Investigations

In the study, Uncle Wen placed a file on Ning Chen's desk. 

"Everything about the Shi family is in there. Shi Yong started his business with his transfer fee. However, I did some research and I'm afraid that the amount of money he invested was much higher than his transfer fee. 

The source of that money is unknown.

"We couldn't obtain any information about Qin... Young Mistress' parents. Someone must have deliberately erased all of it. Shi Yong treats Young Mistress well, but Mrs. Shi Qu Li and Miss Shi Xiaoxiao are different. 

"According to the servants of the Shi family, Young Mistress injured her head when she was 10 years old. It was Miss Shi who pushed her down the stairs. What Young Mistress said about being hungry and locked in a small dark room is also true. She was often beaten up as well. 

"When she was 15, she got lost once and was sent back to the family by someone who found her. After that, under Shi Yong's protection, she didn't get abused again."

Ning Chen raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Is she related to Shi Yong by blood?"

"No," Uncle Wen answered straightforwardly. "When the young mistress vanished at that time, a few comrades-in-arms happened to be going over to the Shi residence to pay a visit, and they ended up searching for her together with Shi Yong. It caused quite a stir."

He looked at the young master carefully. "It was during the time when you got into a car accident. If it wasn't for that, Young Mistress' incident would have been the top news."

Ning Chen nodded.

"Then, could Shi Yong have been treating Qin Yu well just because of the pressure from his comrades?"

Uncle Wen didn't say anything.

"Can't you find out about Qin Yu's biological father?"

"I'm afraid not. I'm already investigating all the veterans of the same age as Shi Yong. It'll take some time."

Ning Chen nodded in response.

"The young mistress has a large amount of inheritance, but we couldn't find the source of it either. Every year, a sum of money from that inheritance will be transferred to Shi Yong as compensation for the young mistress' living expenses and education funds. 

"In the past year, Young Mistress has often met with various accidents. Car accidents, fires, explosions, falling into rivers, and many more. I think it may have been related to her large inheritance. After all, since the second half of last year, Shi Yong's company's finances have been beginning to face problems." 

The young master raised his eyebrows. "They want to kill Qin Yu and take her wealth for themselves?"

Uncle Wen answered softly, "Actually, when Young Mistress dies, they can only receive a few tens of millions at most. It's a reward for raising the young mistress, but these tens of millions would be enough to solve Shi Yong's financial crisis. If she got married, it would also mean that she's an adult, and thus will be able to have control over her own wealth. So–" 

The butler paused, and Ning Chen sneered. 

"So, they used Qin Yu to replace Shi Xiao to marry into our family, killing two birds with one stone. Not only would they avoid having to send Shi Xiao here, but they also get to coax Qin Yu to hand over her inheritance?"

Last night, Qin Yu had said that if she could stay in the Ning family for good, her mother would give her 1000 yuan. To her, 1000 yuan was already a huge sum of money!

Uncle Wen added calmly, "That's not all. The old master's betrothal gift to the young mistress included 100 million yuan in cash."

This Shi family had a really unsightly way of abusing their power.

"Such a den of tigers and wolves, how did she even manage to survive?" Ning Chen muttered to himself. 

He pulled out the materials in the file and looked at it. "They didn't let Qin Yu go to school?"

"They hired a tutor, but no matter what the young mistress was taught, she didn't seem to be able to learn anything," Uncle Wen sighed.

Ning Chen stroked his chin with his fingers and flipped through a few pages of the report.

Not able to learn?

Head injury?

Was she really such a simple person, or was there something else under the surface?

As this was going on, Qin Yu was also examining the information on the Ning family.

Tsk, tsk!

Qin Yu clicked her tongue as she analyzed the report sent by her comrades.

This Ning family was indeed complicated.

Ning Donghai was the eldest among three siblings. The second brother, Ning Feng, and the third brother, Ning Qing, had long retired from family affairs and had no interest in them anymore. 

Originally, Ning Donghai could also have released the reins to his eldest son, Ning Kang, who was outstanding and capable. Because of this, his son had entered the family business scene early to help him run their company. Who would not envy Ning Donghai for having such a filial son? He would be an impeccable successor.

Unfortunately, when Ning Kang was 35 years old, he had been involved in a car accident and died together with his wife. Ning Donghai had to send his son off before he could even leave this word himself. 

After that, he focused on taking care of the company's business. He even brought up his eldest grandson by his side, raising Ning Chen to surpass his son who passed. 

However, something unexpected happened. Five years ago, another car accident almost took Ning Chen away. Even with all his efforts, his grandson's life was saved, but in exchange, he lost his sight.

From then on, Old Master Ning's competitive spirit had been extinguished. His only wish left in life was that his beloved grandson, Ning Chen, could be safe, happy, and cheerful.

He gathered all the parents of the Ning family together, and broke the ancestral tradition of having only the patriarch run the business and family itself. 

He assigned different branches of the business to the most capable members of the family and elected them to hold important positions. 

Ning Donghai had dispersed the power.