Chapter 15: The Lion's Protection
The revelation rippled through the underground chamber like a silent shockwave. Xiao Jinglin, the man whose financial empire dictated the economies of entire nations, felt a cold, sharp clarity wash over him. The "phantom resonance" he had felt since the airport was no longer a mystery; it was the call of his own blood.
"Master Xiao! We have thirty seconds!" Feng Yang shouted, hauling a semi-conscious Mu Feichi toward the hydraulic lift.
Xiao Jinglin didn't move like a businessman; he moved like a predator. He grabbed the encrypted drive from the terminal—the one containing the Project YUN files—and then reached out, catching Shen Xi's hand. His grip was firm, trembling slightly with a protective instinct that had been dormant for twenty years.
"We're leaving," he rasped. "Now."
As the lift reached the surface and the warehouse behind them collapsed into a plume of dust and fire, they were met by a wall of high-beam headlights. Si Haoxian, the arrogant young master of the Si family, stood at the center of a private security force.
"Uncle!" Si Haoxian called out, his voice laced with a false sense of urgency. "Thank God you're safe. We tracked this girl here—she's a bio-hazard. My security team will take her into custody. This is for the safety of the Si family's reputation!"
Mu Feichi, leaning heavily on his sword-cane but with eyes that were already regaining their lethal grey clarity, stepped forward. "You'll take her over my dead body, Si Haoxian."
Xiao Jinglin stepped past Mu Feichi. He looked at his nephew, the young man whose family had built their wealth on the back of Xiao Jinglin's global capital—all while hiding the truth about Yun Zi.
"Haoxian," Xiao Jinglin said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "Your father told me the woman I loved was a commoner who fled with another man. Your mother—my own sister—swore to me that the child Yun Zi carried was never born."
Si Haoxian's confidence wavered. "Uncle... they did what was necessary for the Xiao-Si financial alliance! A woman like that would have been a liability to your empire!"
Xiao Jinglin's aura exploded. He moved in a blur, his hand closing around his nephew's throat, lifting the younger man off the ground with terrifying strength.
"This 'liability' is my daughter," Xiao Jinglin roared, the sound echoing across the industrial wasteland. "And for every lie your parents told me, for every day she spent in the mud of the countryside while you played 'Young Master' on my money, I will liquidate a piece of the Si family."
Shen Xi stood between the two most powerful men in the country. She looked at Xiao Jinglin—the father she had only known through her mother's silent tears—and then at Mu Feichi, the man who had risked his life to be her shield.
"Mr. Xiao," Shen Xi said, her voice cool and clinical despite the chaos. "If you want to bankrupt your nephew, do it later. Right now, Mu Feichi needs a full neural flush to clear the residual toxins, and I need the equipment in the Si family's main laboratory to synthesize the antidote."
Xiao Jinglin dropped Si Haoxian like a piece of trash. He turned to his daughter, a look of raw, pained pride in his eyes. "Then we take the laboratory. We take every asset they have."
Mu Feichi straightened his uniform, his hand finding Shen Xi's. He looked at Xiao Jinglin. "It seems the North and the South finally have a reason to agree on something."
"One reason," Xiao Jinglin agreed, his gaze lingering on Shen Xi. "And heaven help anyone who tries to take her from us."