Lazily Yours.

"That man needed to— " The mayor paused when he realized that he could no longer threaten Shen Qui because right now, the Long Family are already aware that they were here. "Call someone from the Long family. Tell them I want to make a deal. I will ruin that Shen Qui for them!" However, his thoughts soon changed when he remembered how Jessica wanted to have that man for herself. 

"Tell me everything about Lyca." He added.

"Lyca Huang is— is— she is the daughter of Huang Sheng Hong and Tang Nini from the Tang Family. She is…" Slowly the secretary read all the information that they acquired about Lyca. "She disappeared three years ago and just arrived. They were hiding from the Long Family but they suddenly decided to show their selves in front of Long Yi, the heir of the Long Family."

"Then call someone from the Long Family! If that woman disappears from Shen Qui's side then it might help Jessica." It might even heal his daughter from this disease!

Sadly, Long Yi and the Long Family wasn't doing any better than the mayor. After realizing what Lyca did to fool them, Patriarch Long had an emergency meeting with his subordinates. This made the Mayor more furious. How could the Long Family not agree to his requests for a meeting?

Since the mayor was not aware of the incident in the Long Company, he immediately concluded that Shen Qui might have done something to make the Long Family avoid him.

...

Long Family Mansion. 4 am- A few hours after the explosion.

"If she was in Kong City then we should go and confront her! What are we scared of? She already caused this much damage to us!" Huang Ying was fuming. The thought of Lyca being in this country again was enough to make her blood boil in anger. How could she forget all the things that Lyca did to her son? 

Right now, Zhang Zhi's legs were useless. Moreover, the doctor said that he won't be able to have his own children because of his disability that also damaged his reproductive system. Because of this, he lost his fiance and had been in a very bad mood all the time. 

Huang Ying could only watch as her son drink himself to sleep and suffered because of Lyca. "How long has it been? Three years? Three years of her, still walking around while my son." She gritted her teeth, her face turned scarlet, her hands balled into tight fists. "I will definitely kill that woman!"

"Can you?" Huang Xiaoxuan's father, Huang Li Duo said. "Since she is back, then it means she has plans. You dared to betray her before and now you were fuming because she retaliated? Are you this stupid? Did you expect her to hide forever?"

"You— "

"Enough!" Patriarch Long's voice interrupted Huang Ying's words. "We shouldn't fight against each other. We have a common enemy and that is Lyca Huang. She is someone from your family, an entity that hasn't bothered us for the last three years. Now, that she is back, we should all work together to defeat her. She is still nothing. She might be a poisonous little snake but she was still a small snake. We could defeat her as long as we work together." A sinister glint flashed in the patriarch's eyes. He already knew that Huang Ying's emotions towards Lyca were very complicated.

And he was planning to use this to make the Huang Family fight each other. Moreover, Huang Ying could always ask her husband who is from the Zhang Family to help her. If that happens, then Patriarch Long could just focus on rebuilding his company for the upcoming competition. 

He needed to win this competition and bring more profits to his company. This was the only reason why he wanted to manipulate these people to help him ruin Lyca.

"How?" Huang Ying immediately asked. She couldn't stop herself. She had watched her son suffer and her husband staying farther and farther away from her because of what happened back then. She felt that her whole life had been ruin because of what Lyca did. 

That woman needed to die.

"I would never live while that woman is still alive." Huang Ying hissed. "Tell me what you are planning to do!" she demanded. She couldn't wait to torture that woman, skin her alive, and feed her flesh to the dogs!

After the patriarch told them about his plans, he immediately told them that he needed time to rest. He sent them out while leaving the smart Huang Qingyun behind. To the Patriarch, the only smart one aside from Huang Sheng Hong was the youngest Huang Qingyun.

The man doesn't involve himself in any business aside from something that would benefit himself. A truly selfish man that wouldn't hesitate to betray his father for his own benefits.

"I already told you. I can't keep on fighting against Lyca. She is smarter and stronger than I originally anticipated. Trying to kill her was like slitting one's own throat. Huang Ying was fool enough to believe you because she was quite emotional. Huang Sheng Hong might agree with you because of Huang Xiaoxuan. Tsk. That man dotes of his daughter too much, he was only digging his own grave." Huang Qingyun said as he poured himself some whiskey from Patriarch Long's bar. Then he walked towards the Patriarch and sat opposite him. 

"I have a proposal." The Patriarch uttered.

"Would it benefit me?"

"It will." Patriarch Long smiled. "I want you to convince Huang Ying and the whole Zhang Family to fight against Lyca. I have heard that Shen Qui actually owned a security company that turned into a company that investigates everything. I have a hunch that Lyca was planning to join the security competition in the Spring. I can't let that happen." The Patriarch calmly said as he eyed his silent son that was sitting next to him. Patriarch Long couldn't help but wonder if Long Yi understood his point.

"There is no way of knowing who past the preliminaries?"

The Patriarch shook his head. "No. It was private. No matter how much I tried to ask my contacts about it, they won't give it to me." He took a sip of his own whiskey and crossed his leg over the other. "I want to weaken Lyca. I want the Zhang family and Lyca to fight while I watch."

"So… you are planning to weaken both the Zhang Family and Lyca Huang?" Huang Qingyun snorted. As expected, Patriarch Huang was really treacherous. The Zhang Family had been his family's supporters since he started this crusade against the Huang Family. However, now that he finally got what he wanted, he wanted to weaken them so they won't become a threat to him. What a cruel human.

"You are smarter than I thought?" Surprised flashed on the patriarch's face before he laughed. "The Zhang Family was not particularly strong. They weren't composed of smart people either. However, they have been steadily growing because of my family. Their businesses and net worth have improved. They needed to take a small break."

"How small is small?" Huang Qingyun asked.

"A billion dollars of damages. That small." Patriarch Long is someone who would always prioritize his own family above the others. While he was close with the Zhang's he felt that those people would immediately betray him once they knew that he had been having a lot of problems lately. He always knew that the Zhang's were the people that would immediately abandon a sinking ship to save themselves.

So, before those people could do something against him, he decided to use them to the fullest first. He was sure that Lyca would never go down without a nasty fight. Meaning, the woman would definitely retaliate once the Zhang's would try and provoke her.

Now, everyone knew that engaging in a clan war would be very costly. 

Once the Zhangs and Lyca would fight against each other, Patriarch Long was planning to watch on the sidelines, pretending to help the Zhang's while secretly killing their people and weakening them. Once they were already weak, the Zhang's would then continue to rely on the Long Family and would never betray him.

Call him cruel.

But he would never value such friendships built over gold coins and dead bodies.

"I think you are thinking too much about Lyca." Huang Qingyun said. "Did you really think she would be able to fight against the Zhang's?"

"Don't underestimate her." Patriarch Long uttered. "That was my first mistake. She won't be able to fight their armies, but she had poison and her peculiar methods. She could easily take advantage of her talent and attack them."

"So, what happens if she killed everyone on the Zhang Family?"

"That would exhaust her." Patriarch Long said. "Once that happens, we create a trap and sneak attack once she wasn't ready." He said, without even considering that Lyca had another ace by her side. Everyone was too focused on her that they completely forgot her husband.

Shen Qui.

And that would be the Patriarch's second mistake.