Back at Wei Lan's property, René Alejandro was in a bad mood. He had been in a terrible mood since his birthday bash ended. Because of Emilio Miguel, the damned Matador, Wei Lan left the country and went on a massive shopping spree across Asia. She hadn't been back since then.
René Alejandro tried enticing her to return with the promise of getting her another "heirloom" but she refused. It seemed that Emilio Miguel really had upset her.
But now that her shopping spree had been taking this long, René Alejandro suspected that she was just using her grudge against Emilio Miguel to travel across Asia and continue enjoying herself.
He discovered that her son-in-law, Liam Jin, had been sending her a monthly allowance for her shopping spree. This could only mean that Liam didn't want his mother-in-law to return so soon to meet her grandsons. As expected, Wei Lan continued prolonging her Asian travels so that her son-in-law would keep on sending her a monthly allowance.
Because of her refusal to return, René Alejandro's plans were all messed up. Although his highly-publicized birthday bash allowed him to become acquainted with many members of the country's high society, business and media elites, his main priority remained the same. He needed to wriggle his way inside Liam Jin and Sir Lu Jianhong's close circles.
Wei Lan was an important tool in achieving this mission. He would always accompany her whenever she visited her daughter and son-in-law. But now that she was gone, he had no reason to continue visiting Liam and Iris without arousing the couple's suspicions.
Yu Mo was a good friend who always made it a point to hang out with him. René Alejandro tried hinting a few times without being direct for Yu Mo to bring him to meet Liam and Iris' newborn twins. Contrary to his expectations, Yu Mo pretended not to understand and deliberately changed the subject.
At first, René Alejandro thought that the man was just too dumb to understand his indirect hints but after a few tries, he realized that Yu Mo wasn't so stupid after all.
It seemed that he had miscalculated Yu Mo's intelligence level. Indeed, the guy was friendly but he was still extremely loyal and protective of his true sworn brothers.
"Damn it!" René Alejandro kicked the couch in the guest house.
"Patience, brother."
"We have already come this far. These hurdles are only to be expected."
"Not every mission will go smoothly, brother. So do not become discouraged so soon."
His brothers encouraged him.
René Alejandro took a deep breath and tamped down on his growing frustrations. He forced himself to calm down and nodded at his brothers.
"You are right, my brothers. It is just hard for me to get over the fact the Emilio Miguel always seem to destroy my plans. The man is a big asshole, no?"
His brothers grimaced at the mention of Emilio Miguel. They, too, couldn't forget how Emilio Miguel belittled all of them for being hackers. They felt insulted by the Matador. The man's angelic beauty was a complete opposite of his black, rotten heart.
"For now, we should all focus on things that we can do. Wei Lan will eventually come back. We should not depend entirely on her."
"I agree. Wei Lan is an extremely shallow woman. And that makes it very easy to control her. But at the same time, her impulsive nature also makes her unpredictable and prone to messing up our plans like what we have to deal with right now."
René Alejandro nodded. His brothers were correct.
"How about we ask Uncle to tell Wei Lan to return here as soon as possible? Wei Lan is completely in love with her husband. I am sure that she will listen to Uncle."
René Alejandro frowned. "This is my mission. There is no need to disturb Papá for something trivial like this, no? And if the other higher-ups learn that I had to ask Papá for help, it will surely reflect badly on my record. I cannot risk it. There is no way that I will allow that damned Matador to get another leg up ahead of me. It will only reinforce his misconceptions that we, hackers, are lower level than on-the-ground agents like him."
"That makes sense. I'm sorry for giving such a stupid suggestion, brother. I didn't think it through."
René Alejandro and his brothers re-worked their current plans to accommodate Wei Lan's absence. The situation wasn't grave so there really was no need for them to panic. It was just annoying.
After the brainstorming session, they returned to their other tasks. The most immediate one was to find out who dumped Jin Chenggong at one of their hideouts. This particular hideout wasn't the same one where Rose Young was staying and pretending to be a married couple with Emilio Miguel.
Jin Chenggong, the fallen member of the Jin clan who was disowned by Liam Jin for being a traitor, was found unconscious at the hideout's door. At first, the guards there didn't recognize the emaciated old man at all. It was only when Emilio Miguel personally came over to check that he identified the half-dead person to be Jin Chenggong.
The former proud member of the Jin clan and Jin Corporation's board of directors was now reduced to this. Jin Chenggong's tongue was cut out and all his limbs especially his fingers were also all broken, a few of them were even amputated. But the biggest damage he received was on his sanity. Emilio Miguel tried many methods to communicate with Jin Chenggong and gain even just a single helpful clue about who did this to him but to no avail.
Emilio Miguel could only conclude that the people who did this to Jin Chenggong had similar high-level torture methods as their organization. Actually, maybe even higher level because the results were so horrendous that Matador couldn't help but feel impressed.
In the end, Emilio Miguel ordered to scrap that particular hideout. It wasn't safe anymore. They brought the insane Jin Chenggong to another hideout. For now, Emilio Miguel would keep him alive until they deemed him useless. Then he would ultimately meet his painful end.
And dying in the hands of the Matador? Oh, it wouldn't be pretty.
