Qixian reached the podium and gripped the edges of the mic he was holding. He looked out at the crowd, his fake smile remaining flawless, though his mind was a chaotic storm.
'I have to say it,' Qixian thought desperately, his teeth gritting behind his smile.
Qixian leaned into the microphone. His voice, when it rang out, was smooth, confident, and perfectly deadpan.
"Thank you, Mother," Qixian said, his voice echoing with absolute clarity. "As my mother stated, I am here to discuss the rumors. Specifically, the rumors regarding my older brother, Jin Rou."
Jin Rou, standing near the front row beside 'their' father, tilted his chin up, his face wearing a smug, triumphant smirk.
"The rumors stating that Jin Rou is an illegitimate child who tried to ruin this family," Qixian continued, his tone dropping into a cool, dangerous cadence, "are completely and utterly... true."
The entire ballroom gasped. The polite atmosphere fractured instantly.
Jin Rou's smirk froze. His eyes widened in sudden, chaotic shock. Beside him, their mother's beautiful smile disintegrated, her face turning pale as ashes. Their father stiffened, his eyes narrowing into slits of pure, unadulterated fury.
"Qixian! What are you doing?!" his father hissed from the front row, but Qixian completely ignored him, his voice rising above the murmurs of the crowd.
"Months ago, I discovered the truth about my family," Qixian stated boldly, his eyes flashing. "I found out that Jin Rou is illegitimate. When they realized I knew the truth, Jin Rou tried to silence me. That is the real reason I left the Zhou estate. I fled for my life, wandering through insignificant small towns, hiding my identity to escape their reach."
Qixian's hands tightened on the podium. Now came the lie. The lie that made his throat feel like it was swallowing broken glass. 'I'm sorry...'
"While I was hiding, I found a small clinic," Qixian said so smoothly, his voice devoid of emotion. "I encountered a group of simple people there, but when I found out their true identities. I... I intentionally wormed my way into their lives... earning their trust solely to use them as my shield, and they protected me with their lives not knowing anything... at all, though I only used them as a hiding spot so I could secretly gather evidence using their identities and power against our family issues... And to be honest... I never meant... to actually enjoy a single second of my time with them, because I was focused on using them, I feel guilty about it, but that is how high society works, isn't it? Besides it was my life on the line, I don't have a choice, afterall, I was never a part of their group."
The lie tasted like poison on his tongue. Qixian's throat physically ached with the weight of the deception. He couldn't bring himself to look at Yichen. He knew Yichen was listening. He knew that to Yichen, this confession meant that every smile, every shared melody at the piano, and the warmth of their bond was nothing but a calculated, manipulative lie from a cold-hearted Zhou heir.
'He's going to hate me because I was just like... the high society he hates,' Qixian thought, his chest tight with despair. 'He will utterly loathe me after this and think that I'm selfish. But I have to keep Haoran safe. I have to make Jin Rou think they mean nothing to me, so he stops targeting them.'
"My father was completely deceived by my 'older brother' as well," Qixian added, driving the knife deeper into the family structure. "The entire public has been lied to."
Qixian's eyes slowly, fearfully drifted back toward the corner where Yichen stood earlier, his heart fracturing into pieces at what he might see in the Enigma's eyes, but he was no longer there—he probably got out of the gala room.
"You bastard!!" Jin Rou roared from the floor, his aristocratic face contorting into an ugly, veins-popping mask of pure rage. He took a violent step toward the stage, but Qixian didn't even blink.
With an aggressive movement, Qixian raised his right hand high into the air, visible to the entire room, and dropped it in a sharp, definitive downward strike.
The signal.
Instantly, the massive digital screens behind Qixian flickered. The glamorous family portraits vanished, replaced by the dark, grainy footage of the factory basement. Yanlan's video began to play, the audio booming through the premium ballroom speakers with catastrophic volume.
The voice of Jin Rou's own lead guard echoed through the hall, weeping and confessing: "It was Master Jin Rou! He ordered us to take the second son's secretary! He told us to hurt the second son, Qixian, to make him talk and sign over his personal assets! He forced us to abduct the secretary to blackmail Qixian into lying at the gala! Master Jin Rou did all of this because he found out he's illegitimate and wanted to secure the entire Zhou inheritance before the board found out! He also new that the second son isn't talentless... that he's a genius, Jin Rou wanted to steal his compositions and clear his own name—" The confession continued until all the crimes Jin Rou had made was revealed—to the kidnapping, the blackmail, and explicitly detailing Jin Rou's orders to hurt Qixian to steal the inheritance because he knew he was illegitimate.
Simultaneously, a high-resolution document of a verified DNA test flashed on the adjacent screens, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jin Rou shared no biological connection to the Zhou patriarch.
The ballroom descended into absolute, roaring chaos. Flashbulbs from hidden press members exploded rapidly. The guests were shouting, whispering, and pointing in sheer scandal.
"Liar!!! You're a dirty liar!!!" Jin Rou screamed, completely losing his mind. The elegance of the elite heir evaporated as he charged toward the stage, his eyes bloodshot with a homicidal urge to strangle Qixian to death. He threw himself forward, his fist raised to punch Qixian's face.
But before he could reach the steps, four gala security guards—who had already processed the criminal nature of the video confession—intercepted him. They tackled Jin Rou, their heavy Alpha and beta frames slamming into him, pinning his arms behind his back. Jin Rou thrashed like a wild animal, kicking and screaming obscenities, his hair falling into his face as he tried to push past them to murder his 'younger brother.'
Qixian stood calmly behind the podium, looking down at his thrashing, ruined brother with a cold, unyielding gaze. The trap had snapped shut. The Zhou family was ruined. But it wasn't just the Zhou family that lay in ruins, his bond with the others was shattered, too.