Chapter 9

Chapter 9

When Shen Ting’an came to find her, the seal was still pasted across the entrance of the Newspaper Office.

He wore a deep gray long gown.

He carried a box of osmanthus cakes in his hand.

Just as he had for many years past.

Gentle.

Respectable.

Bearing the weary air of an old-fashioned scholar.

“Zhaoxue,” he said, “come back and live with your uncle. It’s not safe out here.”

Shen Zhaoxue looked at the box of osmanthus cakes.

When she was a child, her father was busy and her mother was ill.

Shen Ting’an often took her to the City God Temple.

He would buy her osmanthus cakes and sugar paintings.

He told her, “A daughter of the Shen family has nothing to fear. Your uncle will protect you.”

It turned out that a person could protect you with one hand while concealing a blade in the other.

She took the osmanthus cakes.

“Alright.”

Shen Ting’an breathed a sigh of relief.

“You’re finally being obedient for once.”

The old Shen family residence had long since changed owners.

Shen Ting’an now lived in a small villa on Xiafei Road.

In the study hung her father’s old calligraphy.

Incense burned on the table.

Shen Zhaoxue stood before the ancestral tablet and respectfully offered three sticks of incense.

Shen Ting’an watched from the side.

“If your father saw you as you are now, his heart would ache for you.”

“Would it?”

“Of course.”

“Then would he ask why the person who saw him last before he died didn’t save him?”

Shen Ting’an’s expression froze.

The room fell silent.

Shen Zhaoxue turned around.

“Uncle, why did you leave the banquet early the night of the Yongning Society meeting?”

Shen Ting’an slowly set down his teacup.

“Did Zhou Huaiyan tell you that?”

“You only need to answer me.”

He sighed.

“Zhaoxue, the people of the Zhou family cannot be trusted.”

“Can you?”

That layer of warmth finally cracked.

The kindness on Shen Ting’an’s face faded away.

It was replaced by an unfamiliar coldness.

“Your father was simply too naive,” he said. “He thought that by guarding a few lists, he could save this country. But the dozens of people in the Shen family had to live.”

Shen Zhaoxue’s fingers curled tight.

“So you sold him out?”

“I was saving the Shen family.”

“The Shen family was raided. Father died. Mother died of illness. And me? Who did you save?”

Shen Ting’an looked at her.

There was actually a hint of irritation in his eyes.

“At least you are alive.”

“Thanks to you?”

“Zhaoxue,” he said, softening his voice, “what can Zhou Huaiyan give you? Do you know how many people he has killed in the Secret Service Department over the years? If he loved you, he wouldn’t have abandoned you back then.”

Shen Zhaoxue laughed.

“You’re very afraid that I’ll believe him.”

Shen Ting’an said nothing.

Footsteps sounded outside the door.

Two bodyguards blocked the exit.

“You are coming with me to the banquet at the Paramount Ballroom,” Shen Ting’an said. “If you behave, your uncle can still protect you.”

Shen Zhaoxue looked down.

A bit of white powder floated in her tea.

She hadn’t drunk it.

Shen Ting’an saw it too.

His face darkened completely.

“When did you start guarding against me?”

“From the moment you called my name on the balcony,” she said.

“You weren’t there to find me that day. You were there to confirm whether Zhou Huaiyan had given me the photograph.”

Shen Ting’an stared at her.

Suddenly, he laughed.

“You’re just like your father.”

He waved his hand.

The bodyguards stepped forward.

Shen Zhaoxue pulled out her hairpin and pressed it against the side of her neck.

Everyone stopped.

“If you want to use me as a cover, you can’t let me go there with an injury.” She looked at Shen Ting’an. “Otherwise, the people at the Paramount Ballroom will ask how an uncle could take such poor care of his niece.”

Shen Ting’an’s gaze was cold and sinister.

After a long silence, he said, “Lock her up.”

Shen Zhaoxue was locked in a second-floor guest room.

Outside the window was a narrow alley.

She didn’t try to escape immediately.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she felt the Jade Button hidden in her sleeve.

There was a thin slit along the edge of the Jade Button.

After opening it, she found a piece of extremely thin paper hidden inside.

On it was written:

*Tomorrow night at eight, Paramount Ballroom. Hate me according to plan.*

Shen Zhaoxue looked at it for a long time.

Then, she burned the paper.

Hating him according to plan.

She was very familiar with this.

She had been practicing it for three years.