The richest man's parents were kidnapped, and his adorable son captivated the entire family.

"As for the specific street and building... well, sorry, I 'accidentally' lost the note." He said this with a slight smile, as if teasing a fish whose nerves had just been aroused by the bait.

He threw out these clues without asking Xie Yumin's reaction, only casually raising his wrist to glance at his watch: "It's getting late, the night is chilly, take care, Miss Xie." Then he drove off, leaving behind a trail of ambiguous headlights.

His steps were steady from beginning to end, and his back view was composed and unhurried.

But in his heart, he was quietly anticipating a real "storm" that would explode within the Gu family bloodline.

Gu Chengji's "hint" was like poisoned candy, tempting on the outside but daggers hidden inside.

But Xie Yumin had no other choice.

Even though she had already categorized Gu Chengji as someone who "cannot be fully trusted," she still set off with a desperate gamble.

The next day, she rented a car under a false name and drove for several hours to Qingshui Town, all by herself.

The town was quiet and old, with the shadows of old locust trees swaying in the breeze as the daylight faded.

She went door to door asking about the name Zhang Guilan, but was repeatedly turned away. The name was very common in the countryside. She asked five people named "Zhang Guilan," but none of them were former servants of the Gu family. What was even more suspicious was that when some people heard the words "Gu family" or "Zhang Ma," their faces instantly turned cold: "I don't know her, I don't know her, don't ask anymore."

She quickly noticed something was wrong.

The next day, she saw a gray SUV that had been parked for two days following her and changing its movements outside an inn on the edge of town.

She knew the clues were fake, and she had probably fallen into a trap set by Gu Chengji.

A pair of sinister eyes were watching her through the car window. She suppressed her fear and subtly slipped into the crowd through the alleyways. Ultimately, she had to abandon her investigation and quietly return home.

After that, she tried to contact other members of the Gu family she had previously met, such as Uncle Fu, but without exception, she encountered strange events such as "disappearing from contact," "being sent to a sanatorium," and "refusing to see guests."

Every path leading to the truth was blocked in an extremely orderly, forceful, and ruthless manner.

She felt as if she were trapped in an invisible spider web, and every time she tried to break free, she was only entangled tighter, her chest feeling as heavy and unbearable as if a mountain was pressing down on it.

Soon after, she began to dream frequently of that night when Mengmeng was sobbing in her arms, her little hands clutching her collar, while she stood in the pouring rain, doors closing one by one, behind her high walls and deep mansions, countless blurry and cold faces watching indifferently.

Meanwhile, Gu Yinshen sat alone in the top-floor conference room of the Gu Corporation. The conference table was empty, and the long conference chairs seemed like rows of indifferent faces with their backs to him. On a filing cabinet in the distance were several proposals submitted by anonymous directors, with the "CEO Trust Vote" prominently listed.

He held a cup of already cold coffee between his fingers, his lips devoid of warmth.

On my phone is a screenshot of the latest shareholder joint letter, harshly worded, directly stating that "the company's image has been damaged and the confidence of core shareholders has collapsed." The stock price is still falling. Core projects have been delayed, and several international partners have already sent cold responses, requesting "delayed assessments."

His throat felt slightly dry, but he couldn't drink a sip of water.

At this moment, the phone screen lit up with a daily surveillance report from the bodyguard: Xie Yumin left the rented house in the middle of the night, desperately trying to shake off the reporters who were following her. She disappeared for three hours and then returned alone, looking exhausted, pale, and with empty eyes.

His thumb slid slowly, but couldn't reach the cold, hard words: "Her direct target in the investigation has not yet been found, suspected to be Gu Jia's information or related individuals."

Then he suddenly stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and looked down at the brightly lit city below.

At this moment, his vision gradually blurred in the reflection of the glass, and then he suddenly saw a childlike drawing on the desk.

That was Mengmeng's "home" drawn with crayons, featuring him, her, and her mother.

The long-haired woman outlined in red, blurry yet warm, looked remarkably like Xie Yumin. In the corner was a small heart, next to which was written: "For Mom and Dad."

That was a drawing he secretly kept; Mengmeng had slipped it into his briefcase one night before he went to sleep.

He closed his eyes, and the image of Xie Yumin's despair flashed through his mind. Her expression when she saw the "denial statement" was as if her soul had been ripped away.

He recalled her question: "Gu Yinshen, what exactly are you protecting? Or... what are you afraid of?"

I also remembered Mengmeng hiding on the hospital bed and whispering to him, "Daddy, why can't Mommy stay with me all the time?"

There was also Gu Mingyu's stern command on the phone: "We can't let that woman surface, or the entire Gu family will be disgraced!"

And Gu Chengji's perpetually gentle yet calculating tone: "Yin Shen, the Gu family no longer belongs to you alone."

He was torn between two worlds.

One is the "Gu Family Fortress" composed of interests and masks; the other is Xie Yumin and Mengmeng, the home he dares not admit but most wants to protect.

At this moment, a chilling and painful realization finally pierced his heart like an icy blade.

Perhaps what he calls "protection" is no longer protection at all.

That was a kind of uncontrolled control.

It was a cage built of lies that trapped him, Xie Yumin, and even Mengmeng inside.

If he continues down this path, he will forever lose Xie Yumin's trust, and may even destroy the entire Gu family empire.

This torn-down protection has become the deepest source of harm between them.

Gu Yinshen stood in the wind for a long time before finally making up his mind to face everything on his own.

So he held the phone in his hand, his palms covered in cold sweat. He held his breath and pressed send.

"Tomorrow at 3 PM, on the terrace of the west building in Jingyuan. We need to talk about everything related to Mengmeng. This time, I promise to be completely open and honest."

His fingers loosened, and his phone almost slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.

He tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and his Adam's apple bobbed laboriously.

At this moment, he finally decided to personally uncover the long-buried truth and tell it to the woman who had hurt him the most but whom he still cared about.

All his fears, calculations, hesitations, and self-persuasion were suppressed at this moment.

He wasn't sure if the ending would be cold or redemptive, but it was a step he had no other choice but to take.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Xie Yumin sat under the dim light, clutching the encrypted message tightly in her hand, her knuckles turning white.

She stared at the words on the screen for a long time, her heart pounding wildly, her thoughts becoming fragmented.

At that moment, she didn't know what answer she wanted to hear; she was both expectant and afraid. She expected him to finally tell the truth, but she was afraid that the truth would be more cruel than she imagined.

She gently touched the phone case on the table, inside which was a drawing Mengmeng had made when she was three years old: a smiling rabbit and a girl holding her mother's hand.