The twins, usually successful in their tricks, suddenly found their tactics failing today. They grew tense, their nervous body language betraying their unease.

Yu Mingxi noticed everything, his gaze cold as he continued, “Let’s go, time to check the surveillance footage.”

“No, we’re not going!” The twins panicked and tried to flee, but Gao Zhou and Yu Yingze blocked their way, each standing firmly on one side.

“Let’s check the footage. If we’ve wronged you, we’ll apologize,” Yu Mingxi added calmly, but the implication was clear.

If they were wrong… what then?

The sentence, left unfinished, only heightened the twins’ anxiety. Their hands gripped the edges of their shirts, and their entire bodies trembled slightly, beads of sweat forming on their foreheads.

Standing close to them, Gao Zhou noticed something odd. Their reaction seemed too extreme for the situation, far beyond what you’d expect from normal fear in kids their age.

Sweat poured down their faces, their bodies shook, and their eyes were wide with fear—almost as if they thought Yu Mingxi and Gao Zhou might actually hurt them.

“If you’re afraid we won’t keep our word, you can call your parents to be witnesses,” Yu Mingxi said firmly, each word amplifying the twins’ terror.

“No… you can’t!” one of the twins shrieked, crouching down, trembling uncontrollably. “You can’t call Father, you can’t!”

The other twin wasn’t faring much better, his eyes red, bloodshot, as if he were reliving some kind of nightmare.

“We don’t need to check the footage, but you have to tell the truth.” Yu Mingxi, now confident of his deduction, didn’t press for an immediate answer. He gave them time to calm down.

About five minutes passed before the two boys finally began to settle down. Stammering, one of them admitted, “We… we were just playing with the cat, tying it up with a rope. Then she… she came. We thought she wanted to play too, so we invited her…”

Little Yu Yuanyuan, who had been quietly listening from behind, couldn’t hold back any longer. She rushed forward to protest, “But you tied up Da Hua’s neck! Dragging him like that hurts!!!”

Yu Yuanyuan, however, didn’t mention how she herself had also been dragged.

“It’s just a stray cat,” one of the twins responded with a frown. “What does it matter to you?”

“It… it does matter to me!” Yu Yuanyuan, frustrated, stammered angrily. “Da… Da Hua is our cat!”

“Really?” the twins asked, surprised. “It’s your pet?”

“Yes!” Yu Yuanyuan replied, her eyes wide and blinking rapidly—an obvious tell she wasn’t being entirely truthful.

Luckily, the twins didn’t pick up on this nervous tic. Instead, they exchanged a glance and, without a trace of remorse, muttered, “Fine, sorry.”

“Good, now let’s settle another matter.”

Just as the twins turned to leave, Yu Mingxi’s voice stopped them in their tracks.

“What now?” they asked impatiently.

Yu Mingxi’s expression remained icy, no hint of a smile on his face. “You dragged my sister. Don’t you think you owe her an apology too, and something more?”

“F-fine, sorry,” one twin grumbled, clearly unwilling, as he squeezed out an insincere apology.

But it was obvious their words lacked any true remorse.

“An apology is one thing, but there’s something else you need to handle,” Yu Mingxi said as he started walking toward the villa. “This isn’t over yet. You two are coming with me.”

It wasn’t a suggestion or request—it was a command.