Chapter 1322
Never
He never was!
"what?"
Luo Fei frowned.
"How do you explain the almost mythical return on investment of Zhiyun Group? If it's not because they possess the ability to foresee the future..."
"The one with real superpowers... is my mom."
Jiang Qinqin interrupted him, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"No, to be more precise, she is my aunt, my mother's younger sister, my aunt."
This turn of events was completely unexpected by Luo Fei.
He released his grip on Jiang Qinqin's wrist and gestured for her to sit down.
"Tell me slowly, tell me everything you know."
Jiang Qinqin slumped back onto the sofa, covered her face with her hands, and her shoulders trembled slightly. After a while, she began to recount the true story of her family's past, which had been buried deep in her heart for many years, in a voice with a heavy nasal tone.
“My dad… he used to be a poor boy with no family background. My mom dropped out of school at sixteen and went to Shenzhen to work.”
When she was seventeen, she met my father at the factory, and the two of them... got together.
"Later, when my mother was about eighteen or nineteen years old, she suddenly discovered that she had a very strange ability... She could see certain random events that would happen at some point in the future."
Sometimes it's clear, sometimes it's blurry.
At first she was very scared and only dared to tell my father.
"My dad is bold and shrewd."
He then used these "future fragments" that my mother saw to secretly start reselling treasury bonds.
Back then, regulations weren't strict, and they actually made their first fortune.
Later, they grew bolder and entered the stock market… My mother's abilities helped them avoid several stock market crashes, always buying at the lowest point and selling at the highest… Their capital grew like a snowball, getting bigger and bigger.”
"In the early 2000s, they founded Zhiyun Group and began to do venture capital."
Actually, it's also to better utilize my mother's abilities to screen for projects that will likely take off in the future..."
Jiang Qinqin's voice carried a sense of nostalgia for the past, even though she was very young at the time.
I was born in 2002.
At that time, my family already had assets worth billions, and I had never worried about money since I was a child.
"But... when I was just over four years old, not even five, my mother suddenly felt extremely dizzy and went to the hospital for a checkup... and they found out it was a brain tumor, and it was already in its late stage."
Jiang Qinqin's voice choked up again.
"She...she went back to her hometown alone without telling my father and found my aunt. My aunt and she are twin sisters, and they look almost exactly alike."
"Mom told my grandparents about her situation. She...she wanted my aunt to impersonate her and go back to Shenzhen to continue staying with my dad and me."
She was afraid that her father wouldn't be able to handle it if he knew she was dying, and she was also afraid that things would go wrong at the company, which was going through a critical period..."
"My aunt initially disagreed, saying it was absurd."
But...seeing my mother pleading and my grandparents also tearfully trying to persuade her, she finally...finally softened and agreed.
"My mother told my aunt everything she knew about herself, about my father, and about the business."
They secretly spent more than a week together in their hometown.
Then… my aunt, with the same hairstyle as my mother and wearing my mother's clothes, returned to our home in Shenzhen as "Mom."
"My dad... he's hardly ever seen my aunt, so he can't tell them apart at all."
I was too young then to know anything. My aunt… she imitated my mother very well, and my father didn’t suspect a thing.
"But, ever since then..."
"Mom" never participated in any investment decisions again. When Dad asked, Auntie claimed she wasn't feeling well and couldn't see clearly. Dad found it strange but didn't think much of it, assuming Mom's abilities had declined due to illness.
"Not long after... my mother, my biological mother, passed away quietly in our hometown."
Jiang Qinqin broke down in tears as she spoke.
“My father… he was too busy with his business to even attend his funeral… this became the biggest regret of his life…”
She paused for a while before continuing in a hoarse voice.
"Later... it seems that when I was a little over six years old, my aunt had a physical examination and it was found that she... had a congenital uterine malformation and could not have children."
"I don't know how Dad found out about this..."
“Dad was shocked. He questioned Auntie… Auntie knew she couldn’t hide it anymore, so she told the whole truth…”
"Dad only found out then that his beloved wife had already passed away, and he... hadn't even seen her one last time, hadn't even attended her funeral... He was almost... almost driven mad..."
Jiang Qinqin seemed to feel her father's pain at that time, and her voice trembled violently.
“He doesn’t blame my mother, he only hates himself…hates himself for being so careless, for only caring about business…”
He begged my aunt to continue the act, at least... at least until I was a little older. My aunt agreed.
But from then on, they were no longer husband and wife; they slept in separate rooms. When I was little, I always wondered why my parents couldn't sleep together…”
"As I grew up, my aunt always took care of me like a mother and was very good to me. In my heart, she is my mother."
But Dad... he could never truly accept Auntie. Looking at Auntie's face, which was exactly like Mom's, only made him feel more pain...
"Since then, Dad seems to have become a different person."
He almost completely stopped managing the company's day-to-day operations. He started... started frequently seeing women, keeping many... many mistresses outside the company, and fathering many illegitimate children... but he never let them take the surname Jiang. Nominally, I have always been the only heir to the Zhiyun Group.
At this point, Jiang Qinqin raised her tearful eyes, looked at Luo Fei, and revealed the last and most important secret.
"And... when I was seven years old, I discovered... that I also possessed the same ability as my biological mother. I could also see fragments of the future..."
"From then on, I became my dad's... 'investment advisor.' For example... for example, investing in miHoYo was something I told my dad about after I 'saw' a vision of the future when I was nine years old..."
Luo Fei digested the astonishing information about Jiang Qinqin's background and her own abilities, and keenly grasped one key point. "According to you, you awakened your precognitive abilities at the age of seven and helped your father make crucial investments."
Why did your relationship with your father become so distant later on? To the point that you felt he was just an "uncle who only showed up once or twice a year"?
Jiang Qinqin wiped away the tears on her face, her tone filled with complex emotions.
"As I grew older, my dad... rarely asked me to help him 'look' at future investment opportunities anymore."
He said he didn't want me to overuse this ability, fearing it might have a negative impact on me.
Moreover, by then, the wealth accumulated by the Zhiyun Group was already astronomical. Even if they did nothing and just lived off their inheritance, they would already be the hidden richest man in the Great Xia.
She paused, a hint of resentment in her voice.
"More importantly, I cannot accept his attitude towards my mother, nor his behavior of seeing so many women outside. I know he is in pain, I know he feels guilty, but that cannot be an excuse for him to indulge himself!"
Her emotions surged again.
“I was kept in the dark until I was sixteen... I overheard my father and my aunt... no, I mean my aunt who was playing the role of my mother.”
I only found out then that my biological mother had passed away from a late-stage brain tumor the year I was born! And the "mother" who raised me was actually my aunt!
My father... he was devastated after learning the truth, feeling utterly sorry for my mother, but... but the way he chose to numb himself was to find more women?
Jiang Qinqin raised her head, her eyes filled with stubbornness and incomprehension.
“I couldn’t understand it at all at the time, and we had a huge fight. I felt that he had tarnished my feelings for my mother.”
From then on, our relationship... could never be the same again.
He still provides me with the best material life, but it seems there's a thick wall of ice between us.
As Luo Fei listened to her narration, a colder hypothesis surfaced in his mind.
He stared at Jiang Qinqin, his tone becoming serious and sharp.
"Jiang Qinqin, you possess the ability to foresee the future. Your father died in an extremely bizarre plane crash, controlled by a superhuman. Tell me, did you... foresee your father's death? Yet you chose... not to tell him?"
This accusation was like an ice pick, sending a chill down Jiang Qinqin's spine.
She shook her head violently, her face drained of color, her voice filled with the agitation of being wrongly accused.
"No! I didn't see it! Luo Fei, what kind of person do you take me for? I hate what he did later, but he's my father! How could I not stop him when I knew he was going to be hit by a plane?!"
She was breathing heavily as she tried to explain.
"My abilities are not omnipotent!"
It's not like I can see whatever I want!
It's beyond my control, like...like a dream, where at certain times, I randomly see fragments of the future! And often they're blurry and partial!
I had absolutely no premonition about the plane crashing into the villa!
If I saw it, even if it was just a blurry image, I would definitely try to remind him or notify the air traffic control bureau!
There are over a hundred innocent lives lost there!
Seeing her excited and earnest eyes, Luo Fei temporarily suppressed his doubts.
He took out his encrypted tablet and pulled up the clearest image extracted from the video of the Xuanyuan 816 black box—the black figure standing like a demon on the nose of a high-speed passenger plane.
Do you know this person? Or have you seen a similar figure in your "dreams"?
Jiang Qinqin leaned closer to examine the photo closely. Although the image was somewhat blurry and shaky, the outline and demeanor of the man in black instantly reminded her of the assassin who appeared like a ghost in the dormitory building in Chengdu and almost strangled Zeng Yuanchen!
That cold, emotionless killing intent was exactly the same!
"He...he looks a lot like that assassin who tried to kill Yuan Chen in Chengdu! It feels like they're the same person!"
Jiang Qinqin's voice carried a hint of fear.
"It's not just a resemblance; it's almost certain that it's the same person."
Luo Fei confirmed her judgment, his expression grave.
"This person is extremely strong. He can withstand a palm strike from me with only minor injuries, and he jumped from the sixth floor unscathed. In a head-on confrontation, even the members of my 'Ghost' team would probably be no match for him in a one-on-one fight."
He put down his tablet, looked at Jiang Qinqin, and analyzed the situation word by word.
"Such a powerful superhuman, who went so far as to hijack a passenger plane, causing the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians and generating huge international repercussions, was determined to kill your father. After failing, he then launched a relentless pursuit of you."
This can only mean that you and your daughter, or rather your family, possess some secret that they feel is a fatal threat to.
They want you dead because...to silence you, to cover up something that absolutely cannot be revealed.
Following Luo Fei's train of thought, Jiang Qinqin's face grew increasingly pale. She nodded, acknowledging the hypothesis.
“Cover it up…yes, that’s the only explanation.”
But... what secrets could our family possibly have that would warrant such a fuss? Could it be because of my mother, or my... precognitive abilities?
"Probably."
Luo Fei pressed for an answer.
"Think back carefully, recently, or in the past, have you 'seen' anything unusual that might involve them or frighten them about the future?"
Jiang Qinqin frowned, trying hard to recall. Suddenly, as if she remembered something, a hint of fear flashed in her eyes.
"About three months ago, I had a really terrible dream."
Her voice unconsciously lowered, as if the dream itself carried an ominous aura.
"I dreamt that... a super-massive volcanic eruption occurred in a certain place!"
She gestured with her hands, trying to describe the cataclysmic scene.
"That mountain... the lava it spewed out looked like giant fire dragons, shooting incredibly high and turning the entire sky dark red!"
Thick smoke billowed, blotting out the sun, turning day into night... Moreover, the volcanic eruption triggered a super-strong earthquake, and... and a terrifying tsunami!
Her body trembled slightly.
"I saw... so many islands around the volcano were submerged by the surging seawater! So many people... they couldn't escape, houses collapsed, there was fire and waves everywhere... so many people died, it was truly tragic..."
Luo Fei's heart skipped a beat, and a word flashed through his mind.
He stared intently at Jiang Qinqin.
"Are you sure where you dreamed about?"
What are the characteristics of that volcano?
Jiang Qinqin tried hard to recall the details of her dream, and said somewhat uncertainly. (End of Chapter)