This type of listening device could be implanted into the human body, usually in the brain or the heart. To have it implanted inside one"s body would mean that any conversation that one had would be clearly transmitted to a receiver. The device"s installer could virtually hear the voices of their target any time of the day.
"So... was that why he said those terrible things to me?" It terrified Xin Qing that something like that could be inside Ying Qingcang"s body.
Chen Huan, on the other hand, did not feel a single ounce of sympathy for Ying Qingcang. "That"s only because he couldn"t control himself," Chen Huan said in a harsh tone. "He missed you and wanted to see you, but at the same time, he didn"t want the people spying on him to hear him. So he had no choice but to verbally a.s.sault you. What a shameless and selfish b.a.s.t.a.r.d."
Boss Wan blinked twice and pretended he had not heard his wife"s spiel. He cleared his throat and said, "At this point, these are still just our speculations. If it"s really just a simple listening device, Ying Qingcang would have a lot of ways to contact me considering how resourceful he is. He would"ve at least tried to find a way to warn us that he"s under someone"s control."
"Is it possible that he isn"t aware of it?" Xin Qing felt like an idiot the moment she said it. She lowered her head in shame and touched the tip of her index fingers together.
Then again, she soon felt a surge of pleasure in her heart. So it turned out that everything that Ah Cang had done was all because he had wanted to see her. He could not risk having his words overheard by the people who were controlling him. All of a sudden, her face turned beet red. "That time in France, at the fountain, he... he must"ve really wanted me," she thought.
"Why are you so fl.u.s.tered all of a sudden?" Chen Huan, ever with the sharp eyes, noticed Xin Qing"s strange behavior.
"Ah?" Xin Qing said, fanning her own face. "It"s so warm down here. Don"t you feel it, too?"
"Let"s head back upstairs!" Boss Wan picked up Liuliu. It was then that Xin Qing noticed that Xunxun and Ah Sha were both missing.
Xiao Rui tugged at her sleeve. "Don"t worry, I"ll look for them," Xiao Rui said. "We"ll spend some time down here to have some fun!"
They spent the Lantern Festival at Boss Wan"s place before Xin Qing brought the kids back home. Both Ah Sha and Xiao Rui found Boss Wan"s underground base highly fascinating; they had gone down to the base every day, and had even prohibited Xin Qing from coming with them.
They came up with a plan before Xin Qing left the island. Boss Wan would send someone to France, because he suspected that Ying Qingcang would never allow himself to be used like that, at least not voluntarily.
"Rong Siman must have something on him. Something that he could leverage him with, like an Archilles" heel, or a weakspot." That was Boss Wan"s opinion. At the same time, everyone agreed that the person spying on Ying Qingcang must be Rong Siman.
Chen Huan was still carrying Liuliu in her arms when she spoke to Xin Qing, "You know what I"m really curious about? Where did she find that much financial resource and manpower to pull this off? Isn"t the bonus share she gets from Ying Enterprises very little?"
Xin Qing nodded. Then, a sudden thought occurred to her and she said, "I remembered Ah Cang once said that Rong Siman"s son isn"t part of the Ying family. Could it be that she got all her resources from the man she"d had an affair with?"
"I"ll have someone look into it," Boss Wan said, pausing in thought. "I suspect that Ying Hao is currently in Rong Siman"s hands."
"That"s very likely," Xin Qing said with a frown. "In any case, Ah Cang would never allow his own father to be in danger."
Chen Huan gave Xin Qing a nudge. "Alright, enough chatter. Just get on the plane! We"ll let you know once we"ve confirmed things!"
France.
Rong Siman had just returned from a social dance party when she found that Ying Qingcang was not at home.
"Where did he go?" She asked a servant angrily.
"Mr. Ying said he was going out for a walk," the servant answered, not daring to look at her. This woman was even more brutal than a man. She could literally have someone killed on a whim.
Rong Siman went into a mild panic. She had not heard anything from the listening device in Ying Qingcang"s body, so she thought he was resting. Who knew that the man was not even at home. Ying Qingcang had promised her that he would return to France in order to spend the Chinese New Year with her. But he had suddenly run off into the mountains and had even run into Xin Qing there. After that, Rong Siman had heard with her own ears the sounds of the two of them making out with each other, causing her to send her wine gla.s.s flying.
Then, she had anxiously awaited Ying Qingcang"s return and had interrogated him the moment he did. In the end, Ying Qingcang had told her that it was all for the sake of that piece of land. Rong Siman had calmed down only after she had heard his explanation.
"So what if I have to f*ck her in order to reclaim Ying Enterprises. If you really can"t tolerate it, then we"ll stay here in France and never go back again," Ying Qingcang had told her angrily at that time.
That was why she had been walking on eggsh.e.l.ls around him for the past few days, being extra careful with her words; she did not want to anger the man. But why would Ying Qingcang disappear for no reason at all? Rong Siman suddenly had a bad feeling about everything. She grabbed her coat and rushed out the door.
Inside a decrepit garden, several tiny blades of germinating gra.s.s were tirelessly extending their leaves. At the edge of the dimly lit parterre, someone stood up and tossed a piece of paper into the sewer. Through the gaps of the criss-crossing fence, he watched as the paper slowly submerged in the sewage. When the words on the paper finally turned into dark blotches of murkiness, he turned around to leave.
Almost at the same time, the lights at the house in front of the garden came to live. From inside the house, the sound of a few people quarreling could be heard, but it soon quieted down.
Rong Siman rushed back home an hour later. The moment she entered the house, she saw Ying Qingcang sitting in front of the fireplace, going through some doc.u.ments.
"Where were you?" She rushed to stand before him, not even bothering to remove her coat.
Ying Qingcang raised his head slowly and pointed a finger at the table beside them. "You love the pizza from that place, right? I went out for a walk and then took a detour to get them for you."
"Really?" With an expression of disbelief, Rong Siman picked up the pizza box from the table. Almost instantly, the warmth from the pizza box seeped into her palms. The pizza had obviously just come out of the oven.
Her reaction made Ying Qingcang frown. "What"s that supposed to mean?"
"Ah! Oh, it"s nothing," Rong Siman amended quickly and gave Ying Qingcang a teasing look. Clinging to his arm, she said, "I thought you were out seeking other women!" She took a slice of pizza from the box and fed it to Ying Qingcang. Ying Qingcang only took a bite before he pushed it aside. "You know how much I dislike fast food," he said.
"Mmhm!" Rong Siman nodded. "I know you adore me. That"s why you bought it especially for me." She picked up the pizza box once again. "I"m going to take a soak in the tub while I enjoy this!"
Once she was in the bathroom, Rong Siman tapped her ear a few times. A moment later, the sounds of the conversation between Ying Qingcang and a woman filled her ears.
"Which topping, sir?"
"Oh... Um, she loves the black olives topping. That"s her favorite."
"Sir, your pizza is ready!"
"Thank you."
...
Overjoyed, Rong Siman looked into the mirror and licked her fingers. Then, she stripped herself naked and slid into the bathtub.
"Ah Cang! Keep being nice to me, okay? I"ll definitely find a way to heal you. After that, we"ll make love to each other. Everything that"s mine is be yours. Yours!" From the tall ledge of the tub, Rong Siman"s hand slowly slid into the water. Then, she parted her legs and moaned Ying Qingcang"s name. Not a while later, her body was reduced to trembles and shudders as she lay limply in the tub.
Meanwhile, Ying Qingcang, who was sitting in the living room, took out a voice recorder from the inner pocket of his jacket and hit the "delete" key.
The Chinese New Year officially ended on the 20th of January after the fireworks display. When Young Master Shen and Zhang Mi returned to S City, both of them were wearing strange expressions on their faces.
"What on earth is the matter with you two?" Xin Qing watched the two of them in amus.e.m.e.nt.
Zhang Mi held Xin Qing"s hand and whined tearfully, "Ugh. You know what they say about gingers? The older, the spicier. My father-in-law is outright despicable!"
Xin Qing looked towards Young Master Shen. The latter looked like he was about to murder someone when he said, "I can"t believe that old b.a.s.t.a.r.d has us all fooled. He was never sick! He"s been acting all these years, making all of us worry."
"Haha!" Xin Qing burst into peals of laughter. "Shouldn"t you thank the old man, then? You two might still be trapped in that love-hate relationship of yours if it weren"t for what he did!"
Zhang Mi was at the verge of tears. "Argh! But the problem is the huge sacrifice I have to make in order give him grandchildren!"
"Hey, hey, hey. Watch your words," Young Master Shen said in dissatisfaction. "Otherwise it would sound like you hate sleeping with me."
"But still, we can"t be having s.e.x every single day, and have it multiple times per day, at that!" Zhang Mi griped. She felt like crying every time she thought about her torturous s.e.x life for the past two years. Every day, she was so exhausted that she barely had the energy to climb out of bed. That d*mn*d man, on the other hand, seemed just fine and dandy. If anything, he seemed more energetic than ever. If it were not for all the health supplements she had been taking, she would have perished in bed a long time ago.
Xin Qing smacked Zhang Mi. "Can you not talk about something like this so openly, please? That"s just TMI."
"Exactly, you shameless chick!" Young Master Shen pulled Zhang Mi into his arms and mumbled something inaudible into her ear. Almost instantly, Xin Qing saw the feisty woman transform into a red-faced little bunny. A bunny, who was leaning obediently against the man"s chest without moving a single inch.
Xin Qing stared up at the ceiling. "Ugh. How I wish I can chase these two h.o.r.n.y people out!"
"Oh, right! There"s something I need to tell you guys," Xin Qing said. After that, Xin Qing recounted the events during Chinese New Year to Young Master Shen and Zhang Mi, starting from how she ended up stranded in the mountain to their discovery of the listening device planted inside Ying Qingcang"s body. When Xin Qing finished her recount, Zhang Mi"s first reaction was to complain about the fact that Xin Qing had never called once she got off the mountain. After that, Zhang Mi suddenly became agitated and asked.
"Is that thing really inside his body? Won"t it be dangerous?"
Young Master Shen gave her a look of disapproval. "These things are pretty common. But usually they"re only used on valuable prisoners or spies. That"s because it costs a lot to use one of these things."
"Mm," Xin Qing said in agreement. "That"s what Chen Huan said too."
"Those two are the best at that geek stuff," Young Master Shen told Xin Qing placatingly. "Let them handle that. Right now, we"ve got another problem on our hands. You told me that Ah Cang had sought out your partnership in an investment project? What"s the deal with that? What do you think he means?"
"I gave that a few thoughts," Xin Qing said. "He wants us to purchase that piece of land, that must be the case." Xin Qing booted up her laptop and pulled out all the information she had gathered on that piece of land. "This is it," she said. "From what"s written here, there"s really nothing special about it."
Young Master Shen frowned after he had gone through the information. "I don"t think it"s that simple," Young Master Shen said. "Ah Cang and I had already checked out this place a few years back. At that time, Ah Cang told me that the place didn"t have good prospects. Even if it"s developed, the profit it brings will last for five years at most. It can"t be extended beyond that."
"You guys considered this in the past?" Xin Qing said in surprise. "Okay, but why did he suddenly buy it now?"
Young Master Shen thought for a moment and said, "We"ll drop by the company in two days and see if we can find something there. Maybe we can learn something from the old files."
The beginning of March marked the start of another academic year in Caesar Academy. On the first day of school, Xin Qing personally brought the three kids to the academy. At the same time, Ah Sha"s two ponies were brought here as well. Ah Sha had generously given Little Xiaobai to Xiao Rui, a fact that bothered Xunxun for quite some time. But of course, Xunxun would never do anything to get back at Ah Sha, which was why Xiao Rui found himself frequently summoned by the student council to perform all kinds of labor.
Ah Nan had dug out all the old files and was now going through them together with Monica. As far as things went, today was just like another typical day. That was until Ah Nan accidentally dropped a photo from inside an envelope. His body went taut abruptly. After that, he picked up the photo and dashed out the door.
"Ah Nan?" Monica said, hurrying after him. She saw him entering Xin Qing"s office.
Inside the office, Zhang Mi and Xin Qing were in the middle of deciding on new For You products to be released during the spring season when they heard the door open with a loud bang. Ah Nan barged into the office.
"Good Lord! Is there an earthquake or what?" Zhang Mi still wanted to joke but stopped short when she saw the grave look on Ah Nan"s face.
Xin Qing, too, had noticed that something was not quite right with Ah Nan"s demeanor. "What"s wrong?"
"We"ve forgotten about this person," Ah Nan said, handing the photo to her.