【Note: Rest assured, this is a pure love story】
Drip-drop.
In the forest, the rain poured down in torrents, turning the ground into a slippery mess. Lin Mian stepped into a muddy pit, her ankle sinking deep, and she tumbled to the ground.
“Over there!”
“Go catch them!”
The rain lashed down fiercely. Amid the dense trees, several dark figures moved with brutal ferocity, running in long strides while carrying black weapons.
Lin Mian pushed against the ground, covered in rotting leaves, trying to get up, but her ankle was stuck deep in the mud pit.
“Hurry up, they’re almost on us,” her blind date, Zhang Zhiwen, yanked hard on Lin Mian’s arm. “Get up, quick!”
“I’m stuck,” Lin Mian lifted her head. The heavy rain had already drenched them both, her messy black hair clinging to her fair, delicate cheeks.
Even in the dangerous, gloomy surroundings, her face remained strikingly beautiful and lively, her skin so fair and bright she seemed like an elf.
Zhang Zhiwen was a blind date forced on her by her uncle. Lin Mian had been seeing him for two months, still unsure whether to commit to a relationship, when her aunt tricked her into joining this overseas tour group with him.
So, her feelings for Zhang Zhiwen weren’t deep.
Now, faced with the extreme danger of being trafficked to Old Myanmar, Lin Mian didn’t want to drag Zhang Zhiwen down.
As the kidnappers drew closer, Lin Mian was about to tell him to leave her and run when her wrist was abruptly released.
Zhang Zhiwen had abandoned Lin Mian.
“Sorry, I don’t want to die with you,” Zhang Zhiwen turned and fled.
Lin Mian froze for half a second, then didn’t look back. In her heart, she replied, It’s fine. When disaster strikes, everyone fends for themselves. That’s normal.
Finally, Lin Mian managed to wrench herself free from the mud pit. Just seconds before she could be caught, she scrambled to her feet and ran forward.
“Stop!” The pursuers were right behind her, their footsteps closing in.
“Keep running and I’ll fucking shoot you!”
Lin Mian didn’t dare stop or look back. Gasping for breath, she ran desperately forward.
Suddenly, she spotted the faint outlines of vehicles and people in the valley below. Before she could get a clear look, her foot slipped, and she tumbled down.
After a dizzying, chaotic roll, Lin Mian curled up in the pouring rain, her entire body aching.
The rain fell heavily. It took her several seconds to hear the sounds.
It was Zhang Zhiwen’s panicked, terrified pleas for mercy.
“Please, don’t kill me! I—I’ll give you my girlfriend!”
“She’s my girlfriend, she’s really beautiful. I’ll give her to you, just let me go!”
Lin Mian’s head spun, her vision blurry. She vaguely saw a tall figure approach, grab her hair, and roughly haul her up from the ground, dragging her over to Zhang Zhiwen.
“Look, she really is beautiful,” Zhang Zhiwen crawled over, pushing aside Lin Mian’s messy hair to reveal her pretty, innocent face.
“She really is beautiful!” Zhang Zhiwen said urgently. “Take her, just let me go.”
Her vision slowly focused as Lin Mian finally regained her senses. Her rain-soaked eyelashes lifted.
She looked around.
This was a fairly large, flat area. On both sides, several vehicles were parked, and a dense crowd of people stood around, each holding a gun.
This was clearly some kind of dangerous transaction scene.
Zhang Zhiwen had already been beaten until his face was covered in blood, and he’d taken a bullet to the shoulder. Blood mixed with rainwater dripped onto Lin Mian’s face.
The stench was foul, nauseating to the extreme.
Lin Mian turned her head aside and, unexpectedly, caught sight of another figure.
He sat inside a black business vehicle with its door wide open, one long leg planted firmly on the ground, his short boots sharp and clean. His right hand rested on his knee, the powerful, knuckle-defined fingers adorned with two wide silver rings on the index and middle fingers. His fingers curled lightly, casually holding a pistol with a careless, languid grip.
Following the line of his long arm was a black T-shirt that clung to an exceptionally well-built physique. Even through the curtain of rain, Lin Mian could make out the defined swell of his chest muscles.
Her gaze traveled upward to his mature, stern, and dangerously handsome face, reminiscent of an alpha wolf. His bone structure was sharp and deep-set, with narrow, fierce eyes like those of a predator in the wild.
Lin Mian froze for half a second, her pupils instantly contracting sharply. Her heartbeat accelerated violently, and she even felt a dizzying sensation as if she were dreaming.
Though four years had passed and the man before her had changed so drastically he was almost unrecognizable, she still identified him at a glance.
He Duoye.
Her only ex-boyfriend.
Why was he here?
In her daze, Lin Mian’s hair was once again violently grabbed, yanking her slender, fragile body upward.
It was a fierce-looking bald man with sinister eyes.
“She really is pretty, looks innocent,” the bald man sized up Lin Mian, especially the curves of her body outlined by her wet clothes—slender, soft, yet upright and full.
He flashed a lewd grin. “A virgin, woman?”
Lin Mian’s scalp throbbed with pain, her mind in disarray as she shook her head.
She and He Duoye had started dating in high school. Shortly after she turned eighteen, he had coaxed and tricked her into bed.
During the summer after the college entrance exams, they did it every day except during her period.
For a while, Lin Mian even dreamed of being broken by him.
“Already been opened, huh,” the bald man said with regret. He bent down, his menacing face drawing closer, his tone growing even more vulgar. “How many men have slept with you?”
Lin Mian didn’t want to answer. Struggling, she turned her head to look at He Duoye in the car.
Noticing her pleading gaze, He Duoye lifted his eyelids. Despite the gloomy darkness of the stormy sky, his narrow eyes seemed to glow with a sinister red light.
Like a snake, or a cold-hearted demon.
His gaze lowered, looking down at Lin Mian as he curled his lips into a casual, indifferent smile.
He showed no intention of stepping in to help.
Lin Mian felt her entire body turn cold, rainwater trickling down her pale cheeks.
“Speak up,” the bald man pinched Lin Mian’s face.
Lin Mian pressed her lips tightly together, remaining silent. She knew that humiliating questions like these wouldn’t end with her cooperation—they would only escalate.
The rain continued to pour heavily. The group that had been chasing Lin Mian earlier now descended the hillside.
As the three parties met, the atmosphere grew tense and delicate.
The bald man released Lin Mian, reaching back to grip the gun at his waist.
“No need to be tense, no need,” said the leader of the arriving group, whom Lin Mian remembered by his nickname, Fourth Brother.
He raised his hands in a gesture of goodwill and explained, “We’re just here to catch some runaways… These two are fresh goods we just acquired. They escaped on the way, and we’ve been chasing them all this time.”
The bald man replied, “We caught them, so they’re ours now.”
Fourth Brother scanned the scene, noting that the other side had more people, more guns, and more vehicles. He didn’t want a conflict, but buying people from outside wasn’t easy these days.
The compound was desperately short on manpower, and they had already invested so much effort in the chase. The sunk cost was too high to simply give up.
“Alright then, the woman can stay for you gentlemen to have your fun with, but the man comes with me. How about that?”
The bald man sneered, “Who do you think you are, daring to bargain with our Uncle Mei?”
The name “Uncle Mei” made Fourth Brother’s expression change instantly. He immediately looked toward the car behind them.
A minivan stood with its door open, through which one could vaguely see the long legs of a tall man. Parked beside it was a seemingly rundown sedan, its door also open as a middle-aged man bent down and stepped out.
A subordinate nearby promptly opened an umbrella.
Under the black umbrella, Uncle Mei wore a white traditional-style cloth jacket. His cheeks were sunken, and he stared expressionlessly at Fourth Brother and his group.
Fourth Brother immediately said, “I was blind not to recognize Mount Tai. I apologize for disturbing Uncle Mei. I’ll just take my people and leave.”
But the moment they turned to go, gunshots rang out simultaneously.
Lin Mian knelt on the ground, and amidst the deafening gunfire, she saw bodies riddled with one bloody hole after another.
The vicious thugs who had been chasing her just moments ago fell one after another, turning into corpses soaked in blood.
Zhang Zhiwen trembled uncontrollably, desperately trying to squeeze himself into a corner.
Lin Mian’s face turned deathly pale. Seizing the opportunity, she scrambled to her feet and dashed toward the van where He Duoye was.
If she didn’t seek help now, she would die even more horribly than these men.