last year. She said she loved it, yet here she was throwing it at her. Xiu Ying said, "I asked you to do one thing. One fucking thing and what did you do, huh?! Answer me!"