Shen Yuan cannot help the way his eyebrows go up in surprise, but his expression doesn't shutter and he doesn't lean back. There are volumes of pain in that simple phrase, he knows. I was born in a brothel...I did not come to my father's court until much later.

It's a story he's read hundreds of times before, and the idea of this intelligent, curious, physically unimposing man going through such a thing fills him with sympathetic pain. And here he's been prattling on about his dad's skyscraper, while Jin Guangyao sat there with that bombshell on his chest. Guilt clawing at his heart, Shen Yuan lowers his gaze and says,

"That must have made things difficult for you. I'm sorry."