石器盒子

Chapter 473 At a Dead End

Mu Sijue went away, leaving Xu Youning alone in the small room with no daylight coming in.

Perhaps she was born insensitive. Long after Mu Sijue left, she feebly sat on the floor and burst into tears.

Mu Sijue said that he would give her a chance to stay. However, she missed it.

In her eyes, Mu Sijue asked her to stay because he wanted to get the information about Kang Ruicheng from her, or because of other intentions. However, she knew she had lost the last chance since Mu Sijue had left. What was waiting for her was nothing but death.

It all depended on luck whether she could escape or not.

As Xu Youning thought about it, her grandmother’s voice and smile came to her mind.

When she lost her parents, her grandmother also lost her only daughter. However, her grandmother had encouraged her and brought her up while bearing the pain of losing her daughter deep inside. All those years, her grandmother had never complained about the hardships, simply hoping that her granddaughter could be happy.

Since she was a child, her grandmother had done everything for her, heart and soul. Her grandmother had even left this world because of her.

She thought to herself, “I can’t resign myself to fate, let alone die!”

With that, Xu Youning gradually recovered the strength she had lost. She wiped her tears and stood up, determined.

In any case, she had to find a way to escape and return to Kang Ruicheng, so that she could carry out her plan.

She stopped thinking about Mu Sijue, their love, and her future, because she thought it was impossible for her to reach those; it was pointless.

At that moment, all she needed to think about was how to escape from under Mu Sijue’s nose the moment he was about to dispose of her.

Mu Sijue was also pondering.

When he was told by Xu Youning that she adored Kang Ruicheng, he did want to kill her, so that she would never be able to return to Kang Ruicheng.

In his eyes, since he would lose her, he would make it impossible for Kang Ruicheng to own her!

However, killing Xu Youning meant that she be gone. From then on, there wouldn’t be anyone named Xu Youning in the world. No matter how rich or powerful he was, he would never be able to see her standing alive in front of him.

He couldn’t deny that he was loath to order his men to get rid of Xu Youning.

However, the fact that Xu Youning was a mole had been widely circulated. He had to get rid of her according to the rules. Otherwise, he would be unable to justify his actions to his men.

Back in his office, Mu Sijue called Ah Guang to meet him there.

At that moment, and in that circumstance, the only one he could trust was Ah Guang.

After finishing his breakfast at the mansion of the Mu family, Ah Guang arrived at the club. He wandered into the office leisurely and asked, “Seventh Brother, what’s up?”

Mu Sijue looked at Ah Guang and said indifferently, “Get rid of Xu Youning tomorrow night. Do it in secret.”

“...” Ah Guang was stunned. He thought that he might have misheard. He patted his ears and asked, “Seventh Brother, what did you say?”

“Get rid of Xu Youning tomorrow night,” Mu Sijue said without hesitation and gave Ah Guang a cold look. “Do you know what I mean?”

Ah Guang got his point, and he understood every word. However, those words confused him and began buzzing around in his mind.

He had a different plan!

In Ah Guang’s eyes, Mu Sijue did adore Xu Youning. When Mu Sijue knew that Xu Youning wanted nothing but death, he should have asked Xu Youning to stay to treat her as his pet.

Ah Guang wondered, “Why didn’t he do it like that? Why does he want to kill Xu Youning?!”

“I got it, but—” Ah Guang gulped. “Seventh Brother, you said ‘get rid of’. Does it mean killing Sister Youning?”

Ah Guang gazed at Mu Sijue, for fear of missing any of his subtle expressions, from which he tried to find the indication that Mu Sijue didn’t want to kill Xu Youning at all.

However, he disappointed Ah Guang.

There were no extra expressions on Mu Sijue’s face. He said in a freezing voice, “Yes. I want you to kill Xu Youning. By the way, you don’t need to keep it secret.”

“Seventh Brother, are you determined to do that?” Ah Guang walked over to the desk and said, “It’s easy to kill a person. But if she dies, she will be gone forever. There’s only one Xu Youning in this world!”

“Who taught you this nonsense?” Mu Sijue wasn’t moved by Ah Guang’s words, while anger was surging from deep within his eyes. “Besides, my order is killing Xu Youning. You just have to carry it out, not to question me about it.”

Ah Guang shook his head with disbelief. “You want to kill Sister Youning...”

“Why wouldn’t I kill her?” Mu Sijue leaned back in his black office chair, looking relaxed, like a masterful king. “She is Kang Ruicheng’s right-hand woman. And she knows many key secrets about Kang Ruicheng. For your sake, I didn’t force her to come clean. You’d better not talk nonsense.”

Mu Sijue’s words were full of coldness, and it chilled Ah Guang from head to toe.

Ah Guang tried to persuade Mu Sijue for the last time. “Seventh Brother, you will regret it.”

Mu Sijue said with disapproval, “Maybe I will. But if I don’t deal with Xu Youning, I will be more regretful.” After a pause, he said coldly, “You may leave.”

Ah Guang opened his mouth, but he didn’t say anything more. He turned and left.

He had tried all the solutions that he had come up with, and he had done what he could do. He thought, “Xu Youning is unlikely to stay. Mu Sijue is determined to kill her.”

“I have to take a risk...”

Seeing the office door closed automatically, the coldness and disapproval in Mu Sijue’s eyes finally disintegrated. He closed his eyes and then opened them, with only indifference left in his eyes.

That was the biggest bet he had ever made in his life.

After calming himself down for a while, Mu Sijue took out his phone and called Lu Boyan.

Lu Boyan and Su Jianan had returned to City A. It surprised Lu Boyan to receive a call from Mu Sijue at that time. He asked instinctively, “Is anything wrong with Xu Youning?”

Mu Sijue said, “Granny Xu passed away. Xu Youning thinks I had a hand in it. She also revealed in front of many others that she was the mole.”

Lu Boyan frowned and asked on the phone, “What are you going to do about it?”

“I asked Ah Guang to deal with Xu Youning tomorrow night.” Mu Sijue sounded calm as if he was talking about a matter that had nothing to do with him.

Unlike Ah Guang, Lu Boyan wasn’t shocked or surprised. Instead, he noticed the name “Ah Guang”. In his mind, among Mu Sijue’s men, Ah Guang was the one who had gotten along best with Xu Youning.

Lu Boyan knew Mu Sijue well, and he saw through him without pondering. He hesitated for a while before he asked, “Maybe it’s too risky for you to make such a bet...”

“... Let it be.” After a pause, Mu Sijue said seriously, “Jianan will deliver soon, so you should hide it from her. Remember to contact Su Yicheng. If I remember right, he had a good relation with Xu Youning’s grandma. He should already know about her death.”

With that, Mu Sijue hung up and left the club.

Before getting into his car, he looked back at the club. The driver asked in bewilderment, “Mr. Mu, did you forget anything?”

“No.” Mu Sijue looked away, then he opened the door and got into the car. “Drive me to the company.”

Perhaps it was the last time he would see Xu Youning.

Before the car started, the driver handed a folder to Mu Sijue and said, “Your secretary told me that the document inside is urgent. You’re supposed to handle it before 10 o’clock.”

Mu Sijue opened the folder and read a line. The scene of where he met Xu Youning for the first time came to his mind without warning.

A year before that, he met Xu Youning for the first time. She was like a fledgling girl, amusing several aunties at the Bianlu Shop, and her deer-like eyes twinkled.

As usual, he had asked his men to investigate Xu Youning, but he had never thought that she had something to do with Kang Ruicheng.

Nor had he ever thought that one day he would fall in love with a mole.

He thought, “That’s really... ironic.”

Mu Sijue snapped the folder shut and kneaded his temples.

The driver saw his movements from the rearview mirror and asked with caution, “Mr. Mu, are you all right?”

Mu Sijue didn’t answer his question. He just said, “Call Special Assistant Lin about this morning’s meeting and ask him to push it forward an hour.” After a pause, he said, “Forget it. Don’t bother.”

He thought that Xu Youning wasn’t important enough to affect his decisions at the meeting.

“...” The driver hung up before he could get through to the assistant. He noticed Mu Sijue’s pale face, but he didn’t dare to ask.

Mu Sijue didn’t open the folder. He watched the passing views outside the window while absorbed in his thoughts.

All that happened between him and Xu Youning was a play. She was so good at acting that had him deeply engaged in it.

He thought he would forget Xu Youning once she was gone, the lady with a pair of deer-like eyes, as if she had never appeared in his life. He thought that he would live on like before.

It wasn’t until a long time later that Mu Sijue realized how much he had overestimated himself.

He saw Yang Shanshan as soon as Mu Sijue stepped out of the elevator at the company. He frowned unconsciously and asked, “Why are you here?” With that, he walked toward his office.

Yang Shanshan followed Mu Sijue all the way. When they reached the secretaries’ room, she suddenly shouted, “I heard that Xu Youning is a mole. She works for your sworn enemy!”

Her voice was so loud that it was hard for those in the secretaries’ and the assistants’ room to ignore. For a moment, they all lifted their heads from their work in surprise and looked outside with disbelief.

Mu Sijue frowned harder. “Shanshan, shut up.”

“Why can’t I say that?” Yang Shanshan looked angry. “You trusted her so much and promoted her as you did with Ah Guang. So what? Bah! She’s a mole!”

Everyone in the secretaries’ room looked at each other and began whispering.

Mu Sijue narrowed his eyes and walked into his office. Yang Shanshan followed him in and asked, “What are you going to do with Xu Youning? My father said that, according to the rules, you should kill her in secret!”

Mu Sijue suddenly turned and stared at Yang Shanshan coldly. “You’re right. Xu Youning is a mole. But so far, she is still my person. It’s up to me how to deal with her. It’s none of your business.”

“Sijue!” Yang Shanshan stamped her foot. “You should...”

“Get out.” Mu Sijue interrupted Yang Shanshan and grimly pointed at the entrance. “I’m in no mood to say it twice.”

After Yang Shanshan left, Mu Sijue made an internal call and said to his assistant, “Act as if you didn’t hear what Yang Shanshan said just now. Nobody is allowed to spread it around in my company.”

He could get rid of Xu Youning to justify his actions to his men, but he didn’t want others to know that she was a mole...