Chapter 152

At night, the two of them finally gathered together and had a long-delayed dinner.

Zhong Ning sighed and said, “I really hope all of this ends soon.”

Xie Shiqing’s hand, holding the chopsticks, paused for a moment before she echoed the complaint, “Yeah, me too. I’ve been so busy lately, haven’t had a proper rest.”

She lowered her head and scooped up some rice from her bowl.

There was no way she could be not busy. The operation targeting the Zhong family had already begun. The Head of the Zhong family was busy trying to solve problems, while she was busy creating them.

The day she would finally not be busy was the day she brought down and took over the Zhong family.

However, Zhong Zinuan had been unusually quiet lately. She hadn’t made any moves.

Though this person was narrow-minded and venomous, she always cleaned up thoroughly after stirring up trouble, never leaving any traces to be found.

Xie Shiqing suspected that she never got her own hands dirty, always inciting others to act on her behalf, which was why she could keep her record so squeaky clean.

But a dark mind alone wasn’t enough to convict someone.

If only there were some incriminating evidence.

She thought for a moment and turned her gaze to the past. Even if she was now skilled, it was impossible for someone so young back then to have had such abilities, right?

Unfortunately, Zhong Ning wasn’t the original Zhong Ning. Xie Shiqing had tried to probe indirectly, only to find that she knew nothing at all. That meant there was no breakthrough to be made from her.

Such a nuisance. What she thought would be an easy target turned out to be as slippery as a mudfish.

Everyone knew it was her, but not a single piece of evidence could be found.

Xie Shiqing shifted her attention to Le Xi.

Since one lead was fruitless, she would switch to a more promising one.

When she was younger, Le Xi had truly been a reckless and unruly delinquent—smoking, drinking, clubbing, racing—she missed none of it. She partied every day, changed girlfriends monthly. Strangely enough, Zhong Zinuan was always by her side. Their relationship was extremely peculiar, like friends, but also like a couple. Yet Zhong Zinuan never meddled in Le Xi’s constant string of flings.

If she wanted to dig up dirt on her, there was more than enough to go around.

Xie Shiqing read the private investigator’s report and even felt a bit amused. This was practically the textbook image of a stereotypical villain in a CEO drama—one of those spoiled brats waiting to be slapped in the face by the protagonist.

But all this dirt couldn’t hurt Le Xi. She didn’t rely on her looks to get by.

She listened through the report line by line, when suddenly, she heard something odd.

Back in high school, Le Xi only completed half a semester of her second year before she suddenly went abroad.

She had been doing just fine at her original school, so why did she leave? The reason was a complete blank. Could it be that she had gotten into some kind of trouble? Was it deliberately covered up?

Chapter 57

Le Xi’s sudden departure overseas, and her return a year later, seemed to have turned her into a completely different person—from the former delinquent to the sharp and shrewd version she was now. All those former party friends had been cut off one by one.

How likely was it for someone to suddenly have a change of heart?

Xie Shiqing was more inclined to believe that something had happened to her.

That suspicion reached its peak when she tried to uncover the reason and repeatedly failed.

There were traces of deliberate cover-up.

Xie Shiqing harbored some resentment toward Le Xi—not just because she and Zhong Zinuan were in cahoots, but also because the car accident years ago had been caused by a driver from the Le family. The driver had been in a hurry to pick up Le Xi, drove recklessly and fast, and was even drunk behind the wheel, ultimately leading to the tragedy.

What’s more, the timing of Le Xi’s departure overseas—Xie Shiqing had checked—was right after the accident.

At the time, she had just experienced a major upheaval, was hospitalized for a long while, and was overwhelmed with company affairs. The police had said the case was closed, that the perpetrator was already in prison and would likely never be released.

The Le family had publicly claimed they were sending Le Xi abroad to discipline her, which sounded reasonable enough.

But for some reason, when Xie Shiqing revisited that sensitive timeline, she suddenly felt something was off.

Le Xi going abroad. The car accident. Zhong Zinuan being with Le Xi. Then suddenly, after the accident, she no longer clung to her...

The day before the accident, Zhong Zinuan had even come to her house, insisting on sticking close to her. There was no way one car accident, even if it had cost her her sight, would make Zhong Zinuan just give up like that—especially when she still made a scene at the engagement banquet.

Xie Shiqing’s heart skipped a heavy beat.

She suddenly remembered that the funeral had been organized by the Zhong family, and it was also the Head of the Zhong family who had handled accountability for the perpetrator.

Was that driver really the one responsible?

He had driven from his home to the site of the accident. There should have been surveillance footage along the way, right?

Xie Shiqing immediately ordered someone to investigate, and a day later, the results came back—no surveillance.

All the cameras were from damaged road sections, all the surveillance equipment was broken, or there had been problems with newly installed machines. Several hours of footage were missing—precisely including the period during which the accident occurred.

Could that really be a coincidence?

How could such a coincidence possibly exist in this world!

Xie Shiqing covered her face and laughed, bending over with laughter as though her heart and lungs might burst from it.

She wouldn’t be able to uncover anything—too much time had passed, and the final cleanup had clearly been done by an old fox.

But the real answer was already surfacing.

That car accident of hers absolutely had something to do with those two! Given Zhong Zinuan’s extreme tendencies, she was definitely capable of orchestrating such a thing. As for Zhong Lin, she always left herself a way out—not because Xie Shiqing had any faith in her character, but because Zhong Lin was the type who would never let herself be exposed by such a major mistake.

But she would absolutely go along with it once the plan was set in motion.

Now that she thought about it, when the Xie Corporation suddenly collapsed back then, how much of it had been orchestrated by that Aunt Zhong? In her past life, she’d been stupidly naive, believing in Zhong Lin’s sweet words, thinking of her as someone who was sincere and loyal, a breath of fresh air.

Her lack of defenses must have seemed laughable and pathetic in Zhong Lin’s eyes. Who knew how many times she had mocked her behind her back?

Their tactics had already been deployed long ago. If she hadn’t survived by a stroke of luck—and happened to have some actual ability—the Xie Corporation probably wouldn’t even be a name now, and she wouldn’t have any place to speak at all.

Compared to the methods used by these people, she was still far too soft.

…

As the end of the year arrived, people who had been busy for so long finally got a brief moment to rest and gather together for the New Year.

Xie Shiqing and Zhong Ning spent the New Year at the Zhong family home. For some reason, Zhong Ning couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off at the dinner table—it just didn’t feel like the New Year.

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