Old K had betrayed her! He had actually betrayed her!
“Old K! You ungrateful dog! You dare team up with this bitch to trick me?! I’ll make sure you die a miserable death!”
“Su Wan! You persistent bitch! What kind of sorcery did you use?!” Bai Ruochu completely broke down, screaming hysterically, spewing filth and malicious curses like a rapid-fire cannon.
Su Wan frowned slightly, a hint of impatience flashing in her eyes.
With a thought, Old K freed one hand and covered Bai Ruochu’s mouth, stifling her curses and screams.
Su Wan paced forward, stopping in front of Bai Ruochu, scrutinizing her face, which was distorted by fear and anger.
“Bai Ruochu,” Su Wan’s voice echoed in the empty warehouse, clear and cold, “I’m not dead. Sorry to disappoint you.”
She paused, her gaze piercing into the depths of Bai Ruochu’s eyes like a sharp sword as she asked the doubt that had been circling in her mind for a long time:
“I’m curious... I can understand why you hate me. It’s nothing more than that business with Gu Huaiyu.”
“But your Bai family... Our Su family’s business has no competitive relationship with yours, so to speak. There’s no conflict of interest, and there was no grudge between the Su and Bai families.”
“I want to know why. Why did the Bai family suddenly turn hostile and join forces with the Gu family to deal with the Su Corporation?”
“Just because you want to marry Gu Huaiyu, or because you find me an eyesore?”
“Bai Ruochu, you aren’t important enough to drive the entire Bai family’s will.”
“Tell me, what is the real reason the Bai family is targeting the Su family?”
Su Wan’s voice wasn’t loud, but every word carried immense weight, each question striking at the core.
She didn’t believe that mere romantic feelings could drive a business family to act this way.
There had to be a deeper, more secret reason behind the Bai family’s actions.
And Bai Ruochu, as the beloved daughter of the Bai family, likely knew the inside story.
Bai Ruochu was gagged and couldn’t answer, but her eyes flickered slightly when she heard Su Wan’s question.
Mixed within her terror was a hint of panic and guilt that she couldn’t hide.
Clearly, Su Wan had hit the mark.
Su Wan slowly raised her hand, signaling Old K to slightly loosen his grip on Bai Ruochu’s mouth, though the force pinning her arms back didn’t diminish at all.
“Mmm... Cough, cough!” Bai Ruochu managed to catch her breath, but she was still firmly restrained. She glared at Su Wan, her voice shrill and bluffing:
“Su Wan! Stop acting so mysterious! Why would the Bai family need a reason for anything we do?”
“Business is a battlefield; there are only winners and losers! Your Su family was just poorly managed. If it collapsed, it collapsed! What does that have to do with us?!”
“Poorly managed?” Su Wan sneered, leaning in close to Bai Ruochu. The moonlight cast cold, hard lines on her profile.
“Bai Ruochu, even now, you’re trying to brush me off with that? It seems you won’t speak properly without a more... tangible reminder.”
Su Wan’s gaze fell on Bai Ruochu’s face, which still looked meticulously maintained despite her disheveled state.
With a thought, she controlled Old K’s free hand to pull a cold, gleaming dagger from his waist.
The icy blade slowly pressed against Bai Ruochu’s smooth cheek. The chill of the metal made her whole body tremble.
“What... what are you trying to do?!” Bai Ruochu’s voice began to shake, her arrogance quickly replaced by fear.
Her appearance was her greatest pride and a crucial bargaining chip for clinging to Gu Huaiyu and maintaining her status.
“Nothing much,” Su Wan’s voice was light, yet it carried a bone-chilling coldness.
“I just suddenly feel that this face of yours is a bit of an eyesore.”
“Since you refuse to tell the truth, there’s no point in keeping it. How about... I carve it up? Or maybe we start from the forehead and take it slow?”
The tip of the blade pressed down slightly, leaving a faint white mark on Bai Ruochu’s delicate skin, as if it were about to pierce through at any moment.
“No! Don’t!!” The fear of disfigurement instantly shattered Bai Ruochu’s psychological defenses.
She screamed, twisting her body desperately, but Old K held her down firmly. “Su Wan! You lunatic! If you dare touch me, the Bai family won’t let you get away with it!”
“The Bai family?” Su Wan scoffed, moving the blade a fraction closer.
“When has the Bai family ever shown me the slightest mercy?”
“Besides, once you become an ugly monster that everyone avoids, I wonder if the Bai family will still value you as much as they do now.”
“Will Gu Huaiyu... even spare you a single glance?”
These final words were like poisoned needles, accurately piercing Bai Ruochu’s deepest fear and weakness.
Her face turned as pale as paper, and her body shook like a leaf in the wind.
“I’ll talk... I’ll talk! Get the knife away!” Bai Ruochu finally broke, shouting with a sob in her voice.
Su Wan didn’t remove the knife immediately. She only slightly lightened the pressure, her voice icy: “Explain it clearly! Why exactly is the Bai family targeting the Su family? Don’t try to fool me with nonsense; my patience is limited.”
Bai Ruochu panted heavily, tears mixing with the dust on her face, her makeup completely ruined.
“It’s... it’s because of a piece of land...”
“In the north of the city, that mixed-use land near the old pier! It’s been in your Su family for generations! It’s the one your father valued most and refused to sell no matter what!”
Su Wan’s heart stirred.
She knew that land. It was quite large. Its location wasn’t considered the core in the plans at the time, but her father had been exceptionally stubborn about it. No matter how many people offered high prices or used their connections to pressure him, he refused to sell.
He had even offended some people because of it.
Her father once said it was a memento left by her grandfather, with good feng shui, to be kept for his descendants.
Could it be...
“The Bai family... set their sights on that land a long time ago.”
“At first, they wanted to buy it and offered a very high price, but your father ignored them completely.” Bai Ruochu swallowed hard and continued.
“We tried many ways, but your father wouldn’t budge no matter what...”
“Later, the Bai family found out that the Gu family also wanted that land. So, the two families put their heads together and decided that since they couldn’t buy it outright, they would... use other means.”
“What means?” Su Wan pressed.
“They used a lot of connections to first rezone the area. They changed all the supporting facilities that were supposed to increase the land’s value, turning it into an isolated plot. Its development value plummeted.”
“Then they secretly spread rumors, saying that your Su Corporation had tied up too much capital in that land and was on the verge of being dragged down by it...”
“Next, they sabotaged your other projects to cut off your cash flow and teamed up with banks to put pressure on you...”
Bai Ruochu’s voice grew lower and lower. She hadn’t been directly involved in these things, but as the eldest daughter of the Bai family, she always heard bits and pieces.
“Just for a piece of land?” Su Wan’s eyes were sharp.
“Even if the plans changed and the value dropped, with the methods of the Bai and Gu families, they could have used other ways to pressure you, trade for it, or wait until the Su family truly couldn’t hold on and then take it over at a low price. They didn’t necessarily need to completely ruin the Su family, send my brother to prison, and make my parents...”
She stopped, a surge of pain washing over her heart.
Rate on N.U.
