I am your mother.

Dong Yulian was still standing right in front of him.
Yet, he still had the time to answer a phone call that she had only just connected for a single second.
For a moment, Ye Mian felt her heart tighten into a knot.
An indescribable emotion coiled like climbing vines upon a tree, densely weaving themselves into a tight net.
For reasons unknown to herself, Ye Mian simply could not control the tone of her voice, and her grip on the coffee cup tightened intensely.
"Nobody is bullying me, I just..."
His detached and gentle voice came through the phone receiver.
"If you are unhappy, come back to Wencheng."
"I will come to pick you up."
Ye Mian's hand froze completely, her pupils instantly contracting.
Oh no!
She hadn't told Jiang Chen yet that she was already in Wencheng.
Her original plan had been to give him a surprise.
But this seemed...
Whether she stepped out or not felt entirely inappropriate now.
Within these mere few seconds, before Ye Mian could react, Dong Yulian had already started speaking over there.
The expression on her face was shifting at a speed visible to the naked eye. Stunned, she stared at Jiang Chen, unable to regain her wits for a long time. She turned her head inch by inch to look at the driver, and then at the car parked behind Jiang Chen.
She was attempting to use her cognitive capacity to gauge the current wealth of this stepson of hers.
Half a second later.
She gently drew a breath.
The hem of her dress swayed softly in the wind.
Smiling, she walked up to Jiang Chen.
And called out, "A-chen."
Using a tone of unprecedented intimacy.
She felt she had no other choice left; she currently had nowhere to go, nor did she possess the ability to earn money.
To be precise, she lacked the ability to make a large fortune.
The upper-class circles in Jiangcheng were far too small. After being kicked out by her previous wealthy lover, no one looked at her with respect anymore.
As for why she had come to look for Jiang Chen.
It was because she had learned from her former lover's angry rants that Jiang Chen had invested in an industrial resort estate in Jiangcheng.
And her lover happened to be one of the resort's business partners.
Since they were all local wealthy merchants, their information channels were extensive, and tracking someone down was a swift process; following the lead of Jiang Chen, they had easily traced her.
Putting aside the matter of her reputation for the moment.
They were business partners, after all—would anyone want to tear down their relationship completely by messing around with a partner's stepmother?
The affection and ruthlessness of such men were invariably tied to their interests; seemingly flesh-and-blood on the surface, they were actually the most merciless at heart.
Therefore, she had been discarded.
Hence, she had no choice but to try her luck.
As for whether she feared Jiang Chen's retaliation.
She was afraid.
Yet, judging by past circumstances, no matter how outrageous her actions had been back then, Jiang Chen had never inflicted any substantive harm upon her.
So she was gambling.
Gambling on whether a person of such status and prestige would bother to dismiss her with some pocket money.
Or perhaps gambling on the notion that a son's taste might be... somewhat similar to his father's.
The marriage certificate she had once despised to the core.
At this very moment, it assumed immense utility.
With an alluring and charming gait, she stepped forward, retrieved a wrinkled and soiled marriage certificate from her underarm bag, and handed it to Jiang Chen for inspection.
"A-chen, we are mother and son who lived together after all; you cannot just ignore me."
She felt nothing improper about adopting such a delicate and fawning attitude to appease her stepson.
In her eyes, men were divided into simply two categories: those with money and those without.
Her words traveled through the phone receiver straight into Ye Mian's ear.
Ye Mian was driven to fury.
Yet her phone suddenly flashed with a thirty-second shutdown warning.
She had been working for too long today, constantly making phone calls, and now not a shred of battery remained.
Hearing the disconnection tone, Jiang Chen put down his phone and glanced at Dong Yulian, his patience thoroughly exhausted.
"I am not here to entertain these discussions with you. What is it that you want?"
Dong Yulian's eyes lit up as she secretly guessed how much money Jiang Chen might be willing to part with for her.
After pondering for a moment, she spoke: "You are powerful and influential now; could you give me a house, just enough to ensure I am provided for and free from worry? I can stop coming to interrupt your business ventures. You are a man of status and reputation after all—there is no need to make a fuss over a trifle like this... right?"
So... she had the audacity to shamelessly demand both money and property.
Jiang Chen gave a faint laugh: "Dong Yulian, you should go back and learn a lesson from your lover before you come to discuss these matters with me."
There was no trace of insult in Jiang Chen's tone; rather, it sounded as though he were granting her a chance.
He turned around, and the driver opened the car door.
Clutching the marriage certificate soaked in filth, Dong Yulian showed no aversion to it whatsoever; instead, she treated it like a precious treasure. "A-chen, I married your father when you were still a youth. You have a legal obligation to support me. Are you truly going to abandon me? I am your mother."
She laid heavy emphasis on the words "law" and "mother."
This was a naked threat.
She was determined not to leave until she obtained what she wanted.
Mother...
Jiang Chen turned around, lowering his gaze to look down condescendingly at Dong Yulian's face. After a long moment, he uttered, "Mother?"
Dong Yulian shrank back involuntarily.
Indeed, the moment a person attained wealth, their aura transformed entirely; that oppressive and overwhelming pressure was enough to make one's heart tremble.
Yet this was a society governed by the rule of law.
As if grasping onto a source of reassurance, she nodded again: "Yes, at least legally speaking, that is so. I raised you since you were in your teens, and you must take responsibility for me."
Jiang Chen lowered his gaze and laughed. "Raised me?"
Under the sheer weight of his pressure, Dong Yulian, tottering in her stilettos, could barely manage to stand.
Reason told her there were many people around, and Jiang Chen could not simply do as he pleased with her.
With a thick enough skin, the money would soon follow.
She had already consulted professionals; under the law, Jiang Chen was indeed obligated to support her.
As for the abuse and torment of the past...
At any rate, those matters had long since become untraceable.
Such a scene unfolding on the spacious street drew the lingering glances of many onlookers from afar.
"What is going on here?"
"This woman is demanding maintenance from her son. He must have made a fortune and now refuses to acknowledge her."
"Why be like this? Judging by the son's financial standing, he is hardly lacking; why skimp on such a small amount of money?"
Jiang Chen's gaze was as heavy as the evening sky. Facing the accusations, he uttered not a single word.
Just as Dong Yulian was on the verge of giving up.
Jiang Chen abruptly spoke: "Lin Shan, take Madam Dong to live in the apartment at Mingpin, and have the property title transferred to her name first thing tomorrow morning."
Having just pushed open the door of the coffee shop, Ye Mian caught those very words.
Her spine stiffened abruptly.
Based on the sequence of what she had overheard prior, she could easily deduce how the situation was unfolding.
She thought Dong Yulian was utterly foolish.
Perhaps Dong Yulian had always been a woman blessed only with a pretty face devoid of any brains.
Otherwise, how could she have managed to ruin such a winning hand completely?
The Jiang Chen of today was no longer that youth of the past.
Did she genuinely believe that someone like Jiang Chen, who had built his fortune from scratch, possessed no temper, no ruthless methods, and lived in fear of public opinion?
Capitalism could devour a person utterly, leaving behind not even a trace.
Clutching her handbag at that moment, Dong Yulian neither voiced agreement nor issued a refusal.
She was observing whether Jiang Chen's words were genuine or false.
Yet, with massive profits dangles before her, shining as brightly as gold.
How could an ordinary person possibly resist such temptation?
Although there was little expression on Jiang Chen's face and his bearing remained refined and composed, his eyes carried a mocking edge, and the veins on his fair hands pulsed with imperceptible tension.
At a single glance, Ye Mian could tell that he was furious.
And at this moment, even Jiang Chen's smile looked somewhat terrifying.
Having grown accustomed to Jiang Chen's gentle temperament for so long, she had almost forgotten that he possessed an entirely different side to his nature.
Heart pounding with anxiety as she watched the scene unfold.
A sudden thought striking her, she could no longer stand still. Grasping her coffee, she hurried in the direction of Jiang Chen.