Seeing her daughter crying so hard gave Xie Qing a fright. She thought Su Yunian's stomachache must be terribly serious!
"Yunian, does your stomach hurt badly? Hang in there. Mom will take you to the hospital."
Su Yunian shook her head, her tears flowing nonstop.
"Silly girl, don't scare Mom. I called your dad over and over just now, but none of the calls went through. I have no idea where he's gone."
"I was going to drive here, but you told me not to, so I took a DiDi. If I'd known, I would have driven."
"Don't!" Su Yunian stopped crying and told Xie Qing, "Mom, don't drive. Someone tampered with your car. Something will definitely go wrong if you drive it."
As Xie Qing spoke to Su Yunian, she waved at the passing cars, trying to hail one to take her to the hospital.
Su Yunian stopped her.
"Mom, I'll tell you the truth. My stomach doesn't actually hurt. I was pretending. I just wanted an excuse to take leave."
Shocked, Xie Qing said, "What? You're in your senior year! Why are you taking leave instead of studying hard? And pretending to be sick? What's gotten into you?"
Su Yunian sighed and said, "Mom, I have something very important to tell you."
"Hm? What is it?" Xie Qing couldn't follow Su Yunian's train of thought.
Su Yunian wanted to tell Xie Qing outright that Zhao Min had tampered with her car.
But she didn't know where to begin. She couldn't exactly tell her she had learned it by hearing her deskmate's thoughts.
Her mom probably wouldn't believe something so mysterious.
Besides, she actually wanted to check for herself whether the car really had been tampered with.
"Mom, let's take a taxi home first and find your car in the underground parking garage. Then I'll tell you what happened."
Although Xie Qing didn't understand what Su Yunian was doing, she still nodded in agreement.
Her daughter had always been well-behaved and had never done anything like this before. Something had to be wrong for her to act so unusually now.
The mother and daughter took a taxi to the underground parking garage of the Su family mansion and found Xie Qing's car.
Su Yunian called an auto repair company and asked them to come inspect it.
A little over ten minutes later, an employee from the repair company arrived and gave the car a thorough inspection. Sure enough, it had been tampered with.
Not only were there problems with the brakes, but the airbags wouldn't deploy even in an accident.
Moreover, in an emergency, the doors would lock and refuse to open.
Xie Qing stared blankly at the Bentley Continental before her, the car she had driven for five years.
She couldn't understand who wanted her dead!
Su Yunian suddenly crumpled to the ground like a deflated ball.
There really was something wrong with the car!
If she hadn't happened to hear Lu Chi's thoughts, she might have lost her mom and become a motherless child!
A wave of fear washed over her at the thought of what might have happened.
Her body began to tremble, too.
As for Xie Qing, after her initial daze, her tears suddenly wouldn't stop.
There were two keys to her car. She kept the main key, while her husband, Su Jingang, had the spare.
She didn't have a chauffeur, either.
If it wasn't Su Jingang, who else could have accessed her car and wanted her dead?
"Impossible! Impossible!" Xie Qing muttered through her tears. "Your dad would never do this! It must have been his driver, Old Wu!"
"It must have been him! He took your dad's key to get into my car and deliberately tampered with it to harm me!"
"But why would Old Wu do this? I've treated him so well. The last time his elderly mother was hospitalized, I contacted the best hospital for him and paid over two hundred thousand yuan for the surgery. I didn't even ask him to pay me back!"
Xie Qing couldn't understand it. She never fought or competed for anything in life and always took things calmly.
Aside from her husband's business rivals, there was no one she could possibly have offended.
Who would tamper with her car? Who would want her dead?
Those rivals couldn't get into her car. They didn't have a key.
It could have been anyone in the world, but never her husband!
So she never considered Su Jingang.
In fact, it really hadn't been Su Jingang, but Zhao Min had targeted her entirely because of him.
Su Jingang was an indirect killer.
Su Yunian recovered from her initial distress.
She calmly told Xie Qing, "Mom, have you considered that Old Wu has no reason to do this? He wouldn't gain anything from it. Maybe someone else tampered with the car."
Xie Qing shook her head. "It couldn't possibly be your dad. Your dad and I grew up together as childhood sweethearts. We dated for ten years and have been married for eighteen. We have such a good relationship. Anyone in this world might hurt me, but never your dad!"
Hearing Xie Qing say this, Su Yunian felt a piercing pain in her heart.
Her mom loved her dad so deeply and trusted him so much.
After twenty-eight years of knowing each other and staying by each other's side, she had thought she had married exactly the right person. Who could have known he was scum worse than pigs and dogs!
When the truth was peeled back layer by layer and her mom learned what kind of man her dad was, how would she bear the blow?
Sigh...
Su Yunian sighed. "Mom, call the police. This already counts as murder."
Xie Qing nodded, took out her phone, and called the police.
After the school belle, Su Yunian, left the classroom, Lu Chi felt he had much more room to sleep during breaks.
He didn't have to worry about being looked down on for not studying, either.
This is great!
When school let out at noon, Lu Chi returned to the Lu Family mansion.
His mom and dad weren't there.
Neither were his older sisters.
Only he and the fake young master, Lu Jiyang, were home.
The two ate at the same table.
Forcing down his disgust and hatred for Lu Chi, Lu Jiyang said with a grin:
"Brother Lu Chi, our school is holding a sports meet next week. There are lots of events: basketball, soccer, long-distance running, sprints, shot put, standing long jump... Are you going to enter any?"
Lu Chi pursed his lips and said disdainfully, "Not interested!"
Lu Jiyang said with veiled mockery, "Oh, it's only natural that you're not interested, Brother Lu Chi. You probably don't take part in these activities often, so that's why they don't interest you."
Usually, when their parents and sisters were home, Lu Chi would play along with the fake young master and put on an act.
Now, there were only the two of them and a group of servants in the house.
Lu Chi couldn't even be bothered to act.
He shoveled down his last mouthful of rice and sneered, "Oh, you're so awesome, so great. You're always taking part in activities and have so many interests. So what? You're still a cuckoo squatting in another bird's nest-a fake! Young! Master!"
Those words, "fake young master," nearly infuriated Lu Jiyang to death.
What he hated most was being called a fake young master.
Lu Jiyang slammed the table and shouted:
"Lu Chi, can't you speak properly? So what if you're the real young master? The one nobody loves is the real fake!
"In this family, nobody except Mom and Dad likes you at all. Sooner or later, you'll be kicked out of the Lu Family!"
Lu Chi rose from his chair, walked around the table, and approached Lu Jiyang.
He looked at Lu Jiyang with a smile that never reached his eyes.
His stare made Lu Jiyang's skin crawl. "Y-you, what are you going to do?"
Lu Chi sneered.
He landed a heavy slap across Lu Jiyang's face.
"What am I going to do? Hit you, of course! You impostor!"