Chapter 11 The Lost Phoenix
The grand theatre plunged into a silence so profound it felt as though the oxygen had been sucked from the room.
Granddaughter?
I froze, instinctively bringing a hand up to cover the small plum blossom birthmark near my collarbone. For my entire life, my adoptive parents had told me I was abandoned at a train station in a rural village. They had loved me fiercely, but they had never known where I came from.
Patriarch Ye, the absolute zenith of Jingcheng power, was practically falling down the balcony stairs in his haste, supported by two terrified bodyguards.
He stopped two feet in front of me. Up close, I could see the devastating sorrow etched into every line of his weathered face. He reached out a trembling hand, his fingers hovering just inches from my skin.
"Twenty years," Patriarch Ye whispered, his voice cracking with a ragged, devastating grief. "For twenty years I have searched the earth. They told me you drowned in the river when your nanny was kidnapped. But I never stopped looking."
The elite crowd behind me erupted into a chaotic symphony of gasps and frantic whispers.
"Did he just say... granddaughter?"
"Heavens! The Ye family only had one direct heir! She went missing two decades ago!"
"Su Yan is the missing Ye family heiress?! She's not a country bumpkin?!"
Lu Chen stood rigidly beside me. I could feel the intense, burning heat radiating from his body.
For the first time since I had met him, the untouchable CEO of the Lu Corporation looked completely, utterly speechless.
His dark eyes darted between me and Patriarch Ye, the gears of his brilliant, ruthless mind violently grinding to a halt as the reality of my identity crashed into him.
"Sir," I said gently, stepping back slightly to maintain my composure. "With all due respect, a birthmark is just a birthmark. It could be a coincidence."
"It is no coincidence!" Patriarch Ye insisted, his tears finally falling. He reached into his tailored suit pocket and pulled out a faded, crinkled photograph. He thrust it toward me.
I took the photo. It was a picture of a beautiful young woman holding a baby. The woman had the exact same delicate jawline, the same almond-shaped eyes, and the same straight, proud nose as I did. But more importantly, the woman in the photo was smiling brightly.
It was a face I saw in the mirror every single morning.
"Your mother," Patriarch Ye choked out. "My daughter. She died of a broken heart a year after you were taken. You look exactly like her, child. Exactly."
The System suddenly dinged violently in my skull.
[CRITICAL SYSTEM UPDATE: Hidden Lore Unlocked!]
[Scanning genetic markers... 100% Match Confirmed.]
[Host Identity Updated: Su Yan is Ye Yan. The sole legitimate heir to the Ye Global Consortium. Net Worth: 500 Billion Yuan.]
[System Note: The kidnapping was orchestrated twenty years ago by Madam Lin, who was an envious maid in the Ye household at the time!]
My breath left me in a rush.
Madam Lin. The woman who had just been dragged out in handcuffs. The woman whose daughter had stolen my husband, ruined my reputation, and ordered my death in my past life. She hadn't just bullied me—she had stolen my entire destiny.
A cold, terrifying calm settled over my mind.
"It's not a coincidence, Patriarch Ye," I said, my voice echoing through the dead-silent theatre. "I am your granddaughter. And I know exactly who took me."