Captivating Beauty 91p2

Chapter 91 p2

Having spent years in the business world, Xu Jinnan wasn’t easily embarrassed. She could handle any awkward situation with a calm, professional demeanor.

Of course, this composure often crumbled in Shen Shu’s presence.

As soon as she arrived at the office, she received a call from Xu Lian, who, without any preamble, launched into her usual demands for money.

But her tone was noticeably more conciliatory than before.

“Nannan, we’re family. There’s no need for this animosity,” she said. “While the family didn’t provide any financial support when the company was founded, we did contribute our connections, especially your brother. His influence has been instrumental in the Xu Corporation’s success these past few years. We’re all family. You might need our help someday…”

It was a blatant appeal to familial loyalty, but to Xu Jinnan, those words were empty, meaningless.

“My mother told me about it. It’s not that I’m refusing to pay, it’s just that the audit is still ongoing. It’ll take some time,” she said.

“How long?”

“I’m not sure… a month or two, perhaps.”

“Are you kidding me? How can it take that long?”

“That’s because you don’t understand these things. For a company this size, a few months is normal,” Xu Jinnan replied calmly.

Xu Lian wasn’t satisfied, arguing that it was too long, and Xu Jinnan, to appease her, promised to reconsider at the end of the month.

After hanging up, she messaged Li Lan.

Li Lan replied quickly: [I was just about to contact you. There’s been a new development. Come to the Special Ward.]

Xu Jinnan checked her schedule, delegated some tasks, and had Viola oversee the initial stages of the shopping mall investment, then drove to the North City Special Ward.

Li Lan, as usual, offered her a cappuccino.

“We interrogated Xu Li, but there are some things she won’t reveal unless she sees you,” she said. “And there’s been some progress in Qucheng. We found Xu Lian’s ex-wife.”

Xu Jinnan froze, listening intently as Li Lan continued, each word more shocking than the last, yet also strangely… expected.

“She’s in a mental institution, her condition caused by… medication.” She didn’t have to elaborate; Xu Jinnan immediately thought of the powder.

“Xu Li got that drug from the Xu family. Find out where exactly. If we have more leads, my people can investigate further,” Li Lan said.

Xu Jinnan agreed.

Besides wanting to help Li Lan’s investigation, she also wanted to talk to Xu Li herself.

Was it simply because of her mother’s suffering, because of Xu Tao’s marriage to Lu Yun, that she hated Xu Jinnan so much, that she wanted her dead?

It didn’t seem like a sufficient reason.

—

At the Special Ward, separated by a thick pane of glass, Xu Jinnan and Xu Li sat facing each other, Xu Li, in her striped prison uniform, shuffling slowly towards the window, like a zombie.

Her hair had grown longer, the dark roots a stark contrast to the bleached ends, her face gaunt and pale, her expression cold and lifeless.

She sat down opposite Xu Jinnan, and they both picked up the phones.

“Xu Jinnan, you’ve become even more beautiful,” she said, her voice flat, the words a strange opening.

Xu Jinnan didn’t reply.

Xu Li chuckled dryly. “I always knew you were beautiful, and intelligent. In fact, you’re smarter than both me and Xu Yincheng, a true genius. You can memorize in twenty minutes what takes me three days to learn. You can solve in seconds problems that take me hours to figure out… You have no idea how much your… brilliance has always bothered me. And your beauty,” she continued, her voice laced with resentment. “Wherever we went, you always drew all the attention. It wasn’t about Xu Tao favoring you; I knew he hated you, and Lu Yun. It was your very existence, the pressure, the constant comparison…”

“So, you targeted me because you were jealous,” Xu Jinnan said.

Resenting her because of their parents’ actions had seemed like a weak motive.

But this… while absurd, it was also strangely plausible.

Both she and Xu Li were products of the Xu family’s toxicity, twisted and broken by their shared trauma, their pain nurtured and amplified by their environment, no one to guide them, to heal them.

“Yes,” Xu Li said. “Your suffering brings me joy. And if you were dead, Lu Yun would be devastated, and there would be no one left to challenge me for the inheritance.”

Xu Jinnan paused, then asked a question that had been bothering her.

She had asked Chen Yue to retrieve those photos from Wang Zheng’s girlfriend.

Her car had already been bugged at that time, but Xu Li hadn’t told Lu Yun, hadn’t reacted at all.

It wasn’t until the day after Chen Bo’s birthday banquet that Lu Yun had confronted her.

“Why did you wait so long to tell Lu Yun?”

Xu Li sneered. “I just complimented your intelligence, and now you’re acting stupid? I told you, your suffering brings me joy. Seeing you succeed, on the other hand, makes me seethe with resentment. You were the star of that banquet. How could I let you get away with it? I told Lu Yun, hoping she would confront you and cause a scene. Unfortunately… I overestimated her and underestimated your… resilience. I didn’t expect you two to team up and expose me.”

Xu Jinnan’s eyes narrowed. “We’re mother and daughter. How could you be so sure we would turn against each other?”

Xu Li’s smile vanished. “Don’t pretend. I know how much you hate Lu Yun.” She paused. “Xu Jinnan, you remember, don’t you?”

Xu Jinnan didn’t reply, but her expression hardened, and Xu Li, satisfied, continued, “I was there when Lu Yun used you as a shield, begging Xu Tao to spare her. No one saw me.”

“I do hate her, but she’s still my mother,” Xu Jinnan said, the words tasting like ash in her mouth.

“Looks like that drug is still affecting you. So much for being a genius. You’re just a puppet, brainwashed by that woman,” Xu Li said.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you know? The powder…” Xu Li leaned closer to the glass, a cruel smile twisting her lips. “Didn’t Officer Li ask you about it? I know a lot about that drug. I even know who’s been using it.”

She chuckled. “Everyone in the Xu family who didn’t obey has been drugged. The biggest scandal was Xu Lian’s ex-wife. They told everyone she had a miscarriage and went crazy from the trauma, but that’s not true. She was drugged. I know a lot more. Want to hear it?”

Xu Jinnan’s fingers turned white as she gripped the phone. “What do you want?” she asked, getting straight to the point.

Xu Li paused, as if making a decision.

“Let Zhou Pei go,” she said.

Xu Jinnan’s gaze hardened, but Xu Li’s expression revealed nothing. “Zhou Pei broke the law. No one can just… let her go. I can’t do that,” she said firmly.

Xu Li took a deep breath, her face pale, her voice tight with suppressed anger. “Then at least make sure she’s… treated well in prison… You can do that much, can’t you?!”

The last sentence was almost a growl.

Xu Jinnan was surprised. This was practically a plea for mercy, a stark contrast to her earlier arrogance.

“Don’t overthink it. That’s my only condition. If you agree, I’ll tell you everything,” Xu Li said.

—

“Based on Xu Li’s confession, we can assume the powder was used as a means of control. The forensic team confirmed that in small doses, mixed with food and administered over a long period of time, it can induce a state of… mental compliance, but it also causes neurological damage and memory loss. In larger doses, it can lead to psychosis, or even death,” Li Lan explained, her face grim as she placed the file on her desk. “This is a much bigger problem than we initially thought.”

She paused, then turned to Xu Jinnan.

“Why the sudden change of heart?” Xu Jinnan asked, her thoughts returning to the present.

Xu Li’s earlier animosity towards Zhou Pei, followed by this sudden plea for mercy, was suspicious.

“I only know that she met with Zhou Pei in the prison yard. Zhou Pei had some bruises on her face from a fight with the other inmates a few days ago. Perhaps there’s still some… affection between them. But we’ll investigate further,” Li Lan replied.

With Xu Li’s confession and the new leads, the investigation was finally gaining momentum, and the agents in Qucheng were also making progress.

Both Li Lan and Xu Jinnan felt a sense of anticipation, a feeling that the truth was within reach.

Xu Jinnan didn’t say anything more. She just wanted this to be over, to return to her normal life.

“Do you remember what Xu Li said? About the drug?” Li Lan asked.

Xu Jinnan turned away, her back to Li Lan, and after a moment of silence, said, “I remember some of it, but not everything.”

“You should go back to the hospital for a check-up,” Li Lan said.

“It’s fine. The past doesn’t matter. What matters is the present,” Xu Jinnan replied.

As she left the Special Ward, Xu Li’s words echoed in her mind: Xu Jinnan, do you really think you’ve never been drugged?

She had felt a strange sense of familiarity during that first incident with Yin Xue, not with the drug itself, but with the feeling, the disorientation, the loss of control.

As if her body had experienced it before.

Think about why you lost those memories. Who was controlling you? Xu Jinnan, I always thought I was the only one suffering, but you and I aren’t so different.

Xu Li’s cruel smile flashed through her mind. I used to envy you, your mother’s love and protection, her concern for your well-being. But when I saw her adding that powder to your favorite pumpkin pie, I was thrilled. She was afraid you would remember…

Afraid she would remember pushing her own daughter into the hands of a monster.

So, she had used the Xu family’s methods, hoping to make Xu Jinnan forget.

Xu Jinnan’s palms were damp with sweat. Lu Yun must have been insane, not even caring about the potential consequences for her own daughter.

Then, it hit her. That was why Lu Yun hadn’t been concerned about her differentiation defect, had even become more protective after it occurred.

There were many reasons for the original Xu Jinnan’s failure to differentiate, and this was likely one of them.

“Xu Jinnan, if you’re feeling unwell, you can stop interacting with Lu Yun. I’ll find another way,” Li Lan said, noticing her pale face.

Xu Jinnan shook her head. “No, if we arrest Lu Yun now, she’ll only get a few years, and it’ll alert the others.”

“We’ll wait. I’m fine,” she said.

She had experienced enough to develop a certain… resilience, especially when it came to Lu Yun.

But a deep unease still lingered.

As she left the Special Ward, another thought occurred to her. Shen Shu’s memories from before she arrived at the Shen family were also missing. Besides her own reluctance to revisit that time, perhaps she had also been drugged.

She got into her car, the sunlight warm on her skin, and rolled down the window, the cool air sending a shiver down her spine as it brushed against her damp skin.

She was anxious for Li Lan to find something, anything.

A sense of unease had been growing within her lately, a premonition of danger.

But she pushed it aside, trying to focus.

She glanced at a gray car parked nearby, which started moving just as she looked at it.

She didn’t think much of it; it was a trivial detail, easily forgotten.

—

Shen Shu had been busy filming her final scenes and attending promotional events, her schedule even more demanding than anticipated, thanks to the success of the trailer.

While Xu Jinnan was also busy, her schedule wasn’t as hectic as Shen Shu’s.

They both longed for a day off, a chance to relax and spend time together, but their busy schedules continued until the premiere of Into the Dream.

Everyone who had seen the script, the director, the cast, and the pre-release screenings knew it would be a success.

But no one had anticipated this.

The drama became an instant hit on its first day of airing, its success due not only to the compelling storyline and excellent production quality, but also to Shen Shu’s captivating performance as Nightingale.

Her five-minute appearance in the first episode, her nuanced portrayal of the complex character, had captivated audiences.

She immediately trended on Weibo.

Shen Shu, on the very first day of Into the Dream‘s premiere, had become a star.