The Favored Heiress
Chapter 689: The Topographical Map of the Ducal Residence

Chapter 689: Chapter 689: The Topographical Map of the Ducal Residence

The man sipped the foreign liquor in his glass and curved his thin lips, "Why would you have such suspicion?"

Li Qiao pressed her lips together, chuckling lightly, "Maybe... intuition."

She knew her thought was bizarre; Mo Jue, whether by age or experience, seemed to have no basis for comparison with the Mu family’s children.

Yet, it was clearly written in "The Autobiography of the Stock God" that Mu Aofan’s second sister’s child went down to the seabed with that car.

Alive, there was no trace; dead, there was no corpse.

But what if... the child wasn’t in the car?

That possibility was not nonexistent.

Li Qiao’s gaze flickered, and once again, she looked towards Mo Jue by the lake, a spark of insight flashing in her eyes, "The auction house procedures for the Mu family should almost be finished, right?"

Hearing this, Shang Yu set down his wine glass, swiveled his high-backed chair to face Li Qiao and raised an eyebrow profoundly, "Want to access the shareholder records?"

"Exactly." Li Qiao swirled her wine glass, her gaze glistening, "Everything can be faked, except fingerprint information."

...

That night, under the thick darkness, Li Qiao received a belated call.

It was Gu Chenn, from Charlman City.

As soon as Li Qiao picked up, she heard from the other end a voice filled with emotion, "Mission accomplished, I’m still alive."

"How’s the situation?"

Gu Chenn took a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaling a heavy cloud of smoke, sighing, "I’m out now, didn’t find anybody, can’t confirm if he’s in the Ducal Residence or not."

Li Qiao curved the corner of her mouth, her gaze slightly cool, "Did you get into trouble?"

"No. Xiao Yehui is very cunning; the security measures in the Ducal Residence are even tighter than I imagined. Xi Ze’s and my phones were confiscated when we went in."

Gu Chenn took another drag on his cigarette, adding, "Xiao Yehui arranged for ten knights to follow us, I didn’t dare to make too much movement for fear of startling the snake, but I managed to get a hand-drawn map of the Ducal Residence, which might be useful to you."

Li Qiao raised an eyebrow, "Where did you get it?"

"A maid gave it to me." Gu Chenn fingered the map in his pocket, squinting at the quickly passing street view outside the car window, "Around fifty or sixty years old, she hid the map in the desserts brought in with the afternoon tea."

After a moment of contemplation, Li Qiao’s voice dropped a few tones, "Take a photo of the map and send it to me."

"No problem. Xi Ze and I are on our way to London Port now, Xiao Yehui might send someone to tail us, I won’t be returning to Aida State for the time being, let me know if you have any plans."

"Alright, be careful out there."

Before hanging up, Gu Chenn repeated his catchphrase, "I’m not useless."

After ending the call, Li Qiao received the hand-drawn map.

She zoomed in on the image for a closer look, exited the WeChat page, and then found a satellite aerial photograph of the Charlman Ducal Mansion sent by Bai Yan a long time ago.

The satellite photo was somewhat blurry, while the hand-drawn map detailed every building and road.

The outlines showed the similarities between the two maps.

Yun Lih...

Li Qiao pinched her brow, her gaze growing heavy as she peered at the hand-drawn map.

The longer Yun Lih was missing, the more variables there were.

If it really came to a crisis, she wouldn’t mind probing the Ducal Residence herself.

Li Qiao stood alone at the window, her serene face reflected on the glass, filled with heavy thoughts.

The door opened, and Shang Yu, dressed in a bathrobe, walked leisurely over. He stopped behind Li Qiao, wrapping his arms around her from both sides, "Why aren’t you sleeping yet?"

Li Qiao relaxed her body, leaning all her weight into the man’s embrace, and in a light tone recounted what Gu Chenn witnessed at the Ducal Residence.

Shang Yu fell silent for a few seconds, tightened the embrace to draw their bodies even closer, "No need to worry, Feng Yi will find a way."

Feng Yi...

Upon hearing this name, Li Qiao understood and met his eyes through the glass, "Can he enter the Ducal Residence?"

"Yes, his father, Count William, is considered a staff member of the Old Duke, even more advantaged than Gu Chenn."

Li Qiao’s emotions gradually relaxed, and the coldness in her eyes also lessened a bit, "When can we expect any news?"

Shang Yu leaned down to kiss her cheek, "It won’t take long."

...

Early the next morning, Fan Minli unexpectedly appeared at the entrance of the estate.

He handed the briefcase to Luoyu, politely explaining, "President Yu, this contains the stock transfer documents of Miss Li along with previous shareholder registration information. Elder Shang asked me to deliver this to you, please take good care of it."

Luoyu held the briefcase in one hand and thanked Fan Minli, but as he turned, he caught a glimpse of Fan Minli stealing looks at the interior of the estate. Luoyu’s eyebrows rose slightly, "Mr. Fan, would you like to come in for a cup of tea?"

"No, no, there are still matters to attend to at the auction house, so I’ll be heading back," Fan Minli said awkwardly as he waved his hands, stepping back all the while.

This is Paibo Mountain, it’s said that next door is the Tribal Chief’s Mansion.

He wouldn’t dare to recklessly visit, for if he offended some important figure, the loss would outweigh the gain.

Moreover... President Yu’s invitation seemed perfunctory.

After seeing off Fan Minli, Luoyu took the briefcase and returned to the living room.

Li Qiao and Shang Yu were having breakfast in the dining room, while Mo Jue had disappeared somewhere, always popping in and out unpredictably.

Before long, Li Qiao slowly strolled into the living room, her gaze quickly attracted to the document bag on the coffee table.

"Madam, Fan Minli just came by, saying that the family head sent these over," Luoyu informed her.

Li Qiao responded with a sound, opened the clasp of the document bag, and first saw a familiar stock transfer document, already signed, stamped, and officially recorded with the business registry.

She set it aside casually and took out another set of handwritten registration information. It seemed quite old, with yellowing edges on the paper, and was a bilingual document with writing that was somewhat blurred and sloppy.

Only at the very bottom where the signature was, there was a small red handprint.

This was the original registration, likely retrieved from the business administration.

Beyond that, the records of other Mu Family shareholders were all photocopies.

Li Qiao touched the red handprint, her gaze slowly moving upward. When she saw the name, even her usually calm and collected expression rippled with waves of emotion.

Name: Mu Jue.

Age: Two and a half years old.

Mu Jue, Mo Jue...

Li Qiao gripped the document tightly, her voice mechanically ordering, "Call Mo Jue here."

Seeing the change in her complexion, Luoyu immediately turned and hurried upstairs.

According to her understanding of Mo Jue, if he could not be found around the estate, he likely went back up to the storage room on the third floor.

There were quite a few famous paintings collected by the boss in there. Just a few days ago, Luoyu had suddenly realized that some of the frames had been discreetly marked by Mo Jue. She had reason to suspect that he was marking them to prepare for theft.

Sure enough, Luoyu quickened her pace up the stairs and into the storage room, where upon opening the door, she saw Mo Jue sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding a small notebook and writing furiously.

Luoyu lightened her step, squinted her eyes, and peeked over Mo Jue’s shoulder, only to find herself at a loss for words.

Alright, she couldn’t understand the words Mo Jue was writing, like gibberish characters.

Moreover, a single sentence mixed in words from several languages, some of which even she did not recognize.