The room was quiet except for the faint ticking of an ornate clock. Leng Xuanmo sat behind his large desk, fingers steepled, eyes distant. Lu Jingyan stood by the doorway, hesitant.
He looked up, voice low and steady. "Jingyan... I need to tell you the truth."
Her brow furrowed. "What truth?"
He exhaled deeply, as if pulling the weight of years from his chest. "It's about your family. The Lu family. Everything that happened... it was my doing."
Her eyes widened, disbelief flickering across her face. "What are you talking about? Your doing?"
Leng Xuanmo's gaze hardened, the cold mask slipping to reveal something more vulnerable. "Months ago, Yumo came to me. She said she was being bullied at school."
Lu Jingyan blinked, confused. "Bullied? By who?"
"I didn't know who it was. It wasn't important then," he admitted. "I just told Li Zeyan to... take care of it."
Her breath caught. "Take care of it?"
"Yes. I didn't know how deep it would go. I thought it was a small problem—just some schoolyard bullying."
"But?" Lu Jingyan asked
He swallowed hard. "Li Zeyan took it further. The incident spiraled. False evidence was planted, rumors spread. Your family was framed. The Red Lotus was involved. And the fall of the Lu family began."
She shook her head, voice rising. "You caused this? You ruined my family over a bullying complaint? Just for that?"
Leng Xuanmo's eyes glistened, regret etched in every line of his face. "I didn't want this. I only wanted to protect Yumo."
"But you destroyed us." she said almost shouting
"I was blind," he whispered. "Blinded by my desire to shield my sister. I never imagined it would lead here."
Lu Jingyan stepped back, the pain cutting deep. "And you kept this from me all this time?"
"I was not aware" he said. "i didn't know my act of protecting sister brought suffering to you and the Lu family"
She looked at him, tears threatening. "Why tell me? You could have kept me in the dark. Why did you chose to tell me?"
"Because Mo Tianyi found out," he confessed. "He said you deserve to know. That the truth needs to come out before it destroys us all."
Lu Jingyan laughed
"If he didn't find out. Would you have told me? Would you have found the one who did it?"
"Jingyan"
Her voice was barely audible. "So what happens now?"
Leng Xuanmo stood, approaching her with a heavy heart. "I will do everything to fix this. To make it right. But it starts with honesty."
"Leng Xuanmo. You can't fix it" she said
"I can. I would"
"You ruined us. You destroyed us. And you picked us up. You naked us. And jow you clothed us. Leng Xuanmo. Is the Lu family a okay thing to you?" She asked as she shouted
"Forgive me" he said
She swallowed the lump in her throat. "And if I can't forgive you?"
"Then I will bear the consequences," he said firmly. "But I cannot live with lies anymore."
The silence between them was thick, but the truth was finally free
"This was never mine. The Leng family was never mine to begin with" she said as she removed the bracelet the matriarch gave her.
"Tell the Leng family. I have left what is there's and doesn't have anything to do with you anymore" she said and with that she left the Leng manor. She went to the hospital to withdraw her brother and father. And with that she disappeared.
She disappeared without a trace. No one knows where she was.