Chapter 58 The gates of the Li family compound were wide open, and car headlights shone through...

The gate of the Li family compound was wide open, and a figure with its back to the light stepped out from where the car headlights shone.

The first to betray its master was the dog at its feet, which had been completely unaware of the situation and had acted as an accomplice. It turned and ran wildly toward its master.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Li Li felt a pang of fear and hurriedly said to Tan Su, "Be careful on your way back. If you can't make it, find a hotel nearby for the night. I'm not going to take care of you."

She ran across the road and returned to Li Zhoudu's side. In the darkness, Tan Su watched as Li Zhoudu raised his hand and grasped Li Li's shoulder.

She felt a tightening grip on her shoulder and panicked. She looked up at Li Zhoudu's profile, which was staring coldly at the car, and whispered in her defense, "I didn't run around."

Li Zhoudu's gaze swept down, and before she could continue speaking, the car door opened, and Tan Su turned off the engine and got out of the car.

Ignoring Li Zhoudu's warning over the phone, he strolled over to the siblings and said, "You've come all this way, won't you even offer me a cup of tea?"

Li Zhoudu sneered: "Arriving uninvited in the dead of night, you're not a guest. Perhaps you should know that if this were abroad, the moment you set foot on this private land, the homeowner would have enough to shoot you dead."

Thinking of Li Zhizi's pistol, Li Li subconsciously took a step forward, only to be firmly pressed down by the force of a hand on her shoulder.

Tan Su's gaze fell upon him: "Then I should thank the laws of our country."

"Aren't you leaving yet?" Li Zhoudu asked.

"Then why aren't you letting go?" Tan Su retorted.

The neighbors gradually came out, and the inner courtyard was also alerted. If they really pulled out kitchen knives and hoes, things would get out of control.

This is Jixi, Li family territory, and Tan Su has no chance of gaining any advantage here.

Li Li didn't want to continue the pointless stalemate. She pulled her hand away from Li Zhoudu's, moved aside a couple of inches, and said to Tan Su, "Is that enough?"

"Your family won't really welcome you if you show up at this time."

The rumors surrounding Tan Su haven't been cleared up yet. No matter how biased Ren Wenxi is, she naturally doesn't want to see him secretly flirting with Li Li at this critical juncture, thus confirming the crimes Li Zhoudu mentioned.

Tan Su didn't say anything more.

Before long, the car drove away, and the sound of hurried footsteps came from inside the courtyard. Startled by the alarm, Wenxi hurriedly followed behind the gatekeeper.

Wenxi woke up in the middle of the night, thinking something terrible had happened, and rushed out to take charge. She found the brother and sister standing facing each other under the streetlights late at night.

Seeing that they were both alright, she felt relieved and asked, "What happened?"

Li Li glanced at Li Zhoudu and lied, saying, "I ate too much tonight and came here for a walk to digest. My brother came out to look for me."

Li Zhoudu remained silent.

Wenxi was finally relieved to hear that it was just a misunderstanding. She stepped forward to comfort the neighbors and family members who came to check on the situation, and then took Li Li's hand and walked back.

The courtyard was deep and secluded, with sparse and dense shadows of trees. Li Zhoudu's footsteps followed them at a leisurely pace.

Wenxi tapped Li Li's forehead with her finger and scolded, "Jixi is not as safe as the city. What if you run into a drunkard or a homeless person late at night? If you keep acting up, I'll really tell Fujing to teach you a lesson!"

Li Li thought to herself, "It was clearly Tan Su who took it upon himself to come to Jixi and cause trouble, but now I'm the one who's been blamed."

She lowered her eyes and saw the long shadow behind her, like an invisible chain binding her ankles. She bowed her head obediently and admitted her mistake, saying, "I really won't do it again."

——

The day they returned to Jixi coincided with Li Junchuan's trip, and their home in S City suddenly became quiet and deserted.

The villa gate was tightly closed, and the tall trees in the yard were lush and green. Apart from the aunt going out through the small gate to buy necessities at regular intervals, there was no sign of anyone else coming in or out.

Tan Yi waited in front of the door for several days.

He lowered his seat in the car, turned his head to watch the tourists taking photos, and felt calm and serene.

I suddenly remembered that many years ago, Li Li jokingly said that he was like a little dog. When no one paid attention to him, he would lie on the ground, and when he saw people, his tail would wag rapidly.

He nuzzled against Li Li's shoulder and said, "Then remember, you must pay more attention to me."

Now, it has been a long time since all my contact information was unilaterally deleted.

On the third or fourth day, a car came out of the house. He followed behind and saw the aunt get out, carrying a cage, and go into a nearby pet hospital.

Sumi hasn't had much of an appetite lately, and her aunt, thinking she might have eaten something wrong due to her age, brought her in for a checkup. The aunt registered and signed at the front desk, and when she returned, Tan Yi had already opened the cage. He comforted Sumi, gently touching her nose to let her smell his scent, and asked with lowered eyes, "Do you still remember your father?"

He raised Millet for more than five years, which is almost half of a cat's life.

The aunt was startled when she saw him playing with millet. She said, "Tan... Tan Yi."

The other person looked somewhat flustered, probably afraid that he wouldn't be able to explain to Li Li if he took the millet away.

“I just came to see the cats,” he said with a gentle smile.

"Is Li Li not home lately?" Tan Yi asked. "Didn't she come back for summer vacation?"

The aunt didn't know how to answer him, so she vaguely said, "She's quite busy with her studies."

Tan Yi said, "Okay, I understand."

He ultimately did not get to see Li Li return to S City as he had hoped, because something went wrong in Hong Kong and he was urgently summoned back by Tan Congxu to deal with it.

Tan Yi thought that Ming Baiquan's private acquisition of Huisheng's shares had encountered obstacles, but he never thought that the problem was with Qiao Zhijie.

His two shipping containers were seized by customs after being reported for smuggling, resulting in the loss of tens of millions of dollars worth of goods. The owner also faces up to seven years in prison.

All of Qiao Zhijie's large expenditures over the years have been funded by these unconventional methods. Even his parents have always thought that he was mature and sensible due to his age and were intentionally grooming him to take over the family business.

Qiao Zhijie has always been extravagant, and this time he has suffered a major setback. Not only does he have to pay out of his own pocket to cover the buyer's loss of tens of millions, but he also has to bleed money to silence the friend who took the blame for him for seven years in prison.

He was short of cash and went to the bank to borrow money. It turned out that the person on the other end was an old acquaintance of Qiao's father. He called directly to ask if he was having any business difficulties.

When the truth came out, Qiao's father was so angry that he almost had a heart attack and slapped Qiao Zhijie across the face.

When Qiao Zhijie realized that his plan had been exposed, he knelt on the ground and insisted that such a precise sniping must have been done by Tan Yi, who betrayed him. He claimed that no one else could possibly have been capable of tracking down his goods.

He had nothing to lose, so he decided to just spill the beans and reveal the whole story.

When he started this business, Tan Yi was indispensable in devising the strategy, and Tan Yi also played a crucial role in its success. He must now have Qiao Kaiqing as his backer, and in order to please her, he turned around and harmed me!

That must be it!

Tan Yi went back and confronted Qiao Zhijie, who was attacking him like a mad dog, and only then did he learn what had happened.

During the dinner, he calmly explained that he had been in mainland China recently and did not have the time or energy to do this.

Qiao Zhijie was sarcastic and mocking throughout, saying, "You really think you can just turn your back on me and get away with it? Have you cleaned up the mess you made on the boat? Who doesn't know who?"

Qiao Kaiqing sneered: "So self-righteous, anyone who doesn't know the situation would think that Tan Yi is the one who broke the law."

"What did you say?" Qiao Zhijie was furious.

Mr. Qiao spoke up to stop the siblings from arguing.

Tan Yi did not continue to argue.

On the way back, Tan Yi calmly asked, "Was it your wife who did it? Did you push me out to give Qiao Zhijie some venting and distraction?"

Tan Congxu closed his eyes to rest, and said, "Does it matter who did it? Haven't you already clarified things?"

Tan Yi sneered: "Do you really think they believe it?"

Tan Congxu said calmly, "No matter what, the most important thing right now is to take Huisheng from Tan Su. We need more cash flow, and at least for now, Kaiqing cannot be involved."

Tan Yi smiled, looking out the window with a calm demeanor as if he had expected this day: "This is the first time I've known what it feels like to be pushed out by someone else. Dad."

——

After spending two weeks in Jixi, Li Li returned to S City. Her aunt told her that because Su Mi was getting old, her digestive system was not functioning well, and the vet recommended that she switch to senior cat food as soon as possible.

She was saddened by the news, and while combing her cat's fur, she buried her face in its chest and stared blankly for a long time.

I got up late at night, took millet downstairs to get a drink of water, and saw the light on in the study as I passed by.

Li Zhoudu had taken a shower, was wearing pajamas, and leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed.

Li Li thought Li Zhoudu had fallen asleep from being busy, hesitated for a moment, then let go of Su Mi and went inside to call him back to his room to sleep.

She walked to the computer desk, raised her finger to poke Li Zhoudu's arm, and suddenly saw the financial reports of other companies on the lit computer desktop. Li Li was very familiar with that logo; she had worked there before and recognized it at a glance.

She glanced at Li Zhoudu, held her breath, and quietly reached out to scroll his mouse wheel.

With a barely audible "click," her wrist was suddenly gripped by another hand.

She turned around in shock and saw Li Zhoudu's clear eyes open.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Li Li said in a panic, "How could you have this? Yan Qi's semi-annual report is not yet due for public disclosure."

Li Zhoudu did not answer her question, but said, "So?"

"Who gave it to you?" she asked. "What do you want it to do?"

Li Zhoudu asked again, "So?"

Perhaps it was because the surroundings were too quiet and the atmosphere too eerie, but Li Li sensed an inexplicable danger from Li Zhoudu's behavior. She calmed herself down and brought up Li Junchuan: "Uncle once said that you shouldn't touch areas you're not familiar with. Brother, I think what you're doing is wrong."

Li Zhoudu chuckled and raised his hand to pinch her cheek: "Then do you know what's even more wrong, little kitten?"

"What?" she asked, puzzled.

“It’s even worse to betray your own people and side with outsiders,” Li Zhoudu asked with a smile. “Are you going to tell him? Are you going to help Tan Su and turn against me?”

Li Li's eyes widened, and she retorted sharply, "You know perfectly well that's not what I meant! How could I—"

“Then you’d better be smart,” he interrupted Li Li, releasing her wrist and saying coldly, “Get out.”

But Li Li didn't leave. She stood beside Li Zhoudu, her breath rising and falling with the rhythm of her nightgown. She said, "Brother, you're perfectly fine, and you have no grudge against Tan Su. Why do you have to make such a fuss?"

“He’s really annoying,” Li Zhoudu said, looking at the computer. “The way his eyes are always staring at you is really annoying.”

The person beside him remained silent. He raised his eyes, looked at her pale face, and asked with a smile, "Li Li, you don't really think that Tan Su's relentless pursuit of you is for so-called love?"

He said, "How much is love worth to someone like him who would kill even his own uncle? If someone swallows your thin bones, can you even spit out a crumb?"

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Author's Note: [Please] I rewrote several hundred words.