**Chapter 15: This Really Opened My Eyes!**
"Hey, brother, calm down. Calm down."
The two bodyguards raised their hands in unison. The one on the left spoke.
"It's not that we're intentionally blocking you. Young Miss Adele is truly unavailable to see you right now."
"What, is she showering?"
"Uh, no, she's not."
"Then is she sleeping?"
"No, she's not."
"Then is she meeting some important guest?"
"This, this... it doesn't really count..."
"Then what is it? You two stop being so evasive and open the door for me."
Zhou Ming raised his gun, threatening impolitely.
"Alright, since you insist."
The bodyguard on the right shrugged, pulled a room card from his pocket, and handed it over.
"Thanks."
Zhou Ming took the room card, swiped it on the door, and the door opened.
Then, Zhou Ming saw a scene that made his pupils quake.
*Bang.*
Zhou Ming closed the door again, turning his head with a strange expression to look at the two bodyguards who had gotten up from the floor.
"Those two just now... were they your colleagues?"
Zhou Ming remembered the first time he saw Adele, she had four bodyguards—two black and two white.
The two bodyguards nodded.
"So you two also... with her..."
The two bodyguards exchanged glances, both showing a lewd smile and giving Zhou Ming a look that all men would understand, then nodded again.
Thirty minutes later.
Adele, wrapped in a bath towel, sat on the sofa, with her four neatly dressed bodyguards lined up behind her—two black and two white, a perfect match.
"Mr. Zhang, do you not consider the occasion when you do things?"
Adele wiped her hair with a towel, her tone displeased.
"Uh, how about I leave first? I can come back after you're done," Zhou Ming said with an awkward smile.
"No need. Let's get straight to business, and I hope you can truly discuss 'business' with me."
Adele said, still wiping her hair with the towel, her skin flushed and huffing with qi.
"Of course." Zhou Ming smiled. "I'd like to ask Young Miss Adele, who do you think is most likely to have hired someone to kill you? Or who stands to gain the most from your death?"
"You came here just to ask me this?" Adele shook her head. "I've thought about this question many times, but I haven't found an answer."
"Many people like me, and quite a few dislike me. I can't think of anyone who would hate me enough to hire a killer, nor can I think of what interests would be involved if I were killed."
"Although my family is wealthy, my father is still hale and hearty, and I have an elder brother who has been groomed as his successor since childhood."
"Even if I were killed now, it would at most only sadden my family, and would not significantly impact my family's business and wealth."
"Mr. Zhang, do you have anything else you'd like to ask?"
Zhou Ming nodded and asked, "Young Miss Adele, I remember you have an uncle, right?"
"That's right. He's my father's younger brother, but thirteen years younger than my father."
Adele answered truthfully, her tone tinged with a hint of anger. "You suspect my uncle? Impossible. He watched me grow up, and even you were recommended to me by my uncle. How could he hire a killer to kill me?"
A faint smile appeared on Zhou Ming's lips, and he said with a surprised expression, "Young Miss Adele, I merely asked about your uncle, and didn't say we suspected him. Your reaction seems a bit over the top, doesn't it?"
Adele was startled.
Zhou Ming's smile grew, and he continued, "The tone of your voice just now made me feel as if you suspected your uncle all along, but were simply avoiding that answer in your heart. That's why you're so sensitive about it—anyone who even mentions it is met with your rebuttal."
"Do you think what I said makes sense?"
Adele remained silent.
Zhou Ming said unhurriedly, "So, can we have a proper talk now?"
As he spoke, his gaze swept over the four bodyguards.
"Edmund, Cavill, you two go out first."
Adele understood and said directly.
The four bodyguards were quite obedient. Without the slightest hesitation regarding Adele's command, not even a word of dissuasion, they walked straight out, closing the door of the presidential suite behind them.
When only two people remained in the room, Adele seemed to relax considerably, and then did something that took Zhou Ming by surprise.
She slowly untied her bath towel, tossed it onto the sofa beside her, stretched her arms back on the sofa's backrest, licked her flushed lips, and looked at Zhou Ming with seductive provocation.
"I like to be frank with people, and I hope you can be frank with me too."
Facing the boundless allure, Zhou Ming's expression remained unchanged. "No, I carry too many secrets, and I probably won't be able to be frank with anyone in this life. So let's talk about your uncle instead."
"Heh heh, is that so?" Adele's gaze swept over Zhou Ming's body.
"But it can't control what's up here." Zhou Ming tapped his own head.
"Boring." Adele carefully observed Zhou Ming's expression and reactions, finding his demeanor not feigned, and was immediately greatly disappointed.
She crossed her legs, one over the other, drew her arms back, leaned her upper body forward, rested her right elbow on her thigh, and cupped her chin with her hand, obscuring her chest.
This half-concealed gesture, in contrast, was even more captivating and alluring than her previous bold posture.
She reached for the cigarette on the table, and seeing that Zhou Ming had no intention of lighting it for her, she lit the slender lady's cigarette herself and took a deep puff.
"You truly are an ungentlemanly man."
Exhaling a puff of smoke, Adele said with a mix of pique and a smile.
"This is a matter of status, not my problem. In a different status, I would let you know what a true gentleman is."
Zhou Ming smiled indifferently.
"So, can we officially get to the main topic now?"
Adele took another deep puff of her cigarette, slowly exhaled the white smoke, and then finally spoke.
"This is a very difficult thing to talk about, and perhaps you'll find it unbelievable when you hear it. You'll wonder why I'm telling someone like you, with whom I've barely exchanged a few words. Don't ask—I don't know the answer either. I just saw you and wanted to tell you this."
"But you don't need to worry that I'm lying to you or have ulterior motives. Just consider it me finally unable to hold in this secret, letting out the emotions that have been building up inside me. You just happened to become the listener, because this is a scandal that involves my family's reputation."
Adele's calm words, however, revealed a secret that could almost make one jump in surprise.
"A few months ago, I accidentally saw their secret relationship. To be honest, I was truly stunned at the time, completely unprepared for it."
"I later wished countless times that I hadn't known about this, but those impactful images, like the most stubborn computer virus, lingered in my mind."
"I'm also not sure if they saw me that day, because they showed no abnormality afterward."
"But I still often recall this matter, constantly reminding me of that twisted, sickening truth."
Amidst the faint swirling smoke, Adele recounted her story. The half-smoked cigarette gradually burned out, leaving a long ash, precarious and dangling from the cigarette butt held between Adele's slender fingers.
After hearing the story, Zhou Ming had a belly full of complaints he couldn't hold back. Yet looking at Adele, whose face was etched with a faint sadness, he ultimately swallowed all the words that came to his lips.
He only asked one question: "What do you think would be the impact on your family if this matter were exposed?"
"Impact?" Adele smiled bitterly. "Heh heh, the impact would certainly be huge."
"Family honor would be damaged, family prestige would plummet, countless people would mock us, and our competitors would certainly not miss this golden opportunity to widely report it, wishing that everyone in the world knew about this scandal."
"Father would be furious, and brother... he would never want to see father angry."
"If your father knew about this, would he revoke your brother's inheritance?" Zhou Ming asked a pointed question.
Adele didn't answer, but her downcast expression had already given Zhou Ming the answer.
"So you actually had the answer in your heart from the very beginning, didn't you?" Zhou Ming asked softly.
Silence, still silence.
Zhou Ming smiled, also crossing his legs, and said unhurriedly, "Young Miss Adele, you're quite good at self-deception. Do you think that by pretending not to know anything, everything can be treated as if it never happened?"
"Shut up." Adele's face was filled with anger.
Zhou Ming didn't intend to let her off and continued to speak to himself, "What are your plans? Let nature take its course? Give up on yourself? Is your promiscuity your final self-indulgence?"
"Stop talking." Adele was agitated, angrily throwing the nearly extinguished cigarette butt in her hand at Zhou Ming.
"Have you ever considered that your father might actually already know about this?"
Zhou Ming flicked his finger, sending the flying cigarette butt into the ashtray on the table. His understated remark, however, left Adele stunned on the spot.
"You... what are you saying?"
"I'm saying, is there a possibility that your father knows about this—no, rather, that he is the culprit behind all of this?"
"A little rookie will one day grow into a great god, right?"
"Sleep. You'll have everything in your dreams."