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“Does young miss want to know the soft truth or the hard and cold one?”
Lily frowned when she heard his response. Soft truth? “I wanted to hear both.”
“The soft truth was that she didn’t suffer. She was poisoned. Something that affected her heart. In the end, she died in her sleep.” Victor said. The hard and cold truth was that… she was killed by someone close to her.”
Lily nodded but said nothing. Another second pass as the two fell into silence once again. She didn’t need to ask who killed her grandmother. Rather, Lily didn’t want to know who. At least not now. “Do you have the research file that they wanted?” she asked.
Victor shook his head. “I believe she already destroyed it. I don’t see why Lilian would keep something that would attract trouble.” Then a wry smile rose on his face. Lilian still attracted trouble even without the research file. In fact, her life… everything that she had was taken away from her because of a file. “Young miss… If there is nothing…” He hesitated. Seeing this, a gentle smile bloomed on Lily’s face.
“I understand. You can leave now. I will be in my grandmother’s room.”Lily said as she rose from her seat and walked towards Lilian’s study on the same floor. Soon after, memories of herself walking in the same wooden tiled mansion floated in her mind. She let out a sigh as she inhaled the familiar scent of aged wood. Slowly, her eyes traveled to the paintings that decorated the paneled walls. Her grandmother always loved to collect paintings.
After a couple of seconds, Lily finally arrived at Lilian’s study. After sitting on Lilian’s old chair for a few minutes, Lily finally started her search. This time, she knew that her grandmother would not put something so important in obvious places. While Lily knew that finding a vault inside her study is close to non-existent, she still decided to try and be very thorough about it.
According to some people’s logic, in hiding important things, one needed to put them in places where no one would be able to find it easily. The location should be something concealed and secret. Perhaps a hidden underground room or a vault. Or perhaps a staircase that would connect her to a secret room or something similar.
However, Lily knew that her grandmother is not someone who would follow the logic of normal humans. If she was Lilian, Lily would not hide it in a secret room or… a vault. She knew that this would be the two places that people would immediately look for. In fact, if Lily was in Lilian’s shoes, she would hide it somewhere… obvious. Too obvious that no one would believe it was the real thing.
“Where would that be?”Lily roamed her eyes around the large room which is about fifty square meters big. Everything in the room was neatly arranged, a few books were piled on the table, the shelves were dust-free, indicating that someone was just here to clean the place. The lights were yellowish— something that her grandmother always loved. To her left, a few candles of different sizes can be seen near the alcoholic beverages that her grandmother never even opened. To her right was a huge painting of Lilian and Fred’s simple wedding. Then a few feet away from where Lily was at, a cozy maroon velvet couch can be seen. This couch was fronting the fireplace.
Slowly, Lily’s eyes traveled through the stone walls and thought of a secret mechanism to open something. But isn’t that too obvious? Surely, Lilian’s enemies have already visited this place to try and find that research material. Obviously, they all failed.
This only meant that the method that they used was wrong. Slowly, Lily’s eyes lit up. However, before she could do something, her phone rang. Her face instantly turned grave. The only person who knows the number of this phone is Zhou Jingren. The two already agreed not to contact each other as long as it’s not an emergency.
She trembled as she opened her phone and answered the call. “People are on the way to the mansion. There is a camera installed on one of the books in the bookshelves. Topmost right. Pretend that you didn’t notice. I am trying to hack into their system. But people are already on their way. You needed to get whatever it is that you want and leave. Those are two armored cars. One of which is used by Mr. Neeson and the Russian. They will reach the place in about three minutes. I am trying to obstruct them using the traffic. I can extend it to for minutes.” Zhou Jingren’s voice was grim. “I am a thousand miles away from you.” He said.
For a few seconds, Lily’s lips trembled before she quickly calmed herself. “I love you.” She said before she used a Bluetooth headset and completely went hands-free. Since Zhou Jingren can see her, she knows that he is almost done hacking the server of the other party. Her eyes soon turned clear and confident. She completely trusted his skills.
Four minutes should be enough for her to find that thing. Slowly, Lily decided to put herself into Lilian’s shoes. She closed her eyes and analyzed everything that her grandmother would have done to hide the research material. She calmed her racing heart as she stood as still as a statue. Hearing Zhou Jingren’s breathing on the other line made Lily calmer and light. She removed everything that had been making her mind hazy. Slowly, everything became clear in Lily’s mind. after a couple of seconds, Lily suddenly opened her eyes hastily, her eyes wide and bright as she went out of the room to go to the first floor of the mansion.
“Victor… we needed to leave this place.” She said in a grim tone.
“Young Miss?”
“Now!” Lily said. She didn’t wait for the old man to speak as she asked Daohu who was standing at the door to prepare the car.
She knew where it was! She actually knew where her grandmother hid the files!
