The next morning, at ShunChang Tower.
A black Bentley pulled up at the entrance of the building.
The car door opened, and Lin Dong stepped out first, then helped his wife, Jiang Lu, out.
Lin Feng followed last. The wounds on his body were still wrapped in bandages, but his spirits were clearly much better than the night before.
The three stood at the main entrance, looking up at a tower they had visited many times before, their emotions tangled.
As soon as Lin Feng saw this building, images from the previous night flooded his mind unbidden—the street filled with men in black. It was one of the most oppressive scenes he had ever witnessed in his life.
Even now, the memory still made his heart race.
He couldn’t help but recall his father’s words: if that girl Tongtong had been born in chaotic times, she might very well have carved out her own kingdom.
Jiang Lu was still visibly nervous.
Seeing this, Lin Feng teased her, “Aunt Jiang, don’t be so tense. We’re just here to chat, not walk to the execution ground. Besides, after what we saw last night, how could today be any scarier?”
Jiang Lu forced a faint smile and nodded.
“Let’s go.”
The three walked into the building side by side.
Unlike their previous visits, the front desk didn’t stop them this time.
A short-haired woman in a black suit came up to greet them.
She was quite pretty, with sharp, determined features and a brisk, confident stride—clearly a very capable person.
But for some reason, they all felt she looked oddly familiar.
Before they could dwell on it, she spoke.
“I’m Miss’s assistant, my surname is Gao. Please follow me. Miss is waiting for you in her office.”
Lin Dong and the others felt a subtle stir in their hearts.
Miss…
They had been hearing this title since last night, and it still struck them as odd.
They were fairly familiar with Liu Yutong’s background. She wasn’t from some prominent family. So why did everyone call her that?
The elevator rose all the way to the top floor.
The short-haired woman led them down a corridor and finally stopped before a dark wooden door. She knocked twice, lightly.
“Come in.”
A cool female voice came from inside—neither loud nor soft, but it somehow made their nerves tighten.
“Please, go ahead.”
The woman pushed the door open and stepped in first.
Lin Dong and the others quickly followed.
The office was large, simply decorated but tasteful. A floor-to-ceiling window offered a view of Pearl City’s skyline, and sunlight streamed in, coating the space in a warm glow.
But Lin Dong and the others felt no warmth at all.
Because behind that broad desk sat a young girl.
Today, she wore a black suit jacket over a simple white blouse, her long hair draped over her shoulders. She had light makeup on, and at first glance, she looked like an exceptionally pretty young woman.
Yet her eyes carried a cold, distant aloofness that sent a chill through anyone who met her gaze.
Seeing them enter, she stood and gestured toward the sofa area in the lounge.
“Sit.”
Lin Dong, Jiang Lu, and Lin Feng took their seats on the sofa. Liu Yutong walked over and sat down on the single sofa across from them.
She dispensed with pleasantries or polite chatter and looked directly at Jiang Lu.
“Ms. Jiang, before we discuss anything else, I have a question for you. You had better think carefully before answering. Don’t bother trying to lie. You should know whether I have the patience to hear your lies.”
Jiang Lu stiffened slightly, then quickly nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll tell the truth.”
Liu Yutong asked, “I’ve heard you have an older daughter, who went missing shortly after she was born. Is that right?”
Jiang Lu’s whole body trembled. She looked up at Liu Yutong in disbelief.
“How… how do you know about that?”
She had never mentioned this to anyone outside the family—not even her husband Lin Dong had known until recently.
How did her daughter find out?
Liu Yutong didn’t answer. She continued, “Don’t worry about how I know. I only have one question: Over all these years, did you ever look for her?”
Jiang Lu nodded frantically. “I did. I really did look. I…”
Liu Yutong cut her off again. “You say you looked. Then where’s the proof?”
Jiang Lu froze. “What?”
Lin Dong couldn’t hold back. “All of that was so many years ago. How could there still be any evidence…”
Liu Yutong cast a cool glance at him. “Mr. Lin, I wasn’t asking you.”
Lin Dong choked, swallowing the rest of his words.
Jiang Lu bit her lip. Then, as if a thought struck her, she frantically rummaged through her bag. She pulled out a wallet, opened it, and carefully retrieved something from an inner compartment.
It was a photograph. The edges had yellowed and grown brittle, but it was well preserved inside a plastic sleeve.
She handed the photo to Liu Yutong.
“This was taken after I escaped. I had no documents then. I had this photo taken at a town photo studio to get a temporary ID.”
Liu Yutong took it and looked down.
The woman in the photo was very young, barely past twenty. She was gaunt, her hair slightly messy, wearing a worn, faded old dress. Standing in front of a simple studio backdrop, she radiated a heartbreaking fragility.
“This was two years after I escaped. I had just recovered my health and wanted to go back to find Niannian. I used this photo to get a temporary ID, then traveled east to look for her.”
She went on, pulling a notebook from her bag and handing it to Liu Yutong with both hands.
“Later, after I settled down in the capital, I hired people to check the archives from that province. I searched everything I could, but… there was no news of Niannian. I also filed a report with the police’s missing persons system, but after so many years, nothing came of it.”
She paused and opened the notebook.
“This is what I wrote down back then when I was searching for Niannian—every place I went, everyone I asked, every lead I found… I recorded it all.”
Liu Yutong took the notebook and began flipping through it seriously.
It was densely filled with information about abducted children, especially girls whose birth dates were close to what she was looking for, each entry carefully noting time and place.
She read page by page, thoroughly. When she finished, she handed the notebook to Assistant Gao behind her.
In truth, after seeing all this, she wanted to ask, “If you looked for my sister, why didn’t you ever come back for me?”
But she didn’t say it.
Jiang Lu said, “I know… this might not prove anything. You might think I made it up or filled it in later, but I really did…”
“I believe you.”
Jiang Lu jerked her head up, staring at Liu Yutong in disbelief.
“Then… Tongtong…”
But Liu Yutong didn’t stay on the topic. “We’re done with your matter. Now it’s Mr. Lin’s turn.”
Lin Dong stiffened.
From the moment he walked into the room, he had witnessed his stepdaughter’s decisiveness. She wasted no words, pressed hard, and gave no room to breathe.
“Tongtong, if your Wanlong Society wants to cooperate with the Lin Group, as long as the terms aren’t unreasonable, I can agree on behalf of the company.”
Even as he said this, he had already braced himself for the worst.
He still felt that this stepdaughter was probably trying to use the Lin family as a springboard. After all, the only thing she might really care about were those major projects of his in the imperial capital.
At worst, he could even give her one at a low price, or for free.
Liu Yutong: "You can think of it that way too. Consider it a transaction."
Lin Dong’s heart sank—just as he had suspected.
But he also knew that on her turf, he probably had no right to refuse.
"Then state your conditions. As long as I can do it, I will."
But what Liu Yutong said next made him leap to his feet in shock.
"Mr. Lin, I need your entire Lin family to mobilize all your resources and connections to elevate an outsider. Is that possible?"
These words hit Lin Dong like a thunderbolt.
His face instantly turned ghastly as he stared at Liu Yutong in disbelief.
"Miss Liu, what do you mean by that? What exactly are you trying to do?"
In his panic, his form of address changed, and a terrible premonition surged in his heart—this stepdaughter’s ambition was far greater than he had imagined.
She wasn’t just asking for compensation; she was opening her mouth wide like a lion—someone about to devour everything!
To mobilize the entire Lin family’s strength and all their connections to elevate her? In other words, was she asking for the Lin family to become her vassal?
That was utterly impossible, and could never be done!!!
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