Chapter 242

The Shen Family is a large clan with many branches. The branch that Shen Bin belongs to is one of those branches of the Shen Family.

No matter which branch, the person in charge must have passed the Shen Family's assessment, either now or in the past. Those who fail the assessment will be stripped of their Shen Family status and inherit no property.

And every adult Shen Family member who passes the assessment must have at least 6 children after getting married.

The number 6 is the mean value calculated from the Family's assessment data over the years. At least 1 out of every 6 Family heirs can pass the assessment.

If any branch in any generation has no one pass the assessment, along with the parents, that entire branch will be removed from the Shen Family records, and their property will be inherited by other branch members who passed the assessment.

The Shen Family has no so-called main family. All branches follow this one rule to pass down wealth and property. Branches that fail to continue will have their assets swallowed up by other successful branches.

The Shen Family clan has lasted generation after generation this way, eliminating the weak and keeping the strong.

Although Shen Bin was born in such a family, he had parents who loved him dearly, and siblings who cared for each other deeply. They all once thought they could pass the assessment. From childhood to adulthood, passing the assessment was their goal.

But in the end, only Shen Bin passed. After Shen Bin's brothers who didn't pass were removed from the family records, they could have lived just as well relying on Shen Bin’s support. But every one of them had seen the vast world and refused to be ordinary. Even less did they want to rely on Shen Bin’s charity to live.

So they started their own businesses, wanting to prove their abilities exceeded that damn Family assessment.

However, they were only one branch of the great Shen Family, without the power to defy the whole Family. In the end, Shen Bin’s brothers were suppressed at every turn, achieved nothing, and didn’t even preserve their last shred of dignity.

Unable to face their own failure, they lost their minds.

When Shen Bin's parents heard the news, they were devastated and committed suicide.

Shen Bin arrived just in time to save his mother, but he still lost his father.

Before his suicide, Shen Bin's father said to him that if they hadn't loved those children so wholeheartedly from the start, they wouldn't be so heartbroken now.

If they hadn't taught the children so much back then or let their abilities lag behind their vision, those children wouldn't have refused to accept mediocrity after being kicked out of the Shen Family.

If they could have accepted their own ordinariness, they wouldn't have lost themselves in unattainable dreams. If they hadn't poured so much love into those children, it wouldn't have been so painful to lose them.

Shen Bin took his father’s last words deeply to heart.

He didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of his parents and brothers.

"Yichen was always outstanding. I knew that if he passed the assessment, there would definitely be no problem. So Zhilian and I gave Yichen unrestrained love. At the time, we even fantasized how great it would be if all 6 children were as smart as Yichen.

But in reality, the second and third sons were quite ordinary. Their talents told me these were children I was destined to lose. In order not to let them hate Yichen, I chose to alienate them, only telling Yichen to fulfill his duties as the eldest brother and look after his younger brothers...

Although the fourth son was smart, his health was abnormal. I was so scared of finally losing this child and getting hurt. So Zhilian and I always avoided the fourth son..." Shen Jize lowered his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking.

Only Shen Wu's mind was still extremely clear. He asked coldly, "What's with raising me as a girl ever since I was little? Because you wanted a daughter?"

Hearing this, Xu Zhilian hurriedly shook her head. Her words were somewhat choked with sobs, "It wasn't like that. When you were born, something happened in the Shen Family. We offended a psychopathic killer. That person specifically targeted Shen Family boys under 5 years old to kill. To protect you, we could only disguise you as a girl. And there couldn't be any flaws. You had to think you were a girl yourself in order for it to work..."

"Little Wu, I'm truly sorry..."

Four years later, the murderer was brought to justice. At that time, to help Shen Wu regain normal gender awareness, Shen Father and Mother asked Shen Yichen to teach Shen Wu about gender identity.

Later, they found Shen Wu had psychological problems, so they sent him for treatment. But it barely helped, they could only secretly manipulate Shen Wu with Shen Yichen's cooperation.

They loved Shen Yue very much, but also knew her talent was not enough to pass the Family assessment. They couldn’t bear to let Shen Yue face the Shen Family’s cruel reality. So at the amusement park, they deliberately lost Shen Yue, so their contact could take Shen Yue away from the Shen Family and let her start over as an ordinary daughter in another family. But Shen Yue was saved by Shang Junyu, which ruined their plan.

At the time, they thought that if their daughter married well after being kicked out of the Family, she could still live a good life and they would have peace of mind. So they started helping the Shang Family, never expecting to help a pack of wolves.

Not until the school bullying incident came to light did they dare approach Shen Yue, only letting Shen Yichen get close to her.

Their honeymoon trip was actually to take care of several of Shen Bin’s older brothers, constantly using their tragic situations to remind themselves.

"Why do you want to drive Shen Yue away now?" This question came from Shen Hui. That day, Shen Father had asked her to tell Shen Yue she hated her, to make Shen Yue voluntarily leave the Shen Family. But Shen Hui never said it.

Shen Bin hesitated before slowly answering, "Your relationships have grown closer and closer. I don't want you to be as heartbroken as me when you lose a sibling."

"Dad," Shen Yichen couldn't hold back anymore and finally spoke up. "Haven't you ever thought that even if it's painful, we would cherish it?"

By now, Shen Wu had already figured out what happened. As he gently patted Shen Jize on the back, he bluntly said, "All I see is a coward constantly deceiving himself. Let's put that aside for now. What about Shen Yue and Shen Hui?”