Free Web NovelChapter 1321: Chapter 1318: Tried to Steal the Chicken, Only to Lose the Rice
Ignatius Leclair finished speaking and lowered his long phoenix eyes, the pads of his slender fingers lightly rubbing his cufflinks as he waited for the two women’s reaction.
Leah’s cold, stunning little face grew even icier, so Richard Shaw planned to take advantage of her absence to find a mom for Casimir Shaw? Or a female teacher? Someone from the Land Family? That really was a perfect match in terms of family background.
Delphine’s instincts told her something was off, but she didn’t know much about what was going on between Leah and Richard Shaw, and it wasn’t her place to jump to conclusions, so she could only ask Ignatius Leclair, "What do you mean by that?"
"Miss Squire doesn’t know? I thought you knew." Ignatius Leclair was vaguely annoyed, then smiled with aristocratic elegance. "Pretend I didn’t say anything. Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding."
Delphine hated it most when he schemed around people’s hearts; she immediately let out a cold snort, lost all appetite, and pulled Leah away to go eat at Squire Manor. Just seeing him annoyed her. He’d been quietly bullying her for four days; the more she thought about it, the angrier she got.
Uh... Seeing this, Ignatius Leclair narrowed his eyes at once and said, "Delphine, it’s so late, where are you going?"
"Going home to eat. You can take your time eating alone. Oh right, you can take a private jet to the Shaw Family and eat with your good brother." Leah sneered.
Ignatius Leclair: "..."
Leah and Delphine returned to Squire Manor, both with extremely cold expressions.
"I’m not going back to sleep tonight. Didn’t you say you wanted to travel? Book the tickets and we’ll leave tomorrow." Delphine saw how awful her face looked and comforted her. "Or do you want to go to the Imperial City and ask Richard Shaw to his face?"
Leah was so angry her whole body was trembling. The implication in Ignatius Leclair’s words was clearly all sorts of hints that Richard Shaw was doing just fine on the singles market. If she didn’t go to the Imperial City and yield, he could find some socialite heiress to form a blended family any minute.
Whatever, let him do whatever he wants.
"Not going to the Imperial City." Leah felt awful and said, "Men are all bastards."
"Mm, every last one of them." Delphine reached out and patted her back, deeply agreeing. This was also why they had unanimously decided not to get married. Marriage only shackles women, while men get to be free and unrestrained. They weren’t even married yet, and Ignatius Leclair already dared to give her the cold shoulder, and Richard Shaw already dared to have dinner with a female teacher. If they really got married, wouldn’t they just ascend to the heavens?
To put it bluntly, both of them were afraid of marriage and had no faith in it.
"I know the second Miss of the Land Family, Cassius Turner’s younger sister, Land Qingyu. She’s a straightforward girl and a fan of mine. How about I sound Cassius Turner out and ask indirectly? So we don’t end up wrongly accusing anyone with our wild guesses." Delphine said.
Leah nodded and weakly sank into the sofa. Even when her beloved ragdoll cats came over to nuzzle her, she couldn’t be bothered to pick them up.
Delphine felt awkward calling Cassius Turner, so after thinking for a moment, she sent a WeChat message: "Professor Turner, since it’s the end of the year, our team wants to send New Year’s gifts to fans. I’d like to send one to your sister. Do you know what she likes?"
Ever since they parted in the Imperial City, things between Delphine and Cassius Turner had been quite awkward. For Leah’s sake, she had no choice but to contact him again.
Cassius Turner practically called back in seconds, his voice warm as he laughed. "Delphine, I didn’t expect you would message me. I’m very happy. Qingyu is your loyal fan. As long as it’s from you, she’ll like it."
"We’re friends, aren’t we?" Delphine smiled faintly. In her heart, if Cassius Turner had never crazily pursued her, if they were simply friends, how great would that be.
"We are friends. Have you been well lately?" Cassius Turner asked hesitantly. Since there had been no news of her marrying Ignatius Leclair, he couldn’t help worrying about whether she was doing okay.
"Not bad. Is your sister around? I want to ask what she likes."
"Qingyu went to the Shaw Family for dinner and isn’t back yet." Cassius Turner didn’t suspect a thing and sold out his little sister in seconds.
A moment later, Delphine hung up the phone. Seeing Leah’s beautiful peach blossom eyes look over, she nodded and said, "Land Qingyu did go to the Shaw Family for dinner, and it’s not the first time—it’s the second. Richard Shaw went to the Land Family to pick her up. According to Cassius Turner, his parents have been over the moon these past few days."
Leah replied calmly, hugging her knees as she sat on the sofa without saying a word.
Her phone kept ding-ding-dinging nonstop. Lana Shaw and Calliope Shaw kept @-ing her, all talking about the second Miss Land going to the Shaw Family for dinner. Leah found it annoying and simply turned her phone off.
"Delphine, thank God I still have you." Leah said hoarsely.
Delphine reached out and hugged her, then booked plane tickets online and said, "I’ll take you out to clear your head."
The next morning, the two of them flew straight to Harbin to see the ice sculptures.
Harbin was in peak season this time of year, with countless people coming north to see the ice sculptures. After they left the airport, the two bought the thickest down jackets, bundled themselves into human snowballs, and went hand in hand to see the ice sculptures.
Richard Shaw waited all night without any movement, and he couldn’t call. The next morning, his face dark, he went downstairs and had Casimir Shaw call Leah.
"Mommy’s phone is off." Classmate Casimir had just finished breakfast. A few days ago, Old Shaw had found him a new school and had even deliberately made him fall in front of Teacher Land to invite her over to the house.
The young boy pouted. Although Teacher Land was very cute, how could she compare to Mommy’s beauty? Old Shaw wouldn’t let him call Mommy every day. He hadn’t wanted to talk to Old Shaw lately. He’d said Mommy would be coming to the Imperial City soon, but now her phone was even turned off.
"Old Shaw, I’m going to school." Casimir Shaw slung on his backpack and headed out.
Richard Shaw, however, started getting restless. Leah almost never turned her phone off. The only time she’d turned it off was when she’d gotten her memory back and left Nanyang.
Thinking of that, the man’s face went iron blue; he wanted nothing more than to fly to Nanyang and beat Ignatius up until flowers bloomed on his face.
Expressionless, he called Ignatius Leclair.
Ignatius Leclair’s face was even darker than his. He had waited all night and Delphine hadn’t come back to sleep. When she came back early the next morning, she didn’t even acknowledge him.
Ignatius Leclair held his tongue and said nothing. Then he saw her drive out, suddenly felt something was wrong, went back to the bedroom to check, and only then discovered that her passport and ID card were all gone!
"So my wife’s phone is off and your wife is missing?" Richard Shaw sneered.
"Don’t panic. This isn’t something you can rush. The two of them definitely went out to clear their heads." Ignatius Leclair narrowed his eyes, his voice low and cold. "Delphine and Leah Squire both have marriage phobia. If we don’t use drastic measures, even in twenty years they still won’t get married. Things have come to this point, we need to seriously figure out what to do next."
"Find out where they are first." Richard Shaw snorted and made a call to have people investigate.
A short while later, both men knew where they were. They had gone to Harbin to see the ice sculptures. But there was a problem: recently Griffith Squire had been taking his little sweet wife on their honeymoon, traveling all over the place, and these two days, he was also in Harbin!
Ignatius Leclair cleared his throat lightly, a bit unable to bear thinking about it. If Griffith Squire found out about Old Shaw’s little situation, he’d probably drive a tank straight to the Shaw Family.
And Richard Shaw’s face was already iron blue; all he could do was pray these two groups of people wouldn’t run into each other.
