The Favored Heiress
Chapter 534: Do Whatever You Want

Chapter 534: Chapter 534: Do Whatever You Want

International Department of Cloud City Hospital.

Li Qiao stood outside the ICU ward with her bodyguard, watching Xia Siyu lie on the bed with a bandaged head. Her fingers curled into a fist, allowing her fingernails to pierce the soft flesh of her palm.

Ah Chang, who had rushed over from the South Sea, had handed her a cell phone with a segment of road surveillance on it.

Li Qiao didn’t take the phone but watched the screen intently.

The footage showed Xia Siyu driving through an intersection last night. It was supposed to be a green light, but a car from the opposite direction made a fast left turn at a red light, colliding with Xia Siyu’s vehicle.

Xiaxia, though unable to avoid the crash in time, could be seen taking evasive action from the surveillance footage.

Still, the other car was going too fast, and Xiaxia’s car was hit, flipped over, and rolled before it came to a stop.

The driver responsible for the accident reportedly didn’t survive upon arrival at the hospital.

It seemed like a typical traffic accident. Ah Chang had even inquired about the police investigation records; the driver who died was drunk-driving.

Li Qiao shifted her gaze from the phone, her voice indifferent, "Have you identified who the other party was?"

"Yes, the owner of a pharmaceutical company in Cloud City on the brink of bankruptcy. Half a month ago... their company was just acquired by Huanxia."

Receiving such an answer, Li Qiao closed her eyes, indeed... it was all rational; there was both cause and effect.

Soon, Li Qiao arrived at the on-duty doctor’s office and inquired about Xia Siyu’s condition in a detached tone.

The doctor flipped through the medical records, "Miss Xia’s body mostly has abrasions, nothing serious.

But she sustained a blow to her head with bleeding spots. If she can wake up, there would be no major problem.

If she remains comatose too long, the difficulty of treatment... will increase."

The doctor’s words were tactful, but Li Qiao understood the implication.

She did not rule out the possibility of Xia Siyu becoming vegetative.

Li Qiao nodded in thanks to the doctor and turned to leave the ward. She dialed an international call on her way out, "Come to Cloud City."

Without waiting for a reply, she ended the call.

...

At four in the morning, Li Qiao had not slept for a day and a night, nor had she eaten a thing.

She sat at the edge of a flower bed on the ground floor of Cloud City Hospital’s inpatient department, listening to Su Moshi’s voice on the phone, her expression flat without any fluctuation.

"That person, holding a grudge because the Sixth Bureau black market refused to take on his job, somehow found Shen Lao San’s residence.

He tracked him for several days, and last night, just as Lao San drank too much, that person fired three shots, someone named Bai Luhui even took two shots for Lao San, but none hit vital points."

Li Qiao looked up at the night sky and exhaled, "So casually finding out Young Director Shen’s residence from the Sixth Bureau?"

Su Moshi was silent for a moment, his tone slightly cold, "If someone wants to create an illusion, everything must be arranged properly.

The Sixth Bureau initiated a manhunt this morning, but unexpectedly, that person committed suicide by gunfire at Lao San’s doorstep at noon."

Li Qiao closed her eyes, and a fine shiver ran through her body.

Everything seemed perfectly reasonable, with no flaws to be found.

It seemed like mere personal vendetta.

Was she overthinking it, or was the enemy’s setup too intricate?

"Big Brother, take good care of yourself," Li Qiao said in a hoarse voice, calling him Big Brother as she sat with her head lowered at the edge of the flower bed.

Fate seemed to have come full circle with Shen Qingye and Xia Siyu encountering disasters one after the other.

But Li Qiao had a terrifying intuition that not only was it far from over, but quite possibly... her own self was the real target.

If everything was indeed caused by her, how deserving of death she would be.

Just like Huizai back then, who died amid turmoil because of her stubbornness to rescue someone.

Li Qiao did not wait for Su Lao Si to respond and hung up the phone.

She sat downstairs, her gaze calmly watching the night sky.

It was unclear what she was thinking, seemingly lost in thought, yet also seemingly weighed down with worries.

Half an hour later, the pitch-black sky in the east gradually turned deep blue, and the corner of the hospital building suddenly echoed with the sound of steady footsteps.

The bodyguard standing not far away, guarding Li Qiao, saw the figure approaching and made a move to block them.

But Li Qiao waved her hand to indicate they need not intercept.

The bodyguard returned to their original position, while the figure’s outline under the streetlight gradually became clearer.

"I looked for you three times in the ward and couldn’t get through on the phone. Are you mourning the spring and lamenting the fall, or praying to the moon?"

The newcomer was Yun Lih.

Li Qiao didn’t look up, maintaining her gaze downward, and with a slight tug at the corner of her mouth, said, "My phone’s out of battery."

Yun Lih, sitting grandly beside her in his grey shirt and trousers, glanced at the suit jacket on his arm and casually draped it over Li Qiao’s shoulders, "Put this on for a while."

He had rushed here from Nia State, aware of the whole situation before he set off.

Yun Lih turned his head to look at Li Qiao’s expressionless side profile, pulled out a cigarette case from his trouser pocket, took out two cigarettes and pushed them towards her, "To relieve some fatigue?"

Li Qiao didn’t smoke, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t touched a cigarette before.

Her fingers stiffly pinched the cigarette, unlit, gently rubbing the fine tobacco and sighed, "Have you seen Xiaxia?"

"Hmm," Yun Lih replied, biting the cigarette and exhaling a thin mist, "She’s sleeping soundly."

Li Qiao twitched the corner of her eye and took a long look at him.

Yun Lih raised his eyebrows and chuckled softly, "Why look at me like that? If Xia Lao Wu can’t even survive this mishap, it would render it pointless for you to have called me here."

After a pause, he turned his head, looking at a certain spot in the flowerbed, his voice steady but carrying a hint of tenderness, "Qiaoqiao, I’m here now, do whatever you want to, and I’ll watch over Xia Lao Wu for you."

Li Qiao clutched the cigarette between her fingers, whispering with self-mockery, "If you get into trouble again..."

Before she finished speaking, Yun Lih raised his hand and patted her head moderately hard, "Stop talking nonsense. Hasn’t everything been cleared up? Don’t pin everything on yourself."

Li Qiao forced a smile, "Just now, I was wondering, if I hadn’t met them, would this accident not have happened?"

Yun Lih frowned, feeling rather displeased. After pondering for a while, he quickly found a reason to refute her, "This has nothing to do with you. You met Su Lao Si too, and he’s fine, isn’t he?"

That single sentence, spoken without intention, was taken to heart by the listener.

Indeed, Su Lao Si was fine because, like her, he was in the British Imperial at the time.

"With such a serious incident happening to them, don’t you think about informing Yin Lao Er and Song Lao Liu?"

Li Qiao’s eyes flickered slightly, and she shook her head, "Lao Liu is an international police officer who is often on missions, no need to disturb him."

"What about Yin Lao Er?" Yun Lih frowned.

The Border Seven Sons were as close as brothers, and with Lao San and Lao Wu having had a brush with death, it seemed like for whatever reason they should meet face to face.

Just as he was thinking, Yun Lih heard Li Qiao reply in an extremely light tone, "After we parted back then, she lost contact."

Yes, Yin Mo was their second sister. After they parted at the border, she vanished as if into thin air, never to appear again.

She was also the only one of the Border Seven Sons whom Li Qiao was unable to find or contact.

Yun Lih fell silent, puffing heavily on his cigarette, his eyes full of sympathy for Li Qiao.

At first, he wasn’t too clear about what had happened in the past, and only later did he learn about it all from Shen Qingye.

Li Qiao was the youngest but valued relationships the most and was certainly not irrational.

If she believed that the incidents with Shen Qingye and Xia Lao Wu happened because of her, then... it’s likely there was some truth to it.

But who could be so malicious as to target the people around her?

At this moment, Yun Lih even felt somewhat relieved that it hadn’t been a member of the Li Family involved; otherwise, he couldn’t imagine what Li Qiao might do.