Volume One, Chapter 4: Poisoning

That feeling was not a good one.

She tried several times to pull out her phone and call her best friend, Shao Zhenzhen, but her hands would not obey her. At last she managed to unlock it, but before she could even dial, a hand shot out from nowhere and snatched the phone from her.

In the next instant, she was seized around the waist. A bristly mouth began gnawing at the side of her neck, and a low, foul breath reeking of a drunken stupor muttered against her ear, “Where are you going, pretty thing? Your brother’s been waiting for you a long time...”

Nie Xingyan shuddered. Alarm bells rang in her mind.

She had been drugged.

Of course. Since the other side had plotted this from the start, they would have arranged a second move. How could they possibly leave her any chance to call for help?

“Who are you... Let go, l-let go of me...” She struggled frantically, but the drug took effect with alarming speed, leaving her limp as mud. Her cries were soft and breathless, and her resistance only made her sound more enticing.

“Don’t be afraid, pretty. Relax. In a little while, Brother will make you feel so good you’ll soar to heaven...” The lewd laughter made her skin crawl. Nie Xingyan forced down the urge to retch and said, “Who sent you? How much did she pay? I’ll give... double.”

The drug grew stronger by the second. Her eyes blurred, and she could not even make out who stood before her. She could only promise him a fortune and then dig her nails hard into the web of her hand. A sharp pain surged through her, clearing her head a little. She kept pinching harder, feeling her palm grow damp; it was probably already bleeding. But she had no time to care. She forced herself to stay calm. She absolutely could not faint. If she did, she would be at their mercy.

Where money was offered, brave men were never lacking. At first, the man had hesitated a little. If there really were twice the money, once he got it, what kind of woman could he not find?

But the moment he saw Nie Xingyan’s face, that thought vanished.

She was the sort of beauty that stunned at a glance: a face as small as a palm, soft little helpless murmurs, skin so delicate it seemed it could be pierced by a breath. A light touch had already left red marks on her fair skin; she was too striking, too fragile. The sight of her so powerless and defenseless immediately awakened the brutal hunger in him.

A thousand gold pieces were easy to obtain; a rare treasure was not.

He no longer cared about the money. He only wanted to find a place quickly and pin her beneath him, to ravage her thoroughly.

“Pretty lady, Brother doesn’t want money. Brother wants you.” His foul breath sprayed across her neck, nauseating her. He chuckled obscenely and said, “Be good, let Brother enjoy himself properly. Once I’m done, I’ll let you go right away. Otherwise...”

His savage eyes roamed over Nie Xingyan with shameless appetite as he bared his teeth in a vicious grin. “First the fun, then the killing.”

This entire floor was an upscale lounge area. Thick carpet muffled every sound; even if five or six people were dragging someone along, not a single noise would reach beyond it.

Even if someone saw, they would not reach out to help and risk trouble for themselves. They would only stand by and watch coldly.

“Who sent you? Was it Jiang Junmei?”

When she had come, she had been fine. She had not eaten anything along the way, except for the bottle of water she had just drunk.

That water had been tampered with!

“Little beauty, the rules of the road are simple: take money and do the job. As long as you behave, I won’t take your life.” The man did not answer her question, only threatened her into obedience.

Night had fallen. There were few residents on this floor, and no one would be coming. Nie Xingyan’s heart sank steadily.

She had calculated every possibility, yet she had never imagined Jiang Junmei could be so vicious as to try to ruin her in such a way.

“You’d better, best of all, let me go today. Otherwise...” The drug acted too quickly; her threat came in broken fragments, utterly insignificant in the man’s eyes.

“Otherwise what? I like fiery women. That’s more exciting.” He could not wait any longer and began stripping her clothes away.

Nie Xingyan fought with all her might, kicking and thrashing. In her frenzy, she stabbed one of his eyes with a forceful thrust.

Already consumed by lust, the man saw her still trying to resist and his malice flared. He slapped her hard with the back of his hand. Her ears rang with a buzz, her vision turned blurry, and she could no longer see clearly.

Five finger marks bloomed at once on her delicate face. He seized her chin brutally and forced her head up, snarling, “Bitch, don’t be ungrateful for a toast only to be punished with a refusal. If you keep this up, I’ll kill you in a moment!”

Nie Xingyan knew that if she let him drag her away, she would truly be finished. No matter how muddled her mind became, she still used every ounce of strength she had to struggle and fight back. In the scuffle, she took several blows to the stomach, kicks to the shin, a slap across the face. Every inch of her hurt.

Little by little, her strength was nearly gone.

She lay sprawled on the floor, watching helplessly as the man, step by step, like a demon, seized her collar and dragged her away as if she were trash...

“Let go of her.”

Before Nie Xingyan’s consciousness was fully swallowed by darkness, she heard a voice she knew well. Unfortunately, by then her mind had already been overtaken by the drug, and everything was hazy and indistinct.

Perhaps it was a hallucination.

Or perhaps, as one slips into unconsciousness, the mind reels through the long-hidden person buried deepest in the heart.

That voice...

She had not even had time to speak when the world went black and she lost consciousness completely.

Seeing the prey he was about to claim interrupted by some clueless intruder, the man shoved Nie Xingyan away and let her fall to the ground.

At first he had been on guard, but when he saw there was only one man, he immediately relaxed. With the ferocity of a hyena fighting for food, he glared at him and snarled, “Kid, I advise you not to meddle, or else...”

This kind of illicit business depended on a strong nerve. When trouble appeared, a few words of intimidation were usually enough to make people back off.

He had not expected to run into such a hard case here.

The newcomer did not yield.

He had committed plenty of crimes already and was not afraid to add another to the list. Since someone had come looking to die, he was happy to oblige.

He took out a folding knife from his trouser pocket and brandished it twice in a show of final warning.

Ling Dongyan did not even spare him a glance. He strode over, lifted the unconscious Nie Xingyan from the floor, and set her against the corner of the wall. Then he gently brushed her swollen cheek and the jagged red marks on her calves. Without turning around, he said, “You hit her?”

Nie Xingyan kept her eyes tightly shut and let out a few faint, pained sounds. Her brows were faintly knit; she must have been terribly uncomfortable.

The man stared at Ling Dongyan as though he had lost his mind. Too lazy to waste words, he rattled the folding knife in his hand and said, “Where did you crawl out from? If you don’t want to die, get the hell out of here.”

From his tone, there was no hope of repentance.

Ling Dongyan half-kneeled, removed his suit jacket, and draped it over Nie Xingyan. Then he stood, undid his cuff links, and slowly rolled up his sleeves. “I’ll count to three. Kneel and apologize to her, and I may spare you once.”

The man looked at Ling Dongyan, who stood a whole head taller than him. Fair-skinned and delicate-looking, he was clearly the pampered son of a rich family. So he wanted to play hero and save the beauty? He ought to weigh his own worth first.

He let out two sinister chuckles. “Kid, isn’t that exactly what I should be saying? You’re not any uglier than this little tart. I’ve never played with a man before, but today’s my lucky day. Buy one, get one free—looks like I get a fresh taste for nothing.”