Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 207; Lu family 10

"Momma..." Her voice came out small and wobbly, filled with uncertainty and fear. "Am I a bad person for denying him? For lying about who I am?"

The question trembled in the air between them, weighted with a twelve-year-old’s desperate need for reassurance, for confirmation that choosing survival and protection over blood loyalty didn’t make her fundamentally wrong or damaged.

Shuyin felt her heart clench at the naked vulnerability in that question. This child, who’d been so composed under pressure, so strategically brilliant in her deception, so mature beyond her years, was still just a child who needed to know she was good, was worthy, was loved despite the choices she’d had to make.

"No," Shuyin said firmly, reaching out to cup Yuyan’s face in both hands, making sure the girl was looking directly into her eyes and seeing the absolute sincerity there. "You are absolutely not a bad person. Not even a little bit."

She stroked her thumbs gently across Yuyan’s cheeks, wiping away the tears that had started to fall.

"And I believe you have your own reasons for what you did," Shuyin continued, her voice warm and accepting. "Good reasons. Reasons that make sense to you even if other people might not understand them. And you know what? You don’t have to explain those reasons to me if you’re not ready. I trust you. I trust that you did what you needed to do to protect yourself and the people you love."

Yuyan’s breath hitched, her tears flowing faster now as relief and residual stress mixed together.

Because Shuyin wasn’t demanding explanations.

Wasn’t pushing for justifications.

She wasn’t treating her like she owed anyone, not even her new mother, and was completely transparent about every thought, feeling, and motivation.

She was just... accepting. Understanding. Trusting.

Shuyin could have read Yuyan’s memories if she wanted to. Her mermaid abilities extended to that kind of deep mental access, allowing her to dive into someone’s mind and experience their entire history firsthand. She’d used it strategically when needed, reading Lu Zeyan’s memories to gather blackmail material, accessing the original Lin Shuyin’s past to understand her circumstances.

But she would never do that to Yuyan.

Not without explicit permission. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Not even if burning curiosity consumed her.

Because this child deserved autonomy over her own story. Deserved the right to share or withhold her painful past as she chose. Deserved to have at least one relationship in her life where trust wasn’t contingent on complete transparency and vulnerability.

Shuyin could tell, could feel through that strange empathic sense her mermaid nature provided, that Yuyan’s heart toward her was genuine, pure, full of trust and growing love that had nothing false or calculated about it.

And if the girl wasn’t ready to share the full depth of her pain, wasn’t ready to unpack twelve years of isolation and suffering, then Shuyin would wait.

Would be patient.

Would let Yuyan come to her when she was ready, rather than demanding access as payment for protection and care.

But Yuyan, it seemed, was ready now.

The tears kept falling, but her voice strengthened as she began to speak, as if something that had been locked away for years was finally finding release.

"You know..." she started, her hands clutching Shuyin’s shirt like a lifeline. "I was born and my mother died. I never saw her when she was alive. Never heard her voice, never felt her hold me, never knew anything about her except what Daddy told me and the few pictures of her I have seen."

She took a shaky breath, organizing her thoughts, finding the beginning of a story she’d carried alone for too long.

"Daddy said she was from a low-income family. Not poor exactly, but working class. Normal people. The kind of family that would never be invited to Lu family gatherings, would never be considered suitable connections for someone of their social status."

Her voice took on a bitter edge.

"The Lu family members hated her. Hated that Daddy loved her, hated that he chose her over the suitable matches they’d arranged, hated that their bloodline would be ’contaminated’ by inferior genetics. They never acknowledged her as part of the family. Never welcomed her, never accepted her, never treated her like she belonged."

Shuyin continued holding her, one hand stroking soothingly through her silver-white hair while the other kept the girl anchored close.

"And Daddy..." Yuyan’s voice cracked slightly. "Daddy had his own problems with the family even before he met Mama. He wasn’t born with silver-white hair like I was. When he was born, his hair was normal, dark like everyone else’s in the family. But when he turned five years old, it changed. Turned this color overnight."

She touched her own distinctive hair, the feature that marked her so clearly as Lu Yuze’s daughter.

"The family thought someone had switched him. Thought he wasn’t really their blood, that some kind of fraud had been committed. They did DNA testing, which proved he was absolutely a Lu family member; genetics sometimes did strange things, but they never really believed it. Never really accepted him as one of them after that."

Her tears were flowing steadily now, but her voice remained clear, determined to get this story out that had been weighing her down and had no one to share it with.

"They never loved him. Never liked him. He was always the outsider, the suspicious one, the son who didn’t quite fit. And then when he chose to marry my mother, a woman they considered beneath him, they hated him even more. Actively, openly hated him for disgracing the family, for proving he was as inferior as they’d always suspected."

Yuyan pulled back slightly so she could look directly at Shuyin, her silver eyes blazing with old pain and fierce love for her father.

"When my mom died giving birth to me, the Lu family said they wouldn’t bury her in the ancestral burial grounds. Said she wasn’t acknowledged as family, wasn’t worthy of being laid to rest with generations of Lu ancestors. They told Daddy to dispose of the body however he wanted, but not on their land."