“Forget it, Dad.”
Jiang Yifeng lowered the handgun in despair. “He’s still my brother, my own flesh and blood. You’ve already shot one of his legs. That’s enough.”
Old Master Jiang turned back and frowned in disapproval. “No, it isn’t. You’ve locked yourself upstairs for days. If you don’t vent your anger and get this knot out of your heart, how are you supposed to recover? Besides, the medical team is waiting outside. One shot from you won’t kill him. His leg is injured from the outside, so it’ll heal much faster than yours did!”
“Forget it.” Jiang Yifeng gave a bitter smile. “I’m already like this. Taking out another one of Third Brother’s legs won’t change anything, so why bother?”
Old Master Jiang was speechless for a moment, but he still insisted that his youngest son vent his anger.
Jiang Yifeng sighed. “Dad, I just couldn’t accept it before, so I kept everything bottled up and gave up on myself at home. But I’ve thought it through now. Managing the group’s business and projects requires a brain, not legs. You can hold video conferences from home even with your bad legs, so why can’t I?”
Old Master Jiang was naturally pleased to hear his son take him as an example. However, the path his son had chosen was to remain shut up at home.
The Old Master let out a mournful sigh and stopped trying to persuade him. Instead, he looked at the Third Brother, who had his head hanging low.
“Look at the Fourth Brother, then look at yourself. Ask yourself this: If the Fourth Brother had been the one to make you end up like this, would you have let him off?”
With that, he turned and left with his youngest son.
After they went outside, the bodyguards went in to untie the Third Brother.
Butler Lin stepped forward and took the gun from Mr. Yifeng’s hand. When his fingers brushed against the cold barrel, a trace of surprise flickered in his eyes.
Then he turned and instructed the bodyguards, “Close the door. There’s no need for the medical team to go in.”
He looked up at the gray, overcast sky.
For some reason, he had a feeling that the days ahead would be anything but peaceful.
—
Mid-February.
Qiuyun was wiping down the riding tack for Miss Jiang when her lawyer in Quan City called.
“Miss Qiu, there’s been a new development in this case. The trial will have to be postponed.”
“What happened?”
The lawyer replied, “Wu Donglin claims that he was acting on someone else’s orders, but there’s no concrete evidence. We need to investigate further.”
“Who?”
“He Guilan.”
Tsk. As expected, it was her.
“I do have a grudge against her.” Qiuyun thought for a moment. “Try to drag the case out as long as possible. I’ll continue paying your fees. If you can get her work unit to intervene, that would be even better.”
As soon as he heard that she would continue paying, the lawyer readily agreed. “No problem.”
The moment she hung up, Assistant Qian called.
“Assistant Qiu, we found the landlord. His real name is Li Guoyao, and he’s from the capital. However, he divorced his wife sometime in the nineties and immigrated to the United States with his mistress. After living there for seven or eight years, he realized that life wasn’t as easy as it had been back home. His mistress was still young and beautiful, so she latched onto a local gangster in Chinatown and dumped him. He then returned to China to ask his ex-wife for money, claiming that she had gotten too much in the divorce settlement and that it wasn’t fair. His ex-wife chased him out with a broom.
“After that, we couldn’t find any more information. My people are leaning toward the possibility that he returned to the United States, but it’s hard to determine which state he went to. As you know, the United States is divided into autonomous states, and their information isn’t interconnected at all.”
“I understand. Thank you, Assistant Qian.”
After hanging up, Qiuyun transferred another 150,000 yuan to him. After all, he had even made a special trip overseas to handle the matter. It had been a lot of trouble for him.
Once the money was sent, she found herself lost in thought as she stroked the horse’s mane.
No wonder he had been missing for so long without even the police coming to investigate. It turned out he had immigrated abroad and obtained a U.S. green card.
However, when a green-card holder went missing in a foreign country, the U.S. government was constrained by the objective limits of consular protection under the framework of international law. Unless the case involved major interests, it generally wouldn’t initiate any search efforts.
Qiuyun narrowed her eyes.
Li Guoyao had betrayed both his country and his family. It seemed… there was no need for her family to get involved and clear his name.
But scaring that old couple into not casually returning to China to stir up trouble was still doable.
“Sister Xiaoqiu?”
Jiang Chuling came out wearing her riding clothes. “What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing. Just some family matters.”
Jiang Chuling automatically interpreted “family” as “your younger brother,” and immediately took Sister Xiaoqiu’s hand, rubbing salt into the wound.
“Your younger brother really is something. He’s grown up already, yet he still makes you worry about him, Sister Xiaoqiu.”
Qiuyun merely smiled without explaining, then helped Miss Jiang onto her horse.
Jiang Chuling said, “By the way, I think the first episode of that talent competition show is airing this Friday. Did your younger brother tell you whether he made it through?”
“No. The training on the island is closed off.”
“Will you watch the show, Sister Xiaoqiu?”
“If I have time, I will. After all, it’s the first project our company has brought to market.”
Jiang Chuling thought about it and nodded. “That’s true. Then I’ll watch it too.”
The riding lesson began.
Third Miss Jiang Chuye and Sixth Miss Jiang Chuyu were still absent, having asked for leave.
Apparently, the Jiang family was still in the middle of divorce proceedings with the Ning family. The Ning family seemed to have figured out that Old Master Jiang didn’t want to reach the end of his life only to become the subject of gossip in their social circle, so they insisted on squeezing every possible benefit out of the divorce before agreeing to it.
Qiuyun shook her head when she heard the news.
For someone as old-fashioned as Old Master Jiang—had he lived in ancient times, he would have been the sort who “didn’t punish women or children”—the first people he punished whenever something went wrong were the men of the family. Third Madam should have known when to stop once she had gained the upper hand.
Judging by the way the Ning family was jumping around now, Qiuyun couldn’t help wondering whether they had played a part in the matter.
“Seventh Sister.”
Jiang Chuyun was being led over on horseback. The moment she saw Qiuyun, her face stiffened and she turned her head away, refusing to acknowledge her.
“Mm.”
Jiang Chuling lifted her chin in greeting. “Hey, isn’t that Sixth Sister’s Zhui Feng? Why are you riding him?”
Jiang Chuyun replied, “Oh, I wanted to ride a big horse too, but there aren’t any well-trained ones available in the stable right now. Sixth Sister hasn’t come for a long time, and Zhui Feng was getting bored, so I took him out for a ride.”
…
Jiang Chuling thought to herself: Don’t think I don’t know. Your habit of trying to claim anything good you see has flared up again.
Qiuyun noticed that Zhui Feng’s tail kept swishing. Unable to resist, she led Miss Jiang’s horse two steps back and kindly advised, “Miss Chuyun, horses are intelligent creatures. I heard that Sixth Miss spent quite a while getting used to Zhui Feng. If you suddenly ride him now, I’m afraid…”
Jiang Chuyun looked at Qiuyun. Remembering that Qiuyun had refused to become her father’s wife, she stubbornly retorted, “I know. That’s why I’m having the horse trainer lead him. I’m not taking him onto the track today.”
All right.
Qiuyun closed her mouth.
“Brother!”
Jiang Chuling waved when she saw Jiang Linzhi and called out to him.
Jiang Linzhi rode over. “Assistant Qiu, Little Seven.”
The order in which he greeted them struck Jiang Chuling as faintly strange. But Sister Xiaoqiu’s expression remained perfectly normal, so she didn’t think much of it.
“Fourth Brother,” Jiang Chuyun greeted him softly, then hurriedly tightened the reins and rode away.
Of all the brothers and sisters in the family, she was most afraid of Fourth Brother.
At least the others would show her a pleasant expression now and then. But Fourth Brother never cared whether she was a child or his younger sister. If she offended him—or Seventh Sister—he would say the most cutting things without the slightest hesitation.
