The tension in the private dining room thickened as the Jiang family visibly squirmed under Sun Lixia’s calm but probative questioning. Master Jiang’s complexion reddened while Xiaofeng’s fists clenched repeatedly at his sides.

"You mock us with these games!" Xiaofeng finally exploded, rounding on Sun Lixia with unbridled fury.

Li Yanyan matched the boy’s heated glare with an icy one of her own. "Watch your tongue when addressing your elders, child. Clearly you are the one playing games by making baseless accusations."

"Baseless?!" Madam Jiang looked fit to burst as she jabbed a trembling finger towards Li Chen. "That...that daughter of mine was infatuated with your son! She was going to do whatever it took to stop this ridiculous marriage!"

An deafening silence fell over the room as all eyes turned to Li Chen. The newlywed’s brow was furrowed in consternation, but he remained calmly bemused rather than affronted.

"I must admit, I’m entirely at a loss," he stated evenly. "Jiang Xiaolin and I didn’t even know each other that well. What reason would she have to sabotage my wedding to Zhang Mei?"

The Jiangs’ faces cycled through a spectrum of clashing emotions - outrage, embarrassment, fear. Sun Lixia cleared her throat meaningfully.

"Perhaps if you clarified the precise nefarious ’plans’ you’re accusing Miss Jiang of concocting, we could begin to untangle this," she stated coolly. "Though from what I’ve gathered so far, all she harbored were some misguided fantasies about my son, however distasteful and unrequitted."

Madam Jiang opened and closed her mouth wordlessly as Master Jiang’s Adam’s apple bobbed. It was Jiang Xiaofeng who finally broke, exploding with raw vehemence.

"My delusional sister was going to drug Chen at some point to get him alone! She was going to seduce him so his marriage would be ruined by scandal and he’d be forced to take her to wife instead!"

"Those are very severe accusations you’re making based on delusions of infatuation," Sun Lixia said at last, her voice dangerously low. "I sincerely hope for your family’s sake that you find your daughter, I am sure she will come back home safely. Otherwise, the implications you’ve cast over my son on his wedding day could be...problematic."

Her eyes bored into Master Jiang and Madam Jiang was unmistakable. Both seemed to shrink back half a step despite themselves, shame and fury warring on their features.

After a prolonged beat, Madam Jiang lifted her chin defiantly.

"So she became a little...unbalanced over her desires. Is that so unforgivable? Jiang Xiaolin is still our daughter, our blood!" She fixed Zhang Mei with a bitter look. "We just want her back instead of wondering if she has fallen into grave misfortune over her obsession with your son!"

The explosive words hung in the air like a stale miasma. All eyes turned to Li Chen and Zhang Mei, breath bated to see if the newlyweds would forcefully respond to the grievous insults.

But it was Zhu Fengrui who slowly rose to his feet first, eyes blazing like banked coals as he fixed the Jiang family with a look of disgust.

"I’ve heard enough reprehensible slander for one night," he stated in a toneless rasp. "If you cannot collect yourselves and speak with rationality, then I’m afraid this discussion is over. Mark my words - make one more unseemly insinuation against my family, and you’ll wish you had never shown your miserable faces here tonight."

The muscle thrumming in Zhu Fengrui’s clenched jaw and the intensity of his glare brooked no argument from the increasingly cowed Jiang family. With a last look of helpless vexation, Master Jiang simply shook his head and turned on his heel, shepherding his wife and son towards the exit without another word.

As the door swung shut behind them, Sun Lixia let out a slow, calming breath, doing her best to dispel the lingering pall of ugliness. When she turned back to the rest of her gathered loved ones, her face was warm but pensive.

"Well...that was unpleasant to say the least. But no matter their unsavory allegations, we are still family - united and strong. Let’s not allow that vile negativity to ruin our evening together, yes?"

Nods and murmurs of grim agreement rippled through the room as they all endeavored to resume their previous celebratory air. But there was no denying that a new storm front had blown in over their lives, thick with the ominous rumblings of brewing conflict still to come.

The Jiang family exited the restaurant in a charged silence, Master Jiang’s mind roiling with tumultuous thoughts and haunting realizations.

That young man seated with the Tangs - Tang Ziyi. Despite two decades separating them, Master Jiang would recognize those sharp, angular features anywhere. The intense eyes, that strong jawline...they were unmistakably his own.

His son. The child he had been forced to give away all those years ago because of Madam Jiang’s vicious ultimatum. To see his flesh and blood now, a grown man surrounded by the powerful Sun family no less, was almost too much for Master Jiang’s conflicted heart to process.

"What’s wrong with you?" Madam Jiang’s voice cut through his reverie, laced with irritation. "You’ve been distracted since we left."

Master Jiang swallowed hard, shoving away the threatening torrent of guilt and regret. "Just...worried about getting our baby girl back safely," he lied smoothly.

Madam Jiang made a noise of derision. "Those people are hiding something for sure. They know exactly where our Xiaolin is."

Jiang Xiaofeng spoke up from the backseat, eyes flashing with indignant anger. "Then we need to involve the police immediately! It’s been almost a week."

"Your son is right," Madam Jiang stated firmly. "I’m getting more worried by the day about what may have happened to her."

Master Jiang sighed, running a weary hand over his face as he carefully chose his next words. "Very well...tomorrow, we can go open a missing person case with the authorities. But we cannot directly implicate the Sun family, not without proof."

He fell silent after that, knowing full well the truth behind Jiang Xiaolin’s disappearance was infinitely more complicated - and likely twisted up in that girl’s disturbing obsession with Li Chen.

As Madam Jiang and Xiaofeng chattered on, Master Jiang tuned them out, his mind’s eye unable to let go of the image of Tang Ziyi’s striking features.

If Tang Ziyi ever realized the truth about his parentage...the blowback could expose all the ugliest sins Master Jiang had committed over the years. For now, Master Jiang could only pray the skeletons stayed permanently locked away in the past’s closet.

Back in the private dining room, Tang Ziyi sat in stunned contemplation, his own mind awhirl. Only a month ago, he had discovered the truth that the Tangs were not his biological parents. That he was the son a wealthy businessman had abandoned to the Tang family as a newborn.

At the time, Ziyi had been so preoccupied with Madam Tang’s recovery and Li Chen’s wedding, he had pushed the shocking revelation aside to deal with later. But now, coming face-to-face with Master Jiang, the resemblance was staggering - unmistakable even.

This pompous, entitled man who had barged in and flung vile accusations was Ziyi’s biological father - the one who had rejected him before even giving him a chance at life. A smoldering wave of hatred and resentment churned in Ziyi’s core, scalding hot and caustic.

Yes, the Tangs had raised him with love and giving him every opportunity. But why had his birth parents so casually discarded him? What grave transgression had infant Ziyi committed to be abandoned by the very people who created him?

The turmoil made him sick to his stomach. He only hoped someday soon he would gain the answers he deserved, no matter how painful the truth might be to swallow.