The sports car crouched low on the empty road, its engine rumbling deeply like a beast momentarily restrained, needing only the slightest press of the accelerator to tear apart the stillness of the late night.
Ling Sui's hand rested on the steering wheel, his knuckles pale with cold. His profile flickered in and out of shadow with the passing streetlights, expressionless. Suddenly, he frowned slightly, feeling as though he had overlooked something.
The car shot out of the street, surging forward with sudden speed. Wind poured through the windows, catching his sharp brow and whipping through his black hair.
When the Aston Martin returned to Xishui Manor, the estate remained as brilliantly lit as ever. Even the people and objects in the penthouse bedroom were exactly as he had left them—still solemn, still silent as crickets in winter.
Ling Sui was the same. The faint, nearly imperceptible sense of calm he had carried from her presence was stripped away completely the moment he stepped back into the room.
"You've seen Miss Meng off," Butler Xu said, stepping forward. His gaze shifted toward the sofa. "Young Master, the others have been taken away by the police. How should these two be dealt with?"
Having been left waiting for so long, the initial panic had long since faded from the man's face, leaving it wooden and blank. The woman beside him lifted her red, tear-swollen eyes, looking timid and fearful.
Ling Sui swept a glance over them, a shadow of darkness crossing his features. "Have the people on that side been notified?"
Butler Xu replied, "Yes. President Ling had his assistant transfer three hundred million, said it was compensation for the losses."
Hearing this, the corner of Ling Sui's mouth twitched. His soles struck the cold floor with crisp, oppressive steps as he stood before Ling Jinlin and the woman. His voice was icy. "Ling Jinlin, it seems you still have some value after all."
Having been left to stew for a while, Ling Jinlin's nerves had begun to relax—but at the sound of Ling Sui's voice, his body trembled involuntarily, and he didn't dare lift his head.
Ling Sui stood before him, looking down from above. "Next time, you will die."
Ling Jinlin lay prostrate on the ground, not daring to breathe too loudly. He knew that whatever Ling Sui said, he would make happen.
The Empirl Group had a century of deep-rooted, tangled history. Old President Ling had many brothers, and with the interference of his wife's family, the branch families and foreign capital had long held the reins of power. Ling Sui and Ling Yunqian's line, however, had been relegated to a corner for years, nearly vanishing from public view.
Until four years ago, when a meticulously orchestrated restructuring of shares took place. Mysterious capital quietly accumulated in hidden accounts, voting rights changed hands smoothly, and overnight, the balance of power was completely overturned—catapulting Ling Sui and Ling Yunqian back to the core of the group, seizing control of Empirl's entire corporate power in one stroke.
Ling Jinlin and his branch had become discarded pieces in that power shift. Yet he had no self-awareness of his situation. Heedless of the instigation of those with ulterior motives, he eagerly rose to the bait, bringing a crowd of men and women to provoke trouble. And his friends were particularly foolish—even more blind to the situation than he was. They charged in recklessly, even daring to hurl an antique vase at Ling Sui…
Even now, Ling Jinlin could still hear the sharp, metallic sound of a long dart grazing past his ear and slamming into the target behind him. That "thud-thud" sound had nearly shredded his brain.
Ling Sui's gaze shifted away from Ling Jinlin's cowering form, and without pausing, he walked out of the room. Directly across from where he had been standing was a human-shaped target.
The wooden target surface was currently embedded with dozens of slender metal skewers, driven deep into the board, densely outlining the shape of a human figure. Had there been a single mistake, the person standing before the target would have faced extremely severe consequences.
After returning home, Meng Luobai didn't sleep long before getting up.
After breakfast, she called Mr. Zhang and tentatively asked about the "patient" from last night. Mr. Zhang only said that a friend of a friend had asked him for help. Since he had just returned to the country, his domestic medical resources hadn't caught up yet.
Meng Luobai had roughly figured that out as well.
Before noon, Meng Wenjian called and asked her, "Do you want to come home for lunch?"
She was about to start work tomorrow, and there were still some things she hadn't dealt with. While Meng Luobai was hesitating, Meng Wenjian told her, "Do you remember Lu Jin from next door? I noticed people coming and going over there these past few days, moving things. I went to ask, and it seems the house next door has already been sold to a new owner."
Meng Luobai: "Is that so."
With such a large estate now, this house was neither here nor there.
Meng Wenjian sighed softly, a little wistful. "I thought I'd get to see Lu Jin again… They moved away so suddenly back then."
Meng Luobai listened but didn't mention that she had just seen him last night. She didn't know how to explain to Meng Wenjian the situation with Lu Jin, or rather, Ling Sui. Not to mention that the house had now been sold as well.
After chatting about a few more mundane things, Meng Wenjian asked again, "Are you coming home for lunch?"
Meng Luobai thought for a moment. "I still have some work to finish up. I'll come home for dinner. Luoyu and Sangsang should be back by then too."
Meng Wenjian: "That works."
By the time Meng Luobai finished the work at hand, it was already evening. She glanced at her phone and saw that Meng Luoyu had sent her a WeChat message, saying that she and Sangsang had already gone home.
She replied to the message and casually scrolled through her phone. A few trending news headlines appeared before her eyes. [Ling Sui — MMA's Most Spectacular Rookie King.]
She tapped on it, and it was all information she was already familiar with. Impressive fight records and a formidable family background. In particular, one word, [Empirl], was repeatedly mentioned.
Empirl, a world-renowned luxury brand, involved in the design, production, and sale of a range of products including leather goods, fragrances and cosmetics, apparel, jewelry, and timepieces. In recent years, it had also established Empirl-themed hotels and resorts.
And Ling Sui was the great-grandson of Todd Ling, one of the founding designers of the Empirl Group.
In the evening, Meng Luobai drove home.
Over all these years, Zhuoyuan hadn't changed much. It was still Longcheng's most established upscale villa district, situated in the perfect location between scenic areas and school districts—a place with value but no market.
Her car passed by the entrance of the neighboring villa. The white villa stood quiet as usual, but the yard had clearly changed. The large expanse of greenery had been replaced with a garden bursting with colorful flowers.
She silently averted her gaze, wondering what kind of person the new neighbor would be this time.
She walked into the house, where Meng Luoyu was animatedly recounting the concert to Meng Wenjian, with Sangsang occasionally adding a few words by her side.
Hearing the sound at the door, all three turned to look. Meng Luobai stepped inside. "Mom."
Meng Wenjian smiled. "You're back."
Meng Luoyu and Sangsang: "Sis."
Meng Luobai: "How was the concert?"
"Of course it was amazing! Sis, let me tell you, we even made it onto the big screen."
Meng Luobai smiled. "Is that so."
Meng Luoyu happily pulled out her phone. "Let me show you the video."
After the four women chatted for a while, Meng Wenjian stood up and said, "I'll go ask Old Sang when he'll be back."
After Meng Wenjian left, Meng Luoyu whispered to Meng Luobai, "Sis, when Sangsang and I were catching the high-speed rail, Liu Xiuyu called me. She said Chen Luojing is getting married and asked if I was going."
Hearing that name, Meng Luobai's expression cooled. "She called you?"
Meng Luoyu bore a sixty percent resemblance to Meng Luobai, with the remaining forty percent featuring softer contours. She looked clearly more gentle and refined, yet her little mouth was full of chatter. "Yeah. I told her I just started at my new job and couldn't take leave, so I couldn't go. But wait—how did she even get my number? I saw it was an unfamiliar number and just answered. When she said who she was, I was totally caught off guard."
"She said Chen Luojing saw my Moments post about going out and asked her to reach out. She also asked if Mom and Uncle had time. And if they did, what—she wanted Mom to attend their wedding? Gosh, I've barely met her a few times. How did she have the nerve to ask? She's not trying to hit me up for a red envelope, is she?"
Sangsang chimed in from the side, "Didn't Mom say Chen Luojing's fiancé is the son of the Wanxiang Hotel owner? Would their family really be short on that kind of money?"
Meng Luoyu: "You never know. A fly's leg is still meat."
Meng Luobai: "Have you told Mom about it?"
"Not yet," Meng Luoyu said. "I'm afraid it'll affect Mom's mood."
Meng Luobai smiled slightly. "It won't affect Mom's mood. Just tell her the truth—no need to feel awkward about it."
Meng Luoyu: "I'm not awkward at all. I just think it's strange."
The three sisters chatted a bit more, then Meng Wenjian came over and said Sang Jinyuan was almost home, telling them to wash up and get ready to eat.
The two younger sisters bounced off toward the bathroom, while Meng Luobai's gaze drifted to the family portrait displayed in the living room.
It was a photo of six people—Meng Wenjian, the two sisters, their stepfather Sang Jinyuan, and the siblings Sang Shu and Sangsang.
By blood, Liu Xiuyu was the wife of their uncle Chen Feng, making her their aunt. However, just one year after Meng Luoyu was born, their parents had separated.
Their father, Chen Wei, though insisting he hadn't had an affair, still abandoned his wife who was nursing an infant, along with seven- or eight-year-old Meng Luobai and ten-month-old Meng Luoyu. He took only his son Chen Yian from the twins and moved to Singapore with his "very close" "female subordinate."
Chen Wei later settled abroad and formally divorced Meng Wenjian. Chen Feng had even tried to scheme over the house belonging to the orphaned mother and daughters.
Fortunately, the property rights were clear, and their maternal uncle decisively sold the house and brought the three of them back to their maternal family, thwarting Chen Feng's plans.
From then on, contact between the two families became extremely rare—nearly nonexistent.
Chen Luojing was Chen Feng's daughter. Meng Luobai was her older cousin, half a year her senior.
They attended the same school and the same grade. Initially, the cousins' relationship was quite good. But after Meng Wenjian changed her daughters' surnames and remarried, and Chen Feng failed to stop it, Chen Luojing, following her parents' lead, completely cut off contact with the three of them.
It was only after Meng Luobai started working at the hospital that Chen Wei and his wife began contacting her more frequently. The couple had even gone so far as to "kindly" try to set her up with potential partners.
Meng Luobai had been raised at her grandmother's house until she was eight or nine, but Meng Luoyu had grown up at her maternal grandmother's home and had no memory of her paternal grandmother's family at all, having had no contact with them over the years. Even if Chen Feng's family wanted to invite them to the wedding, there was simply no reason to notify Meng Luoyu.
Still, Meng Luobai could guess what they were thinking.
A few years earlier, when their youngest son Chen Luosong got married, Chen Wei had made a special trip back to China, hoping to take the opportunity to see the two sisters. But at that time, Meng Luobai was busy with her hospital internship, and Meng Wenjian naturally wouldn't bring Meng Luoyu to meet them.
This time was probably for the same reason.
Just as she was thinking this, Meng Luoyu called out from a distance, "Sis, aren't you coming to wash your hands?"
Meng Luobai stood up. "Oh, coming."