northernbook Chapter 449 The Predator Trapping Plan (48)
Chapter 449 The Predator Trapping Plan (48)
Among the three major families, the Qin family has gradually declined. In addition, after losing the extremely talented 3S mental power heir ten years ago, it has now become the last of the three major families.
Over the past decade, Edmund has considered annexing the Qin family.
However, after several attempts to test the waters, whenever he showed any sign of taking action against the Qin family, the Thorne family, one of the three major families, would be eyeing him covetously, intending to wait until the two families were fighting tooth and nail before taking advantage of the situation and reaping the benefits.
After weighing the pros and cons, the three families tacitly agreed to maintain the current relatively peaceful situation.
After all, a love triangle is the most stable relationship.
Edmund was an impatient man, and he wasn't afraid of the Qin family. The thought that Qin Shao might have returned to kill Andrei prompted him to immediately head to the Qin family to find out the truth.
If the Qin family was responsible for this, he would have a legitimate reason to act, using the pretext of avenging his son to join forces with the Thorne family to destroy the Qin family.
After all, the Thorne family had a long-standing grudge against the Qin family because of Griffith's death ten years ago.
Edmund barged into the office of the Qin family patriarch, Old Master Qin, in the Military and Political Affairs Department without prior appointment.
At the time, Old Master Qin was having a meeting with several subordinates. When he saw Edmund, who was looking furious, he immediately told his subordinates to leave.
"Edmund, what's wrong with you?"
Edmund cut to the chase: "My son Andrei has disappeared. Was it the Qin family's doing?"
Old Master Qin was taken aback, his brows furrowed deeply, and the wrinkles on his face became even more pronounced.
"No, why would you think that?"
"Besides your Qin family, who else would dare to lay a hand on my son?"
Old Master Qin said helplessly, "Let's not even talk about whether the Qin family has the guts. Even if they did, what reason would we have to kidnap Andrei?"
Edmund was taken aback.
He then remembered that back then, Qin Shao was framed for killing Griffith of the Thorne family. Because the black box had never been found, the Qin family did not know who was behind it.
From the Qin family's perspective, they had no grudge against Andrei and had no reason to harm him.
Moreover, messing with Andrei would incur the hatred of the Winston family, making the already lowly Qin family's situation even more dangerous.
They would inflict heavy losses on themselves while harming the enemy by a thousand; there was really no need for them to do such a thing.
Thinking about this, Edmund calmed down a little.
Seeing that Edmund was no longer so agitated, Old Master Qin beckoned him to come and sit down.
The Qin family is a typical Eastern aristocratic family. Old Master Qin is almost ninety years old this year, but he is still in good spirits, and a set of porcelain tea trays is always kept on his table.
Grandpa Qin started making tea for Edmund: "Don't worry, your boy is at the age where he loves to play. Maybe he's gone to another planet to have some fun. He'll be back in a few days."
Edmund scoffed, "No, I couldn't find any record of him leaving the country."
"Have you and your son had a falling out?" Old Master Qin said with a smile. "When my son was young, he was always getting into trouble. Whenever he made a mistake, I would beat him. After beating him so many times, he would hide away when he made a mistake. Sometimes he would hide for ten days or half a month and only come back when I calmed down."
“My son never does this; he always tells me where he’s going,” Edmund said. “He’s been missing for three days.”
Old Master Qin seemed to realize the seriousness of the matter at first, and his joking attitude vanished: "Do you need the Qin family to help with the search?"
The Qin family controls the interstellar communication arrays of the entire interstellar civilization. With the Qin family involved, the probability of finding people is indeed greater.
But Edmund didn't trust Old Master Qin. He pushed away the tea Old Master Qin brought over, stood up, and stared down at the nearly ninety-year-old man with sharp eyes: "Old Master Qin, I'll ask you one last time, does the disappearance of my son Andrei have anything to do with the Qin family?"
Old Master Qin was clearly displeased by his attitude, and said with restraint, "I'll answer you one last time, no!"
"I remember that Qin Shao, that young man from your Qin family, is still alive." Edmund said meaningfully, "He's back?"
When Qin Shao was mentioned, the old man's expression darkened: "No, I haven't seen him for ten years."
"Where is he now?"
Old Master Qin said frankly, "I only know he's in C032. What does this have to do with him?"
After saying that, Old Master Qin seemed to remember something else: "Qin Shao did fight with your son Andre when he was in school, but you can't take the squabbles between teenagers seriously. You wouldn't be suspecting my grandson, would you?"
Edmund did suspect that Qin Shao had found the fighter jet's black box and learned that Griffith's death was framed by Andrei, so he had returned to seek revenge.
But he couldn't tell Old Master Qin about this before the matter was investigated thoroughly.
Otherwise, if Old Master Qin knew the truth, he might come after the Thorne family. If the two families joined forces to deal with him, the Winston family would not be able to withstand being attacked from both sides.
Seeing that Edmund remained silent, Old Master Qin became furious. He slammed his fist on the table and stood up, saying sternly, "My grandson is not that kind of person! He was punished for accidentally killing Griffith back then, and he can't even go home. You can't throw all sorts of accusations at him just because he made one mistake! I swear, Qin Shao is definitely not someone who kills innocent people indiscriminately!"
Seeing how confidently Old Master Qin spoke, Edmund had a moment of self-doubt.
Could it be that he was really wrong?
Qin Shao did not find the black box, and the Qin family still does not know the real cause of Griffith Thorne's death.
The Qin family has no connection to Andrei's disappearance?
Thinking of the dismantled N613, Edmund felt increasingly that he might have guessed wrong.
"I will investigate this matter thoroughly. If it is a misunderstanding, I will come back and apologize to you."
Edmund retained his doubts, left those words behind, and turned to leave the military and political office.
After he left, Old Master Qin rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache.
Qin Shao ultimately made his move against Andrei.
With Andrei's death, regardless of whether the investigation ultimately leads to Qin Shao, the balance of power among the three major families will inevitably be disrupted.
He had a premonition that Qin Shao would not stop there.
The situation in A001 is about to change.
On the other side, the slums.
In a small room of less than 20 square meters, there was a bunk bed. Yan Zhen and Haier sat on a dilapidated chair, discussing how to extract the contents of the black box and "reveal" them to the Winston family.
Haier's hands flew across the floating screen as he extracted the recording from the black box, not forgetting to correct Yan Zhen: "Sister, you've got it wrong, shouldn't the recording be sent to the Thorne family?"
The person who died was Griffith Thorne, so why was the recording sent to the Winston family, who were the murderers?
“No mistake, it’s sent to the Winston family,” Yan Zhen said.
Haier asked, "Why?"
Qin Shao, who had just returned from buying food, pushed open the door and came in. Hearing Haier's words, he explained, "If the Winston family receives the recording, they will suspect that the Thorne family already knows the truth about Griffith's murder, so they secretly killed Andre to avenge him. In this way, Winston's attention will be directed at Thorne."