“Living in Africa… that would practically be exile!” Qi Feixue cried out. She simply couldn’t imagine settling down there.
Qi Shaoxiong said in an extremely serious tone, “So, Sis, if I don’t want to be exiled to Africa, I can’t afford to fail this time.”
Qi Feixiong gripped his phone tightly. “That’s right, Ah Xiong. You absolutely cannot fail this time!”
…
After hanging up on Qi Feixue, Qi Shaoxiong returned to the private room where he had arranged to meet Qi Feifan. He sat down and looked at Qi Feifan, who was lounging leisurely across from him.
“Qi Huan came to ask me about the whereabouts of his father, Qi Tianxiang.”
Qi Feifan replied leisurely, “Oh? Brother Xiong, then you’d better keep Qi Tianxiang hidden. If Qi Huan finds him, our plan to have his younger brother take revenge on the Old Master will be ruined.”
Qi Shaoxiong snorted. “I can guarantee that Qi Huan won’t find Qi Tianxiang, but are you sure you can successfully make Qi Huan’s younger brother and that man called Uncle Ya suspect the Old Master and find an opportunity to attack him?”
Qi Feifan said, “Don’t worry about that. At the very least, Uncle Ya definitely won’t let go of anyone who might have caused Qi Huan’s mother, Cheng Xiran, to die. As long as I create a little more so-called evidence that Cheng Xiran was framed and killed by the Old Master, Uncle Ya will pounce on him like a mad dog.”
Qi Shaoxiong said, “Fine. I’ll also make sure Qi Huan can’t find Qi Tianxiang before the Old Master officially announces the heir to the Qi family.”
Qi Feifan raised his wineglass. “Then let’s celebrate the success of our cooperation in advance.”
Qi Shaoxiong raised his glass as well and clinked it against Qi Feifan’s.
The two men drained their glasses, each harboring his own ulterior motives.
…
After leaving Qi Tianhuai’s villa, Jiang Youli looked at Qi Huan with a faint, knowing smile. “Huanhuan, you personally came here today to put pressure on Qi Feixue. Once Qi Shaoxiong finds out, he’ll definitely become even more anxious.”
Qi Huan revealed a confident smile. “That’s exactly why I deliberately want to push him into a corner. Time is running out. If he and Qi Feifan don’t resort to some drastic measures, they may really lose their chance.”
Jiang Youli smiled brightly. “All right. Since we’re not going to Zhou Zerui’s place to treat Uncle Ya today, I’ll go back to the company and deal with some matters. Tomorrow at noon, I’ll bring you Zhou Zerui’s invitation. Then we’ll go to his place together.”
Qi Huan nodded. “Okay.”
After taking Jiang Youli back to Starlight Entertainment, Qi Huan didn’t have Cheng Jing drive him to the Qi Group. Instead, he went somewhere else—the home of his best friend.
…
Jiang Youli had just returned to Starlight Entertainment when Ye Ying called.
“President Jiang…” Secretary Little Yang hurried over to her as well.
Jiang Youli raised a hand to stop her. “Let me take this call first. Come to my office in five minutes.”
Little Yang nodded. “All right.”
Jiang Youli returned to her office and sat down on the sofa before answering Ye Ying’s call.
Ye Ying’s cool voice came through. “Boss, Jiang Yangxu went to the Long family’s home earlier. He caused a huge scene there and then angrily took Jiang Li away with him.”
“Oh?” Jiang Youli was slightly surprised. “Jiang Yangxu caused a scene at the Long family’s home before taking Jiang Li away?”
Yu Linglong had already told her that Long Yuan would hand Jiang Li over to Jiang Yangxu and let him figure out how to return to the Jiang family and attend her birthday banquet.
Jiang Youli still couldn’t figure out how Long Yuan and Jiang Yangxu planned to use Jiang Li to attend her birthday banquet without her consent.
But now, Jiang Youli seemed to have some idea of what Long Yuan and Jiang Yangxu intended to do with Jiang Li.
“Yes. Jiang Yangxu brought quite a few people with him and nearly came to blows with the Long family’s bodyguards. In the end, Old Madam Long lost patience and ordered her people to throw Jiang Li out the door. She cursed and said she was going to cast Jiang Li, her daughter-in-law, out of the Long family, and that Jiang Li should never even think about returning,” Ye Ying explained.
Jiang Youli thought about it.
A sympathy ploy?
She wasn’t sure. There was still a week before her birthday banquet, so she would wait and see.
“All right. Continue keeping an eye on Jiang Yangxu and Jiang Li,” Jiang Youli said. She was about to hang up when a thought suddenly flashed through her mind. “Wait. When your people were monitoring Jiang Yangxu, what about his wife, Qin Yulian? What was she doing?”
Ye Ying said, “Boss, the people under me said they didn’t see Qin Yulian.”
“They didn’t see Qin Yulian?”
“No.”
Another thought flashed through Jiang Youli’s mind. “I understand. Have them continue monitoring Jiang Yangxu’s every move.”
“Understood, Boss.”
After hanging up, Jiang Youli tossed her phone onto the sofa and frowned slightly.
It had been some time since Qin Yulian had come to cause a scene in front of her, demanding to know where Jiang Xing was. Given the kind of person Qin Yulian was, if she had gone to Shanjian Village to look for Jiang Xing, then even if Jiang Xing had refused to return to the capital with her, she shouldn’t have been willing to stay away from the capital for so long.
Jiang Youli was highly sensitive to anything unusual. Once she became suspicious, she immediately called Uncle Zhou to ask about Jiang Xing.
“Li girl, what is it?” Uncle Zhou asked.
“Uncle Zhou, I wanted to ask you something. Did Jiang Xing’s mother go to the village to look for him some time ago?”
“Oh… yes, she did come by. But afterward, she couldn’t take it anymore and returned to the capital after having a fight with Jiang Xing. Why do you ask?”
Jiang Youli’s eyes darkened. “Are you sure she returned to the capital?”
“I can’t be certain about that. That day, I only heard Jiang Xing arguing with his mother. She said she was going back, and afterward, no one saw her again. She should have returned. Why? Could Jiang Xing’s mother have gone missing?”
Jiang Youli said, “It’s possible that Qin Yulian really has gone missing.”
After a pause, she asked, “What about Jiang Xing? Didn’t he care what happened to his mother?”
“No. Right now, he’s more concerned about your uncles and aunts in the village. Every day, he’s thinking about how to curry favor with them. He either helps push carts or helps spread fertilizer. I bet he wouldn’t even know if his mother died.”
Uncle Zhou’s final sentence was filled with biting sarcasm.
“All right, I understand.”
“Li girl, do you actually care whether Qin Yulian lives or dies?”
Jiang Youli said, “I don’t care about Qin Yulian’s life or death. But if someone wants to use her life or death to ruin the birthday banquet my parents prepared for my first return to the Jiang family, I absolutely won’t allow it.”
“I see. So Qin Yulian really has gone missing—and someone deliberately arranged it.”
At that moment, there was a knock on the office door.
Jiang Youli said, “That’s highly likely. All right, Uncle Zhou, I have something to deal with. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay. When your birthday banquet comes around, your uncles, aunts, and I will catch up with you properly.”
After hanging up, Jiang Youli said, “Come in.”
Secretary Little Yang pushed open the door and walked in. “President Jiang.”
“What is it?”
Little Yang said, “Jiang Zhao posted something on Weibo half an hour ago. Have you seen it?”
Jiang Youli said, “No. I’ll look at it now.”
As she spoke, she took out her phone and opened Jiang Zhao’s Weibo account. His latest post read:
“I won’t let you down. This time, I’m going to win this showdown for sure.”
The image attached was the same one she had posted on Weibo—a voting page created by netizens for a face-off between the two of them and their new songs.
