“Cough, cough—!”
This girl!
Qiuyun covered her mouth and fake-coughed. There was no need to be quite so blunt.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Yihua, who had always been strict and conservative in his parenting, nodded. “Being simple-minded is good. Simple-minded people are easy to handle.”
He had marriage alliance requirements for his sons, but not for his daughter. He had only one daughter, and ideally, she would find a man willing to marry into the family—someone who would stay under his watch for the rest of their lives.
Her mother and two older brothers agreed.
A sweet, naïve girl was great. Someone without ulterior motives would be the perfect match for their daughter or little sister.
“Hehe.” Jiang Chuling asked, “But if Granny Ge knows about this, then wouldn’t Grandpa know too?”
Jiang Yihua didn’t care. “Whether your grandfather knows or not doesn’t matter. Your Sister Xiaoqiu is his lifesaver, after all. It’s not as if he’d repay her kindness with hostility.”
After saying that, Jiang Yihua paused.
His gaze moved back and forth between his eldest son and Qiuyun.
Now that he thought about it, they really did make a good match—talented man and beautiful woman, close in age and well suited to each other.
To be honest, if Qiuyun became his daughter-in-law, she could handle everything going forward, whether it was the family business group or the family foundation. He wouldn’t even have to worry about educating the next generation!
Besides, she was now the Old Master’s lifesaver. Her status had risen accordingly, and she had received dividend shares in several subsidiary companies. She was a wealthy woman now, too.
If she married the Fourth Brother, that would be repaying kindness with enmity.
But his eldest son didn’t count!
At most, he had an ex-girlfriend—but they had already broken up!
Still, this was only his own beautiful fantasy. He would have to discuss it with his wife before deciding anything.
After dinner, Qiuyun regained her vacation, along with a substantial overtime bonus.
After all, she had indirectly saved the gentleman’s life once again.
If Jiang Yihua had stayed there, it was highly possible he wouldn’t have made it out unscathed.
When Qiuyun returned home, Qiu Ze was also on holiday. The siblings went to the supermarket together to stock up on New Year supplies.
Although they were wearing masks, there were plenty of fangirls in the capital. Every now and then, they would run into one or two who recognized them. But the girls merely took a few sneaky photos and never came over to disturb them.
The fact that Qiu Ze had an older sister was no secret in his fandom.
There were even plenty of fans who loved her simply because they loved him. Whenever there was an online fan war, anyone who dared insult his family would be met with a barrage of verbal slaps!
Well, who could blame them?
His sister was so beautiful, and such a wonderful person. Even when her own fans had caused trouble for her for no reason, she hadn’t blamed them at all. Instead, she had tracked down the real culprit and directed everyone’s anger straight at the source of the wrongdoing, forcing the person to write a public apology and post it online.
How cool was that?
As a result, an unwritten rule had formed within the fandom.
Whenever Qiu Ze was out in private with his family, no one was allowed to approach or disturb them.
Any paparazzi or obsessive stalkers who dared break the rule could forget about making money from the fans ever again!
After returning from the supermarket, Qiuyun gave the house a simple decoration, put up the Spring Festival couplets and good-luck banners, and then called Qiu Ze into the study.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. You turned seventeen this year, which makes you eighteen by the traditional age-counting system. You’re old enough to know.”
Her unusually serious tone made Qiu Ze inexplicably nervous. “What is it?”
Qiuyun sighed. “It’s about Mom and Dad.”
She briefly explained that their parents were stranded in Singapore and unable to return, as well as the fact that there were bodies buried in the courtyard at home.
To her surprise, Qiu Ze’s face went deathly pale as soon as he heard it.
Then he covered his mouth and ran to the bathroom to throw up.
Qiuyun was startled and hurried after him with a glass of water. “What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
Qiu Ze vomited until his stomach burned. For a moment, Qiuyun nearly thought he had eaten something horrifying and contaminated.
He choked out, “The scallions we’ve been eating… They were all picked from there.”
“…”
Qiuyun said, “You’re throwing up so badly, I thought you’d eaten a corpse.”
“—Urgh!” Qiu Ze waved his hand miserably. “D-don’t say that. Urgh… Those scallions grew by absorbing nutrients from corpses. Isn’t that horrifying? Urgh…”
Er.
A little horrifying, perhaps.
Qiu Ze kept vomiting until only bile came up. “For a while, the house always smelled terrible. I asked Mom and Dad about it, and they said the neighbors’ sewer must have been clogged.”
Now that he thought about it, the smell had probably been the stench of rotting corpses.
His stomach had nothing left to expel.
Qiu Ze drank some water to rinse his mouth, then forced himself back into the study despite the nausea. “Sis, did you call the police?”
Qiuyun shook her head. “If you hadn’t entered the entertainment industry, then yes, we definitely would have. But given the situation now, what if someone digs up the fact that your parents are murderers someday? They’d ruin your entire life.”
“How can we just let that happen?” Qiu Ze said indignantly. “Whether I’m in show business or not is irrelevant. We can’t just stand by and watch victims go without justice!”
“No.” Qiuyun rejected the idea coldly. “I’ve looked through all three hundred and sixty trades, and this is the only one where you might be able to make a name for yourself.”
“…”
Qiu Ze deflated. “Then what do we do? We really aren’t going to report it? Just pretend we don’t know?”
Qiuyun said, “First, let’s call Mom and Dad and confirm the identities of the dead. Then we’ll have someone investigate their backgrounds.”
Judging from the neighbor who had come over that day looking for a cat, as well as the couple’s behavior in her memories, they were shrewd, petty-minded, greedy for comfort, lazy, and fond of taking advantage of others—ordinary little people from the bottom rung of society.
People like that might get themselves into minor trouble, but they probably wouldn’t have dared commit murder on their own.
It seemed more likely that they had been forced into a desperate situation and had no other choice.
In any case, once they confirmed the identities of the dead, they would report it to the police if the couple had deliberately plotted and committed the murders.
At worst, they could deal with the trouble afterward, keep things as tightly under wraps as possible, and have Qiu Ze leave the entertainment industry if things really spiraled out of control.
If there was some other explanation, they could discuss it then.
After listening to her, Qiu Ze thought it over and decided to follow his sister’s lead.
Qiuyun then called Assistant Qian and had his people create an opening that would allow Qiu Fuyang and his wife to steal their phone.
The siblings watched television while they waited.
Two hours later, Qiuyun’s phone rang.
She answered, naturally shifting her expression and tone to one of panic. “Mom? Dad? Where have you been? Why didn’t you come back when you said you would? Why haven’t you answered your phone? Who exactly did you bury back then?”
Qiu Fuyang drew a deep breath. “D-don’t worry about that, sweetheart. Hurry up and buy a ticket over here. Save your mother and me and bring us back home!”
They didn’t have passports, so they could only work illegally for pitiful wages. They were worked to the bone every day, and even their phone had been confiscated.
It was unbearable!
He had suffered more in the past half month than he had in the first half of his life combined!
Qiuyun hesitated. “Dad, let me put it this way: the Eldest Young Master knows about what happened.”
“What?” Qiu Fuyang clutched the phone, heartbroken. He immediately began berating her. “How—how could you let an outsider find out?”
After half a month of working themselves to death with no time to stew over anything else, the old couple had already smoothly accepted the fact that their daughter knew about the burial.
“But don’t worry,” Qiuyun continued. “The Eldest Young Master said he can help our family settle this matter. However, he needs to know who the deceased person was and whether they’re someone we can afford to offend.”
As soon as he heard that the young master of a wealthy family could help settle the matter, Qiu Fuyang hurriedly said, “We can afford to offend them! We can, we can! Can the Eldest Young Master really solve this for us?”
