After returning to the Hua family, Hua Zhenrong immediately went to his father’s room and told him about the matter.
This was something only Hua’s father could handle.
After all, Hua Zhenrong had just recovered and hadn’t yet returned to the military district.
And as it happened, Hua’s father was stationed in the capital’s military district.
At first, Hua’s father found the matter somewhat absurd, but he quickly accepted it.
After all, neither Gu Jianing nor Sheng Zexi were the type to make baseless claims.
Moreover, when it came to affairs in the capital’s military district, he was the most informed.
Recently, they had indeed been investigating a spy.
But they had been stuck without any leads. He thought that if this person turned out to be Li Shuyao, then all the inexplicable pieces would finally make sense.
“I’ll head to the military district right now.” After pacing back and forth in his study for a while, Hua’s father decided to return to the military district that very night.
After all, when it came to spies, the sooner they were caught, the better.
…
The Li family had been at the hospital since that afternoon.
In the hospital bed, when Li Shuyao learned that even if her face healed, it might still leave scars, her eyes widened in shock, as if the sky had collapsed.
“No way! How could I be disfigured? I refuse to be disfigured! You have to treat me—no matter what, you have to fix this!” Li Shuyao grabbed the doctor and refused to let go.
“Miss Li, I’ve already done my best. As for the outcome… it’s hard to say.”
“You’re useless! You must be incompetent if you can’t even treat this!”
When Li Tingxuan and Old Master Li arrived, they heard Li Shuyao berating the doctor.
And the doctor’s expression was clearly far from pleased.
“Yaoyao, what are you saying? Apologize to the doctor at once!” Li Tingxuan said sternly.
Li Shuyao stared at him in disbelief. “My face is ruined, and you’re still making me apologize to this useless quack? Why should I?”
“Do you know what he just said? He said my face might scar! Do you understand what that means?”
The doctor turned to Old Master Li and Li Tingxuan. “Elder Li, Commander Li, my skills are limited. You’d best seek another specialist.”
With that, he nodded and left.
“Grandpa, Brother, see? Even he admitted he’s incompetent—”
“Enough, Yaoyao. Stop making a scene,” Li Tingxuan snapped.
Li Shuyao froze for a few seconds before exclaiming, “I’m like this, and you’re still yelling at me? Are you even my brother?”
Li Tingxuan sighed and pressed his lips together, saying nothing.
“I told you long ago not to keep a cat, yet you insisted! Fine, I’ll have someone take care of that cat—”
“No!” Before Old Master Li could finish, Li Shuyao immediately cut him off.
“Grandpa, don’t take the cat away, and don’t kill it. I… I still want to keep it,” Li Shuyao said.
This left both Old Master Li and Li Tingxuan baffled.
The cat had already injured her so badly—how could she still want to keep it?
What was so great about that cat?
Seeing their puzzled expressions, Li Shuyao’s eyes flickered before she said, “Grandpa, Brother, actually… it’s not the cat’s fault. It’s Gu Jianing’s fault! She scared my cat, and that’s why it lost control and scratched me.”
“It’s all Gu Jianing’s fault!”
“Grandpa, Brother, you have to stand up for me!”
Now, Li Shuyao had no choice but to shift all the blame onto Gu Jianing.
Unexpectedly, after she said this, Li Tingxuan’s expression darkened.
“Yaoyao, I never imagined that after all these years, you’ve grown so twisted—to the point of blaming others for your own wrongdoing.”
Li Tingxuan’s gaze was filled with disappointment as he looked at Li Shuyao.
Though he wasn’t particularly close to her, Li Shuyao was still one of the few remaining family members he had left after his parents’ passing, aside from his grandfather.
So when this incident happened, he immediately sent someone to investigate.
On the way to the hospital, he and his grandfather had already pieced together the entire sequence of events.
Gu Jianing wasn’t at fault at all—she hadn’t even touched the cat.
The entire time, the cat had been in Li Shuyao’s arms.
And it was Li Shuyao herself who had pinched the cat, causing it to leap up and scratch her.
As it turned out, someone had witnessed the incident from Li Shuyao’s angle, and their testimony had already been uncovered.
“…You brought this upon yourself. Why are you still trying to frame someone else?”
“It was you who pinched the cat first—that’s why it scratched you.”
“Tell me, why did you pinch the cat for no reason?”
Faced with Li Tingxuan’s questioning, Li Shuyao’s eyes widened in shock.
She hadn’t expected Li Tingxuan to uncover the truth so quickly.
And she certainly hadn’t anticipated that someone had seen her pinch the cat.
Li Tingxuan pressed further, “Were you planning to use that cat to harm Dr. Gu from the very beginning?”
“No!” Li Shuyao immediately denied.
But her denial was useless. The moment Li Tingxuan saw the flicker in her eyes, he knew his guess was correct.
For a moment, he was speechless with disbelief.
“Do you realize that Dr. Gu is pregnant? Even if she weren’t, you still…”
“Li Shuyao, when did you become so malicious?”
Yes, “malicious” was the only word that could describe Li Shuyao’s actions now.
Scheming to use a cat to harm a pregnant woman—
If things had gone even slightly wrong, Gu Jianing could have lost her life along with her unborn child.
The mere thought of that possibility made Li Tingxuan’s chest tighten with pain.
And his disappointment in his sister deepened even further.
He had already discovered that Yaoyao harbored an obsessive infatuation with Sheng Zexi.
But love was never something that could be forced.
And one should never seek to destroy the person their beloved loves, simply because their feelings aren’t returned.
Yet now, not only had Li Shuyao’s scheme backfired, but she was also trying to shift the blame onto someone else.
Li Tingxuan truly felt that his sister had become completely warped.
“Grandpa…” Li Shuyao turned her pleading gaze toward Old Master Li.
But the old man said nothing and didn’t take her side.
In Old Master Li’s heart, the Li family came first, Li Tingxuan second, and even he himself ranked third.
As for this granddaughter of his…
Now that his eldest grandson had laid out the truth, he wouldn’t interfere further.
Besides, this granddaughter really was as twisted as Tingxuan had said!
“Rest well in the hospital.” In the end, that was all Old Master Li said.
He wasn’t the type to blindly defend his family regardless of right or wrong—nor would he blame others for his own kin’s misdeeds.
Otherwise, he would never have risen to his current position.
After Li Tingxuan and Old Master Li left, Li Shuyao stared at their retreating figures, her eyes dark and unreadable.
“I originally thought of showing you some mercy. But since you refuse it… then don’t blame me for not holding back.”
Leave a Reply