The moment Miaomiao received the call, her first reaction was to turn around and call Lin Yao.
Getting a call from his daughter in the middle of the night, Lin Yao thought something urgent had happened. He was in such a hurry that he was about to put on his clothes and was ready to break the agreement and head to the imperial capital at any moment. Then he heard his daughter ask, "Dad, where are you?"
"I'm at home. What's up?"
"Okay, never mind then."
Click...
The little sweetheart hung up the phone resolutely. Only the beeping sound of the call being disconnected came from the phone receiver. Lin Yao just stood there holding the phone, looking completely lost and full of confusion.
Considering the time, it should be when Miaomiao usually went to sleep. He even thought the girl was sleep - walking.
Hearing that her dad was safe and sound at home, Miaomiao completely ignored the call that had just told her to change someone. She plopped down on the pillow and fell into a deep sleep.
The next day, Miaomiao and Wei Ziqi were sent back to the research institute. They went on with their usual business in the institute as if nothing had happened. No one cared about what would happen to Tao Jingying afterwards.
Three days later, in the hotel where the wedding banquet was supposed to be held, a group of bodyguards in black surrounded an old man sitting in the hall. All the guests had been cleared out. The hotel had been booked exclusively for this day.
In front of the old man, a middle - aged couple was kneeling on the ground. They were trembling so much that they didn't even have the courage to look up at their surroundings.
"You said that little girl is your biological daughter. Then why haven't there been any news in three days?" The old man was intimidating even without getting angry. His questioning words weren't spoken in a harsh tone, but the couple still felt a sense of impending death.
"Boss, we're really not lying. That girl looks exactly like our second daughter. You've seen the photo of our second daughter. She must be our child. We abandoned her at the orphanage right after she was born, so she may not know she has biological parents. Otherwise, we'll try our best and do some ideological work on her. There's no child in the world who would hold a grudge against their parents for long. We're sure we can handle this for you," the kneeling man explained tremulously.
This couple consisted of a woman who worked as a waitress in the hotel and a man who worked as a night watchman. On the day when Miaomiao and the others disrupted the wedding banquet, this couple saw Miaomiao and noticed that she looked exactly like their second daughter. They immediately confirmed that this was the child they had abandoned back then. But with the chaos at the wedding, they didn't dare to come out and recognize their daughter. It was only when they were whispering about this in the staff dormitory that another waitress overheard them. Thinking there was a profit to be made, the waitress sold the overheard information at a high price to the host of the wedding banquet that day, the Lu family.
When the couple was approached, they were completely bewildered at first. Later, when they found out that their colleague had betrayed them, they were quite resentful. But when they heard that as long as they could make their lost daughter obedient and get the snatched bride back, they would receive a generous reward that would ensure their family would never have to worry about food and drink for the rest of their lives and could even afford to marry off their son, they were no longer afraid.
They even felt fortunate that their colleague had betrayed them. Otherwise, they wouldn't have found such a good opportunity and had the chance to earn so much money that they could never make in their lifetimes.
In their opinion, even if their biological daughter had been abandoned by them, she must be longing for family affection. Even if the daughter was resentful towards them, considering their blood relationship, she wouldn't stand by and watch them in trouble. If they threatened her with their lives, and it was just about changing someone, not killing someone, their daughter would surely help.
But they never expected that Miaomiao wouldn't care at all and didn't even ask a single question. They didn't know when Miaomiao was adopted. They thought she was adopted right after being abandoned and didn't know she had biological parents at all.
"You're wrong about this," the old man said. "I checked before you showed up. When this little girl was adopted, she was already almost five years old. She was old enough to remember things. There's no way she doesn't know she's not their biological child. It's just that you two aren't persuasive enough. I was just being stupid. How can parents who abandon their own child in the freezing cold be trustworthy?" The old man sipped his tea casually, glancing at the two kneeling on the ground from the corner of his eye.
The old man's words made them tremble with fear. In the imperial capital, anyone could be someone they couldn't afford to offend. They were just uneducated people who could only earn a living by doing hard labor. Offending anyone would mean they had to pack up and leave. But they needed this job to save money for their son to get married, so they were really afraid that this incident would affect them. They didn't care about not making money, but they were afraid of losing their jobs.
"She won't be like that. That girl is only 16 years old now. Kids at this age are just a bit rebellious. If we go to her in person and have a good talk, we're sure we can persuade her. We definitely can," the man tried his best to plead for a chance from the old man.
Since the words had been said, the old man had achieved his goal. He came here today specifically to put pressure on this couple. Families like this, which could even ignore the life and death of their own children, were mostly cold - blooded, selfish, and only cared about themselves. They would stop at nothing to achieve their goals for their own interests.
He just wanted this couple to use family affection to tie Miaomiao down. Whether it was to pester her or play the emotional card, the process didn't matter. All he wanted was a result.
The old man put down his teacup, nodded in satisfaction, and said, "Okay. Since you've said so, I'll trust you one more time. If you need anything or want to know any information during this process, you can come to me for help. As long as you can find the Lu family's daughter - in - law, the promised reward will be given to you without a single cent less."
After saying that, the old man slowly got up and left the hotel with his entourage. The couple kneeling on the ground finally let out a sigh of relief. The scene of blood splashing everywhere on the day of the wedding banquet and Miaomiao fighting desperately with a group of sword - wielding people was still vivid in their minds.
They could tell that those sword - wielding people really wanted to kill Miaomiao and didn't care about the consequences at all. That was why they were so scared.
"Husband, what should we do?" the woman tugged at her husband's sleeve and asked in a trembling voice, completely at a loss.
"What else can we do? Go find our third daughter. Didn't that old man tell us her address and school? Let's go find her now. If she's not obedient, take her home. Starve her for a few days and beat her a few times, and she'll be obedient."
"But it seems like our third daughter is really powerful now. What if she hits us?"
"What are you afraid of? There's no way in this world that a child would hit their parents. Anyway, I'm her real father. It's only natural for a father to discipline his child."
"Okay, then let's go now. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can get the money and go back to our hometown."