Chapter 257 Collateral Damage
Chapter 257 Collateral Damage
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"I have done nothing to you."
"Really?" Lily raised an eyebrow before she unceremoniously took a small bite of her doughnut. "Last time I heard…"
"It was all Qi Xia. He wanted to attract your attention and wanted to use me to divert Zhuo Jingren's focus away from you. I never thought that it would blow up like this." Mu Lihua explained. Since Qi Xia already left her, she will make sure to drag him along into this misery.
"Oh… Mr. Qi… why would he do that?" Lily asked.
"I have no idea. He never told me. It was obvious that he was not interested in you, so someone else must have asked him to do it." She said. Qi Xia was actually acting mysterious and never talked to her directly about the reasons behind his actions.
"Alright." Lily nodded.
"The things that you and Zhuo Jingren did was a bit too much. This made me wonder if I have done something that deserves something as harsh as your methods." Mu Lihua said. All she wanted right now is to know the truth behind this scheme. "I wanted to know the real reason why you are doing this. Was it because of the Scarlet City? Was it because you are creating your own chain of malls in Asia?"
Before Lily could even answer her, Mu Lihua already added, "I never thought that you would be this shrewd."
"Oh… I am shrewd, alright." Lily said nonchalantly. "If I want your business… I can easily obtain it even before I arrived in Hong Kong months ago."
"Then, what are you doing? You of all people should know the effort and sacrifices that I made for this position. This was not handed to me. I work my ass off to prove that I am worth it. Why are you doing this?"
"I know… and that was the reason why I chose to talk to you." Lily smiled. "I am looking for your mother."
"My mother? She is in…" Mu Lihua did not continue her words as she furrowed her brows. She haven't talked to her mother for weeks now, and she did not even know where she was.
"You don't know," Lily stated when she saw Mu Lihua's reaction. "I know you don't know."
"What did my mother ever do to you? I don't remember you…"
"Your mother, along with your Aunt Yuyan and Yang Lina, killed my mother seven years ago," Lily said as she passed a flash drive towards Mu Lihua. "Inside that, you will see Yang Lina's confession as well as He Yuyan's written one. If you don't believe me… then you should see your aunt for yourself."
Mu Lihua only stared at Lily, confused. "My mother…" Was her mother capable of killing someone? Of all people, Mu Lihua knew that He Xinlan was indeed capable of murder. "What are you planning to do? Are you planning to make me suffer to flash out my mother?"
Lily's lips slowly turned upwards into a smile as she stared at Mu Lihua. "Secret." She said. Seeing Mu Lihua's face darkened, Lily instantly laughed. "I am kidding." She uttered while waving her hand and shaking her head. "I am just amused… I mean… you, my dear… delivered yourself in my doorstep – in a silver platter. I was looking for a way to provoke you and create some trouble, but you just have to agree to Mr. Qi's request and provoked us first."
"Don't you think it's funny too?" Lily added. "Ah… the complexities of human nature. You owe Qi Xia and you were just paying a debt. You were unaware that you are already walking into a trap that was capable of ruining you."
"You see? This is why I don't like owing people." Lily's words were only met with silence as Mu Lihua stared at her intently. Lily was calmly laughing and talking, her tone was as friendly as her face. It was as if she was not talking about her scheme and was instead talking to a long-time friend.
"If I give you my mother… will you stop creating trouble for me?" Mu Lihua asked after a few minutes.
"For some reason, I was already expecting that you will sell out your parents. Maybe it was because I can sense your cruelty even from your photos."
"In this world, the only people that are capable of backstabbing you are your family." Mu Lihua answered. "But you already know that. In fact, I would assume that you already know the reason why my parents do not favor Mu Qingling. Am I right, President Zhuo?"
Lily instantly scoffed at her words. "Oh... Please... Call me Lily." Lily laughed before she continued. "Miss Mu is truly vicious. Mu Qingling… the true heiress of the Mu Group was your cousin. Yes… I already know this. However, this makes me wonder… Is this the reason why you are always trying to prove that you are worthy of the CEO position? The position that you stole from Mu Qingling?"
"I did not steal anything from her. It was my parents. I have nothing to do with it." Mu Qingling instantly answered. All along, she had been aware that Mu Qingling is the daughter of her uncle. The one who died under He Xinlan's scalpel.
The person who truly owned the Mu Group.
However, this did not make her feel any guilt about obtaining the CEO Position. After all, she genuinely felt that she was worthy and worked hard for it. Heiress or not, Mu Lihua believed that Mu Group should belong to her.
"Your mother was a vicious woman Miss Mu. I have enough proof that would make her go to jail from malpractice and murder. She killed Mu Qingling's father during surgery, just like how she killed my mother years ago. It was truly a pity that you have been born into such kind of mother." Lily said as the smile on her face slowly disappeared.
"However, the choice of bullying your sister and teaching her dancing instead of business management was on you. You fear that she will be as brilliant as her father and so you make her believe that she loved dancing so much. You controlled everything around her, making her hate your parents for always favoring you. You are brilliant… even I would applaud the level of manipulation and brains that you put into your actions." Lily scoffed before she smirked. "Too bad in my book… you are nothing but collateral damage. Someone dispensable…" Lily made a deliberate paused as her eyes bore into Mu Lihua's. "Disposable."