“Drive faster, Kousaka. I need to get back to the apartment and see Gao-kun as quickly as possible.”
“Yes, Young Lady Tsukiyuki!”
The apprentice maid nervously stepped on the accelerator, gradually speeding up. Before long, the surrounding streetscape was rushing past, blurring into obscurity.
However, this speed was still too slow. Tsukiyuki Rio normally didn’t like fast driving, but today was an exception. Upon learning that Gao Sijin had nearly been assassinated earlier, Rio’s only thought was to get to him as fast as possible and hold him in her arms.
If only Yu Qingxue were driving right now. With her driving skills, she could shave at least twenty minutes off the trip. This apprentice maid lacked Qingxue’s courage; she was timid like a hamster, entirely unsuited to serving me.
“Too slow,” Tsukiyuki Rio said.
“I’m sorry, Young Miss, I’ll speed up right away.”
“Just pull over,” Rio said, her tone calm as usual, but Kousaka could already hear the impatience.
If she lost her job as a maid, she’d have to return to her own family and become a victim of a political marriage.
“Young Lady Tsukiyuki, please give me another chance!”
“I don’t want to repeat my order a third time. Pull over.”
Kousaka froze for a moment, then helplessly pulled over.
Tsukiyuki Rio got into the driver’s seat herself, shut the door tightly, and without waiting for the maid to get in, floored the accelerator. A violent screech of tires against asphalt rang out, and in the blink of an eye, the Mercedes-Benz sedan disappeared around the corner like a black bolt of lightning, leaving Kousaka standing alone in the wind, utterly bewildered.
Feeling the breathtaking speed, Rio felt a bit more at ease. With this, she could see her beloved about ten minutes sooner.
“Gao-kun…”
She never wanted to repeat the experience of standing before his tombstone, offering him flowers.
A world without Gao-kun was a world not worth living in.
At a sharp curve, Rio yanked the steering wheel, drifting into another street, and began to ponder deeply who would dare try to assassinate her most precious Gao-kun.
As the consortium rose to power, it naturally made many mortal enemies. If it were them, their target should be herself or other family members—so why go after Gao-kun?
There were plenty of wealthy young men pursuing her, and they might have motive. But Rio quickly dismissed that idea. Those spoiled brats lacked the capability to hire a desperate man who, upon failing, would immediately swallow cyanide and die.
A desperate man like that seemed more like an ordinary person who owed a huge gambling debt to the yakuza and was forced into a corner by threats and promises.
If the yakuza were involved, most of the Tokyo yakuza were loyal to the Tsukiyuki branch family, and they were completely obedient to Auntie Fumiko, the Branch Family Head.
Could this incident be connected to Auntie Fumiko?
Word had it that Auntie from the branch family was a victim of a political marriage, forced to wed the son of a yakuza boss. In the early days of the marriage, Fumiko’s eyes weren’t yet bloodshot. At first, they treated each other with respect, but the good times didn’t last.
The first domestic violence happened in her fifth month of pregnancy. Her husband grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head against the wall, leaving her head split open and bleeding. She nearly blacked out.
The second time was when her daughter, Tsukiyuki Uzuki, was just born. Enraged that she had given birth to a girl instead of a boy, her husband shoved her face into a boiling hot pot, severely burning her face until she looked like a demon. It took months of treatment by top Western specialists to restore Fumiko’s appearance.
The third time came six months later. At the hospital, the attending physician extracted four bullets from Fumiko’s body and a steel nail embedded in her bone. That time, she nearly died.
Later, it was said that Fumiko’s husband grew tired of wasting his life on a woman, abandoned mother and daughter, and fled overseas with all the money to live a carefree life.
But Rio knew the truth. Fumiko’s husband didn’t flee abroad. On an autumn night, Auntie Fumiko killed him, leaving not a single trace.
From then on, Fumiko took over as Branch Family Head, inheriting her husband’s power. And her eyes began to fill with bloodshot veins.
The family originally urged her to remarry, but after witnessing her fighting stance with a submachine gun in each hand, they never mentioned it again.
Seventeen minutes later, Rio arrived back at the luxury apartment. Morgana, who was standing at the entrance, quickly stepped forward to open the door for her.
“Welcome home, Young Miss.”
“Where’s Gao-kun?”
“The Master is in his room writing his light novel. He’s perfectly safe, don’t worry too much.”
“Take me to him, quickly.”
Morgana nodded respectfully, then led Rio inside. They took the elevator up to the 30th floor.
The thought that her beloved Gao-kun had nearly died where she couldn’t see him made Rio’s heart clench with a pain as if she were being slowly carved apart.
Desperate to see Gao Sijin as soon as possible, once on the 30th floor, she kicked off her wooden geta sandals and ran barefoot across the cold marble floor, her delicate feet pattering. She flung open the door and finally saw him.
“Rio, why are you back so early today?”
Gao Sijin hastily minimized Elden Ring, which he’d been running, and instantly switched to a word processor page, looking a little guilty as he met Rio’s gaze.
“Gao-kun!”
Rio threw herself recklessly at him and pulled him into a tight embrace, as if afraid he might escape. The force of it immediately made Sijin feel like he was being squeezed and suffocated.
He tried to break free, signaling that she was hugging too tight, but Rio didn’t care at all and only hugged him even tighter.
“Rio, I’m fine. Thanks to Morgana, nothing happened to me.”
The next moment, Sijin stumbled and was pushed down onto the bed by Rio.
“No matter what, I never want to lose Gao-kun again. I’m so terrified of a world without you…”
“If you don’t let go soon, you’ll really lose your Gao-kun,” Sijin said, his face turning somewhat pale. “You’re going to break my bones.”
“Sorry, Gao-kun, I just… got carried away.”
“Forget it, it’s fine. After all, you’re Rio.” Sijin gently smoothed down her silky black hair and comforted her. “Rio, I’m really okay. You look like you’re about to cry. Is it that serious?”
“Of course it is. Gao-kun is one of a kind in this world.”
Rio pursed her lips, looking like a little girl who’d been wronged.
