Chapter 131 - Suspicions
Of course, Lu Chen knew what the note was pertaining to. But he didn"t expect that another "gift" would get past the already strict inspection he has set. First, it was a broken doll. Now, a "bloodstained" rose.
He grabbed Xiu Mei"s hand firmly.
"I"ll take care of this." He said.
"But you"re not telling me anything!" She retorted, her voice accidentally raising in tone due to being agitated.
"Wife, listen to me." Lu Chen grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to rea.s.sure her. "I"ll take care of this first then I"ll explain it to you later on, okay?"
Xiu Mei looked at him with suspicion, obviously not fully trusting his words. After all, he has quite the record of lying and keeping secrets from her in various circ.u.mstances.
"We"ll talk when we get home."
"Okay."
For now, Xiu Mei gave in first in their argument. What she needed right now is to calm herself down else, she"ll get a panic attack. And she can"t just randomly blurt out sensitives topic in the working place. No matter how enclosed and private this s.p.a.ce is, even if it is the president"s office, walls will always have ears.
"Can you get Lu Shao for me, wife?"
"I know." Still annoyed, she slapped both his hands away from her shoulders and turned away from him. She walked--almost stomped I guess--and exited the office. She saw Lu Chen who was already back in his working station and approached him.
Knocking on his table, she gestured for him that he was being paged to the President"s office.
After that, she returned to her table and let out a deep sigh. Thankfully, her a.s.sistant hasn"t returned yet otherwise, she"ll definitely notice how startled she currently was.
Her hands are still trembling from the shock she received. Just remembering what was written on the note was enough to creep her out.
Blood from the first victim...don"t tell me that the red petals on the rose she was holding was because the white rose was submerged in blood instead of water?
"Haaaah." She heaved a deep sigh again while ma.s.saging her temples. She counted slowly in her head in an attempt to calm herself down. Her emotion was slipping and it wouldn"t be good if people were to know how bad her mental stability is at the moment.
It was at that moment when the door of the president"s office opened again. Her eyes darted to the door and saw Lu Chen"s figure approaching her. He walked past her table and stood beside her. He towered over her sitting figure while she raised her head to look at him.
As soon as their eyes met, Xiu Mei saw the rigid expression on his face. H
"Wha--"
Before she could finish whatever she was going to say, Lu Chen took off the suit he was wearing and placed it on her shoulders. Before she could even stop him, Lu Chen already bent down and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead while cupping her face leaving her stunned.
"It"ll be fine, Wife." He whispered in her ears. He hugged her for a couple of seconds before finally releasing her. Then he returned to his office again. Everything happened so fast that she couldn"t believe Lu Chen really came out of his office just to comfort and rea.s.sure her.
She touched the suit jacket on her shoulders. It was still warm and the warmth and smell felt very familiar to her. Thanks to that, the emotions that were going berserk within her calmed down.
"Woah, Ms.Xiu. I just finished my lunch and here I am suddenly getting stuffed with dog food."
Xiu Mei almost jumped when she heard her a.s.sistant"s voice. It looks she went on a field trip in the cafeteria with all the snacks she was currently holding.
"You"re eating too much." She threw back, pointing at the snacks she was holding.
"Dog food? Yes, I think so too."
"..."
The a.s.sistant leaned closer to her examining the suit jacket. "Mr.Lu is a really wealthy man. Even the brand he"s wearing for daily work is already my salary"s worth for a month."
"I was talking about the number of snacks you bough again. And stop leaning close to me." With her pointed finger on her a.s.sistant"s forehead, she stopped her from getting closer.
Then Xiu Mei remembered the rose again.
"By the way, when you received the gift, did you see if someone placed it on your table or something?"
"Hm? Ah, the one that was supposed to be yours? No, it was already here in the morning when I arrived. Why?"
So that means someone sneaked inside the office to place the gift on her a.s.sistant"s table. She was also suspecting that it was also deliberately placed on her a.s.sistant"s table instead of hers.
If her suspicions are right, Lu Chen must"ve already known about the first gift. And most probably, he already controlled all the things that get pa.s.sed to her.
This time, what the person did is deliver it to her through her a.s.sistant"s.
"Nothing. I was just asking."
"Did you already open it?"
"Uh… not yet. I"ll probably open it at home when I have time."
Xiu Mei wondered if she should go check for the CCTVs on this floor. Maybe she could get a glimpse of the person who sent the gift to her?
On the other hand, Lu Chen and Lu Shao are already investigating on it as well. They"ve already requested a copy of the recordings for the past two days but they are doubting that the person who is doing this will be easily caught like that.
As soon as they"ve arrived home, Xiu Mei immediately locked Lu Chen inside the study with her. She knows Lu Chen"s personality very well and he"s the difficult type of person to deal with when extracting information from him.
"Explain."
"Don"t you want some tea first? Or take a short rest?"
"Either we talk or we divorce. So TALK." She firmly ordered. She walked on the couch and leaned back. Crossing her arms at him, she fiercely glared at him as if threatening him that if he doesn"t explain today, then there"ll be no Mrs.Lu tomorrow.
"Chen, if we"re going to continue like this then I don"t think this relations.h.i.+p won"t work." She honestly stated.
At this rate they"re going, her doubts and the secrets that he kept hiding from her will create cracks in their relations.h.i.+p. If Lu Chen really wanted to pursue and continue this for more than a year, then he has to be honest with her right now.
She"s not asking for him to reveal all the secrets she"s keeping from her. But she"s asking about all the secrets concerning herself that Lu Chen is keeping from her.
She"s already had enough with her family keeping a lot of secrets from her in the first place so she wouldn"t be able to tolerate it if the husband she"s supposed to entrust her life with is keeping her in the dark about the important things.
Lu Chen who heard that fell silent. He understood the current issue she was pointing out and he immediately surrendered. He sighed then he sat beside his wife. He started explaining the situation to her.
"Months ago, we received a suspicious delivery that was supposed to be delivered to you." He stood up and unlocked one of the drawers. After grabbing a folder, he returned to his seat and handed it over to her.
"The first gift that the person was probably talking about is this one. The broken doll." He pointed at the image. Xiu Mei scrutinized it very closely, and even though she was getting nervous by every second, she bravely read through the file.
"We traced it back to a company that closed down years ago. Even the person who delivered seemed to suddenly disappear on the face of the earth the next day so we couldn"t find any leads on this one."
"What about the rose?"
"I"ve already sent the box and the rose for investigation. We"re not putting our bets on the recordings but my men will examine it frame by frame in case they pick up another clue."
Xiu Mei listened to him. She understood all the things he was trying to tell her but there was something that has been bugging her for so long now.
Lu Chen… seems to have a different team on his own.
He has a lot of subordinates that don"t work in the business industry. Training Lu Qiang to defend himself in case something dangerous happens sounded pretty normal for her, but that"s because she grew up in a family with a lot of enemies. But Lu Chen… aside from his compet.i.tors, no one should be daring enough to frame him and put him in a dangerous position.
Unless it"s not his business compet.i.tors that we"re talking about.
With those hints, she was slightly suspecting something.
"Chen, are you a member of an underground organization?"