Chapter 67 Reluctant to part with me?

Shang Meting took Lin Ting and walked outward.

Lin Ting wanted to shake off his hand, but Shang Meting only held it tighter.

"Shang Meting," Lin Ting called out to him.

Shang Meting continued to lead her outside, asking, "What, do you want to kill me right here?"

Lin Ting fell silent.

Shang Meting said, "Come back with me, and I'll give you your chance."

Lin Ting followed Shang Meting as he left.

Wei Zhishu and Fang Cheng exchanged a glance, unsure of what was happening, but immediately followed them.

Qi Qingyuan was stunned for a moment and subconsciously followed as well.

Lu Jinglin stopped her, saying, "I'm going. You should head back. It's too late, and your family will start asking questions again."

Qi Qingyuan hesitated, then finally nodded.

Lu Jinglin took hold of Mu Yunsheng's hand and also walked outside.

Mu Yunsheng said, "I'll go home first."

Lu Jinglin glanced at her and asked, "Are you going home, or are you trying to run away?"

Mu Yunsheng: "...Can I even run away?"

Lu Jinglin glanced at the tracking device on her neck, pulled her hand, and continued walking outside without saying anything.

...

The Emperor Club was not very far from Shang Meting's residence.

It was just over a dozen minutes by car.

Upon arriving, Shang Meting took Lin Ting straight to the study.

At the entrance of the study, Lin Ting hesitated for a moment.

This study was filled with hidden mechanisms.

Shang Meting looked at her and asked, "Afraid?"

Lin Ting pushed the door open and entered first.

Shang Meting let out a soft sigh and followed her into the study.

The door closed, shutting out everything from the outside world.

Lin Ting looked at Shang Meting.

Shang Meting looked at the half piece of jade in his hand, then turned his gaze to Lin Ting. "The real half has been in your possession all along?"

"Yes," Lin Ting said.

"You approached me just to find this thing?" Shang Meting asked.

"Yes," Lin Ting replied.

"Now that you've found it," Shang Meting said, looking into her cold eyes, "go ahead and do it."

Lin Ting's pupils trembled slightly.

She looked at Shang Meting's calm and indifferent expression.

It was as if... life and death were nothing more than the most trivial and ordinary matters to him.

Whether he lived or died mattered not at all to her.

Yet it was precisely this detached, indifferent attitude.

That made her furious.

Lin Ting reached behind her waist, and with a swift motion, she flicked open the blade of her butterfly knife.

She lunged forward abruptly, pressing the blade against the side of Shang Meting's neck.

"Did you bring me back just so I could kill you?" Lin Ting said coldly.

"That's right." Shang Meting's fingers gently tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, his fingertips brushing against her cheek as he said, "The club has too many eyes and ears. If you killed me there, how did you plan to get away?"

"And if I kill you here, will I be able to leave?" Lin Ting asked.

"You know better than anyone how to slip away from here quietly," Shang Meting looked into her eyes.

Lin Ting pressed the blade a fraction closer to his throat.

Shang Meting's thumb lightly stroked the skin just beneath her eye, and then he suddenly grasped her hand, guiding the blade directly toward his own neck.

Realizing what he intended to do, Lin Ting shoved him backward hard with her other hand.

She pulled her knife-wielding hand back, exerting a force opposite to his.

Shang Meting staggered back a step and collided with the desk behind him.

Lin Ting distanced herself from him a little.

Leaning against the desk, Shang Meting looked at her expression of anger and shock, and then he began to laugh.

Lin Ting stepped forward and punched him. "You lunatic!"

It was not a light punch.

Shang Meting took the blow, laughing and coughing at the same time.

Lin Ting watched him for a moment, then stepped forward and covered his mouth to stop him from laughing.

Shang Meting let out two more muffled laughs, pulled her hand down, held it in his own, and said, "It seems the anger of being played for a fool outweighs the desire to kill me."

Lin Ting glared at him and said nothing.

"Or perhaps I can think more favorably of it," Shang Meting raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't bear to kill me."

"You flatter yourself," Lin Ting said. "I simply don't want to kill the innocent, nor do I want to be led around by the nose by others."

Shang Meting pulled her a step closer to his chest and said, "You should know that during that period, that place was chaotic, and many things happened. I don't know when the jade token broke or where it was dropped."

Lin Ting looked at him.

Shang Meting met her eyes as well, speaking with profound sincerity, "The only thing I know for certain is that my hands are not stained with the blood of any innocent person. Every single one I killed deserved to die."

Lin Ting narrowed her eyes.

Shang Meting said, "That is my explanation."

Lin Ting looked at him without a word.

"Surely... you aren't working behind my back with some illicit organization to do illicit things, are you?" Shang Meting's voice suddenly grew a fraction colder.

Lin Ting let out a soft huff. "What if I am? What will you do? Kill me?"

Seeing her defiant attitude, Shang Meting pulled her even closer, cupped her chin with the web of his hand, and said in a dangerous tone, "Then I would lock you away here forever, ensuring you can never leave. And after that, I would eradicate your organization."

"So President Shang can't bear to kill me either?" Lin Ting raised an eyebrow, her voice as cold as ice.

Shang Meting openly admitted, "That's right. No one is allowed to hurt you, not even myself."

Lin Ting's pupils trembled violently.

Her heart began to beat uncontrollably against her ribs.

She turned her head away, broke free from his grip, and retreated two steps.

She hated this reaction in herself.

Especially given the high probability that he was her enemy.

She hated that she could not control these physical responses.

Looking at her, seemingly reading through her thoughts, Shang Meting paused and asked, "Who all knows that you have the other half of the jade?"

A single sentence successfully diverted Lin Ting's attention.

However, it only made her complexion grow even paler and uglier.

Every single person who knew about this matter was someone closest to her.

She had purged the Starry Sky Hotel and placed those closest to her into the most critical positions.

She had done so precisely to prevent betrayal from those around her.

Yet the current situation clearly indicated that something had gone wrong among her inner circle.

"To be able to forge this fake piece so convincingly, they must be very close to you, right?" Shang Meting said.

Even the fractured edge had been replicated almost identically.

Lin Ting remained silent.

This person knew about the broken piece of jade, knew that Shang Meting was the prime suspect, knew that she hadn't found anything at Shang Meting's place yet, and even knew her whereabouts.

They had appeared just as she was getting too close to Shang Meting, using a counterfeit piece of jade to stir up all these events, almost as if forcing her into direct opposition with Shang Meting.

"My half of the jade is in the ancestral home, placed right in front of my mother's spirit tablet," Shang Meting said. "It was something my mother left for me. After it broke, I took it to her before her tablet to offer my penance, and I never brought it back."

Lin Ting: "............"

No wonder she had turned this place upside down, searched and unlocked the entire collection room behind the bookshelf, and even searched everywhere else she lived in this house outside of the study, only to find absolutely nothing.

She had even gradually begun to think that it might have nothing to do with Shang Meting at all.