309 Li Yuan Age: 5

Under the serene Gazebo in the spring wind a youth sat by the lake with his pen running fast solving calculus with astounding accuracy and speed; His pen not pausing even for once. On his desk was a timer that was ticking with five minutes and 28 seconds remaining.

His test had began four minutes and 32 seconds earlier. It was college level twenty question prepared by seven renowned mathematicians.

On one side he had a young woman who was his new nanny and on the other side a man who was his calculus guide. He was intently staring at his work and was to end the test the instant if one step was missed or written wrong.

He was a guider...Guider, not a teacher because he was superior and nobody was above him. His Grandfather had taught him that.

Behind him sat a man observing him with keen ardor not missing even a single movement. He sipped his tea leisurely seeing the boy's pen quivered for the first time since he began scribing. It was too minor of a movement that if he wasn't looking this intensely, he would have assumed it was the fragment of his imagination. He continued writing yet again. The man squinted his eyes and contemplated then raised his hand to get hold of his cane and drummed it once on the tilled surface.

The boy's expression at once froze as fast as that happened his face turned devoid of expressions to insouciance. He turned to him with a domineering tilt of his chin expressing his defiance. He couldn't look weak because he was a Superior.

The child with his baby face looked far more cultured and refined than a child his age was possible. He didn't fuss nor did he wail, he was too far seasoned to do so. His eyes scrutinized with sharpness as if he could see through your soul.

A proud smirk rose on the man's face and he indicated him to walk further. He handed over the paper with the last question still pending to his guider and walked to him with his hands in his pocket, leisurely. 

The man noticed his stance and his face turned blank, "You hesitated, Yaun." He stated with finality. "A Leader doesn't hesitate!"

No emotion passed the boy's face but he shrugged as if bored with the conversation already, "You hesitated too, didn't you? So what should I gather?" After a pause, he added, "And Grandpa, It's Li Yuan."

The shadow passed the Old Master Li's face before he could respond, a servant came running and stood by the side. His eyes read the expression on his face and turned to the youth, "Go prepare for your mark practice, Li Yuan."

He stared at his Grandfather for a second then the messenger with an apprehensive glare but relented and followed his nanny (Future Housekeeper Yang).

Nothing stayed buried in these walls. Whatever that was, it was going to be advertised with raging drums. He could only scoff at the dramatics and walk to the Shooting range that was far more important than the Old Man's Gossips.

The man came forward and placed the files on the table and bowed. 

Old Master Li impatiently demanded, "What is the situation?"

The man fisted his hand tightly and responded impassively, "It's healthy boy, Master. The DNA results show it is indeed your Grandson as claimed by the woman. The woman had been given all facilities but.." He hesitated, then continued, "...she demands to see Master Li."

Old Master scoffed at the woman's audacious request. The woman had already hindered the order of things by existing and his son was going to bear the consequences of it .

The child will be a potential hindrance for Li Yuan in the future and his mother wasn't going to let this pass. Though the presence of a bastard in his daughter's Household did maintain the balance but Li Yuan's mother needed to be tamed.

His nostrils flared and his jaw clenched at the mess his son has created yet again. He was incompetent and a failure, if he wasn't the sole heir in his generation he would have gotten rid of him!

The bastard though was an unfortunate inconvenience in all this, he could prove to be a competition as well as a replacement. If Li Yuan had a competition he was bound to try harder than his limits and if he couldn't reach the heights, they always had a replacement.

He swatted his hand in the air, "Name the child Li Qiang and shove money in her mouth to silent her and if that doesn't work then you know what to do." He lifted his teacup and shook his head in disappointment, "She is of the Ji Clan?"

"Yes, Master. Her sister was the mistress of Master Yu and the mother of Third Young Master Yu. " 

The Ji Clan was a clan with generations of loyalty in a row sworn to them. The woman was previously his son's secretary; Beautiful and bright, a natural talent. But his son had to always wet his cock where it didn't belong!

He hummed in thought, "Make sure the child is breastfed for and everything else send trained nannies. He is not to get used to her." The man nodded and asserted.

The wheels in his head were already turning. When the child will be old enough to survive without the woman, he will be brought up by him along with Li Yuan.

But first, he needed to make sure his son wouldn't make an army of bastards... He turned to his sub-coordinate and extended his hand, "Have the herbalists prepared for what I asked?" Although he asked, in the right sense he was challenging him to tell him otherwise.

The man nodded and extended a palm-sized potion bottle to him. He informed earnestly, "Master, the herbalists guaranteed that only three drops will be enough."

The potion was supposed to drop his son's sperm counts so even with his wh*rish ways he wouldn't be able to create more of a hassle. He wouldn't know what hit him after all it wouldn't have any effect on his libido.

It wasn't an accident his son had done it deliberately, knocking up the daughter of the Clan that had stayed loyal to them through years would now be on the edge of mutiny now that their daughter had given birth to a Li heir and wasn't acknowledge! 

He was just trying to defy him! He needed to rein him soon…

"Give it to his recent fling to give it to him. Dispose of her once the job is done." The man bowed and left him alone.

---------

Standing on the firing lance, he shot every laser bullet repeatedly through the field without missing his aim once. Not a minute later he entered the field. Holograms appeared in the maze-like room. They appeared out of thin air and aimed their targets at his suit which would immobilize his armor.

His instructors watched in awe as he broke his own record, this was their best program with AL exceeding humanly possible intelligence but he had ended it within two minutes and eight seconds.

Firing the last shot he stormed out of the field, he throws the gun at his instructor's feet and snarled, "Next session I need real guns and better targets, not this child play!"

They stood there dumbfounded. They themselves hadn't been able to achieve the targets and had assumed the Young Master would find it challenging enough…

His nanny undid his armor and he left the field to go back to the place he dreaded: his home. 

Even before he set a foot in the mansion he heard the welcoming bells: things thrashing, shrieks, and yells-a clear sign his father had come home today. He rolled his eyes but didn't bother interrupting the routine drama. 

He turned to his new Nanny who looked shaken and startled to move any further and snorted. The sound had her turning to him frantically, "Young Master Li…"

"Don't bother." He cut her off coldly, "Just get me some food in my room and lock your door."

She bowed and ran to the kitchen.

He was nearing the stairs when the yells flared loud enough to be audible.

"…I will kill that bastard! And I will kill that wh*re! Did you think of your son before f*cking that wh*re, did you even think of me before giving her your bastard…"

"I was drunk! The b*tch seduced me..."

He halted for a moment before continuing his way up. He had a bastard brother now… interesting.

But in all this charade he didn't get the point of his mother yelling though even he could tell her that the answer was 'No, her husband wouldn't have bothered.' He didn't need to be there to discern his father was feeding his mother another set of lies and she was going to eat them up.

That man hardly even would have remembered he did it with how drunk he stayed. He hadn't seen his father much; he wouldn't even recognize him as his son if he was to see him walking up the stairs.

the last time he had seen his father was at the last Christmas Banquet before he disappeared in the middle of the event.

It was a pattern, his father would come home once in a month. His mother shouted and broke things at him, he shouted apologies or profanities in return, later she either went in her room with her supposed husband or cried in his room to sleep. In the morning he would again disappear without a trace.

Initially, it bothered him and made him irate and angry to see his mother like that but it just became too usual that it made him desensitized. 

His mother was foolish and a weak woman and her husband took advantage of the vulnerability she exposed to him.