Chapter 49: Home
“Gu Zhi! You’re a madwoman, a psycho from a mental hospital. The Gu family will be doomed in your hands.”
The man was thrown to the ground, his abdomen empty, as if he had just been punched several times. A few burly bodyguards dragged the man’s obese body out the door like a pig to be slaughtered. His wails and screams echoed miserably in the crowded conference room. The long conference table was almost silent.
After all, they were old foxes who had been in the business world for a long time. They knew the principle of “as long as the green hills remain, there will be no lack of firewood.” They were not like the fat man who had lost his composure and shouted in the meeting because he could not accept the temporary division of interests, and had ended up in such a disgraceful state.
The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Although many people were also very unwilling to accept the results of the meeting, no one stood up to speak for this man, whom they had met many times at banquets. They silently looked at the woman at the end of the long table. A few of the older council members subconsciously thought that the Gu family’s patriarch, who had been dead for many years, had returned.
The Gu family, which had started from scratch, was now a prominent family in Qingchuan. But the four words “survival of the fittest,” which were a bit snobbish and barbaric, were still engraved in the ancestral teachings of the Gu family’s descendants.
The winner is the king, and the loser is the bandit. A single wrong move… no, this group of corrupt and pedantic old fools, who had no intention of making progress, had been completely defeated by the little girl they had once looked down upon.
Gu Zhi glanced around indifferently, her slender, porcelain-white fingers gently tapping on the table. She was dressed in a standard OL style, with a low-key and luxurious, wide-shouldered, pure black suit. Her gray hip-hugging skirt was low to her knees, and her round thighs, which were covered in flesh-colored stockings, were casually crossed under the table. Compared to most of the people at the table, who were sitting upright, she seemed much more composed.
“Since everyone has no objections, then let’s adjourn the meeting. I believe that this proposal will inject more fresh vitality into the Gu family. Of course… I will not fail to live up to the high hopes that my grandfather placed on me before he died. I will have to trouble everyone a lot in the future.”
The phone in front of the table vibrated. Gu Zhi glanced at it and added with a smile, “Anyone who has doubts about the proposal can also raise them with me. I will definitely… warmly welcome them.”
The meeting was dismissed very quickly. In almost no time, everyone was gone. Compared to the so-called opinions, they were more concerned about how to cut their losses and survive the subsequent liquidation.
Gu Zhi watched as those who had always fancied themselves as elders, who had deluded themselves into believing they stood above her, left in disgrace. Yet she felt little joy. She didn’t care how high her position was; she could have endured the status quo. But unfortunately… her patience had reached its limit, and she could wait no longer.
She waved her hand and had the door closed. She stared at the missed call on her phone, her legs closed and her feet on the ground. She seemed to have suddenly lost her usual calm and composed demeanor.
“Auntie Jing, why are you calling at this time… is there something important?”
“He’s escaped. Everything is as you wished.”
“As I wished?” Gu Zhi raised her eyebrows, her long, narrow eyes squinting, a cold and icy glint in them. “You let him go, and you seem to be very happy?”
“I’m an old woman. How can I stop a young man? I’m just taking care of you for your deceased father.” Auntie Jing’s tone was always so clear and gentle. Even with a knife at her neck, she had never seen her voice waver. “Gu Zhi, you really haven’t grown up. You’ll regret it one day. A person like you… will never get love.”
Her sharp fingertips scraped against the screen, leaving a clear white mark. The phone was suddenly hung up by Gu Zhi. Her chest was heaving as if she couldn’t suppress a raging fire. She was completely unwilling to hear such words, and she even hated them. They had never experienced it, yet they were so merciful as to persuade people to be good. It was as light as a fallen leaf, cheap and meaningless.
The only thing they shouldn’t have done was to reason with a madwoman who had escaped from a mental hospital. She couldn’t understand, and she didn’t want to. What she couldn’t get, she would hold on to tightly.
The things that woman had taught her could not be wrong.
The phone suddenly rang again. It wasn’t Auntie Jing. Gu Zhi answered it. The voice on the other end of the phone was hoarse and low, with a sinister and bloody smell.
“Miss, the target took a taxi and left. Should we stop him now, or…”
“No rush. Let him wander around for a while. Just consider it… the last bit of freedom I’m giving him.”
“But what if the target actively contacts someone he knows? Then…”
“He wouldn’t dare. Although he’s dead… he’s still the same as before.” Gu Zhi sneered, the curve of her lips a little cold. “You guys just keep an eye on him. We’ll close the net at twelve o’clock.”
Gu Zhi hung up the phone and sat alone in the large conference room. Under her was the chair that symbolized her control over the entire Gu family. She sat alone, covering her face, hiding the almost-uncontrollable sadness on her face. She didn’t show a single bit of the victor’s demeanor.
…
He was almost woken up by the pain. The back of his head was burning with pain, as if a hole had been dug in it and bright red chili oil had been dripped in. The pain made his body struggle wildly.
But it was useless. His neck was bound by a very short iron chain, and his hands and feet were also tied. He could almost only crawl on the ground, staring at the familiar white porcelain floor. The woman seemed to be right. Pain could always make a deep impression. Only when you felt pain… could you remember. So he could even remember the patterns on these porcelain tiles.
A little bit of blood had seeped into the patterns, and it had already coagulated a little after a long time. The red was tinged with black. He only remembered that he had been surrounded in the alley, and those people had given him a shot. But his resistance was still fierce, and his head was hit hard. After the effect of the drug came on, his consciousness had sunk into darkness.
He was back in that basement, as if everything had returned to the starting point. He was like a pet hamster that couldn’t be kept in a cage. He had run until he was exhausted in the wheel, but in the end, it was all a futile struggle.
The lights were not on in the basement, and it was pitch black. He couldn’t measure the time in the darkness, but he knew what he was waiting for. So he simply gave up the struggle and let his body be bound by the chains. He stared at the floor in a daze, and he couldn’t even muster much energy to think about what he was going to face next.
He couldn’t bring himself to die. Maybe… it would be good to find someone to help.
He was glad that he hadn’t made a sound on the phone. This had actually become the only bit of color in the end.
He didn’t know how long it had been, but he suddenly realized how painful it was to be hung in the darkness like this. His thin wrists were so sore from the rough chains that it felt as if they would break if he stayed there any longer. His brain was also a little congested, and his cheeks were burning. His breathing was also not smooth, and his consciousness was drowsy for a few seconds and then he was woken up by the pain. He was so tormented that he wanted to go crazy.
The light suddenly turned on, and he was stunned for a long time and couldn’t react. Actually, he hadn’t even heard a few crisp footsteps. By the time his thoughts had turned around, a pair of high heels had suddenly appeared in front of him. The fair and exquisite instep was in the thin and high heels, and one could vaguely see the fine blue veins floating under the hazy feeling of the stockings.
He whimpered a few times, and his chin was lifted by the cold tip of a shoe. It was a little prickly on his neck. His gaze met the woman’s condescending and disdainful gaze, and it was almost broken at a touch. The other party’s eyes were not very angry, but they were exceptionally indifferent, as if they were looking at a disobedient little dog.
Her cold gaze swept over him from top to bottom. Her bright red, full lips parted slightly, and every word was like a bullet that had entered his heart. The coldness was drawn from the soles of his feet to his central nervous system. His numb heart suddenly loosened. He was scared, and he was terrified to realize that death was the best destination he could get.
But the woman in front of him, how could she be so kind as to grant his wish?
His head was lifted a few more degrees. He struggled to look up at the woman, listening to her cold and commanding voice.
“Welcome home, my… little dog.”
