“It’s been so many days. What have you found out?” Gu Qiwu asked softly.
Qi Qiming lowered his head to take a drink. “Even the police couldn’t find out anything, so what could I have? Ah Feng’s delegated more manpower.”
“Who do you think is the biggest suspect behind this?”
“I’ve offended many people over the years. Many people want to take revenge on me too. Besides, Xiao Lei was quite popular a while back, so I’m afraid it’s hard to guess who could be behind this. I know nothing about how Xiao Lei is doing right now! I’d much rather the kidnapper ask money from me now. That way, perhaps at least, I can know how he’s doing,” Qi Qiming spoke, and his voice was filled with helplessness and endless worry too.
He did not realize that when he spoke about Qi Lei recently, he did not seem as indifferent as before. Right now, there was a sense of warmth from a loving father, and he seemed to have suddenly turned old very quickly.
“I’ve heard about Qi Feng and Qi Lei. You’re planning on letting Qi Feng take over Qi Kai, aren’t you?” Gu Qiwu would never have used to ask questions like these. Now that he brought it up, Qi Qiming was clearly surprised.
“Qi Lei’s not tenacious enough in temperament. His ability to strategize isn’t as good as Qi Feng’s either. Besides, when you’re always in this seat, you’ll know that it’s not as glamorous as what others think it is. What’s wrong with having a quiet, comfortable life?” Qi Qiming said.
Upon hearing that, Gu Qiwu smiled and said, “Does that mean you’re really planning on giving up on Qi Lei and letting Qi Feng have it? But your recent actions have made me find it quite hard to believe that!”
“Hard to believe?” Qi Qiming smiled coldly. “What’s so hard to believe? I just want the two brothers to get along well. I don’t want to mistreat either one of them.”
“You’re set on Qi Feng. I don’t have a place to say much either, but I advise you to think this through. Perhaps many things aren’t what they seem. I’m not afraid of showing you my cards too. Doris won’t let me off so easily after what’s happened between us. Shasha’s on her side now, and I think I won’t be able to treat them the same away after this. So, you should know well how to balance this,” Gu Qiwu said as he picked up his chopsticks to pick up an ingredient before putting it into the hotpot.
Being the sharp man he was, Qi Qiming immediately caught the meaning in Gu Qiwu’s words, so he clenched his fists immediately and asked, “What do you mean? Do you know who did it?”
Gu Qiwu did not answer and just poured him a drink nonchalantly.
“Who did it?” Qi Qiming could not hold back his impatience as he demanded.
“I think you probably know. Trust your own judgment. Let’s drink. The two of us haven’t sat down like this to talk and drink in so long.” Compared to Qi Qiming, Gu Qiwu was much calmer.
“You’re saying that you’re planning to…on Doris’s end…”
“How do you think I’d treat someone who keeps plotting against me and threatening me?”
Before Qi Qiming could finish, Gu Qiwu’s brows furrowed as he said coldly, “I’ve asked you out today to give you a warning and to avoid unnecessary harm. It’s best that you be mentally prepared. Perhaps, like me, some of the things you thought earlier might turn out to be wrong.”
Upon hearing that, Qi Qiming did not say anything as he fell silent…
…
It was the thick of the winter season. The weather was getting colder and colder too, especially after rain, as the air seemed to be frozen.
This year, the New Year came sooner than before. Not too long after the first month of the Lunar calendar was the New Year, so before Christmas even arrived, the company had begun the year-end tying up of work, and things were incredibly busy.
Xi Xiaye finally recovered, but she did not take a moment to breathe before she jumped right into work again.
She and Mu Yuchen frequently went back to the old residence because they were worried about Mu Lingshi and the rest. In fact, they just let Mu Xiaocheng stay at the old residence. Also, since the weather was cold, Mu Yinan went out less for exercise and stayed at home to look after Mu Xiaocheng.
Sometimes, Su Nan would go over to visit and bring Xiao Xi along.
Ruan Heng still rested at home. The husband and wife planned for Ruan Heng to only go back to work after the New Year while Su Nan would start her own studio and do the fashion designing that she liked.
Xi Xiaye was happy for them. When Su Nan had first brought up her plans, she had gotten people to show her some office buildings with a great environment and helped her set things up. Now, Su Nan was busy with the preparations and planned to launch after the New Year.
There was still no news about Ah Mo and Qi Lei. Many people were sent out to investigate, but many of them came up with nothing as they could not find any trace of them at all.
Xi Xiaye would find time to spend with Mu Lingshi every day. She could clearly feel that with the passing of time, Mu Lingshi suppressed more and more of her worries. Sometimes, she even woke up from nightmares!
In just a short ten days, Mu Lingshi grew thinner again. In fact, her reactions to the pregnancy had not eased!
Given that this was not a good sign, Xi Xiaye was really worried. She had been accompanying Mu Lingshi to sleep for quite a few nights now, just like tonight.
Mu Lingshi went to bed to rest after her shower while Xi Xiaye briefly looked through the agenda for the meeting the next day before she turned the lights off to sleep. She had just pulled open the blanket when she felt the person beside her tossing about restlessly in bed.
“Sis-in-law, do you really think Ah Mo will be fine? I’ve asked Brother who says that Ah Mo’s very safe, but we haven’t heard anything at all until now. Even though I can stay calm, I’m actually very anxious and very afraid. I can’t lose anyone anymore…”
Xi Xiaye had just laid her head on the pillow when suddenly Mu Lingshi’s lowered voice came through. Xi Xiaye felt sad to hear her pouring out her worries.
“It’ll be fine. Trust Ah Mo. He’s always been very capable with great martial arts skills that even your brother praises. Your brother has said that he’s an extremely important chess piece of the person behind this, so they won’t dare to harm him easily.”
Even though Xi Xiaye wanted to offer some words of consolation, she seemed to sound quite helpless too.
