The room was dimly lit, soaked in the heavy silence only power and betrayal could breed. The soft ticking of the antique clock was the only sound until the door creaked open.
Li Zeyan stepped in, file in hand. Leng Xuanmo stood by the fireplace, his back to the door, the flames casting flickers of gold and shadow across his face.
"Well?" Leng Xuanmo asked, voice low but sharp.
Li Zeyan approached, placed the file on the polished wood desk. "It wasn't a mistake. It was deliberate."
Leng Xuanmo turned, gaze narrowing.
"Who?"
Li Zeyan's voice was grave. "Your cousin Leng Meixuan. She tampered with the scones while miss Lu Jingyan was out of the kitchen. She knew about Yumo's allergy."
Leng Xuanmo's jaw tightened, but he said nothing.
"There's more," Li Zeyan continued. "Madam Ning, your mother, was involved. She stalled the staff, redirected security, and ensured the cameras were conveniently facing the wrong way."
Leng Xuanmo's eyes turned stormy.
"She tried to frame Jingyan," he murmured. "Using Yumo's allergy as bait?"
Li Zeyan nodded once. "It was coordinated. Your mother knew the reaction would draw attention. Meixuan planted the butter to make it look like Lu Jingyan was careless. Or worse, malicious."
The silence that followed was louder than any scream.
Leng Xuanmo stepped toward the desk and flipped through the images grainy screenshots, timestamps, snapshots of betrayal from the blood that should have protected his wife.
"They hate her that much?" His voice was dangerously calm. "To use a child's life, my sister, as a pawn in their little power game?"
"Madam Ning believes Jingyan is beneath the family," Li Zeyan said cautiously. "And Leng Meixuan is furious you chose someone else over her as your partner in the foundation."
Xuanmo's hand dropped on the desk with a thud. "This isn't about the foundation. This is control. Status. That old obsession."
He looked up, eyes burning. "They want war. Fine."
Li Zeyan straightened.
Leng Xuanmo issued his order coldly. "From tomorrow, Meixuan is removed from every position she holds under my name. Cancel her upcoming gala sponsorship. And as for my mother…"
He paused.
"Let her know I'm not that little boy who bowed to her every word anymore."
Li Zeyan hesitated. "Do you want to release the footage?"
"Not yet. But keep it ready." Xuanmo turned back toward the fire, his voice clipped. "If they try this again, I'll burn every illusion they have of control."
There was no room for softness anymore.
They'd threatened his wife.
They'd endangered his sister.
And worst of all, they did it under the roof that carried the Leng name.
This was no longer just family business. It was war.
"Should we tell the Matriarch?" Li Zeyan asked
"No. For now put her in the dark" Leng Xuanmo said as she faced the window again
"How is Yumo?"
"She is in her room. Madam Ning and Leng Meixuan are stopping Miss Lu and her younger brother from coming to see her" Li Zeyan said
"Let them be for now. Call a family meeting in the office tomorrow. We would discuss all about this" Leng Xuanmo said
"And make sure my grandmother doesn't smell a whiff about it" Leng Xuanmo ordered. Li Zeyan bowed and leave his boss's study room to carry out the orders given.
As Li Zeyan left the house he can't help but think how they could Ning Ruomo could be this wicked and endangered her own daughter to get rid of Lu Jingyan.
"The rich. They sure do have problems" he muttered as he drove out of the mansion