Epic meeting, everyone's here What a coincidence, you're here too

The Shen family residence.

It was dinnertime, yet the atmosphere in the house was extraordinarily strange—unnaturally quiet.

The enormous residence seemed to have lost its soul, becoming lifeless and desolate. There was even an inexplicable, gloomy feeling to it. At least… the house had never felt this way when Madam was home.

In the spacious living room, only Shen Ming and a short-haired woman sat at the dining table, staring at each other.

Master and servant were both rather silent.

Unable to stand the silence any longer, Shen Ming forced himself to speak. “Little Lan, how are things with Hanhan?”

The short-haired woman’s expression was solemn. “Mistress, the young mistress is still looking for people. The young miss has already searched the eastern part of the city herself. She’s in the western district now.”

“Um… couldn’t you just leave this sort of thing to the people under you?” Shen Ming asked in confusion.

The Du and Shen families were not lacking in manpower—especially the Du family. With just a word from them, people would pour in like dumplings being dropped into a pot. They could have as many people as they wanted.

Even a carpet search of the entire city of Dahai wouldn’t take more than three days, and that was assuming they relied entirely on manpower without using any technology.

Technology was the primary productive force.

With modern technology backing them, the search time could be compressed again and again. Forget turning the entire city upside down in three days—they could search every corner of Dahai within three hours.

It was still a carpet search. No remote areas were overlooked, either. Infrared scanners, thermal imaging… they used whatever was available.

Besides, Shen Ming knew his daughter’s physical capabilities. In theory, staying home and waiting should have been the optimal choice.

A single person’s strength seemed especially insignificant at a time like this. Adding one more person wouldn’t make much difference, and removing one wouldn’t matter much either. Why tire herself out for nothing?

To put it bluntly, going there personally was nothing more than a psychological comfort. If so many people couldn’t find him, would she somehow succeed just because she went?

Reality wasn’t a fairy tale. Miracles didn’t happen that often… There would be no miracle. It was nothing more than wishful thinking.

Yes… wishful thinking.

The young miss, who had always viewed matters from the most objective angle and considered problems with the utmost rationality, scorning emotional thinking, had now become the kind of person she used to hate most.

At the same time.

On a certain street in Dahai City, inside a fast-food restaurant, at a seat by the window.

Some time had already passed. This was the temporary shelter Shen Qinghan and Ye Cheng had chosen when they had been locked outside before.

Back then, the famous scene of the young miss robbing packets of ketchup had taken place here. This time, she didn’t need to rob anyone. She had already learned from Ye Cheng how to freeload properly.

She had accumulated a large pile of ketchup packets in front of her, along with some chicken legs…

But this time, one person was missing. Only Shen Qinghan sat there alone.

There were no customers left in the restaurant because Shen Qinghan had arrived.

The crowd of Du family men gathered outside looked like a solid black mass, scaring the fast-food employees so badly that they were practically about to call the police. Under such circumstances, an unbelievably beautiful girl, who looked as though she had stepped out of a comic book, came asking you for ketchup…

Would you give it to her?

Oh, and by the way, a large group of thugs outside would be watching you “in a friendly manner,” waiting to see whether you would give it to her or not…

Although… the process had been somewhat different, the result was good enough. She had obtained a pile of free ketchup packets and was now sitting in her seat, staring blankly ahead, seemingly thinking about something—or perhaps waiting for something.

Carving a boat to look for a sword?

No. She was revisiting an old place.

She wasn’t stupid enough to believe that some idiot had hidden himself here and would willingly throw himself into her hands. She was simply feeling restless and needed somewhere that would calm her mind.

It wasn’t home. Staying at home only made that inexplicable irritability in her heart spread even further.

Waiting passively had never been her style…

Even if she had come out looking for him solely to comfort herself, it was still something she had to do for her own peace of mind. By coincidence, she had ended up here, and her agitated heart had suddenly settled down.

Then… she had freeloaded some ketchup from the fast-food employees, ordered a few things, and sat there.

Motionless… She had been sitting there for several hours, stubbornly refusing to move.

…

The Shen residence.

“So… Little Lan, you’re saying that Hanhan robbed a fast-food restaurant of its ketchup, then sat inside staring into space?”

Shen Ming’s face was full of shock.

The moment those words left his mouth, he felt as though even the wrinkles in his cerebral cortex had been smoothed out. Was this something a normal person could do? It was far too strange, wasn’t it?

Or had something bizarre affected their Hanhan?

That couldn’t be it… Why on earth would she suddenly go rob ketchup?

The short-haired woman nodded. “Yes, Mistress. I suspect the young mistress remembered some things about the young master’s wife and was overcome with emotion after being reminded of the past.”

Shen Ming fell silent.

That was such a reasonable deduction that, for a moment, he couldn’t find anything to refute. He was completely at a loss. The current situation was more than a little strange.

No wonder Big Brother Dongfang was so anxious on his end.

Their Hanhan was already showing signs of psychological trauma. The little girl Zhixia probably wasn’t doing much better, either.

“Then, Little Lan…” Shen Ming spoke after a moment of silence. “In your opinion, what can the two of us do right now?”

For the first time, he chose to give up thinking.

The situation had already exceeded his ability to control it. As a father, he was somewhat of a failure. He knew far too little about his daughter.

He had originally thought that they were merely close…

He hadn’t expected things to have progressed to the point where she couldn’t eat or drink properly because of him. She was practically becoming obsessed.

Otherwise, why would she run to a fast-food restaurant and rob them of their ketchup? Was she trying to carve a boat to look for a sword?

Shen Ming fell silent again.

Suddenly, a strange question surfaced in Shen Ming’s mind…

Would their Hanhan become even stranger in the future?

Having one problem child in the family was already enough to handle. As for Ye Cheng… he didn’t look like someone who could be taken lightly, either. Who would have thought he would suddenly disappear for no reason?

Disappearing was one thing, but before he vanished, he had even thrown them a bombshell…

Damn brat, just wait until I get my hands on you!

Shen Ming’s face had practically turned into a mask of pain. No matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t understand why Ye Cheng had run off for no reason. Was there something they couldn’t sit down and discuss properly?

Given their relationship with the family, what couldn’t be solved with a single word from him?

Or was this something that money and manpower couldn’t resolve?

Wait…

Could that brat really be dying?

Gulp.

As though he had thought of something, Shen Ming’s expression grew ugly. Beads of cold sweat the size of beans continued to roll down his forehead, unnoticed, while his heartbeat began to accelerate.

He had already caused such a huge commotion merely by disappearing. If he really died…

Shen Ming’s eyes widened in horror.

No!!!

Shen Ming shuddered, and his eyes instantly cleared.

Damn it, you brat! Are you stacking buffs over here?

Are you trying to play the role of someone’s tragic first love? Why do you have to go this far… Can’t you just come back and explain everything properly? If you die, what will happen to my daughter?

She was already a problem child to begin with…

Shen Ming became more and more frightened as he thought about it. He really couldn't eat this meal any longer. He put down his chopsticks and quickly stood up. "Little Lan, are you full? I think the two of us should be more diligent and go to look for someone together. I'm getting anxious just sitting here."

The short - haired woman: "..."

Mistress, you didn't say that before. You said it didn't matter whether we joined or not, and something like 'everyone has their own specialty, and professional matters should be left to professionals'...

Mistress, you...

A few minutes later, the short - haired woman drove the car, carrying Brother DouDou, and also started to look for someone. The destination... was a fast - food restaurant.

More than ten minutes later, the car stopped outside the fast - food restaurant. It seemed... the event was already over?

There were still some of the Du family's lackeys looking for someone around, but there was no one inside the fast - food restaurant. The employees inside didn't dare to close the door and just stayed there.

"Where are the people?" A big question mark appeared on Shen Ming's head.

The short - haired woman came back after talking with people outside.

"Mistress, the young master seems to have left a few minutes ago."

"Left? Where did he go?" Shen Ming asked.

"The orphanage, the orphanage where the young mistress grew up..."

Shen Ming: "???"

Changed the place again?

One after another, as soon as they got settled, they immediately headed to the next place. They drove towards Dahai City Orphanage.

The orphanage where Ye Cheng used to live was in a relatively remote location. It took quite a while to drive there. After a journey of dozens of minutes, they finally saw the gate of the orphanage.

It was already very late.

However... the orphanage was incredibly lively at the moment.

Apart from Shen Qinghan, who had arrived earlier, there were also cars from the Dongfang family and the Lin family. Three people were standing outside, and there were three familiar faces in the cars.

Shen Ming was stunned for a moment when he saw the familiar faces in the car.

"Brother Lin, you're here too!" Shen Ming stared wide - eyed, his voice full of shock.

Not far away, Lin Tianxiong, sitting in the car, was a bit silent and forced an awkward smile... "Hahaha, yeah, what a coincidence, Brother Shen. Fancy meeting you here."

As for how things had turned out like this...

We need to rewind a few hours. It's a long story, but I'll make it short.

In a nutshell, Lin Baizhi was furious. She blamed all the reasons for Ye Cheng's poor health and illness on Chen Youliang!

Oh, by the way, Director Chen's full name is Chen Youliang, with the 'liang' meaning 'kind - hearted'...

Lin Baizhi wanted to kill Director Chen.

It was as simple as that.

Literally. Her brother had had such a tough life, and it was all the fault of that old guy!!!

Lin Baizhi was a bit crazy. She wouldn't listen to anything. Lin Tianxiong was afraid that something bad would happen, so he had no choice but to come along. He always felt that there was still room for negotiation... And, of course, there was one most important thing.

This was a plan Ye Cheng had been working on for a long time. If possible, he still hoped that his daughter wouldn't mess things up and break Ye Cheng's plan.

Otherwise, Ye Cheng might be unhappy. Then his daughter would cry and make a scene, saying that she couldn't live without her brother and asking him to go and beg her brother... Then he'd really be the fool.

Well... he'd just wait and see.

But soon, Lin Tianxiong noticed something strange... Why were there always cars following them?

Just a coincidence?

And it just so happened that they all ended up here.

The cars of the Dongfang family.

And in another car was... Su Su.

Shen Ming: "..."

Lin Tianxiong: "..."

Su Su: "..."

What a coincidence to meet here... The three of them fell silent at the same time, not knowing whether they should get out of the car or not. After all... it was already in a complete mess down there.

The three little guys were about to fight!