I lent my brother 500 yuan, and he offered his wife as collateral.

……

Yanjing, the old residence of the Su family.

The rain poured down and thunder roared.

A bolt of lightning tore through the night sky, casting flickering light into the room through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Orchid Hall.

Su Linglong walked barefoot on an expensive handmade Persian carpet.

She held a pair of exquisite sterling silver scissors in her hand, pruning a "Su Guan He Ding" bonsai worth seven figures.

"Click."

A soft sound.

A beautifully blooming orchid was cut off at the base and fell to the ground.

It looks like a severed head.

The air inside was somewhat murky, and even with the burning of top-grade agarwood, it couldn't mask the stench of urine left behind when Ma Sanyan was dragged out.

The tablet computer on the table lit up, and with a "ding," the transfer progress bar reached 100%.

Those were photos of Qin Feng's background, which she had ordered to be thoroughly investigated ten minutes earlier, as well as a photo of that so-called "girlfriend."

"Let me see what kind of country girl she is that makes Qin Feng dare to steal things from my Su family as 'compensation for emotional distress'."

Su Linglong casually tossed the scissors onto the table, making a crisp "clang" sound.

She picked up a glass of red wine from the side, swirled it gently, and her eyes revealed a hint of nonchalant disdain.

In her eyes, women from impoverished rural areas like Sichuan were at most just pretty.

Qin Feng, a country bumpkin who climbed up from the bottom, was naive and often mistook a pheasant for a phoenix.

Su Linglong stretched out her slender fingers and gently swiped them across the screen.

The file is open.

The first thing that catches the eye is Qin Feng's information.

Rental apartments, antique hunting, bizarre medical practices...

Su Linglong glanced at it and then lost interest.

She had seen too many of these nouveau riche who became arrogant and ignorant after a few lucky encounters, and they all ended up dying tragically.

"The key point is this woman."

Su Linglong continued to swipe her finger, turning to the last page.

It was a candid photo.

The background is dim and noisy, and it's a roadside stall.

In the photo, the girl is tilting her head to the side, seemingly preparing to eat something, and has just taken off one ear loop of her mask.

The dim yellow light from the streetlamp shone on the half of her face that was exposed.

The sarcasm on Su Linglong's lips froze the moment her gaze fell upon the photograph.

Even if it's just half a face.

Even if the photo's resolution isn't high.

But that aloofness and stunning beauty that seemed to pierce through the screen was like a sharp knife, stabbing straight into Su Linglong's eyes.

Her skin was as white as snow, her nose was straight and high, and especially the charm in her eyes and brows...

"this……"

Su Linglong gripped the wine glass tightly.

A strange sense of familiarity surged forth from the depths of my memory.

Who does it resemble?

Su Linglong's breathing became rapid, her gaze fixed on the photograph.

Just then.

A soft footstep sound came from outside the door.

An elderly man with gray hair walked in.

He is Uncle Zhong, the head butler of the Su family, who has served the Su family for forty years and watched Su Linglong grow up.

He was one of the few people in the family who could enter the Orchid Hall.

"Miss, calm down."

Uncle Zhong was carrying a purple clay tray with a freshly brewed ginseng tea on it.

"Ma Sanyan has done a poor job; he should be dealt with according to family rules. Getting angry will only harm your health. Here, have some hot tea to warm yourself up."

The old butler, in a gentle voice, carefully walked to the desk.

Su Linglong was still muttering to herself:

"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible..."

Seeing this, Uncle Zhong looked in the direction Su Linglong was looking, somewhat puzzled.

"Miss, what are you looking at...?"

As Uncle Zhong spoke, he prepared to put down his teacup.

however.

When his cloudy old eyes swept over the profile photo on the tablet screen.

He was struck dumb, frozen in place.

That face...

Those eyebrows and eyes...

That was twenty years ago, when he served the Su family compound day and night, and even looking up at her felt like a desecration of her unparalleled beauty!

"Smack—!!!"

A sharp, piercing sound.

The priceless Ming Chenghua Doucai Chicken Cup in Uncle Zhong's hand slipped off the tray and crashed hard onto the gold brick floor, shattering into pieces.

The scalding hot ginseng tea splashed all over the floor, even landing on Su Linglong's bare feet.

But Uncle Zhong was completely unaware.

He shakily extended his withered finger, pointing at the screen, his lips trembling so much he could barely speak.

"Madam...?"

"Is it the madam returning?!"

"How is this possible! Twenty years ago..."

That tearful cry of "Madam" echoed in the silent Orchid Hall.

Boom!

Another clap of thunder boomed outside the window.

Su Linglong suddenly came to her senses.

That one word, "Madam," shattered the last shred of hope in her heart.

That name was listed as the highest taboo by the Su family.

That woman she had never met, yet who always loomed over her like a shadow.

The true matriarch of the Su family!

Su Linglong suddenly grabbed the tablet computer, her fingernails scratching the screen with a teeth-grinding sound.

The gates of memory were smashed open.

She remembered!

Deep within the study of his adoptive father, a room accessible only to the head of the family, lies a black-and-white portrait hidden in the innermost compartment of the bookshelf.

Su Linglong once sneaked in and took a peek when she was a child.

The woman in that funeral portrait and the girl eating wontons in front of me have almost identical eyebrows and eyes!

The only difference is that the woman in the memorial portrait is mature and gentle, while the girl in the photo looks slightly immature.

"So it was you..."

Su Linglong stared intently at the photo, her teeth grinding together: "So it was that bitch's child!"

All the mysteries were solved at this moment.

No wonder Su Wenbin, that good-for-nothing who only knows how to eat, drink, gamble, and whore, would cling to Qin Feng like a mad dog in a place like Sichuan.

No wonder he didn't hesitate to spend tens of millions to hire a killer, and even invited the evil cultivators from Qingcheng Mountain.

So, he had already discovered it!

Su Wenbin wanted to claim all the credit for himself and wanted to use the head of this "Su family's hidden gem" to exchange for a ticket to enter the family's core!

"Useless! Utterly useless!"

A ruthless glint flashed in Su Linglong's eyes. "You can't even kill an orphan girl properly, and you've crippled yourself in the process. Serves you right!"

"Miss...this...is this really the young lady?"

Uncle Zhong was already in tears, and he knelt down with a thud, trying to pick up the tablet to see more clearly: "If the young lady is still alive, then sir..."

"Shut up!"

Su Linglong suddenly turned around and kicked Uncle Zhong in the shoulder, knocking the old butler to the ground.

"You old fool! Are you senile?!"

Su Linglong's voice was shrill, and her originally elegant face became twisted and ferocious.

"That bitch was burned to ashes long ago! Not even a bone fragment remained!"

"How could this be her? This is a fake!"

Su Linglong seemed to be trying to persuade Uncle Zhong, but more like she was trying to persuade herself.

In a state of extreme panic, she quickly constructed a set of logic:

"This must be a conspiracy by that Qin guy! He's a doctor, and he knows sorcery! He must have found a woman who looked similar and had her plastic surgery done to resemble that dead man!"

"What does he want? To infiltrate the Su family? To steal my inheritance?!"

"dream!!!"

Su Linglong screamed hysterically and slammed the tablet computer in her hand to the ground.

"Bang!"

The screen shattered into pieces, and that stunning profile was instantly torn to pieces.

Uncle Zhong lay on the ground, staring at the shattered screen, trembling all over, not daring to utter a single word.

he knows.

Whether it's real or fake, the moment this face appears, the Su family is about to undergo a dramatic change.

And the Second Miss... would never allow the true heir to set foot in Yanjing alive.

Su Linglong's chest heaved violently as she gasped for breath.

She walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked at her reflection in the glass.

She is an adopted daughter.

Although the entire Su family now respectfully calls her "Female Zhuge Liang," and although she controls the Su family's vast business empire.

But she knew in her heart that she was not legitimate.

The dead woman and the missing child will forever remain a thorn in her heart.

Once that true bloodline returns, everything she currently possesses—status, wealth, and power—will vanish.

"Hehe...hehehe..."

Su Linglong suddenly chuckled softly, the sound chilling and particularly eerie in the stormy night.

If before, she only wanted to "teach Qin Feng and that woman a lesson,"

So now.

This is a life-or-death battle for the succession of a powerful family.

It's a fight to the death!

"Kawakita..."

Su Linglong looked out at the pitch-black night, her eyes gradually turning cold and icy, devoid of any warmth.

"Backup machine."

She turned around, her voice regaining that chilling calm.

"I want to go to Chengdu myself."

Uncle Zhong shuddered, scrambled to his feet, and bowed his head: "Miss, is it in such a hurry? The auction isn't until three more days..."

"I'm not waiting anymore."

Su Linglong walked to the desk and picked up the gold-embossed invitation that she had casually tossed aside a couple of days ago—it was an admission ticket to the black market auction in the western suburbs of Chengdu.

"Since that good-for-nothing Su Wenbin can't get things done, then I'll do it."

She picked up the silver scissors and slashed fiercely at the air.

Click.

It was as if some thread of fate had been severed.

"I'm determined to have that thousand-year-old snow lotus."

Su Linglong raised her head, her eyes flashing with a venomous light:

"I'm determined to take that woman's life too."

"I want to peel off her face completely with my own hands."

"I want to see if she's still the so-called 'heiress' without that face!"

"And that Qin Feng..."

Su Linglong thought of the man who dared to send her nuclear waste and sneered.

"I will show him what true despair is."