Lu Zhou stood frozen, staring in shock at her second brother lying unconscious on the floor.
But to any outside observer, the true victim was the fragile, hollow, and sickly-looking Bai Ran, her clothes torn and her spirit seemingly broken. She commanded every ounce of sympathy in the room.
Save for Ji Yan and Lu Zhou, no one could see through that seamless, masterful performance.
As the pampered youngest daughter of the Lu family, Lu Zhou lived on the periphery of the family’s power struggles. She had no idea what her eldest sister and Bai Ran had plotted together. All she knew was that Bai Ran had stepped over them once again, playing the board to ensure the winner took all.
Though Lu Zhou felt nothing but cold indifference toward Lu Xing’s injuries, she was incensed by how Bai Ran had used and toyed with them. She had never felt this humiliated. Yet, she was forced to stay at the scene, calling an ambulance and contacting her parents and sister.
Xu Yinian looked at Bai Ran—the woman who usually acted like a gentle elder sister, caring for her with endless patience—and saw only a broken shell, a portrait of despair.
It felt as though her heart were being squeezed until she couldn’t breathe. Her eyes grew rimmed with red, tears swirling but refusing to fall as she fought for composure. As she draped her coat over Bai Ran’s torn clothes to shield her dignity, Bai Ran suddenly clung to her, as if she had finally found her anchor.
Bai Ran couldn’t hold back any longer. She was being drowned by an addiction that had been building for days, mixed with the lingering, agonizing pain of the previous night—a night where she’d had to resort to self-harm just to maintain a shred of sanity.
She hadn’t slept a wink. She had been waiting for news until this morning, when she finally received confirmation of the check-in record made with Xu Yinian’s identification card.
The GPS signal that had stayed at the hotel all night finally moved. Surveillance footage showed Xu Yinian returning to the dormitory alone, perfectly safe. After coming back, the girl had simply crouched down and tucked a shopping bag into her cabinet.
Even so, Bai Ran’s paranoia persisted. Despite the time pressure, she had investigated the movements of everyone who lusted after Xu Yinian; not a single one of them had been near her last night.
The relief of a narrow escape did nothing to soothe her pathologically twisted mind. By the time she moved against Lu Xing today, her mental state was already teetering on the edge of a breakdown.
She gripped Xu Yinian’s snowy-white sweater with hands stained by her own blood. She smeared that jarring, brilliant crimson onto her pure, stainless Niannian, determined to drag the girl down into the depths with her.
Beneath her fingertips was the “antidote” she hadn’t touched in far too long. For now, it could only temporarily suppress her twisted, parched longing.
Xu Yinian felt as though she were being pulled into Bai Ran’s body—a body that seemed entirely devoid of any sense of security. The lingering sensations from the previous night were stirred, causing her to let out an unconscious, soft whimper.
She felt the delicate form in her arms tremble. Suppressing her own discomfort, Xu Yinian silently let Sister Ran lean against her.
After a long silence, she heard a whisper—a humble, pleading murmur:
“Niannian, I only have you left. Take me away… please…”
Ji Yan could see right through the twisted intentions of that hand resting against the back of Xu Yinian’s form-fitting sweater.
Yet, other than staring at them with impotent, dark fury, she couldn’t get a word in.
Bai Ran had positioned herself in an unbeatable spot. She was still “Xu Yinian’s friend,” and she was playing the sympathy card to perfection. If Ji Yan tried to cause a scene now, she would only be handing Bai Ran more points.
Meanwhile, Lu Zhou was being forced by the Lu family to stay by Lu Xing’s side. She likely knew just as little about the situation as Ji Yan did—the girl was useless.
As the two moved toward the employee locker room of He Yan, Ji Yan followed them step for step. If nothing else, she couldn’t let Bai Ran just spirit Xu Yinian away. Who knew what kind of slander the woman would whisper about her?
However, the locker room turned out to be an open space without individual stalls.
Seeing the two about to enter together, Ji Yan’s footsteps faltered. She finally grit her teeth, unable to stay silent. “Xu Yinian, she’s changing her clothes. Why are you following her in?”
Xu Yinian knew better. They weren’t going there to change… they were going to escape through the locker room’s back exit.
Still, a faint blush crept onto her face. She didn’t dare look at Bai Ran as she argued softly, “I’ll… I’ll be respectful. I won’t look…”
No matter how closely she wanted to watch them, Ji Yan couldn’t bring herself to follow them in and watch someone change—especially when that person was her romantic rival.
Ji Yan stood her ground, her legs frozen in place, refusing to leave. Her dark eyes, framed by thick lashes, stared straight at Xu Yinian. She was powerless against the girl’s blunt lack of defenses; she could only stew in her own aggrieved anger.
She watched as Xu Yinian, though clearly avoiding the tension, followed Bai Ran into the room and shut the door, cutting Ji Yan off from the world.
After an unknown amount of time, Ji Yan’s phone rang. It was Lu Zhou, her voice crackling with fury.
“Dammit, we were played! This was a setup by my sister and the Bai family to get rid of Lu Xing!”
“Are you still waiting there? They took Xu Yinian and bolted ages ago!”
The carefully crafted look of “pity” in Ji Yan’s eyes vanished instantly. Her thick lashes cast a shadow over eyes as dark as a gathering storm as she stared at the silent locker room door.
She pushed it open, still suppressing her rage for fear of scaring the girl, but the room was empty. The person she longed for was gone.
A deep-seated need for vengeance began to ferment in the cold, damp silence.
What else could she do? She was a mad dog that used to be indifferent and cruel, using any coercive means necessary to get what she wanted. Now, she was nothing more than a nuisance wagging her tail for a master who didn’t want her.
Bai Ran’s past.
The past that the woman didn’t dare mention even a single word of in front of Xu Yinian.
She had to find it.
Ji Yan had grown up under the thumb of a literal psychopath; she carried those volatile genes in her blood. She was already wretched enough. She would not allow Xu Yinian to remain in a situation as dangerous as the one she had escaped.
Ever since Xu Yinian had heart-wrenchingly agreed to “take her away,” Sister Ran seemed to have found her center.
Her state improved slightly—at least she was no longer that heartbreaking, hollow shell. However, she remained pale and fragile, looking as though her battered body might crumble into pieces at any moment.
