The Favored Heiress
Chapter 509: How Did Shang Shaoyan Get Here?

Chapter 509: Chapter 509: How Did Shang Shaoyan Get Here?

Li Qiao shook her head with an expressionless face, "It has nothing to do with him. I just don’t return to the border because..."

Before she could finish, she suddenly stopped speaking.

Once in front of Bo Tingxiao, she always did as she pleased without needing to consider too many emotional factors.

However, back then in Chong City, Bo Tingsu had asked her if she was still willing to meet with Brother Xiao because... he seemed to be also brooding over Huizai’s death.

During Li Qiao’s silent moments, Bo Tingxiao’s dark gaze was firmly locked on her cheeks.

A few seconds later, he picked up his teacup and brought it to his lips, "Xiao Qi, you can blame me for Ye Hui’s death."

In this world, only two people would call her Xiao Qi.

One was Bo Tingxiao, the other was Xiao Yehui.

Li Qiao looked at him calmly, the corners of her mouth curling into a slight arc, "Why does everyone think I’m not returning because of him..."

"Because you can lie to yourself, but you can’t deceive others," Bo Tingxiao pursed his lips slightly, putting the teacup gently back on the table, seeming hesitant and struggling.

His expression changed several times, but in the end, he said nothing.

Bo Tingxiao looked out towards the distant riverbank, his eyes harboring a deep and dark gloom.

That year, the time when Huizai had the incident, it was he who provided Li Qiao with the itinerary map.

The Myanmar Military’s system routes had never been wrong before, but just that one time, the border route map in the system had been maliciously altered.

This was why the road that Xiao Yehui took ended up being a guaranteed path to death.

For three years, he had spent three years and still couldn’t find out who had tampered with the Military Department’s system, which had the most stringent and advanced firewalls.

Even the Prince of Myanmar couldn’t possibly have such high authority, and hackers were even more unlikely.

Unless, the person’s status surpassed that of the Prince, and most importantly, it was very likely that the person behind it all knew that the border would have issues ahead of time, and even included the Seven Sons in their scheming.

With this thought, a shadow also drifted across Bo Tingxiao’s eyes and brows, and he decided not to tell Li Qiao about this matter until he found out the truth.

After a moment of silence between them, Bo Tingxiao took out a cigarette from his pocket, and the sound of the lighter brought Li Qiao back to reality.

She watched his practiced way of smoking, "Weren’t you someone who didn’t smoke before?"

"Sometimes when I’m annoyed, it’s just to relieve the boredom," Bo Tingxiao turned his head to exhale the smoke to the side and looked back at her with a gentle demeanor, "If you could stay in the Imperial Capital for a few more days, that would be wonderful.

If there’s something at home, then go back. Once I’m done with my work, I will come to the South Sea to see you."

Li Qiao pulled at the corner of her mouth in response, "Mm, I’ll try to arrange it after the wedding is over."

She really wasn’t in a hurry to go back because of Shang Yu, but rather, she didn’t want the research project at the scientific institute to be delayed in its progress because of her.

Before long, Li Qiao stood up and returned to the wedding banquet hall.

Behind her was Bo Tingxiao’s deep and distant gaze that lingered on for a long time.

A few minutes later, Bo Tingsu strode over from the opposite side of the riverbank.

He came to the pavilion in the lake’s center and regarded Bo Tingxiao, who was smoking, "Brother, how did your talk go?"

Bo Tingxiao shifted his position, looking at the boundless lotus pond instead, and counter-questioned without answering, "Didn’t Shang Shaoyan come today?"

"He didn’t. I just sounded out Li San a little while ago. Shang Shaoyan and she aren’t married yet, and it wouldn’t be right for him to come to this kind of maternal family banquet."

Compared to Bo Tingxiao, Bo Tingsu was thick-skinned and not very scheming.

In response to his own statement, he noticed the man opposite him raise a profound and subtle smile, "You should ask Zong Zhan if Shang Shaoyan will come."

Bo Tingsu’s mind wasn’t filled with so many twists and turns, and with a puzzled frown on his face, he said, "What does this have to do with Zong Zhan?"

Bo Tingxiao looked at him with a cool glance, his fingers calloused from holding cigarettes bringing one to his lips, "Shang Shaoyan and Zong Zhan are brothers who have been through life and death together. Would he not come to the Zong family’s wedding banquet?"

It made perfect sense.

Bo Tingsu reached out to loosen his collar, "Even if he does come, then what? You’re not really thinking of... actually wanting to have it out with him, are you?"

Was it necessary?

For the sake of Li Qiao, was he truly ready to become a man crazed by love?

Bo Tingxiao’s lips, which were pinching a cigarette, paused for a second, his gaze becoming more extended and his voice hoarse and drifting, "If having it out with him were useful, why would I have waited until today?"

"Right..." Bo Tingsu looked at the man’s profile, weighed his words carefully, and still decided to speak his mind, "Brother, I don’t mean to criticize you, but you are just too reserved and always play by the rules.

If you liked her back then, why didn’t you say anything? You’ve watched over Li Qiao for so many years, only to end up watching her run off with someone else. If I were you, I would have been disgusted to death."

It was probably clearer from a bystander’s perspective, especially for someone as straightforward as Bo Tingsu. Though not deep-thinking, his angle was often straight to the point.

Bo Tingxiao remained silent for a long time, looking at the cigarette in his hand flickering on and off, a self-mocking expression rising in his eyes.

Even his younger brother thought he was too much of a stickler for the rules?

Yet back then, even if he did not directly express his liking, he had tried to probe indirectly.

But what use was it? Having interacted with her under the guise of an elder brother all this time, once such feelings took deep root, let alone Li Qiao, even he could not dare to easily break this entanglement.

He had long since ceased to be the hot-blooded young man who would lose his head over love.

Yet the more careful he was, the less he dared to act rashly.

He was too self-restrained, having shackled himself with chains that he could not escape.

...

The homecoming banquet for Li Junhe and Zong Yue was no different from a normal wedding.

After all, it was a banquet hosted by the Imperial Capital’s Zong Family, and the wedding details were meticulously attended to.

When the wedding began, and Li Junhe and his wife stepped onto the wedding stage, Zong Yue, dressed in her phoenix crown and wedding robe, looked demure and lovely.

Her face was filled with a genuine smile, unlike the sentimentality of a South Sea wedding. Today, she was completing the ceremony under the blessings of her whole family.

At this moment, Li Qiao sat at the main table for the male guests, resting her chin on her hand and admiring Zong Yue’s luxurious headgear, occasionally her eyes drifting down to check her phone.

She had sent a message to Shang Yu, but he had yet to reply.

It had been quite a long time already, three whole minutes.

Li Qiao nestled in the Taishi Chair, turning her head to survey the wedding hall filled with guests.

She pondered stepping out to give him a call when just as she was about to get up, her brother Li Cheng suddenly nudged her shoulder, "Why has Shang Shaoyan come?"

"Hmm?" Li Qiao thought she had heard wrong. The melodious music of the Chinese-style wedding echoed in her ears, and she raised an eyebrow towards Li San, seeing him pout towards the front right.

Li Qiao followed his gaze, turned her head, and gulped, unable to suppress a slight smile curling up at the corners of her mouth.

In her field of vision, the figure of the man in a black shirt stood out starkly, with the warm light from the wood-carved lamp above casting a hazy yellow glow, making him appear as though he stood within a halo of light.

He was slightly bent over, one hand leaning on the back of the Taishi Chair, talking to Old Master Zong at the main table.

Li Qiao, with a suppressed smile, simply rested her chin in her hand and watched him.

The man seemed to sense something, and while speaking to Old Master Zong, his peripheral vision, unwavering, fell upon her through the shifting shadows of the crowd.