146 Stand in a Sinking Ship

"You mean… Are you implying that I should abandon them, Mo? I…" Tang Lingyun stuttered as she looked at her husband in disbelief.

"Then what are you going to do Lingyun? The Tang family is done for. I am sure someone will reach out to you soon to audit your accounts too. Do you want to go down with them?" Qin Mo calmly asked, his gaze was still on the view outside the window.

"I…"

"I am not saying that you should abandon them. Rather, you should issue a statement that you are estranged from your Tang family and also condemn their wrongdoings. This is for show to the public. You can still keep in contact with them in secret," Qin Mo suggested.

For Qin Mo, the value of an individual was based on what he or she could offer him. He naturally values those who could give him more. He didn't want his wife to turn useless just because the Tang family had fallen from glory. He wanted his wife to continue standing tall, with her chin up.

"Mo… How can you think like this? When Qin Industries was not doing well, the Tang family gave us the much needed funds to keep us afloat. Now that you have managed to obtain a loan from somewhere else, you are just going to abandon them like this?" she uttered, her eyes wide.

Tang Lingyun had always known that her husband was someone who values benefits over relations. She had seen how Qin Mo had abandoned his friends and even family members once they have served their purpose. But Tang Lingyun never thought that this would happen to her one day.

During the last five years when the Qin Industries suffered losses, the Xuan and Tang family had generously lend them money to help stabilize the company. The funds they had contributed to Qin Industries over the years was an extravagant amount! However, now that the Tang family was in need, Qin Mo didn't even think about reciprocating the goodwill. It hadn't even been a month since trouble broke out in the Tang family and yet Qin Mo had already decided to give up on the Tang family.

How could he be this heartless?

What Tang Lingyun did not realize was that Qin Mo had always been this heartless. Even though Qin Mo was smitten by Bec Facci and had even impregnated her, he still went ahead to marry Tang Lingyun. Why? Not because he loved the latter but because of practical reasons. Between Bec Facci who came from an unknown background and Tang Lingyun who had the backing of her influential Tang family, the choice was obvious to Qin Mo.

During the course of their marriage, although Qin Mo never cheated on Tang Lingyun, the former never developed any true love for her. Qin Mo respected Tang Lingyun and her family, but he never thought of working on their relationship. To Qin Mo, his marriage was nothing but a business alliance.

But if Tang Lingyun was honest with herself, she should have seen the signs of a loveless marriage.

"So are you choosing to stand in a sinking ship?" Qin Mo looked at her, the look in his eyes was unfathomable.

"I know that the Tang Family had helped us a lot in the past but we can't associate ourselves with them anymore and risk being implicated by them. Do you want to join them in prison? Cut your ties with them right now. Tell the media you were not aware of the Tang family's crimes because you were studying abroad for many years before you came back to Hong Kong. And then you married me shortly after you came back and had very little interactions with them after that." He stared at her intently. "The Tang family is no more. I'm sure you know that."

A single tear made its way to Tang Lingyun's cheeks as she nodded. Her husband's words were true. Would she let herself sink with the whole Tang family? This question had been bothering her for days now. Inwardly, Tang Lingyun already knew her answer but she still found it hard to deal with it all.

….

After Interpol successfully raided the Tang family, other people whom the Tang family offended also came out to file cases against them. Many of their friends turned against them and kicked them while they are down.

'Who are the Tangs? Their family only became a part of the socialite circle because of illegal means.' Of course, the people who condemned the Tang family merely wanted to use this opportunity to show off their 'righteousness.'

"The hypocrisy of these people would be their downfall one day," Lily noted while reading the news. Two weeks have already passed since the arrest of Tang Wei Dong and Tang Jian and the news about them had dwindled a little. However, some online news platforms were still covering the issue and were publishing new stories everyday.

Lily then put the tablet down and looked at her husband who was taking his time to drink his coffee.

It was a Monday morning and Zhuo Jingren was not rushing for work. His reason?

'Honeymoon.'

These past few days, Zhuo Jingren had been neglecting his work and even cancelled some important travels because he wanted to spend more time with his wife. He reasoned that they were still in the honeymoon phase and needed to spend more time together. This made Lily wonder if the man was planning to spend a whole year in this 'honeymoon phase' that he was talking about.

"These people are just trying to elevate themselves and the Tang family became a convenient stepping stone," he answered before switching the topic. "There is a charity event tomorrow that I want you to attend with me. I have already prepared some gowns for you. Also, I heard that your office is almost ready? When will you have the opening ceremony for the Facci Group's new head office?"

"At the end of the month," she answered. "Is this charity the one originally organized by Mu Qingling?"

In response, Zhuo Jingren nodded. "This is the one organized by the Mu family."

Seeing that Lily had turned silent, Zhuo Jingren lifted his head to look at her. "You don't have to worry about seeing Mu Qingling at the event because she had left the country and is currently taking dance classes in Germany. I had someone to follow her around to make sure that she won't do anything stupid."

"Hmmm." Lily nodded. To be honest, she was not fond of killing her enemies. She would rather have them suffer for life. Killing them and thereby putting an end to their misery would be too merciful and convenient.

…

In the meantime, Qin Fei and Tang Lingyun were confined at home. Both Qin Mo and the Xuan family did not want to be involved in the Tang family's sticky situation. However, would Lily allow them to stand in the shadows?

After the news about the Tang family gradually died down, one netizen went to post a photo of Tang Lingyun, Qin Fei and Tang Wei Dong together. This netizen then made an assumption saying that these three people in the photo were probably related to each other. Since Qin Fei and Tang Lingyun were from the entertainment industry, people instantly recognized them from the photo.

The netizens unleashed another wave of trash talk, as they vehemently condemned the Tang family. However, this time, the Xuan Family and the Qin Family were also included in their bashing. Eventually, even the Yang family was included.

"I thought we have already taken measures to filter the news? I paid you to monitor posts like this, to make sure that they won't get picked up by social media. So what exactly happened here? What went wrong?" Xuan Hui was furious. His eyes were coldly looking at the group of people from his company's IT department.

When news of the Tang family's involvement in illegal matters broke out, Xuan Hui immediately instructed his staff to monitor social media and news platforms to look out for any mention of Qin Fei's name together with the Tang family. If any were found, they had to censor Qin Fei's name or take down the posts entirely. Xuan Hui wanted to protect Qin Fei. To Xuan Hui's relief, there was no mention of Qin Fei anywhere.

However, just when they thought that the issue had died down, someone released a photo of Qin Fei together with her mother and cousin, Tang Wei Dong having dinner and enjoying a conversation.

…

Editor: Swaning