Chapter 142: Pleading Part 5

Am I really such an easy person to satisfy?

When she opened the door to leave, her expression had returned to its usual meticulous professionalism.

“CEO Shen.” The secretary, unable to read his boss’s current mood, greeted her cautiously.

“I have something to discuss with you after the meeting.” Shen Yi gave a cold instruction and walked straight back toward the conference room.

There’s something… but at least she isn’t enraged. Secretary Zhou concluded in his mind and let out a sigh of relief.

When the people in the conference room saw their boss arriving late, they scrambled to hide their phones and, like the secretary, tried to observe Shen Yi’s expression. She was as cold and strict as ever, keeping her work and private life strictly separated. They found nothing and felt disappointed.

Only the secretary knew that given the Little Ancestor’s 100% trouble-making rate, the fact that the CEO wasn’t as tense and gloomy as before was already a miracle!

The meeting ended.

“Stop providing the Cao family with information on Liu Qiao. Find her before they do.”

The secretary’s breath hitched. This change is because of that phone call? How could Xu Yinian have mentioned Liu Qiao?!

The secretary’s guess was still too conservative. How could he have known that the little girl, who was usually too scared to cry, would have the audacity to ask CEO Shen for mercy for an ex-lover who had made such a massive mistake?

A second later, Shen Yi gave another expressionless order:

“Check her message logs and call recordings. Determine if she currently has any contact with Bai Ran. Also… investigate her background before she changed her identity. Find out why she became a mistress to that live-in son-in-law of the Cao family.”

The secretary could no longer control the shock on his face. Investigating her contact with Bai Ran was normal, but what was the point of digging into her past? Even when Liu Qiao was her lover, Shen Yi had never cared about the woman’s life. She had only maintained strict surveillance to ensure her loyalty.

And now…

Shen Yi’s gaze flickered. Even if Xu Yinian didn’t dare say it, she knew the girl still hadn’t let go of the Liu Qiao matter. It really was just a matter of one sentence.

Being coaxed into a good mood by that submissive girl, and seeing as Liu Qiao hadn’t dared to direct any malice toward Xu Yinian from beginning to end, Shen Yi didn’t mind giving her another chance.

Of course, if the hardships that moved Xu Yinian to pity turned out to be fake, Shen Yi would finish torturing the woman herself before throwing her to the Cao family.

Shen Yi offered no further explanation. “I happen to be going to the research institute at X University in two days. Find some time for me to meet her then.”

Upon hearing Xu Yinian’s name, the secretary immediately pushed the cryptic riddle to the back of her mind. She tentatively probed, “Miss Xu knows…”

Before she could finish, she was interrupted.

Shen Yi’s crimson lips parted slightly. “She’s the one who wants to see me.”

The discomfort of being used and deceived by someone she thought was a “good person” left Xu Yinian feeling stifled. After sending a single sentence to Liu Qiao, she refused to look at her messages again.

You clearly knew it wouldn’t work.

Liu Qiao, however, grew excited the moment she saw those words. The fact that the girl could send a message so easily proved that Shen Yi hadn’t made things difficult for her. It also proved her hunch was entirely correct… The little girl had successfully coaxed the woman into a better mood.

Wouldn’t work?

That wasn’t necessarily true.

Everything Liu Qiao had gone through in the past was real. She had sold her beauty to pay for her family’s medical bills, been hoodwinked into becoming the mistress of the Cao family’s son-in-law, and given every penny she earned to her relatives.

Yet, because that man had actually fallen in love with her, she had drawn the deathly ire of his legal wife. After the Cao family hired assassins to hunt her down, her own family heartlessly severed ties with her. Only then did she realize they had been vampirically draining her dry—despising her and calling her a disgrace on one hand, while greedily clutching the money she traded her body for on the other.

She had escaped by the skin of her teeth, using “life-saving money” she had stolen back from her parents. From that moment on, she wasn’t saving her brother’s life; she was saving her own.

In that instant, Liu Qiao’s heart had turned black. She needed a benefactor and wealth to combat the constant fear of being recognized and found. After her successful plastic surgery, she was even more beautiful than before, so she picked up the only skill she knew.

Sometimes, the most dangerous place was the safest.

Her pathological obsession with protection and money had fostered her habit of clinging to anyone powerful and her despicable tendency to take risks for profit. Liu Qiao didn’t think her current self, soaked and assimilated into the mud, was pitiable. Doing those things for her family back then had been her choice, just as stealing the money and betraying her master later had been her choice.

The last shred of conscience she possessed was that she wouldn’t direct her malice toward people who were as foolishly kind as she once was.

But what “justice” was Shen Yi after?

She did it to make someone happy. But more importantly, she did it for herself.

Shen Yi feared the day her dirty methods and the “blood on her hands” would be discovered by Xu Yinian. So, she used this easily resolved matter to establish herself as a “good person” in Yinian’s eyes—a soft spot the girl would hold for her.

Just as Liu Qiao had been perceived as a good person by Xu Yinian, even when the exploitation was proven, that bit of “Saint Mother” compassion and soft-heartedness had ultimately helped her achieve her goal.

Regardless of whether it succeeded, Liu Qiao decided she owed Xu Yinian a debt—a chance to risk her life for her.

If she managed to survive this, that is.

Xu Yinian hadn’t expected Shen Yi to find time to come to X University again.

Shen Yi was indeed busy. She had likely come for the university’s research institute and only called Yinian over after finishing her business. Their meeting took place inside the car; it really was just “seeing each other” for a brief moment.

However, with the secretary and driver absent, the familiar interior of the car felt strangely cramped and private.