It was seven o'clock in the evening at the West Sea Café. The place was quiet.

Xu Ke sat by the window, waiting for Li Lang.

As for Wang Wu, he was in the car outside. He couldn't show his face this time, but he could protect Xu Ke from the shadows. Given the short distance from the door to the café, Xu Ke could hold his own even if Sun Luo showed up again.

Just then, Li Lang plopped down opposite Xu Ke, agitated. "Spill it. How did you get it?"

Li Jun's bodyguard stood quietly at the entrance to the café.

"What's the rush? Order some coffee first," Xu Ke said with a faint smile.

Li Lang, however, had no intention of drinking coffee. His face revealed a lingering panic. "What exactly do you want?"

Holding a glass of lemon water, Xu Ke smiled. "Are you really not going to try the coffee here? It's particularly terrible. Otherwise, at seven o'clock, Tianhai's busiest hour, this café wouldn't be empty."

"Xu Ke!" Li Lang gnashed his teeth. What is he beating around the bush for?!

"You're so worked up..." Xu Ke chuckled, then said in a gentle tone, "The Ye Family gave me these detailed records."

The statement hit Li Lang like a ton of bricks, his expression freezing. His pupils dilated instantly. "No, impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible," Xu Ke said with a slight smile. "The Ye Family is already prepared to abandon you and the Li Family, so it's quite normal for them to hand the evidence over to me now."

Hearing this, Li Lang's face filled with disbelief. "The Ye Family is abandoning us? Are you joking?!"

Li Lang wanted to ridicule Xu Ke, but seeing Xu Ke's utterly composed demeanor and recalling the detailed records he'd just been sent, he couldn't bring himself to say a word.

Xu Ke shrugged. "I'm quite serious."

"Nonsense! I don't believe you!" Li Lang retorted angrily. The Li Family had been vassals to the Ye Family for years; how could the Ye Family abandon them out of the blue? Xu Ke was being absurd!

"Suit yourself!" Xu Ke spread his hands. "Well, if that's the case, I'll be going now."

With that, Xu Ke stood up.

Seeing that Xu Ke was actually planning to leave, Li Lang's expression changed. "You can't go."

"Why not?" Xu Ke raised an eyebrow.

"You can go, sure! But delete that stuff first!" Li Lang was referring to the detailed records.

"And your offer?" Xu Ke watched Li Lang with amusement.

"I can offer five hundred thousand!" Li Lang gritted his teeth.

If that evidence were handed over, the Li Family would definitely be punished by the Martial Alliance. But the most troublesome part wasn't the punishment itself. The Martial Alliance's punishment would, at most, be a fine and a written, stamped letter of assurance. The subsequent impact was the real trouble.

Once a family was on the Martial Alliance's punishment list, other families would keep their distance to avoid offending the alliance. This would leave the Li Family completely isolated and without support. Moreover, Ye Fan would definitely punish him for his incompetence and for leaking secrets!

So that evidence absolutely could not leave with Xu Ke.

But when Xu Ke heard the price of five hundred thousand, he chuckled. "Li Lang, you paid Qian Hong five hundred thousand to get rid of me. Now you're offering me five hundred thousand for this evidence."

"What? Do you favor women over men? Or do you have a soft spot for that old maid Qian Hong and felt like giving her extra?"

Hearing this, Li Lang first felt the sting of humiliation from Xu Ke's taunts, but that feeling quickly turned to horror... because he realized something else.

How did Xu Ke know he offered five hundred thousand? How did he know it was him who told Qian Hong to get rid of him?!

Li Lang's face gradually turned pale. At this moment, he felt Xu Ke's figure grow mysterious and imposing. Before Xu Ke, it was as if he had been stripped bare, with nowhere to hide.

"Stop stuttering. Five hundred thousand isn't enough to make me part with this evidence," Xu Ke said with a grin.

Li Lang struggled to control his emotions. "Then what do you want?"

The beads of sweat on his forehead betrayed his state of mind. Chaos! A complete mess!

"Very simple." Xu Ke sat back down, a cold smile touching his lips. "Work with me. We'll take down the Ye Family."

"Take them down?" Li Lang took a deep breath. "Impossible! Don't you know what the Ye Family is to my Li Family?" He was so anxious he was breaking out in a sweat, but he had finally managed to stabilize his mind.

Xu Ke nodded. "Of course I know what the Ye Family is to your family."

"However, Second Young Master Li, do you know what the Ye Family really thinks of the Li Family behind your backs?"

At this point, Li Lang finally managed to temporarily pull himself away from his fear. He sneered, "Xu Ke, you've been sowing discord ever since you walked in. Do you really think these records prove anything? I bet this is just something Yuk Dalong gave you! It has nothing to do with the Ye Family at all!"

Xu Ke laughed. "You're clever enough to figure out that Yuk Dalong gave them to me!"

Hearing this, Li Lang's face immediately turned gloomy. He'd almost believed the evidence really came from the Ye Family. How fortunate, he thought. I'm smart enough to see through it.

"Enough. I will not move against the Ye Family. Give me another condition." Believing he had seen through Xu Ke's ploy, Li Lang regained his confidence.

Xu Ke chuckled. "Don't be so hasty. The evidence did come from Yuk Dalong. But without the Ye Family's instruction, do you think he would have dared to give it to me?"

"That doesn't mean the Ye Family's hands are clean, Second Young Master Li!"

At his words, Li Lang's pupils shrank, and he subconsciously wanted to retort.

But Xu Ke took out a pair of wireless earbuds and his phone. "Come now, Second Young Master. Listen to this first, then decide whether you'll consider my proposal."

Li Lang instinctively took the wireless earbuds Xu Ke handed over and put one on.

The moment he did, his face turned deathly white. A recording began to play in the earbud.

"Young Master Chong, I want to take down the Li Family. Please help me."

"Young Master Xu, the Li Family is a partner of our Ye Family. I have no reason to help you."

"If you don't help me deal with the Li Family, how can I help you?"

Then came Ye Chong's voice, "What kind of help do you want?!"

The recording was only four sentences long. Xu Ke immediately pressed pause. He quietly watched Li Lang's face drain of all color as he sat there in silence.

This recording was slightly different from the original on the voice recorder. For the sake of a smoother conversation, Xu Ke had re-recorded and edited one or two of his own lines. The Golden K Bar had been quiet, so re-recording and splicing his own voice in seamlessly hadn't been an issue.

"Well, Second Young Master? How do you feel?" Xu Ke asked, standing up and retrieving the wireless earbud from Li Lang's ear.

Li Lang's eyes were slightly glazed over. He found this reality hard to accept. But the voice in the earbud was one he recognized instantly, one he had known his whole life—the voice of the other "Second Young Master," Ye Chong... It was unmistakably him.

After a long silence, Li Lang finally looked up and murmured, "No, this is impossible!"

Seeing this, a smile tugged at Xu Ke's lips. "Why is it impossible?"

"The Ye... The Ye Family... they wouldn't move against us, would they?!" A hint of despair crept into Li Lang's voice.

In his heart, he wanted to believe that Ye Chong could never betray the Li Family. But his own ears were telling him... that recording couldn't possibly be fake!

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