"Wha-what?" The other person immediately started cursing, leaving Yin Shuyao stunned.
Li Wu pushed his tongue against his bruised, swollen face, hissing like an angry lion: "Your cousin brought bodyguards, one took down five, not even breaking a sweat. All our brothers got injured. How are you going to compensate us?"
"Impossible!" Yin Shuyao denied instantly without thinking, "I watched her leave my house alone. Maybe you've mistaken her for someone else?"
Li Wu sneered coldly, his voice icy like a venomous snake: "Mistake someone, yes, but not her. There aren't many women more beautiful than Miss Yin by a hundredfold."
"You!" Yin Shuyao was so furious she stared daggers at him.
This wasn't the time to argue over this; she urgently needed to clarify something: "Did you succeed or not?"
"My teeth were nearly knocked out—what do you think?" Just thinking about it burned him up inside. He lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled his words with the smoke, "Let's give you a discount: five hundred thousand, hush money plus medical expenses. One cent less, and I'll tell everyone that Miss Yin sent me to rape her own cousin."
He was short on cash lately, so why not take advantage of the opportunity?
"You're robbing me!" Yin Shuyao's vision darkened, a tightness clogging her chest, her voice dropping, "Li Wu, you'd better keep your mouth shut on this. If it gets out, it won't be good for you either."
Li Wu had dropped out of school early, hustling in all sorts of filthy places, having seen every storm imaginable. How could he be easily threatened? He said indifferently, "I'm just an accomplice, and it was an attempt. At most, I'd be in jail for a while, but Miss Yin's reputation wouldn't be as forgiving."
Yin Shuyao bit her lip in hatred, almost wanting to spit blood.
Li Wu never dared to behave like this before.
She was the eldest daughter of the Yin Family, everyone in Yicheng knew the Yin Family was backed by the Lingyue Group of Beicheng. But now that Ling Yue had fallen, the Shen Family declined, and the Yin Family had lost its support, the company's performance declining day by day, even someone like Li Wu dared to step on her foot.
Yin Shuyao couldn't tolerate it: "Dream on. I won't give you any money."
Five hundred thousand was too much. She was not accustomed to saving money, had been spending lavishly ever since her family ran the company, often buying branded clothes to adorn herself.
"Here's a free piece of news, the man who took your cousin drove a luxury car worth tens of millions. Clearly, he's quite capable. Who knows, maybe someday he'll find out about you." Li Wu fiddled with his lighter nonchalantly, cigarette dangling from his lips, "My mouth has no lock; I tend to talk nonsense when I'm drunk."
The metallic lid of the lighter clicked open and closed with a crisp sound, snapping once, then again, tormenting Yin Shuyao's heart.
Yin Shuyao's heart was full of regret; she shouldn't have trusted a scoundrel like Li Wu so carelessly.
"Send me your bank account, and breathing a word of this outside, I'll never forgive you!"
Leaving a harsh warning, Yin Shuyao didn't want to hear his disgusting voice any longer and hung up with a snap.
Frustrated, she swung her hand, smashing an empty flowerpot on the wooden frame of the balcony.
Yin Shuyao clasped her phone, stepping over the scattered pieces back into the room.
Her thoughts were a tangled mess. She paced back and forth around the sofa, pondering who might have taken Shen Jianian, did she have other acquaintances in Yicheng?
Could it be that Pei Che had returned to the country?
*
Shen Jianian slept for an entire day, and when she woke, it was almost dusk. A few wispy clouds floated in the high, wide sky, and the soon-to-vanish sunset cast a low-saturated grayish-yellow hue.
She slowly turned her head, blinking lightly, startled by a ball of black shadow beside her pillow.
That shadow had a pair of eerie vertical pupils.
"Meowball, when did you sneak up here?" A familiar yet gentle voice came from the door, pretending to scold, "Get down quickly, if the gentleman sees you, you're losing your food."
The black shadow seemed to understand her, jumping off the bed and quickly running out of the room.
Shen Jianian saw clearly—it was a completely black cat, without a speck of other color, only its eyes were bright, matching its name well.
Zhou Rongzhen brought a bowl of steaming porridge to the bedside, delightedly saying, "Miss Shen, you're awake? I was just about to wake you to eat something."
The familiar room layout came into view. Shen Jianian knew she had returned to the place she had stayed the day before, having escaped from those demons.
She closed her eyes, frame after frame of images flashing through her mind.
She was dragged into a secluded corner by the man with a roguish face, the sound of a belt buckle snapping open signaling her imminent entry into hell.
How cruel heaven was to her; she had just escaped from the beastly Qin Zhongtian and now was facing the same situation again.
Tears trickled down, stinging the wound at the corner of her mouth, and suddenly the screech of a car braking echoed in her ears, piercing the air, pulling her back from hell to the world, while the man's hands in front of her were urgently tearing at her sweater.
The hurried actions paused, and the man cursed under his breath.
Shen Jianian opened her eyes in despair yet with hope, and in her blurred vision, a tall, slender black figure approached swiftly, almost blending into the night.
The figure moved quickly, knocking down a few men who tried to stop him effortlessly, yanking away the man bullying her, his long leg kicking the man to the ground, followed by a series of dull thuds as his fists pounded into flesh.
For a moment, Shen Jianian couldn't believe she was truly saved; she thought it was a wonderful illusion born of extreme fear.
She struggled to see the person's face, but her strength couldn't hold, and her body fell heavily.
The fragments in her mind stopped abruptly, and Shen Jianian smelled the fragrance of chicken congee; Zhou Rongzhen had placed the bowl on the bedside table.
Zhou Rongzhen sat by the bed, gently supporting Shen Jianian: "Look at you, in just a few days you've become skin and bones. When you're young, you should take better care of your body."
Shen Jianian felt a warmth in her heart, her eyelashes lowered: "Thank you."
She didn't let this aunt feed her, instead, she held the bowl herself, took a sip of the congee, and asked seemingly unintentionally, "I remember fainting. How did I get here?"
"Last night, sir's driver brought you back," Zhou Rongzhen answered truthfully, "When you got out of the car, sir personally carried you to the room and then called Doctor Xiao for treatment."
Shen Jianian paused her action of scooping congee, doubts arising in her mind.
Wasn't the driver who took her to the Yin Family supposed to have left? How could he coincidentally be there? Could it be that his boss instructed something? How did his boss know she would leave the Yin Family?
"Miss Shen? Miss Shen?" Seeing her lost in thought, Zhou Rongzhen gently called a couple of times, "You should eat the congee while it's hot; it's cold weather, it cools quickly."
Shen Jianian temporarily suppressed her doubts, eating the entire bowl of congee one bite at a time. Zhou Rongzhen, meticulous in her care, promptly took the empty bowl and handed over a napkin.
"I'll get the medicine; take it in half an hour."
Zhou Rongzhen got up and went out, returning shortly with a cup of water in hand and a round tin box covered in vintage oil paintings cradled in her arms.
"Last time I saw you frowning so tightly while taking medicine, looking utterly miserable," Zhou Rongzhen said with a smile, "I bought these cookies at the supermarket today. Eat a couple when you take your medicine, and it won't taste so bitter."
Shen Jianian stared blankly at the tin box being handed to her, overwhelmed by long-missed care, her eyes quickly turning red, tears pattering onto the beige-colored blanket.
Only her mother would, when she struggled with taking medicine, put a sweet little cookie or candy in her mouth to dilute the bitterness of the medicine, treating her like a child.
"Why are you crying?" Zhou Rongzhen panicked, hurriedly wiping her tears, gently patting her back to comfort her, "Don't cry anymore, even the worst things will pass someday."
She didn't know what had happened to this girl, but it was undoubtedly something unpleasant.
As soon as Fu Jichen came in, he ran into Shen Jianian sobbing uncontrollably, his eyebrows twitching as he asked, "What's wrong?"
Zhou Rongzhen stood up somewhat awkwardly, her hands neatly overlapping in front of her, unsure how to explain: "Miss Shen might have... thought of something sad, her emotions are a bit out of control."
Shen Jianian wiped her face messily, raising her head with red eyes, a tear escaping her lower eyelid and rolling down her cheek.
"Thank you for saving me again."
It seemed that every time she saw him, it was when she was at her most pathetic, so Shen Jianian decided to let go, abandoning her appearance and image, sniffing and sobbing in gratitude.
This scene was indeed amusing, and Fu Jichen actually laughed.
"Don't rush to thank me; I have something to tell you." He indicated with his eyes to Zhou Rongzhen, who understood and quietly left the room. He continued, "Those people who bullied you were sent by your cousin."
Finding those few people wasn't difficult, but getting them to divulge who was behind them took some effort. Clearly, they had been well-compensated and had to keep it secret.
Qu Mo, skilled at interrogation, whether through threats or inducements, managed to make their leader, Li Wu, finally reveal the name "Yin Shuyao."