Fengyue District isn’t in the downtown area. The complex is built along the river, and its location counts as the best in An City. A lot of celebrities and directors live there. The environment is nice and relatively quiet.

Half an hour later, the black Maybach pulled into the complex’s parking lot. Assistant Xue got out from the passenger seat, walked to the back and opened the car door, and Lu Jingchen stepped out from inside.

He lifted his head and glanced toward the third floor of the building in front of him. As expected, he saw an old man holding a watering can, watering the flowers. The old man also saw Lu Jingchen and waved down at him from above.

A smile immediately appeared on Lu Jingchen’s face, and he lifted his feet and walked in.

In recent years, Old Master Song’s health had recovered fairly well, but because he’d had a major surgery two years ago, he lost quite a bit of his health in that operation, and now needed careful nursing and couldn’t be left without someone to look after him.

So Lu Jingchen directly arranged a housekeeper and a nurse for Old Master Song. He had originally planned to bring him over to live at the villa, but the old man insisted on living here by himself, afraid of disturbing them.

Song Qiao had been overseas for five years. Somehow she’d been told that Old Master Song and Old Madam Song had both passed away two years ago, so she had never known Old Master Song was living here, and Lu Jingchen also hadn’t found a chance yet to tell her.

In the living room, Lu Jingchen and Old Master Song sat face to face playing Go.

The old man’s face carried a faint smile. He clearly seemed in a good mood. He raised his head to look at Lu Jingchen and asked, "How’s Qiaoqiao doing lately? Has she been causing trouble for you again? She’s been naughty since she was little, but she’s very obedient and sensible. If she’s caused you trouble, just bear with her a bit more. That child just never had a mother’s love growing up, so she’s lacking a sense of security, that’s all."

The old man also knew about his granddaughter leaving An City with a big belly back then, so he felt it must have been his granddaughter being willful and abandoning Lu Jingchen.

And all these years, Lu Jingchen had always treated him with utmost care: finding the best doctors for his surgery, buying him an apartment, even hiring people to take care of him.

He had to admit, Lu Jingchen was truly very good, so he still supported his granddaughter being with Lu Jingchen.

Lu Jingchen glanced at Old Master Song, then said, "Grandpa, I actually came to ask you something today. It’s about Qiaoqiao’s mother..."

Old Master Song’s hand, which was holding a Go stone, paused. He lifted his head again to look at Lu Jingchen. After silently staring for over ten seconds, he finally sighed and said, "Go ahead and ask. You probably don’t know anything about Qiaoqiao’s mother. Qiaoqiao’s mother was a good woman. It’s the Song Family that owes her..."

Old Master Song had always been quite satisfied with Song Qiao’s mother. As a daughter-in-law who knew how to manage the household and devoted herself wholeheartedly to the Song Family, and who also took good care of him, this old man, how could he have any complaints?

It was just a pity that his son was useless. Not only did he find a mistress outside, he even let that mistress carry his child and give birth to an illegitimate daughter only two or three years younger than Song Qiao. For all those years, that bastard son of his spent all his time on that woman and her child, completely neglecting Song Qiao and her mother.

He had even once used violence to force Song Qiao’s mother to divorce, which left her in low spirits for years. In the end she fell seriously ill and passed away in depression.

Because of this incident, he himself was so angered that he too fell gravely ill, and in the years since had become increasingly plagued by chronic sickness.

Lu Jingchen’s eyes darkened. In truth, he didn’t know that much about Song Qiao’s past either.

After thinking for a moment, he still asked, "Grandpa, did Qiaoqiao use to have an older brother?"

At these words, Old Master Song’s body immediately went rigid, and he subconsciously asked, "How did you know?"

Hearing Old Master Song’s response, Lu Jingchen instantly felt his speculation was probably correct, and said, "Grandpa, could you tell me what exactly happened? Why has Qiaoqiao’s brother never appeared? What on earth happened back then?"

Old Master Song looked at the Lu Jingchen in front of him and stayed silent for a few minutes before setting down the Go stone in his hand and not continuing the game. He couldn’t help but sigh, his voice full of age, "I don’t know how you found out that Qiaoqiao originally had an older brother, but since you’ve already asked, I think I should tell you. However..."

He paused, then continued, "However, when Qiaoqiao’s brother was six months old, he disappeared. At first we thought he’d been kidnapped for ransom, but we never received a phone call, and we couldn’t find any trace of the child. He just vanished into thin air. Our whole family always believed that child was already dead, or had been trafficked. In those years, both the Song Family and the Mu Family sent people out searching, but no information was ever found."

Speaking of this, Old Master Song looked directly out the window and went on, "Because of that child’s disappearance, my old wife’s attitude toward Qiaoqiao’s mother grew worse and worse. She believed Qiaoqiao’s mother had ’lost’ the child—after all, he was the only great-grandson in the family. To be honest, back then there was a period when I didn’t think much of Qiaoqiao’s mother either. But later I thought it through: she carried that child in her belly for ten months and gave birth to him. She was hurting even more than we were."

Sitting there listening to Old Master Song, Lu Jingchen more or less understood why Old Madam Song disliked Qiaoqiao—she’d just been caught in the crossfire.

Old Master Song was not finished yet and continued, "Later, the year Qiaoqiao was born, the police told us they had caught someone who had tried to harm the Song Family back then. That person had wanted a large sum of money from us, so he’d taken the six-month-old baby away. But there was a serious crash on the highway. The accident was severe—the car exploded on the spot, with countless dead and injured. At that moment, in order to save himself, that man didn’t bother to rescue the child from the car and ran off alone. That child died in that car accident..."

After he finished, Old Master Song’s cloudy old eyes reddened slightly.

He had always buried these memories deep in his heart and had never told anyone. It seemed to be a secret no one in the Song Family dared to mention.

Later on, no matter who Song Qiao’s father was with, he never had another child. There were only Song Qiao and Song Xi, just these two children.

And Old Master Song had already resigned himself to the idea that the Song Family line would probably end with this generation.