Mainland China, Chen Shi’s flat
Chen Shi had already lost count of the number of days she had not been sleeping well. She was exhausted, but tonight, sleeping was still unlikely for her. Watching her reputation being kicked down the drain was hurting her. It was breaking her heart and torturing her mind.
“I already told you. The one behind this is Zhou Jingren and yet… you never believed me.” Came from behind her.
Chen Shi frowned. “Why are you here? I thought you wanted to keep this partnership a secret?” she asked Qi Xia. “And where is your friend?”
When Qi Xia knocked on her door, she almost could not believe her eyes. First it was already one in the morning. Second, she assumed that he wanted to keep their involvement with each other a secret and third, she could not find any reason for him to be here.
“I came here to see how you are doing. And don’t worry… no one knows that I’m here. Even the CCTV’s outside were blocked.”
His answer did not go well with Chen Shi. Blocking the CCTV and making sure that no one witnessed him coming in here… is a good way to avoid detection. However, it was also a good way to kill someone without being noticed.
Her gaze darkened as she grabbed the small pistol below her table.
“Whoa! Miss Chen!” He put his hands up in the air. “I am not here to hurt you.”
“Men are liars.” Chen Shi uttered. She tightened her grip on the pistol. “Why are you here?”
“I am here to let you know… that we found your daughter.”
As expected, the expression on Chen Shi’s face changed. “Where is she?”
“Zhou Jingren has her.” His nonchalance instantly made her doubt. “He captured her…no, the correct term should be kidnapped.”
“Why? My daughter didn’t do anything to him.”
“You seem to misunderstand something.” Qi Xia smiled. “Zhou Jingren is the type of person that would kill someone before they could even scheme against them. Your daughter was not a threat to their relationship. But… she was a threat to Lily. Demi could hurt Lily and target her.”
“You are saying that he kidnapped my daughter for such simple reasons. These are not small accusations. Do you have proof? How did you know that he kidnapped her? And is she— is she still alive?” Chen Shi asked.
“We are not sure where she is… right now. We also don’t know whether she is alive or not. However— ” Qi Xia handed a flashdrive to Chen Shi. “This should have all the proof that you need. Demi was able to escape that mental facility that her father put her in. We were able to follow her till Berlin then… all traces of her, disappeared. We used all our resources to find her.”
“At first… failed. But we didn’t give up. Until… we found some traces of Zhou Jingren’s right hand man in the area. Now… why would his right hand man visit Berlin?”
“Did you see this right hand man kidnap my daughter?”
“No. But— “
��Then… how do you know that he took her?”
“The timing was just perfect. A man like him would not just go to Berlin without any official business. From the things that we have gathered so far… Zhou Jingren’s network in the black market is vast. But… their ties in the west are weak. They could easily rule Asia but not Europe and certainly not Germany.”
Chen Shi eyed the flash drive. An assumption was at least better than having nothing at all. She clenched her jaw.
“Would Zhou Jingren really do it?” She lifted her gaze and looked at Qi Xia. “Hurt someone who does not have the ability to fight back?” Demi was a harmless woman. How could Zhou Jingren take her like that? She would understand if… he would scheme to ruin Demi’s reputation. But to take her away and possibly kill her?
Isn’t that a bit too much?
Qi Xia leaned towards Chen Shi. He smiled at Chen Shi’s troubled expression. “Miss Chen… any man would not hesitate to do something like that to protect the woman that they love.” He said in a low voice. While Chen Shi was smart, her emotions were still her weakness. After all, they were not talking about just some random stranger here. They were talking about her precious daughter.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked.
“Oh. I already told you that, we want your cooperation. We can see that you are not doing much against Qin Yuanfeng so we thought… we could show our sincerity by looking for your daughter.”
This was a lie. Qi Xia and Zhou Huifang never did look for Demi. All they did was create evidence— Fake evidence. They needed to act against Zhou Jingren without being noticed and Chen Shi would be the perfect puppet for them.
At first, the duo thought that Chen Shi was very capable. However, when they heard that Zhou Jingren’s right hand man had been talking to Tony Zhang, they immediately went back on their decision to have her as an ally.
What Qi Xia and Zhou Huifang wanted was someone who already had nothing to lose. Someone who would give their everything to destroy their common enemy. And Chen Shi was the perfect person to do that.
Now that Chen Shi believed that it was Zhou Jingren who kidnapped her daughter, a retaliation should be expected.
He smiled inwardly. “We know that you don’t really care about your children. But… this is just— “
“I care about them!” Chen Shi hissed. “Someone is manipulating the media to paint me as a bad mother. But… that is not true.”
“I care about them.” She added.
“Well then… I hope this is enough to help you. Now that you already know what happened to your daughter, I hope… you can take this fight seriously. Zhou Jingren is the villain in all of our lives and we need to work together. Or… we won’t have a chance against him.”
….
Prrofreader: Dragon777
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