Li Qianfan held Su Ziyu in his arms as if he had embraced the whole world.
His heart had never felt such peace.
Yet, he could clearly feel Su Ziyu trembling all over as if electric currents were passing through her, burrowing into his embrace.
In this moment, Su Ziyu no longer possessed the stubborn defiance she had shown towards Lan Yunhai.
She was merely a wife, frightened by external threats, seeking refuge in her husband's arms.
"Don't be afraid, it's alright, it's alright."
As Li Qianfan gently patted her back and spoke in a low voice, he looked up at Mo Hongti.
Mo Hongti stood a few meters away, her shoes long lost, completely drenched, shivering on the cold, windy mountaintop.
But on her face, there was the most tranquil smile.
"Qianfan,"
Su Ziyu suddenly remembered something and asked urgently, "Quick, quickly go save Mom. Mom, she's been kidnapped by that beast Lan Yunhai's people."
"Don't worry, before coming to find you, I already rescued Mom."
Li Qianfan said, "She's waiting for you at home. Go back safely."
"That's good!"
Su Ziyu let out a long sigh of relief.
The tension in her body, her nerves that had been stretched to the breaking point, finally relaxed without any remaining worries. But then, her vision suddenly blurred.
Her consciousness rapidly faded.
Yet, before losing consciousness, she managed to croak, "Qianfan, it's all thanks to CEO Mo risking her life to save me! Otherwise, I would never see you again."
She bit her tongue hard and struggled to cry out, "Qianfan, I was wrong! I shouldn't have tried to handle things myself when trouble arose."
The pain in her tongue quietly disappeared as Su Ziyu plunged into an unfathomable abyss.
She had fainted.
For the past two weeks, ever since she met Lan Yunhai, she had been in a state of turmoil.
But with incredible willpower, she had managed to hide her inner turmoil, causing her nerves to tighten more and more.
They were on the verge of snapping.
Now, it was over.
Rescued by Mo Hongti at the cost of her own life (Su Ziyu had clearly seen Mo Hongti's fearless act of stopping the runaway horses, even through her hazy consciousness), Ning Xiaolan was also safe. She had passed through the ordeal and could finally relax.
But even as she fainted, she could deeply feel the pangs of regret.
She should not have borne the immense pressure from Lan Yunhai alone.
Her misguided attempt to endure it by herself had been futile and had only emboldened Lan Yunhai.
She should have told her parents and husband the moment Lan Yunhai presented her with his five demands.
This was a bitter lesson for Su Ziyu, one that had nearly doomed both mother and daughter!
Li Qianfan held her horizontally in his arms.
He didn't need to check her pulse; he could tell from her breathing that her sudden collapse was due to the sudden release of all pressure, requiring her to get a good night's sleep.
"Yes, not only were you wrong. I was wrong too. You were wrong to always handle things yourself. I was wrong to underestimate Lan Yunhai. While I was scheming to take over his Kang Jian Pharmaceutical, I didn't realize he was coveting my wife, and even my mother-in-law. Heh."
Li Qianfan looked down at Su Ziyu, a cold, faint smile on his lips.
"Little brother, can we discuss matters after we get down the mountain?"
Mo Hongti hobbled over and suggested softly, "It's a bit cold here."
"Let's go, down the mountain."
Li Qianfan nodded, turned, and looked towards the road.
On the road over there,
More than ten cars had already stopped, along with an ambulance with flashing blue and white lights.
More than ten beams of light (from phone flashlights) were rapidly making their way through the valley and over the small mountain to the east, heading towards them.
It was Li Zhaoyu and the others, who had rushed over.
Li Qianfan, holding Su Ziyu horizontally, raised his foot to descend, then paused, placing his right foot back down.
He turned back to Mo Hongti and slowly bent down, "Sister Mo Hongti, I'll carry you down the mountain."
Sister Hongti!
Upon hearing Li Qianfan utter these words, Mo Hongti's eyes suddenly brightened.
She had finally been elevated from "Mo Hongti" to "Sister Hongti" in Li Qianfan's eyes!
"Okay."
Mo Hongti pursed her lips into a smile. She didn't refuse, even though carrying her down the mountain while he held Su Ziyu would be difficult, potentially turning all three of them into tumbling balls.
Instead, she gracefully leaned onto his back.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, and her bare feet, cut by the stones, hooked together in front of Li Qianfan's abdomen.
This way, even if Li Qianfan didn't support her knees, she wouldn't fall.
Even with one person in his arms and another on his back, Li Qianfan still strode forward with steady, rapid steps down the mountain.
If it were any other woman, she might have taken the opportunity to say something significant to Li Qianfan.
Li Qianfan was prepared for Mo Hongti to say such things.
Mo Hongti didn't.
She simply lay quietly on his back, looking ahead.
What was there to say?
Her silence was the best response!
"Uncle!"
Li Zhaoyu was the first to scramble down, "Is the young madam alright?"
Before Li Qianfan could answer, Li Zhaoyu turned back and yelled, "Stretchers, stretchers! Quickly, quickly!"
Mo Hongti, lying on Li Qianfan's back, shot an indignant glare at Li Zhaoyu upon hearing this.
She mentally cursed, "What kind of useless nephew is this? No sense at all. What's with the stretchers? Doesn't he know how good it feels for his uncle to hold one person and have another clinging to his back?"
Li Xiangming and the others, carrying two stretchers, ran over.
These were men accustomed to pampered lives, bosses who never soiled their hands with manual labor.
But now, they were covered in mud, having clearly tumbled and scrambled, looking disheveled, yet they uttered no complaints.
Seeing their state—
Li Qianfan shook his head, "No need. The mountain path is difficult. If you're not careful, you could drop them."
Mo Hongti immediately thought, "Yes, yes! Little brother is absolutely right."
Since Uncle had said so, and Li Zhaoyu and the others looked at their own disheveled state, they could only nod with awkward smiles.
However, they all quickly raised their flashlights, their left hands hovering as if to support, ready to grab Li Qianfan if he slipped.
Li Qianfan's footing was steady. He finally made it over the small mountain and through the valley to the road without slipping.
Conversely, several of Li Zhaoyu and the others, who were pretending to support him, fell several times.
Li Xiangming even broke his forehead.
"Are they, are they alright?"
Jing Ran, waiting by the roadside, shone her flashlight on Su Ziyu's face and exclaimed, "Not bad. Son, you have good taste in wives. She is indeed a peerless beauty, worthy of you."
Jing Ran liked to call Li Qianfan "son" in front of others.
In fact, it wasn't just her.
Ding Xiaolang, Su Rina, Qin Yujie, He Lanxuejing, and the other women all had this wicked pleasure.
The more embarrassed Li Qianfan felt, the happier they became.
Son?
This woman, who looked no older than thirty, with an impeccably clean face and wicked eyes, was Little brother's mother?
Mo Hongti, lying on Li Qianfan's back, looked at Jing Ran with utter disbelief.
Jing Ran then looked at her.
She tutted, "This must be Mo Hongti, right? Tsk tsk, not bad either. From your mature appearance, I can tell you're juicy and delicious."
Mo Hongti—
Rarely one to blush, Mo Hongti's face actually turned red. Embarrassed, she quickly lowered her head, hiding behind Li Qianfan.
Li Qianfan coughed dryly, "Auntie Ran, now doesn't seem like the time for this. Also, the one I'm carrying is an older sister of mine."
Jing Ran giggled, "Sister-wife, Auntie understands. The men of your Li family have a thing for that."
Li Qianfan didn't know what to say, so he coughed again and quickly walked towards the ambulance.
Just as Li Qianfan was going to attend to Su Ziyu and the others, Li Zhaoyu's men had also rescued Zhang Bao, who had a broken leg and was still trapped in the car, and rushed him to the hospital.
As Li Qianfan's convoy sped towards the city, the roadside assistance personnel were discussing how to tow Mo Hongti's car.
This was a minor issue and didn't need their attention.
Li Qianfan didn't go into the racetrack to cause trouble, just as he dared not provoke the racetrack itself.
"Young Master."
A man from the horse farm, watching Li Qianfan's convoy disappear down the road towards the city, called Lan Yunhai. "Those who came found the two women. They are now taking the two women back to the city and did not come to the horse farm."
Lan Yunhai asked curiously, "Mo Hongti's people didn't come to the horse farm to cause trouble for you?"
The subordinate replied with certainty, "No!"
"Heh heh, just as I expected. The man behind Mo Hongti doesn't want to provoke our Tian Dong Lan family for the sake of one of her friends. After all, Mo Hongti ruined my plans, so it would be unreasonable to cause us trouble."
Lan Yunhai, who had been on edge, immediately relaxed.
The subordinate quickly chimed in with a laugh, "Young Master is right. The Tian Dong Lan family is not someone anyone can easily provoke."
"Alright, you all prepare to be questioned by the special task force. Do as I say when the time comes."
Lan Yunhai gave a few more instructions, then muttered in a low voice, "Damn it, I didn't get the fresh fish this time, but instead got covered in its smell."
He had no idea—
His coercion of Su Ziyu was not just getting covered in fish smell!
It was more like Lan Yunhai had seasoned himself with cumin, chili powder, and lamb fat, then laid himself on Li Qianfan's cutting board.
Night.
Deepened.
Li Qianfan walked out of a special care ward in a hospital.
In reality, apart from her soles being cut by stones, Su Ziyu had sustained no serious injuries, even after being dragged by the horse for ten minutes.
However, Li Qianfan still brought her to the hospital, changed her into a dry nightgown, and massaged her acupoints for a long time to calm her and improve her sleep quality.
The hallway outside was crowded.
Mo Hongti, with a band-aid on her forehead and her feet bandaged, sat in a wheelchair, cautiously observing the crowd, her heart pounding.
Besides the hospital's entire senior management—
Li Zhaoyu, the boss of Jin Chao Group; Li Xiangming, the boss of Tian Dong Petrochemical; Li Pingshan, the boss of Tian Dong Jun Chi Group, and other business magnates were also standing in the hallway, looking cautious and afraid to breathe too loudly, not daring to sit down.
Were they the only ones?
No!
Mo Hongti also saw seven or eight other big bosses from cities like Tian Dong Huangdao.
These bosses had all appeared on Tian Dong's financial news.
"They all seem to have the surname Li."
As Mo Hongti's thoughts stirred, her peripheral vision caught sight of more than a dozen people at the end of the hallway.
To be precise, there were 14 people.
Seven men and seven women.
The oldest was about sixty, the youngest twenty-five or twenty-six.
From their ages, Mo Hongti could easily deduce that these were seven couples.
As these people appeared, Li Zhaoyu and the others quickly stepped forward to greet them in hushed tones.
They responded indifferently, only giving a nasal hum, and after bowing to Jing Ran, they walked to the window.
Silently.
Occasionally, when someone's gaze flickered, a terrifying killing intent emerged!
"These people are all from Li Village, aren't they?"
"What kind of existence is the Si Jiu Li Village?"
"How much power does Brother's village chief truly wield?"
As Mo Hongti pondered these questions, Li Qianfan emerged from the ward.
Whoosh!
Before Mo Hongti could react, she saw everyone, including the seven couples by the window and even the young woman Jing Ran, bow uniformly towards Li Qianfan.
A greeting.