Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 301; Celestial Family

She was already far too comfortable with Lu Yuze, with this life, with these children who called her mother, and this home that had somehow become hers.

The question was whether she’d be allowed to keep it, or whether the celestial world she’d left behind would come to drag her back. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Her brother waiting downstairs was just the beginning of that reckoning.

Shuyin stood and moved to the window, looking out over the estate grounds. Somewhere down there, Long Chen was waiting. Soon, she’d have to face him, answer his questions, and deal with whatever news he’d brought from their father and the celestial court.

The water continued running in the bathroom, and Shuyin smiled to herself.

Her husband was taking a shower, and she had a few more minutes of normalcy to savor before reality came crashing back in.

While Lu Yuze showered, Shuyin left the bedroom and descended the stairs, her sandals echoing softly against the polished wood with each step.

The sound drew immediate attention. Yuyan and Chen Xiao were the first to lift their heads from their card game, their faces brightening instantly. They scrambled to their feet and rushed toward the staircase, meeting her at the bottom.

"Mother! You’re finally up!" Yuyan reached her first, eyes shining with relief and admiration. "You look beautiful in that dress!"

"Yes, so beautiful..." Chen Xiao added nervously, his voice quieter but no less sincere.

They lunged forward together, wrapping their small arms around her waist in a simultaneous embrace that nearly knocked her off balance. Shuyin steadied herself, one hand automatically coming to rest on each of their heads.

Long Chen rose from the couch where he’d been waiting, his sharp eyes assessing his sister carefully. She looked well enough, perhaps a bit pale, but otherwise healthy and composed. What struck him most, however, was how different she seemed. There was a calmness to her, a settledness he’d never seen before. She looked less like the restless celestial princess he’d known and more like... a wife. A mother. Someone who’d found a place to belong.

"Kailani..." he greeted as she approached, his tone carrying both relief and uncertainty.

"Mnnnh," Shuyin hummed noncommittally, gently pinching both children’s cheeks with practiced affection before gesturing to a nearby servant. "Take them upstairs. Yuyan, Chen Xiao, I’ll come join you shortly."

The children needed to be removed before this conversation went where she knew it would go.

"All right, Mama..." Yuyan agreed, though her sharp eyes had already caught something dangerous in her mother’s expression. "Don’t fight, though. The couches are newly installed per your liking... Just talk amicably, like two civilized people, okay?"

"Hehe... I won’t!"

The girl was far too perceptive for her age. The servant gently guided both children toward the stairs, though Yuyan kept glancing back over her shoulder with obvious concern until they disappeared from view.

Another servant approached with a tray of breakfast, setting it on the low table before Shuyin. "Good morning, Missus."

Shuyin settled onto the couch with deliberate composure, her movements controlled, though tension radiated from every line of her body.

"Kailani?" Long Chen ventured, suddenly feeling inexplicably nervous under his sister’s cold stare.

"Don’t call me that." Shuyin’s voice was ice, her eyes harder and colder than Long Chen had ever seen them in all their centuries together.

"I... I..." Long Chen stammered, completely thrown off balance by the raw hostility radiating from his sister. This wasn’t the Kailani he knew, or perhaps it was, and he’d simply never been on the receiving end of her fury before.

Across the sitting area, Ah Ling and Ah Ying had been arranging the last pieces of new furniture, making a show of minding their own business. But their ears were practically rotating like antenna dishes, catching every word of this increasingly volatile family drama unfolding in their mistress’s home.

Shuyin’s next words shattered any remaining pretense of civility.

"You’ve been poisoning Mother." The accusation came out raw and sharp as a freshly honed blade, cutting through the air with brutal precision. "It’s you who’s been destroying her health bit by bit, isn’t it?"

The shock of it rippled through the room like a physical force, sucking the air out of the space.

"Kailani, I swear... I could never do anything like that!" Long Chen dropped to his knees immediately, his carefully maintained composure completely shattered. He stared up at his sister with genuine horror and desperate pleading written across his face. "You have to believe me! In my life, in my honor, I would never harm Mother!"

Ah Ling and Ah Ying exchanged startled glances, abandoning any pretense of working. Their eyes widened in synchronized shock as they witnessed the Young Master Long Chen, the elegant, powerful celestial prince who’d walked into their home with such commanding authority just hours ago, now on his knees, begging for his sister’s belief.

Which meant their Missus was unquestionably the more powerful one between the two siblings.

The realization shifted something in how they viewed their gentle, occasionally temperamental mistress.

"If it’s not you, then who?" Shuyin shot to her feet, her movements sharp and agitated as she began pacing back and forth like a caged predator. Her breakfast sat forgotten and cooling on the table. "Who else had access? Who else could have possibly done this?"

"I didn’t even know she was poisoned!" Long Chen’s voice cracked with raw emotion, with the desperation of someone who’d just discovered a terrible truth. "How is that even possible? It’s usually only Mei and Father who handle her meals and medicine personally. How could she have been poisoned right under their watch?"

"Mei vowed her innocence, and nothing happened to her," Shuyin said, her voice dropping to something dangerous and cold, like ice forming over deep water. "The celestial laws would have struck her down instantly if she’d been lying. You’ve just vowed the same." She stopped pacing abruptly and turned to face him directly, her jade eyes burning with cold fire. "That leaves only one person."