Lunchtime, Li Qiao and her entourage went to Crystal Garden.
Inside the private room, Zong Zhan and Shang Yu were sitting in the lounge area chatting leisurely, while Li Qiao, with a plum slice in her mouth, sat nearby texting with her head down.
After sending a few messages, her phone rang.
She glanced at Shang Yu, then got up and left the room.
"Madam, it has been four or five days now, and the Lower House has not responded. Moreover, I just tried to resend the document and found that the email account has been canceled."
The call was from Cheng Mo. Li Qiao strolled to the backyard, standing beside the sundial and lowering her gaze, "Was there a tracking program embedded in the document?"
"Yes, the current tracking shows no activity; it doesn’t seem to have been circulated."
Li Qiao touched the edge of the sundial and said indifferently, "Send the document to all the members of the House of Representatives."
Cheng Mo asked calmly, "All of them?"
"All of them, until there are results."
After ending the call, Li Qiao looked down at her phone screen and a cold smile formed at the corners of her mouth.
Upon returning to the private room, the meal had already been served.
Li Qiao had just sat down when Zong Zhan across from her tapped his chopsticks on the plate, "Are you two on a health regimen lately?"
Steamed fish, egg soup, steamed spinach, braised tofu...
Zong Zhan lost his appetite at just one glance.
Shang Yu picked a piece of fish for Li Qiao, and seeing her chew slowly and swallow, his expression softened a bit.
Zong Zhan asked to empty air, curling his lip as he ate a piece of tofu that tasted bland as wax.
Throughout the meal, Li Qiao ate slowly yet did not experience any morning sickness symptoms.
Through careful observation over the past few days, both she and Shang Yu had identified a pattern.
As long as they avoided oily food, severe morning sickness did not occur.
Was she carrying a monk?
In the blink of an eye, it was Friday evening.
Li Qiao spent another couple of quiet days at home, free from the outside world’s turmoil where she could actually focus on researching effective treatments for mania.
At this time, Shang Yu had not yet returned home.
Li Qiao looked at the report in the email, her face expressionless.
Her thoughts inadvertently drifted to He Chen’s suggestion a few days ago. The so-called choice of two options was not within her considerations.
The email report stated that the most effective treatment for mania was through MECT therapy.
This was a practice summarized by the Medical Alliance through numerous cases.
And He Chen’s two options for her included the MECT treatment.
The other option was to avoid contact with Shang Yu during periods of severe morning sickness, which essentially meant temporarily leaving the South Sea.
Li Qiao sighed, hand propped against her forehead. MECT therapy had gained widespread use internationally and the technology was very mature, but unless she had no other choice, she did not want to resort to this method of intervention.
A sound came from behind, and Li Qiao nonchalantly closed her email and turned her head to see Shang Yu coming in.
"You’re back early?" Li Qiao said while looking back at her screen; it wasn’t even six-thirty yet.
Shang Yu responded, then leaned over, propping his hand on the back of her chair, "What are you doing?"
Li Qiao stood up and answered without changing her expression, "I was just on a call with Su Lao Si."
The man draped his arm over her shoulder, his voice deep as he asked, "Do you have any plans for tomorrow afternoon?"
"Not at the moment." Li Qiao followed him out of the laboratory obediently, stepping into the elevator. She then asked, "Something the matter?"
Shang Yu patted her shoulder with a profound look in his eyes, "I’ll take you out to clear your mind."
Li Qiao nodded, readily agreeing.
Soon after, they arrived in the living room, where the rich aroma of fruit wafted through the air.
The coffee table bore four or five plates, all filled with neatly cut fruit.
Li Qiao sat down, picked up a fork, and ate a piece of pineapple. The sweet and sour taste made her comfortably squint her eyes.
The dimmed warm lights in the living room added a touch of homely warmth to the moment.
If it hadn’t been for that annoying phone call in the middle of the night, Li Qiao would have found the prospect of an uneventful life quite appealing.
When Bai Yan called, it was one o’clock in the morning.
Li Qiao had been asleep, woken up by the vibration of her phone, she opened her eyes, slightly bewildered, and it took her a while to come to her senses.
Her phone on the nightstand glowed with a bright white light. Li Qiao blinked and answered in a not-so-friendly tone, "Speak."
Bai Yan took a drag on his cigarette, his laugh irritating, "Yo, asleep so early?"
"If you’re not going to talk, I’m hanging up."
Li Qiao was grouchy upon waking, and her temper was explosive when she didn’t get enough sleep.
Bai Yan didn’t dare push her limits any further and got straight to the point, "There’s some progress on the surveillance footage from August 12th."
After saying that, he sighed, "Or... you go back to sleep, and I’ll tell you in the morning?"
Bai Yan stared at his phone in disbelief, "..."
What the hell kind of temper is this, hanging up just like that?!
After hanging up, Li Qiao turned over, intending to go back to sleep. She closed her eyes and fumbled for a few seconds, reaching out to feel the bed, only then realizing that Shang Yu was gone.
The bedding was slightly cool; he must have left quite a while ago.
Li Qiao blinked, becoming somewhat more alert. She glanced back at her phone and frowned, squinting as she called Bai Yan back, "What about the surveillance?"
On the other end, Bai Yan took a swig of his beer, grinding his teeth as he said, "If you dare hang up on me again, do you believe I’ll come down to the South Sea to beat you up?"
"Oh, what’s there to see in the surveillance?"
Bai Yan resigned to the fact that threats and temptations were almost pointless against Flame Alliance K.
He rubbed his short hair, grumpily saying, "I had someone check the British Imperial Statistical Bureau’s records of all the deceased from that August. Excluding those who died of illness and old age, there are eleven who met with violent deaths, through robbery, shootings, or jumping from buildings..."
Bai Yan slowed down, "Out of these eleven, three were shot. We’re still investigating the basic information."
Li Qiao sat up against the headboard, her eyes tinged with faint blood vessels as she stared at the night light in the corner and pondered for a few seconds, "Include those who died of illness."
"There are nearly a hundred of those; back then there was an outbreak of mad cow disease in the British Empire," Bai Yan flipped through the Statistical Bureau’s population list, "You sure you want to check these people too?"
Li Qiao pulled the blanket up over half her face, lazily asking with drooping eyes, "If you had killed someone, would you let it be found that the victim was shot to death?"
Bai Yan went along with her logic, "No."
"Yeah, go ahead and check."
Just as Li Qiao was about to hang up again, Bai Yan quickly interjected, "Wait, I heard from M a couple of days ago that you’re coming to Myanmar for a business trip?"
Li Qiao frowned, Xi Luo was like a walking loudspeaker, wasn’t she?
Bai Yan chuckled meaningfully, "I still advise you to come. You might catch a good show."
"Like what?" Li Qiao was clearly uninterested, her voice flat and disengaged as she casually inquired.
Bai Yan pushed his tongue against his cheek with no sympathy at all, "M ran into trouble a few months ago on a business trip in Myanmar. She didn’t tell me much.
Latter, I sent someone to inquire, and it seems she got into a spat with a military officer from our country. The two countries’ military departments were engaged in friendly exercises at the time, and she broadcasted that officer’s operational command map to a group..."