Luo Yali turned to the maid standing beside An Feixiong, “Why didn’t you stop An Siyao!”
The maid remained silent. Luo Yali realized that the maid was powerless in this matter, so she looked at An Feixiong again.
“Don’t be afraid of her in the future; Mom will stand up for you!” she said.
“Really?” An Feixiong became excited. He knew he had wronged someone, but he hadn’t expected to receive support.
“Really.”
Feeling heartbroken, Luo Yali took An Feixiong to a maid who was a former nurse to apply some medicine. Then, filled with anger, Luo Yali went to An Siyao’s bedroom, only to learn that An Siyao had already gone out.
“Where did she go!” Luo Yali asked the maid.
“I don’t know.” Actually, the maid did know but had no intention of telling Luo Yali.
Luo Yali returned to her room and waited for a while. But thinking about An Feixiong’s bruised bottom and how An Siyao had dared to hit An Feixiong, she felt a surge of anger—and panic.
When An Tianfeng asked her to come here, she hadn’t cared much. In her mind, she was just changing cities for fun, after all, as An’s wife, going to her stepdaughter’s villa meant she would be in charge.
Although An Siyao was the legitimate daughter, Luo Yali had a son. Gender was more important than legitimacy or illegitimacy.
When she first arrived at the villa, things were indeed as she had imagined. The head maid had immediately sided with her, and An Siyao had remained obedient and quiet.
She had started to think that the unusual feeling she had sensed from An Siyao at the birthday banquet must have been her imagination.
But within these two short days, the situation had changed.
The head maid had been taken away, the maid she had chosen, Dong Ci, had been transferred back. In such a large villa with more than ten maids, none could be assigned to serve her and her son.
Moreover, all the maids wore indifferent expressions. Although they obeyed her, it was obvious their attitudes were subpar.
Luo Yali could still comfort herself by thinking that the local maids were naturally cold, but when they faced An Siyao, they were clearly enthusiastic.
She tried to talk to the new head maid, Yu Ningmeng, to find out what was going on, only to discover that this new head maid was actually correcting documents inside her room.
What documents could a head maid possibly have to correct?
And then there was An Siyao.
She had seen two self-portraits An Siyao had drawn of herself in the studio—one gentle-looking and the other fierce. Who in their right mind would paint two self-portraits in different styles?
Even more importantly, she, who didn’t understand oil painting at all, could tell that the two portraits were of two different skill levels!
Why would one person possess two different painting abilities?
The villa’s oddities made Luo Yali increasingly frightened the more she thought about them.
When faced with the unknown, people normally had two reactions: one was to flee, and the other was to confront it head-on.
Looking at the bright sun outside the window, Luo Yali decided to confront it directly.
She would go and meet An Siyao, using the incident with An Feixiong as the starting point to determine whether she had imagined things.
To prevent her courage from fading, Luo Yali decided to act immediately. She walked out of the villa and went to a house nearby to inquire.
This house was a bit far from the villa, used for the rest of the drivers and temporary workers.
She found out that the driver who had taken An Siyao out had just returned.
She asked the driver to take her to An Siyao immediately; this matter must be resolved today! she thought.
Following the directions of the security guard, Luo Yali met An Siyao’s private driver.
She widened her eyes, staring at the driver’s face.
She was about to exclaim in delight, but the driver shook his head.
“What does the madam need from me?” the driver asked normally, as if he didn’t know Luo Yali at all.
Although puzzled, Luo Yali still cooperated with the driver’s act.
She casually asked where An Siyao had gone and then turned to leave.
Back at the villa, she logged into an email account she hadn’t used in a long time and sent a message to the driver.
The driver replied quickly: “Tonight, Beida Street, do not reply, delete after reading.”
She deleted the email and lay in bed, turning restlessly.
That driver was her former junior from university; their relationship had been quite close before. Later, after she became involved with An Tianfeng, their relationship had gradually faded.
In theory, meeting an old friend again should involve some greetings and reminiscing about the past, so why was he pretending not to know her?
Moreover, why did this email instruct her to delete it after reading!
After tossing and turning in bed for a while, Luo Yali suddenly remembered something.
She logged out of her email and entered the driver’s email address in the username field, then typed in a password based on memory.
She succeeded—he hadn’t even changed his password!
After a brief moment of happiness, she realized this might not be very useful and that the driver might find out she had accessed his email.
About to log out, Luo Yali glanced through the inbox and noticed a scheduled email.
The email was set to be sent ten days later, addressed to someone with the nickname “Old Sweetheart,” likely his wife.
She wasn’t usually someone who liked to pry into others’ privacy, but she saw the email’s subject:
—A Farewell Letter.
Dear Qingqing,
By the time you receive this letter, I must have encountered some misfortune. Please do not investigate or pursue it. Just follow their arrangements. It’s all because I know too much…
The letter was short, containing no detailed information, yet it held significant implications.
What kind of misfortune? What did he mean by knowing too much? And why shouldn’t she investigate—who was he afraid of?
Walking back and forth in the room, Luo Yali felt uneasy. Unable to wait until nightfall, she arrived at Beida Street at five in the afternoon, waiting at the street corner against the cold wind.
At six o’clock, a person wearing a high-collared coat, their face obscured, waved at her and entered a milk tea shop.
That person was the driver.
“What do you want from me now?” Even indoors, the driver didn’t lower the collar covering his face.
“What’s going on? What’s with the farewell letter in your email?” Luo Yali asked in a hushed tone.
The driver stared at her for five seconds—an agonizing five seconds during which Luo Yali could clearly hear her heart pounding violently.
Finally, the driver spoke, “So you really know nothing at all.”
“What am I supposed to know?” Luo Yali asked anxiously.
“You were always so naive before, but now you’ve become even more clueless,” the driver sighed. “It’s better that you don’t know.”
“What exactly are you talking about!” Luo Yali’s tone rose.
Signaling her to quiet down, the driver began to explain, “I shouldn’t even be meeting you now, but for old times’ sake, I’ll give you a few words of advice.”
“The cruelty of the rich and powerful is beyond our imagination. Just behave like a mascot. Don’t listen, don’t ask, don’t fight—especially don’t oppose the young mistress.” After speaking, the driver stood up to leave.
But Luo Yali grabbed his arm.
He added one more sentence, “I have a friend who’s from the same hometown as the former head maid. I asked him to check, and the head maid never even went home!”
With that, he quickly left.
Back home, Luo Yali continued thinking about the driver’s words, feeling a chill in her body.
The next morning, as she went out for breakfast, she was still thinking about it.
Entering the dining room, she saw An Feixiong and An Siyao.
An Feixiong ran up to her, hugging her waist and said, “Mom, An Siyao bullied me!”
Looking at An Siyao’s displeased expression and her subtle, imposing aura, Luo Yali recalled the driver’s words.
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