“Zachary Sterling!”

“Ever since I married a loser like you, I’ve been laughed at for three whole years. Everyone in the Turner family mocks me, throws shade at me, and I’ve been living like I’m stuck in hell every single day!”

Jacqueline Turner’s face was full of anger. But by the end, her voice had dropped, heavy with helplessness, mixed with a faint choke of tears.

She was one of the most talked-about beauties in Yucheng, around twenty-three or twenty-four, stunning enough to make people do a double take.

She wore a light blue office suit, with soft makeup on her fair oval face. Her features were delicate and refined. The white shirt over her chest was stretched into a full, eye-catching curve. Her long black hair was glossy and smooth, loosely pinned before falling over her shoulders. On her legs were nude stockings, and on her feet, white high heels.

It was a pretty ordinary outfit, nothing flashy, yet she still carried a natural kind of charm that couldn’t be ignored.

Only now, the way she looked at Zachary was ice-cold.

Her eyes were red and damp, a thin shimmer of tears gathering at the corners. She looked like she was one step away from breaking down.

Zachary felt a tight ache in his chest.

He lifted a hand, wanting to wipe the tears from her face, but after hesitating for a second, he slowly pulled it back.

“Tomorrow is Grandpa’s seventieth birthday.” Jacqueline took a breath and forced herself to steady her tone. “Take these two thousand and buy something decent. I’m begging you.”

“I really don’t want to get cursed at and laughed at by relatives and friends again because of you. I don’t want to lose every last bit of my dignity.”

Smack.

She threw the two thousand onto the table.

“It’s not much money, so obviously you can’t buy anything top-tier. But at least put some thought into it. Pick carefully. Show Grandpa some sincerity, some respect.”

“Maybe if he sees that, he’ll change his opinion of you and let you into the family company, get you a proper job. That’d still be a hundred times better than you staying home all day washing clothes and cooking. At least people would stop laughing at you—and stop dragging me down with it!”

Bang!

Still fuming, Jacqueline slammed the door and stormed out.

She still had to rush to work at the Turner family company. Lately, the people there had been targeting her nonstop, tossing every thankless, exhausting task onto her lap like she was some kind of free labor.

Her father had always been soft and timid, the kind of man whose words carried no weight in the family. Now the entire household’s livelihood rested on her seemingly fragile shoulders.

The Turner family was only a third-rate family in Yucheng, but the rules were ridiculously many, and the backroom scheming was endless. Open smiles in front, knives behind the back—it was basically the family’s daily routine.

After Jacqueline left, Zachary stood there alone, clutching the two thousand in his hand.

His expression shifted again and again.

After a long pause, he lowered his voice and murmured to himself.

“For the past three years, I’ve owed you too much. I’m the one who dragged you down.”

“This is the first time you’ve asked me for anything. And honestly, it’s not even much. I, Zachary Sterling, should do this for you.”

After a long silence, Zachary picked up his phone and dialed a number he had memorized deep in his bones.

“Who’s this? You sure you didn’t misdial?” A lazy, half-awake voice drifted from the other end.

“It’s me. Gouchen.”

Zachary’s voice was low and restrained, but it carried a pressure that hit like a mountain. It was a side of him Jacqueline Turner had never seen in all three years of their marriage.

“B-Boss!” The person on the other end was so emotional his voice shook on the spot.

“Get off me. Damn it, move. All of you, scram. Unless the sky is falling, don’t bother me right now.”

A burst of hurried footsteps came through the phone. After a while, the man spoke again, much more alert this time.

“I’m on vacation on an island in Southeast Asia. It’s clear now. We can talk safely.”

“Boss, you’ve vanished for a full three years. Our people went crazy looking for you. Even several major enemy forces turned the world upside down trying to find you. Where the hell have you been hiding?”

Zachary fell quiet for a moment before answering slowly, “Something happened to my body. Don’t leak any word that I contacted you. Not to anyone. Right now, I need you to handle something for me.”

“My wife’s grandfather is turning seventy. Find a few gifts decent enough for the occasion and deliver them to Yucheng, Tiannan Province, Dongfang, before noon tomorrow.”

That sentence clearly stunned the man across the line.

“Boss… y-you got married? Who’s our sister-in-law? Something this huge, why didn’t you tell the rest of us?”

“We’ll talk when we meet tomorrow. For now, stop wasting time and do what I told you.” Zachary’s tone turned cold.

“Yaoguang obeys. I’ll make sure it’s done right.”

After hanging up, Zachary let out a long breath. He unbuttoned his shirt, revealing scars crisscrossing his body—bullet wounds, knife wounds, sword wounds.

Those scars were a man’s medals. They were also proof of the years he had once spent taking his brothers across the world, carving out his name step by step.

Zachary Sterling was the live-in son-in-law of the Turner family in Yucheng. He was also an abandoned son of the Sterling family of Luocheng. And beyond that, he was the mighty Gouchen Emperor who had once shaken the Western world.

Under his command had stood seven of the strongest subordinates, each named after the seven stars of the Big Dipper.

But now, Zachary was nothing more than the Turner family’s useless, laughed-at son-in-law.

Of all the men he could still trust, only one remained.

Flynn Bonham—Yaoguang.

The next day.

A private helicopter lifted off from an island somewhere in Southeast Asia and flew straight toward the outskirts of Yucheng, Tiannan Province.

After getting the call, Zachary Sterling rode over on his little electric scooter to meet it.

A young Eastern man around twenty-four or twenty-five came rushing over the moment he saw him. He was dressed head to toe in designer labels, with three glittering diamond studs in his right ear and a trendy haircut that screamed money and attitude.

“Boss!” he shouted as he ran over. “Three whole years with no word from you. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. I’ve been wasting away!”

He threw himself at Zachary and hugged him hard, arms tightening like he was afraid Zachary might vanish again. His eyes were even a little red.

They had gone through life and death together more times than anyone could count. That kind of brotherhood didn’t fade just because time passed.

Zachary laughed and cursed at him lightly, “Cut the act. Couldn’t eat, my ass. From the look of it, you’ve probably kept at least a dozen girlfriends on that island. More like you were living the dream and forgot all about coming back.”

The young man’s face instantly stiffened in embarrassment.

“Boss... how did you guess that? It’s like you saw it yourself.”

Zachary shot him a sideways look. “Flynn Bonham, I know exactly how many little schemes are crawling around in that head of yours. You think I need to guess?”

Then his expression turned practical.

“What I asked you to do—how did it go? Did you get the gift ready?”

Flynn immediately crouched down and opened the seven or eight cases lined up in front of him.

In an instant, dazzling treasures filled the space before them.

A luminous pearl the size of a duck egg. Agate pieces in vivid colors. A Buddha statue carved from golden nanmu wood. A scepter glowing with rich gold from top to bottom...

The light from those things was almost blinding.

Zachary frowned.

If he brought any of this to Quincy Turner, the old man might get so shocked he’d have a heart attack on the spot.

After all, in the eyes of the Turner family, he was just the useless live-in son-in-law nobody respected.

The second Flynn saw Zachary frown, his heart skipped. He hurried to explain, “Boss, the time you gave me was way too tight. If I’d had two more days, I swear in the name of Yaoguang, I’d have brought the Thai king’s crown right to your hands.”

Zachary pointed at himself.

Plain T-shirt. Baggy shorts. Flip-flops.

His whole outfit practically screamed broke.

“My current identity is the Turner family’s live-in son-in-law,” he said flatly. “Old Mr. Turner is just an ordinary man. Don’t you have anything a little more low-key?”

Flynn stared at him, completely baffled.

The mighty Gouchen Emperor... playing house as a live-in son-in-law for an ordinary family?

This was so wild it made his brain short-circuit.

After a moment, Flynn finally said, “If you want something low-key, I do have one thing. I collected a huge piece of ambergris. The only problem is... it looks kinda rough. I’ll get it for you right now.”

A moment later, he brought over a chunk of ambergris nearly half the size of a basketball, grayish-black and ugly as sin.

Zachary took one look and nodded in satisfaction.

This one would do.

This was the gift.

“Alright, that’s enough. I’m in a rush—I’ve got a banquet to get to. Settle yourself in first.”

Zachary Sterling swung a leg over his little electric scooter and started to leave without another pause.

“Boss, I’ve still got a ton of questions. And there’s a lot I need to report to you. You’re seriously just heading out like this?”

Flynn Bonham’s expression looked even worse than crying. His whole face had practically collapsed, like he’d been hit with a wave of frustration and had nowhere to put it.

“The banquet’s about to start,” Zachary said, lifting a hand in a casual wave. “Get yourself sorted out first. Once I’m done, we brothers can sit down and have a proper drink. I’ll tell you everything then.”

With that, he gave a brief wave, twisted the throttle, and rode off on the little scooter, disappearing just like that.