Prison.
In the narrow space where daylight never reached, there was only a lime-heated brick bed covered with a tattered sheet, stretching from one end of the wall to the other. More than a dozen people had to squeeze onto the filthy, disorderly communal bed every day.
Chi Xue lay in the farthest corner. Her fair arm, covered in bruises and wounds, rested over her eyelids, shielding them from the harsh light filtering through the only small barred window above.
Sensing movement above her head, she moved her arm aside and lifted her attractive eyelids slightly. Her eyes were hollow and empty, carrying a hint of coldness.
“What do you want?”
“What do I want?” The woman above her smiled. Her swollen, obese face was covered in coarse flesh, and her hair looked as though it had been washed with sugar water, sticky beyond belief, with several greasy strands clinging to her ears.
There was a hint of gritted hatred in her smile. Before Chi Xue could react, a crisp slap landed, sending her head lolling to one side. Pain flared across her right cheek. She bit her lip and used her frail arms to prop herself up.
“Haven’t you had enough?” Chi Xue asked, her voice cold and clear, carrying a trace of intimidation.
The woman grew even angrier. After all, despite having been here for so long, this was the first time she had encountered someone so arrogant and stubborn. Everyone else was practically subdued after one beating and became obedient to her commands, but Chi Xue refused to submit.
“Had enough?” Another woman laughed, wearing the expression of someone abetting a tyrant. “Our Boss’s targets don’t just lie here in one piece. You talked back to the Boss. If we don’t cripple you, that only proves how useless we are!”
“Cripple me?” Chi Xue suddenly laughed. Though her plain, unadorned face was filled with exhaustion, her bright eyes and pearly teeth were strikingly beautiful. “How will you cripple me? Will you cripple one of my hands, maim one of my legs, or blind one of my eyes?”
Her face was cold, and her tone resolute. “I advise you to behave if you don’t want to spend several more years in here. Let’s leave each other in peace.”
“Hahahaha…”
As if she had heard an enormous joke, the leading woman suddenly began laughing hysterically. The curve of her lips was full of mockery. “Did you hear that? She’s telling us to behave?”
“Hahaha…”
The women in prison uniforms behind her burst into laughter. The leading woman made a gesture, and the uproar instantly vanished.
Lowering her voice slightly, she reached out and patted Chi Xue’s fair, delicate face. Her gaze was eerie. “I heard you’re pregnant?”
Chi Xue’s body stiffened. It was as though lightning had flashed through her mind, draining all color from her face. “What are you trying to do?”
“Are you scared?” The woman stood up and looked down at her condescendingly. “Weren’t you so impressive just now? Telling us to behave.”
As she spoke, she extended a hand. Another woman passed her a wooden stick as thick as an arm. The stick was rough and covered in blood, the darkened stains clearly old and dried.
Chi Xue shrank back and instinctively shielded her belly. Her hands trembled, her soft lips were pale, yet she forced herself to remain calm as she looked at the woman and spoke shakily. “Do you know whose child this is? Do you dare touch him?”
“Whose child?”
The woman laughed mockingly. “The Young Master Gu’s?”
“Since you know, you should understand that if anything happens to this child, all of you will…”
“Hmph.” The woman interrupted her before she could finish, sneering disdainfully. “Mr. Gu’s child? You really know how to flatter yourself. If he hadn’t specifically ordered us to ‘take good care’ of you, I really wouldn’t have dared do anything to you. But Mr. Gu said this child has nothing to do with him. He doesn’t even know whose bastard it is. As for you, you’re nothing more than the murderer who killed his First love.”
In an instant, Chi Xue felt as though she had fallen into an icy abyss. Her pale fingers clenched tightly, the tips nearly sinking into her flesh. She felt as though all the blood vessels in her body had frozen, the chill invading every limb and bone. Gu Cishen was truly cold-blooded and heartless toward her. He actually… actually did not care in the slightest about his own flesh and blood.
The scene became a blur of blood and flesh. Chi Xue was beaten until she was nearly numb to the pain. She struggled desperately, but there were too many of them. Before she could fight back, they had already restrained her brutally, leaving her to endure their fists and kicks. When that thick wooden stick came crashing down, Chi Xue thought for an instant that she heard the sound of bones breaking.
She curled up on the floor like a shattered puppet. Bright red blood flowed from some unknown part of her body, staining the ground crimson.
One woman suddenly stopped, her voice somewhat frightened. “If we keep beating her, someone’s going to die. Mr. Gu only said to teach her a lesson and cripple her right hand. Why don’t we…”
Cripple her right hand?
Chi Xue heard those words through the haze. Her heart wrenched as if a blunt knife had pierced her body, slowly torturing her to death. The pain pierced straight through her heart.
He knew perfectly well that she was a designer and a painter, and that her right hand meant more to her than life itself. Yet today, he actually intended to destroy two of her lives.
Her right hand and her child.
Feeling a foot come down on her, Chi Xue let out a startled cry. Her tightly shut eyes flew open, and a white ceiling and crystal chandelier entered her vision. She took two hurried breaths before gradually calming down, her forehead covered in a fine layer of sweat.
“Another nightmare?”
Lan Bei sat beside her bed, his handsome brows slightly furrowed.
Chi Xue did not respond. Her gaze remained fixed blankly on the ceiling. She remembered the child she had lost and how she had fought for her life with the women in prison, until eventually none of them dared provoke her again.
“Have the car prepared. I’m going out.”
She suddenly sat up and glanced at the sunlight blocked by the white gauze curtains. She opened her right hand and exerted force, only to discover that the bones and muscles in her fingers were still sluggish.
“Where are you going?”
Lan Bei’s expression was as solemn as ever, his voice bewitching. Beneath his black trench coat was a ramrod-straight figure comparable to a soldier’s. His face should have been rugged, yet it possessed an incongruous beauty and wicked charm, along with a pair of captivating peach blossom eyes.
“To find Yu Jinnan and sign a contract.”
“Are you sure you want him as your backer? You know that if you asked me, my identity would give you far more publicity, not to mention connections and resources.”
A flicker passed through Chi Xue’s eyes. She said quietly, “Lan Bei, thank you, but this time I don’t want to rely on your protection.”
Of course, she knew Lan Bei could help her rise to the top in a single step. After all, how sensational and newsworthy would it be for a female entertainer to have the head of the mysterious national organization, the Dragon Azure Pavilion, as her backer?
But she could not treat his reputation as a joke. He had already helped her enough—from proving her innocence and receiving her upon her release from prison, to treating her hand and taking care of every detail. She had remembered it all.
In the end, Lan Bei said nothing more. What he had always wanted was for her to fly freely. If everything went smoothly, that was fine. If obstacles arose, he would clear them away. If she failed, he would clean up the aftermath. In any case, whenever she fell into the dust, he would always catch her securely.
Lan Bei lowered his eyes in acknowledgment, then raised his attractive peach blossom eyes and fixed them on her. “You don’t want me to help you, fine. But you must let me accompany you.”
“All right. I’m troubling you.” Chi Xue squeezed her palm, her gaze dark and unreadable.
Gu Cishen, sooner or later, you will pay the price for my dead child and my ruined right hand.