She abandoned her husband first, then her children, and was ecstatic after the divorce.

Su Mian, Lin Qingran's best friend from university and one of the founders of Shenghai Group, has been waiting for her at Hantang Mansion for quite some time.

A black van slowly drove into the courtyard. Lin Qingran looked up and saw Su Mian wearing a long white knitted cardigan, leaning lazily against the door, arms crossed, looking at her.

Lin Qingran walked over with a smile, "President Su, you've been away on business for half a year at a time. You must be exhausted."

Su Mian couldn't help but punch Lin Qingran lightly, "You're always making fun of me."

She looked around and said.

"Such a big yard, you bought it but left it empty, and you still asked me to come and heat it up for you."

Lin Qingran took Su Mian's arm and walked into the villa. "I wanted to spend more time with the elderly at home, so I moved to the garden."

"I heard that Teacher Jiang publicly announced that she has recognized you as her daughter?"

Lin Qingran sighed helplessly, "It's all because of Fu Xiuheng."

"He's shameless." Su Mian said indignantly, pulling Lin Qingran to sit down on the sofa.

The maid brought in two glasses of orange juice and then quietly withdrew.

Only Lin Qingran and Xiao Zhou remained in the living room. Su Mian then spoke.

"I've made some progress on what you asked me to investigate," Su Mian said mysteriously.

"Did you know that Fu Xiuheng has an older brother?"

Lin Qingran nodded. "I've vaguely heard about it, but wasn't his older brother kicked out of the family and took that actress overseas because he insisted on marrying her?"

Fu Xiuheng was his parents' late-life son, and his older brother Fu Jinnian was more than ten years older than him.

I heard that he was unruly and undisciplined since childhood, and later, because he insisted on marrying that female celebrity, he directly severed ties with the Fu family.

The Fu family has always kept Fu Jinnian a closely guarded secret.

Zhang Shuizhi, in particular, remained completely silent on the matter.

If it weren't for Old Master Fu mentioning it casually, Lin Qingran wouldn't even know this person existed.

Su Mian sneered, her face full of mockery.

"The Fu family's entertainment industry spans the entire country, what are they pretending to be so high and mighty for? Why do they use etiquette and decorum to intimidate people when their own son wants to marry a female celebrity?" Su Mian rolled her eyes as she spoke.

"The Fu family used to have an old butler who had served Old Master Fu since he was young. Even if he wasn't exactly a brother, he was still a trusted confidant. But not long after Fu Jingnian was expelled from the family, that old butler also retired. Can you guess why?"

Lin Qingran frowned.

The old man's confidant is not young anymore, so retirement is normal.

But what if there are some unknown reasons behind this?

Su Mian smiled mysteriously, "He worked for the old man his whole life, and now that he's old, he naturally has to go home to retire. The old man has to take care of him out of consideration for our past relationship. But when I was investigating Fu Xiuheng and the Lin family's dealings, I found out that the steward Zhao went overseas after leaving the Fu family."

Su Mian was still somewhat skeptical, but just then she discovered that the old butler was in the same city where he had been at the time, so she went to find him herself.

It turned out that Butler Zhao had set up an ice cream cart on the streets of a foreign country, but business was terrible, with hardly any customers, even worse than when he was working for someone else.

“I heard that his son and daughter-in-law both work at a restaurant; his son is a chef and his daughter-in-law is a waitress.”

Lin Qingran gasped slightly.

If he remembered correctly, the son and daughter-in-law of that housekeeper Zhao were both top students. Although they did not work for the Fu Group in their early years, they had become middle-level managers in another well-known company in China.

How did he end up having to work in a restaurant?

“This isn’t over yet,” Su Mian said again.

"I had someone investigate, and found out that after they went to the United States, they moved around to several cities. It's said that they were bullied by local bullies in the first few cities. How did such a family, who were so successful in their early years, end up so miserable now? The Fu family knew they were living in misery, so why didn't they lend a helping hand?"

The only explanation is that Steward Zhao was also expelled by the Fu family, who even wanted to wipe them out.

After listening to what Su Mian said, an answer gradually emerged in Lin Qingran's mind.

When Fu Jinnian went overseas, it was probably not to marry that female celebrity and break with his family, but because of internal family strife that he ended up in this situation.

"What about Fu Jinnian?" Lin Qingran asked.

"After Fu Jingnian went overseas, he married that female celebrity. Later, he joined a Chinese businessman and became a senior leader in his company. Rumor has it that the Chinese businessman is planning to open a branch office in Kyoto."

Lin Qingran narrowed her eyes; it seemed that Fu Jinnian was about to make a comeback.

The infighting within wealthy families is always complicated and difficult to explain. Moreover, some people want to suppress these rumors, and it would take more than a day or two to find out the truth.

All Lin Qingran herself knew was that after returning from studying abroad, Fu Xiuheng smoothly became the head of the Fu Group.

If Lin Qingran hadn't discovered something fishy about their relationship during her trip back to the Lin family, she probably wouldn't have thought of having Su Mian investigate these matters.

The power dynamics among the various families are deeply intertwined; it's not an easy task to unravel them.

"My advice is to back off and not get involved in the feud between their two families," Su Mian said meaningfully.

"According to you, Fu Xiuheng has something on the Lin family, so it's only a matter of time before the two families start fighting. If you get involved at this time, it might affect you."

Lin Qingran leaned back on the sofa, pondering these matters.

Although she went to great lengths to meet Zhou Lan, Lin Qingran did not intend to resolve the issue once and for all.

On the surface, Zhou Lan is just a pampered wife of the Fu family, but in reality, she is more shrewd than anyone else.

This is merely a delaying tactic; to truly resolve the issue, we must wait for the right opportunity to act.

After a long while, she sighed softly.

"I fear the tree may wish to remain still, but the wind will not cease."

Su Mian looked at Lin Qingran with a strange expression, "So what you mean is..."

Lin Qingran gave Su Mian a deep look, "Why do you think I know about the grudges and feuds of the Lin family's ancestors?"

Su Mian gasped and fell silent.

Lin Qingran returned home and played with Lingdang for a while after dinner.

After coaxing her to sleep, he called Susukino to his room.

Bo Ye watched as Lin Qingran pulled a wooden box from the bottom of the wardrobe and placed it in front of him.

The wooden box is somewhat old, but it looks like it was made of high-quality wood, as if it had been passed down from ancestors.

"This is?"

Lin Qingran unlocked the door and showed Bo Ye what was inside.

“I was abducted by human traffickers when I was a child and ended up in a mountainous area in the southwest. I was resold several times in several villages in that area,” Lin Qingran said.