"Lian Ma, I'm fine now." Zhan Jiayi was a little surprised. How did Lian Ma know she was back at the Xie family's house?
"That's good. The old lady wants you to go to the sanatorium," Lian Ma said.
Zhan Jiayi hadn't dealt with these servants yet and said, "But the house is in such a mess. I need to handle this first."
Lian Ma, in a hurry, said, "The main house is empty now. You can leave two reliable people to guard the house and dismiss the rest."
When the servants heard this, they all pleaded to stay and guard the house. Lian Ma casually pointed to two people and said, "You two continue to stay here. The others can collect their wages and leave."
Lian Ma took out a thick envelope, glanced at Zhan Zhipeng beside Zhan Jiayi, and asked, "And who is this?"
"This is my brother, Zhipeng. He brought me back," Zhan Jiayi introduced.
Lian Ma handed the envelope to Zhan Zhipeng and said, "I'll leave the matter of paying the servants and having them leave to you. Can you handle it?"
"Yes," Zhan Zhipeng agreed.
Lian Ma didn't treat the siblings as outsiders and said, "We're all family. The Xie family has gone through many changes. Since your sister has married into the Xie family, she is now a member of the Xie family. I'd also like to ask you to help your sister more."
"Please don't say that. It's what I should do," Zhan Zhipeng nodded.
"Good," Lian Ma said to Zhan Jiayi, "Let's go quickly. The old lady is eager to see you."
Zhan Jiayi quickly instructed Zhan Zhipeng, "I'm leaving everything here to you. Contact me anytime if anything comes up."
"Sister, I understand. You go with peace of mind. Take care of your back and don't overwork yourself."
She then got into the car with Lian Ma and left.
...
Sasha had thought that even if she couldn't go out, she could still contact the outside world and get news about the Xie Group.
When she tried to contact them, she found that her informants were either unreachable or not answering her calls. One of them sent her a message: "We've all been fired by the old lady."
She hadn't expected this old woman to clean out all her people so thoroughly, leaving her unable to track the Xie Group's movements.
She had been bored to death in the house these past few days. She wanted to call the police, claiming illegal detention, and have the police drive away the people sent by the old lady so she could move freely again.
Just as she was about to implement this plan, the people guarding her house suddenly forced their way in and tied her up.
"Let me go! What are you doing? The old lady only asked you to guard the door, not to treat me like this..."
Before she could finish shouting, these people stuffed her mouth and blindfolded her.
She felt her way and knew they had dragged her into a car, but she had no idea where they were taking her.
She couldn't help but feel panicked. Why were they suddenly treating her like this? Was this the Xie family's old lady's doing?
When they removed the blindfold and pushed her into a place, she struggled to escape. She turned her head and gasped.
Behind her were containers as high as mountains, stretching as far as the eye could see. Not far away, a large crane was lifting the containers onto a large cargo ship.
The people who had been escorting her were pushing her into an empty container.
As they struggled against each other, several of them suddenly pushed her in and then let go. Caught off guard, she stumbled and fell into the container. The door was quickly closed.
Her vision was plunged into darkness, and she couldn't see anything. No matter how much she shouted, no one could hear her.
She herself hadn't expected the old lady to be so ruthless and have such methods.
As she leaned against the ground, she remembered what Xie Qining had told her before.
The Xie family had started from the underworld a long time ago, making a living by working at the docks.
Therefore, the entire port area by the sea belonged to the Xie family. After legitimizing their business, their first venture was a shipping company. The Xie family controlled half of the shipping industry in Lancheng.
Xie Qining's grandmother was the daughter of a famous underworld boss. She was daring and decisive in her youth, acting even more resolutely and ruthlessly than his grandfather. No one feared his grandmother.
At the time, she had dismissed it as Xie Qining bragging and hadn't taken it seriously.
Later, after marrying into the Xie family, she saw Xie Qining's grandmother in person and believed Xie Qining even less.
At that time, she just thought the old lady was old and foolish, easily swayed by Xie Qining and his mother, who had given Xie Qining all their assets to invest in land, only to lose everything.
In her heart, she had always looked down on the old lady and Feng Rou, thinking that these two, accustomed to being wealthy ladies, had lost their minds.
This time, she had truly misjudged. She had overlooked the most formidable person in the Xie family and hadn't thought of scheming against the old lady, only to be completely outmaneuvered by her.
As she sat in the darkness, unable to think of any solution and on the verge of going mad, the iron door of the container was opened, and the sound of a child crying was heard.
A child and a bag were thrown in, and then everything went dark again.
The sudden light had been too blinding, and she hadn't seen the child's face clearly, but listening to the cries, it sounded more and more like Jie Jie's.
She desperately tried to break free from the ropes binding her hands and said to the crying child, "Jie Jie, Jie Jie, is that you?"
Hearing her voice, the child's crying subsided slightly, and he said, "Auntie, auntie, I want auntie..."
Yang Sasha's heart ached. This damned Zhan Jiayi had raised the child like this! She wished she could have killed her with her own hands!
"Jie Jie, don't be afraid. I'm Mommy! Mommy will protect you." Sasha finally loosened the ropes binding her hands, pulled out her hands, and fumbled to hug Jie Jie.
The child, not understanding anything, was terrified. Feeling someone hugging him, he struggled desperately, not letting her hold him, thinking she was a bad person.
"I'm Mommy!" Sasha held him tightly and said, "Mommy, do you remember? I won't hurt you; I'll only protect you."
The child stopped struggling and said vaguely, "Mommy? I want Mommy..."
"Yes, that's right. Only Mommy truly loves you and will protect you. Everyone else is a bad person, understand?"
The child sobbed uncontrollably and didn't respond, but he reached out his small hands and held her tightly.
As Yang Sasha thought about the old lady throwing Jie Jie in here too, there was only one possibility: the old lady knew about Jie Jie's parentage?
But how did the Xie family's old lady find out? Was it Gu Susu who told her?
Gu Susu and Qin Tianyi had betrayed their trust and broken their agreement!
She felt like her whole world had collapsed. The Xie family could do whatever they wanted to her, but they couldn't let the child suffer with her!
Her Jie Jie was more important than anything else in this world. She couldn't let anything happen to the child.
After hugging Jie Jie for a while, she gradually calmed down and remembered that those people had also thrown in a large bag.
Letting go of Jie Jie, she fumbled to find the bag. In the darkness, she tried to open the zipper and felt a flashlight inside. She immediately took it and turned it on.