Part 2
“Before the crash. You were constantly slowing down as if you were afraid I’d lose you. But I’m guessing you didn’t know about the arrangement to crash the cars.”
“When you got out of the car then, your legs…” Su Zhuo’s gaze drifted down to the other’s trembling pants. He mocked, “It seems you can feel fear too.”
Lu Xunye took over. “Even though you were certain we would be caught, you were still terrified by the sudden crash. No one told you about that arrangement because the crash was aimed at you.”
He spoke with a tone of certainty, watching Shen Qizhao’s reaction beneath his mask of silence.
“It was Aunt Fu.”
“Afterward, you convinced yourself the car was aimed at Su Zhuo, using that to numb yourself to the betrayal of a long-time friend who tried to kill you.”
“In reality, you know exactly what kind of person she is. You just chose to ignore the fact that you also know all her secrets. And usually, for people like that, the only end is ‘death.’ After all, dead men tell no tales.”
Stubborn as he was, the seeds of doubt had been planted in Shen Qizhao without him realizing it.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. In the end, aren’t you just suspecting that my brother’s car accident had something to do with me? You couldn’t find a motive back then, and now you think you can convict me based on your words alone? Accusing someone without evidence is slander!”
Lu Xunye raised an eyebrow and slowly lifted his eyelids, his sharp gaze fixed on the other man, who had suddenly become defensive after being interrupted.
“Is that so?”
Shen Qizhao felt like prey being locked onto by a giant predator.
The predator was arching its back, preparing to strike the fatal blow, and he had already become the “prey.”
As this thought flashed through his mind, goosebumps broke out on his arms. Even so, he wasn’t about to lose his footing and confess directly.
He knew his nephew. If there were truly evidence, he wouldn’t be facing the pressure and probing of these two right now.
Until there was hard evidence, he would continue to deny everything and shift the focus elsewhere.
He exerted all his strength to break free. Although he failed, he drew the gaze of everyone in the room.
“So what if you didn’t catch them! Do you think you can kill me here today? I already notified everyone at the banquet that if I didn’t show up on time, they should call the police. You don’t want to get involved in a lawsuit right now, do you?”
Lu Xunye laughed. His gaze swept over the surveillance camera in the corner of the ceiling, and his tense lips relaxed into a curve.
“Did anyone ever say you were involved in the car accident? I’ve always respected you as an elder, but you’re acting so erratic—it’s truly abnormal, Uncle Shen.”
He elongated his words: “Could it be—a guilty conscience?”
Shen Qizhao choked.
“Furthermore, you have no evidence that we suspect you. As it stands, it’s you who are slandering us.”
With such a “White Lotus” tone, Shen Qizhao had never seen anything like this. “You f*cker!”
Lu Xunye innocently pointed toward the surveillance camera.
As his gaze fell upon the two men restraining Shen Qizhao, he slowly curled his index finger.
“It was your own brother’s death, after all. Whether it’s finding the killer or clearing your name, don’t you want a good reputation? Or is it guilt? Is that why you avoid it?”
Enraged, Shen Qizhao cursed out of desperation.
“Nonsense! On what grounds are you questioning me? You don’t still think you’re the Young Master of the Lu family, do you! Where’s Shen Yunqian? Is he too afraid to come out, so he sent you two mad dogs to bite everyone! What did he give you to make you work so hard for him?!”
“You!” Lu Xunye was stopped in his tracks. He looked down at the arm barring his path.
His furrowed brow relaxed as he followed the arm up to Su Zhuo, his eyebrow quirking up.
He was being held back? But clearly, not long ago, the other man was the one about to act impulsively.
Su Zhuo didn’t look angry. Faced with Shen Qizhao’s rage, he remained abnormally calm. He said, “There’s no need to provoke us to change the subject. Whether it’s his nonsense or your treachery, I’m sure you know best.”
“Instead of protecting the person behind you, why don’t you think about what would happen if your wife found out about the things you’ve done to betray her?”
Su Zhuo paused, his sharp gaze fixed on Shen Qizhao’s pale face. “Would she be so angry that…”
He paused again, his voice dropping to a chilling whisper: “She’d want to k-i-l-l you?”
Lu Xunye’s brow furrowed slightly at those words.
Shen Qizhao, however, lost his calm. His eyes widened as if a secret buried for years had been torn open and exposed to the world.
His face turned hideously pale. “What the f*ck are you talking about!”
It was as if shouting over Su Zhuo’s voice could convince him that everything he heard was a hallucination. He wanted to suppress the overwhelming panic that had resurfaced after so many years.
He didn’t stop to think; the moment he screamed those words with all his might, he regretted it.
“If Yu Yao knew that her husband cheated on her first, and then swapped his own child with his lover’s child afterward, would this banquet still be held? Would that reputation you value so much still hold?”
Amidst Shen Qizhao’s horror, Su Zhuo presented documents and photos before everyone.
“Did you really think you could hide everything perfectly?”
Twenty years ago, Shen Qizhao was just an ordinary employee. He caught the eye of Yu Liang’s only daughter, and marrying Yu Yao led to his inevitable promotion.
Having tasted wealth and power, he grew dissatisfied. He reunited with his first love—the “White Moonlight” from his youth he’d been forced to leave.
Later, the middle-aged Yu Liang died of a heart attack. Shen Qizhao took over the Yu family estate, but his greed led to massive debts he couldn’t repay even after selling everything.
After that, many wondered if Yu Liang’s death had something to do with Shen Qizhao.
With Su Zhuo’s vague statement, Shen Qizhao naturally made that connection.
Because of the distance, he couldn’t see the contents of the documents clearly, but he understood the gist of Su Zhuo’s words.
However, an “Old Fox” like him wasn’t going to be scared by a few words from two youngsters.
Shen Qizhao breathed a silent sigh of relief. He had thought his nephew had truly become clever, but it turned out he was just making a fuss over a minor matter.
If he only wanted to give him a warning because of his parents, then he was too foolish.
Just now, when these people had stepped forward as if they had caught him red-handed, he had been terrified.
But this ordeal proved that they had no direct evidence. The file was likely eighty or ninety percent full of photos of his infidelity.
As for… swapping the children, that had been done perfectly back then. Who would believe it?
Yu Liang’s death was related to him, but he did die of a heart attack. Even if someone accused him of intentional homicide, without proof, the police couldn’t convict him.
He couldn’t afford to offend Su Zhuo, so he simply decided to let them think he was afraid.
Having made up his mind, Shen Qizhao raised his voice, acting like a cornered animal trying to stop the other’s words.
“So? These things haven’t been secrets for a long time. You don’t think you can use these old stories to frame me for my father-in-law’s death, do you? Have you spent so much time with Shen Yunqian that you’ve gone mad too?!”
Clearly, it worked. Lu Xunye was surprised by how thick-skinned this man was—to be able to act like a victim and shift the subject even after everything had been laid out.
Even the System, which had been anxious, lost its patience. It curled up on the hood of the car behind Su Zhuo, waiting for this “mess” to end.
Su Zhuo saw through the man’s intent and found it laughable. “Mad? The Yu family helped you, but you cheated on her. You even drugged Yu Yao to swap the children, causing one of the twins she gave birth to to be weak and almost die right after birth.”
Refusing to let the matter drop, Su Zhuo tore away Shen Qizhao’s final mask.
“After Yu Yao discovered the two children, to cover it up, you lied and said one was the orphan of a distant cousin. You used recuperation as an excuse to quickly send the child, who was less than a year old, out of the country.”
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