It was late at night when Ye Tianfan left the villa and walked along 36th Street. The night breeze blew gently, and soon Yan Feishuang's footsteps caught up with him.

"What? A bit disappointed?" Yan Feishuang asked.

"Yeah."

Ye Tianfan nodded. This waiting-in-the-wings plan had not brought him much information. He still didn't know who Old K was, what the true intentions of the secretive overseas organization "Satan's Hand" were, or even who the Boss Qian mentioned by the man in black was.

"Then why didn't you follow that man in black? See who he contacts? If you keep tracing the connections, wouldn't you eventually find this so-called Boss Qian?" Yan Feishuang asked, perplexed.

Facing the night breeze, Ye Tianfan lit a cigarette and replied, "Do you think anyone will meet with him?"

Ye Tianfan's rhetorical question left Yan Feishuang slightly taken aback. As a former assassin, her specialty was concealing herself, and it was obvious that this organization named Satan's Hand was even better at hiding. To this day, no one had figured out what they truly looked like.

So Yan Feishuang knew in her heart that the man in black was probably going to be abandoned. He would certainly be forsaken by Satan's Hand because an organization so adept at secrecy surely had a very strict internal system, much like the underground secret agents in spy films.

Perhaps they reported every half hour, or maybe they had some other method. In any case, if they lost contact for a certain duration, they would definitely be abandoned.

Without such life-and-death iron laws, an organization like Satan's Hand would not have remained hidden all this time.

Ye Tianfan, smoking with furrowed brows, found himself at a loss in the face of the great mystery that was the Tianyu Group. Even though he tried to unravel the truth little by little, he gained nothing.

"Back to the bar?" Yan Feishuang asked.

Ye Tianfan shook his head, "No."

"Okay."

Yan Feishuang nodded, not bothering to ask where Ye Tianfan was headed. As a smart woman, she knew that Ye Tianfan had only three places to go in Jiangzhou: a bar, Qin Ruomeng's villa, or Long Yuqing's villa on Peony Street.

If Ye Tianfan wasn't going to the bar, then naturally he was headed to one of the other two places. Knowing this, there was no need to ask.

"Then I'll head back first." Yan Feishuang didn't want to stick around unnecessarily. Though she felt a slight pang of jealousy, she decided to leave first, saving Ye Tianfan the trouble of shooing her away later.

"Take it slow on the way," Ye Tianfan replied politely before continuing on his way.

Yan Feishuang hailed a taxi with a wave and left, full of envy.

Meanwhile, Ye Tianfan walked back to the Qin Villa on foot.

"Aunt Wu, how's Ruo Meng doing?"

Aunt Wu was the housekeeper hired by the Qin Family and had been taking care of Qin Ruomeng's daily needs for five or six years. Honest and hardworking, she left a good impression on everyone, and Ye Tianfan always liked to chat with her occasionally.

"Same as always, lying in her bedroom," Aunt Wu replied as she slowly walked down from the second floor with a tray of dishes. Ye Tianfan casually glanced over and saw that the bowl Aunt Wu was carrying was still more than half-full with porridge, and the food on the plate was barely touched.

"What? Ruo Meng not feeling hungry?" Ye Tianfan instinctively inquired.

Aunt Wu sighed, "Ever since you left, the young lady has been fretting every day, either about the company or about why you're not home yet. She hasn't really eaten well these days and has lost weight."

Aunt Wu's words left Ye Tianfan momentarily stunned. He hadn't come by these past few days precisely to prevent Qin Ruomeng from finding out that something was wrong with the company. He thought that as long as he didn't show up, she'd remain unaware. But he'd overlooked one fatal flaw...

The phone!

Qin Ruomeng might be bedridden, but she had a phone! She's not naive—just making a call to the company would tell her everything.

"How could I be so shortsighted?" Ye Tianfan silently cursed his stupidity and then headed upstairs to the second floor of the villa.

When he pushed open the bedroom door, Qin Ruomeng was half-reclining on the bed, holding a copy of "One Hundred Years of Solitude." She was extraordinarily weak because of a neurotoxin, and now, having not eaten well for two consecutive days, she looked even more frail, and her lips were slightly pale.

Gazing at the "One Hundred Years of Solitude" in her hands, Ye Tianfan could almost instantly sense the resentment emanating from Qin Ruomeng.

At the moment, she was definitely like a resentful woman pent up in the inner chambers, waiting to unleash her fury on him.

Mentally prepared, Ye Tianfan approached the bedside slowly and smiled, "Still up?"

"Yeah."

Qin Ruomeng's response was unexpected to Ye Tianfan. She didn't turn to look at him but simply turned a page in her book.

"Aunt Wu mentioned you've been off your food these past days?" Ye Tianfan sat at the edge of the bed, his heart filling with tenderness as he looked at the pale Qin Ruomeng.

"No appetite." Qin Ruomeng continued to read the book.

"Do you want me to give you an acupuncture treatment? It can stimulate your appetite." As Ye Tianfan spoke, he pulled a silver needle out from his pocket.

"No need." At this point, Qin Ruomeng put down her book, her gaze softening as she looked at Ye Tianfan. She sighed lightly and said, "The company's not doing so well, right?"

"Yeah."

Ye Tianfan nodded. Qin Ruomeng eventually broached the subject of the company, which relieved him quite a bit. If she had merely focused on her book and turned a blind eye to both the company and himself, Ye Tianfan would have been unnerved.

"You've worked hard these past few days." Qin Ruomeng didn't ask about the company in detail but instead comforted Ye Tianfan, radiating the aura of a virtuous wife and loving mother.

"Well... Ruo Meng, aren't you going to ask about the company's operations?" Ye Tianfan couldn't hold back any longer and spoke up first.

Qin Ruomeng shook her head, "No need."

"Why not?"

"Because with you there, the company will be fine." This time, Qin Ruomeng completely trusted Ye Tianfan. Though back at Kyoto University's finance department, he had been a notorious underachiever and was clueless about the business world, she had previously been uneasy about him taking over the company. Yet, in just a couple of days, her attitude had totally shifted, which truly surprised Ye Tianfan.

"It's late. Get some rest," Qin Ruomeng said, picking up her "One Hundred Years of Solitude" once again.

This left Ye Tianfan feeling a bit odd. Qin Ruomeng had spoken so little today, an unusual occurrence given that, had she gone two days without seeing him, she would typically bombard him with questions. So what had changed today?

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