“All you need to do is record a video of secretly taking you away from the sanatorium, so that Qi Huan’s biological younger brother will believe Qi Huan never truly intended to punish you and that you secretly helped him escape,” Qi Shaoxiong explained simply.
“Punish me…”
Qi Tianxiang muttered, quickly realizing that his son, Qi Huan, had found his biological younger brother and originally planned to bring him back to punish him.
No!
The last time Qi Huan tried to force him to reveal the whereabouts of his biological brother, he had already been ruthless. This time, Qi Tianxiang might lose half his life for real!
Whatever Qi Shaoxiong planned to do to Qi Huan, Qi Tianxiang only wanted to save his own life.
“Fine, I’ll cooperate,” Qi Tianxiang said. “But there are many of Qi Huan’s people stationed here. How did you get in under their surveillance, and how are you planning to get me out?”
“Qi Huan isn’t the only one with informants and influence,” Qi Shaoxiong replied. “As long as the money is right, anyone can be bought.”
As soon as he finished speaking, George, the psychologist Qi Tianxiang had originally hired from overseas to provoke and humiliate Qi Huan, walked in through the door.
He took out his phone and said in somewhat halting Chinese, “Leave the filming to me.”
Qi Tianxiang was speechless.
What a shameless bastard who could be bought so easily!
Back then, he had spent a great deal of money bringing George over from abroad. Officially, George had been hired to provide psychological counseling and treatment for his son, Qi Huan. In reality, he had been there to monitor Qi Huan’s every move.
Who could have imagined that before long, George would betray him and switch sides to Qi Huan?
And now, the bastard had betrayed Qi Huan and gone over to Qi Shaoxiong!
Still, Qi Huan deserved to be betrayed too!
“You don’t need to worry about anything else,” Qi Shaoxiong said. “If you want to stay alive, just cooperate with the filming.”
“Fine.” Qi Tianxiang no longer said anything.
Because the tendons in his hands and feet had been severed earlier, he still couldn’t move freely, even though Qi Huan had arranged for him to receive treatment in time.
Qi Shaoxiong naturally noticed this as well, so he had his men lift Qi Tianxiang into a wheelchair. Under the protection of several bodyguards, they escorted him out through a secret passage in the sanatorium.
Naturally, the entire process was secretly recorded by George on his phone. Once the video was finished, he sent it to Qi Shaoxiong.
Qi Shaoxiong then forwarded it to Qi Feifan.
After completing all of this, Qi Shaoxiong got into his car and lit a cigar.
Everything on his end had been taken care of. Now, all he could do was wait and see how things went with Qi Feifan.
…
At noon, in an upscale residential complex in Jing City.
Zhou Zerui was preparing lunch when the doorbell rang.
He set down the vegetables, turned off the faucet, dried his hands, and hurried over to open the door.
He and Uncle Ya had only just moved in under Qi Huan’s arrangements. Aside from Qi Huan and Jiang Youli, no one else knew they lived here, so he instinctively assumed it would be one of the two of them.
Instead, a man in a local courier uniform stood outside. He handed over a box and said in a businesslike tone, “This is a same-city delivery for someone named Uncle Ya. Please sign for it.”
A package for Uncle Ya?
Uncle Ya worked collecting recyclable waste. Apart from work, he hardly interacted with anyone because he was mute. The phone Zhou Zerui had given him was used only to answer calls from Zhou Zerui and otherwise remained untouched.
Who was this person? Not only did he know that Uncle Ya had moved, but he had even sent him a same-city delivery?
Zhou Zerui frowned suspiciously. After signing for the package, he handed it to Uncle Ya.
He closed the door, turned around, and asked, “Uncle Ya, who sent you this package?”
Uncle Ya, who was watching television in the living room, shook his head and gestured in sign language.
[Open it and see.]
Zhou Zerui sat down beside him on the sofa and opened the box. Inside was a stack of photographs.
The moment Uncle Ya saw them, his pupils widened.
Every photograph showed his benefactor, Cheng Xiran—the mother of Qi Huan.
There were photographs of Cheng Xiran’s life before her death, as well as gruesome pictures of the accident scene on the day she died.
Uncle Ya hurriedly picked up the photographs, his breathing becoming increasingly rapid and disordered.
“Uncle Ya, what’s wrong?” Zhou Zerui asked when he saw his condition. Something was clearly wrong. He, too, had begun to suspect the identity of the woman in the photographs.
She might be his biological mother.
Suddenly, a note slipped out from among the photographs as Uncle Ya looked through them.
Written across it in bold, sweeping handwriting were the words:
[Cheng Xiran’s death was deliberately orchestrated. Her car accident was not an accident. If you want to know the truth, call this number.]
Zhou Zerui’s breathing caught. He quickly said, “Uncle Ya, this could be a trap. We shouldn’t pay any attention to it.”
Uncle Ya shook his head violently and frantically signed:
[No. Call the number for me! Now! I want to know the truth! I can’t let my benefactor—your mother—die without knowing what really happened!]
All these years, if not for his desire to repay Cheng Xiran’s kindness by doing his best to raise Zhou Zerui, Uncle Ya would never have wanted to go on living.
Now that someone had told him Cheng Xiran’s car accident had not been an accident, how could he possibly refuse to investigate what had really happened?
Zhou Zerui was suspicious too, of course. But he knew the Qi family’s world ran deep, so he forced himself to remain calm.
“Uncle Ya, why don’t we wait until President Qi gets here and discuss it with him first?”
Uncle Ya couldn’t wait another moment. He took out his phone, dialed the number on the note, and turned on the speaker.
The call was answered soon after.
A man’s somewhat strange voice came from the other end. “Hello. I knew you would call me.”
“Zhou Zerui, you’re Qi Huan’s biological younger brother, aren’t you?”
“And Uncle Ya, you were the one who rescued Qi Yue after Qi Tianxiang sent him away back then, weren’t you?”
Uncle Ya couldn’t speak and could only make a series of anxious sounds.
Unfortunately, the man couldn’t understand him, nor could he see the hand gestures he was making.
Seeing this, Zhou Zerui sighed and asked, “Who are you?”
The man replied:
“Who I am isn’t important. I just want to ask you this: surely you don’t believe Cheng Xiran died in an accidental car crash, do you?”
“And surely you don’t believe that, twenty-two years ago, Cheng Xiran’s son was sent away simply because Qi Tianxiang manipulated a fortune-teller into claiming that her son, Qi Yue, would ruin the Qi family’s financial fortunes, do you?”
Zhou Zerui frowned. “Wasn’t that the reason? Wasn’t it because Qi Tianxiang wanted his illegitimate son to take my place and return to the Qi family?”
“Of course not,” the man denied. “The truth is, Qi Tianxiang was merely a pawn who had been used. The real mastermind behind everything was the true head of the Qi family.”
“Otherwise, how could someone like Qi Tianxiang have deceived the Qi family’s Old Master? How could he have convinced your grandfather to send away his own grandson, while Cheng Xiran just happened to get into a car accident afterward?”
His grandfather?
The true head of the Qi family—Grandpa Qi.
Zhou Zerui’s brow furrowed even more deeply. “If what you’re saying is true, then why did Grandpa Qi do it?”
