Since Xu Qian left, Lu Tianming has always felt uneasy, as if something bad is about to happen.

The butler walked directly out of the kitchen and approached him in a gentle voice, "Sir, lunch is ready. Would you like to have it now?"

Lu Tianming remained motionless, his expression particularly unpleasant, and after a while, he asked, "Where did the second miss go?"

The butler answered truthfully, "The second miss left this morning and hasn’t returned yet. Would you like me to call her back to join you for lunch?"

Lu Tianming furrowed his brow, clearly displeased but finally spoke, "No need."

Dining alone is fine, it’s not the first time anyway.

He picked up the cane beside him, stood up directly, and staggered toward the dining room. The butler wanted to assist him, but he waved him off, saying, "I can walk, not unable to."

The butler responded with a sound and stayed silent.

After taking a couple of steps, Lu Tianming stopped, gazing out the large window, he asked, "Is everything I’ve done wrong?"

For a moment, the butler did not comprehend the meaning behind Lu Tianming’s words and didn’t know how to respond.

Lu Tianming sighed internally and said nothing, continuing toward the dining room.

...

Outside the Shallow Bay Villa area, Murong Rui frantically pressed the doorbell, her expression very grim.

The color in her face started to fade slowly, her teeth biting her lip, clearly trying hard to restrain her emotions.

Before long, the lady inside the villa heard the doorbell and came out, seeing Murong Rui standing there with a gloomy face, she was first stunned, then quickly walked up to her and asked, "Hello miss, may I ask who you are? Whom are you looking for?"

Murong Rui looked at the lady in front of her, a shadow of gloom flickering in her eyes, but she still explained patiently, "My name is Murong Rui, I’m here to see Tan Shuya."

Murong Rui...

The lady felt the name sounded familiar but couldn’t recall where she heard it from, but since she mentioned Tan Shuya’s name, she assumed Ms. Tan knew her.

The lady didn’t let her in immediately but said to Murong Rui, "Please wait here, miss, I’ll go tell Ms. Tan."

A hint of displeasure appeared on Murong Rui’s face; she had never waited for anyone apart from her brother Jingchen.

An City had already begun to enter autumn, even though it was noon with a glaring sun, a chilling wind was still blowing.

In her haste to leave, she hadn’t worn a coat; she was only wearing a sleeveless dress, and now she was feeling a bit cold standing still.

Her eyes were full of displeasure. Without thinking, Murong Rui said, "No need to inform her, I’ll go in directly. My brother bought this villa, do I still need to wait for her permission to enter?"

Upon hearing Murong Rui’s words, the lady recollected that Mr. Chu seemed to have a sister named Murong Rui, realizing this, she hurriedly opened the door to let Murong Rui in.

Murong Rui knew this villa was arranged by Jingchen for Tan Shuya, and as she entered, she surveyed the villa’s furnishings, her heart filled with jealousy and discontent.

She disliked Tan Shuya because she liked Lu Jingchen, and Tan Shuya almost got engaged to her brother Jingchen, becoming the ’Young Mistress of Lu Family’ she always wanted to be.

Unexpectedly, Song Qiao returned and today such a big incident occurred.

Yesterday Song Qiao was exposed to have a daughter with Ji Sifan, bashed by netizens as an unsavory woman, which she enjoyed since she wanted to attack Song Qiao for a long time but someone beat her to it.

And this morning, seeing that livestream made her so angry she almost smashed everything in the room.

However, when Tan Shuya called to propose cooperation, she hesitated for a few minutes but eventually agreed.

After all, Song Qiao was her biggest and toughest rival. Using Tan Shuya to eliminate Song Qiao might allow her to profit from the situation.

Yet Murong Rui never expected Tan Shuya, that crazy woman, would dare to do such a thing.

The lady informed Murong Rui that Tan Shuya was on the balcony on the second floor, Murong Rui asked the lady not to follow her and headed upstairs.

Jiang Yingjie didn’t stay long at the villa, leaving directly once Tan Shuya calmed down.

Tan Shuya knew Song Xi called Jiang Yingjie, and he must have gone to see Song Xi, but she didn’t make a scene this time; if he wanted to go, she let him.

Anyway, in the end, this man would only return to her side.

"Tan Shuya." Lost in thought as she stared outside, a voice tinged with anger suddenly reached her ear.

Tan Shuya recognized it was Murong Rui’s voice, she turned around to see Murong Rui approaching aggressively, her face extremely ugly.

Tan Shuya slightly furrowed her brows, shifted her expression briefly, then returned to normal, sitting calmly while indifferently asking Murong Rui, "Why are you here?"

Murong Rui held a fury inside, hearing Tan Shuya’s words nearly choked her with anger, her face terribly unpleasant.

Standing before her, she took a deep breath, desperately holding back emotions, through gritted teeth she asked, "Tan Shuya, why did you kidnap my mom?"

She hadn’t expected this woman to be bold enough to kidnap Xu Qian, she almost fainted getting that phone call.

"So you’re here to question my actions now?" Tan Shuya’s face remained calm, her tone laced with sarcasm, "Kidnapping Xu Qian is for my own reasons; don’t forget, we are both in this predicament together."

Murong Rui, "I already told you not to harm her, didn’t I?"

Xu Qian treated her fairly well, so she was willing to call Xu Qian mom. Murong Rui had previously informed Tan Shuya they could target anyone but Lu Tianming and Xu Qian were off-limits.