6: Chapter 6 Returning Home

Twilight gathered.

A black Audi A6 pulled over and came to a stop on the tree-lined avenue of the Linjiang Municipal Party Committee residential compound.

Secretary Li Changgeng quickly stepped out of the car and opened the rear door.

Mayor Su Changming stepped out of the vehicle.

Secretary Li Changgeng handed over a black briefcase.

Mayor Su Changming took it, his stride never faltering.

Secretary Li Changgeng tactfully turned and got back into the car.

The lights in The Su Family living room were blazing.

Yet the atmosphere was suffocatingly heavy.

Li Jiajia sat stiffly on the main sofa, her hands clutching her shawl tightly.

Su Xiaoxiao huddled to the side, mechanically pressing the buttons on the TV remote.

Mayor Su Changming changed into his slippers.

His gaze went straight past the entryway and locked onto the coffee table.

In the very center sat two boxes of wild Changbai Mountain ginseng.

Two bottles of 'special supply' Moutai with the labels peeled off.

Several bright red greeting cards were pressed onto the solid wood gift boxes.

In the home of a Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, at such a critical juncture, these eye-catching items were laid out.

Mayor Su Changming pointed at the coffee table.

"Who brought this?"

Li Jiajia's shoulders trembled.

"It was Secretary Zhu Tianhe's wife, Li Juan, who brought them over this afternoon."

Mayor Su Changming's hand paused as he took off his suit jacket.

Li Juan was the daughter of the former third-in-command of the Provincial Party Committee; no one in Linjiang City dared not to give her some face.

"Why did she come?" Mayor Su Changming hung his jacket on the coat rack.

"She brought Zhu Wenhao with her, saying they came... to propose marriage to our Su Qinghan."

A glass teacup clattered against the tabletop, emitting a sharp sound.

Propose marriage.

These two words were understandable separately, but together, they sounded utterly absurd.

Mayor Su Changming stared at his wife.

"Did you not handle the matter from the day before yesterday? Did the people from the Police Station not go there yesterday morning?"

According to his entire plan, Deputy Chief Wang was supposed to lead men to break down the door and catch them in the act.

Once Zhu Wenhao was implicated in this, his reputation would be ruined.

To protect his son, Secretary Zhu Tianhe would have no choice but to bow his head and admit defeat.

Early in the morning, Secretary Li Changgeng hadn't reported anything unusual, and Deputy Chief Wang hadn't called either.

In official circles, it was assumed that no news meant everything was going according to plan.

Mayor Su Changming had calculated everything, but he hadn't accounted for the fact that the notorious playboy had actually changed his soul.

Deputy Chief Wang had been intimidated by a few words from Zhu Wenhao yesterday morning. Fearing he would be used as cannon fodder in the infighting between high-level officials, he did not dare report the details to his superiors at all.

And so, an information cocoon was built in such an absurd manner.

Li Jiajia shook her head repeatedly.

"I really do not know if the Police Station went or not."

"But at noon today, Li Juan led that brat right through our door."

"That brat said to my face that he and Su Qinghan had been dating for three years."

"He even spouted nonsense about 'Guan Guan Ju Jiu,' saying that since Su Qinghan had been admitted to Renmin University for her master's degree, she deserved a formal status. He brought all these things to cement the marriage proposal."

Mayor Su Changming leaned back against the sofa cushion.

A signal of extreme danger exploded in his mind.

A feigned gesture with ulterior motives.

This was no marriage proposal.

This was Secretary Zhu Tianhe using a megaphone to perform an 'Empty Fort Strategy' right at his doorstep.

He had forcefully repackaged a scandal that could destroy the Executive Deputy Mayor into a matter of young love.

This move was too vicious.

If he, Mayor Su Changming, dared to keep these gifts, he would not be able to compete for the mayoral seat against his in-laws.

If he dared to throw the gifts out, by tomorrow, rumors would spread throughout the Provincial Party Committee that he was a feudal bureaucrat who interfered with the freedom of marriage and suppressed young people.

He was wrong either way; it was a dead end.

Where did the Zhu family get such expert advice?

"He directed and acted it out himself, and you just watched them leave the items?" Mayor Su Changming's voice turned cold.

Su Xiaoxiao pressed pause on the TV and sprang up from the sofa.

"Dad, you do not know how arrogant that Zhu Wenhao is."

"Wearing a high-end custom suit, acting all proper like a human being."

"He just walked right over and held my sister's hand."

"The two of them stood side by side, and the way they were acting all lovey-dovey, they really looked like a couple."

Su Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes.

"My eldest sister did not even say a word of protest; she just let him hold her hand."

Mayor Su Changming's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Su Qinghan cooperated with him?"

This was the most fatal blind spot in the whole affair.

The victim's testimony was the cornerstone of the setup.

As long as Su Qinghan insisted she had been forced, all of the Zhu family's public relations efforts would be a laughable trap of their own making.

"Go call Su Qinghan down," Mayor Su Changming ordered.

Li Jiajia stammered, not daring to move.

Su Xiaoxiao chimed in without hesitation.

"You cannot call her down. Other than when Auntie Li came, she has been hiding in her room all day."

"She did not get back until the middle of the night, and her eyes were as swollen as walnuts."

"After Auntie Li left this afternoon, the look in her eyes... it was like she wanted to eat us alive."

Mayor Su Changming's expression darkened completely.

"Did you give instructions to Su Xiaoxiao or not?" He glared sharply at Li Jiajia.

The heavy pressure made it hard for Li Jiajia to breathe.

She instinctively tried to shift the blame onto her daughter.

"How could I not have given instructions? It is all Su Xiaoxiao's fault for being incompetent and insisting on getting involved in the fun!"

Su Xiaoxiao could not stand being wronged in the slightest, and her temper exploded instantly.

"Mom, why are you dragging me into this?"

"Before going to the party the night before last, you were the one who shoved that packet of medicine into my hand in the kitchen."

"You repeatedly urged me to put the medicine in the juice and serve it to my eldest sister personally."

"You even said it was a strict order from Dad, and if we did not get it done, both of us would have to get out of this house."

"Now that something went wrong, you are blaming me for not doing it right."

The sharp sound of their argument echoed in the living room.

Every word mercilessly stripped away all moral pretenses.

Exposing the darkest and most shameless schemes of a blended family under the bright lights.

Li Jiajia turned deathly pale.

She looked past Su Xiaoxiao's shoulder in despair toward the stairs.

Su Xiaoxiao noticed something was wrong and whipped her head around.

In the shadows at the corner of the staircase.

Su Qinghan stood there quietly.

The light gray knitted sweater made her look deathly pale.

She had originally wanted to come downstairs to ask her father about his stance on the marriage proposal from earlier that day.

But she had unexpectedly stumbled upon this unmasked post-battle review.

Her stepsister did not act hysterical, nor did she break down in tears.

She just watched the three people in the living room with the gaze one might reserve for trash.

That extraordinary calmness made Su Xiaoxiao shiver for no reason.

The words Zhu Wenhao had said in the hotel suite yesterday morning formed a closed loop at this moment.

The last glass of juice had been served by her own stepsister.

The stepmother had personally drugged it.

Her father could even use his own daughter as a pawn to trade for political leverage.

All the vicious speculations she had once dared not believe were now confirmed by the perpetrators themselves.

The little bit of expectation for familial affection, earned through years of hard study, shattered into nothing, not even dust remaining.

Her high-and-mighty father had truly placed her purity on the scales.

Su Qinghan took a step.

She walked down the last step.

The gift boxes on the coffee table were particularly glaring.

She remembered Zhu Wenhao standing at the bottom of the steps during the day, his figure upright.

Using that powerful palm to forcefully grip her wrist.

That notorious playboy was using an incredibly aggressive method to hold up an umbrella for her, shielding her from all the filth.

"Eldest sister..." Su Xiaoxiao shrank back behind Li Jiajia.

Mayor Su Changming stood up.

The dignity of a Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee did not allow him to lose his composure at this moment.

Familial affection was, after all, as light as a feather in the face of power.

He adjusted his shirt cuffs.

He strode toward the staircase.

As he passed by Su Qinghan, his stride remained steady, without the slightest pause.

"What are you standing there for?"

"Come with me to the study."

Mayor Su Changming brushed past his daughter's thin shoulders and headed straight to the second floor.

Su Qinghan watched that back, which had once seemed as towering as a mountain.

She withdrew her gaze and stepped forward to follow.