“Mother, please give Bacon permission to destroy that Tian Kong and everything around him. How dare he bomb my mother? He deserves to be bombed back into bits for the evil scourge that he is to humanity.” The black cat AI’s golden eyes narrowed and glinted like a predator about to attack his prey.
The white, fluffy cat beside him also hissed, baring her shiny fangs and extending her sharp claws. Ketchup’s attempt to appear threatening, however, failed big time. Her overdramatic exaggerations and expressions that looked so much like Iris just wouldn’t allow her to appear anything other than adorable.
“The cute and mighty Ketchup also wants to beat up that evil poopoo-head Tian Kong for hurting Mommy! Ketchup’s mighty paws of justice will smack that stinky bomber to the deepest level of poopoo hell! Mreow!!!”
Iris was also too angry that she didn’t correct her AI children’s vicious words. Her anger was more due to the fact that so many innocent people were injured, including Dom and Jin Chonglin, just because someone wanted her dead. Target her alone! She would face the bastard and fight. Why involve so many others?
The smartwatch that Theresa Blipsburg gave her blinked. It looked more like a sleek platinum bracelet than a smartwatch.
“Mother, your heart rate is increasing. Please calm down. Bacon will put off destroying the bomber for now.”
She closed her eyes and focused on taking deep, even breaths. It was only when her heart rate returned to almost normal that her AI children stopped nagging at her. She opened her eyes and cast a cold look at the ceiling.
“Continue your report, Bacon.”
Her cat AI son obeyed. Bacon revealed that he unearthed deleted surveillance video footage of suspicious people scouting the mall about a week before the bombing. Another person dropped off the bomb close to the mall so that Tian Kong could pick it up.
“Uncle Zihao is already hunting for the people shown in the surveillance footages, Mother.”
“Does your uncle have any leads on the identities of those people?” Iris asked.
Bacon’s golden eyes glowed brighter before returning to normal. “Yes, Mother. Two of the men who scouted the mall have been identified as people employed by Jin Chenggong when the traitor still belonged to our Jin clan before Father kicked him and his entire branch family out. Uncle Zihao thinks that all of the scouts were the traitor’s people.”
Iris gripped the duvet as her nostrils flared. “Jin Chenggong? He’s involved? Does your dad know about this?”
“Yes, Mommy! Ketchup immediately told Daddy as soon as my little kitty brother Bacon discovered this evidence! Daddy was super-duper to the highest level mad like an evil dragon! Oh, sooooo scary but the cute and mighty me approves! Meow!”
“What’s your dad doing now?”
“Father is currently at Shadow Winds headquarters beating up the traitor. Mother, please don’t stop Father. The traitor deserves to be beaten up for being party to endangering Mother.”
Iris let go of the duvet and once again focused on regulating her breathing. Once she was calm enough, she told Bacon, “Don’t let your dad kill that snake. Jin Chenggong isn’t worth it to stain your dad’s hands with dirty blood. There are punishments that are worse than death.”
“Understood, Mother. Bacon will relay your words to Father now.”
The black cat AI disappeared before returning a few seconds later.
“Done, Mother. Father says that he understands. He also says not to stress yourself too much and leave everything to him and Uncle Zihao.”
“Oh oh oh! Ketchup and Bacon too, Mommy! Relax and leave everything to Daddy, Uncle Haohao, and us kitty babies! Love ya lots, Mommy! Please don’t get hurt anymore. Meow~”
Iris sighed but there was a soft smile on her face. The cold fury she was feeling dissipated by a lot although it didn’t completely disappear. Despite this, she still felt frustrated that she was unable to do anything helpful to aid in solving all of these problems that her family was experiencing. She wanted her bed rest to end so badly.
“Alright. I trust in all of you.”
Bacon’s tail rotated into a blur and his golden eyes glowed so brightly that Ketchup pretended to shield her green eyes with her fluffy paws. While the two AI siblings were messing around with each other, Iris couldn’t help but wonder who wanted her dead.
Was it Jin Chenggong?
Maybe but not likely.
The Young family?
They had the biggest motive to murder her because she was on the way of their ambition to instate Rose Young as Jin Liwei’s wife.
How about the mysterious group backing the Youngs?
There was too little information known about this dangerous force. If the group was really specifically targeting her with the intention of killing her off, she didn’t know why they would do that. What was their motive? What benefit would they receive upon her death?
Therefore, at the moment, she believed that it must be the Youngs who ordered her murder. They must have used Jin Chenggong to assist Tian Kong in the bombing incident to kill her along with all the innocent people who attended her mall show with Jin Chonglin. This way, the incident would be labelled as a large-scale terrorist attack instead of targeted murder. Then they found a scapegoat in the form of Zhu Ning who had been very vocal in her hatred for the mother and daughter, Wei Lan and Iris Long.
And they almost pulled it off. For sure, there were some loose ends, but as long as no evidence contradicting the current setup surfaced, their plan would’ve succeeded without any hitch.
Too bad they encountered Iris Long who was secretly a world-class hacker and her two powerful AI children. Iris with the help of the multitasking Ketchup and ShaWn laid the groundwork in collecting, organizing, and performing the initial analyses on the evidence they gathered. Then Bacon used all the information to successfully unearth parts of the important evidence in the truth of what really happened.
Iris sneered.
“Very good, Young family. First, you want Rose Young to marry my husband. Then you want to steal Jin Corporation. And now you want to murder me? I didn’t die in my past life to only end up being killed by insignificant ants like you. You want war? Bring it on!”
