A Dish Best Served Cold (The Man In Rage) novel Chapter 1689

Chu Yuan remembered well that embarrassing family fiasco from all those years ago.

In his lifetime, he had raised two sons, namely Chu Zhenghong and Chu Zhengliang.

Between them, Chu Zhengliang was the first to make a name for himself. Not only was he the most favored one in the hearts of the family elders, but he was also considered a role model for his contemporaries within his extended family for his generation.

Chu Zhenghong, though, was quite the polar opposite. Prodigious as he may be in the martial arts, he had been a rebel since young and a profligate ne'erdoerwho chose to squander his gifts in deference to indulgences in women and earthly pleasures.

In spite of that, it was the eldest son, Chu Zhenghong, who Chu Yuan nonetheless thought more highly of and pinned his own hopes upon.

Back in the day, Chu Yuan opined that he ought to leave his older boy to it for a few years under the assumption that the latter would eventually grow bored of that lifestyle. Once his son was ready to rein himself in, he would then have him summoned home to rededicate himself to his martial arts practice in preparation for his role in the continuance of their family's legacy.

What Chu Yuan had not counted on was for Chu Zhenghong to bring home a woman from the countryside when it was all said and done.

Not only that, he had even conceived a child with that socially inferior person!

To make matters worse, he had also requested for Chu Yuan to accept that country girl into the family, as well as to formally recognize Chu Tianfan as the eldest grandchild of the Chu family.

There was never going to be any question that Chu Yuan was livid when he learned about all this.

The notion of the future mistress of the house of Chu, the most wealthy and illustrious of all the prominent families, being a woman of common birth, was unpalatable to him.

What he found to be even more unacceptable, was the prospect of eventually ceding leadership of the family to an illegitimate child from a less than stellar lineage.

Of course, Chu Yuan was not ready to be too overt with his own opposition and tolerated putting up the mother and son pair of Ye Fan at the Chu residence in exchange for Chu Zhenghong's commitment to his training.

At the same time, Chu Yuan went on to facilitate meetings to acquaint Chu Zhenghong with various royal princesses, wealthy heiresses, and progenies of martial families.

In consideration of his own son's philandering ways, he refused to believe that any of these beauties from affluent backgrounds could be outshone by some random country girl and that none of them would be able to capture his son's heart.

Chu Yuan was adamant that the candidate for his daughter-in-law must be from a privileged background, or at least, that was what his best-laid plans back then were.

As for Ye Fan's mother, he would allow her to stick around as his son's lover. Chu Tianfan, by extension, would remain an illegitimate child, not to be accorded any formal status.

On his part, Chu Yuan, too, spared no effort at all in a bid to sway Chu Zhenghong's mind.

He had even invited the eldest daughter of the Tang family, one of the three families under the wing of the Chu Sect, over to the Chu residence so that she may train and spend time alongside Chu Zhenghong. The former so happened to be Tang Yun's older sister as well.

But even that proved futile.

Chu Zhenghong showed no interest whatsoever, no matter what manner of beauty was paraded before him. It was as though he was completely besotted with Ye Fan and his mother.

Conversely, it was Tang Yun's sister, Tang Rui, who fell hopelessly in love with Chu Zhenghong.

Her sincere affections, nevertheless, were to go unrequited.

Chu Zhenghong rejected her by asserting. “I can only treat you like a sister.”

He also told Tang Rui that he was a married man with a wife and son whom he loved dearly.

The prodigal son of days past had already found a home for his heart, and this once flighty Casanova had since handed the reins of his tethers to a woman named Ye Ximei.

That same day, the hair of the young lady of the Tang family turned white overnight, and she subsequently vanished without a trace.

Not only had all of Chu Yuan's schemes fallen flat, but he had also inadvertently caused tremendous harm to the eldest girl of the Tang family.

This incident almost resulted in a falling out between the Tang and Chu family. With all the strongest fighting hands from the Tang family in tow, the patriarch of the Tang family laid siege to the Chu residence and demanded accountability from the Chus.

It was also as a consequence of this same incident that the Chu Sect fell into disarray, and saddled them with unresolved issues that bode ill for their future.