As soon as Lele got out of school, Fan Yingjiao picked her up.
The Qiao family's driver waited around the school gate for Lele to come out, but she didn't. He asked her classmates and teachers, but they all said they hadn't seen Lele. Only then did the driver call Qiao An to inform her.
While Qiao An was contacting Lele's homeroom teacher to check the surveillance footage, Lele had already gotten into Fan Yingjiao's car.
Qiao An reacted quickly. Before the school's surveillance footage could find anything, he immediately contacted the relevant departments to block all roads leading out of the city. Now, even a dog trying to leave Wencheng would have to be investigated.
Fan Yingjiao couldn't leave the city with Lele, so she drove back to the Xiyou headquarters and took Lele to a storage room connected to the monitoring room.
She bent down, staring at Lele, and smiled sinisterly.
"Lele, you wait for me here, be good. I'm going out to talk to them about something. If things go smoothly, you'll be out soon."
Fan Yingjiao reached out and pinched Lele's delicate cheeks a few times.
Lele's big eyes were filled with fear, his eyelashes trembling. He huddled in the corner and asked softly,
Are you going to lock me up here?
Fan Yingjiao stood up, looking down at the poor little creature on the ground.
"Don't be scared, it'll only be locked for a little while."
The combination lock in the room clicked shut, and the clattering sound of Fan Yingjiao's high heels grew fainter and fainter until it disappeared.
Lele stared blankly in the direction Fan Yingjiao had left. He was actually thinking that the lock was completely useless and why it was locked for no reason.
Lele puffed out his cheeks and exhaled, then stood up using his soft, white hands to support himself on the cold floor. He walked to the door and called out a few times.
The house was very soundproof, and few people walked by outside. Lele pressed her ear against the door and listened outside, knowing that shouting would be useless.
He rummaged through the small storage room and found a roll of packing tape with the grapefruit logo printed on it.
The door has a combination lock that can be opened by entering a password or by fingerprint recognition.
Lele tore off a piece of tape and carefully traced it on the fingerprint recognition area. She held the tape up to the light and looked at it; a clear fingerprint was imprinted on it.
Then Lele covered the fingerprint-enabled tape onto the fingerprint unlock area, pressed the [unlock] button, and the high-end fingerprint lock opened instantly.
Stepping out of this small storage room, the outer room is a monitoring room. This is a technical monitoring room that is not frequently used; people usually only come here temporarily when there is work to be done.
Lele walked over to the main unit and looked at it. A line of red text scrolled across the screen: "[Grapefruit Desserts launches a limited-edition Mid-Autumn Festival Chinese-style gift box. Pre-orders are welcome.]"
The text looked familiar. Lele thought for a moment and realized he had seen it on the LED screen of the Xiyou Building. The page currently open on this host should be the backend control system of the LED screen.
Lele sat down in the chair in front of the screen, clicked on the system page with the mouse, and a password dialog box popped up.
"Sigh..." he sighed softly, "This password is practically useless." Then he cracked the password in less than 10 minutes.
After successfully accessing the control panel on the display screen, Lele typed a line of text on the keyboard, thought for a moment, then deleted it. She typed and deleted again, going back and forth several times. Frustrated, Lele scratched her head. Sure enough, text was much more difficult to deal with.
Qiao An quickly located Fan Yingjiao's red Porsche through the school's surveillance footage. Following the trail of the red Porsche, she tracked it all the way to the Xiyou Building. Less than half an hour after discovering Lele's disappearance, Qiao An and Du Xiaoruo had already appeared at the entrance of the Xiyou Building.
Fan Yue had already arrived here after receiving a call from Qiao An. The first thing she did upon seeing Qiao An and his wife was to bow and apologize.
Regardless of whether Lele is actually in the group building or not, the fact that Fan Yingjiao attempted to kidnap Lele has already been established. If this matter is exposed, who knows what kind of storm Xiyou will face.
"Let's go in and check. Hopefully, no one is hurt."
Joan's face was cold and menacing. She left the rest of her sentence unsaid: If anything happens to him, then Xiyou should go bankrupt to atone for his sins.
As everyone walked into the building, Du Xiaoruo paused and pointed to the huge LED screen, indicating that Qiao An should look in that direction.
The text that was originally an advertisement for grapefruit for the Mid-Autumn Festival has disappeared from the screen, and several lines of text have appeared on the vertical screen.
Qiao An's father,
Although you are not Qiao Rukun's child
Instead, it was Grandpa Jin's child.
But it doesn't matter.
What you often tell me,
It doesn't matter whose child it is.
Being yourself is the most important thing.
today,
I'd also like to share this saying with you.
Be the best version of yourself!
Love you,
I will always remember your voice, your face, and your smile.
Upon seeing the last sentence, Du Xiaoruo couldn't help but burst out laughing. She remembered Qiao An's voice and smile; it was definitely Lele.
Qiao An sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Qiao Rukun"—two out of three characters were wrong, not to mention that awful description of his voice and mannerisms. Wasn't his ridiculously expensive Chinese tutor supposed to be the best in the city? Was he just trying to scam him?
When Qiao An and Du Xiaoruo picked up Lele, Lele's love letter was photographed by netizens and uploaded online, causing a public outcry.
[My God! Before, when they said Qiao An wasn't Jin Xizhen's son, I thought he was Qiao Rukun's illegitimate son. Now they're suddenly telling me that Qiao An is actually Jin Jin's son. Could this story get any more ridiculous?]
I knew that drama often happens in wealthy families, but I never imagined it would be this dramatic. It's just too dramatic.
[Waiting for an official response. How could Qiao An be Jin Jin's son? And how did Lele end up at Xiyou? Let's wait for the answers.]
[Lele's comment is so apt; if I hadn't read the beginning and only looked at the last sentence, I would have thought that Boss Ha had died, hahaha.]
Although...but...doesn't anyone think Lele's confession was romantic?
[Romantic +1, this is Xiao Le's unique way of being romantic, though typos are everywhere.]
Qiao An repeatedly confirmed with Lele whether Fan Yingjiao had hit him or was injured. Lele shook his head and denied it. Fan Yue breathed a sigh of relief, but when he thought about the series of negative impacts that Fan Yingjiao's stupid thing would bring, Fan Yue was so angry that his liver hurt.
"Let's go together." Qiao An placed her hands on Lele's shoulders, a smile on her lips, it was unclear whether she was seeing that Lele was alright or mocking Fan Yingjiao.
“Fan Yue, your sister is now using Lele to threaten my mother, saying she wants half of Jinchan’s shares.”
As soon as she said that, Fan Yue was certain that Qiao An was mocking her; anyone would find that kind of joke funny.
Fan Yue's face turned ashen, and she got into her car with a stern expression. The joke was funny, but she couldn't laugh at all.
In the Jin family's old house, Fan Yingjiao was arrogant. As soon as she said that Lele was in her hands, Zhang Yanshu agreed to redistribute the shares. It seems that Zhang Yanshu is just a figurehead. He seems so powerful on the surface, but he can scare her with a few words and she will be scared.
Hearing the sound of a car outside the gate, Zhang Yanshu glanced at Fan Yingjiao with a nonchalant sneer on her face. She just wanted to keep Fan Yingjiao calm, but she didn't expect that this fool would actually think that she could get half of Jinchan's shares.
Zhang Yanshu stood up, dusted off his clothes, and said, "Alright, let's call it a day. It's time to get down to business."
The tone was like teasing a dog.
Fan Yingjiao wondered why Zhang Yanshu had suddenly changed his attitude. Following her gaze, she turned around and her expression froze, her temples throbbing.
Lele, holding Du Xiaoruo's hand, skipped and hopped into the yard. She looked quite happy and didn't seem like she had just been kidnapped at all.
"Lele?" Fan Yingjiao's pupils dilated, and her voice was sharp and hoarse.
Lele saw that Fan Yingjiao was also quite angry, and he scolded her,
“Aunt Fan, I’ve known for a long time that my father isn’t Qiao Rukun’s child. Why did you lock me up when you were discussing things?”
Fan Yingjiao's fear turned into confusion, and she asked with a puzzled look,
“When did I say that Qiao An wasn’t Qiao Rukun’s child? I said that you weren’t Qiao Rukun’s child.”
Lele shouted back loudly, "That's right, I wasn't Qiao Rukun's child to begin with, do you need to tell me that?"
Fan Yingjiao, "...No, you've confused me. I was talking about you, not Qiao An..."
That's enough.
Zhang Yanshu interrupted Fan Yingjiao.
"Fool, you're both wicked and stupid! Jin Chan's legal department has already issued a statement clarifying Qiao An's identity. In addition, Jin Qihuai, Fan Yingjiao, and Jin Xingming will have absolutely no connection with our Jin family from now on. The legal department will send people to take back Yuan Yan's resort tomorrow. You should prepare for the handover."
Fan Yingjiao then realized the seriousness of the situation, and she knelt down to beg.
"Mom, this has nothing to do with Qi Huai. He doesn't know what I did. You can't take back the resort. I'm going back right now. I promise I'll never appear in front of you again. Mom, I beg you, you can't treat us like this."
Fan Yue looked away, unable to bear watching.
Zhang Yanshu ignored the weeping Fan Yingjiao and turned to look at Fan Yue instead.
"Fan Yue is here too? I'm sorry about this. The legal department has already made it public that Fan Yingjiao attempted to kidnap my Lele. This will probably have a significant impact on public opinion regarding Xiyou. I know you're in charge of Xiyou now, and you've worked hard."
Fan Yue's eyes were filled with bitterness, but she still managed a polite smile.
"We, the Fan family, deserve everything we have today because we raised such a child."
Zhang Yanshu praised Fan Yue for being sensible and insightful, but also wondered how Fan Yue and Fan Yingjiao could be so different, given that they had the same parents and the same upbringing.
Fan Yue was too ashamed to stay there any longer, so she dragged Fan Yingjiao out of the Jin family home.
After they left, Qiao An also said goodbye to Jin Jin and his wife. She was going to see a lawyer the next morning, and they also needed to go back and help Lele with her mental preparation.
Zhang Yanshu and Jin Jin escorted them to the door and personally saw them to their car. Standing by the car, Zhang Yanshu said to Qiao An...
"After we settle things with the Qiao family tomorrow, come back here. We need to set a date for the family reunion. Even if you don't like extravagance and noise, we still need to make things clear to the family and company."
"Okay, Mom, I'll be back as soon as I'm done."
The Rolls-Royce drove through Wencheng at night. The cool breeze felt pleasant on her face. Lele leaned against the window for a while, enjoying the breeze, when suddenly she remembered something, turned to Du Xiaoruo, and asked...
"Mom, they seemed to be talking about kidnapping. Who was kidnapped?"
Du Xiaoruo patted Lele's fluffy head with pity, a gentle smile on her face. "No one was kidnapped. They were just talking about a TV series they watched this afternoon."
But what I was really thinking was, "Xiao Le, are you stupid or smart?"
A new ice cream shop has opened on the first floor of Jinchan Department Store. You can see people dressed as ice cream mascots attracting customers from a distance through the car window.
Qiao An looked at Lele in the rearview mirror. "Lele, do you want to get some ice cream?"
"Isn't it bad to eat ice cream this late?" Lele said no, but her big eyes were already glued to the two dolls. She muttered softly, "But they're wearing strawberry-flavored ice cream clothes."
Qiao An chuckled and drove the car into the parking lot of Jinchan Department Store.
Yingge is planned as the most upscale residential area in the city. The ice cream shop that can be opened in Jinchan is also top-notch in terms of environment and quality, and the price is astonishing. The three of us just ordered a few snacks and it exceeded the average salary in Wencheng.
In a private, padded booth at the ice cream shop, Lele scooped up a spoonful of ice cream with lemon-flavored potato chips, then stuffed the chips and ice cream into her mouth together, chewing with a satisfied expression.
Joan was utterly disgusted. "Who taught you to eat ice cream like that?"
Lele, unable to speak as she bit into her ice cream, responded to Qiao An with a sweet smile through her big, curved eyes.
Seeing his satisfied and radiant smile, and thinking about what he was about to say, Qiao An felt a pang of sadness. He looked at Du Xiaoruo for help.
Du Xiaoruo immediately looked away. She didn't want to talk to Lele about this kind of thing. Adults should handle their own affairs.
Qiao An sat up straight and cleared her throat. "Lele, I have something to tell you."
Lele's attention was entirely on the ice cream, and she nodded perfunctorily.
Joan lifted his head to look at him, forcing Lele to listen to him. "Lele, now listen to me properly, with all your comprehension, okay?"
Lele was very confident, "I don't need to try so hard to understand what you're saying, just say what you want to say."
Qiao An glanced at Du Xiaoruo again. Du Xiaoruo had no choice but to advise Lele, "Lele, try to understand."
"All right."
Fearing that Lele wouldn't understand, Qiao An spoke very slowly, pausing from time to time to ask him if he understood.
In short, when Lele was still a baby, Qiao Rukun brought him back and entrusted him to Qiao An to raise. Now that Qiao Rukun is about to announce his will, Qiao An has no choice but to tell him the truth.
Lele stared wide-eyed, her brown pupils like pools of autumn water, looking pitiful and helpless.
He looked at Qiao An with a confused expression, then at Du Xiaoruo with a pitiful look, "So what's going on now? Are you saying you don't want me anymore?"
“No,” Joanne immediately assured her. “As long as you want to live with us, you can stay with us forever. If you don’t want to reveal your identity, I can arrange that too. To the outside world, you will always be my child.”
Lele looked at Du Xiaoruo with teary eyes, "Mommy, what about you? Do you still want me?"
"Yes, yes, I want yours too." Du Xiaoruo wiped away his tears; the poor little guy's crying was heartbreaking.
Hearing that they both made their promises, Lele breathed a huge sigh of relief and stuffed a big mouthful of ice cream into her mouth. But then sadness welled up inside her again, and she ate her ice cream while lamenting her fate.
Joanne wasn't sure if he understood, so she repeated it again.
"They might mention this when they announce the will tomorrow, and Qiao Rukun might leave his estate to you. You should be mentally prepared so you won't be scared when the time comes."
Lele seemed to suddenly understand something, and began to cry softly with a pout, her thin shoulders trembling as she sobbed.
Qiao An and Du Xiaoruo frantically tried to comfort her. They had just agreed on something, so why was she suddenly crying so hard? Was her reaction time too slow, and she was only just realizing what was happening?
Lele cried for a long time before finally asking through sobs,
"If I inherit the shares, will I be unable to work for the National Security Bureau? The Civil Servant Law explicitly prohibits civil servants from engaging in or participating in profit-making activities. Ah~~~ This is not what I want at all. What would I do with the money? I clearly have my own dreams."
When she got to the sad part, Lele's tears welled up, her nose turned red from crying, and she looked miserable.
Du Xiaoruo and Qiao An looked at each other in bewilderment. They had considered all the possible consequences beforehand, but they never expected Lele's thought process to be so peculiar.
Qiao An grabbed a tissue and wiped his face haphazardly. "Don't cry. The share issue is easy to handle. If you want to realize your dreams, you need to study Chinese properly."
Lele pouted, the injured little puppy still couldn't resist retorting, "My Chinese has improved now, didn't you see what I wrote on the screen today?"
Joan gently wiped away his tears.
"Speaking of this, don't force me to beat you up when you're most upset. Is that how you use your voice, appearance, and smile? You got two out of three questions wrong by Qiao Rukun, and you still have the nerve to tell me you've improved? Have you gotten too cocky lately?"
Lele was inexplicably scolded and finally quieted down, vowing to study Chinese harder starting tomorrow.
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