Chapter 63

Over the next few days, they explored every corner of Lakeview. By the last day of their vacation, everyone was exhausted, so Elise suggested resting at the villa and getting ready for the trip home.

She had noticed the number of stray cats as soon as they arrived. A staff member explained that catnip grew on the hillside, attracting them to the area.

Elise set bowls of cat food around the yard. Before long, cats began slipping in, drawn by the smell. One plump white mother squeezed beneath the fence, her eyes narrowed against the effort.

Elise recognized her. She was the cat whose kittens she'd rescued a few days ago.

The mother gave no sign of recognizing Elise. Without so much as a glance in her direction, she went straight to a bowl and buried her face in it.

Elise stroked her bobbing head. “You're having dinner. What about your babies?”

When the cat had eaten her fill, she stretched and looked back at Elise with what appeared to be utter disdain.

Elise stared at her. Really?

As the mother headed away, Elise got up and followed her out of the yard. The kittens' old nest had been beside those mastiffs. She hoped the cat had moved them somewhere safe. There had been four tiny kittens, and she had heard how vulnerable they were. A fright from a dog might be enough to kill one. She wanted to see whether they were all right.

Julian had warned her to stay away from Mu Chuan, but she would only look from a distance. Surely she wouldn't run into him.

The room's European-style furniture was almost excessively luxurious. A middle-aged woman sat on the bed in expensive designer clothes, staring blankly at a point in the air. She didn't blink.

Outside the door, Pei Yi glanced carefully at her before lowering his voice. “Madam is much more stable. She hasn't been saying those strange things again.”

Calling her previous episodes strange hardly covered them. She had failed even to recognize her own son, talked wildly, and searched for a weapon whenever she became agitated. Mu Chuan's hands had ended up covered in blood.

Today she could sit quietly on the bed. That alone was an improvement.

Mu looked at Nie Yufeng, his expression unreadable. Better was still a long way from cured.

“Tell the care facility to take good ‘care’ of Mu Yilin,” he said to Pei.

Pei paused, then understood. Mu wanted the staff to make his father's life unpleasant. Whenever Nie Yufeng's condition worsened, Mu directed his hatred at Mu Yilin. People called him ruthless because he wouldn't spare even his own father.

Nie Yufeng was Mu's mother, one of the many women in Mu Yilin's life. Pei had once worked for the older man and knew his habits. Mu Yilin had kept numerous women, never marrying any of them. As he grew older, instead of settling down, he decided to choose and train an heir from the sons those women had borne him.

Nie Yufeng had come from a poor family. Unaware of Mu Yilin's other relationships, she'd been with him for two years and given birth to Mu Chuan before discovering he had two other mistresses. Heartbroken, she took her son to the Mu family the next day, determined to secure a future for him.

The other two women were just as determined to win the family fortune for their sons. Mu Yilin watched the struggle unfold, letting them tear at one another until a winner emerged.

Mu Chuan had once been gentle and kind, with no interest in fighting for an inheritance. Then his mother began losing her grip on reality. She stopped recognizing people, saw things that weren't there, and became convinced someone wanted to harm her. Eventually they discovered that drugs had been put in her food and drink for years, causing irreversible damage to her mind.

Mu's abrupt change in attitude made it clear to Pei that the two other women and their sons were involved. Mu Yilin had known about the drugging and allowed it to continue. That was what his son hated most.

Later, Mu Yilin suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed from the waist down and unable to care for himself. Mu Chuan sent him straight to a care facility. Whenever his mother's condition deteriorated, he had the staff give his father special attention in the small routines of daily life.

Pei could only think the man had brought it on himself.

Mu went into his study. Pei remained respectfully by the door as he sat down at the desk. Sunlight fell across his hair and the bridge of his nose, but there was no smile on his face.

With his fine features and bright eyes, he had once been a carefree young man whose eyes curved when he laughed. Now he seldom smiled, and the coldness in his gaze made him seem heartless. He was only twenty, yet no one in their wealthy circle dared cross him.

Seeing his mother had unsettled him.

Mu Chuan had been reborn.

In his previous life, her condition had been discovered much later. She had often attacked people with a knife or tried to hurt herself, and doctors had been unable to find the cause. By the time he learned she'd been drugged and prepared to strike back, his enemies had already trapped him. They framed him in a commercial fraud case, and he went into hiding from the police, living on the streets disguised as a homeless man. They found him anyway, ran him down, and made his death look like an accident.

When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to shortly after his mother first began receiving the drugs. Revenge was the first thing on his mind.

One mistress's son was exposed for commercial fraud and faced prison. His mother bribed people to help him, only for the bribery to come to light; both ended up behind bars. The other mistress soon lost her grip on reality, and her son abandoned his bankrupt company and fled abroad with her.

Now Mu Yilin had suffered his stroke, and Nie Yufeng's condition was under control. The doctors said that with proper care, she could recover in a few years.

Mu had wanted to see what would happen if the same methods were turned on them. Outsiders saw only a man cruel enough to destroy his own family. Some even claimed he'd caused his father's stroke.

He didn't care what they said. Revenge hadn't given him much satisfaction, either.

The figure he'd seen beyond the fence flashed through his mind, and his fingers stilled. He had sent her a gift. Why hadn't there been any response? Wouldn't most people at least say thank you?

Or had his reputation made her reluctant to come near him?

A voice came through Pei's earpiece. He listened, then gave a helpless little smile.

“Mr. Mu, Miss Qi is here.”

Mu looked up, his eyes cooling. “How did she find out I was here?”

Few people knew he had settled his mother at the Lakeview villa. The mastiffs were both an excuse and a deterrent to keep strangers away.

Qi Yaqiu was engaged to Mu Yilin's other son, Mu Zhun. When Mu Zhun was exposed as a suspect in the fraud case, he had tried to make her his scapegoat. Mu Chuan's target was Mu Zhun, and he wouldn't let him shift the blame. He had intervened quietly to get Qi Yaqiu clear of the case.

Somehow she had learned that Mu Chuan was responsible. Ever since, she'd engineered chance meetings with him, claiming she wanted to repay him. Even when he refused to see her and sent Pei to explain that saving her hadn't been his purpose, she persisted.

Now she stood outside the villa, bright lipstick visible beneath her sunglasses. She had gone to considerable trouble to buy information about his whereabouts, only for Pei to shut her out again.

She had liked Mu Chuan for a long time. He was handsome and cold, exactly her type. Her mother, however, had arranged her engagement to Mu Zhun, a big, coarse man she found thoroughly unpleasant. How could he compare? Mu Chuan controlled the family and commanded immense wealth and influence. If she could warm his heart, she could become the woman of the Mu household.

Inside the study, his initial disgust had faded into an even tone. Pei knew how much the pursuit bothered him and bowed slightly. “I'll persuade Miss Qi to leave.”

Mu considered. “Does the Qi family have too much time on its hands lately?”

Was that why its daughter could spend hers chasing him around?

Pei hesitated. “Qi Group's accounts are under review. They ought to be very busy.”

Apparently not busy enough, if Qi Yaqiu could still follow a man from place to place.

“Tell Qi Lu to keep his daughter from running around,” Mu said coldly, “unless he'd like to be even busier.”

Qi Lu was Qi Group's president and Qi Yaqiu's father. Pei straightened. His boss was truly tired of her.

“And tell Miss Qi to go back where she came from. If I see her again, I'll assume Qi Group still doesn't have enough to occupy it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“If you can't handle that, don't come back to see me.”

Pei broke into a sweat after leaving the room. Mu really did not want to see her.

When Pei delivered the message, Qi Yaqiu's face changed. He disliked her enough to threaten her family's company?

Furious, she stepped back and searched the building for his study window, but couldn't identify it. She stamped her foot and shot Pei several venomous looks. Pei kept an innocent expression. He wasn't the one who had offended her.

She was angry and humiliated. Was it so difficult for Mu even to meet her? If he meant to reject her, he could at least say it to her face. Sending a messenger made it clear he didn't want to look at her at all.

She tried to go in and confront him, but Pei blocked the doorway completely. After one last roll of her eyes at him, she strode through the gate in her heels.

A girl in a pale dress was walking toward her. Qi Yaqiu stopped and studied her face, growing angrier by the second.

Elise had followed the white cat here and was bewildered to see a woman emerge from the villa and glare at her.

Why was this stranger looking at her like that?

The girl's skin seemed to glow in the sun. Her expressive eyes, neat nose, and full pink lips only made Qi Yaqiu more irritated. Why did some random passerby have to be prettier than she was?

She looked Elise up and down, finally noticing the blue diamond bracelet on her wrist. A little of her confidence returned.

“A fake?” she scoffed. “How tacky.”

Elise touched the bracelet, puzzled. It was an imitation, but her brother had given it to her. What was wrong with that? The thought behind a gift mattered most.

Satisfied that she'd had the last word, Qi Yaqiu found her car and drove off. Elise remained confused for a moment, then put the encounter out of her mind.

She found the white cat's nest and sighed. “You still haven't moved? Aren't you afraid of the mastiffs?”

Mother and kittens were curled up in a brand-new cat bed. Elise felt the material. It was soft and comfortable. Had some kind person put it there in the past few days?

The kittens didn't shy away from her. They lifted their heads and rubbed gently against her hand.

Crouching outside the fence, Elise parted the leaves and peered into the yard. The spot where the mastiffs had been was empty.

“Oh. They're gone?” Perhaps they'd simply been moved somewhere else on the property.

Mu sat before a large screen showing a conference room full of people. He was in the middle of a video meeting when a voice came through Pei's earpiece. Pei leaned close and murmured in his ear.

The people on the screen watched their boss change. His usual cold, intimidating air and relaxed posture vanished as he sat upright. His face went a little stiff. Was he nervous?

“You told me to notify you if Miss Whitmore appeared on the security cameras again,” Pei said quietly. “She's beside the yard now. It looks as though she's come to see the cats.”

Pei couldn't make sense of it. After seeing Elise that day, Mu had sent away the mastiffs, provided a new bed for the cats, and sent her an apology gift. He had even ordered Pei to tell him immediately if she returned. Seeing that rare hint of nervousness only made Pei more curious.

Mu composed himself and lifted a hand. “Meeting over.”

The people in the conference room exchanged looks. They had barely begun. Mu always put work first; even when something interrupted him, he usually finished the meeting before dealing with it. What had happened?

The screen went dark on their bewildered faces.

The kittens weren't merely unafraid of Elise. They kept mewing softly, and she could hardly resist them. She crouched beside the bed with her knees tucked up, too absorbed to care that the hem of her dress was dragging on the ground, stroking one kitten and then another.

A shadow fell across her feet. She looked along it to a pair of polished leather shoes, then up at the man standing over her.

He looked only a little older than she was. His hair was slightly untidy, as though the wind had caught it, and his suit made him look both young and composed. His face gave little away, but his bright eyes held hers with an expression she couldn't quite read.

She was several years younger than in his previous life, Mu thought, less worldly and more innocent. Her fine clothes and valuable bracelet suggested she was doing well, cared for like a princess without a worry.

Elise frowned faintly. He seemed familiar, but she couldn't remember where she'd seen him.

They looked at each other in silence. Then Mu stepped closer and crouched beside her.

“Here to see the cats?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

He regretted the question immediately. What else would she be doing beside them?

Elise instinctively wanted to move away, but at another glance he didn't look dangerous. “Yes. Did you put this bed here for them?” How else would he know where the cats were?

“I did.” He paused. He'd seen her rescue them and assumed she liked cats. He'd given them a home in the hope that she might come back to visit.

At last, she had.

He looked down at the kittens but didn't dare touch them, afraid they wouldn't like him. “I'm Mu Chuan. I'm sorry I frightened you that day. I've sent the mastiffs away.”

Elise sprang to her feet. Mu Chuan? The man Julian had told her to avoid?