After leaving the house, Meixiu brought her mother to Yuan's apartment in a limousine. Of course, this limousine belonged to Meifeng despite her status as a servant, as she was only second in rank in the Yu Family, directly below Yu Rou and her parents.
"The Young Master is currently living in this apartment?" Meifeng raised her eyebrows upon arriving at the place.
While the apartment wasn't too bad, it wasn't fitting for someone like Yuan— at least that's what Meifeng thought.
In her mind, a genius like Yuan, someone who can literally make money rain with his god-like musical talents, doesn't deserve to live in an apartment with hundreds of other individuals.
Sometime later, they entered the elevator and quickly made their way to the 17th floor.
Klack.
Meixiu opened the door to 17F with her keys and said, "Young Master, I'm home."
Yuan, who was cultivating while waiting for Meixiu's return, was puzzled to hear the words 'Young Master' come out of her mouth when she seemed to have gotten used to calling him Yuan.
However, Yuan realized something was amiss when he heard two sets of footsteps entering the apartment.
'Did Yu Rou come? No… these footsteps are too gentle.' Yuan wondered to himself who this visitor could be if not Yu Rou.
"Young Master, you have a visitor," Meixiu said to him from outside his room after gently knocking on his doors.
"Who is it?" Yuan asked.
"Young Master, it's me." Meifeng quickly responded in an unbelievably soft voice.
"M-Miss Meifeng?!" Yuan immediately recognized her mature voice despite many years of not hearing it.
"May I come inside?" Meifeng asked him from outside.
"Y-Yes. Please, come inside."
Meifeng turned to look at Meixiu and said to her with a serious expression, "Stay out here. I want to speak with him privately."
Although she was hesitant to leave Yuan alone with her mother, she couldn't find the strength to refuse and nodded her head.
Meifeng approached the doorknob with her hands, and after taking a deep breath, she turned the handle and opened the door.
Upon entering Yuan's room and closing the door, Meifeng turned to look at the young man lying on the bed.
"Young Master…"
Meifeng was surprised to see Yuan's healthy complexion, but she didn't think too much about it for now and decided to kneel beside the bed on both her knees.
"Miss Meifeng, what are you doing here? Did…" Yuan was worried that his adopted parents might have found out about Meixiu helping him, hence why her mother was here.
"No, the Masters don't know about my presence here. You can relax. I am not here to separate Meixiu from you— I can't." As though she could see through his worries, Meifeng reassured him of his worries in a gentle voice.
"Then why are you…?"
"I'm here to apologize to you, dear Young Master…" Meifeng suddenly reached for one of Yuan's hands and held it close to her heart, treating it as though it was some kind of fragile treasure.
"Apologize? What for?" Yuan asked her in a truly puzzled voice.
"For everything…" Meifeng sighed, and she continued, "If I hadn't shown your musical talents to the Masters, they wouldn't have made you play for the family, and you would've kept your childhood at the very least for a few more years."
"However, because I showed the Masters your talents, they adopted you and essentially made you into a slave whose only purpose in life was to play music for the family, and it's entirely my fault that you had to sacrifice your childhood— yourself— with nothing in return."
"You earned the Yu Family countless fame and wealth, but what did you get in return? Not only did you lose your ability to see at a young age, but you also lost your ability to move shortly after. And now, a few years later, even the family that you supported and helped rise to the peak of the music world abandoned you…"
"Furthermore, I even stopped visiting you because of this guilt, as I could not bear seeing the Young Master in such a condition. I know that there's nothing I can say or do that will get rid of this sin, nor do I expect to be forgiven, but please, even if you hate me, do not blame Meixiu for any of this. She's an innocent girl who did her best at a very young age even if I scolded her a dozen times a day just so she could be by your side when I could not. If you have to hate someone, hate me, who brought you into the Yu Family."
Tears flowed from Meifeng's eyes as she cried in silence since she didn't want Yuan to realize that she was crying.
"..."
After a moment of silence, Yuan spoke in a soft voice, "Miss Meifeng, I don't blame you for any of this, much less hate you. There's no way I can hate you. After all, if not for you, I would've never met my sister Yu Rou, Meixiu, and many others. And even if you didn't tell the Yu Family about me, they would've still learned about me sooner or later since that video was widespread."
"While I do blame someone for this, it's definitely not you. As for my childhood… Even though I had spent most of it playing music for the Yu Family, I didn't see it just as 'playing for the Yu Family'. Yu Rou, Meixiu, you, and everyone who watched me perform… It's because of your smiles when I play the instruments that I play them."
"Fame? Wealth? I don't care about any of that."
"Young Master…"
The tears that had begun to stop suddenly started flowing again for Meifeng, and she began crying in a suppressed manner, as she was unable to resist her tears this time.
"Miss Meifeng, this may sound weird, but can you lay your head on my hand?" Yuan suddenly asked her.
Meifeng didn't think too much about it and followed his instructions, planting her cheeks on his warm hands.
Feeling the warmth of Meifeng's face on his palm, Yuan gritted his teeth and mustered all of his strength and cultivation to move his fingers that were closest to Meifeng's eyes, wiping some of the tears from her soaked eyes, shocking her greatly once she realized what had just happened.
"Y-Young Master… you… just now…" Meifeng lifted her head to stare at Yuan, who had a gentle smile on his face at this moment.