"Uncle Lu, Brother Lu, I'll go make a phone call first. Please excuse me."
Lu Qing knew that he wanted to give the Ji family a heads-up in advance. Fortunately, he did not choose to side with Ji Lan, otherwise he would never have seen his daughter again.
"Go."
After receiving permission, Ji Yan took her phone and walked towards the garden, silently thinking about what she was going to say next.
Looking at Ji Yan's lonely figure, Lu Ci sighed regretfully, "He wasn't like this before. He loved Sui Sui terribly, but he was just unlucky to have such an aunt."
Lu Qing nodded in agreement, "As long as Ji Lan is not eliminated, not only our Lu family, but also his Ji family will never have a peaceful day."
"But Dad, Ji Lan likes you so much, why aren't you interested?"
"If your dad were interested, would you still be here mocking me today?"
Lu Qing glared at him with displeasure, then said, "Your dad is much better than you. Unlike you, who's still a virgin at your age. What good is a pretty face?"
"Let's not talk about that for now, Dad. I'm thinking of going to the branch office in Country C for a while. I might have to stay there for some time."
Why is that?
“Ji Yan and I have searched both Country A and Country Z thoroughly. I think Sui Sui is very likely in Country C. My intuition is right. She must still be alive.”
"Okay, I'll manage things here. Your most important task now is to find Sui Sui and bring her back."
After saying that, Lu Qing walked towards the door. Xia Changhuan and Lu Ang in the hospital didn't know about Sui Sui's disappearance yet, so he had to keep an eye on them. He absolutely couldn't let them know about this before he found Sui Sui.
In the garden.
Ji Yan and Ji Ming started a video call. In the video, the old man, the old lady, and An He were all sitting on the sofa.
"Ayan, how have you and Yingying been doing lately?" Anhe asked with concern.
Since Bu Yi was discharged from the hospital, she and Ji Ming have returned to the Ji family. In fact, she really wanted to ask Bu Yi, but she didn't dare to let Ji Yan know about it.
Ji Yan didn't reply. His expressionless face made Ji Ming think that his phone was lagging. "Hey, is the network bad? It shouldn't be."
"Dad." Ji Yan called out to him after a long time, his tone filled with a sense of grievance and heartache that Ji Ming had never felt before.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Ji Ming's tone also became anxious.
“Buyi is my daughter with Yingying. She is the child from three years ago.”
Anhe's eyes widened immediately, and she excitedly rushed to her phone. "Is it true? You're not lying to me?"
She was so deeply in love with Buyi that she wished she could have her by her side every day.
It turns out she wasn't just a granddaughter, but also the only grandchild in the Ji family—her own granddaughter.
"Mom, it's true, Yingying told me herself."
Because she was so close to the phone, Anhe could clearly see the tears streaming down his face. She asked, puzzled, "This is a good thing, why are you crying? Are you crying tears of joy?"
"Bu Yi was kidnapped the night before last. The other party hung her on the sea surface and pointed five sniper rifles at her at the same time, wanting to kill her."
"What did you say?" The exclamation came from the old man's mouth, and Ji Ming quickly moved the camera in the old man's direction.
Because the old man's question was also his own, he anxiously followed up, "Is Bu Yi alright? Is she injured?"
“Yingying jumped into the sea, and I had the sniper cut the rope. Buyi was saved by her, and I also jumped into the sea to save them. Suddenly, a speedboat appeared. In order to save me and Buyi, Yingying was hit and thrown into the air. The people on the speedboat used a rope to wrap around her neck and took her away. We searched for a day and a night, but there is still no news.”
He had barely finished speaking when a muffled sound came from the phone, followed by the old lady and Ji Ming's exclamations, "Anhe, what's wrong?"
Anhe sat blankly on the ground, as if all his strength had been drained away.
“Yingying, my daughter is missing again. Why? Why does God have to torment her like this? If you have a problem, come at me instead of treating her like this.”
Her sorrowful cries brought tears to the old lady's eyes as well. "Why does this child have to suffer so much misfortune? Why does everything bad happen to this old woman like me?"
The old man and Ji Ming sat in their seats with solemn expressions, and their slightly trembling hands revealed how distressed they were.
After a long silence, the old man spoke again, his voice tinged with barely concealed anger, "Who is the person behind this?"
"Ji...Lan".
The moment those two words were uttered, the other end of the video went completely silent, and even the old lady and Anhe stopped crying at the same time.
"But are you sure?" The old man's voice became dry and hoarse as he asked.
He already knew it was absolutely true, but he still hoped for other possibilities. Ji Lan was his own flesh and blood.
Back then, because of her 'death,' he felt he was about to give up several times, only to find out it was all a hoax.
Ji Yan had previously hinted that the events of that year were very likely orchestrated by her to incite conflict between the Ji and Lu families.
It seems he was right; all of this was within her calculations, and even the Ji family became a tool for her to kill.
“Grandpa, we have to make a choice. I don’t know what her real purpose is, but the Ji family and the Lu family are definitely the first ones she wants to get rid of.”
“Ayan, Grandpa is old and his mind isn’t as sharp as it used to be. Now that the Ji family is in your hands, you can handle this matter entirely. You don’t need to ask for Grandpa’s opinion anymore.”
Otherwise, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to bring himself to do it, after all, she was his daughter whom he had cherished and protected for over twenty years.
The old man got up and walked to the back garden, not wanting to hear anything about Ji Lan anymore. If he was going to let go, he should let go completely, and pretend he had never had this daughter.
The old man, who had been shrewd and resourceful all his life, seemed to have lost his soul, walking forward absentmindedly and leaving behind only a desolate figure.
He let himself wander aimlessly until a kumquat tree blocked his way. "Why did you choose this path? Just because I didn't let you marry Lu Qing, you even abandoned your own parents?"
"Old man, do we really have to go that far?"
The old lady's sorrowful voice rang out behind her. How could she bear to part with her daughter, whom she had carried for ten months and loved for over twenty years?
"Old woman, she dares to kill even her own nephew and grandniece. Do you want the entire Ji family to die at her hands?"
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