The Favored Heiress
Chapter 678: The One That Got Away

Chapter 678: Chapter 678: The One That Got Away

The man’s cold gaze seemed to materialize upon the officer, sending a chill down the latter’s spine. Hurriedly uttering an apology for the disturbance, he turned and scuttled into the police car.

The rear window of the car slowly rolled down, and Li Qiao leaned against the frame, tilting her chin upwards, "Remember to pick up Mo Jue for me."

Shang Yu lowered his eyelids in response.

In an instant, the police car drove away from the estate’s main driveway.

Luoyu’s brows were tightly furrowed as he watched Shang Yu’s retreating figure. He parted his lips several times but failed to utter a sound.

Only after the police car’s taillights were out of sight did the man turn around and fold back.

Luoyu, with rare dissatisfaction in his eyes, watched him, "Boss, why didn’t you make a call to the headquarters?"

One phone call from him would have solved everything.

Why let the officer take Li Qiao away?

Shang Yu, with a cold and handsome face, stepped up the front steps, his lips pinched white. He completely ignored Luoyu’s question and commanded in a low voice, "Back to the old house."

He could have intervened, but it wasn’t necessary.

Those people had already started to target Li Qiao, and if he interfered, they would have other means to continue their maneuvers.

Because starting today, she was inevitably caught in their web.

...

In the Shang Family Old House, Shang Yu entered the teahouse just as Shang Zonghai had hung up the phone.

The sky was overcast, and the clouds were thick.

A vast expanse of grey storm clouds loomed behind the man.

The eyes of father and son met in mid-air, with an underlying tension as if swords were drawn and bows were strung.

Housekeeper Xiao looked worried as he peered into the room. About to speak, he saw Shang Zonghai wave his hand dismissively, "You go attend to your duties."

The double doors of the room closed, and Shang Yu took a seat opposite his father at the Taishi Chair by the tea table, crossing his legs and lighting a cigarette, "Is this your purpose?"

Shang Zonghai was flipping through a medical book, casually glancing at him, "Has the girl really been taken away?"

"With your informants in the estate, why bother asking?"

Shang Yu turned his head and exhaled a thin stream of smoke, which mingled with the aroma of tea, enveloping the surroundings, yet the atmosphere grew even more rigid.

Shang Zonghai turned a page unhurriedly and said, looking down, "Those people are there to protect the girl, don’t you know?"

"You know what I’m asking."

The conversation between the father and son seemed to miss the point.

Yet it was pervaded by an intangible but palpable sense of a strategic standoff, tinged with gunpowder smoke.

Shang Zonghai’s gaze paused briefly, lifting his head from the medical book and pushing up the frames on his nose, "I heard the girl went to the police station voluntarily?"

Clasping the cigarette between his fingers, Shang Yu’s eyes dark as ink, "To push her onto the path of the Mu Family, you’ve spared no effort, have you?"

"You’re wrong," Shang Zonghai put down the medical book, picking up his cup for a sip of tea, "If she is unwilling, no matter how much effort I put in, it’s in vain."

The man remained silent, but the cold, piercing light in his gaze intensified.

Shang Zonghai was unshakable as ever, leaned forward to pick up the cigarette case, and also drew out a cigarette, "Shaoyan, some things are fated and cannot be avoided. Don’t think I know everything and deliberately conceal it from you. On the day the Mu Family incident occurred, I happened to be called away to Parma. By the time I received the news, it was the next day, and it was too late for anything," he inhaled from his cigarette and exhaled a few times, "I never take such decoy strategies seriously, but I was wrong to trust the Mu Family’s strength too much."

At this moment, Shang Yu, with an indifferent expression, flicked the ash from his cigarette, "Are you really sure she is the child of the Mu Family?"

Shang Zonghai’s movement of bringing the cigarette to his lips halted, and a faint smile appeared in his eyes hidden behind the glasses, "I personally delivered her to the South Sea, how could it be a mistake?"

Shang Yu suddenly lifted his eyelids, "You?"

Shang Zonghai sighed with a hint of regret, "In the Mu Family generation, three young ones met an early death. Ao Fan and Yi Lan had already felt that the surge of various powers was quite unusual, so after their daughter was born, they entrusted me to send her to the South Sea Li Family."

The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed, his voice a bit hoarse, "And then?"

Shang Zonghai rose from the table, pacing near the tea rack, narrating the memory, "The girl was sent away by me the day after she was born. Yi Lan claimed to the outside world that the child was stillborn, and then... not even half a month later, the entire Mu Family met with disaster."

...

Meanwhile, in the old city district police station.

Li Qiao sat in the interrogation room, waiting for half an hour.

The extensive one-way mirror reflected her delicate and cool profile, the cup of cool water on the table untouched. Her eyes occasionally swept across the mirror with a hint of irony.

She was holding her phone, quietly playing a game.

Above her head, a red light flickered on the surveillance camera.

Next to the one-way mirror, several police officers observed Li Qiao while discussing something in hushed tones.

Soon, someone knocked on the office door, and the officers turned in unison. Seeing the elderly man accompanying the Deputy Chief, they greeted him politely, "Elder Ming, you’ve arrived."

The Head of the Ming Family, the octogenarian Ming Zhiyuan.

Dressed in a gray traditional Chinese suit, the old man walked in slowly. He looked at the one-way mirror, his slightly cloudy eyes unwaveringly focused on Li Qiao.

"Elder Ming, she and the Young Master of the Shang Family were at the Cultural Garden yesterday. We are still waiting for the interrogation. Please don’t be too anxious," one of the officers said.

The land of the Cultural Garden was entirely owned by the Ming family.

Now that the government-managed Cultural Garden had caught fire, if the truth wasn’t investigated promptly, it would be difficult to stop the rumors, nor could they explain to Elder Ming.

Ming Zhiyuan stood in front of the mirror, looking closely at Li Qiao’s face, as if transported back thirty years.

Jing Yilan, the spirited woman who had turned the entire stock market on its head, nearly perfectly matched the face before him.

She was undoubtedly Jing Yilan’s child.

No wonder the Mu Family claimed Jing Yilan had given birth to a stillborn – it seems they had made preparations well in advance.

Ming Zhiyuan’s form swayed slightly, bracing himself with a hand on the edge of the table, squeezing his temples, "Proceed with the interrogation according to the procedures. No matter the outcome, my Ming family’s land cannot suffer losses for nothing."

Several police officers glanced at the Deputy Chief inadvertently, their expressions troubled.

Ming Zhiyuan was the direct victim, and it was only natural for him to demand compensation.

But this young lady’s background was linked to the Parma Shang clan, a family of traditional Chinese medicine deeply connected to the chieftain.

They couldn’t afford to offend either side.

The Deputy Chief caught the officers’ pleading looks and silently gestured to them to keep calm.

Afterwards, he saw Ming Zhiyuan off with an apologetic smile.

Outside in the hallway, Ming Chengxun hurried toward the old man upon seeing his figure and nodded towards the Deputy Chief, with the grandfather and grandson leaving the police station quietly.

"Grandfather, I wasn’t wrong, was I? She does look alike."

Ming Zhiyuan’s eyes became even more cloudy as if recalling something, with continuous sighs spilling from his mouth, "Such sin, such sin indeed."

Ming Chengxun, puzzled, supported him and asked in a low voice, "Grandfather, why do you say that? You’ve always kept that portrait. The person in it should be someone dear to you, how could that be a sin?"

Ming Zhiyuan ignored his question, muttering nonstop as his mental focus seemed to waver.

After all, there was still a fish that slipped through the net...