Father and daughter soon arrived at Ming Shuo’s study.

It had once been the place Ming Yue knew best and loved most.

When she was little, she would always ignore her mother’s nagging and hide in some corner of the study—sometimes clutching a book, sometimes holding some other trinket—and stay hidden for half a day at a time.

Her mother could never find her.

But the man before her seemed to discover her every single time.

Yet he never told her mother; instead, he would smile gently at her, pat her little head, and then continue helping her keep it a secret.

Years later, returning to this familiar place for the second time, Ming Yue felt as if she had stepped into another world. It was as though she were still that little girl with two pigtails, and the man before her was no longer the person he had become today—rather, he was still the handsome, gentle father in her heart.

“Have you seen the latest online comments?” Ming Shuo got straight to the point.

Ming Yue was taken aback for a moment. “The latest comments? Aren’t they all just insulting me? What’s so interesting about them? Do I really think they haven’t been harsh enough?”

Ming Shuo didn’t say a word. Instead, he took out his phone and showed Ming Yue the most recent hot topics forwarded by his secretary, without hiding anything at all.

Even the rumors that he had colluded with a third party to harm Ming Yue’s maternal grandfather, elder brother, and younger brother, Ming Shuo didn’t try to cover up—he laid them all bare, openly and honestly.

Of course, he couldn’t keep it a secret either.

After all, we’re living in an age of information overload on the internet, and the situation has already blown up online. Sooner or later, Ming Yue would inevitably learn all the details anyway.

Afterward, he quietly waited for Ming Yue’s response.

At the same time, he was carefully watching every subtle change in her expression—especially each facial reaction when she came across those speculative remarks later on.

Ming Yue, however, seemed not to notice.

She carefully scrolled through each comment one by one, then curled her lips into a cold smirk, tossed the phone—on which her fingerprints had already been wiped clean—back to Ming Shuo, and said indifferently:

“So what? Are they wrong? Is the slap mark on my face not from you? Aren’t you the ungrateful man who breaks bridges after crossing rivers? Isn’t Huiqing Group the clothing company you gradually built up by taking it away from my maternal grandfather?”

Ming Shuo remained silent, effectively admitting it.

Ming Yue let out a few cold laughs, propped herself up on Ming Shuo’s desk with one hand, and cast a sidelong glance at the man’s face—a face that had become utterly unfamiliar to her.

“As for the rumors about your maternal grandfather’s stroke, your elder brother’s accident, and Xiao Yao’s accident… Mr. Ming, I’d still like to ask you again: are these really unrelated to you?”

“Is it truly impossible that all of this is your doing? How can there be such a coincidence in this world—that only my family keeps having accidents?”

With the index and middle fingers of her other hand slightly curved, she tapped lightly, again and again, on Ming Shuo’s wide desk—each tap sounding like the rhythmic beat of a wooden fish.

It was as if each tap were a low growl of accusation.

Ming Shuo replied calmly, “Think whatever you want. Of course, if you really believe I did it, you can go to the police and file a report—I won’t stop you.”

“What would filing a report accomplish? Would it completely destroy Huiqing? I’m not stupid, and I certainly wouldn’t be that foolish. To put it bluntly, I’ve also made my share of money from Huiqing.”

Ming Yue narrowed her eyes and forced a smile. “But if one day I discover that these weren’t accidents at all—instead, as they speculate, they were really done by you or that woman named Liu—then I’ll personally step in and quietly twist both your head and hers!”

“Very well.”

Ming Shuo remained composed and put his phone away.

End of Chapter 48: Sky-High Demands