Chapter 2678 — Lost in Memory

"Young Master Bing, everything has been prepared as you instructed. What would you have me do now?" Uncle Zhu asked.

"Ah, yes—feed this packet of powder to Yuning. I need to set up the camera!" Zhao Qibing said, pulling a packet of medicinal powder from his backpack and handing it to Uncle Zhu, then producing a video camera as well.

"Oh? What powder is this?" Uncle Zhu blinked in surprise.

"This is a potent drug the Medicine King compounded for me—colorless, odorless, and violent in effect. Once a girl takes it, she becomes thoroughly forward!" Zhao Qibing saw no reason to hide it now. "I'm going to film the whole process of bedding Yuning, then show it to the Yu family patriarch. He'll see that Yuning was the one who came on to me—and the hidden Yu family will just have to swallow the insult. For the sake of their reputation, they'll marry Yuning to me!"

"So that's your game!" Uncle Zhu was startled, and at once thought to himself how brilliant Zhao Qibing's scheme was. This way, even if the hidden Yu family had their suspicions, with the recording in hand Zhao Qibing stood on solid ground—he could insist that he and Yuning were mutually enamored, that she had taken the initiative, and what could the hidden Yu family possibly say?

Even if Yuning told the truth, all the hidden Zhao family had to do was make the recording public and appeal to the other hidden clans for judgment—and the hidden Yu family's face would be dragged through the mud beyond all recovery!

The only way out would be for the hidden Yu family to grit their teeth and accept it, marrying Yuning to Zhao Qibing. And then, with the hidden Yu family's support at his back, Zhao Qibing's rise to the position of young heir of the hidden Zhao family would be beyond all doubt!

But if that happened, Zhao Qibing's backing would grow formidable—would he then turn against Wei Zhao? At this thought, Uncle Zhu could not help but feel uneasy. Could he throw a wrench in Zhao Qibing's plans somehow, sabotage them?

Yet his own abilities were limited; the only thing he could do was ask Wei Zhao, and see whether Wei Zhao had any ideas.

Uncle Zhu dawdled over dissolving the powder in hot water, while on his side Zhao Qibing had already set up the camera. He had chosen a clever angle—it could capture him and Yuning, yet keep things indistinct. The main point was that Yuning's body would not be clearly visible, while Zhao Qibing's own would be.

This recording was meant for the Yu family patriarch and Yu Xiaochen to see. Though Yuning was their granddaughter and daughter, Zhao Qibing had no intention of letting others look upon his future wife, so he had to keep it blurry; if need be, he would find some woman skilled in post-processing to mosaic it for him.

"Uncle Zhu, are you done yet or not? That hot water's good enough—just get Yuning to drink it, it's not as if it'll scald her to death!" Seeing Uncle Zhu still swirling the cup to cool it and not yet feeding the dose to Yuning, Zhao Qibing grew impatient. "The drug takes half an hour to kick in, and Yuning's unconscious, so it'll probably be even slower. Hurry it up, would you—I can hardly wait!"

"Oh, right..." Uncle Zhu had wanted to stall a while longer, but Zhao Qibing had spoken, and there was nothing he could do. He could only pour the dose down Yuning's throat.

Watching Uncle Zhu administer the dose, Zhao Qibing nodded. "All right then. Get out and stand guard at the door—I'm going to take a shower first!"

"Yes, Young Master Bing!" Uncle Zhu hurried out of the inner room to the outer chamber, and the very first thing he did was pull out his phone and dial Wei Zhao's number...

Wei Zhao was cultivating in his room when the sudden shrill ringing of the phone cut through the silence. He hurriedly brought his cultivation to a halt and picked up the phone.

"Zhu the Second?" It was Zhu the Second calling. Wei Zhao answered—no doubt there was news from Zhao Qibing's side.

"Boss, I've got something important to report!" Uncle Zhu said urgently. "Over here, Zhao Qibing has set his plan in motion. Just now he took me to the hidden Yu family's residence and had Yuning seized and brought back. Now Zhao Qibing means to force himself on her, create a fait accompli, and leave the hidden Yu family with no choice but to swallow the insult and marry Yuning to him..."

"What?!" Hearing Uncle Zhu's words, Wei Zhao was both shocked and furious. Zhao Qibing had taken Yuning?

Wei Zhao's mind went blank with a thunderous roar, so that he did not take in a word of what Uncle Zhu said next. His thoughts had already drifted back to that moonlit night years ago—that Valentine's Day he had spent with Yuning in the cave...

Though in recent days Wei Zhao's strength had grown steadily, to the point where he faintly showed signs of rising above the hidden great families themselves, his feelings about that love he had once turned away from were deeply tangled. He did not know how to face it.

Could a love once missed truly be recovered? Wei Zhao had at one time fled from this question, and even before Yu Bing he had never given a straight answer. In truth, Wei Zhao knew this was a display of cowardice—he dared not face a love that had been refused by his own hand before it ever began.

In the end, Wei Zhao simply dared not face the past; he did not want to return to the life he had once lived. His present life was comfortable and at ease.

And yet, just when Wei Zhao had thought he might never cross paths with Yuning again in this lifetime, Zhu the Second's call changed the course his life had been set upon.

She was a girl he had once held deep affection for—a girl still engraved on his heart even now. If the playmates of childhood were sweethearts of youth, then Yuning was, in the truest sense, Wei Zhao's first love. At sixteen, first stirrings of love—only Wei Zhao had assumed this feeling would become a memory forever. But reality was forcing him to face it once more!

Zhao Qibing? Did that creature have the gall of a leopard? To actually do such a thing? That he did not know of Yuning's past connection with Wei Zhao was one thing—ignorance breeds recklessness, and Wei Zhao could understand that. But the wrath of the hidden Yu family was not something the hidden Zhao family could withstand, was it?

Still... suddenly Wei Zhao recalled what Zhu the Second had explained earlier. Zhao Qibing had certainly calculated well, hadn't he? To dream up such a trick—forcing himself on her, leaving the hidden Yu family to swallow the insult in silence?

Yet he had to admit Zhao Qibing's tactic was effective. After all, the hidden Yu family could not shamelessly expose the matter. Rather than mutually assured destruction, it would be better to sit down and talk calmly, and marry Yuning to Zhao Qibing.

"Boss, if Yuning marries Zhao Qibing, then Zhao Qibing will truly have secured the position of head of the hidden Zhao family. When that time comes, dealing with him will be all the harder—after all, the hidden Yu family will be at his back..."