Xin Qing visibly shuddered when she saw the person in the photo. Zhang Mi, on the other hand, released a guttural roar.
"F*ck! This son of a b*tch?"
The photo showed Rong Siman having dinner with Elder Li and it was taken by someone whom Ying Qingcang had sent in the past to surveil them.
Xin Qing tried her best to tamp down the memories of her being tortured and humiliated by Elder Li. She laid the photo face down on her desk. "Rong Siman did interact with him before. But he"s already dead," Xin Qing said to Ah Nan.
A hush descended upon the office. Xin Qing glanced at Zhang Mi, and then at Monica. All of a sudden, all three women covered their mouths with their hands. With a sombre look on his face, Ah Nan said, "Perhaps he is the father of her son?"
All three women were evidently appalled by that thought and the look on Monica"s face was as if she had just seen a ghost. "But... isn"t he gay?" Monica asked.
"Also, the guy was willing to sacrifice his life just to avenge William. It goes to show that he loved the man deeply. Is it even possible that he would end up with a woman and have a child with her?" Zhang Mi said. With a look of disbelief on her face, Zhang Mi picked up the photo from the table and studied it carefully. After a moment, she said, "The way they look at each other in this photo lacks emotion. They can"t possibly be lovers."
"If it"s got nothing to do with love, then could there be another purpose?" Ah Nan said. "Like... to get their hands on the Ying family"s inheritance, for instance."
Monica"s slapped her hands together. "Oh, that"s right! If anything were to happen to Ah Cang, Rong Siman"s son would be the only successor of Ying family!"
There was a weak glint in Xin Qing"s eyes. "If that"s the case, then Elder Li might be the one who tampered with the Ancestral Behest," she said.
"That"s right!" Ah Nan nodded. "He must have seduced Rong Siman and gotten her pregnant. Then, he made Rong Siman give birth to his child. With Rong Siman"s help, he could"ve easily sneaked into the place where the Ancestral Behest was kept. Besides, he himself was a frequent visitor of Ying"s residence since he was the old man"s most trusted person."
Xin Qing picked up the photo again. "Looks like he really loved William deeply," Xin Qing remarked with a frown.
Elder Li must have planned everything out before he made his move on Ying Qingcang. If things were to go south, there was still Rong Siman. He must have left all his a.s.sets and manpower to that woman. He understood Rong Siman"s obsession with Ying Qingcang. He knew that a woman who was driven by love would do anything to get what she wanted.
"William was at the helm of his family for so many years, so he must have acc.u.mulated a considerable amount of wealth in secret. It"s likely that he had given it all to Elder Li for safekeeping and to keep it out of public eyes." Xin Qing glanced at Ah Nan. "Look into Elder Li"s finances. If I"m correct, the a.s.sets should all be in France."
"Okay. I"ll get on with it right away." Ah Nan was very excited about this new development. If they could get to the bottom of this, they might be able to have some leads as to what had truly happened to Young Master!
Monica waited until Ah Nan had left before she handed the doc.u.ment in her hand to Xin Qing. "This is the information about that piece land. Have a look."
"You mean the one with the mountain where she was stranded in?" Zhang Mi asked as she grabbed a copy of the doc.u.ment. "This is obviously a trap. What the h.e.l.l is Ying Qingcang up to?"
"A few years ago, before the forest area were developed, Ying Enterprises had sent over a team of surveyors to check out the place. After that, Ah Cang mentioned that its geographic condition isn"t ideal. Even if the roads were repaired, they would still cave in due to various weather factors. In other words, the place is p.r.o.ne to accidents. Besides, there weren"t a lot open projects that require the use of land at that time. So he sc.r.a.pped the whole development plan. But two years ago, there was an investor who had developed that place. And the result is..." Monica shrugged. Everyone had already seen the result.
Xin Qing set down the doc.u.ments and said, "Seems like everyone"s already aware about the underground cave near that mountain. Ying Qingcang was just one step ahead of everyone else. He bought the land before the official announcement was made."
"Then why is he seeking us out?" Zhang Mi tossed the doc.u.ment onto the desk. "Something like that isn"t necessarily true. The government doesn"t give a sh*t about the investors. I"m telling you, there"s something wrong with that piece of land."
Monica stared at Xin Qing. "What are you planning to do?"
"I don"t know," Xin Qing said, ma.s.saging her temples. "Ah Cang wants to invest in that piece of land out of the blue, and he"s even planning to drag Xin Enterprises into it. He must have his reasons for doing that. Still, I don"t know whether I should trust him. Even if everything he had done so far indicates that he"s facing some kind of dilemma, I"m not willing to risk Xin Enterprises."
Monica sighed. "Actually I think you trust him. Otherwise, you would have died of excessive crying ages ago."
"Go to h.e.l.l!" Xin Qing glared at Monica. "I"ll need to think about this again. After all, n.o.body else knows that Ying Qingcang was the one who had bought that land. Let"s just wait and see how things play out."
What she did not expect was that a few days later, Ying Qingcang told a reporter during a dinner party that he had purchased that land and was looking to invest in a bunch of holiday homes in that area. Xin Qing was in the middle of telling w.a.n.gw.a.n.g a story when she saw everything on TV. On screen, Ying Qingcang was smiling directly at the camera.
"I"ve asked President Xin before about a potential partnership between us. But she has yet to give me an answer!"
That one line had caused a media storm the next day with all kinds of nonsense published in the newspaper.
"Hey, look at this!" Excited, Zhang Mi toss the newspaper down in front of Xin Qing. ""President Xin Using Her Feminine Wiles Once Again. Ying Qingcang Falls to His Knees, Begging for a Reconciliation.""
Xin Qing shoved the newspaper aside. "Are you that free?"
"As if! I"m swamped with work!" Zhang Mi said with an eye-roll. Then, she leaned her head closer to Xin Qing and asked, "Now you be honest with me, alright? How did he know that you and the kids were there in the mountain? Did any sparks fly that night?"
Xin Qing nudged Zhang Mi"s head away. "First of all, I have no idea why he showed up on that mountain. Second, there were many people present at the time. So, no. There wasn"t a single opportunity for sparks to fly," Xin Qing said in a tone of annoyance.
"And I bet you"d jump at it if there was!" Apparently, Zhang Mi still refused to give up. Xin Qing just stood up, grabbed her handbag, and walked away from there.
For the next few days, a lot of reporters were desperately trying to get an interview with Xin Qing. Xin Qing was beyond frustrated and had had just about enough of all the nonsense, so she announced to the public that she was open to the idea of accepting Ying Qingcang"s offer, just that she had to inspect the land first. One day following her announcement, Ah Nan came up to her while sporting the expression of a man struggling with chronic constipation. He told her that the people from Ying Qingcang"s company had called to invite her to a joint inspection of that land.
"d.a.m.n, it"s like he"s dead set on collaborating with us!" Zhang Mi said, clicking her tongue. "So. Are we going, then?"
Xin Qing gave her a look. "Yes, we are. Since he"s so desperate, let"s go there to have a look and see what he"s up to."
After a few days of contemplation, Xin Qing had come to a decision; no matter what, she could never leave Ying Qingcang alone. She trusted him and she loved him. That was why she had decided to risk it just this once.
The pre-arranged date for the land inspection arrived. Xin Qing had deliberately chosen a commercial SUV for the journey; the roads leading into the mountain were still in poor condition at the moment. The moment their vehicle drove out of the villa district, however, Xin Qing saw Ying Qingcang standing alone on the roadside.
Xin Qing shot a glare at Ah Che who had been about to open the door for Ying Qingcang. Then, she lowered the window on her side. "What are you doing here?"
Ying Qingcang took a quick look at her vehicle. "My car has broken down," he said in a slow, drawn-out tone.
"Hah! As if anyone would buy that," Zhang Mi said, peeking her head out. "You"re going alone?"
"My a.s.sistant took the car to the workshop," Ying Qingcang said in very serious tone, though n.o.body believed a single word he had said.
Xin Qing clenched her teeth and spat out two words, "Get in."
"Young Master!" Ah Nan quickly got out of the car and climbed into the pa.s.senger seat so as to let Ying Qingcang have the seat opposite Xin Qing.
When Ying Qingcang got into the car, he realized that Xin Qing had only brought Zhang Mi along with her. Zhang Mi kept glaring at him with her hands on her hips.
"Why didn"t you someone more reliable," Ying Qingcang said, leaning back into his seat and pouring himself a gla.s.s of wine.
Zhang Mi merely gave a fake laugh at that comment. She did not say anything, though that was only because Xin Qing was pinching her in secret.
Xin Qing never told Zhang Mi about the listening device inside Ying Qingcang"s body. There was a silent agreement among everyone as well. Everyone had kept Zhang Mi in the dark about it. They all feared that Zhang Mi would give the whole game away by some unfortunate slip of tongue. Heck, even Xin Qing feared that she herself might accidentally slip up, let alone Zhang Mi. Before the pre-arranged meeting with Ying Qingcang, Xin Qing had repeatedly drilled it into herself that she should never say the wrong thing no matter what. Otherwise, Ying Qingcang"s life would be in grave danger.
The journey into the mountain was spent in silence. Xin Qing noticed that the roads that had been barricaded during the blizzard were now filled with b.u.mps and potholes. Pieces of broken rocks were strewn all over the road surface.
"A landslide," Ying Qingcang said, staring out the car window. "Dealing with this mountain needs to be the first stage of our development plan."
"Deal with it how?" Zhang Mi said in annoyance. "Move away an entire mountain?"
Xin Qing studied Ying Qingcang"s expression for a moment. Then, in a tentative tone, she asked, "We can"t move it?"
"There"s a subterranean river directly underneath the mountain. Moving the mountain will just destroy the cave." A smirk formed at the corners of Ying Qingcangs lips when he glanced at Xin Qing. "Aren"t you supposed to be the brilliant one, President Xin? You can try to find a solution to this."
"What"s that got to do with us, anyway? We don"t even own the land," Zhang Mi mumbled softly.
When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, Xin Qing decided to pay a visit to the stable first; she wanted to check on Xiaobai and its pony. She had been very concerned about the two horses during the blizzard that time. Ah Che had gone to check on them after the blizzard and had told her that they were both safe and sound. During the blizzard, the stable workers had found shelter and kept themselves warm inside the stable. They had enough food supply with them, too.
They entered the stable and saw that Xiaobai was strolling and wandering aimlessly around the compound. Little Xiaobai followed closely behind its mother. Upon noticing their presence, the worker rushed over to greet them. After pleasantries were exchanged, the worker said to Ying Qingcang.
"President Ying, it"s like you"re an oracle or something. You told us that day that Xiaobai was about to give birth. And guess what? Not a while after you left, it went into labor!"
Xin Qing was surprised by what she had heard. "You were here too that day?"
Ying Qingcang gave her a brief nod whereas the worker rambled on excitedly, "Oh, President Xin, you have no idea. That day, President Ying warned us that Xiaobai might go into labor soon and had us making early preparations. Otherwise, the whole thing would be a mess for sure. I mean, hey, who would"ve expected it to go into labor a week ahead of schedule!"
Xin Qing kept turning that revelation over in her head as they made their way towards the holiday homes. If Xiaobai had not gone into labor that day, she would never have brought the kids to the mountain, nor would they end up being stranded there. That said, they never would have run into him.
As she walked, Xin Qing kept staring at Ying Qingcang who was walking in front of her. She felt as if there was a feather inside her chest, teasing and tickling her heart. She was dying to ask him one question: Were you behind it? Still, she had no idea how to even bring it up, mostly because the mere notion of it was nothing short of an absurdity! How could a horse just go into labor just because he told it to? Absurd!
"You"ll fall to your death if you don"t watch where you"re going." That flat voice sounded ahead just as Xin Qing lost her footing and stepped into empty air. She would have fallen flat on her face had Ah Nan and Ah Che not been there in time to catch her.
Ying Qingcang turned his body around to face her. "I"m the one who had sought you out for this partnership, so you don"t have to try so hard to draw my attention. The only kind of reaction you can get out of me is purely physical. In other words, unless you"re going sleep with me right away, you shouldn"t bother with any of the other useless stuff."
"You son of a b*tch!" Zhang Mi raised her hand to slap him.
Ah Che held her back tightly. Zhang Mi struggled and yelled, "Don"t you dare stop me! Let go of me! I"ll f*ck*ng kill this philanderer!"
"I"m more worried about you being beaten to death by Young Master..." Ah Che thought with a mournful expression.
Xin Qing was so incensed that she was trembling all over. All of a sudden, Ying Qingcang was no longer looking at her. He turned around and walked on with huge strides. "Better hurry up unless you"re planning on spending the night out here."