The Favored Heiress
Chapter 458: The Girl in the Wheelchair is Zuo Tang

Chapter 458: Chapter 458: The Girl in the Wheelchair is Zuo Tang

Twenty minutes later, Li Qiao returned to the South Sea Mansion.

During dinner, she chewed her food, her gaze involuntarily falling on the man sitting opposite her.

Perhaps her stare was too obvious, because Shang Yu lifted his eyelids, catching her slightly stunned expression and raised an eyebrow, "Why aren’t you eating properly, staring at me like that?"

Li Qiao put down her chopsticks, rested her arms on the edge of the table and crossed them, "Going to the Secret Hall tomorrow, any precautions I should know about? Do you want to tell me in advance?"

She had long been curious about the Secret Hall, not to mention that it was an extremely secretive force behind him; presumably, it wasn’t a place one could enter at will.

At this moment, Shang Yu’s thin lips curved into a slight arc, his deep eyes hiding a smile, "Nothing special, you can do whatever you want."

Li Qiao blinked, her face showing suspicion, "Really?"

That casual?

Seeing her doubting expression, the corners of the man’s mouth curled up, and he spoke in a deep voice, "It’s just a visit, no precautions necessary, unless you are ready to take the Secret Hall’s assessment."

Li Qiao tapped her fingers on the table, silent for a few seconds, "There’s an assessment?"

Shang Yu stared at her unblinkingly and said in a deep voice, "Yes, if you can pass the strength tests of the four hall masters, it means you can freely use any force of the Secret Hall, including the Red Hacker Alliance which is under one of the hall’s jurisdiction."

Li Qiao lightly raised her eyebrows, surprise not hidden in the depth of her eyes.

The world-renowned Red Hacker Alliance is just a branch of the Secret Hall?

So Wang Yue, the nominal person in charge, was actually just a tool?

...

The next day, at nine in the morning, Li Qiao and Shang Yu took a helicopter from the Mansion’s platform to the valley of the Secret Hall.

Although she had been here once before, it had been raining heavily and was at night, hence she hadn’t seen the whole scenery.

Now, under the bright sunshine, amidst the verdant layers of South Sea Mountain, the valley was in sight after a few minutes.

Li Qiao sat by the helicopter window, looking at the mountains surrounding the valley, where no entrance or exit could be seen at all, as if the only way in was by helicopter.

Revisiting the old place, the images in her mind overlapped with the rainy night gradually.

After disembarking the helicopter, Li Qiao wandered around the valley, sniffing the fresh air around her, when a warm touch caressed her fingers. She turned, crashing into the man’s deep gaze.

Their eyes met, and they understood each other without words.

As they advanced, Li Qiao’s gaze fell on the iron gate embedded in the mountainside ahead, her eyes flashing, "Is the person who was beaten last time still detained here?"

Shang Yu, with one hand in his pocket and leading Li Qiao at a leisurely pace, said in a deep voice, "No, he’s been sent where he’s supposed to go."

Li Qiao understood—it was either hell or prison.

As they approached, the iron gate slowly opened to both sides.

The towering mountains cast a deep shadow on the ground.

Li Qiao slowed her steps, her eyes unwavering as she watched the gate gradually open.

Suddenly, two figures appeared behind the iron gate.

To be precise, one was standing and the other was sitting.

Li Qiao subtly raised her eyebrows; the standing man was familiar to her, it was Zuo Xuan.

Then the girl sitting in the wheelchair was...

Li Qiao’s gaze casually swept over her, but it was enough to see clearly that on the footrest of the wheelchair, there was no left leg.

In the blink of an eye, the four were close at hand.

Zuo Xuan, dressed in a black training suit, bowed respectfully, "Master, Miss Li."

The girl in the wheelchair also bent her back slightly and called out the title "Hall Master."

Then, she looked straight at Li Qiao, her black hair was tied into a ponytail, and she smiled faintly, slightly inclining her chest, "Miss Li, hello, I am Zuo Tang."

How should one put it?

Before meeting Zuo Tang in person, Li Qiao had inevitably imagined what she might be like.

After all, she was Shang Yu’s capable subordinate and had caused He Chen to misunderstand, maybe she was like Luoyu, a competent and brisk woman.

Or perhaps... someone enchanting yet resourceful like Nan Xin.

But now, face to face, the real Zuo Tang overturned all her assumptions.

She didn’t have Luoyu’s strong presence, nor Nan Xin’s alluring features.

Sitting quietly in her wheelchair, not exactly stunning, but with an overly pale face and clear eyes, she possessed a very tender aura, non-aggressive, making one feel comfortable.

Li Qiao and Zuo Tang’s gazes met, and she curved her lips slightly, "Hello."

Several people walked side by side into the entrance, and a long air-raid tunnel seemed to have no end, with multiple rooms on both sides. They did not stop, and Li Qiao didn’t ask any further questions.

About ten minutes of walking, an elevator emerged ahead.

During this time, Li Qiao noticed that Zuo Tang’s wheelchair was an extremely advanced fully automatic intelligent wheelchair.

At least on the handles on either side, there were numerous control buttons, unlike the simplicity of a typical automatic wheelchair.

Perhaps out of curiosity, Li Qiao focused too much of her attention on Zuo Tang. As they entered the elevator, her fingertips were gently pinched by the man.

Inside the square elevator car, she turned her head to look at Shang Yu, with a hint of a faint smile on her lips, her expression seemed meaningful.

At this moment, the dangerous glint in the man’s narrowed eyes came through. He let go of her fingers and instead wrapped his arm around her waist, his rough palm making a circular motion over the cloth on the small of her back.

Li Qiao stiffened: "..."

Half a minute later, when the elevator doors opened again and a breeze came through, Li Qiao raised her eyes and saw an artificial intelligence laboratory carved into the rock within the mountain interior, and it was filled with a sense of cutting-edge technology.

Beyond that, on the left side, there was a group of programmers... furiously typing at their computers.

She had always thought the Secret Hall was a dark power that he had cultivated, made up of fierce warriors like Zuo Xuan.

But she hadn’t expected to find a hidden world inside.

Now, Zuo Xuan and Zuo Tang took the lead, with Shang Yu holding Li Qiao by the waist, he leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Is there something you’d like to ask?"

Li Qiao’s gaze fell on the group of programmers to the left, and she furrowed her brow, "Are they... Red Hacker Alliance members?"

"No, the left side is the Information Development Center, the right side is the Artificial Intelligence Development Base."

Li Qiao instinctively looked, and as she got closer, she realized that several intelligent robots were providing the technicians with... well, tea and water service.

She rubbed her forehead and shook her head with a chuckle.

The entire South Sea Mountain was under his control; what she saw before her were probably just the tip of the iceberg.

The man curved his thin lips and, leaning close to her ear, said, "Would you like to go see the training ground?"

Li Qiao raised an eyebrow, "Sure, that would be nice."

Before long, the party of four crossed through the mountain’s interior, and a steep escalator loomed ahead.

Taking the escalator to the top, an expansive training ground on the mountain’s summit came into view.

Countless training equipment dotted the area, and many people in black training suits were practicing.

As Shang Yu appeared, everyone well-trained in their maneuvers stopped and bowed their heads in unison, "Hall Master."