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

Before she could finish speaking, the nurse's smile vanished, and her tone became formulaic: "I'm sorry, no comment."

She lowered her eyes, pressed the print button, and shoved the registration form back into place without looking up at Xie Yumin again.

Xie Yumin felt as if she were isolated from the world by a transparent barrier. She stood in the center of the magnificent lobby, the lights shining on her face, but unable to illuminate the thick black fog in her heart. She walked out of the lobby and dialed Uncle Fu's old private number, but only heard the cold response from the system: The number you dialed is no longer in service.

She looked down at the disconnected call screen, her throat dry, as if she had swallowed a mouthful of frost.

Even so, he did not give up.

A few days later, in the old town.

The mottled yellow-gray walls, rusty iron gates, and creaking signs constitute another side of this city.

Xie Yumin, carrying a heavy briefcase, walked to the locked studio door, following the address marked in her notebook. The doorplate was faded, and several yellowed advertising papers were piled up between the cracks in the door. A new "For Rent" sign with red background and white lettering was pasted on the door.

She knocked on the door a few times, but no one answered. She could only turn around and walk to the convenience store next door, nodding to the landlady who was eating sunflower seeds.

"Auntie, excuse me..." she said, bending slightly and trying to be gentle, "Did the 'Qinghe Design Studio' here move away? I am..."

The landlady looked up, sized her up and down, spat out a sunflower seed shell, and replied in a drawn-out voice, "'Qinghe'? You mean that female designer surnamed Ye? She moved out a long time ago, several years ago. I heard she went abroad."

Xie Yumin's heart tightened, but she still didn't give up: "Do you know where she moved to? Or do you have her contact information? I have something urgent to discuss with her, about... the Jingyuan project."

Her voice drifted into the convenience store on the breeze and reached the ears of the landlady sitting by the door, munching on sunflower seeds.

The landlady was yawning when she heard the name "Jingyuan." Her fingertip paused, and sunflower seed shells clattered onto the aluminum kettle lid resting on her feet. A flicker of surprise crossed her eyes, she clicked her tongue, then her expression returned to impatience. She waved her hand dismissively: "I don't know! She moved out, that's all. Who cares where she went? Contact information? Gone a long time ago!"

She spoke rapidly, avoiding Xie Yumin's gaze, enunciating each word clearly, her voice betraying her evasiveness: "This house has been empty for three years! Let's go, let's go, don't delay my business!"

Xie Yumin stared at the tightly closed door lock, then glanced at the lintel that had clearly been tampered with and repainted, and a chill slowly crept into her heart.

She slowly took a step back, her eyes dark and wary. This last thread of hope had been silently severed.

That evening, Xie Yumin dragged her exhausted body back to her temporary apartment.

In the dimly lit corridor, motion-activated lights flickered on and off, and the overhead wires swayed and hummed faintly. Her high heels clicked crisply on the tiles, each step clear yet hollow.

Just as she reached for her keys, she stopped in her tracks.

She looked down, her gaze falling on a snow-white envelope. There was no postmark, no signature, and no outer packaging.

My heart suddenly tightened.

Hesitantly, she picked up the thin, almost transparent envelope. As her fingers touched the edge of the seal, she felt a chill creep up her knuckles and down her arm.

With a click of the lock, she quickly slipped inside, locked the door, and smoothly drew the curtains and turned on the living room light. After confirming that everything was quiet and secure, she sat down at the dining table and gently opened the envelope.

Inside was only one A4 sheet of paper, neatly printed in Song typeface, cold and devoid of emotion:

“Miss Xie, curiosity is poison. It can kill a cat, and it can also kill… a child. The things under Jingyuan are not for you to touch. If you take one more step, next time what you slip under the door won't be paper.”

"Imagine Mengmeng playing with a puzzle by the window. She's so focused and adorable, isn't she?"

As the words seemed to explode in my mind, a photograph slipped from the paper.

Xie Yumin subconsciously reached out to take it, but the moment she saw the photo, her pupils contracted sharply!

It's Mengmeng!

Wearing a hospital gown, she sat on the carpet by the hospital window with her back to the camera, her small figure quietly piecing together a picture. The curtains were half-drawn, and the afternoon sun slanted across the top of her soft hair.

The time marked in the corner of the photo is this afternoon.

She remembered clearly that she had just visited Mengmeng this morning!

She practically sprang to her feet, stumbled to the window, and abruptly pulled open a crack in the curtains to look downstairs.

Night fell over the streets, and on the empty sidewalks, a row of cars stood silently like shadows, like monsters hiding their gazes.

The wind rustled the branches of the trees under the streetlights, casting dappled shadows that sent a shiver down his spine.

Her hand slid limply off the curtains, and she slowly slid down to the floor against the wall, her forehead against her knees, her breathing rapid as if someone were squeezing her throat.

The photo and the threatening letter slipped through her fingers, the creases of the paper embedding themselves in the cracks of the floor tiles, but no one picked them up.

She was trembling uncontrollably.

It wasn't because she was afraid of getting into trouble, but because the other party had their eyes on Mengmeng.

This enemy not only wanted to destroy her, but also wanted to make her lose her only and most indispensable thing.

She sat up abruptly, grabbed her phone, and hovered her fingertip over the dial button for "Gu Yinshen," but froze in mid-air.

The silence between the two after the press conference, the words "I will take responsibility," and the fact that he is currently caught in the storm of the board meeting, under immense pressure, whether he can still extricate himself from her plea for help.

She forcefully turned off the screen, closed her eyes for a long time, and when she opened them again, her pupils no longer held panic, but rather a cold and fierce anger.

The enemy wanted her to back down, but she refused.

……

On the other side, in the boardroom on the top floor of the Gu Group building, the air was as tense as steel wires.

News footage continues to scroll across the huge conference screen.

"Gu Yinshen suspected of illegal surrogacy and transnational money laundering," "Testimony exposed," "Gu's reputation collapses"—the headlines were increasingly sensational.

The secretary had just finished reporting the news that the stock price had fallen by 8%. Chairman Zhang and Chairman Li were restless, while Gu Mingyu watched coldly from the sidelines.

Gu Hongtao lowered his head and took a sip of tea, while Gu Chengji, full of vigor, stood up and posted the proposal covered with signatures on the screen.

His voice was exceptionally clear in the deathly silence: "Fellow directors! Mr. Gu Yinshen has recently caused a huge uproar due to his serious mishandling of personal family affairs, resulting in a disgraceful reputation for the group, a continuous plunge in stock price, wavering partners, and obstacles to core business! This fully demonstrates that his leadership ability has serious flaws! We can no longer allow an incompetent captain to steer a giant ship!"