Fortunately, most of the residents here were well-off, and besides, the money had been pooled by everyone, so no one took the opportunity to pilfer it. Yet, Gu Xian quickly gathered it all back into her hands. She had just insisted she didn't need anyone's kindness, only justice, but this instinctive action caused several brows to furrow.

"You ruined one of my daughters, so now, are you going to harm my other one? What grudge does our Gu family have against you? Though your Ning family is wealthy, why must you bully us?" Gu Xian’s lips trembled, and before she could even speak, tears streamed down her face, dripping from her chin onto her clothing. The large yellow coat she wore quickly became stained where the tears fell, which only served to elicit more sympathy from the onlookers.

"I'd like to ask you the same thing—what grudge does our Ning family have against you? Gu ShaoTao attempted to kidnap my father and hired thugs outside the complex to beat him; the surveillance footage captured everything. Don't even think about denying it. Your son acted under your instruction; surely you won't deny that?" Ning Yunhuan, having moved past extreme anger, had become strangely calm. Looking at the wide-eyed Gu Xian, she continued, "And which daughter of yours did I harm? You have no proof; on what grounds do you make such accusations? You claim Gu Yingxi is dead—do you have evidence? Which eye of yours saw me kill her?"

Gu Xian's heart faltered. She had been entirely unaware of Gu ShaoTao's plan to kidnap Father Ning and hire assailants. Having this exposed publicly by Ning Yunhuan, especially with the mention of physical evidence, left her instantly speechless. Seeing the change in the surrounding gazes, her heart hammered wildly, and she quickly stammered, "I didn't instruct him. My daughter is well-behaved and never offended anyone. Only you have looked at her askance. Now she's missing—if it wasn't you, then who was it? Moreover, if you truly harmed someone, of course, you’d hide the body; how would I possibly find it?"

"Your daughter never offended anyone? I heard she’d sell herself for money at school! Who knows if she crossed the wrong person—maybe a girlfriend’s boyfriend she did business with—and they decided to teach her a lesson?" Ning Yunhuan sneered twice. Seeing the panic in the Gu family's expressions, she pressed on, "Who paid for these chemotherapy records and legal fees laid out before you? Without my father, you’d be dead already! Your daughter was playing both sides—not content with just the Eldest Young Master Xie, she even seduced my elder brother into abandoning his family. She truly is capable; it shows what kind of parents you are—your son is a little hoodlum, and your daughter can ensnare any man who crosses her path!"

"You're talking nonsense!" At this point, Gu Xian felt like spitting blood. She glared fiercely at Ning Yunhuan, losing the pitiful façade she’d maintained earlier, her expression turning quite savage: "You killed my daughter, now pay me with your life!"

"Who saw me kill your daughter? If anyone saw it, please step forward and testify." Ning Yunhuan chuckled coldly, pointing at the police officers standing nearby with helpless expressions: "The police are here now. If you have no evidence, don't blame me for suing you for slander."

"Officer, I... I personally saw her kill my sister!" Gu Yingnuo, who had been silent for quite some time, suddenly took a deep, steady breath, rubbing her legs. Shaking and pale, she declared, "It was her! If it wasn't her, I... I will be a prostitute and livestock in my next life!"

Upon hearing this, Ning Yunhuan burst out laughing. The disappearance of Gu Yingxi the last time was indeed connected to her, in a way. But she also knew that Gu Yingxi probably deserved ten deaths. Whenever any trouble arose, it seemed to become an opportunity for Gu Yingxi, allowing her to turn misfortune into fortune. Facing danger now, perhaps she could use this chance to gain another powerful ally devoted to her. A person like that, if pushed off a cliff, might just find some extraordinary treasure at the edge that would greatly benefit her.

The events since her rebirth had given Ning Yunhuan a renewed understanding of Gu Yingxi's staggering luck. In her previous life, Gu Yingxi’s path had been smooth, encountering almost no setbacks. But after Ning Yunhuan’s rebirth, although she hadn't deliberately targeted her, her actions had subtly altered the direction of many things in Gu Yingxi’s life. Yet, no matter the situation, Gu Yingxi always managed to escape danger. Whether it was the pursuit by the Qin family leading her to potentially meet a baron from a powerful foreign consortium, or this current plot by Lan Lingyan to sabotage her, Ning Yunhuan was certain that if some minor male character hadn't saved her, it must have been some major power intervening out of pity.

Calculating strictly, among Gu Yingxi's harem, besides the already revealed Xie Zhuoyin, Ning Yuncheng, and Song Qingyun, the remaining men had no substantive physical relationship with her. It was possible the British baron had already appeared, and men like Gu ShaoTao and Liu Jinjun would surface later. Of the remaining men, aside from Song Qingyun’s son, only four had never made an appearance!

One was Mu Jinyan from the political Mu family, notorious throughout the capital for being the famously foolish young master. The other two were biological brothers who were likely still abroad and hadn't returned yet. As for the last one, based on the timeline, if nothing unexpected happened, he would surely be abroad performing surgery on some major political figure.

If Ning Yunhuan's previous suspicion—that as soon as Gu Yingxi encountered trouble, one of her men would emerge to save her—was correct, then this time, the most likely rescuer, discounting those who had already appeared, would be that derided, seemingly foolish Second Young Master of the Mu family.

The Mu family was an old established lineage; such families typically wield great power at the center of politics while maintaining a low profile externally. These true powerful clans generally followed a strategy of keeping a low profile while amassing wealth, playing the pig to eat the tiger. The Mu family adhered to this, too, until this generation when Mu Shaohua was re-elected as a legislator, and more importantly, he had two very famous sons.

The elder son was a celebrated political star across Huaxia at a young age, while his second son was known to everyone as an imbecile!

However, Ning Yunhuan, having read the novel, knew that this Second Young Master Mu Jinyan was not only not foolish but harbored significant ambition. A lineage like the Mu family, unlike shallowly rooted rising families such as the Qin family—who desperately sought many descendants to establish dominance across political, commercial, and military spheres for gradual development—or complicated backgrounds like Lan Lingyan’s, where all descendants were groomed like poisonous insects to produce a single ruler, had only one heir to their vast heritage after a century.

A second son like Mu Jinyan could, at best, use the family's prestige to create his own separate wealth. While he might climb high using the Mu family’s status later, this would only be a fleeting moment compared to the heritage of the main line. In the book, Mu Jinyan was a man skilled in forbearance, ambitious, and utterly ruthless. Unwilling to settle for just a small fraction of the Mu estate, and unwilling to watch his elder brother inherit everything just because he was born two years later, he had been calculating since childhood. To plot for full control of the Mu family, at the age of seven, he feigned a severe injury that left him appearing mentally disabled!

A fool is never guarded against. A fool could receive boundless parental love and guilt, allowing him to exploit this disguise to make others underestimate him!

Furthermore, Mu Jinyan’s original injury was indirectly related to Mu Jinzhi, causing his elder brother, once the favored son of heaven, to cherish and protect him without suspicion.

In the novel, Mu Jinyan used this guise of foolishness to slowly cultivate his own faction, using this power to secretly accumulate vast wealth. Finally, he launched a decisive strike against his elder brother, who had been renowned since childhood for his brilliance, seizing control of the Mu family. As for his now-incapacitated elder brother, although the book claimed he was provided a life free of worry and sent abroad, in Ning Yunhuan's view, it was nothing more than keeping his elder brother penned up like livestock. For the proud Eldest Young Master Mu, raised as the heir, such an existence was nothing short of utter humiliation!

In her previous life, Ning Yunhuan had once met the elegant Mu Jinzhi through Mu Jinyan. He was a charming man, already holding a high position at a young age. Though from an aristocratic background, he never carried an air of superiority. Perhaps he had his own calculations, but to Ning Yunhuan, he was the epitome of a gentleman—polite and gentle. In her past life, due to Gu Yingxi, she had spoken to him several times and had fantasized that the man she married should possess Mu Jinzhi’s temperament. Fate, however, dictated that she died before she could marry anyone.

Forget marrying someone like Mu Jinzhi; even if she remarried in this reborn life, she had only managed to marry Lan Lingyan, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

"Second Miss Gu, words carry responsibility," Ning Yunhuan thought of the past and looked deeply at Gu Yingnuo. She felt she had done nothing wrong to the Gu family. In fact, after Gu Yingnuo died in that car crash in her previous life, Ning Yunhuan had still paid several tens of thousands for a burial plot and funeral out of consideration for Gu Yingxi. Although Ning Yunhuan wished to leave the past behind, she had originally felt a measure of sympathy for the girl whose death seemed premature. Perhaps because she herself had met an untimely end in her last life, she felt a kinship with Gu Yingnuo’s fate. Every time she saw her, she hadn't spoken ill of her. Yet now, this girl intended to smear her name. Ning Yunhuan let out a cold laugh:

"You are over eighteen now, correct? According to Huaxia law, you should be accountable for your words once you pass sixteen. The police are right here. Think carefully?"