Mu ZhenYu waited for her answer quietly.
His fingertips brushed over her ring and the warmth from his finger reached her heart through the sensitive tip of her ring finger. It tickled. Xu WanZhi shrank her neck a bit. When he suddenly threw out a serious question like that, she didn't know how to respond to it.
Ever since she had failed in her transformation, she had viewed this as a second chance granted to her by heaven. If she has a say in it, she would rather end this contract with Mu ZhenYu as soon as possible so she could return to her old carefree and worry-free days.
Nevertheless, so much time had already passed and, perhaps she hadn't even noticed it herself, but her life had already been tied together with Mu ZhenYu. She couldn't quite say what kind of tie that was but it was tangled and difficult to sort out.
As she had read the original novel before, she had always been prejudiced against him. She thought that he was cruel and cold; someone difficult to get along with. But after spending so much time with him, she had grown to know him better. She didn't object to continuing her life the way it was right now.
Nevertheless… when it came to matters about her real fox identity, she still felt that she should tell him the truth.
Getting married was a serious matter. It wasn't the same as the manipulative suggestion coming from Mu XueLin and Xu Tian. The discussion about marriage right now was Mu ZhenYu's decision. And, as it was his decision, then he was entitled to the truth. He should know all about her before he made that decision.
Xu WanZhi puffed up her cheeks a bit and said softly, "There… there's something that I want to tell you. We should talk about it when we get home tonight…"
Before she could finish talking, someone knocked on the door. It sounded like his secretary.
"Mr. Mu. Old Mr. Mu is here. He's waiting for you in the conference room."
Mu ZhenYu's look turned solemn immediately. "Okay, got it."
He stood up and lowered his head to look at Xu WanZhi. "You wait for me here. Let me send him on his way and I will come back. We have more to talk about."
Xu WanZhi nodded. She pulled out her cellphone to check the time and saw a message from Xiao Yuan telling her that she had a meeting scheduled with Jiang XingChen's assistant to discuss about Plainness. Hearing the excitement in Xiao Yuan's voice, perhaps she would get to become the primary female lead. Xu WanZhi, too, stood up and said, "I'll walk out with you. I'll just go say hi then take off. I need to go talk to Xiao Yuan. I'll see you at home afterward. Mu XueLin would not have come here unless he absolutely needs to. Be patient and tried to have a conversation with him."
Mu ZhenYu nodded and said, "Alright."
The two of them walked inside of the elevator and went up to the 8th floor conference room.
Mu XueLin had become much more disheveled since Wang LiZhen had gone to prison. He seemed to have aged a lot overnight. He had a lot more white hair and his wrinkles had become more noticeable. There were stubbles on his chin and the suit that he was wearing was wrinkly. It didn't seem like he had been taking good care of himself as of late.
The Wang LiZhen incident seemed to have been a big blow to him.
Mu ZhenYu walked over quickly and sat down on the couch next to him. "Why are you here?"
Xu WanZhi nodded at him politely and sat down next to Mu ZhenYu.
Mu XueLin looked over at Xu WanZhi with a bit of anger in his eyes. After a little while, he finally let out a sigh and his look mellowed out.
From his reaction toward Xu Tian, Xu WanZhi could tell that he did not want this engagement to work out. His original intention was to get to Mu ZhenYu through her. It was unexpected that she was on Mu ZhenYu's side and not only did she not betray him and leave him, she even helped him out greatly.
He felt resigned now. It was all his own fault for making that mistake. It had cost him everything.
Putting down his tea cup, he said in a serious tone. "I am not going to beat around the bush. I came here to talk about XiYuan."
Mu XiYuan raised the right side of his lips and gave a smile of contempt. "XiYuan? What about him? He's so smart and competent, what could possibly go wrong with him."
Mu XueLin was enraged immediately but, given the current situation, had to suppress his angry. "He… he had invested all of his money on Qin Sheng. Now that the Qin's had gone bankrupt, he couldn't get a penny of them back and he was barely hanging in there. I heard that you had blocked all options for him and he had nowhere else to turn to."
Mu ZhenYu took a sip of his coffee relaxingly as though what Mu XiYuan was talking about had nothing to do with him at all. "What do you mean by nowhere to turn to? You still have half of the fortune from Grandpa and your net worth rivals that of my Huanyu. You very well can have your beloved younger son take on the role as the CFO at your company. He will be able to succeed you later on just like how you have schemed Grandpa out of his inheritance."
"You!" Mu XiYuan has a guilty conscience when it came to Old Mr. Mu. Except he was looking even more angry now. "I merely didn't see eye to eye with your grandfather. His death has nothing to do with me.!"
Mu ZhenYu snorted. "Sure. Of course not. When he died, everybody was there except for you. How could you have anything to do with his death?"
Mu XueLin clenched his fist tightly and, after a long while, nothing came out of it. He sighed and said, "Never mind that. Those were in the past. Let bygone be bygone. Let's not digress now. ZhenYu, I am begging you. Give your brother a chance. You know your brother's personality. I very much would like him be become my right-hand man and help me out. Never mind about CFO, he can be CEO if only that's what he wants. But… he wouldn't. What he wants is his own company, his own career, and his own accomplishment."
"Must I always give him what he wants?" Mu ZhenYu's brows were raised high as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. "Who exactly is he? And why is he so entitled?"
Mu XueLin clenched his teeth tightly. "He…he is your brother."
"Oh?" Mu ZhenYu grinned. "That's what I have been waiting for. Mu XueLin, you really haven't noticed yet? You still think he's your son? Wang LiZhen had been cheating on your all these years. You really haven't picked up on that at all?"
With a loud clanging noise, Mu XueLin's tea cup fell onto the floor and shattered into pieces. "What… what did you say?"
Nevermind about Mu XueLin. Even Xu WanZhi was shocked after she heard that.
Mu XiYuan wasn't Mu XueLin's son? She didn't even know that and she had read the original novel.
She had her doubts at the beginning and thought that perhaps Mu ZhenYu was only saying that to rattle Mu XueLin. But, after she saw the confident look on Mu ZhenYu, she realized that what he had said was true.
Mu ZhenYu stood up, had his assistant brought over his tablet, pulled up a video clip and played it for Mu XueLin. In the video, Wang LiZhen and a man were hugging each other and whispering to each other. The intimacy between the two of them was almost painful to the eyes. The boy that Wang LiZhen was carrying in her arms was Mu XiYuan.
"Where did this come from? I don't believe it!" The finger that Mu XueLin had pointing at the tablet was shaking. "How did you get this?"
"Have you forgotten what Huanyu does? All these years I have been looking for evidence of her paying off the kidnappers. Low and behold, in addition to the evidences, I've also found such interesting footage. Why do you think Wang LiZhen never made her move all these years after my mother had died? Because this man in the video had died. Mu XiYuan had no father. Had she tried anything, you'd likely find out about the truth and she'd have no other options. She might as well stay with you and take this all the way." Mu ZhenYu pulled out a pack of cigarette, handed it over to Mu XueLin, and had him kept his emotions in check. "Look at how happy their family of three was. And what about you, Dad? How did it feel to raise someone else's child for them all these years?"
Mu XueLin's look stiffened. Finally, he fished out his cellphone and dialed a series of number. After a while, the call was picked up on the other end. He only said one line, "Take care of that woman."
Xu WanZhi finally understood why Mu ZhenYu had let Wang LiZhen go the other day.
Recalling the scars on Mu ZhenYu, all of them caused by Wang LiZhen. His other lost her sight from crying too much and died after that. His grandfather died during his most difficult time in life. How would he let Wang LiZhen go and spend her time comfortably in prison?
It was because he wasn't going to dirty his own hands. He knew about this all along and purposefully did not bring it up. He even told Mu XueLin that he had a surprise waiting for him.
He knew all along that Mu XueLin would want Wang LiZhen dead when he found out the true. That way, all he needed to do was to sit and watch.
Xu WanZhi admired him more and more now.
As this was their private family matters, Xu WanZhi no longer wished to continue listening to the rest of them. Nor did she want to make the situation more difficult for the Mu's. She stood up and said, "ZhenYu, Mr. Mu, I have somewhere else to be so I am taking off now. You two carry on with your conversation."
Having said that, she walked out with her purse and departed from Huanyu.
Outside of Huanyu, she didn't see her nanny van. Xu WanZhi found that odd so she gave Xiao Yuan a call. It rang for a long while but Xiao Yuan did not pick up. After she hung up, she received a text from her phone, letting her know that the car was in the underground parking lot.
Xu WanZhi went back inside of Huanyu and went down to the underground parking lot. She walked over to the location that Xiao Yuan had texted her and saw her large nanny van.
She got into the backseat as usual, tossed her purse aside, and asked, "Well, Xiao Yuan, you got any good news for me?"
Who would have thought? Her car had tinted car windows so it was impossible to see the inside from the outside. She just noticed that the one sitting in the passenger seat was not Xiao Yuan but Mu XiYuan.
He pulled out a sharp knife and pointed it straight at Xu WanZhi. "No, I don't have any good news. I have a lot of bad news though."
At this distance, Xu WanZhi could easily have him under control with her magic. But she didn't want to do that. She wanted to find out what was his plan. She sneered. "You are the son of Ms. Wang LiZhen. Both of you enjoy this kidnapping trope. Say, are you working with Mu XueLin to get Mu ZhenYu away from me?"
"Something like that, but I am not working with that old idiot." Mu XiYuan cocked her head and told the driver to start the car. "Oh, sister-in-law, there are certain things that even if Mu ZhenYu had found out he should not have shared that information. That way perhaps I'd still let him live. Once things get ugly, don't blame me for being ruthless. The old man had already told him man in prison to act. I don't think my mom is going to make it. Say, how should I take that out on you?"
From what Mu XiYuan was saying, it'd seem that he knew all along that he wasn't the son of Mu XueLin. He was an accessory to Wang LiZhen in scheming Mu XueLin out of his money. Now that his plan has been exposed, who knew what he was planning on doing next. Xu WanZhi sat quietly in the backseat, waiting to see what his next move was.