Meanwhile, Lily was completely unaware of the Earl’s insidious plans. Despite thinking about ghosts and the haunted paintings inside the palace, Lily still fell asleep the moment she went inside the room. It was because she was really tired from the flight. When dinner time came, Lily asked Qin Yuanfeng to tell them that she was going to rest. Of course, everyone understood why she was exhausted.
“President, Mr. Qin told me that the madam is already sleeping. Instead of having dinner, she just had some bread and decided to go back to sleep.” Secretary Go said as he handed a tablet to Zhou Jingren. “This is what I have so far about Mr. Harringfort.” He said.
Zhou Jingren only nodded in response. They were already in the car towards the Grand Ducal Palace where Zhou Jingren scheduled a meeting with the Grand Duke before going to see Lily. “What do we have here?”
“Mr. Harringfort tried to invite the Madam for a meeting during her break earlier this year. Of course, she immediately refused such an arrangement because of her health. This was when she was looking into the Corneels Oil Company.” Secretary Go started explaining every public thing that they knew about Harringfort. ” He tried to invite her again but the Madam already told Miss Yang to tell him she would be busy for the rest of the year. So Miss Yang informed Mr. Harringfort’s secretary and they haven’t heard from Mr. Harringfort again. Also, based on my research Mr. Harringfort only saw Princess Eliza once after their engagement. After that… he just vanished into thin air and would sometimes send her chocolates and flowers but that was it. Not many people know of this, however, Mr. Qin Yuanfeng confirmed this from his… research.”
“And the Grand Duke?”
“Well Grand Duke Phil and Mr. Harringfort’s communication never stopped. In fact, we were able to trace a lot of calls from Mr. Harringfort to the Grand Duke. Much more than the number of calls he did towards Princess Eliza.
“Hmmm… the engagement had been announced more than a year ago. Before we saw the Royal Family last year in Skopelos. But… they only saw each other once?” he raised an eyebrow. “The man must have been very busy.”
“I was not able to get a schedule. Since he is a very private person. And their cyber security is also very hard to get into. Even Mr. Qin said it was comparable to the security of the white house in the US. However, it doesn’t mean that it’s unbreachable. We just needed some time to do it. But as I was saying, because we can’t get ahold of his schedule we looked into the records of his private flights. The man is indeed a frequent traveler. He has been to a lot of countries but he never stayed in one country for more than a week. The man was practically living in his plane.”
“Somewhat predictable for a businessman.” Zhou Jingren answered. “So he tried to schedule a meeting with my wife.” The man was already in his late twenties… a Royalty who was engaged to another Royalty. It did not take too long for Zhou Jingren to connect the dots. Slowly, a sinister smile bloomed on Lily’s face. “So… he was supposed to be my wife’s fiance, huh.”
Secretary Go shivered when he saw Zhou Jingren smile like that. He immediately wondered how he was able to conclude such things. “President… I think…”
Zhou Jingren turned towards him. “Harringfort should be Lily’s fiance if… her grandfather became the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Their ages match.” While this was nothing but an assumption based on his data, he could not help but believe that this one was indeed real. After all, he did not miss the anger in Harringfort’s eyes every time that he stared at Zhou Jingren when they were playing a game.It was as if, Zhou Jingren owed him something when in fact, it was the first time that he spoke with Harringfort.
Zhou Jingren had been wondering why the man had been trying to emphasize that he came from the orphanage and treated him with nothing but disgust because of his upbringing. Zhou Jingren thought that it was only because Harringfort was irritated that Zhou Jingren actually crippled his men. However, it seems that the hatred stemed from jealousy.
Zhou Jingren let out a low chuckle. “What a nonsense man.” He said. “Prepare a team outside of Luxembourg. Tell them to be on standby, I can feel that his highness Antone Harringfort will come to Luxembourg anytime soon to see his neglected fiance.” If his guess was right, Harringfort was treating Eliza as rudely as he could because he was trying to make her and her family cancel the engagement.
In this way, he could claim that it was Eliza who did not want the marriage and he only wanted to make the woman happy. It was a smart strategy but very predictable. Even a toddler could easily predict such things!
He smiled as he thought about Harringfort saying that he is not allowed to kill Zhou Jingren.
“How silly.” He uttered, his voice low and dangerous. Did that man really think that he won’t be able to analyze the situation based on the small facts that Zhou Jingren holds? “Did Yuanfeng find a way to track the people that Harringfort meet during his trips in the past six months?” he asked.
“He said he needed some time.”
“Alright. I will talk to him once we arrive.” Zhou Jingren thought of a good way to track Harringfort’s contacts and for that he needed his brother in law’s help.
“President… we are here.” Secretary Go said as he went out of the car and opened the door for Zhou Jingren. In response, he went out of the car and eyed his secretary’s suit.
“Your tie is crooked.” He said before walking towards the huge palace doors of the Grand Duke’s Residence.
………..
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