In the bedroom, Jiang Yuan leaned against the headboard, his face still somewhat pale. Xie Chengnan held him partially in his arms, feeding him a cup of warm water while gently patting his stiff back in a soothing rhythm.
The room was very quiet; only the sound of the north wind howling past the window could be heard.
Xie Chengnan lowered his head to kiss the crown of Jiang Yuan’s head, pulling him a little closer. He hoped this tight embrace would make him feel better.
Jiang Yuan closed his eyes and leaned back quietly. Just as Xie Chengnan thought he had fallen asleep, he suddenly spoke, "Brother, carry me to the study."
Xie Chengnan looked at the person in his arms. Without asking any questions, he silently picked him up.
Jiang Yuan had Xie Chengnan set him down in front of a hanging painting in the study. He reached out and pushed aside the vibrantly colored oil painting, revealing a hidden safe behind it that was slightly smaller than the frame.
Xie Chengnan was surprised for a moment and turned his face away as Jiang Yuan entered the password.
Jiang Yuan, however, said candidly, "The password is my mother's birthday. I didn't mention it to you before because I originally didn't want to touch the things inside."
The safe door clicked open. It was divided into three layers: the top layer held bound documents, the middle layer contained a row of real estate certificates, and the bottom layer held only a single, quaintly styled box.
"These are all things my mother left for me," Jiang Yuan said, pointing to the contents of the safe. "Besides shares, funds, and savings, there are quite a few properties, jewelry, and artworks."
Seeing that his complexion had improved slightly, Xie Chengnan joked, "It seems I’ve really hooked myself a wealthy benefactor."
Jiang Yuan gave a soft laugh and opened the solitary box, revealing a rich, translucent emerald jade bracelet resting on red silk.
He took the bracelet out, gently stroking it with his fingers. His eyelashes, dark as crow's wings, cast a thin shadow under the light.
Xie Chengnan couldn't see his expression, but he could feel the overwhelming sadness radiating from him.
"I never doubted that my mother committed suicide," Jiang Yuan paused, speaking slowly. "At that time, she had already been diagnosed with severe depression. Her mental state was never good, and she had to rely on sleeping pills every night just to drift off."
Xie Chengnan remembered reading in records that patients with severe depression often harbor world-weary thoughts and suicidal tendencies.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look at Jiang Yuan's face. The boy's features, which had regained some vitality, had turned dim again, as if his entire being was shrouded in a shadow, ready to return to nothingness at any moment.
Xie Chengnan’s heart jolted. He unconsciously tightened his grip on the other’s shoulder, but Jiang Yuan remained lost in his own world, seemingly oblivious.
"It wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision..." Jiang Yuan recalled. "After she passed, Jiang Kunbo had people take inventory of her effects, only to find that the jewelry box contained nothing but this bracelet and a suicide note left for me.
The next day, a lawyer came to read the will. She had left everything to me, even depositing the jewelry and artworks into a bank vault in advance. She left Jiang Kunbo nothing but this bracelet."
Jiang Yuan let out a self-deprecating laugh. "I kept the bracelet. A beast like Jiang Kunbo doesn't deserve any mementos."
The bracelet gradually grew warm under his touch. Jiang Yuan looked up at the neatly stacked documents on the shelf, seemingly lost in thought. After a long while, he murmured to himself, "The evidence in my mother's hands must have been so important that even Jiang Kunbo felt a sense of crisis. That’s why he stood by and watched her die..."
Xie Chengnan frowned, puzzled. "What I don't understand is, why didn't Auntie Yuehua expose him?"
Jiang Yuan handed the bracelet to Xie Chengnan, his expression numb. "Because my mother still loved that scumbag. This bracelet was the gift Jiang Kunbo gave her when they got engaged. My mother didn't take it off until the day she died."
Xie Chengnan didn't know how to judge such feelings for a moment. In the past, he would have thought Zhang Yuehua was too weak—if she found the relationship had soured, why didn't she cut her losses in time?
But now... Xie Chengnan glanced at Jiang Yuan. If he were the one betrayed, it was hard to say what choice he would make. At the very least, he wouldn't be able to walk away with effortless grace.
Because the love was too deep, even if one became humble and cowardly, they couldn't bear to let go...
Jiang Yuan’s brow furrowed slightly, as if he had thought of something inexplicable.
Xie Chengnan smoothed the frown for him and asked gently, "What is it?"
"I just thought of a question." Jiang Yuan turned to look at him, his voice certain. "Given my mother's personality, she wouldn't have investigated Jiang Kunbo for no reason. There must have been a very crucial turning point."
At this, Jiang Yuan paused. "Six years ago, Jiang Kunbo suddenly brought Jiang Hao back to the Jiang family. His story was that Jiang Hao was a child left behind after a drunken mistake, and since he’d been found, he couldn't let the Jiang bloodline wander outside.
My mother was a bit sad then, but she still accepted him. However, one day she suddenly moved out of the master bedroom and refused to see Jiang Kunbo again.
Do you think she went to investigate Jiang Hao’s background and happened to find out about Jiang Kunbo’s affairs along the way?"
Jiang Yuan’s mind raced, and his speech quickened. The missing details from years ago, combined with the known clues, finally connected into a complete story.
"If she investigated Jiang Hao, she would definitely find Li Yan. At that time, the Jiang Group had already acquired Wei Ying’s company, and Li Yan had naturally joined the Jiang Group. Since my mother had suspicions, she would definitely follow that line.
The things we can find now, my mother surely found back then—perhaps even more than we know. If the funds Wei Ying used to acquire that land were indeed provided by Jiang Kunbo, then Jiang Kunbo must have embezzled funds from the Jiang Group.
We can't find the accounts from back then, but my mother could. She held shares in the Jiang Group, was nominally a member of the board, and was also the Chairman's wife.
Embezzling such a huge sum of money would be enough to kick Jiang Kunbo off his throne as Chairman. If the board didn't let it slide, he could even be sent to prison.
Furthermore, there must be a significant price difference between the cost of the land Wei Ying’s company bought and the price the Jiang Group paid to acquire their company. That money was clearly split between Jiang Kunbo and Li Yan."
Jiang Yuan’s eyes sparkled. "So, what my mother hid is very likely the evidence of Jiang Kunbo’s massive embezzlement, and perhaps even evidence of his collusion with Li Yan."
Xie Chengnan thought it over and realized that things did indeed make sense this way. The most critical point now was: "Where exactly did Auntie Yuehua hide the items?"
"Two possibilities." Jiang Yuan looked at the documents in the safe and said slowly, "One is that the items are in one of the properties, but the target would be too large... There’s also another possibility..."
Jiang Yuan reached in and pulled out a document. Xie Chengnan looked closely and saw it was an inventory list of jewelry and artworks.
"These are the things my mother kept in the bank vault." Jiang Yuan’s gaze swept over the items on the list one by one. "Jiang Kunbo once asked me indirectly if I had ever gone to the vault to take inventory. At the time, I was afraid that seeing the objects would make me miss her too much, so I never intended to go in."
"You suspect the items are in there?" Xie Chengnan realized. "It’s certainly safe enough. Even if Jiang Kunbo suspected they were there, he had no way to verify it."
Jiang Yuan closed the document and pursed his lips. "The list doesn't show any problems. Let's go in and look tomorrow."
Having found a direction to work toward, Jiang Yuan finally broke free from his dazed state and returned to being the decisive Young Master Jiang.
The boy’s tone was firm as he spoke each word clearly: "I will definitely find the evidence and personally send that scumbag to prison!"
***
Early the next morning, Jiang Yuan and Xie Chengnan rushed to the bank with the inventory list.
As a VIP client, the bank president personally escorted them to the vault after verifying Jiang Yuan’s identity. He introduced, "Cell phone signals are blocked inside, but there is dedicated communication equipment. If you two need anything, you can contact us through the internal line. I won't disturb you further."
After thanking him, Jiang Yuan entered his fingerprint and password, leading Xie Chengnan into the vault.
The vault was about twenty to thirty square meters, with three walls lined with cabinets of various sizes. Jiang Yuan opened the cabinet doors one by one to check against the list. Even though Xie Chengnan knew his young boyfriend was wealthy, he was still stunned by the collection before him, the value of which was impossible to estimate.
Sets of jewelry, antique curios, items from Eastern civilizations to Western art—it spanned almost every category.
Jiang Yuan had originally only intended to find evidence, but after looking through things for a while, he gradually became interested.
First, he took a collector-grade men's watch and slipped it onto Xie Chengnan’s wrist. A moment later, he found a pair of antique sapphire cufflinks and held them against Xie Chengnan’s shirt sleeves.
President Xie stood there, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, feeling more and more like a "little lover" kept by a wealthy benefactor.
Although the Xie family had made a lot of money in recent years, those storied antiques and artworks were always priceless and hard to come by even with heavy investment. Compared to his boyfriend’s warehouse of a collection, the current Xie family could be said to have nothing but money.
Young Master Jiang was in high spirits, picking out five pairs of sapphire cufflinks in different colors and setting them aside, along with matching watches and tie clips. It was as if he couldn't wait to bring them all home so his boyfriend could change them every day without repetition.
Xie Chengnan rubbed his temples. Looking at the pile of accessories—each of which would start at at least a million at an auction house—he said with a headache, "Baby, do you remember what we came here to find?"
Young Master Jiang clicked a diamond-encrusted men's watch onto him, his smile light, though his eyes suddenly reddened. "Wait a moment. Let me finish unwrapping the gifts."
Xie Chengnan was somewhat confused.
"These are the birthday gifts Mom left for me." Jiang Yuan handed him a card tucked under a watch box. On it, a graceful handwriting read: *My dear son, Happy 20th Birthday.*
Jiang Yuan opened the boxes one by one. Only then did Xie Chengnan realize that every piece of men's jewelry contained a card, with the same handwriting marking different ages.
This was the concern and reluctance a mother had struggled to leave behind during her painful days without redemption. In her brief moments of clarity, she had stored her love in these gifts, just so they could accompany her beloved boy through the long years of loneliness as he slowly grew into a man.
Jiang Yuan’s features relaxed, a shallow shimmer of tears in his eyes. He looked up at Xie Chengnan and smiled. "I’ve already unwrapped from sixteen to twenty. Next year, come with me to unwrap the twenty-first birthday gift."
"Okay." Xie Chengnan rubbed the boy’s soft, short hair and said tenderly, "I will stay with you until all the gifts are unwrapped. By the look of it... it will probably take a lifetime."
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 张月华 | Zhang Yuehua | Jiang Yuan's mother. |
| 江鲲博 | Jiang Kunbo | Jiang Yuan's father. |
| 江浩 | Jiang Hao | Jiang Yuan's half-brother. |
| 黎艳 | Li Yan | Jiang Kunbo's mistress and Jiang Hao's mother. |
| 卫颖 | Wei Ying | A business associate/company owner involved in the embezzlement scheme. |
| 南城日报 | Nancheng Daily | The newspaper mentioned in the context. |
