Saving the male protagonist in the dungeon only resulted in him becoming cannon fodder.

Li Yan deliberately found a secluded place. He had run away secretly this time, and if others found out, his grandfather would beat him to death.

Bai Mengmeng and Lu Ze deliberately avoided their own people, and even when they felt their car was too conspicuous, they would take a taxi to one place and then move to another to avoid being followed.

Bai Mengmeng and Lu Ze finally arrived at the agreed location after a non-stop journey. They had also considered the safety issue. If it really was a trap, they would try their best to press the signal transmitter on their hands to quickly notify the surrounding troops to come to their aid. This was to make a foolproof preparation.

Lu Ze shielded Bai Mengmeng behind him. He had stayed up all night reviewing his Taekwondo lessons for this meeting. "We've never crossed paths before, why are you suddenly asking us to talk?"

"Don't be nervous. If it's peace talks, then it's peace talks," Li Yan said gently as he brewed tea. A light drizzle was falling along the forest path, as if casting a kind and benevolent filter on him.

Lu Ze and Bai Mengmeng dared not slack off in the slightest.

"I'm here on behalf of my brother Li Yuan to express my apologies," Li Yan said expressionlessly, handing over tea. The two could only nod in acknowledgment.

Li Yan took out a folder from behind him. "My brother prepared a small gift. Please take a look."

Bai Mengmeng and Lu Ze opened it and found it was a list. "What does this mean?"

“This is a list of our informants throughout City A. Information about your various families is collected through them. I’m showing it to you not for any other reason than to show you that we have decided not to take any further action against the Bai and Lu families. This is also our way of showing our sincerity,” Li Yan said in his usual calm tone.

Bai Mengmeng sneered, "Aren't you all losers?"

Li Yan stood up and looked into the depths of the woods. “Miss Bai, you are mistaken. The Lu family perished so quickly before, don’t you have any doubts? How could a Li family that is far away in the United States possibly control the situation at all times? My brother wants a position in the Li family, not to make enemies everywhere.”

Bai Mengmeng had actually investigated, and while Li Yuan wasn't that quick, she couldn't figure out who was behind it all. Now she realized that Li Yuan was just a decoy planted by the mastermind. They'd use him as a pawn if he was useful, and discard him if he wasn't, since the Li family would send someone else along.

Li Yan noticed Bai Mengmeng's thoughtful expression. "Miss Bai, you must have thought of something. There's another matter I'm here for today, so let's consider our previous grievances settled."

Hearing him chuckle, Lu Ze tried to brush it off, thinking, "What a joke! You're oversimplifying things. My father's still in prison. How can you expect me to get away with that?"

Before Li Yan left, Li Yuan instructed him, "Lu Ze probably won't let this go easily. Show him this evidence, and he'll understand."

Li Yan couldn't resist clicking to watch on the plane. The video showed a woman trying to persuade him to meet a big shot, and Uncle Lu agreed. Unexpectedly, the big shot was a notorious drug trafficker who wanted to use the transportation line that the Lu family had just developed to facilitate their drug trafficking. Uncle Lu was blinded by greed and agreed. The transportation had already happened more than once.

After watching the video, Lu Ze suddenly realized that he was only going to serve a few years now, but if he were involved in drug trafficking, he would either be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.

Seeing that he had finished watching the video, Li Yan said, "If we really wanted to kill you, we would use this video. You would have no chance to recover. My brother was soft-hearted and investigated the video's contents carefully. The person in the video meeting with the drug kingpin was not your father, but your father's younger brother, Lu Shan. He used this video to impersonate your father and frame him. We also tracked his whereabouts; he went to Japan. I'm handing all this evidence to you. Let's see how you put on this show of betraying your own family." Lu Ze's heart was heavy. His own uncle had done such a thing; it was unforgivable.

Bai Mengmeng knew this was a serious crime. "We will let the law deal with him. He'll spend the rest of his life in jail for doing such a despicable thing."

Li Yan looked at the two of them and said, "Now we can talk about cooperation, right? We've also set up a small company in City A, which is naturally not as good as your two companies. We will investigate the person behind it. Once my brother has real power in the Li family, we will become allies. To show our sincerity, we are willing to split 51% of the shares on this condition. It's a deal that won't lose us anything."

Bai Mengmeng and Lu Ze were hesitant to believe it, saying, "Give us time to consider."

Bai Mengmeng pulled Lu Ze away first, and Li Yan did not try to stop her, but silently stared in the direction Bai Mengmeng was looking.

A person came out from another direction. "Young master, she is the girl who saved you back then. We found that she also has a small birthmark on the back of her neck."

Li Yan kept smiling as he looked in Bai Mengmeng's direction: "Finally found it."

Li Yan completed his task and prepared to leave. However, he told the driver to go ahead and drive off while he had a cup of tea.

Instead of sitting down, Li Yan walked into the deep forest, where he discovered a hidden underground space.

"Long time no see, my old friend," Li Yan said with a strange smile.

A disheveled man crawled over and pleaded, "Please, let me go. I was out of my mind. I've been here for over ten years. I don't want to stay anymore. Please let me go."

The man's forehead was covered in blood from hitting the ground. Li Yan lifted the man's head and slammed it down hard. "You didn't want to stay? I begged you not to drown me, and what did you say? I was just a dog you kept. You could drown me if you wanted, nobody would care. Why didn't you save me? Didn't you want to drown me? Open your eyes and see. I'm alive and well. I have bad news for you. Your mother is dead. Hahaha, she's finally dead. She did too many bad things in her life, even God couldn't stand it anymore." Li Yan was close to madness.

"Li Lin, I always wake up in terror from my dreams, and it's all because of you." Li Lin looked at Li Yan's ferocious face and kept backing away in fear. He was so tormented by Li Yan that he was on the verge of a mental breakdown, and kept muttering, "I was wrong, I was wrong."

Li Yan would visit him every now and then, reminding himself of this malicious family, devoid of any affection. He felt like a spy, secretly watching other people's happy families, wondering why he had never received maternal or paternal love since childhood, with all the affection going to his older brother.

The room was filled with Li Yan's loud laughter. "Hahaha, now that my brother is also in solitary confinement, I finally have the chance to start my grand plan. I'm going to show you how I trample your most beloved father under my feet. I'm looking forward to the day you two meet." His scarlet eyes looked like those of a demon in the dark space.