Ji Liao fell silent for a few seconds before saying through tears, “One matter shouldn’t affect another. Qing’er is innocent!”
“Who isn’t innocent! Does that mean Cheng Shuangshuang deserved to die?”
Tears streamed down Ji Liao’s face like a fountain. She took a deep breath and lowered her stance. “Yu Nanzhi, spare her. As long as you spare her, I’ll go to the netherworld immediately to apologize to Cheng Shuangshuang. You can have me die however you want, whatever pleases you, whatever satisfies you. I beg you… spare Qing’er…”
“Liaoliao-jie, don’t be like this…” Lu Chengqing stubbornly tried to rise despite the pain, only to collapse heavily back to the ground. She wanted to stop this, but things went against her wishes.
Yu Nanzhi’s eyes held a distinct cruelty as he crouched down, grabbed Ji Liao’s hair, and yanked her up forcefully, forcing her to face him. “Don’t you dare dirty her path of reincarnation. Ji Liao, I’m warning you—if you dare to die without my permission, I’ll dig up your grave and scatter your ashes to the wind!”
His venomous words struck her ears like a thunderclap.
Ji Liao knew well that Yu Nanzhi was a man of his word. What he wanted to do, no one could stop. Even if she died, he would find a way to make her soul restless.
In that moment, Ji Liao surrendered. Lowering her eyelids, she pleaded in a begging tone, “Mr. Yu, please let me call an ambulance…”
Her softened attitude allowed Yu Nanzhi to press his advantage. “Fine. Kneel and beg me. Beg me to make the call for you.”
Yu Nanzhi released her and stood proudly to the side, waiting.
Ji Liao mocked herself inwardly—what was so difficult about kneeling and begging? Dignity and such had long since turned to dust.
Perhaps Yu Nanzhi never expected that the ever-proud Ji Liao would choose to kneel again for an outsider. She even kowtowed to him several times without hesitation.
This obedient compliance left him inexplicably flustered.
Her dignity had been tortured into fragments. Her fragility and panic fell into both their eyes like a flower battered by wind and frost, trembling on the brink—so pitiful it stirred compassion.
Like an emotionless machine, she pleaded woodenly, “Mr. Yu, I beg you to call an ambulance for me…”
Kneeling, pleading, kowtowing—she repeated the same actions over and over. Lu Chengqing could no longer bear to watch. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed Ji Liao’s hand with great effort, her voice choked with sobs. “Enough, Liaoliao-jie, I’m fine… I’m fine…”
Lu Chengqing’s words failed to bring Ji Liao back to her senses. What she wanted to hear, from beginning to end, was a single word from Yu Nanzhi.
But he was stunned. During their years apart, Yu Nanzhi had borne indescribable loneliness and desolation alone. He clearly resented Ji Liao, yet seeing her so compliant and yielding made an inexplicable fury surge in his chest.
She shouldn’t be like this—really, she shouldn’t. But he couldn’t recall what she used to be like. It seemed she had always sat unchanged on the sofa, waiting for his return, then offered a shy smile and a nod before scurrying into her room with timid, hurried steps…
In his daze, his pounding heart inexplicably filled with anxiety and sorrow.
Irritated, he pulled out his phone and dialed a number. As soon as the call connected, he coldly and impatiently demanded, “There’s an injured person in Lu Family Village. Get here now.”
Just as the night deepened, the sky outside suddenly broke into a heavy downpour, dark clouds shrouding the heart, tearing open the wounds buried within each other.
Thunder arrived as expected.
Ji Liao knelt on the ground, screaming as she covered her ears. The louder the thunder roared, the more terrified and restless she became.
There had been a night just as earth-shattering as this one, a scene she could never forget—being tied by female inmates to a large tree on the sports ground to attract lightning. Wrapped in iron wires, she and the tree trunk became inseparable. Thunder rumbled overhead while cheers erupted on the ground. No one knew how she had survived that night.
“Are you showing weakness to me?” Yu Nanzhi crouched down and grabbed her hand, but the moment he touched her, he froze. Her hand was icy, and her body trembled. Could she be afraid of thunderstorms?
That couldn’t be. She had once said she loved thunderstorms because the clamor of thunder helped her sleep soundly.
But what was happening now…
“A’Bao… I’m scared…” At this moment, she wished she could curl into a ball and hide in a dark corner.
Yet Yu Nanzhi frowned. Who was A’Bao?
Once awakened, dormant jealousy transforms a person entirely.
Yu Nanzhi couldn’t help but recall again who had protected her in prison.
“A’Bao… where are you…”
Watching her desperately search and call out, the jealousy deep in his chest grew increasingly rampant. He let out a cold laugh, his eyes glinting with frost, and gently brushed aside the disheveled strands of hair by her ear. His tone was icy: “A’Bao, is it? I’ll help you find her.”
Ji Liao looked up, a smile blooming like spring flowers, yet her words were mocking: “You won’t find her. She is an unattainable love. Someone like you, scum, doesn’t deserve to be near her.”
In that moment, Yu Nanzhi admitted he felt a flicker of desire to eliminate A’Bao, but the name felt too familiar, so he said nothing.
Ji Liao had done nothing, yet her words alone stirred his memories once more. Suddenly, he recalled what the prison guards had once told him—that in prison, a woman named Yun Bao, also a murderer, had taken particular care of Ji Liao.
Yun Bao—a seemingly ordinary name, yet it sparked recognition in his mind of who she was.
“Liaoliao-jie, don’t be afraid. I’m here.”
Lu Chengqing held the trembling Ji Liao, her heart aching unbearably. Though not lost in the rain, it felt as if Ji Liao had been plunged into a bone-chilling environment, her body frozen and immobile.
If her brother were home, he would never let them suffer or be frightened like this.
“Qing’er, I’m so cold…” So cold, so cold—as if thousands of needles and thorns pierced her limbs, waves of piercing pain spreading through her. At this moment, she was like a stray dog abandoned in the rainy night, huddling in the shadows, trembling uncontrollably.
“Liaoliao-jie…” Lu Chengqing called her name softly, trying to pull her back to reason.
Ji Liao hunched over, leaning against Lu Chengqing’s shoulder, her hands clutching her clothes tightly, gasping for breath like a fish out of water.
“Why is this happening, Liaoliao-jie… What have you been through?”
Ji Liao suddenly bit her lower lip, suppressing a sob, as if trying to shatter every chain that tied her to Yu Nanzhi.
And so, all the storms buried within her heart surged toward her with even greater ferocity at this moment. That fatal memory seemed to reach out its tentacles once more, binding her and pulling her back.
Shivering, Ji Liao curled up in Lu Chengqing’s embrace, much like a pitiful child seeking refuge in her mother’s arms.
When Li Chengru arrived, he happened upon this scene: Yu Nanzhi stood aloof and cold on one side, while two women clung to each other, weeping bitterly.
He walked over and patted Yu Nanzhi’s shoulder, saying irritably, “Even though we’re friends, my career keeps me quite busy, you know? Where’s the injured person?”