Volume 1, Chapter 172: A Bird Frightened by the Mere Twang of a Bowstring

"Would you like some water?"

With a skipped beat in his heart, Lou Ye poured a glass of water and went to feed Sang Wan. Seeing Sang Wan lie back down again, he finally set his mind at ease.

After finishing the remaining half glass of water and placing it back on the table, Lou Ye got into the large bed and instinctively pulled Sang Wan into his arms.

"Lou Ye..."

In the dark silence, Sang Wan spoke softly, "My mother's matter, is it... related to Su Baohui?"

Thump!

Lou Ye's heart gave a dull thud.

After a long moment, he said in a deep voice, "...Yes!"

Sang Wan's eyes instantly grew warm.

A myriad of extremely complex emotions washed over her all at once.

There was the bewilderment of her suspicions being confirmed.

There was the remorse for what she had failed to notice in the past.

And there was, above all, a deep sense of being moved by Lou Ye's quiet devotion.

She had expected herself to probe for every detail, but Lou Ye waited for a long time without hearing another word from Sang Wan.

Only the shoulder of his pajamas gradually grew damp and warm.

Lou Ye held Sang Wan tighter.

Sang Wan had that nightmare again, the one she hadn't experienced for a long time.

In the dream, her mother was dragging her hand, running through a misty alleyway. Curses echoed from all around, and hurried footsteps converged from every direction.

The thick fog alternated between grayish-white and murky yellow, making it impossible to see where the path ahead led, let alone whether it might be a dead end.

The mother and daughter ran on in blind panic.

From beginning to end, her mother never let go of her hand.

Someone collided with them; she fell to the ground, scrambled back up, and could only hear her mother's urgent cries tinged with tears—"Xiaowan," call after call, yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find her.

Sang Wan was like a headless fly, calling out, "Mom, Mom, where are you? Mom..."

She woke up with a start, straight into Lou Ye's gaze, which was filled with worry and deep concern.

Lifting her eyes further, she saw the window was still pitch black.

A burning pain gripped her chest, and the suffocating feeling from the dream rushed back over her heart.

Exhausted beyond measure, Sang Wan whispered, "Lou Ye, I want to go home."

"Alright!"

Lou Ye did not hesitate at all.

He got up immediately, dressed himself, and then fished out Sang Wan's clothes to help her put them on.

At three in the morning, amidst the boundless snowy landscape, Lou Ye embraced Sang Wan and walked out of the estate.

The Maybach sped away into the distance.

Back at the mid-mountain villa, the subtle, dense fragrance of fir drifted in from all directions, followed by 2S leaping straight into her arms. Sang Wan finally drifted into a deep sleep.

When she woke up again, it was already noon.

"Awake?"

Lou Ye didn't know whether he had stayed up all night or had been awake for a while. He leaned over and kissed Sang Wan gently. "Get up and have something to eat, shall we?"

"Lou Ye, I..."

"Eat first!"

Knowing what she was going to ask, Lou Ye interrupted her, pulled her up to wash, and led her to the dining room.

Two small dishes of pickles.

Two bowls of old-style wontons.

A faint aroma of sesame oil drifted into her nose; a single sniff told her they were made by Uncle Wang from the old wonton shop.

Moved by Lou Ye's thoughtfulness, Sang Wan sighed inwardly. Even though she had no appetite whatsoever, she still slowly ate half a bowl.

Noticing that Sang Wan's eating pace was slowing down and realizing she had eaten almost enough, Lou Ye spoke up.

"The accident on the day Mother passed away—I had people look into it very thoroughly. It truly was an accident. But three days after the incident, Yao Hui, the woman who started the trouble in the cell, was sent to solitary confinement for provoking the prison guards and subsequently died in that isolated cell. It was ruled a suicide."

"Yao Hui was sent in for a hit-and-run. The original plan was for her to go in and kill Mother. But security inside was tight, and activity times were strictly controlled; she never found an opportunity to make a move, and then... that accident happened on that day."

Lou Ye's explanation was concise and to the point.

Sang Wan understood.

With the confirmation that there had indeed been a miscarriage of justice in her mother's case ten years ago, the spoon in Sang Wan's hand nearly dug into her palm.

Every debt has its debtor, and every grievance has its perpetrator.

No one knew better than Su Baohui what had truly happened back then.

Clink!

Sang Wan released the spoon, raised her eyes to look at Lou Ye, and said, "I'm going to find Su Baohui."

"I'll go with you!"

"No need!"

Sang Wan stood up, stepped forward to hug Lou Ye, and murmured, "Even if you go, you won't be allowed in; you'll only have to wait outside. Go handle your business. When the time comes, you can pick me up!"

Ever since she woke up, Lou Ye's phone had been ringing incessantly.

He hadn't answered a single call.

Even the housekeeper had poked his head into the foyer several times, only to be frightened away by Lou Ye's fierce glare, leaving the same way he had come.

On the first day of the new year, whether Lou Ye wanted to return or not, the Lou family's ancestral home was a place he had to go back to.

"Let's go..."

Sang Wan linked her arm through Lou Ye's and walked toward the walk-in closet.

More than ten minutes later, two cars drove out of the mid-mountain villa one after the other.

At the same time.

In the master bedroom of Su Baohui's house, Lu Jinnian looked furious. "Mom, what on earth are you playing at?!"

The car was parked at the courtyard gate, and the thick snow inside and outside the flowerbeds, untended and uncleaned, was trampled into a chaotic mess.

Upon entering the villa, not only was there no festive atmosphere of hanging lanterns and scrolls, but the entire house was pervaded by a stale, musty odor from long neglect.

And then he learned that everyone—from the housekeeper and the chef down to several maids—had been dismissed.

On the very first day of the new year, not only could they not even have a warm family reunion meal, but they would have to go out to eat later?

Looking at Su Baohui now, Lu Jinnian felt as though she had lost her mind.

She had claimed she made plans with friends to travel abroad, but what kind of trip was so urgent that she would disregard a family reunion for the New Year?

And why fire all the domestic staff?

If she were truly going traveling, whether for half a month, two months, or three months, even if the servants were to be idle for that long, at most they would just be given a holiday. Was there any need to dismiss them outright?

Those people had served the Lu family for many years.

It wasn't as if the Lu family couldn't afford to keep them!

Su Baohui was checking her suitcases, her eyes darting away to avoid Lu Jinnian's gaze. "Oh, don't overthink it. I just figured it's better to go early and come back early. If I leave earlier, I'll be back just in time for the Spring Festival! It's just a New Year's Day; later on, call your sister, and we'll go out for a big meal at noon. Consider that celebrating the holiday!"

Her heart was pounding with a panic that defied description.

She had a persistent premonition that something terrible was about to happen.

Su Baohui only knew that the sooner she left this place, the safer she might be.

"Mom, tell me the truth. What on earth have you been up to lately?"

Lu Jinnian's expression turned cold and stern. "I had my secretary check your accounts. Over the past few months, you've transferred out more than ten million in total. What have you been doing with that money?"

"Jinnian!!!"

Losing her voice and turning pale, Su Baohui looked up at Lu Jinnian with a drained face. "I, I didn't! I haven't done anything!"

Xiao Zhong was nowhere to be found.

Xu San wasn't in the Imperial City either, only calling her every few days.

At first, he used cajolery, claiming this was the last time.

Later on, he opened his lion's maw and threatened her, saying that if the money didn't arrive, they would see each other at the Public Security Bureau bright and early the next morning.

She couldn't sleep at night.

During the day she was completely out of her wits, turning into a startled bird at the mere sound of a phone ring.

Su Baohui had no idea when this kind of life would ever end.

Perhaps, once she went abroad, when Xu San could neither contact her nor find her, he would finally give up?

After all, he was also implicated in that matter; she refused to believe he would dare to bring the matter out into the open before Lu Jinnian.

"Jinnian, don't ask anymore!"

As long as she left, it would be the end of all troubles.

Su Baohui hardened her heart. "Just pretend you know nothing about any of this. If that day truly comes, Mom promises she will never drag you down with her!"

The long-held dread finally materialized and came true at this moment.

Lu Jinnian spoke with a bitter dryness on his tongue, "That matter back then, exactly—"

"Jinnian!!!"

Su Baohui sharply interrupted Lu Jinnian's words. "I said it before, let it end here! What happened back then is all in the past, it's over!!!"

"But I have to give Wanwan an explanation!"

He knew clearly in his heart how much weight Sun Yueqing carried in Sang Wan's life.

He didn't believe Su Baohui could commit murder.

Nor did he believe Sun Yueqing could have done such a thing.

A shred of hope lingered in Lu Jinnian's heart. "Mom, tell me, what really happened back then?"