"Where did Mo Lingling get this thing from?" Chu Chen asked.

Mo Lingling’s previous economic sources had all come from them, and a sapphire of such quality would not have come cheap. It was impossible for Mo Lingling to come up with that much money at once.

"Yeah, right, as if Mo Lingling could ever possess a sapphire of this quality—it must be the handiwork of someone behind her," Ji Mingqian snorted with scorn.

"The real Heart of the Sea is in Ajiu’s possession. The person behind Mo Lingling has indeed wasted their effort this time."

The person lurking behind Mo Lingling had underestimated the bond between the four of them. It was ludicrous how they thought a few words from Mo Lingling could drive a wedge between their relationships.

Chu Chen looked at Ye Jiuliang with slight astonishment, "The Heart of the Sea is with you?"

"Snagged it at the auction," Ye Jiuliang raised an eyebrow, a roguish smile on his face, "Want to buy it from me?"

Chu Chen rolled her eyes at him, steering the conversation back on track, "I’ve agreed to let Mo Lingling leave tomorrow. What do you guys think?"

"Just let her leave. If she can lure out the person behind her, then all the better," Ji Mingqian said nonchalantly. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"Have Qin Yi show up in front of her occasionally, give her the illusion that she has a chance to be with you," Ye Jiuliang said, propping his chin with one hand, pondering thoughtfully.

Gu Xinuo sighed, "Poor Qin Yi."

"Why don’t you have Chu Chen do it personally?" Ji Mingqian teased.

Chu Chen threw a punch, "Get lost, why don’t you do it?"

"I would, if only Mo Lingling were into me," Ji Mingqian dodged, shrugging with a smug smile on his face.

The corner of Chu Chen’s mouth twitched, "..."

Ye Jiuliang reached for the sapphire, her fingertips gliding over its smooth surface. She felt like she was forgetting something important.

"Is something wrong?" Li Mochan looked at her with downturned eyes, his cool voice spilling from his throat.

Ye Jiuliang hummed in acknowledgment, her brows furrowed, "I just feel like I’ve forgotten something."

"Is there anything even Master Jiu could forget?" Ji Mingqian joked. "Don’t tell me you’ve received sapphires from other men before?"

With that, he glanced over to Li Mochan, deliberately stirring trouble.

A lightbulb went off in Ye Jiuliang’s head, "I remember now."

"So, you have received sapphires from other men?" Ji Mingqian blurted out curiously.

A cold light shot towards him, laced with a chill, Li Mochan asked with an icy voice, "Ji Mingqian, can you take a punch?"

"I can’t, I really can’t," Ji Mingqian cowered immediately, remembering how he’d been beaten up in a two-on-one by him and Chu Chen.

"Aqian, do you still remember what I told you before, that Mr. Charles said the person we’ve been searching for had once taken a sapphire at an auction?" Ye Jiuliang turned to Ji Mingqian, speaking slowly.

"Do you think it’s this one?" Ji Mingqian froze, eyeing the sapphire in her hand with an inquisitive look.

Ye Jiuliang raised her eyebrows, "Whether it is or isn’t, let’s have Mr. Charles appraise it and we’ll know."

The item had come from his auction house; there was no one better to ask.

"If that’s the case, what exactly is the person who’s been hiding in the shadows after? To have set up the game so early on, leading us step by step into the trap—is it all just to take over the K organization?" Gu Xinuo’s face showed confusion as he instinctively looked at Ye Jiuliang.

"That person disappeared when our master was close to death," Ye Jiuliang analyzed methodically. "Charles once said that when he saw him again at the auction house, he seemed like a completely different person. Later, he vanished in Country F."

"I suspect he must have been controlled by those people, or perhaps had his memory wiped," Ye Jiuliang continued, considering Charles’s words, which made the possibility seem quite likely.

Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to remain out of sight for all these years, only to reappear to retrieve a Sapphire, clearly doing the bidding of someone behind the scenes.

"But when master died, we had just established Organization K," Chu Chen joined the conversation. "If the person behind the scenes wanted to destroy Organization K, that would have been the best opportunity."

Back then, Organization K was in its infancy, its foundation weak. With the powerful resources of the person behind the scenes, absorbing Organization K seemed a substantial possibility.

Li Mochan, who had been silent during their discussion, suddenly spoke up with piercing accuracy, "The person behind Mo Lingling might have had a vendetta against your master."

At his words, four pairs of eyes focused on him.

Li Mochan reached for the Sapphire and looked at Gu Xinuo with an indifferent gaze, "Who knew that the ’Heart of the Sea’ was yours?"

"Only master and the few of us, no one else." Gu Xinuo replied truthfully, without understanding what he was getting at.

When she was brought to the island by her master many years ago, only the four of them, including master, knew her true identity. Even Mo Lingling was unaware.

"That’s not true," Ye Jiuliang interjected.

Confused, Gu Xinuo uttered, "Huh?"

"One time Wang Shuo came to the island to find us, and just so happened that master and we were discussing the ’Heart of the Sea’," Ye Jiuliang reminded them while looking at the other three.

It dawned on Ji Mingqian and the others; without her reminder, they almost completely forgot about that incident.

Wang Shuo was someone their master and Ajiu had saved on the road by chance. At the time they established Organization K, Wang Shuo was part of their struggle. They were clear on his loyalty, and even during the years he was missing, they still trusted that he had not betrayed them.

"Ajiu, are you suggesting that Wang Shuo told the person behind Mo Lingling about the ’Heart of the Sea’?" Gu Xinuo couldn’t quite believe it.

Ye Jiuliang nodded with a slightly cold expression, "Wang Shuo must have been controlled by them."

"Did your master have any other relatives besides Mo Lingling?" Li Mochan asked again.

Relatives?

The four of them exchanged looks.

Finally, Chu Chen spoke, "No, there was no one else on the island when master brought me there, besides Mo Lingling. And master never mentioned having any relatives."

Li Mochan withdrew his gaze, then raised his hand to rub Ye Jiuliang’s head, "Weren’t you suspecting that the Mo Family was involved in all this?"

It was like enlightenment for Ye Jiuliang; the mist in her heart started to clear.

Their master’s surname was Mo, and Mo Chen’s family had the same surname; there could be some connection between the two.

Their master died at the same time Wang Shuo disappeared, and the person hiding in the shadows just happened to target the four of them, who all happened to share the same master.

What she thought of, Chu Chen and the others thought of as well.

"So the person behind the scenes, the one who truly wanted revenge, was actually our master, and because we are associated with master, we also became targets of that revenge?" Ji Mingqian surmised.

"But that doesn’t make sense. Logically, Mo Lingling is blood-related to master. If the person behind the scenes really wanted to take revenge on master, they should have targeted Mo Lingling first," Gu Xinuo raised the question, puzzled.