Chapter 598 — The Young Miss Has Something on Her Mind
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Xiao Shu! I'll kill you!" Gu Mengyao refused to admit that Shen Yushu had hit the mark, and mortification quickly curdled into fury. Besides — it was not lovesick at all. She merely wanted Wei Zhao to pay her a little more attention. How could that possibly count as lovesick?
"Oh, oh — Sister Yaoyao is a murderer!" Shen Yushu squealed and bolted from her seat.
"Heh." Gu Pengzhan had long grown accustomed to the two girls roughhousing and squabbling with one another. They had been at each other's throats since childhood, and Shen Yushu would say anything that came into her head — a trait Gu Pengzhan understood perfectly well by now.
Wei Zhao shook his head with a wry smile. Only Shen Yushu could behave this way, no matter the occasion.
Gu Mengyao naturally had no intention of actually getting up to chase Shen Yushu. That girl was simply hot-blooded and impulsive, and there was nothing unusual about it. She herself, by contrast, was considerably more composed. With her father still seated at the banquet table, how could she possibly rise and walk away?
"Dad, don't listen to Xiao Shu's nonsense — she's the one who's lovesick!" Gu Mengyao, fearing her father might misunderstand, offered a hasty, crimson-faced explanation.
Gu Pengzhan was mildly taken aback. Had Gu Mengyao not bothered to explain, he would have thought nothing of it. But the fact that she did explain was enough to plant a seed of suspicion. After all, if Shen Yushu had merely been joking, the Gu Mengyao of old would never have deigned to respond to such nonsense.
Yet here she was, explaining — and blushing besides. It was enough for Gu Pengzhan to catch a glimmer of something. Still, he had no intention of raising the matter at the dining table; he would broach it privately later.
"By the way, Xiao Yi — I heard that someone cut out one of Zhong Yongliang's kidneys. What is that all about? Does it have anything to do with you?" Gu Pengzhan shifted the subject to Zhong Yongliang. Zhong Fabai's son losing a kidney was no small matter. Though Zhong Fabai had done his best to keep it quiet, the news had still reached every person of standing in Songshan City.
Everyone was secretly sighing among themselves, wondering just what sort of person Zhong Yongliang had offended to be treated so ruthlessly.
"No. But this was probably An Liwen's doing, wasn't it?" Wei Zhao had told An Liwen about Zhong Yongliang kidnapping Gu Mengyao, and the very next day Zhong Yongliang's kidney had been cut out. This was undoubtedly An Liwen's work.
What Wei Zhao had not expected was why An Liwen would choose to cut out just one of Zhong Yongliang's kidneys. Recalling the organ-trafficking ring Qiu Lingshan had mentioned a few days earlier, and coupling that with the kidney-harvesting syndicate's stronghold he had personally destroyed, Wei Zhao began to suspect whether An Liwen had ties to this criminal gang.
"An Liwen?" Gu Pengzhan was momentarily taken aback, then nodded. "That is possible." "Uncle Chu, what sort of background does this An Liwen's family have? It seems there's some connection with your family?" Wei Zhao asked.
"The An family was once a formidable clan in Songshan City, with very large business interests. Our two families had some business dealings and were on good terms. An Liwen is the An family's youngest son, and back then he was quite close with Yaoyao..." Gu Pengzhan said. "You could call them childhood sweethearts..."
"Who's childhood sweethearts with him?" Gu Mengyao grew flustered and cut in to explain, as though terrified of being misunderstood.
But once she had said it, Gu Mengyao felt she had been rather baffling. Why explain this at all? So what if they were childhood sweethearts?