That night, Si Nanyuan slept soundly.
But the Su household was in an uproar.
Three women were weeping and wailing, and Su Zekai felt a headache coming on.
“A-Kai, why are you letting Si Nanyuan get away with this?”
Old Madam Su couldn’t understand it. In the past, whenever she fainted, A-Kai would do as she said.
It had been that way for decades. She never expected him to suddenly change.
“That’s right! A-Kai, A-Yuan is far too spoiled.”
Liu Wan shook her head helplessly.
“I know my younger sister had a hard life before, but ever since she came back, Dad doesn’t love me anymore.”
Su Xiyue blinked, and the tears clinging to her eyelashes fell.
Whenever she did this before, Su Zekai would feel sorry for her.
But this time, he said nothing.
“I don’t care. You have to make her leave. Send her abroad or to another city, I don’t care, but she cannot stay in Kyoto.”
At the thought that her Yueyue would inherit only half the property, Old Madam Su felt her heart turn cold.
“Mom, A-Yuan is my daughter. In twenty-one years, I’ve only bought her clothes and bags once. I don’t understand. The Su family isn’t short of money, so why are you all acting as if the sky is falling?”
Su Zekai’s words left everyone stunned.
“Ever since I was a child, Mom has always favored Big Brother. I made it clear a long time ago that I had no interest in becoming head of the Su Corporation, but Mom still warned me again and again that the Su Corporation belonged to Big Brother and I shouldn’t covet it.
“After Big Brother was gone, I looked after his wife and daughter. I’ve always thought I treated them well. It was my own wife and child who suffered instead.
“Now I’ve merely bought some clothes for my only daughter. It’s not as if I’ve murdered someone or set a fire. What exactly are you unhappy about?”
What had happened today brought the past rushing back to Su Zekai. Rou’er had always been covered in bruises.
He could still clearly remember the cup Old Madam had thrown at her, splitting her forehead open.
Back then, he hadn’t stood up for her.
Guilt and remorse surged through him.
In the past, he’d thought he had only one mother, while he could always marry another wife.
Now he finally realized that he had only one wife, too. Only her.
It was after Rou’er left that he realized he had fallen in love with her long ago.
But it was too late.
“What do you mean by that? Are you blaming me? I’m your mother. Would I hurt you? That Si Yirou was a scheming woman who climbed into your bed so she could marry into a wealthy family.”
“I was the one who mistook her for someone else and got her pregnant. Can’t you get that straight?”
Furious, Su Zekai slammed the door behind him as he left.
The bang made Old Madam Su’s heart tremble.
It was the first time Su Zekai had ever been so disrespectful to her.
Early the next morning, Si Nanyuan looked over the information Shao Wanyu had given her, feeling disappointed.
After the car accident all those years ago, the driver responsible had gone to prison. Once released, he’d returned to his hometown.
She’d thought she might get some information by finding him, but who could have known he was already dead?
The trail surrounding the accident had gone cold again.
Si Nanyuan opened another file. It was about the cruise ship explosion all those years ago, and included a blurry surveillance still of Liu Wan passing the person responsible.
Surveillance cameras hadn’t been widely used back then. The only image they had was a blurry shot of the two passing each other, but Si Nanyuan didn’t believe it had been a coincidence.
The explosion had been caused by someone unknowingly bringing contraband aboard. But this had been a study tour involving hundreds of thousands of dollars—how could they have been so careless? And the person responsible had happened to die on the cruise ship, too. Most importantly, her brother had been the only child killed in the incident.
She took a deep breath and pulled out the information she’d gathered over the past month, along with the files her mother had secretly collected after becoming suspicious about her brother’s death.
The Eldest Young Master Su had gone abroad to gain experience at a branch office and died unexpectedly. Liu Wan had returned to the country heavily pregnant.
Su Zekai had taken her to prenatal checkups and for a paternity test. People in Kyoto had nearly thought Liu Wan was his wife.
Then her brother went on the study tour, and lost his life in the cruise ship explosion.
Liu Wan had suggested that Old Madam Su sign him up for the trip. Wasn’t it suspicious that an accident had happened at just that moment?
Soon after, her parents had argued over Liu Wan, and eventually ended up divorcing.
Her mother had left Dijing Garden and gotten into a car accident almost immediately. Was that really another coincidence?
While the driver responsible was in prison, his wife had suddenly had money for treatment, and his child had been able to go to school.
That was why she suspected her mother’s accident hadn’t been an accident at all.
People said it was all thanks to public donations, but she didn’t believe the money they raised could have been enough.
Liu Wan probably wouldn’t be able to sit still for much longer.
If she was behind it, then Si Nanyuan would be her next target.
“A-Yuan, are you up?”
“Mm.”
“Dad made breakfast.”
Si Nanyuan put her things away and went downstairs to have breakfast with Su Zekai.
“This tastes pretty good.”
She was a little surprised. Who would’ve thought the man could cook?
Su Zekai smiled. “Then have some more.”
“I want to ask you something.”
“Go ahead.”
Si Nanyuan wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin. “Was my mother’s car accident really an accident?”
“The drunk driver hit your mother’s car. He paid for what he did.”
The car had caught fire, then plunged into the river and burned up.
He’d had people search the river for a month, but they hadn’t found anything.
Everyone had said she was dead. He alone hadn’t believed it. He never imagined that she’d survived, yet wouldn’t come back to find him.
“You say he paid for it, but he only spent a few years in prison—and his wife and child ended up with better lives.”
“His wife had leukemia at the time. The money came from public donations.”
Disappointment filled Si Nanyuan’s eyes.
When something was out of the ordinary, there was usually a reason.
Even with donations, they’d have been lucky if there was enough to pay for a bone-marrow transplant.
They’d lived pretty comfortably all these years.
If she kept an eye on that family, she’d eventually find a clue.
“What about my brother?”
“A-Yuan, do you suspect something?”
“Shouldn’t I? All those things happened as soon as Liu Wan came back. And she was the one who suggested signing him up for that ridiculous trip.”
“I looked into it. It was an accident.”
Si Nanyuan gave a cold laugh. There had been so many wealthy children on that trip, yet her brother had been the only one to die.
She suspected the others had been too hard to fool, while Su Zekai had been the easiest target.
“You have rose-colored glasses on when it comes to your first love.”
“That was all in the past.”
He’d once thought he loved Liu Wan, too. But during all those years he’d been married to Rou’er, he’d already become unable to live without her. He hadn’t realized that all those misunderstandings would leave them separated by life and death.
“Do you believe I’ll be the next one something happens to?”
At her words, Su Zekai’s heart gave a sudden jolt. “Have you found something?”
Si Nanyuan met his eager gaze, but in the end, she said nothing.
“A-Yuan.”
“If you want to know, investigate it yourself.”
Si Nanyuan picked up her car keys and left.
Su Zekai sat alone in silence for a long time.
Global Group.
Ye Jingxiao looked at Si Nanyuan’s file. His thin lips curved into a faint, handsome sneer.
“Third Young Master, she’s President Su’s daughter who was lost for years.”
Zhou Yi was curious. The Third Young Master had actually asked him to look into a woman.
A woman! Since when was he interested in them?
“Although she grew up in a mountain village, Miss Si is no ordinary person. She was the top scorer on the college entrance exam at eleven. And a couple of days ago, at Kyoto University—”
“She has a motorcycle.”
Zhou Yi froze. There were so many things in the file that might have caught the Third Young Master’s attention, and all he’d noticed was that she owned a motorcycle.
“Mm.”
Ye Jingxiao’s lips curved slightly. He’d finally found her.