Rich Cat A Would Never Fall in Love with a Fake Heiress - Chapter 26

“The doors of nightclub dancers never needed knocking, you could just push them open. When we heard her knocking, the two of us even thought the police had arrived. We immediately messed up our hair, threw on patched-up sweaters, and prepared to greet them in the most wretched and pitiful state. But when we opened the door, we were met with this elegant and capable lady.”

“She was even more beautiful and younger than my mother. I remember her glossy crimson lips and her brand-new lambskin boots stepping around the dirty doormat.”

Luo Licheng spoke with self-mockery: “When she frowned and said, ‘Why haven’t you found a proper job when you have a child to raise?’ I felt my mother’s unprecedented shame. She was an undocumented resident of a barren planet, born with organ deformities due to pollution and radiation. She didn’t have long to live, couldn’t find work, and couldn’t even run a business. Her birth was an error meant to remain unknown, and so was mine.”

“From that moment, I hated this woman’s ‘let them eat cake’ attitude, so I bit her finger hard. But for the first time, my mother hit me, a cold, resolute slap, then made me kneel and begged the lady to take me back to the Luo family and adopt me as her foster son.”

Mo Wang leaned against the wall, idly twirling a strand of her hair, and sighed.

“Looking at it this way, Mrs. Li’s decision to confront the other woman after discovering her husband’s affair wasn’t exactly wise.”

Facing Luo Licheng’s livid expression, she calmly counted on her fingers: “One rabies shot, one tetanus shot, and almost one more adopted son.”

Luo Liming laughed loudly: “Wishful thinking.”

Luo Licheng struck him with the butt of his gun, gritting his teeth as he said, “If it were you in my place back then, what would you have done? What would you have thought?”

Luo Liming froze, suddenly falling silent.

Mo Li realized, to her surprise, that she was grateful, grateful she wasn’t Luo Licheng. Having endured such suffering and injustice, she couldn’t guarantee she would still hold onto fairness and integrity.

Mo Wang, however, shrugged and answered without hesitation: “Probably the same as you. After all, I’m not exactly a good person either.”

Luo Licheng’s expression softened slightly.

“But,” she added, “if you were Mrs. Li, would you have gotten along so well with the other woman’s son?”

Luo Licheng didn’t hesitate either: “I’d have given them some money and told them to get as far away as possible.”

“After she refused to adopt me, my mother proposed taking some money so we could leave and start over. But she said she owed us nothing.” He curled his lips into a mocking smile. “What a fool. Debts in this world aren’t so easily dismissed. My mother was born into such hardship, who did she owe that debt to?”

“Still, it’s just as well she was a woman who couldn’t tolerate even a grain of sand in her eye. She soon packed her bags and went abroad. As for my father, well, you know him. He can’t stand being alone. After a brief period of melancholy, he brought my mother and me to live with him.”

A trace of nostalgic smile touched Luo Licheng’s lips, like a drunkard savoring the aroma of fine wine.

“She was overjoyed. That was the happiest time of our lives, plenty to eat and drink, servants treating us with reverence, and a busy Alpha father who barely had time to spare. In her final days, having experienced such a life, she must have been content, right?”

Luo Licheng sighed with melancholy: “Soon after, stripped of the resources and wealth that woman had provided, the Luo family faced an unprecedented financial crisis. The people under my father began to stir restlessly, as if they believed that if my mother and I left, Madam Li would return and lead the entire Luo family to regain its former glory.”

“It was like tearing open a freshly healed wound and gouging out the flesh once more. My mother refused. She rejected their half-coercive demands. That very night, she died.” Luo Licheng lowered his gaze, as if unwilling to recall the memory.

“It was because of the inhibitor spray used by the chef, it contained a biological toxin that excites Omegas. It was said to be a popular item in certain exclusive circles, and this chef happened to have such a preference. Coincidentally, he had sprayed a little before cooking that day, and it drifted into the food of the only Omega in the house.”

Luo Licheng’s voice was weary and despondent.

“That day, after dinner, my mother told me her last story. Her eyes were bright, her voice light and cheerful, and her cheeks were unusually flushed. I thought her health was improving and was overjoyed. But within moments, she was bleeding from her nose and mouth, gasping for breath, and collapsed.”

“Emergency treatment failed. My mother had been beautiful all her life, but in death, her face was contorted in agony and horror. The mortician had to painstakingly reposition each muscle. My father was called back from work. He didn’t have the courage to look, merely signing the death certificate. Behind him trailed a string of shareholders, all extending their hands to comfort me. When I brushed them off, I saw the guilt and panic on their faces. I memorized every one of them.”

He let out a long, heavy breath.

“The chef went to prison. The court ruled it as accidental manslaughter, and combined with my mother’s pre-existing health conditions, he was sentenced to only three years. Everything seemed settled, like a paused second hand gently nudged back into motion, returning to its normal rhythm. The Luo family found new joint venture partners, my father found a new lover, and my mother became nothing more than a meaningless sacrifice, a bargaining chip lighter than a feather in their negotiations to win back Madam Li, placed on the scales and then discarded as if she were nothing.”

Luo Licheng’s muscles tensed all over, his voice trembling with emotion.

“I hated them… I hated every single one of them. I meticulously planned layer upon layer, each day feeling like torture on a red-hot iron plate. I investigated and found out that the chef had a seriously ill daughter at home, suffering from a blood disease that devoured money like a bottomless pit. He had taken the job to kill my mother for the money to treat her.”

Luo Licheng laughed, a cruel satisfaction flickering across his face. “So, the day before he was released from prison, I had the guards take him to the solitary confinement cell. I transferred five million into his daughter’s medical account and told him that if he successfully took his own life, his daughter would receive lifelong high-quality medical care and be restored to health.”

“He was obedient, perhaps out of some lingering guilt. I made him use the very silver spoon my mother had used for her last meal to stab his own throat and end his life. The medical account I transferred the money to was fake. Two days after the police confirmed his suicide, I withdrew all the money from his account, money that had been paid for my mother’s life. His daughter was kicked out of the hospital and soon died on the streets. His wife, driven mad, clutched the corpse and desperately searched for a hospital to take them in, only to be hit by a car and killed.”

The surface of bygone events was torn away, revealing a ferocious, earth-shattering crime, even a glimpse felt ominous.

Unnoticed, even Mo Wang’s expression had grown somewhat grave.

Mo Li’s emotions churned with complexity. Luo Licheng had made even this public, soon, there would likely be a move to silence everyone. “You killed three people just like that?”

Luo Licheng’s smile hadn’t faded. He tilted his head as if genuinely puzzled. “I only killed those who deserved to die. The other two, that was their fate, their destiny.”

“What a destiny,” Mo Wang remarked slowly, clapping his hands.

“And Mrs. Li? She stayed out of it the whole time. Why harm her?”

Luo Licheng’s shocking revelation had failed to elicit the reaction he’d expected. He snorted coldly and quickened his speech.

“How did she stay out of it? She may not have killed the innocent, but didn’t the innocent die because of her?”

Luo Liming appeared tormented as he questioned, “Does a butterfly flapping its wings halfway across the globe bear any guilt?”

“At the beginning of the crime, how can she be considered guiltless?”

“But her turn hasn’t come yet. I’m merciful, when settling accounts one by one, I placed her last. Otherwise, this wretched offspring wouldn’t exist.” Luo Licheng shot a glance at Luo Liming.

“After dealing with the chef’s family, my father seemed to sense something. He deliberately distanced himself from me and took back many of the projects I’d been using to practice. Fortunately, a previous joint venture partner specifically requested me for a major project. After its success, I gained some say within the Luo Corporation. From then on, I focused on new technologies and real estate in emerging districts. The cutting-edge tech that was struggling at the time, the land everyone looked down on, in my hands, they revived like dead wood coming back to life. Even fate was on my side!”

“Just like that, the Luo Corporation no longer relied on traditional industries. The old shareholders saw their stakes shrink, and their areas of expertise were hollowed out. In a panic, they gathered to hold a group meeting, planning to use the same tactics they’d used against my mother on me.”

Luo Licheng held a gun in one hand and gripped the chair cushion tightly with the other, speaking with exhilaration.

“The looks on their faces when they saw me sitting at the head of the table during the secret meeting were truly priceless. I’d doused the room with gasoline beforehand. Before they died, they begged me, saying they’d only meant to scare my mother back then, they never expected her organs were so fragile they couldn’t withstand it.”

He mimed lighting a match. “They were pretty fragile too. One fire, and everything turned to ash. I took an injury report and a recording of their plan to kill me to the police. Told them they tried to burn me alive but accidentally locked themselves in. I wasn’t even detained for a day before my father bailed me out.”

“So simple, so easy… it felt like a dream. The next day, I opened my eyes to a life free of hatred, and it left me a little disoriented.”

Luo Licheng furrowed his brow. “And it was at this very moment that woman returned to the country, as if determined to give me not a moment’s peace.”

“What infuriates me the most is that she didn’t even recognize me. I ran into her at the airport while picking someone up, she had just returned to the country, accompanied by a little bastard, looking haggard and aged far beyond her years. At that point, I didn’t hold as much resentment toward her anymore. But when I reached out to help her with her suitcase, she slapped my hand away in panic, turned, and walked off without a word.” Luo Licheng gritted his teeth. “After everything that happened, she actually didn’t recognize me. How dare she treat me like some filthy vagrant and just leave me standing there?”

“As the one who caused all this, how could she forget everything without a shred of guilt?”

Luo Licheng cursed viciously, “So, I want her to die at the hands of the very people she despises the most. Back then, she refused to help us escape and start anew. Now, I’ll make her see what desperate people are capable of for money.”

Luo Liming’s eyes reddened, his breathing growing heavy.

Luo Licheng bent down, grabbed him by the hair, and forced his head up, pressing the gun barrel against his chin with a mocking sneer.

Seeing this, Mo Li considered subduing him while he was distracted, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Mo Wang subtly shaking his head.

She withdrew her covert movements but still flexed her limbs lightly, preparing to charge at any moment.

Luo Licheng continued to gloat, “Twenty thousand yuan, that’s just the amount the nanny’s husband would bet on a single horse race. For that, she administered slow-acting poison to me twenty times. The woman didn’t even show any abnormalities in the autopsy; they thought it was some kind of chronic illness.”

“But,” he narrowed his eyes, “blood runs thicker than water. I specifically instructed the nanny to include you in the poisoning. How is it that you didn’t die?”

A single tear traced its way down Luo Liming’s cheek. Suppression, endurance, fury, and confusion all surfaced on his face simultaneously, only to be replaced moments later by resolve and determination.

His voice was barely audible: “Because I’m not him.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, taking advantage of Luo Licheng’s momentary daze, he lunged upward, knocking aside the arm holding the gun.

Mo Li also broke free from her already loosened restraints, grappling Luo Licheng from behind and attacking his lower body, allowing Luo Liming to seize the opportunity to escape.

In the chaos, Luo Licheng mercilessly pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through Luo Liming’s abdomen, leaving a crimson trail on the ground.

Without a second thought, Mo Li twisted his gun-wielding arm violently. A sharp “crack” echoed through the room.

The pistol clattered to the floor, and Luo Licheng rolled on the ground, clutching his arm in agony. Mo Li had held nothing back, that arm was undoubtedly broken.

Mo Li scanned the surroundings and noticed Luo Liming had already begun skillfully stopping his own bleeding. In the meantime, Mo Wang had freed Zhu Wen, who had been trembling in the corner, from her tightly bound restraints.

The moment the tape was ripped from his mouth, the 1.9-meter-tall, 200-pound man burst into tears. “I’ve heard so much… you’re not going to silence me, are you?”