After dealing with Huo Jun, Lan Su quickly walked out, but soon stopped—
She didn’t know where the villa was.
A maid passed by, carrying a bucket of water, seemingly going to wipe something. Lan Su called out to her:
“Hello.”
The maid took a step back in surprise. Evidently, she had never heard this greeting in the Huo family: “Hello, Miss Lan.”
“Ayan went to her aunt’s house, and I want to go find her. Do you know where that is?”
The maid’s back was slightly hunched: “Turn right when you go out, No. 81 is it. But…”
“But what?”
“If Miss Lan is going over, it’s best to inform Manager Xia. Something happened before, and things were left on unpleasant terms.”
Lan Su stared at the water sloshing in the bucket in the maid’s hand, discerning a bit of the truth: “The previous madam, did she die at her house?”
The maid was startled, shaking her head vigorously as if struck by lightning:
“No, no, actually, I don’t know much about the masters’ affairs! If Miss Lan has no other business, I’ll go back to work first.”
The small figure quickly disappeared down the corridor. Lan Su turned around, and when she looked up, a calm, sinister, marsh-like ruthlessness surged in her eyes—last time it was the madam, this time, is it Huo Yan’s turn?
Huo Yan cannot be harmed, at least, not while Lan Su is left here in the Huo family. It’s not because of profound love or deep gratitude, but rather, if Huo Yan dies in the Huo family, then to cover up the incident, Lan Su, her newly wedded wife, would certainly be eliminated in one clean sweep.
A gardener in the front yard was trimming shrubs, and a motorcycle was parked next to him.
Lan Su walked forward delicately, smiling as she greeted him while passing by: “What kind of tree is this?”
The gardener explained with a smile that it was a Small-Leaf Boxwood, meticulously pruning the stray branches with his shears, when he heard a delicate scream from Lan Su behind him.
“Ah!”
He quickly turned around, but only saw a flash before his eyes and no sign of Lan Su. Immediately afterward, a dull ache radiated from the back of his neck. His vision blurred twice, plunging into darkness.
Meanwhile, the supposedly frail and helpless rich girl, Lan Su, deftly picked up the key, tied her skirt around her thigh to secure it, got on the motorcycle, and sped away.
The villa was about one kilometer away, a three-story house at No. 81, just as the maid had said.
The iron gate was wide open, and the area from the front yard to the entrance hall was empty. After pushing open the three-panel palace-style doors, two bodyguards were lying unconscious on the ground. The marble floor was covered in spiderweb-like bloodstains.
Something was wrong.
Lan Su clenched her fists. She shone her phone flashlight along the floor and could see tire track dust on the reflective patterns, leading from the main hall, past the spiral staircase, and stopping at a room at the end of the first-floor corridor.
The door was locked.
Knock! Knock!
She knocked hard twice: “Ayan? Ayan! Are you in there?”
No one answered, but pressing her ear to the door, she could hear deliberately lowered footsteps. The wheelchair tracks on the floor only went in and not out, confirming that Huo Yan was indeed in this room.
Taking two steps back, she raised one leg, twisted her body, and delivered a roundhouse kick at a right angle.
Bang!
The door burst open. Inside, Huo Yan was lying face down on the floor in front of the window, with her wheelchair overturned beside her.
“Huo Yan!”
Lan Su rushed over, flipped her over with both hands, and felt for her pulse. Fortunately, it was still beating.
“Huo Yan! Wake up!”
Next, she used her index finger to check her breath, but suddenly, footsteps sounded behind her. Turning back, a black-clad, muscular man was charging at her, wielding a Swiss Army knife.
“Grandpa, it’s true! Lan Su was the one who hit me!”
At the old house, the eldest young master, Huo Jun, ran to complain to the Old Master but failed to gain his trust.
“She has thin arms and legs, she can’t even carry a cup of tea steadily. How could she hit you?”
The Old Master put down his blue-and-white porcelain teacup, not even glancing at him.
Huo Jun was both angry and wronged: “I also found it strange! But there were only the two of us at the time, it must have been her!”
The Grandmother anxiously and lovingly cupped his face: “So much blood from your nose, this, this needs a trip to the hospital!”
He took away the towel covering his nose, turning his face to reveal the palm print on his cheek: “It’s more than that! She also slapped me!”
The Grandmother’s face immediately darkened. In a family with feudal ideas, a slap is extremely humiliating. Decades of refined upbringing were instantly discarded. She quickly walked up to the Old Master, scolding sharply:
“A bride who just entered the family dares to hit the Elder Brother, what will happen later? No matter what, Ah Jun is the eldest grandson. If you won’t stand up for him, then I will!”
The Old Master dropped the chess piece in his hand, turned to look, and his gaze fell on the slender, clearly feminine palm print on Huo Jun’s face. His triangular, drooping eyelids concealed sharp eyes:
“Where is she?”
It was time to teach Lan Su a lesson and, while they were at it, deflate Huo Yan’s arrogance.
The villa, the study at the end of the first floor.
A ghost-like black figure rushed out from the corner of the bookshelf. As the dark figure lunged, a flash of light appeared. The Swiss short knife reflected a momentary gleam, its tip aimed directly at Lan Su on the floor.
Lan Su’s reaction was lightning fast.
The moment she saw the flash of the knife, she swiftly twisted her body and collapsed her waist, facing upward to avoid the blade. The cutting edge barely grazed her nose bridge. She gathered her five fingers into a “hand knife,” raised her arm to block, her forearm stopping the black-clad man’s wrist. Her other hand grabbed his arm. Her small body darted under his armpit, then she clung to the black-clad man’s back like a leopard, kneeling with one leg on his shoulder. She raised her hand, brought it down, and slammed her “hand knife” hard onto the back of his neck.
Crack!
The black-clad man felt only a gust of wind, followed by a crunch in his neck bone. Numbness quickly spread from the impact point throughout his body. His blood flow instantly paused, his vision darkened, and he violently shook his head twice before fainting.
The nearly 1.9-meter tall strong man collapsed within three seconds of the confrontation, hitting the floor with a dull, sack-like thud.
Lan Su didn’t have time to deal with him and immediately checked Huo Yan’s injuries. There were no wounds on her body, only a bruise on her forehead, the size of an egg yolk, likely from an impact. There were no signs of being struck on her head or the back of her neck.
How did she faint?
Poisoning?
Lan Su didn’t think so.
In any case, the person was not in immediate danger. The current task was how to get her out of the villa. She needed to ensure they could leave while concealing her combat skills; otherwise, she would truly just carry Huo Yan out like a sack of sand.
Just as she was pondering, a clamor came from outside:
“Lan Su! Get out here!”
It was Huo Jun’s voice. After a few curses, there was the fawning flattery:
“Grandpa, A Li said Lan Su came to the villa, she must be inside!”
The Grandmother nearby worriedly said: “There’s no one in the yard, and Wen Xia isn’t answering the phone. Old Master, should we just go in?”
Lan Su didn’t listen to the rest, only smiling that these people arrived at just the right time.
She lazily lay down on the floor, side by side with Huo Yan, pretending to have been attacked and fainted while trying to save Huo Yan.
Wait, this wouldn’t fool the Old Master’s eyes. After all, she had no injuries, while Huo Yan and the assailant were unconscious. It would be disastrous if her skills were discovered.
She sat up, picked up the dagger from the floor, and forcefully plunged it into her shoulder socket.
Hiss—
The short knife nearly pierced through her shoulder, almost giving her a two-exit wound, but she only frowned slightly, as if feeling no pain at all. She stabbed it in violently and quickly pulled it out, letting the fresh blood splatter and stream down. She flicked the short knife away and lay back down on the floor.
“Ah.”
She unnecessarily let out a muffled groan of fainting, which truly compounded her already poor acting.
She closed her eyes with relief, waiting for the Old Master and his group to find this place.
Unbeknownst to her, the previously unconscious person opened a pair of cold eyes in the place she couldn’t see. Eyelashes dotted with splattered blood trembled slightly, and the emotion in his eyes, which settled on the faint brown mole under his left eye, was ambiguous.
If this person’s acting was half as good as her fighting skills, she would probably have won an Oscar by now.