Chapter 321 - To Retreat is to Advance

“Let’s hand her to the court and have the law judge her,” Yun Xiangxiang answered thoughtfully. “How will she be punished for committing the crimes of kidnapping and human trafficking?”

Song Mian gazed at Yun Xiangxiang quietly for a while. “If you want to, I can have her stay there for life.”

Yun Xiangxiang shook her head. “Don’t let her escape what should be her punishment, but don’t punish her for what she didn’t do.”

She wasn’t someone who would do anything to destroy the people she hated, nor would she break her principles for someone unworthy.

Abiding by the law was her principle as a human; even when she almost blacked out from starvation in her past life, she had never stolen a single rice grain.

If she couldn’t survive without breaking her code, then that meant she was useless. She wouldn’t blame anyone for that.

Once someone broke their code once, there would be a second time and a third time... Eventually, there would be no end to it.

“Alright, I’ll talk with Eric about your choice. I won’t have the Cardicra Family lessen her punishment.” Song Mian sighed.

Yun Xiangxiang asked softly when she heard his sigh, “Do you think I’m too kind?”

“No, you think things too thoroughly; you’re too smart...” Song Mian felt sad for her.

Yun Xiangxiang smiled and changed to a more comfortable position to lay in his embrace. “As long as you understand me.”

She didn’t suffer any real harm, so she could remain calm and make the best judgment.

A family like Cardicra was no longer just an enormous business empire. It contributed a significant chunk of production and development for the nation.

Would France allow it to die just like this? The answer was a resounding no, so Yun Xiangxiang didn’t want to make this personal grudge into a national one.

Eric was a sensible person. If Yun Xiangxiang was harmed, Eric could tolerate Yun Xiangxiang’s revenge, even if it was severe.

But now that she wasn’t harmed, she didn’t have to make a nemesis out of an existence that couldn’t be destroyed.

If she let Faye taste her own medicine, or if she killed Faye, she would make an enemy out of the Cardicra Family.

From then, she would have to always be on her guard whenever she went to a European country, for fear of the Cardicra’s Family’s revenge.

The cycle of revenge would never end. But since she wasn’t harmed, Yun Xiangxiang wanted to live a free life.

So she didn’t mind being magnanimous, but magnanimity didn’t mean letting her go; it just meant not adding to the punishment Faye should receive.

Yun Xiangxiang did this so that Eric wouldn’t have any grounds to protect Faye or give her any resources and connections to get her out of this.

She finally got rid of a significant threat. After this incident, Yun Xiangxiang understood that only by cutting off Faye’s wings could she regain peace.

Faye wanted to kill her out of impulse. Yun Xiangxiang heard Li Xiangling mention about what happened this time when the latter was revising the law.

International law sentenced human traffickers to at least ten years in jail.

Yun Xiangxiang took a step back here. With the Song Family monitoring them, no matter how much the Cardicra Family wanted Faye to get out earlier, they wouldn’t dare to make a move to do so.

Yun Xiangxiang seemed generous, but she took two steps forward by taking one step back.

It was almost nine in the evening when she returned to Qi Jun’s winery. Yun Xiangxiang was a little hungry. “I bought a lot of stuff; make dinner for me.”

The only way to shoo away Song Mian’s hostility was getting him something to do to exhaust him.

“I was wondering why you were taking so long, so you went to fetch your boyfriend?” Song Meng didn’t know what Yun Xiangxiang went through yet. When she saw her coming back with Song Mian, she even teased them.

“Yeah, I’m trying to irritate you. So, feeling annoyed yet?” Yun Xiangxiang breamed.

Song Meng snorted before she turned around and left, leaving Li Xiangling and Yun Xiangxiang alone.

Li Xiangling put down her book. “You wouldn’t have gone shopping if you were picking him up.”

“I got into a little accident, but I’m fine.” Yun Xiangxiang didn’t tell Li Xiangling what happened, but she didn’t want to lie either, so she could only make a vague statement.

Li Xiangling looked at her for a while. When she confirmed her friend was fine, she didn’t pry further.

When Yun Xiangxiang came out from the bathroom and changed her clothes, she saw Ai Li and Song Qian sitting there. Yun Xiangxiang went to sit between them, “Nobody’s blaming herself for what happened today. It’s not that we let our guard down; it’s that she had planned this for a while.”

They couldn’t expect anyone to conspire against her. Besides, Faye wasn’t a stupid; the first two failures were due to her underestimating Yun Xiangxiang.

It wasn’t until Yun Xiangxiang made the voice recording and sought out Eric that Faye realized that Yun Xiangxiang wasn’t just smart; she was scheming.

After they returned, Song Mian had someone keep an eye on Faye to make sure she wouldn’t do anything before they left France.

Yun Xiangxiang wouldn’t be this relaxed otherwise. Faye knew Song Mian had his men keep an eye on her, and she managed to make them show themselves without the men knowing.

She even managed to trick the men and found out Yun Xiangxiang’s number. That was terrifying.

He Wei knocked on the door, and Yun Xiangxiang invited him in. “Okay, okay, let’s talk about the effort Faye put in. I want to see if we let our guard down, or if this plan was too elaborate.”

Yun Xiangxiang felt a need to make this clear, or else the three of them wouldn’t stop blaming themselves.

She asked He Wei first, “Brother Wei, why did you spend so much time in S.Q?”

He Wei looked at Song Qian and Ai Li. “All of S.Q’s promo pictures of you were slashed into ribbons. They were worried someone might be targeting you, so they called me over. We called the cops and arrested some suspects.

Yun Xiangxiang nodded. He Wei did what he was supposed to do. He had to interrogate these suspects to get rid of the potential danger.

He wouldn’t have thought that this was just a distraction tactic since he knew Ai Li and Song Qian were here.

“Ai Li...” Yun Xiangxiang paused and then changed her target. “Qian...”

“My best friend...” Ai Li spoke before Yun Xiangxiang could skip past her. “She suddenly lost both of her arms.”

When Ai Li saw her friend, incredulity welled up in her eyes. Someone who used to be so confident became a shadow of her former self. Ai Li desperately wanted to know what happened to her friend and were the others...

“I am to blame. I abandoned my duty during working hours for personal reasons.” Ai Li felt guilty.

“You are a human, not a robot. If people like you retire from the organization, there’s no way you can contact them anymore, right?” Yun Xiangxiang could understand how Ai Li felt.

If Ai Li could contact her friends, she would know what happened.

If she missed them this time, it would be nigh impossible to see her friends again in this sea of people.

“When I was training, my master did always say that I’m a failure.” Ai Li was dejected.

Yun Xiangxiang put her hand on Ai Li’s shoulder. “You didn’t go off on your own; I gave you permission to do so.”