The Zuo family dinner.
At the long dining table sat two full rows of people.
Butlers and servants continually served exquisite dishes. Overhead, a resplendent antique crystal chandelier still glowed with its decadent brilliance, making the porcelain and silverware on the table gleam as if gilded.
Even the food on the plates seemed unattainably precious.
Yet when all the dishes had been served, not one of the hosts at the table dared to pick up a knife or fork.
Every gaze turned toward the man seated at the head.
Zuo Shihuan did not move his cutlery. He sat calmly, his cold and elegant eyes fixed on a certain pattern in the tablecloth, utterly motionless even after all the dishes were placed.
The silence was suffocating.
The atmosphere at the dining table grew particularly tense and oppressive.
In the past, the one seated at the head was their father, the family head. Today, with their father away on a business trip, someone else sat there instead.
No one else at the table dared to move rashly. Some, their hunger rising, glanced greedily at the butter rolls before them, licking their lips, but they still held back.
Because from now on, the bread would be distributed by that one person.
They didn’t want to risk even the slightest offense or impropriety, to incur that person’s displeasure. Only when the new one at the head seat picked up knife and fork would they dare to begin.
Once again, their eyes, full of yearning, turned toward that person at the head.
“Shihuan, why aren’t you starting?” Madam Zuo, Tao Douxia, asked with a stiff smile.
“Is the food unappetizing?”
Zuo Shihuan replied lightly: “It isn’t.”
At once, the atmosphere froze over again.
Madam Zuo’s strained smile was on the verge of collapsing.
Suddenly, a child’s wailing broke out. The nanny coaxed for a long while to no avail. The butler grew anxious and was about to order the nanny to carry the young miss away.
Zuo Shihuan recognized her as the half-sister he had named just a week ago, and asked: “What’s the matter?”
The butler bowed his head: “Young master, it is Miss Zuo Shishu crying. Don’t worry, I’ll have her taken away immediately so she doesn’t disturb your meal.”
Zuo Shihuan frowned slightly: “No need. She can stay here.”
Then he asked the nanny: “Why is she crying?”
The nanny hesitated before answering: “Perhaps the young miss is a little hungry. We thought we’d wait until you began before feeding her, but when she saw the custard in front of her and couldn’t eat it, she threw a tantrum and started crying.”
Zuo Shihuan swept his gaze over the table, noticing that no one’s cutlery had been moved, and the food on every plate was untouched.
His half-brothers and half-sisters were all unnaturally quiet, watching him with nervous yet expectant eyes, like a group of small animals waiting for his signal to eat.
He felt somewhat helpless.
Even when his father was present, didn’t they chatter and eat freely?
At the Zuo family’s dinners, it was never a solemn occasion. Dinner time was when family members could converse, a rare chance for this big family to nurture bonds. Other than the rule that one couldn’t speak with food in their mouth—they had to swallow before talking—there were practically no restrictions.
The younger siblings even roughhoused sometimes, running around the table.
Normally, with Father present, dinners were noisy and boisterous. Why had everything suddenly gone so quiet?
Zuo Shihuan considered himself far more approachable than his father—at the very least, unlike his father who would be irritated by the noise and scold the younger siblings for their antics.
But, unfortunately, his half-siblings didn’t think of him that way. Even the older brothers and sisters were staring at him nervously.
The only one who didn’t care was the little piglet of a sister just over one year old, who didn’t understand anything and only thought about eating.
Zuo Shihuan rubbed the space between his brows and finally said slowly: “You don’t have to wait for me. You may begin.”
Yet though everyone at the table nodded, not one person actually picked up a knife or fork.
Zuo Shihuan had no choice but to cut a piece of steak and place it in his mouth. Only when they saw him swallow did the tension suddenly ease, and everyone began to eat cheerfully.
Leaving behind Zuo Shihuan, who felt a subtle mixture of emotions.
“Ee-ya, ee-ya—”
He looked up to see the little piglet sister waving at him, drooling as she ate.
The nanny coaxed her: “No, young miss, you can’t eat big pieces of beef yet. Let’s eat custard instead, alright?”
Clearly, the little piglet sister was not pleased. Her eyes welled up, on the verge of another loud cry.
The heavy gloom pressing in on Zuo Shihuan seemed to disperse somewhat in the naive, greedy gaze of that chubby little sister.
He was no longer the child who once sat alone by the door, clinging to the vain hope that the mother who had abandoned him would return.
Over ten years had passed.
The past could never come back.
Compared to the grotesque memories of before, he preferred the quiet, uneventful life of now.
Zuo Shihuan’s eyes softened with a trace of a smile: “You can come here. Little tomatoes should be fine, right?”
He cut a boiled tomato into a small piece and lifted it with knife and fork.
The bright red tomato looked delicious, making the little piglet sister stare fixedly, eyes wide and drooling.
The nanny blinked, then quickly replied: “Yes, she can eat that. The young miss can eat tomatoes.”
Then, full of gratitude, she carried little Miss Zuo Shishu over. Under the surprised, envious gazes of everyone else—servants and family alike—the young miss ate the piece of tomato fed to her by Young Master Zuo Shihuan.
She ate several bites in a row, her lips stained red with tomato juice.
The nanny, smugly holding the little miss, originally intended to return to her seat and wipe the child’s mouth. But the other young masters and misses vacated their seats so that she could sit closer to Young Master Zuo Shihuan instead.
Even the butler politely asked if they should prepare another children’s serving of tomatoes.
The nanny was surprised—after all, the butler usually paid her and the little miss no attention.
For the young miss was not favored. Unlike the other children, she had neither father nor mother to dote on her. Even the one blood relative she had, the master, did not care. It was only thanks to Young Master Zuo Shihuan that she had been given a name at all.
In that instant, the nanny understood everything.
All of this was thanks to Young Master Zuo Shihuan’s special regard. Indeed, her decision to bring the young miss to him back then had not been wrong—she had latched onto a far sturdier support than even the master of the house.
Head held high with pride, the nanny said to the butler: “Bring my young miss that children’s tomato dish.”
The little piglet sister let out an “Ah!” and raised her hand, as if she understood the nanny’s order and was putting in her own request for more.
Butler: “…” At once he had the feeling of a petty person getting too full of themselves.
Zuo Shihuan smiled faintly, then instructed the butler: “Go and prepare it.”
The butler immediately replied: “Yes, young master.”
Only, this harmonious scene made Zuo Shiyun, who was sitting beside Madam Zuo, Tao Douxia, feel unbearably sour and uncomfortable.
As Madam Zuo’s third child, Zuo Shiyun was a high-quality omega female who had not yet reached adulthood at eighteen. Always willful, always the most doted upon, even her father and brothers indulged her little tempers.
From the very first day Zuo Shihuan arrived, she had been very interested in this alpha elder brother.
But the newly arrived alpha elder brother was always serious and calm, carrying an authority that was even greater than their frivolous, unserious father, so much so that Zuo Shiyun and the others were all intimidated and didn’t dare to approach him.
When she saw her formerly overlooked chubby little sister getting along harmoniously with Zuo Shihuan—
Only then did Zuo Shiyun realize that this elder brother Shihuan could also smile at people like them.
That chubby little sister, who couldn’t even speak yet, seemed to have won the favor of this new alpha elder brother. One had to know—other than her father, this unfamiliar alpha was now the most powerful and important person in the Zuo family.
She had always envied her classmates at school who had alpha elder brothers.
Not that her two beta elder brothers were bad—but the eldest was rigid and rule-bound, while the second was the complete opposite, frivolous and carefree like their father, obsessed with racing and bars.
If not for the Zuo family’s long-established traditions and strict rules, plenty of small family heads were beta heirs. But her two beta brothers weren’t outstanding enough for the Zuo family to make an exception.
Sometimes Zuo Shiyun would catch the worried look on her mother’s face, and she herself would grow fearful of being driven out of the main branch. If they became a side branch, they would gradually fade out of the Zuo family.
Who would have thought that, in a sudden turn of fate, her father had actually found an alpha elder brother from outside.
Not only did Zuo Shiyun feel relieved, even her mother—who had always loathed and rejected illegitimate children—showed a complicated sense of relief.
If her father stepped down as head of the family, the one she would have to rely on in the future would be Zuo Shihuan, the next heir to succeed.
As a wealthy family’s omega young lady, she didn’t want to be ignored by the new alpha elder brother.
Anxious and restless, Zuo Shiyun hurried to insert herself into the conversation: “Brother Zuo Shihuan, do you like cherry tomatoes? You can have mine.”
As soon as she said this, she regretted it instantly, her eyes turning red with nervousness.
Who would want her leftovers? What’s more, the butler could always serve more. Given Zuo Shihuan’s status, he might even think she was provoking or insulting him.
Madam Zuo, Tao Douxia, noticed and gently held her daughter’s hand, forcing a smile as she said to Zuo Shihuan: “Look at this child, what nonsense she says. Your elder brother has no need to take your food. Shihuan, if you have any preferences, I’ll have the butler prepare them for you in advance in the future.”
Just at that moment, the butler served another dish.
Zuo Shihuan frowned at the plate of butter-seared foie gras set before him.
Far from stirring his appetite, the smell reminded him of being half-forced to eat the greasy, nauseating foie gras on his very first day at the Zuo family’s house—along with Madam Zuo’s lecture on foie gras.
He was no longer that helpless gosling forced to be overfed, unable to resist. Now he could completely refuse.
With a cold tone, Zuo Shihuan said to the butler: “Take this away.”
The butler trembled in fright. “Young Master, is there something wrong with this foie gras?”
Zuo Shihuan: “No. I just don’t like it. Don’t serve it to me again in the future.”
Madam Zuo, Tao Douxia, instantly thought of something, her face turning pale.
She remembered how, a few months ago, she had noticed Zuo Shihuan disliked foie gras, yet had still half-forced him to eat it. She remembered how she would sometimes make things difficult for him in petty ways—like secretly ordering the servants not to clean his room, or having the kitchen serve foie gras for an entire week straight, only stopping when even her husband complained of being sick of it. There had been many such small, spiteful acts.
At the time it had only been a petty way to vent her frustration. She had no power in big matters, so she could only make things hard for Zuo Shihuan in trivial ones.
Now, looking back at scene after scene, she realized the reason Zuo Shihuan treated her with an even colder, more distant attitude than toward others.
Suddenly she understood: Zuo Shihuan must have noticed, but for the sake of appearances he had tolerated it for the time being.
But what if, one day, he no longer wanted to tolerate it?
Madam Zuo knew very well.
Ever since her husband had found the alpha heir he had dreamed of, their whole family was saved from being driven out of the old Zuo residence in their later years, from falling into the treatment of a side branch.
And all of this was thanks to Zuo Shihuan, this one outstanding illegitimate child.
In just a few months, the way Zuo Shihuan had conducted himself—mature and calm, deft in negotiation and social settings—had impressed everyone. A few times, when given trial involvement in family affairs, he used his professional knowledge of technology and mecha to, in a steady tone, leave rival company representatives speechless in negotiations, allowing Blue Eagle Group to seize several business deals from competitors.
A b*stard child fallen into the slums, yet by his own ability had fought his way out of the mire to enter one of the Federation’s most prestigious academies.
A clean background, exceptional ability, prime genetic quality—an alpha.
It turned the gazes of doubt and scrutiny from both the outside world and within the Zuo family into admiration and satisfaction, regarding him as the perfect, outstanding Zuo heir-apparent.
Even a jealous person like Madam Zuo, Tao Douxia, had to admit—
If not for her husband Zuo Zoujian’s inferior genes dragging him down, Zuo Shihuan could have lived an even better life.
If only this perfect, excellent child had come from her own womb. She would have surely cherished him, showered him with love, and been proud of his excellence.
But what she had given birth to were three mediocre children.
The eldest, Zuo Shijie, a beta—somewhat reckless, working in Blue Eagle Group for decades, earning only the reputation of being mediocre and conservative.
The second, Zuo Shixi, also a beta—even worse than the eldest. He had inherited their father’s frivolousness, but unlike their father, he didn’t even bother with family affairs, spending his days racing cars and chasing thrills.
The youngest, Zuo Shiyun, was an omega daughter, spoiled by the family. Sooner or later, she would just be married off for a business alliance.
When she had first learned of Zuo Zoujian’s genetic illness, she had even been thankful that her own children were only beta or omega, not alphas—so she didn’t have to worry about their lives being endangered.
Even if sooner or later they were driven out as a side branch, she had already prepared a massive inheritance for her children, enough for them to live without worry for the rest of their lives.
The condition, however, was that they did not incur the dislike and expulsion of the next head of the family, Zuo Shihuan.
On the other side—
Cold sweat beaded on the butler’s forehead as he stammered nervously, “Yes, Young Master. I’ll make sure the kitchen never makes this dish again, and we won’t even purchase foie gras anymore.”
Zuo Shihuan: “…”
All he had said was that he didn’t want to eat it. He never said everyone else couldn’t eat it either.
And besides… was he really that terrifying?
He honestly believed he hadn’t done anything to them. By nature, he was always friendly. Didn’t that little piglet of a younger sister get along with him just fine?
But Zuo Shihuan’s cold brows drew tighter, making his expression appear all the more stern.
The faces around the table turned even paler with fright.
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