Murong Ye and his two fellows walked out, heading straight for their villa.
On returning home, Murong Ye called in the family doctor, who simply dressed the wound on Murong Yunxi"s hand. Knowing that it was merely a minor skin trauma, Murong Ye went back to the study.
He closed the door, looking scarily sullen. He took out the phone and called Lisa, "h.e.l.lo, Lissa, how"s it going?"
"Childe, they"ve been too cautious this time. No trace can be found."
"What about that woman?"
"She"s dead!"
"Dead? How could she die within such a short time?"
"We"ve been following that woman as soon as she came out. She went directly to a nearby hotel, where she made a deal with a drug dealer and exchanged the drug with her chast.i.ty. But she died on the spot from taking excessive doses of drugs. That"s about just ten minutes ago."
"She died on the spot? This is so weird. Someone must have done something."
"This needs to be further investigated and may take some time. But this time it"s really hard for us to take action because they are too cautious!"
"Anyway, there will be traces. Be careful."
"Childe, you don"t have to worry about this. How about Ms. Xi?"
"She"s fine. It"s no big deal but a skin trauma on her palm. But we must be double careful in the future. We must ensure Xiao Xi"s security and get her rid of any injury."
"Yes. This time it"s just an accident. We"ll be more cautious next time."
"Don"t take any action against the bug or alert him. We"ll deal with him when the time comes."
"Yes, I got it!"
"By the way, make a date with Carl for me. Be quick."
"Carl? But we have cut him off for a long time. What happened?"
"Lisa, when did you become such a busybody?"
"Alright, I got it! I"ll settle this now."
After hanging up, as Murong Ye had just sat on the sofa, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in."
Fourth opened the door and walked in.
"Boss, I heard that Ms. Xi got injured today?"
"H"m, that"s no big deal but just a flesh wound on her palm."
"Oh, alright! I"ve visited Second Elder following your instructions. He"s so ferocious to that woman."
Murong Ye frowned slightly, gazing at Fourth with his profound eyes.
"Where do you guess they hide her?"
Fourth sat in front of Murong Ye with interest, seeming to be looking forward to Murong Ye"s answer.
"Tell me!"
Murong Ye cast his cold eyes at Fourth suddenly, and his expression grew even gloomier and chillier. He had no interest in guessing this with him now, and he was impatient in nature.
Fourth shivered at once. He shook his shoulders and decided not to challenge Murong Ye"s endurance.
"Second Elder hid that woman in the bas.e.m.e.nt, where lights never get in. The woman got depression due to imprisonment. She tried to commit suicide several times but was saved. She is indeed pathetic."
"Eh? Did you see her?"
"Of course. I would fulfill every task you have a.s.signed to me to your satisfaction."
As he said this, Fourth looked out a photo from his cellphone and showed it to Murong Ye.
On the cellphone, the photo seemed to be a sneak shot, which had been taken in a covert angle: A woman was sitting alone in a room, where there were well-equipped facilities. But the woman was looking blankly forward, seeming to be grumbling something. Since this was just a photo, what she was saying was unknown.
If one looked at her carefully, he would find that this woman should have been beautiful. But her face had turned pale and her lips had become pallid and bloodless on account of her poor mental state. Judging from her heavy dark eyes, it could be concluded that she should have poor sleep. In addition, because of her loose sleeves, part of her white arms that had been put around her shoulders was exposed. There were grisly scars that seemed to have been caused more than once because some of them were newly caused while the others were not.
Thus, the woman seemed to have been mistreated either by someone else or by herself. She seemed to have been leading a terrible life, which made others suspect if she had had mental problems.
"Her wounds...?"
Murong Ye raised his question coldly without any emotion in his voice.
"These were caused by herself and were not severe at all. But the most severe one was caused when she stabbed herself into her belly with a knife. It"s said that it took a long time to save her. But Second Elder is kind of strange. Why not let her die directly now that she had been like this? Such sufferings are even crueler to her, aren"t they? If he doesn"t want her to die, then why not treat her better? I just don"t know what he wants by imprisoning her and ignoring her."
"Because she has something on Second Elder or she has something that can be used by him."
"How do you know that?"
Murong Ye showed the whites of his eyes to Fourth as if he was saying, "Are you an idiot? Can"t you see through such a simple situation?"
Fourth touched his nose embarra.s.sedly, and then asked in a casual tone, "Boss, do you have any other instructions? If not, I"m going to bed. I"m sleepy now."
"Accompany me and Xiao Xi to meet with Carl."
Murong Ye said indifferently, but Fourth could not be indifferent about this.
"What? Carl? Why do we meet with him? I won"t meet with that old devil!"
"It"s not up to you!"
Fourth stood up helplessly and left Murong Ye"s study hastily, being afraid that he would hear more horrible things if he stayed here longer.
Meanwhile, in Murong Haotian"s house.
Fang Xinting came along with her mother. Zhuang Yaru sat opposite to them, smiling. "Tingting, have some fruit. I"ve sent someone to ask Xiaoxu downstairs."
"Thanks, aunt. This is the ticket for my new movie, you can watch it with uncle. But I wonder if uncle and you like such a movie."
"Alas. You filmed a new movie. That"s awesome. You will be a movie queen!"
"Hha, I"m flattered, aunt. The movie queen for this year has been awarded to Xiao Xi. I have no chance at all! But I filmed this movie with Gong Yu. He is the movie king for this year."
"Ah, I"ve watched the movie of Xiao Xi and Gong Yu. It"s really fascinating. But we"re getting old and we can no longer keep up with your thinkings. Anyway, the plots did open our eyes! It seems that you and our family are predestined and you cooperated with Gong Yu."
"Yes. Gong Yu was a proficient actor. But he worked too hard. For this, I lost weight as I cooperated with him! He took us all as of iron made."
"Really? Is that true? But all right. I will offer you more tasty food to refresh you."
By this, the servant had walked downstairs. She approached Zhuang Yaru and whispered by her ear, "Madam, Childe is not willing to come down."
Zhuang Yaru"s face tuned gloomy instantly. She looked at Fang Xinting and her mother, smiling. "Well, wait for a minute, please. I"m afraid I have to go upstairs now."
Zhuang Yaru stood up quickly and went upstairs to Murong Xu"s door. After knocking at the door, she turned the handle and walked in before she heard a reply inside.
"Get out! Don"t bother me!"
Murong Xu was sitting by his bed with his back to the door. He threw a book as he said this.
Coincidentally, the book flew towards Zhuang Yaru"s face, making Zhuang Yaru terrified instantly. She ducked aside, but her ankle tilted to one side and was sprained.
With her ankle aching, Zhuang Yaru screamed at once and fell to the ground.
"Ah!"
Hearing the strange noise, Murong Xu looked back but only to find Zhuang Yaru had been sitting on the ground.
He cast his eyes over Zhuang Yaru disgustedly, and then said impatiently, "Why are you?"
"You nasty guy, do you want to kill me?"
"If I were to kill you, I would have thrown a knife instead of a book."
"What are you talking about? How dare you say this! You ungrateful soul."
"What on earth do you want?"
"I sprained my ankle. It hurts so much."
"You"re so careless."
"That"s all I got from you!"
Murong Xu had to stand up and take a look at it since he had led to the trouble.
Murong Xu approached Zhuang Yaru, held up her ankle and looked at it.
"It"s out of joint. Hold on, I"ll treat it for you, but it may be a little painful."
"Do you really know how to do this? Let"s call a doctor!"
"I"m a doctor myself!"
"But you are a psychologist."
"But I"ve been studying in the medical field. I have some of such knowledge, if not much."
"Can you really do this?"
"Mother, you seemed to have never believed in me."
"I want to ask you instead. Have you ever taken me as your mother?"
"What do you mean?"
It became more and more apparent that Murong Xu had been displeased. He stopped moving his hands that had been holding Zhuang Yaru"s ankle and looked up at Zhuang Yaru. All the indifference on his face had manifested everything. There was still a gap between them not only because of his att.i.tude but also because she had never taken him as her own son.
"Humph, I know it well that you have never recognized me as your mother in your heart!"
"You never treat me as your own son, neither."
"Will I treat you so well if I never treat you as my own son? I"ve been busy over your marriage. But I haven"t even helped Xiaotong this way. Obviously, it"s you who have never treated me as your own mother, or how will you go against me when I do this?"
"Humph, at least my own mother understood me. She would be in favor of my real will, and she would never force me to marry someone I didn"t love."
"Alright, you finally told me the truth! You are an ungrateful soul undoubtedly! I have gone through so many hardships to choose a nice girl who matches our family, but you not only refused my goodwill but also compared me with your own mother. It felt like my kindness has been eaten by a dog."
"You don"t have selfishness, do you? Can you promise me that you did this for my good?"
The skeptical tone in Murong Xu"s voice was evident, while his att.i.tude towards Zhuang Yaru was utterly bad, which iritated Zhuang Yaru as she heard this.
"Clap." There was a ringing sound caused by Zhuang Yaru"s smacking in Murong Xu"s face.