Lou Qiyun didn’t even lift her eyelids, merely pointing casually to the right.
“Are you blind? Can’t you see?”
Against the left wall of the study stood a full row of towering bookshelves.
They were piled high with ancient texts and thread-bound books, their yellowed pages emitting a faint scent of ink.
To the right, an enormous electronic screen was embedded across the entire wall.
The screen was divided into tiny grids.
Each grid was playing different footage in real time, densely packed.
Covering almost every corner of the Lou Family estate.
The garden, corridors, living room, servants’ quarters, garage…
Nothing was missed, leaving no blind spots.
Only the screen in the middle remained completely black.
She walked forward slowly, her footsteps almost soundless.
Reaching the desk, she threw the tissue-wrapped fragments onto the desktop with a sharp “smack.”
“Here, take this back.”
Her tone dripped with sarcasm.
As if she had seen through all his hypocritical disguises, or was sneering at his self-righteousness.
The air seemed to freeze instantly.
Lou Tingwen’s pupils contracted sharply.
His mind uncontrollably recalled the last faint words heard before that surveillance device stopped working.
“Where’s my thank-you gift?”
That sentence instantly ignited the fury in his heart.
With a “roar,” rage surged to the top of his head.
He stood up abruptly, shoving the chair backward violently until it hit the wall with a dull “thud.”
He stormed toward her.
He pressed down hard on her freshly medicated wound.
The marks left by his own belt whipping days earlier.
Now, he showed not the slightest trace of compassion.
Instead, he ground down ruthlessly without mercy.
Pain shot through her entire body.
Yet Lou Qiyun didn’t even flinch.
“Thank-you gift?”
He gnashed his teeth.
“How did you serve him?”
Lou Qiyun remained standing motionless, her posture straight as bamboo.
She even faintly curved the corners of her lips upward.
“Need a knife? I’ll lend you one.”
“Cut deeper, leave a scar if you want.”
After all, now you only have Lou Tinglan left to use.
Lou Tingwen’s hand paused, his pressure suddenly easing slightly.
He stared at her fiercely, his expression terrifyingly dark.
After a moment, his thumb—calloused from years of gripping guns—
“No marks.”
“Who is he?”
Lou Qiyun still stood in place, her figure erect.
“Who it is doesn’t matter.”
He took a sudden step forward, arm raised high, his eyes filled with ferocity.
“Bitch! Bitch!”
Lou Qiyun’s face remained exquisitely beautiful, her features picturesque, lips slightly pressed together.
Yet in that violent instant, Lou Tingwen suddenly halted his movement.
“You can only belong to me.”
“Who gets you is my decision.”
“Understood?”
Lou Qiyun didn’t retreat or lower her head.
“Is that so?”
Her tone was calm.
“But besides him, wasn’t there also Wu Haifeng—the one you personally arranged—who’s interested in me?”
“Besides, regardless of who it is, the Lou Family can’t afford to provoke them, right?”
Lou Tingwen’s body jolted violently, his face instantly flushing red.
He wanted to shout angrily, to retort.
But though his mouth opened, not a single word emerged.
Because what she said was indeed the truth.
Those people he had secretly arranged, those situations he thought he controlled.
Now torn open by her casual remarks, exposing his most shameful aspects.
Lou Qiyun quietly watched his face, a faint trace of satisfaction flashing through her eyes.
She looked at him as if viewing a hollow joke.
“From now on, no more surveillance cameras in my room.”
She spoke calmly.
“Why?”
He gritted his teeth, forcing out the words.
“Because,” she chuckled lightly, her gaze suddenly turning profound, “the one holding the Obsidian Card doesn’t like it.”
With that, she didn’t spare him another glance and turned to leave.
After a few steps, a man’s voice, suppressed to the extreme, came from the direction of the study behind her.
“Bring the madam to the study!”
Lou Qiyun’s footsteps paused slightly, the tips of her shoes halting gently on the floor.
She didn’t turn back or respond, only her eyelashes fluttered faintly.
She walked through the corridor, passing by the study door.
Then, she slowly descended the stairs, each step steady and firm.
Just as she rounded the corner of the corridor.
She saw the Butler walking over with Cheng Yunying, his head bowed and his expression grave.
Cheng Yunying followed behind, her steps sluggish.
She was different from usual.
The arrogance she always carried had completely vanished.
Lou Qiyun had only descended three steps when a sharp, piercing cry suddenly came from the direction of the study behind her.
But she didn’t turn back or stop.
Finally, she clenched her fist, said nothing, and turned back to her room.
The door closed softly.
She walked straight to the desk and opened her laptop.
The blue glow of the screen illuminated her cool, detached face.
Her fingers tapped lightly on the keyboard, and she then initiated a video call.
On the other side of the screen, Wei Junyi was sitting on a soft bed.
A small folding table was set up in front of him, with a slim laptop on it.
Beside it was a transparent plastic fruit plate.
He held a fruit fork in one hand, munching on the fruit with a crunch.
The bandage wrapped around his right pinky and ring finger was sloppy, hanging loosely.
It shifted occasionally as he typed, revealing the faint edges of the wound beneath.
Lou Qiyun watched him quietly on the screen.
“Stop fooling around. How’s the injury?”
Hearing this, Wei Junyi immediately stopped typing, set the fruit fork aside, and waved at the screen.
He blinked, his tone light. “It’s nothing, just a small cut. It really doesn’t hurt, don’t worry. I just slipped while cutting fruit and nicked my finger. It barely bled.”
Lou Qiyun leaned against the bed, her back resting against the cool wooden headboard.
She lowered her head, pursed her lips, and after a moment asked softly, “That’s good.”
“How’s the income from music lately?”
She didn’t want to be trapped in the Lou Family’s cage for the rest of her life, nor did she want to live under the label of “sinner.”
Those two words were like a brand, seared into her name and into the way everyone looked at her.
So, years ago, she had quietly leveraged her musical talent to enter the entertainment industry anonymously, working as a behind-the-scenes musician.
Writing songs, composing, mixing—starting from small, unnoticed projects, she gradually built connections and funds.
Her goal was never fame or glory.
It was to earn money, save enough capital, and quietly buy back the shares of the Lou Family that once belonged to her.
To avoid alerting her father, Lou Tingwen.
She never appeared in public.
All contracts, transactions, and settlements were handled by Wei Junyi.
He was her only contact and her most trusted executor.
“About two hundred million.”
Wei Junyi scratched his head, his tone casual.
“Before taxes, Sister Lou. Several of our compositions recently had their copyrights bought out by film companies, and a few major singers used our arrangements—the royalties have come in.”
He paused, suddenly dropping his smile and frowning as he cautioned.
“Sister Lou, are you planning to continue buying Lou Family stocks? But the share price has surged recently—it’s not a good time. Market sentiment is too high; the risks are substantial.”
Lou Qiyun lowered her head with a faint smile.
She lifted her gaze, her eyes staring straight at Wei Junyi through the screen.