Chapter 2665 — Coming to Play the Advocate?

Yu Xiaoke, an orphan all her life, had suddenly gained a brother, and it left her both overjoyed and nervous. She raised her head and looked at Yu Dake, yet that one word—"brother"—would not come out.

"Xiaoke, I know you may still have doubts, but medical science is so advanced now. All we have to do is a DNA test and it will prove the relationship between us. If you don't believe me, we can go do it tomorrow." Yu Dake spoke with a hint of nervousness.

"Brother..." Hearing his words, Yu Xiaoke could no longer hold back the emotion surging inside her. The word "brother" burst from her lips, and her tears fell with it. She had the old director's care and the company of the orphanage children, but the loneliness of having no family—especially around the holidays—was always so plain. Yu Xiaoke had never imagined that she, too, would finally have a brother...

"Little sister..." Hearing her call him that, Yu Dake was beside himself. "You... you believe me?"

"Actually, I believed it from the very start..." Yu Xiaoke sighed. "It's just that it all came so suddenly, I couldn't quite accept it. Now that I've calmed down, I'm very happy..."

"Yes, yes, I'm happy too!" Yu Dake nodded emphatically.

"Tell me about when I was little..." Yu Xiaoke smiled. "What about our parents?"

"When we were little... our parents..." But Yu Dake fell silent, as though he wanted to speak and could not.

"What is it?" Seeing his expression, Yu Xiaoke asked, puzzled.

"There are some things I don't want you to know. I can bear them alone; I don't want to add to your burden..." Yu Dake sighed. "Earlier, I learned from Mr. Lin that you've already taken on far too much responsibility and hardship for the orphanage's sake..."

"Is it that our parents... were killed by someone..." Yu Xiaoke was quick and clever. Over the years, among the orphans they had taken in there had been more than a few whose families had been wiped out, so it was easy for her to connect the dots to herself.

"This..." Yu Dake sighed helplessly. "I didn't want to say it, but I never thought you'd guess anyway. That's right—our parents were murdered by enemies. That you and I survived at all is a blessing in the midst of misfortune. But my strength is still not enough to take revenge, and I don't want you to live in hatred. Just understand these things; there's no need for you to know too much..."

"Mm..." Yu Xiaoke nodded. Since Yu Dake was unwilling to say more, naturally she would not press him. Her feelings for their parents were, in truth, far shallower than his—she had almost no impression of them at all, and her attachment to the old director ran deeper by far. "Then how did you and Wei Zhao come to know each other?"

What worried Yu Xiaoke most right now was the relationship between her brother and Wei Zhao. She knew perfectly well that Wei Zhao had designs on her, yet she was helpless before it—she could only passively accept, and accept, and accept again. Now her brother had fallen in with Wei Zhao too, and even seemed to hang on his every word, which made her uneasy.

In her heart, though, Yu Xiaoke was still deeply grateful to Wei Zhao. If not for him, she would have had no choice but to turn away the sick abandoned infants that came to her from all over the country. She understood that even if she did not take them in, other orphanages might—but how many orphanages could afford such exorbitant medical costs?

If the treatment costs had been small, those infants' parents could not have been so cruel as to abandon them. So Yu Xiaoke knew full well that letting things drift on so ambiguously with Wei Zhao and accepting his aid without end was surely not right; when the time came, she might well be forced into doing something that betrayed Nan Dao. But she had no choice.

Sometimes life is like that—nine out of ten things go wrong, and nothing can ever go entirely your way. Thinking of the future between herself and Nan Dao, Yu Xiaoke could not help but sigh.

Yu Dake did not notice her helpless expression; he was animatedly recounting how he had been injured at the Hidden World Clan Summit and Wei Zhao had stepped in to save him, gratitude for Wei Zhao brimming in his every word. "Xiaoke, Mr. Lin is a truly good man—good men like that are rare these days. Not only did he help heal my injuries, he's been running himself ragged over your orphanage. He is simply a great benefactor to us both! As the saying goes, a drop of kindness should be repaid with a spring. So you and I must keep this debt of gratitude in our hearts all our lives. Whatever Mr. Lin asks of us, we must do our utmost—whatever we can do, we must do it..."

Listening to her brother, Yu Xiaoke's mind became a tangled skein. She bowed her head in silence, not knowing how to answer him.

Yes—Wei Zhao had saved her brother, and given the orphanage such tremendous support. He owed her nothing; rather, she and her brother both owed him. But even so, that was no reason to give herself to him in gratitude, was it?

If there were some other way to repay him, Yu Xiaoke would certainly have nodded without hesitation. But now... watching her brother praise Wei Zhao so effusively before her, she felt irritated, and her aversion toward Wei Zhao surged up once more.

Was there anything he couldn't say to her face? Did he have to drag her brother in to play the advocate? To have her brother praise him endlessly in front of her—and then she would fall for him? What angered Yu Xiaoke most was that Wei Zhao clearly ought to like her, and yet he still would not admit it!

She had some understanding of Wei Zhao's character—he was not a particularly warm-hearted man. Was he a fool, then, endlessly pouring aid into her and the orphanage? Most of his company's profits were being funneled into the orphanage, and still he rushed about every day raising funds for it. Yu Xiaoke simply could not believe that Wei Zhao was helping her out of pure goodwill, because that was not realistic.

"Hah..." Yu Xiaoke did not want to hear any more, so she lifted her head and changed the subject. "Brother, have you started a family?"

"Me? Of course not." Yu Dake shook his head. "Just now, when I was telling you about the Hidden World Clan Summit, you didn't seem very puzzled? You know about cultivators and the hidden clans?"

"I know. A while ago there was a man named Zhao Qibing who set fire to the orphanage—he's from the hidden Zhao family, isn't he?" Yu Xiaoke said. "As for cultivators, well, I suppose I count as one too, though only an expert of the outer school—I haven't even set foot on the Yellow Rank. And my master, the old director of the orphanage, is a Yellow Rank expert of the inner school!"