A system that should have been impossible to access without authorization.

Which meant the threat was no longer outside the family.

It was somewhere inside the structure protecting it.

Lu Shaohan pulled out his phone slowly, but before dialing he remained still for a moment, his thoughts aligning into something increasingly disturbing.

The women had not appeared to create scandal alone.

Scandal was temporary.

What they carried was not.

They carried proof.

Living proof.

And that made the situation far more dangerous than rumor or accusation ever could have been.

Old Master Lu studied him carefully. "What are you thinking?"

Lu Shaohan lifted his eyes slowly.

"That whoever planned this did not just want entry into the Lu family," he said. "They wanted influence over succession."

The room fell silent again.

Because in families like theirs, inheritance was never emotional. It was structural. Power moved through bloodlines. Control moved through heirs.

And suddenly the arrival of three pregnant women from influential families no longer looked accidental or opportunistic.

It looked strategic.

Old Master Lu’s expression darkened further.

"Someone has been preparing this for months," he said quietly.

Lu Shaohan lowered his gaze briefly to the phone in his hand.

"And they chose this moment to reveal it."

Not earlier.

Not later.

Now.

Immediately after instability had entered the Lu Residence.

Which meant whoever stood behind it had not only been watching the family closely. They had been waiting for the exact moment when the damage would spread furthest.

And somewhere else inside the residence, Su Wan still believed she had only stepped into danger, unaware that she had already walked directly into the center of something much larger than herself.

Lu Shaohan stood near the window for several moments after unlocking his phone, yet he did not make the call at once. His gaze remained fixed on the muted reflection staring back at him through the glass, his thoughts still moving through the implications one by one.

Three women. Pregnant. Connected families. All arriving at the Lu Residence on the same morning. Nothing about it resembled coincidence anymore.

Behind him, Old Master Lu remained seated. The stillness in his posture carried more tension than movement would have. His fingers rested lightly against the armrest, but his attention never shifted from Lu Shaohan.

Finally, Lu Shaohan selected a number from memory and lifted the phone to his ear.

The line connected quickly.

"President Lu."

The voice on the other end carried immediate alertness.

Lu Shaohan did not waste time on formalities. "I want the director of the biological storage division."

A slight pause followed.

"Yes, President Lu. One moment."

The line muted briefly.

The silence inside the study deepened during the wait. Neither man spoke. The only sound came from the faint ticking of the antique clock mounted against the far wall, steady and indifferent.

Then another voice entered the call.

"President Lu." The tone was cautious now—respectful, yet uncertain. "This is Director Han."

Lu Shaohan’s expression did not change. "I have a question," he said calmly, "and I want the truth before I decide whether this remains an internal discussion."

The hesitation on the other end was immediate. "Of course, President Lu."

Lu Shaohan’s gaze lowered slightly. "How many people have had access to my stored biological samples over the past year?"

Silence followed. Not a technological delay but human hesitation.

Director Han answered carefully. "The facility follows strict authorization protocols. Access is heavily restricted."

"That was not my question."

The calmness in Lu Shaohan’s voice made the atmosphere inside the study colder.

Another pause followed before Director Han spoke again. "Direct access is limited to senior laboratory personnel and approved medical supervisors."

"How many?"

"...Seven."

Lu Shaohan’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Names."

The sound of paper shifting came faintly through the phone. Director Han began listing them one by one. Lu Shaohan listened without interruption, his expression unreadable.

When the final name was spoken, he asked quietly, "Were there any irregularities?"

The silence this time lasted longer. Old Master Lu’s gaze sharpened at once.

Director Han finally answered, though far less steadily now. "There was... a procedural concern several months ago."

Several months. The timing aligned too cleanly.

Lu Shaohan’s voice remained level. "Explain."

"We discovered inconsistencies during a routine inventory review."

"What inconsistencies?"

Director Han inhaled softly before responding. "A small number of stored samples had been removed from secured cryogenic storage and later returned."

The room seemed to still completely.

The samples had not been misplaced or damaged. They had been deliberately removed and then returned to storage.

Lu Shaohan’s grip on the phone tightened slightly. "Returned?"

"Yes, President Lu."

Old Master Lu’s expression darkened immediately.

"Under whose authorization?" Lu Shaohan asked.

"That is where the issue became complicated," Director Han admitted carefully. "The access credentials used belonged to an authorized supervising physician."

"And?"

"The physician denied conducting the retrieval."

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Lu Shaohan spoke again, slower now. "You’re telling me someone accessed secured biological storage using legitimate credentials, removed samples, and returned them without triggering an emergency investigation?"

Director Han’s voice dropped further. "At the time, the samples were accounted for after the discrepancy was discovered. There was no indication they had been compromised."

"No indication," Lu Shaohan repeated quietly.

The words did not sound like a question. They sounded dangerous.

Director Han hurried to continue. "The internal review concluded the issue may have resulted from procedural mishandling during laboratory transfer."

Old Master Lu let out a cold, humorless breath from across the room. Even Director Han seemed to hear it through the line, because his voice became more strained.

"President Lu, the facility believed the matter had been contained."

"That was your mistake," Lu Shaohan said.

His voice remained controlled, but the restraint inside it had become far more unsettling than anger would have been.

Director Han fell silent.

Lu Shaohan continued. "I want every surveillance record from that period recovered. Every personnel movement reviewed. Every staff member connected to biological storage isolated and questioned."

"Yes, President Lu."

"And Director Han..."

The man on the other end immediately straightened at the tone. "Yes?"

"If a single document connected to this investigation disappears before I arrive..."

Lu Shaohan paused briefly.

"...you will disappear with it."

The silence afterward was immediate and absolute.

"I understand," Director Han said quickly.

Lu Shaohan ended the call without another word.

The room remained silent after the line disconnected. For several moments neither man spoke.

Then Old Master Lu finally said quietly, "They returned the samples."

Lu Shaohan lowered the phone slowly. "Yes."

"And no one questioned why."

The contempt beneath Old Master Lu’s calmness was unmistakable now. Because that detail changed everything. This had not been reckless theft. The samples had been carefully removed and returned specifically to avoid detection. Whoever orchestrated it had understood the facility’s systems, protocols, and weaknesses well enough to move through them without triggering immediate alarm.

Nothing about it resembled opportunism. Whoever orchestrated it had understood the facility well enough to move through its systems deliberately and without panic.

Lu Shaohan’s gaze darkened further. "They never intended the theft to remain hidden forever," he said quietly.

Old Master Lu looked at him carefully. "No," he agreed. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"They intended to reveal it at the right time."

And suddenly the appearance of the women inside the Lu Residence no longer resembled scandal.

It resembled activation.

A plan prepared months ago finally being set into motion.

The silence inside the study did not ease after the call ended. If anything, it settled more heavily into the room, pressing itself into the spaces between thought and conclusion.

Lu Shaohan remained standing near the window, the phone still in his hand though the screen had already darkened. His reflection stared back faintly through the muted glass, distorted by the pale morning light beyond the curtains. For the first time since the women had entered the residence, the situation no longer felt like a domestic disruption that could be suppressed through authority and containment. It had structure now. Direction. Intent.

Old Master Lu watched him from behind the desk, his expression unchanged, though the stillness around him had grown noticeably colder.

"The facility will not be the only place compromised," he said after a while.

Lu Shaohan lowered the phone slowly onto the desk beside him. "No."

Because breaches like this did not exist in isolation. Someone had not only gained access to biological storage, but had also selected women from influential families, arranged pregnancies months in advance, concealed them successfully, and revealed them at the precise moment instability entered the Lu Residence. That required coordination. Resources. Access to information that should never have been available externally.