Chapter 272 - The Mystery (I)
Helplessly shaking his head, grandpa Yang sighed, "I always knew you would find out but I did not expect you to learn about it this early."
"We should talk somewhere else." Looking around, Muchan added, "Let's find an empty room."
…..
Inside a room.
Looking at Roger, Yihong frowned, "What is Kareem's son doing here?"
"I don't think that is any of your business, you need to either stay quiet or just walk out of here," Grandpa Mo snapped.
"But dad—"
"Roger is our friend and one of us," Yichan declared leaving no room for any kind of objection.
"It's okay Yihong, we don't have to feel threatened by Roger or Lucas. They are nothing like their father let alone their grandfather," Grandpa Jiang stated.
Pausing for a while, he started explaining, "Everything that is happening today is directly related to the stupid rule which the ancestors of the Jiang family created severals years ago and were following it since then."
"The rule of not giving birth to daughters," Roger stated.
Letting out a sigh of dejection and disappointment, Grandpa Jiang nodded his head, "Yes, that rule was followed in our family for many years. The Jiang family daughters were either killed in the womb or after they were born. It was a really brutal rule which I detested since I was a kid but unfortunately my father wasn't. He was one of the major followers of the rule. Everytime I heard of another baby girl being killed in our family, my heart ached. With this feeling, I swore on myself to change the rule after I took over my fathers position in the future."
Pausing for a while, he continued, "Several years passed by and the rule was still intact. My younger brother, Antonio got married to a woman named Mary and a couple of years later, they had a handsome young boy, Kareem. They had a really sweet and loving family, I had never seen Antonio so happy before. He really loved his wife and son very much, they were perfect together."
"While Antonio was happy with his family, I kept focusing on taking over everything from our father which wasn't very easy. Our family business is really very complicated and needs a lot of practice and patience to learn everything. So my father decided not to handover his position to me until I am fully ready. I was very disappointed but I did not lose hope, instead I started working harder. A year later, I got married too."
Keeping quiet for some time, he added, "Things were running very smoothly until Mary got pregnant again, Kareem was six years old then. Mary told everyone it was a boy but things turned out to be different. During her delivery, we were told that the baby was still born and it was a daughter. Father got really angry and said it was good that the baby died by itself but I was devastated and so was Antonio."
"What happened after that?" Guiren inquired.
"A couple of years later, father found out that Antonio's daughter was still alive. He got really angry and asked Antonio to get rid of her." Closing his eyes, grandpa Jiang sighed, "I-I told Antonio not to take any harsh step and wait until I take over everything. I assured him I would change the rule and he could keep his daughter with him all safe and sound but he did not listen to me."
Widening his eyes in shock, Roger stuttered, "Did he—"
"He hired men to get his two year old daughter killed." Taking a deep breath, grandpa Jiang further narrated, "After that incident, Mary killed herself. Antonio couldn't take it anymore and left home along with his son. Everything became chaotic after that but I did not stop trying."
"A year later I took over my fathers position but things weren't that easy as I thought it would be. The rule had been running in the family for years, it wasn't easy to remove it from the roots. It took me several years to get rid of it but when I finally did, the first thing I did was bringing my daughter home." Without waiting for anyone's reply, he further explained, "After getting married, we found out that my wife's uterine walls were very thin and it was almost impossible for her to get pregnant. We did not disclose this because I knew father wouldn't like it. We had almost given up hope when my wife got pregnant. The doctor said it was a miracle and there was a high chance she would never become pregnant after that. We panicked when we found out that it was a daughter but there was no way I would give her up for some stupid family rule."
"What did you do then?" Yichan curiously inquired.
"I told my father that my wife could never get pregnant, he asked me to send her away just like I had predicted. After she left, I contacted them only at times and I was always very careful while visiting them. Everything was okay and I thought it was over when I managed to discard the rule but who would have thought things would become more chaotic."
….