CHAPTER 237: 216: HEADING TO THE DETENTION CENTER TO PROVOKE YU BAISONG

"Little Zhi, are you here to see me?" Yu Baisheng, who was bound to the chair, showed a flash of astonishment in his eyes when he saw the young girl across from him.

In days, she was the first to come see him.

What he hadn’t expected was that it wasn’t his steadfast wife, not his pride and joy, Yu Cheng’an, and certainly not his cherished Yu Xinman, who had come to visit him.

Instead, it was the daughter of his ex-wife, the one he abandoned under the pretext of being an "Unlucky Star," the one he treated as property and sent off for a marriage alliance.

"Mm." Yu Zhi glanced at him coldly, her fingers idly toying with the pen resting on the table, her demeanor as indifferent as always.

The mere fact that she appeared here was enough to chip away at Yu Baisheng’s lingering resentment toward her.

Even her frigid demeanor, in his eyes, was the result of never having experienced fatherly love, shaping a fractured personality.

Yu Baisheng opened and closed his lips, attempting to speak, but the chilly voice slithered into his ears before he could utter a word.

"Do you know who sent you here?"

His expression changed instantly, his cuffed hands clenched into fists, his hunched body leaning forward slightly. "Who was it?"

Though the two were separated by a table,

Yu Zhi instinctively leaned back, as though repelled by a contagion, unwilling to come any closer—not even a fraction.

She shot a glance at Xu Changxiao, seated nearby. After he tapped open a video on the tablet, her voice was laced with nonchalance. "See for yourself."

Xu Changxiao pressed the play button and placed the tablet in front of him.

The video depicted the master bedroom of the Yu Family’s home. At the 30-second mark, an all-too-familiar pair of hands appeared on the screen.

Those hands deftly dragged out a redwood box hidden beneath the bed and inserted an antique silver key, hanging from her pinky finger, directly into the lock.

After opening the box, she proceeded to flip through the folders inside, and at this point, the camera zoomed in.

Every word written on the documents was showcased on screen.

"Impossible, this is impossible!" Yu Baisheng slammed the table in fury, the cuffs on his wrists clinking sharply against the table’s edge.

His bloodshot eyes glared at the tablet, veins bulging with every word he spat: "This is fake! All of it is fake!"

Yu Baisheng could accept being set up by a rival in the business world or even a victim of his oppressive tactics.

But he couldn’t, wouldn’t accept that the person who sealed his fate was the woman who had shared his bed for years, his so-called partner in life—his wife.

"Those hands should be familiar to you. No one but Yuan Li could have access to all of the Yu Family’s transactions and the evidence of your extortion."

Yu Zhi’s sharp gaze locked onto Yu Baisheng’s eyes as she delivered, in a calm tone, the cruelest and most unbearable truth he’d ever heard.

Not giving him room to linger in despair, she delivered yet another blow: "As for Yu Xinman’s wedding today—the dowry from the Chen Family is already firmly in Yuan Li’s grasp."

"But her choice is to announce the Yu Family’s bankruptcy next week."

If Yuan Li had been inclined to use the dowry money to patch up the holes in the Yu Family’s accounts, he might still have been able to prolong the inevitable.

But she didn’t. She sold all her stocks and liquidated every fund under her name, leaving only immovable assets behind.

"Wretched woman!" Yu Baisheng shot to his feet, his fists clenched so tightly they shook. His wizened face twisted, trembling with visible rage. "How dare she!"

Perhaps it was rage clouding his senses, but his vision suddenly blurred, and he found himself gasping as if his heart was constricted in a vice.

Yu Zhi and Xu Changxiao shared a glance, their silence deliberate, as they let him rant and curse for over ten minutes.

When he finally clutched his chest and collapsed back into his chair, his energy spent, their gazes fell on him once more.

"I can help you." Yu Zhi’s lips curved into a faint, almost imperceptible smile, though no warmth reached her eyes.

Before he could respond, she dragged out her words. "But I have a condition."

Yu Baisheng took a moment to steady his breath. He wanted to sit up straight but couldn’t muster the strength.

Instead, he slumped against the chair-back in defeat. "What is it?"

Now calm, he regarded her as a potential partner.

After all, her presence here and the evidence she possessed were proof enough of her cunning.

"I want the true cause of Qiu Wan’s death." Yu Zhi pressed her hands flat against the table, her almond-shaped eyes dark and intense, boring into him.

Her stare was like an unfathomable stream, deep and impossible to read.

Yu Baisheng’s face flickered with a subtle, unreadable emotion as he instinctively curled his fingers against his chest. "Your mother died of a heart condition."

"You’re lying."

"Little Zhi, I have no reason to lie about this."

Xu Changxiao, who had kept quiet all this time, finally lost his patience upon hearing the shameless denial.

He yanked out a forensics report and a small bag of white powder from the document folder, tossing them forcefully onto the man. "Then explain this!"

Xu Changxiao’s eyes reddened with fury. Every time he thought of Little Wan’s helplessness and despair before her death, he wanted to tear this scoundrel apart!

"I don’t know. I’ve never seen that before." Yu Baisheng avoided the incriminating evidence with a guilty glance.

Swatting at the papers and powder, he sent them clattering to the ground, refusing to look at—or even acknowledge—them.

Xu Changxiao sneered. "Three substances that accelerate cardiac arrest mixed together. Within a month, it stops major arteries from pulsing, renders the heartbeat undetectable..."

His words faltered midway as he found himself unable to continue.

A person succumbing to such a concoction dies in a horrific state.

He couldn’t bear to imagine Little Wan lying on the ground, pupils dilated, her entire body convulsing uncontrollably.

Noticing Xu Changxiao’s growing distress, Yu Zhi quickly grasped his hand, her palm’s warmth coaxing him back from the edge.

She pulled him back into his seat and fixed her steely gaze on the feigning-ignorance Yu Baisheng, her icy stare piercing and unyielding.

The tension in the room was palpable, choking the air with its oppressive weight.

The cramped space was filled with a suffocating silence, heavy enough to stifle any breath.

Seeing Yu Baisheng remain silent, Yu Zhi didn’t bother prolonging the deadlock.

Gathering the papers and bag of powder from the ground, she calmly righted the tablet before approaching him unhurriedly.

Yu Zhi, steeped in a chilling aura, exuded an almost terrifying presence as she stood over him. "I’ll give you one week to think it over."

In the empty visitation room, her emotionless words echoed faintly, reverberating again and again.

Slumped in the chair, utterly fatigued, Yu Baisheng stared up at the single lightbulb overhead, a hollow laugh suddenly erupting from deep in his throat.

The cold, white light shone into his pupils, magnifying the turmoil roiling within.