A Dish Best Served Cold (The Man In Rage)
Chapter 1553

The wintry winds howled.

Ye Fan's icy words were torn into shreds by the incoming wind.

He did not linger. Having spoken his piece, he turned and left, his slim form disappearing from Tang Yun's vision within moments, leaving her standing alone, all by herself, between the vast heaven and earth. The wind swept across the vast lands, whipping her long dark hair into a frenzy.

Tang Yun stood in silence. Ye Fan's words lingered in her head and filled her ears. He never wished to see her again.

Those few curt words were like a thousand daggers piercing Tang Yun's heart.

It hurt so much.

So, this was what it felt like to have one's heart ripped into shreds.

There had been a moment when Tang Yun had been seized by the impulse to tell Ye

Fan everything.

She had wanted to tell him why she had come to Jingzhou and to tell him that they now had a child.

But in the end, she hadn't said a single word.

When she had heard Ye Fan utter those final, cruel words, she had been struck by a sudden realization. It wouldn't have mattered.

She didn't want Ye Fan's pity. She didn't need to use their child to hold him hostage.

What she longed for was a person who truly cared for her.

She didn't need someone who showed her care or concern out of obligation or any other reasons.

Perhaps the dejection or the sorrow was too much for her.

Tears slowly streamed down Tang Yun's cheeks, breaking into separate droplets as they slid off her chin. They were pearls strung by an invisible thread that glittered sharply in the sunlight and elicited a stabbing pain in one's heart.

Meanwhile, in the Ye family mansion in Jingzhou.

It was night. The mansion was brightly lit with lights.

Ye Yu-Yan and the rest of the Ye family were gathered around the table, sharing dinner.

They wouldn't stop playing with the baby in Ye Xi-Mei's arms as they ate.

"Look at his smooth cheeks. He looks adorable! Sis, are you sure this isn't Fan's child? Look at his eyes and his chin. They're Fan's eyes and chin! They look so alike," said Ye Fan's aunt, Ye Xi-Lan, merrily as she pinched the baby's rosy cheeks.

Ye Xi-Mei sighed. "That's what I think too.

This child looks so much like Fan when he was a kid. But he should know better than us whether this is his kid. He didn't seem like he was lying. Besides, Mu-Cheng isn't here and we're all family. If this was some illegitimate child that was a result of an affair, he wouldn't hide it from his own mother."

Ye Xi-Mei was in her forties. Many married women her age were now grandmothers.

She had asked Qiu Mu-Cheng subtly if the young woman had plans to have children.

The answer that she had gotten had been disappointing.

Ye Fan and Qiu Mu-Cheng had been married for years but Qiu Mu-Cheng had shown no signs of pregnancy for so long. No one was more anxious than Ye Xi-Mei.

However, if Qiu Mu-Cheng had no plans to have children, there wasn't anything that Ye Xi-Mei could do but keep her unhappiness to herself.

The arrival of this child had undoubtedly kept Ye Xi-Mei in good cheer for quite some time.

She had thought that she was now a grandmother.

But the happiness bubbling inside her had burst upon hearing Ye Fan's denial.

Her happiness had been for nothing.

"Don't get too upset, sister. Fan might have forgotten. We'll ask him again when he comes back. He might have been drunk then. It could have been an accident. It makes sense that he'd forgotten all about it," Ye Xi-Lan said as she tried to comfort her sister.

Their father nodded in agreement.

"I suppose all we can do is ask him about it again. If this isn't Fan's child, we have to find a way to locate his parents and return him to his family. His family must be worried sick," murmured Ye Xi-Mei dispiritedly.

It was obvious that this young and new arrival to the Ye family had given them much joy. Everyone was in love with the baby.

But it didn't matter how much they liked the child. They had to return him to his parents.

They were parents too and knew how much a child meant to his parents.

Ye Fan had appeared in the Ye family mansion while the rest of the family were still caught up in their conversation.

Moonlight spilled across the young man, casting a dark shadow on the ground that moved slowly as the young man trudged across the mansion with an expressionless look on his face.

"What's wrong with Brother Fan? He looks down. Someone who doesn't know better might think he's just been dumped," Ye Jian said with a note of puzzlement and a raised eyebrow as he eyed Ye Fan. "That's utter nonsense! Fan's a man of influence and status now. Plenty of young women are dying to marry him. They'd kill to get themselves into the Ye family and enjoy the status and wealth that come along with it. Only Fan gets to dump women. There's no women out there who would dump him!" Ye Xi-Lan said smugly.

The stature of everyone in the family, from the pet dog to the family rooster, rose with that of a single man.

Because of Ye Fan, the entire Ye family had become the most influential family in Jiangdong.

In the past, Ye Xi-Lan, Ye Tian and Ye Ya wouldn't have been able to get an audience with Lei San even if they had groveled and plied numerous generous gifts onto the latter.

Now, the formerly high-and-mighty Lei San would make a personal visit to their family every New Year's Day and extend his well wishes to the old patriarch of the family.

That was why Ye Fan had everyone's respect in the Ye family.

Even Ye Jian, who had disliked Ye Fan in the past, would address him as his elder brother now.

"You're just in time for dinner, Fan. Take a seat and have dinner with us. I'll get you a bowl and a pair of chopsticks," said Ye Xi-Lan as she rose to her feet and pulled Ye Fan to his seat before laying out his cutlery before him.

Ye Fan nodded and began to eat in silence. He didn't say a single word as he ate.

"Are you alright, Fan? Have you remembered whom this child's mother is?" Ye Xi-Lan asked tentatively.

"I've told you. This kid doesn't belong to me. Why do I care whom his mother is?" shot back Ye Fan.

Tang Yun's appearance had unsettled his composure and left him on edge.

His reason had told him that that had been his best chance to kill Tang Yun.

He had spent only a few minutes with

Tang Yun just now, but he had sensed during those brief moments that Tang Yun had been in a severely weakened condition.

He could have killed her effortlessly.

With Tang Yun dead, the Chu Sect would be severely weakened.

His chances of successfully storming and destroying the Chu family would rise sharply.

Why hadn't he been able to kill her?

Tang Yun had found it in herself to strike him down. Why had he failed to do the same?

Ye Fan tightened his fists at that thought. His nails sank painfully into his flesh.

"If this child isn't yours, then you should locate his parents and return him to them. Fan, you have more means at your disposal. Get someone to help you find his parents. I didn't see the young woman's face that day, but she's got an incredible

dignity to her that few in Jiangdong possess. It shouldn't be that hard to find her. You could check the security tapes and see if they managed to catch anything. She wears a purple dress and has a white veil over her face. Also, she has incredibly long black hair. She should stand out. I have no idea why she would leave her child with us, but if she's got nothing to do with the Ye family, then we ought to return her child to her," Ye Xi-Mei said gently.

A tremor coursed through Ye Fan when he heard his mother's words. His head whipped up and his eyes stared unblinkingly at his mother. "What did you just say, mom? Did you just say that the child's mother wore a purple dress and had a veil covering her face?"