Chapter 91: Is the Truth Emerging?

“You seem rather guilty to see me.”

The man known as the Madman looked at Lu Yao with a mocking glint in his eyes. The corner of his mouth lifted coldly, and the chill in his gaze was enough to make one shiver.

Lu Yao glanced around and realized this spot was exactly where the surveillance cameras could not reach.

She swallowed and drew a deep breath. “I have no connection to you at all. What would I have to feel guilty about?”

His sharply arched brows rose slightly, and he gave a low laugh. “Should I address you as Miss Lu, or as Miss Jing?”

That single sentence struck her like a blaze, burning away every layer of disguise and exposing her before everyone.

Lu Yao’s hand clenched into a fist. She met his eyes with a forced calm and curved her lips into a faint smile. “Sir, what are you talking about? I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

The Madman had already expected her to play dumb, and he laughed along with her.

Unhurriedly, he took a jade pendant from his pocket and asked with a smile, “You may choose to forget your surname, but surely you shouldn’t forget this pendant that belonged to your mother. Your mother’s name is engraved on it... Jing Mengxian.”

Lu Yao’s brows drew together. Her face went as white as paper, and her whole body began to tremble uncontrollably. Her stomach cramped as though it were trying to wrench forth the hatred buried within her for so many years.

The pendant before her was indeed the one her mother had always carried.

Back then, after her mother died, she had searched for it for a long time, but never found it.

She had never imagined that it would end up in this man’s hands.

No, he was not the Madman. He was Guan Ran, the once-renowned golden-agent of his day.

“Miss Jing?”

Lu Yao came back to herself and forced down the turmoil in her heart. “Mr. Guan, you did not come to see me today merely to show me a pendant, did you?”

“I stole this pendant from Ye Hua. Since you do not intend to claim it, I suppose I have no choice but to return it to her.” Guan Ran immediately put the pendant away and turned as if to leave.

“Wait. If you have something to say, just say it. Your time is valuable, and so is mine.”

At the sound of Lu Yao’s voice, Guan Ran smiled in triumph.

He turned back, his smile deepening. “Miss Lu is indeed straightforward. Ever since the last time you went to the thatched hut to steal a painting, I have been investigating you in secret, but I could find no trace of any relevant information. I thought long and hard, and at last I figured out the reason you stole that painting. No one other than Miss Jing would have gone to steal a work Ye Hua painted more than ten years ago.”

After speaking, he corrected himself, “A slip of the tongue. I should say Jing Mengxian’s work.”

Listening to him, Lu Yao found it harder and harder to breathe.

She had never expected her identity to be discovered in such a way.

If Guan Ran were to tell Ye Hua who she was, what then?

After weighing her options, she decided to hear him out first before stopping him from leaving.

“So what do you want?”

“I heard that you have successfully become the legal representative for the Ye Group. I would like to ask you to help me find someone.”

“What kind of person?”

“A girl, about seventeen years old.”

A girl?

Lu Yao frowned and reasoned aloud, “Your child with Ye Hua?”

Guan Ran froze slightly, surprised that Lu Yao had guessed correctly at once.

He no longer tried to conceal it and nodded in admission. “Yes, my child. But her mother is not the wicked Ye Hua. Someone else is. Back then, once Ye Hua found out, her temperament changed completely. She set fire to the Bamboo Garden. If the Ye family had not rescued us in time, I might never have seen my daughter even once in my life.”

Lu Yao frowned inwardly. Every time she thought of Ye Hua’s devilish existence, she could not be sure she had even a fighting chance at revenge.

Reality was not a fairy tale, and she was not the heroine. She had no halo of destiny protecting her.

She tugged at the corner of her mouth. “You should know that as a lawyer, I cannot help anyone without some form of benefit in return.”