Mu Shuoqian was supposed to return to the company, but he turned left at the intersection ahead.
Gu Qili carefully observed his suddenly stern face and asked in a low voice, "What’s wrong? Who upset you?"
"A bunch of useless trash." His brows were tightly knitted, showing his full displeasure.
It wasn’t until they reached the villa in Tanxi that Gu Qili realized what had enraged Mu Shuoqian so much; the ’bunch of useless trash’ were all lying on the ground. A panicked man ran over and said, "Young Master Qian, I’m sorry, I don’t know how this happened. I just went out to buy food, and when I ca back, these people were like this..."
Gu Qili, seeing the people scattered on the ground, grabbed Mu Shuoqian’s hand sowhat fearfully and hid behind him.
"Don’t be afraid, they’re not dead, just knocked out," Mu Shuoqian walked past two of them and opened a hidden chamber behind the bookshelf.
Unexpectedly finding this opportunity here, Gu Qili felt it was very mystical.
Following him into the underground, on seeing this narrow space emitting a stench of decay, her gaze froze on the terrifying iron cage at the center.
The door of the cage was open, and it was completely empty inside.
Mu Shuoqian quickly walked over, surveyed the surroundings, and his expression grew stern.
Gu Qili stood still. This eerie scene gave her goosebumps as she pondered who might have been held here. Mu Shuoqian had already walked back toward her, grabbed her hand, and led her out of the hidden room.
Breathing the fresh air outside, Gu Qili felt much relieved. If soone had always been confined in such a dark and sunless place, one could imagine the suffering endured.
"Haven’t you always accused of covering up for Qiu Yufei?" Mu Shuoqian addressed her doubts with a calm tone, "I had just kept her ’covered up’ here."
Gu Qili looked at him in shock, her face filled with disbelief.
Although she despised Qiu Yufei, who had almost killed Niannian, she never imagined that Mu Shuoqian hated her even more. To imprison a woman as beautiful as a flower in such a dungeon, potentially for four years, his depth of hatred was simply unthinkable.
Qiu Yufei’s fate did not upset Gu Qili at all, what surprised her was how rcilessly Mu Shuoqian had acted against Qiu Yufei,
"I’m sorry, I misunderstood you before." Gu Qili did not know how many things she was still unaware of; her repeated misunderstandings stemd rely from distrust. If she had trusted him more from the beginning, perhaps many things would not have happened.
Thinking this, Gu Qili felt increasingly guilty and restless. He had done so much for her quietly, while she, on the other hand, had constantly been hateful, evasive, and even harmful. She truly regretted it.
"Don’t feel guilty, it was my fault for not clarifying things," Mu Shuoqian patted her shoulder, "Let’s go."
"Where did Qiu Yufei go?"
"I think she might have been rescued by the mafia, after all, she was not with my mom for so many years for nothing."
"Will she sue you?" Gu Qili wasn’t concerned about whether Qiu Yufei had escaped or not, but whether Qiu Yufei would sue him.
"She has no proof," Mu Shuoqian said, already walking her out of Tanxi villa. They didn’t go far when a loud explosion suddenly ca from behind, followed by flas shooting into the sky.
Gu Qili turned in surprise. The explosion and fire were exceptionally fierce. In the blazing flas, the villa was quickly engulfed. When exactly had that man moved all his knocked-out subordinates outside and also installed explosives and gasoline?
They had been prepared for such an eventuality all along—if Qiu Yufei escaped, the villa would turn into ashes, leaving no evidence for her to find.
~
Qiu Yufei never thought she could still escape alive. She curled up under a thick blanket, shivering continuously.
The heavy curtains left the room devoid of any light. She was now very afraid of light.
"Here, have so water." A fluent string of Mandarin sounded in the dark, followed by a large hand holding a cup reaching over to her.
Qiu Yufei took the water glass, sipped a little, and despite the dim light, she still looked up at him, "Xu Tong, thank you."
"You’ve suffered a lot." The man called Xu Tong sat down next to her, his gaze tender yet filled with pain, anger, and reluctance, "I’m sorry it took so long to find you."
The world is vast; finding soone is no easy task.
"Yufei, don’t worry, I will definitely avenge you."
"Avenge what? If you dare to touch Shuoqian even a bit, I’ll never let you off," Qiu Yufei said coldly.
"Yufei, after all he has done to you, do you still cling to him? Until when will you keep being blind? He will never fall in love with you."
"He may not love , but I must love him. Without loving him, what aning is there in my life?"
Xu Tong was left speechless by her extre remarks, thinking that Qiu Yufei had really cornered herself into desperation, unwilling to let go even though tornted by Mu Shuoqian.
"Xu Tong, I’m going to stay here for a while, wait until my health improves, and then I’ll look for Shuoqian brother."
"You still want to find him? Are you insane? What if he locks you up again?" Xu Tong could hardly believe she could say such things, "This ti I can’t just do as you say,
"Xu Tong, marrying you? Forget about this lifeti, besides Shuoqian, I won’t marry anyone else." Qiu Yufei looked coldly towards the thoroughly screened curtain, "Nothing and no one can stop from loving Shuoqian. Without him, my life is aningless."
Xu Tong, looking at such a stubborn Qiu Yufei, shook his head; she was too deeply trapped, beyond help.
"You can stay here, but I will stay with you every step of the way. You should sleep first, I’ll go find a doctor."
Though Qiu Yufei did not want Xu Tong to stay, she was physically weak and needed soone to take care of her, so she did not object.
"Here’s the phone for you," Xu Tong said as he left the phone behind and left.
Qiu Yufei held the phone and hesitated for a while before dialing Qiu Lan’s number.
"Hello, who is it?" Qiu Lan’s voice was sleepy, obviously just woken up.
"Mom, it’s , Feifei."
"Feifei?" Qiu Lan was first shocked, then angrily said: "You still have the face to call back, do you still know you have a mother like ?"
Qiu Yufei was stunned for a mont. Why was Qiu Lan acting this way? She had been out of contact for four years; shouldn’t she be crying tears of joy? Could it be, could it be that she discovered sothing?
Thinking this, Yufei beca increasingly uneasy and ekly said, "Mom?"
"What’s up with the eavesdropping device? Why did you put such a thing in the bag you gave ? What are you trying to achieve?"
Qiu Lan’s words confird Qiu Yufei’s suspicion; indeed, Qiu Lan knew everything.
"Mom, it’s not what you think, I had my reasons."
"Reasons? Okay, tell , what are your reasons?" Qiu Lan’s sarcasm made Qiu Yufei uncomfortable; she was usually gentle and kind when speaking to her.
"Mom, Xu Tong forced . He wants to climb up, so... I had no choice. Mom, please forgive , I promise it won’t happen again," Qiu Yufei pleaded in tears, but Qiu Lan seed unyielding.
"Xu Tong forced you, you could have told , I would have sorted it out for you. You just did such a disgraceful thing without telling , don’t ever call yourself my daughter again; I don’t have such a backstabbing daughter." Just thinking that she had lived under her daughter’s surveillance for these years, Qiu Lan shuddered.
"Mom, please forgive , I beg you to forgive , I won’t dare again, I promise I will always listen to you." Qiu Yufei cried loudly, "I’m your dearest daughter, you can’t abandon ."
"So you still know you’re my daughter." Qiu Lan’s tone softened. She had recently had a falling out with Jason over another woman, and she needed to nd her relationship with him. Currently, the most troubleso issue for Jason was getting a gang leader to join an association; despite many efforts, the leader wouldn’t agree. Coincidentally, the leader had seen Qiu Yufei years ago and took quite an interest in her, but at that ti, being overprotective, Qiu Lan would never have agreed to send Qiu Yufei out like that.
"Mom, of course I’m your daughter. Although I’m not your biological child, I will honor only you all my life, recognize only you as my mom. How could I ever forget your great kindness and rcy?" Qiu Yufei spoke with utter sincerity, "Mom, I really dare not do it again."
"Since that’s the case, I will forgive you just this once, but, you have to marry Steve."
Qiu Yufei could hardly believe her ears, almost screaming, "Mom, what did you say, you want to marry Steve? Mom, don’t you realize Steve is sixty-three years old this year? He’s even older than you."
"You heard right, it’s Steve. Your dad urgently needs to win him over, and he has taken a liking to you. You keep saying you want to honor and repay your debt, now the ti has co to do that. If you marry Steve and successfully get him to rge into your dad’s guild, I will completely forgive you."
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