The Favored Heiress
Chapter 261: You’re a Core Member?

Chapter 261: Chapter 261: You’re a Core Member?

At that moment, facing Yun Ling’s inquiry, Li Qiao did not give a direct answer.

She tapped her knee lightly, then passed over the phone, "Don’t worry about who I am, take a look at this person first, do you recognize them?"

And on the illuminated screen, Shang Fu’s photo was distinctly displayed.

Yun Ling glanced at it, narrowed his eyes, and let out a cold laugh, "Why should I tell you?"

"Because I can decide whether you come and go," Li Qiao hooked her lips up, her tone intriguing, "And also because I can temporarily keep your mercenary branch at the border safe."

Yun Ling’s expression underwent a drastic change, his fingers spread on the table also trembled, his eyes full of disbelief, "How did you..." know.

The mercenary branch at the border, within the International Club, only he and his brother were privy to it.

Even the other core members were not informed by them in the slightest.

How did this girl with bright eyes and an air of cool fairy-like indifference come to know so much about the Mercenary Group?

Yun Ling’s eyebrows knitted together, words reaching his mouth, yet he didn’t know how to express them.

At this time, Li Qiao leaned closer across the edge of the table, rapping her knuckle against the phone screen, "Yun Ling, think it over before you answer. If you lie, I won’t hesitate to leak the location of your branch."

"You wouldn’t dare!" Yun Ling snapped, his injured hands trembling uncontrollably from agitation.

Li Qiao tilted her mouth, leaning nonchalantly against the chair back, angling her head toward the phone, "So, do you recognize the person in the photo or not?"

Yun Ling clenched his teeth tightly, anger swelled in his heart, yet he was without recourse.

Especially Li Qiao’s casually threatening demeanor, which strangely made one dare not to speak out.

Yun Ling propped an elbow on the corner of the table, was silent for a moment, steadied his breath, then lowered his head to carefully look at the photo, and after a while, he frowned and shook his head, "Looks unfamiliar, is she from the International Club?"

Li Qiao pressed her lips together, her voice mild, "Yes, an internal member."

Yun Ling took another look at Shang Fu’s photo, "I don’t remember her, she probably isn’t a core member of the Eight Major Groups."

The International Club had eight major organizations underneath it, and though each had its own duties, core members of each group usually had met one another.

"Are you sure?" Li Qiao’s narrowed gaze fell on the phone screen, her fingers rhythmically knocking on the tabletop, as if in thought.

Yun Ling hesitated for a moment, his eyes flashing, "I can’t be certain of that, if I want to know her exact identity within the club, I need to log in..."

He did not finish speaking and fell silent on his own.

Wariness flickered in his eyes as if he were weighing how to speak.

After all, only core members of the Eight Major Groups knew the internal system program of the International Club.

However, as Yun Ling hesitated, Li Qiao across from him had already reached out to take back the phone. As she switched to the main screen, she looked up faintly, "Need to log into the ICC system?"

Yun Ling: "!!!"

"You know?!" His breath caught sharply, his eyes widened, shocked beyond belief.

Li Qiao, looking at his bewildered expression, emotionlessly opened the ICC system, slid the phone back across to Yun Ling, and pursed her lips, "Go ahead and check."

Yun Ling stared at the screen, in disbelief—it was indeed a system used only by the International Club’s core internal members, "You, you’re a core member?"

The ICC system was exclusive to the core members of the Eight Major Groups of the International Club, and importantly, the number of people able to use this system did not exceed one hundred.

And yet... he had never seen this girl before.

As they spoke, Yun Ling, trembling fingers, quickly tapped into the user center, only to find there was no login information.

Seeing this, Li Qiao’s mouth twitched slightly, "Log into your account."

Yun Ling, full of suspicion, his expression changing several times, reluctantly accepted the reality. While he slowly logged in, he stole glances at Li Qiao, "Which group are you from? Since you have the system, why not use your own account to check her information?"

Li Qiao touched her brow, clearly annoyed, and gave him a disdainful glance, "Too much nonsense?"

Yun Ling: "..."

Less than a minute later, following Li Qiao’s prompt, Yun Ling entered Shang Fu’s name, and the system quickly displayed her status and identity within the International Club.

Yun Ling turned the screen toward Li Qiao and whispered, "As I thought, just an ordinary member. She hasn’t been part of the club for even a year and so far, she hasn’t been marked by any of the Eight Major Groups."

Li Qiao looked at Shang Fu’s basic information without saying a word.

Noticing this, Yun Ling narrowed his eyes and ventured, "You should know what it means for her not to have been marked, right?"

Li Qiao glanced over the information and said absentmindedly, "The Eight Major Groups don’t find her interesting."

Indeed, she knew all the secrets that only core members knew.

Soon, Li Qiao finished reviewing Shang Fu’s information and felt a sense of uninterest so strong that she turned the screen off.

Her membership information had only one description: an exceptional ability to invest in the financial sector.

But that was it.

Being a member that even the Eight Major Groups hadn’t marked meant that, in the International Club... she was expendable.

At that moment, Li Qiao pocketed her phone in her coat and, with a raised eyebrow, looked at Yun Ling, reminding him, "Your action this time was exposed."

"What? Impossible!" Yun Ling retorted almost reflexively, his gaze filled with a trace of irritation at being underestimated.

Li Qiao gave him a sidelong look and lifted an eyebrow nonchalantly, "Where does your confidence come from? If the action wasn’t exposed, how did Shang Fu find out?"

In fact, ever since last night’s encounter with Shang Fu on the Mountain Road, things had been out of the ordinary.

As an internal member of the International Club, Shang Fu could not have been ignorant of the club’s rules.

Yet, at the entrance to the Mountain Road, she took the initiative to reveal the movements of the International Club to him.

The key point was that, considering Shang Fu’s status within the club, it was impossible for her to know about the Mercenary Group’s actions.

So who told her?

At this point, Yun Ling fell silent, staring blankly at Li Qiao, without any reaction.

Li Qiao watched his dazed expression and shook her head with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, "You’re so certain that the action wouldn’t leak because you trust the Mercenary Group.

But you’ve overlooked one thing, the employer might not necessarily keep the secret."

Yun Ling pursed his dry lips, his voice as tense as a fully drawn bow, "You mean, the Mercenary Group has been used by someone?"

Hearing this, Li Qiao looked at Yun Ling with a look of unspeakable exasperation, thinking, what kind of brain does he have?

She let out a long sigh, with a fleeting glimmer in her indistinct eyes, "Think about it, who would dare to casually use the International Club’s Mercenary Group?

If you had succeeded last night, the employer would have already paid the fee, and there’d be no talk of being used. The problem lies with Shang Fu."

"Damn it!" Yun Ling cursed under his breath, and perhaps because of the rage he felt, he clenched his fist and slammed the table, forgetting the gunshot wound on his wrist. A wave of sharp pain spread through him, and his face turned pale in an instant.

Li Qiao watched Yun Ling’s furious reaction, said all that needed to be said, and stood up, pushing the chair back, ready to leave.

"Wait a second." Yun Ling, seeing her ready to leave, hastily stopped her, "You just said you could decide whether I stay or go, are you planning to... let me go?"

Before the mission, he had inquired about Shang Shaoyan, the South Sea merchant, from various sources.

Shang Shaoyan, the South Sea merchant, was not known for being soft-hearted or lenient.

Falling into his hands usually meant a one-way trip.