The Favored Heiress
Chapter 609 - 608: Qiaoqiao, Don’t Lie to Me

Chapter 609: Chapter 608: Qiaoqiao, Don’t Lie to Me

Li Qiao bowed her head, fiddling with her nails, reluctantly replied, "Madam Xiao makes a fair point, if she could be as Yin and soft as you, perhaps she wouldn’t have left problems for later."

Li Qiao returned the double entendre to Ming Dailan.

For a moment, the air was charged with tension.

Ming Dailan covered the corner of her lips with her forefinger and chuckled softly, her beautiful arched eyes brimming with admiration as she nodded at Li Qiao, "My dear girl, you do have some wisdom and brains. But I am puzzled, why would you choose him of all people? Don’t you fear that in the dead of night, in the silence, he might pick up the butcher’s knife and kill you?"

You see, as a mother, Ming Dailan shamelessly demeaned her son in front of his bodyguards and Li Qiao to the utmost.

Such relentless indoctrination can warp even the strongest mind.

At that moment, Li Qiao’s gaze lightly fell upon Shang Yu. She smiled slightly and, lifting her eyelids, looked towards Ming Dailan with detachment, asking, "How do you know that he won’t, for my sake... put down the butcher’s knife?"

The words "put down the butcher’s knife" echoed with resounding force, grand and imposing.

Li Qiao had never known how to give Shang Yu a sense of security and dependency.

But at this moment, she understood.

If he were to take up the butcher’s knife, she would join him in his demonic path.

If he put down the butcher’s knife, she would accompany him to sainthood.

Even if Ming Dailan was adept at psychological manipulation, Li Qiao’s words caught her off guard.

The polite, insincere smile on her face finally receded a bit, and she looked earnestly at Li Qiao as she advised, "It’s good to be confident, young lady, but as an elder, I still urge you not to trust a man’s so-called promises too much. I guess he’s never told you how he killed his younger brother, has he?"

When psychological manipulation failed, she switched to seduction?

Li Qiao’s fingertips brushed her brow, her face showing confusion as she retorted, "Why would he tell me? Is how his brother died that important?"

"Important?!" Ming Dailan’s pitch rose slightly, her gaze sharp as she turned towards Shang Yu, "Heartless and brutal at sixteen, a few months old child dead by his hands, do you think... it’s not important?"

Even though Li Qiao was mentally prepared, Ming Dailan’s words still touched a nerve.

A few months old child...

Li Qiao swallowed hard, settling her turbulent emotions, and looked undisturbed at Ming Dailan, "Because I don’t believe you."

"Ha, self-deception," Ming Dailan laughed with a dismissive, disappointed air, covering her lips as she chuckled coldly, "The two of you are really cut from the same cloth."

After her laughter, she slowly stood up, and only then did Li Qiao realize how tall she was, certainly over one meter seventy.

Her slender and refined stature was very distinguished, she could still be considered statuesque even at her age.

As Ming Dailan rose, her bodyguards immediately flanked her. She gave Li Qiao a deep look, walked around the coffee table, and headed for the door.

As her figure was about to vanish from the living room, Li Qiao, looking straight ahead, spoke softly, "Madam Xiao, does it really please you so much to hurt your own son?"

Ming Dailan paused, her lips curling into a scornful smile, "Young lady, I just hope you never have the chance to see... him kill your loved ones."

Li Qiao half-closed her eyelids, her complex emotions hard to articulate, even in the face of Ming Dailan she could feel an intense oppression, contemplating how Shang Yu had managed all these years.

Since she appeared, he hadn’t said a word.

Preserving his rigid posture, he barely blinked.

Li Qiao couldn’t help but wonder if her return might exacerbate his condition.

In the quiet mansion, only the gradually fading engine noise reminded them that Ming Dailan had left.

Li Qiao had many questions in her heart, wanted to ask him, yet oddly enough, remained silent.

Until—

The successive sounds of a lighter being flicked brought her attention back.

Li Qiao looked up to see the man lighting a cigarette.

But his hand was trembling slightly, so much so that after several attempts, he still couldn’t ignite it.

Li Qiao sighed, stood up, walked over, took the lighter from his hand, pressed it once, and a flame sprang forth.

She shielded the flame with her hand as she brought it towards the man, looking down at his brows and eyes obscured by disheveled hair.

Shang Yu took the cigarette between his lips, leaned forward slightly, and drew in a breath of smoke.

The mist dispersed, veiling his desolate expression.

Li Qiao set down the lighter and was about to turn around to sit down when her wrist was grabbed.

With a cigarette in one hand and holding her with the other, Shang Yu’s Adam’s apple moved several times before he asked hoarsely, "Are you leaving?"

When he asked the question, he wasn’t even looking at her.

Li Qiao’s heart felt as if it had been suddenly pierced by a needle, aching softly.

Even though he did not raise his head, she could still read a hint of unprecedented bitterness from his words.

He was the Overlord of the South Sea, and the word bitterness was foreign to him.

Li Qiao pursed her lips, inexplicably feeling a sourness welling up in her eyes, and was momentarily at a loss for words for fear of choking up.

In just those few seconds of silence, Shang Yu’s grip on her wrist gradually loosened, and his tightly pressed lips parted with a distant, vacant smile, "I’ll take you."

If tonight, Li Qiao was to leave, he would not stop her.

The man rose, with a cigarette in hand, and walked forward.

Li Qiao stood still, gazing at his still poised figure, and asked softly with her lips twitching, "Where do you want to take me?"

Shang Yu stopped abruptly, his fingers with the cigarette clenching tightly together, and without turning back, his jaw clenched continuously, "Not leaving?"

"Leave for where? Are you trying to send me away?!" Li Qiao’s counter-question was clear and natural.

Those few words were enough to make Shang Yu understand that she had no intention of leaving; she still wanted to stay.

The man’s breathing grew rough and strained, and the arc of his chest betrayed his unease.

He even found it ridiculous. She had heard those stories firsthand. Could she still accept him wholeheartedly?

So many deceptions had been only to avoid having her meet Madam Xiao.

Could she truly face the past he himself could not confront without any burden?

Shang Yu still did not turn around. Li Qiao licked her lips and casually stepped forward, taking the nearly burnt-out cigarette from his hand, "What are you standing for? Come and sit."

As she spoke and pulled his hand to walk back, she had only taken half a step before a powerful tug pulled her back.

The cigarette butt fell, and her forehead struck solidly against the man’s chest.

Li Qiao gave a small muffled grunt, steadied herself, and lift her head, stunned.

Shang Yu’s eyes were red, a whirl of emotions mixed within, no longer inscrutable, revealing everything.

His fingers climbed her cheek, his eyes filled with a mad and possessive desire, "If you don’t leave tonight, you’ll never get the chance again."

Li Qiao curved her lips in a nod, responding casually, "Mm, I know, I won’t leave."

This promise, which didn’t quite sound like a promise, shattered all of Shang Yu’s restraint. He clasped the back of Li Qiao’s head, his voice hoarse, "Qiaoqiao, don’t lie to