The Favored Heiress
Chapter 696: The Living are More Important

Chapter 696: Chapter 696: The Living are More Important

Leaving the tea room, Li Qiao was silent the entire way.

Mo Jue didn’t understand why, seeing her seemingly burdened with thoughts, he didn’t dare to ask more and quietly trailed behind her like a little tail.

In the parking lot, Li Qiao got into the back seat and immediately leaned against the chair back, closing her eyes to rub her temples.

Two cars drove out of the old residence one after another, the compartment filled with a silent stillness.

Li Qiao never opened her mouth, and neither did Shang Yu.

Outside the window, dark clouds obscured the sun, with only a few strands of light struggling to seep through the clouds.

After a while, a deep and rich voice suddenly came from beside her ear, "Having heard the story of the Mu Family, do you have any thoughts?"

Li Qiao’s eyes and brows regained their usual calmness, she turned her head to meet the man’s gaze and let out a sigh, "The truth?"

"Mm, tell me about it." Shang Yu sat beside her with his legs crossed, his jet-black eyes focusing on her with particular intensity.

Li Qiao pursed her lips, turned her face to look out the window, and spoke in an exceptionally plain tone, "Regret."

At such an answer, Shang Yu pressed his thin lips together, his gaze deep, "Anything else?"

"At most, sympathy." Li Qiao lowered her gaze to take his hand, her fingertips gently rubbing the palm of his hand, and after a few seconds, she sighed, "What else could there be?"

She asked calmly, as if it was a matter of course.

Shang Yu grasped her fingers, his jawline also tensing, lips pressed tightly, and there was a trace of displeasure between his brows, "Is just regret enough reason for you to avenge the Mu Family?"

Feeling the force on her fingertips, Li Qiao lifted her head, her eyes smiling, "Me taking action doesn’t necessarily mean seeking revenge."

The man responded with silence, his lips however growing increasingly taut.

Seeing this, Li Qiao stroked the back of his hand and leaned back against the headrest of the seat, murmuring, "I’m not exactly idle..."

Shang Yu looked at her calm profile, his Adam’s apple moving up and down, frustration evident, "If you didn’t want to, then why go to the old mansion?"

Li Qiao smiled, leaning against his shoulder, "Going to the old mansion was just to let our dad know that Mo Jue is still alive, admitting that I am a Mu doesn’t mean I have to take on the Mu Family’s responsibility."

She touched her own eyebrows, paused for a moment, then added, "Revenge or vengeance, essentially has no meaning. The things that the Mu Family with hundreds of members couldn’t protect back then, even if I were to reclaim them, might not be safeguarded by me."

"If that’s what you truly think..." The man’s stern face softened slightly, "Then you shouldn’t have agreed to our dad."

Li Qiao found a comfortable position, raising her eyebrows nonchalantly, "What did I agree to him?"

Not only Shang Zonghai could play with words.

Li Qiao looked at the gloomy clouds in the sky, her gaze clear as she curved her mouth into a smile, "Before today, our dad never revealed the ins and outs of the Mu Family. He lured me to Parma and kept the truth from me, whetting my appetite, isn’t he just waiting for me to show my stance? From the beginning, our dad never intended to leave me out of it, perhaps... the Mu Family is his so-called obsession."

At this moment, Shang Yu deepened his gaze on Li Qiao and said something surprising, "You don’t have to care about his obsession."

Li Qiao crossed her slender legs, tapping her knee, "Indeed, everyone has their obsessions, I have mine too, my home is in the South Sea, my surname is Li, not Mu..."

Having said that, she teased with a jovial smile, "After getting married, it’s even less likely that I’d take the Mu surname."

She had her own people to protect, everything in the South Sea was far more important than the Mu Family.

Once she broke the current balance, trouble was bound to follow.

"The Autobiography of the Stock God" unlocked the mystery of her life, investigating the truth behind the annihilation to give Mo Jue a proper name was what she had always intended to do.

Revenge would only repeat tragedies, what’s the point?

Hearing this, Shang Yu’s lips curved into a smile, "By bringing Mo Jue along, was your real purpose to have him reveal everything?"

"Of course, I always have to know what I will be facing, even the Mu Family with deeds of ownership of twenty-three mines couldn’t escape unscathed, who can guarantee my success.

I did agree to investigate the truth to get clarity; that process is certainly not going to be easy. As for taking back what belongs to the Mu Family, the part that belongs to Mo Jue, I must get it back for her, the rest I don’t need."

Li Qiao turned to look at the vehicles behind her and squinted her eyes, "The living are more important than any revenge."

...

Soon, they returned to the manor.

As soon as Li Qiao got out of the car, Mo Jue scurried over.

She sneaked a look at Shang Yu’s back and pulled at Li Qiao’s hem towards the side.

In a short while, the two arrived at the edge of the fountain pool, and Li Qiao leisurely asked, "What’s the matter?"

Mo Jue scratched her short hair on her forehead and stammered, "Are those minerals really valuable?"

Li Qiao raised an eyebrow, "Are you short of money?"

Mo Jue glanced at her, said nothing more, and stuffed her hands into her pockets, pulling them out again, with the white lining fluttering in the wind on both sides of her pockets.

Understood.

There wasn’t a penny in her pockets.

Li Qiao tried not to laugh and had her stuff the lining back in, then leaned against the stone wall of the fountain pool, "Do you want to take back the Mu Family’s belongings?"

"I’ll listen to you." Mo Jue didn’t have much ambition. After pondering for two seconds, she added, "Actually... we don’t have to take everything back, right? It’s such a hassle to steal back and forth. The boss used to tell me, ’What comes around, goes around’."

Li Qiao: "..."

She felt that the phrase should be ’What’s meant to be will always find a way, and what’s not meant to be, you can’t force.’

Li Qiao shook her head with a restrained smile and sighed lightly, "Then why are you asking about the minerals? What do you want to do?"

Mo Jue swallowed and her eyes darted about, and finally, under Li Qiao’s pressing gaze, she muttered, "I just thought since it’s our stuff, it wouldn’t be too much to take a few baskets of it back home, right?"

She wanted to see just how valuable they really were.

One gram could sell for ten thousand; if she stole ten or eight baskets, she could definitely get rich.

Li Qiao wiped her face and looked back up at Mo Jue with a much more somber expression, "If you need money, I’ll give it to you. Don’t forget what you promised me."

Mo Jue couldn’t stand it when Li Qiao spoke with a stern face, so she quickly stomped her foot and nodded in a hurry, "I haven’t forgotten, I haven’t. I won’t steal, I won’t..."

Li Qiao patted her on the shoulder, then gestured towards the manor’s villa, "If you like any of the paintings in the storage room, you can pick one."

"Really?" Mo Jue’s eyes sparkled, and her entire face lit up with excitement.

Li Qiao looked askance at her and walked on leisurely as a sentence floated in the air, "It’ll save you worrying about it all the time."

Luoyu had already told her that Mo Jue had marked six paintings in the storage room.

One didn’t have to wonder what she intended to do with them.

Li Qiao couldn’t help but wonder, had her second brother really only given Mo Jue a baguette back then?

...

At eight o’clock at night, Li Qiao was sitting in the study, conducting a video call with Su Lao Si. After it ended, she leaned back in her chair and lost herself in thought.

At some point, Shang Yu walked in.

He seemed to have just taken a shower, his robe loosely tied, carrying a fresh cold scent as he walked up to her, "What are you thinking about?"

Li Qiao came back to her senses, looked up at him, and smiled faintly, "I’m thinking... about when to go back to the South Sea."

The man propped his hand on the back of the chair and leaned in, closing the distance between them, "If you want to go back, then go. If you don’t like Parma, don’t come here again."