Chapter 663: Verification
Li Beinian would have headed straight to the hospital, but to her surprise, Gu Mingye brought them to a restaurant.
Noticing her surprised expression, Mu Xichen put his arms around her and suggested, “Have something to eat first. You haven’t eaten for a day.”
At this mention, Li Beinian suddenly felt hungry.
Sure enough, after eating a piping hot and filling meal, not only did she recover her energy, she felt less nervous.
On arriving at the hospital after the meal, Li Beinian realized that Jiang Chun, Liu Wei, and the others were all there.
Liu Wei frowned for a moment as she saw Li Beinian and Mu Xichen walking in together.
She went up to her and asked, “Beinian, are you okay?”
Li Beinian shook her head gently and said, “I’m fine.”
“Li Xueqing is not fine though,” Zhao You’er said somewhat coldly as she crossed her arms and looked at Li Beinian. “Beinian, Xueqing was attacked by the human traffickers because you pushed her into a pit. They’re all in there now, you…”
“Beinian wouldn’t have done such a thing.” Guan Yueyun’s face was flushed from the cold. Agitated, she stepped forward and continued, “Beinian is such a good person, how could she do such a thing. Instead, it’s Xueqing…”
It was hard to summarize Li Xueqing in a sentence.
Li Beinian was rather touched. She patted Guan Yueyun’s hand and said, “It’s alright. Everyone knows what I’m like. I have my ways.”
With that, she stepped into the ward.
The hospital walls were soundproof.
Li Beinian only heard the commotion when she entered the ward.
It was Li Xueqing’s voice.
“I don’t want to live anymore! Mom, it’s all because of that b*tch Li Beinian. She framed me. I’ll make her pay the price!”
She spoke quite loudly and Li Beinian stood at the door to listen.
She reached out and knocked on the door. Almost immediately, it opened from the inside.
The sounds of crying gradually became clearer. Li Beinian saw Li Xueqing lying on the bed in tears.
As soon as she saw Li Beinian, Li Xueqing screamed again and shouted, “Mom! Mom, she’s here, she’s here, I want her dead!”
Fang Zhili wiped away her tears while Li Haoran stood by the side with a sullen expression.
Especially when Li Haoran noticed that Li Beinian seemed perfectly fine, he was even more furious.
He quickly stepped forward, as if he was worried about Mu Xichen, who had positioned himself behind Li Beinian, the man ultimately made no move. He asked, “Did you push Xueqing into the pit?”
“Yes! She did!” Li Xueqing cried. “Dad, Dad, she has ruined me. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have been taken away, let alone…”
Li Beinian stared at Li Haoran coldly with no visible emotions.
Li Haoran looked at his daughter with a heartbroken expression and said, “Good, good, good. You’re really good. Is it not enough that you make her your target at home? You wouldn’t let her off outside of home. Why are you so cruel!”
“Mr. Li.” Li Beinian finally spoke. “What do you mean by that? When have I ever made her my target? You think I’m ruthless? Let me ask Li Xueqing a few questions in return.”
As Li Beinian spoke, she suddenly turned around and walked out of the ward.
Li Haoran barked angrily, “Stop right there! Where do you think you’re going!”
Li Beinian ignored him and walked out. She looked at her friends and said, “Come in here please.”
They looked at each other and hesitated for a moment before walking in.
The ward was huge, but with so many people in it now, it seemed crowded.
Li Xueqing started to cry even harder now and shouted, “Not only did you harm me, you even humiliated me like this, Li Beinian! You’re so vicious!”
Li Beinian responded indifferently. Li Haoran was exasperated and said, “Get out, get out!”
Li Beinian said, “What’s the hurry? Since Li Xueqing is so sure that I was the one who harmed her, can’t I have a few witnesses?”
Li Haoran was speechless. He stared at his daughter who was fast becoming a stranger to him, and said with a pained expression, “Nian Nian…”
“Let me ask you,” Li Beinian interrupted Li Haoran and looked at Li Xueqing, “while you were captured by the human traffickers, why did you send them after me?”
“You were the one who caused me to be taken away. Of course they should go after you!” Li Xueqing cried out without thinking. “You’re too cruel, too cruel…”
“If I hadn’t escaped, I would have been taken away too. Your fate now will only be worse.”
Li Xueqing cried and shouted, “It’s all your fault, it’s all your fault!”
Everyone looked at each other in fear when they saw Li Xueqing’s crazed expression.
Although Guan Yueyun sympathized with her, she couldn’t help but said in defence, “Beinian isn’t such a person!”
w.a.n.g Shao spoke up as well, “We all know what sort of person Beinian is. Xueqing, to be fair, if Beinian hadn’t come back with the information, you wouldn’t have been saved!”
“Exactly. Why are you repaying kindness with ingrat.i.tude now? Besides, I didn’t even know such a thing happened. It’s bad enough that you were caught, but you actually sent the human traffickers after Beinian?” Zhao You’er said with an expression of disbelief. “By the time Beinian ran to the periphery, she fainted from exhaustion yet she didn’t forget to seek help for you. You’re really…”
Li Xueqing shrieked. “No! You’ve all been tricked by her! She’s the one who caused me harm. If she hadn’t pushed me into the pit, I wouldn’t have been captured. If I weren’t captured, I wouldn’t have had the chance to send anyone after her. She brought this upon herself!”
His words were sharp and insane, but they were very organized.
It seemed that Li Xueqing wasn’t as irrational as she appeared to be.
Li Beinian calmed down.
That was good enough.
She looked at Li Xueqing indifferently for a long time and asked steadily, “Then why did I push you into the pit?”
“You hate me and want to frame me. You went to a human trafficker and arranged to abduct me. You wanted to sell me into the mountains and never see the light of day again!” Li Xueqing roared with red eyes. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking. If you got rid of me, you’d be able to come back and inherit Dawn Entertainment, right!”
These words stunned everyone.
“What does that mean?”
“I think… they’re sisters.”
Li Beinian sneered. “I’m sorry, I don’t even acknowledge Li Haoran. Why would I want Dawn Entertainment?”
Li Haoran turned ashen. “I’m your father!”
With those few words, he revealed their relations.h.i.+p.
Everyone was shocked into disbelief.
These two girls that were so completely different… they were sisters?
“Oh my G.o.d…” w.a.n.g Shao looked stunned.
The others were also shocked beyond words.
Li Beinian said calmly, “We weren’t in the same group for today’s training. Why were you with me?”
Li Xueqing paused for a moment and said, “You were behaving sneakily…”
“I was being sneaky and the others were avoiding me. Everyone was on a mission and there were so many people sneaking around. Why were you following me?” Li Beinian walked slowly and looked at her from the edge of the bed.
Li Xueqing turned pale and averted her eyes.
“Do you want me to tell everyone?” Li Beinian bent over, placed her hands on the edge of the bed, and leaned closer to look at her. “You got someone to dig a pit at the border. It’s not very deep, about two to three meters. It’s just that with my height, I wouldn’t have been able to get out at all. Am I right?”
Li Xueqing’s face turned even paler. “Nonsense!”
Sensing that things weren’t going the right way, Fang Zhili immediately said, “Nian Nian, your sister isn’t in the right state of mind. Don’t…”
“She’s still trying to frame me nevertheless. Seems like she’s really not in a good state of mind.” Li Beinian straightened up and looked at Fang Zhili with a faint smile. “There was a mission detector nearby, placed there as a bait for me. Prior to this I was already near the mission target, which was why the sensor kept ringing, but then I realized that someone was shadowing me.”
“I thought it was Jiang Chun or Liu Wei. After all, they were the captains of other teams and I’m the captain of the third team. Only they would have the motive to follow me.”
Liu Wei and Jiang Chun looked at each other and nodded.
“However, I didn’t expect it to be Li Xueqing.” Li Beinian continued, “I tripped and almost fell into the deep pit. Fortunately, I managed to grab a tree branch beside me and was lucky enough to survive it. Then, Li Xueqing turned up.”
“She’s admitted it, she was the one who pushed me into the pit!” Li Xueqing cried. “Dad, look at what she’s done to me!”
“What would a normal person think,” Li Beinian interrupted her, “when you come across a deep pit and do all you can to avoid it, but someone who has been shadowing you for most of the day rushes up and peers into it. Surely she isn’t there looking for money?”
Li Xueqing’s heart skipped a beat and she suddenly understood why Li Beinian started with talking about the human traffickers, rather than explaining everything from beginning to end.
She panicked and immediately retorted, “Are you saying that I framed you?”
“Let’s not get ahead of the story.” Li Beinian’s voice was faint and she spoke unhurriedly. “But… if I had fallen into the pit, would you have gotten me out of there?”
There was a change in Li Xueqing’s expression and she started to cry. “You didn’t even help to get me out of the pit. So don’t you go pretending to be a good person now!”
“That’s right.” Li Beinian looked at her icily. “Because it was the human traffickers who got you out of there.”
“Where did the human traffickers come from? That location is remote and hardly sees any human traffic. Why would there be human traffickers in a place like that?” Jiang Chun asked. “This is too suspicious!”
“Yeah, where did they come from?”
“It must have been a set up. Otherwise, who would have thought that someone was there?”
Li Xueqing was shocked on hearing this.
Li Beinian smiled faintly. “If I’m not wrong, you wouldn’t have worked alone on all these things. They are too much for you to handle alone. At most, you might have made trips into the forest to recce. It takes more than an hour to go back and forth. Hence, you might have disappeared for an hour or two in the evenings after we’ve been dismissed from training.”
“Yes, Li Xueqing often goes missing!” Guan Yueyun said.
Zhao You’er added, “I had no idea where she went, she just couldn’t be found!”
Li Beinian nodded and said, “Apart from that, I’m sure there is an accomplice – someone who made contact with the human traffickers and apart from that sent people to recce the terrain. Isn’t that right, Li Xueqing?”
Li Xueqing’s expression changed and there was fear in her eyes. She had stopped crying and said angrily. “You’re talking nonsense!
“This accomplice is definitely not someone within this military zone. It would have made performing these tasks quite impossible. So it must be an external party.” Li Beinian’s tone was calm as she looked at Fang Zhili.