Meng Qi had been waiting downstairs. After a long while, her parents and the court officials emerged from the study upstairs.
Upon reaching the ground floor, Huangfu Sisong politely asked the butler to escort the court officials out of the mansion.
Seeing their solemn expressions, Meng Qi quickly asked, "Mom and Dad, what exactly did the people from the court want?"
"It's nothing, you don't need to worry about it," Wu Xiufang replied.
Meng Qi grew anxious. "Mom and Dad, please don't hide it from me anymore. I actually know everything. Song Jiaping has a grudge against our family, and he wants revenge on you, right? Did he sue you?"
Huangfu Sisong glanced at Wu Xiufang and said, "Perhaps we should tell Meng Qi. Once the trial officially begins, this matter won't be kept secret anyway."
Wu Xiufang nodded in agreement, her heart filled with anxiety.
She feared that the matter of the pharmaceutical factory would also implicate the Wu family's affairs, not to mention her impersonation of the Wu family's daughter... If all of this were to be revealed, like beads on a string, she would be completely ruined.
Huangfu Sisong, Meng Qi, and Meng Yao would likely never forgive her...
Huangfu Sisong pulled her to sit down and said to Meng Qi, "Yes, Song Jiaping found some evidence at the pharmaceutical factory and has sued your mother and me. The court officials came today to gather some information and to serve us the summons."
"Will you be alright?" Meng Qi asked worriedly.
Huangfu Sisong smiled, appearing optimistic in front of her. "It should be fine. I'll hire the best lawyers. You don't need to worry too much. When we have to go to court, Meng Yao's situation and the group will be entrusted to you. You must find Meng Yao and also take good care of the group."
"Mom and Dad, I will," Meng Qi said, seeing Wu Xiufang staring blankly. She held her mother's hand and said, "Mom, don't be scared. I will definitely be able to hire the best lawyers to resolve this lawsuit."
Wu Xiufang came back to her senses and forced a smile. "I'm not scared, I just remembered some things from the past. Why didn't Song Jiaping come to us to clarify things, but instead went to court to sue? I also feel very sad about their family's affairs. Your father and I just wanted to copy a few prescriptions from that medical book to increase the pharmaceutical factory's profits. We never expected it to turn out like this. If he had come to us directly, we could have compensated them with a large sum of money. Why go through the court?"
Meng Qi hesitated for a moment and said, "Mom and Dad, actually, Song Jiaping is also very worried about Meng Yao being kidnapped. He contacted me. I have his phone number. Why don't you contact him through this number and see if he can withdraw the lawsuit?"
"Still concerned about Meng Yao? I think he's just putting on an act!" Huangfu Sisong said indignantly.
Just as Meng Qi was about to explain, Wu Xiufang suddenly became energetic and asked, "What's his phone number? Give it to me quickly. We'll contact him right away, maybe it's still not too late to withdraw the lawsuit."
Without further hesitation, she immediately gave her parents Song Jiaping's phone number.
"Mom and Dad, this is the number. But he didn't answer my calls before, so I don't know if he'll answer yours."
Wu Xiufang saved the number and said, "Whether he answers or not, your father and I will try. Speaking of which, his mother and I were good friends back then. If we had known they were still alive, we would have compensated them, and things wouldn't have turned out this way."
Huangfu Sisong also nodded and said, "We truly wronged his family with the pharmaceutical factory matter back then. I am willing to apologize to him in person."
Seeing her parents' attitude, Meng Qi felt that as long as Song Jiaping was willing, they could sit down and communicate properly, perhaps even resolve their animosity. Then, the relationship between Song Jiaping and Meng Yao wouldn't be so complicated.
"I will also try to help persuade him."
Wu Xiufang said "good," and her mood improved. In fact, whether she could persuade him to withdraw the lawsuit didn't matter. What was important was to find his location through this phone number and have Shi Changying send people to deal with him.
...
Tianyi handed over the group's affairs to An Jing and also informed Susu. He spent day and night with Song Jiaping, analyzing the clues provided by netizens.
He knew that the only way to stabilize Song Jiaping now and prevent him from acting impulsively was to ensure that it wouldn't affect the upcoming lawsuit.
After sifting through the clues, they finally found several useful ones.
Song Jiaping's subordinate had remembered the license plate of the black van. Even if it was a fake license plate, the car should have driven to the place where Meng Yao was held before changing its plates again.
According to police investigations, the car only traveled on a main road with surveillance for a short distance before turning onto a small, unmonitored, desolate road, after which its whereabouts could no longer be traced.
However, among the omnipotent netizens, several provided the car's whereabouts in the unmonitored areas. Following these fragmented clues, they discovered that the car had eventually stopped in front of a private villa.
Looking at the location of the private villa on the map, Tianyi recalled that Daisy had mentioned to him before that the villa where she was held captive for a period was also in this area.
Could their guess be correct? Was this Wu Xiufang's private villa?
He immediately sent the address of this villa to Kang Xi and asked him to investigate who the owner of the villa was.
Tianyi told Song Jiaping that this villa might belong to Wu Xiufang. If this point were confirmed, it would mean that Wu Xiufang had deliberately arranged for Meng Yao's kidnapping as a trap for Song Jiaping.
Song Jiaping couldn't help but gasp, "But Meng Yao is her biological daughter. How could she bear to use her own daughter as bait?"
"She designed a fake kidnapping; those people wouldn't really hurt Meng Yao. Her target is you, to lure you into a trap and eliminate you," Tianyi analyzed rationally.
Song Jiaping was still worried about Meng Yao. "But she's truly insane. She wouldn't spare even her own daughter, would she?"
"Probably not. Meng Yao is her biological daughter and poses no threat to her, unlike you," Tianyi said, understanding Song Jiaping's concern driven by love.
At this moment, someone suddenly knocked on the door. They were both surprised as to who could have found them here.
"Who is it?" Song Jiaping asked.
"Hello, food delivery."
Song Jiaping then remembered and said to Tianyi, "When you were looking at that clue, I ordered food. It's almost noon."
Tianyi relaxed. "Yes, it's time for lunch."
Song Jiaping went to open the door.
But as soon as the door opened, he saw the food delivery person holding Chinese food, his face pale and his expression nervous, trembling involuntarily. He knew something was wrong.
Just as Song Jiaping was about to quickly close the door, someone suddenly rushed out from both sides of the door, holding weapons, and began shooting at him.
He quickly dodged behind the door and shouted to Tianyi, "Get to the inner room quickly!"
Seeing the door pierced by bullets, Tianyi immediately grabbed a chair to shield himself and ran towards the inner room.
Song Jiaping also moved quickly along the wall into the inner room and locked the door.