"Hurry up and go, if we don't leave now, we’ll miss the moving truck ahead of us," Sakurako urged as she got back into the car and saw Li Xiaohao still hesitating outside.

Taking her sudden attention as a sign, Li Xiaohao stepped easily back into the driver's seat, fired up the engine, and shot out like an arrow.

This time, Sakurako didn't complain about the speed. She stared through the windshield at the horizon of the highway, willing Li Xiaohao to drive faster, even faster, so they could catch up to the nearly vanished moving van.

"Are you really twins with Li Xiaoshu? Why have I never seen you before? My parents said Xiaoshu was..." Sakurako almost blurted out that Xiaoshu was the abandoned infant Li Taizheng found by the roadside, but fearing she might embarrass him, she swallowed the half-formed sentence.

"Heh, you were going to say that my father picked Li Xiaoshu up from the roadside?" Although Sakurako hadn't finished speaking, Li Xiaohao had guessed her meaning entirely. He simply slid open the sunroof and voiced the question she’d held back.

"Mm," Sakurako replied, lowering her head in embarrassment. She felt utterly mortified by her own behavior today. In their first meeting, she’d first caused an unnecessary scene, and now she was prying into personal secrets—her faint vestiges of ladylike composure had clearly vanished.

"Actually, we are both their biological sons. It’s just that when we were born, our parents had a few disagreements and separated. Out of pride, Father claimed Xiaoshu was found by the roadside. I lived with my mother and only re-established close contact with Father in the last couple of years, finally returning home." Li Xiaohao recited the rehearsed lines Li Taizheng had prepared. To his surprise, Sakurako showed no sign of doubt and continued with genuine concern, "Then what about your mother? My mother mentioned that Mrs. Li was a great beauty in her youth."

"Mother?" The word brought a look of surprise to Li Xiaohao’s face. It wasn't that he lacked a mother, but after all these years, beyond recognizing Xiao Linghua as the source of his blood, he felt nothing for her. The woman had nurtured him but had never cared for him; she spent her days hiding in rooms, recoiling when he approached, trembling at the sight of him. Occasionally, a flash of maternal instinct would surface, prompting her to play a game of Chinese checkers, but these rare moments of intimacy always ended abruptly amidst the pull of her bloodlust and the terror of sacrifice. Thus, the word "mother" was a foreign concept to him! He was nowhere near as fortunate as Xiaoshu, who had Mrs. Nangong treating him as her own, and Nan Gongying, his childhood sweetheart.

"She has passed away." Following Li Taizheng’s meticulous script, Li Xiaohao paused for a beat before forcing the six words through clenched teeth, while the image of Xiao Linghua being shoved into the refrigerated drawer flashed in his mind. Li Taizheng hadn't originally planned to kill her; she was simply too clever. After Li Taizheng took Xiaohao away, she quietly followed from the Original Shadow Villa all the way to the funeral home, hoping to use that opportunity to escape Li Taizheng's grasp. Since she had come that far, there was no turning back. When Li Taizheng discovered her presence, he ordered his men to push her into the cold drawer, which created the scene that Mr. Nangong witnessed. However, none of this was for Sakurako to know—it was like state secrets, locked away in a tiny box with eighteen separate safes, destined never, ever to see the light of day.