Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 199; Lu family 2

Lu Cheng stared at her, his mind visibly struggling to process multiple competing priorities, his shock at seeing what looked like his niece healthy and whole, his anger at this woman who’d just systematically destroyed his board’s authority, his confusion about why Yuyan would be here instead of with family or in medical care.

"That’s Yuyan," he said, and it wasn’t quite a question but wasn’t quite a statement either. "That’s my niece. Lu Yuyan. My brother’s daughter."

His voice carried certainty mixed with a desperate need for confirmation, as if speaking the words would somehow make the impossible situation more comprehensible.

"Is it?" Shuyin replied with deliberate ambiguity, her head tilting slightly as if considering the question from multiple angles. Her jade eyes held Lu Cheng’s gaze with unwavering calm. "How interesting that you’d think so, Chief Lu. Tell me, when was the last time you actually saw your niece? Months ago? A year? Longer?"

The question landed like a physical blow, and Lu Cheng felt the barb sink deep. But he pushed past the discomfort, past the guilt that tried to rise in his throat, because he knew what he was seeing.

"I know it’s been long," he admitted, his voice gaining strength as certainty reasserted itself, "but I can’t be mistaken! It’s her... I know her..."

He turned his full attention to the girl, bypassing Shuyin entirely, speaking directly to the child who carried his family’s most distinctive feature in every silver-white strand of her hair.

"Right, Yuyan?" His voice softened, taking on what he hoped was an encouraging and safe tone. "You know me. You remember Uncle Cheng, don’t you? I visited you in the hospital. I brought you gifts for your birthdays. I...."

"Momma," the girl interrupted, her voice cutting through his words with the precision of a blade through silk. She didn’t look at Lu Cheng as she spoke. Instead, her silver eyes found Shuyin, seeking confirmation, seeking protection. "I don’t know this man. He must have mistaken me for someone else."

Lu Cheng felt his certainty waver, just for a moment. The way she looked at Shuyin, with trust, with affection, with the kind of bond that should exist between mother and daughter, was wrong. All wrong. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"And besides," the girl continued, her voice taking on a cold politeness that seemed far too mature for her years, "I’m not called Yuyan. My name is Lin Yurou. And Lin Shuyin is my mother."

The words fell into the space between them like stones into still water, creating ripples that disturbed everything.

Lin Yurou.

Not Lu Yuyan.

Lin, not Lu.

Shuyin’s daughter, not his brother’s child.

"No!" The word exploded from Lu Cheng before he could control it, louder than he’d intended, sharp with panic and denial. Several of the bodyguards shifted at the outburst, their stances becoming more actively protective. "You must be lying... You are Yuyan! I would recognize you anywhere! That hair, those features, you’re...."

"A child who doesn’t know you," the girl finished for him, her voice remaining eerily calm in contrast to his rising agitation. "A child who has never been to your family’s home. A child who has never been part of your family."

She paused, and something flickered in those silver eyes, not quite the cruelty, but something close to it. The look of someone who’d learned to protect themselves by building walls no one could scale.

"And a child who would appreciate it if strangers stopped insisting they know her."

Lu Cheng took another step forward without realizing he was doing it, denial and desperation overriding his usual caution, his strategic thinking, everything except the need to make this make sense.

"No," he said hoarsely, his voice cracking slightly. "You must be lying. You have to be. You are Yuyan. I would never mistake you. I’ve known you since you were born. I’ve sat beside your hospital bed..."

He stopped himself, but the damage was done. The admission hung in the air, contradicting his own earlier claims.

I’ve sat beside your hospital bed...

If he’d sat beside hospital beds, then clearly this child had been hospitalized. Clearly, she was the dying girl he remembered, no matter what name she claimed now.

"Chief Lu."

Shuyin’s voice cut through the spiraling tension, not raised, not sharp, but cold enough to freeze water mid-flow. The temperature in the room seemed to actually drop several degrees, frost beginning to form in impossible patterns on the edges of the windows.

Lu Cheng’s attention snapped to her, momentarily distracted by the strange chill in the air.

"That’s quite enough," Shuyin said with calm finality.

She shifted her position deliberately, angling her body so that she stood unmistakably between Lu Cheng and the children, one hand resting lightly on the edge of her desk. The gesture appeared casual, almost elegant, but everyone in the room recognized it for what it was.

A line had been drawn.

A boundary has been established.

Cross it, and there would be consequences.

"You’re projecting familiarity onto a child who has clearly stated she doesn’t know you," Shuyin continued, her tone remaining conversational but carrying steel underneath. "That should concern you more than it seems to. It suggests either your memory is unreliable, or your judgment is impaired, or, and this is the most troubling possibility, you’re attempting to claim connection to a child who has no legal or familial relationship with you."

Lu Cheng’s jaw tightened so hard a muscle jumped in his cheek. His hands clenched into fists at his sides as he struggled to control the panic rising in his chest.

This was impossible.

The girl standing before him was clearly Yuyan, the hair, the bone structure, the age, everything matched. But she was denying it. Claiming a different name, a different mother, a different life entirely.

Why?

Had Shuyin done something to her? Threatened her? Manipulated her somehow during whatever mysterious recovery had brought her from death’s door to perfect health?

His gaze flicked desperately between Shuyin and the girl, searching for answers in their expressions, in their body language, in anything that would explain this nightmare scenario.