“Sir, we’re almost at Suhapa.”
Only when the taxi driver glanced at her in the rearview mirror and spoke did Yuri realize the destination was coming into view. Mentioning the name of the lodging where Ling Xinlu was staying, she prepared to pay the fare. At the same time, she steeled herself mentally for the dreadful scene she might face. In the worst case, if it was a corpse, she had seen dozens by now, including many that no longer resembled human forms. Yet she had never once felt fear — but now, just imagining Ling Xinlu’s corpse made her clearly aware of her own unease.
Foolish.
She should have left immediately after kidnapping Jeong Tae-i. Why was she still here?
She must have known it would come to this.
“…”
Yuri tilted her head slightly as if to say ‘uh,’ and rubbed her chin with her finger.
Yes, he must have known. That if Jeong Tae-i disappeared, Ligrow wouldn’t stay idle — Ling Xinlu couldn’t have been unaware of this.
But why hadn’t he left the island immediately or taken some action? What reason did he have not to?
While pondering this, the taxi stopped in front of the destination.
Where the security guards who should have blocked Yuri at the resort entrance had gone was a mystery. Entering through the open gate without anyone guarding, Yuri quickly understood why no one was visible — faint sounds came from deep inside the resort: murmurs, screams, curses, shouts, all chaotically mixed.
Among them, no familiar voice was heard, but Yuri immediately recognized one.
Ligrow. The situation was still ongoing.
A sense of relief came first. The fact it was still happening meant Ling Xinlu hadn’t yet reached the worst.
Yuri clicked her tongue and ran toward the sounds.
But there was nothing fortunate about it.
The soil in the flowerbeds looked unnaturally black, soaked with an enormous amount of blood.
Standing on the flowerbed, Yuri recoiled when she saw her footprints on the stones stained a vivid red.
No, even that was nothing. She barely registered the horrifying figures sprawled across the garden — some corpses, some critically injured who looked like corpses.
The first things in her view were Ligrow and Ling Xinlu standing before him.
Ling Xinlu was dressed in casual clothes as if he had just returned from outside. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t yet joined the pile of bodies. But his appearance was hardly different from a corpse’s.
His shoulder hung detached from his torso; his ankle was twisted, yet his leg somehow still supported him. Blood splattered all over his body, the owner unknown.
Yet he seemed oblivious to pain. His glaring eyes shone fiercely like a beast about to die. Those jet-black eyes, which Yuri once thought pure and beautiful, now burned with murderous intent like blazing red flames.
“Give him up. Then maybe I’ll consider sparing his life.”
Ligrow’s low, slow voice sounded oddly lethargic, ill-matched to the grim atmosphere. His fingers twitched slowly like gruesome weapons.
Ling Xinlu’s black eyes seemed to hesitate for a moment, swelling with explosive rage.
Why.
In a sensation like time stopped, Yuri suddenly realized:
Jeong Tae-i… where was he? Even now, with Ling Xinlu here and his surroundings in ruin, why was Jeong Tae-i nowhere to be seen? Ling Xinlu slowly curled his lips in a strangely twisted expression — hatred and delight, anger and fury mixed together.
It was…
“Give him up? You got something stashed away? Even if you do, I don’t want to hand it over to you.”
Ling Xinlu sneered the moment those words left his lips. Having no intention to wait, Ligrow reached out. His black gloves — color unrecognizable — shot forward recklessly, grabbing Ling Xinlu’s neck. The moment his hand touched his throat was the end of life?
“Stop! Jeong Tae-i is not here.”
The voice that burst out, unexpectedly her own, was only realized by Yuri when the black glove halted just before touching the white neck. Before Ligrow’s indifferent, chilling eyes slowly turned to her, Yuri’s gaze caught Ling Xinlu’s face, wide-eyed and staring fiercely.
His face, stunned as if struck on the back of the head, soon transformed into a terrifying visage like an Eastern ghost.
“Gable!”
His voice laced with ice-cold rage called Yuri’s name. But she forced herself to look away, toward Ligrow. Slowly retracting his hand, Ligrow no longer seemed interested in Ling Xinlu.
“Then where is he?”
“I will find out soon. But not here. He was not taken here.”
That was why Ling Xinlu stayed. Chasing after the now completely vanished Jeong Tae-i.
“I’ll kill him… that bastard…!”
Revealing explosive fury meant to get under Ligrow’s skin, Ling Xinlu stepped toward Yuri. But Ligrow gave him a look first.
“Fine. Anyway, this little brat was already bothering me. It’s better to finish this cleanly now.”
“I hope you don’t.”
Yuri said with a troubled face. Ligrow frowned briefly and looked coldly at her.
“James contacted me. We need to minimize trouble with Linga. So I have to protect him even if I throw my body in, and you have to deal with me before harming him. If I get hurt, who will find Jeong Tae-i? Anyone better than me?”
“You threatening me?”
“Just stating realistic logic.”
Ligrow looked at Yuri silently for a moment. He was probably analyzing the situation in his head, but his narrow eyes seemed to freeze her heart. If he lost control, he might wipe her out too.
He finally sighed lightly.
“Fine. I don’t care about that bastard.”
Yuri briefly relaxed, sensing he wouldn’t completely reject her suggestion. But then he continued.
“But still, if you were with Tae-i until the night before last, how could you not properly watch where he disappeared? Right?”
As he finished speaking, his hand, which seemed to withdraw, shot forward again. Seizing that moment, Ling Xinlu aimed a gun at him. The gloved finger stretched out as the finger on the trigger moved. It was almost simultaneous. You are reading on novelping(.)com, the official source.
With perfect timing, the gun fired. Ligrow slightly squinted and seemed to flinch his hand.
But both were just a bit too late to deal a fatal blow.
“...!”
The bullet grazed Ligrow’s left chest several centimeters to the side, piercing the fabric and scratching the skin deeply.
Blood trickled between Ling Xinlu’s fingers that covered one eye, and he let out a short breath.
Besides the gunshot, almost no other sound was heard, but Yuri felt as if a scream had erupted. Watching Ling Xinlu bite his lips to stifle a scream, she thought,
“Ling...?!”
Without realizing it, her mouth parted to call his name as she stepped forward.
The bullet that failed to be dodged tore deep into Ligrow’s chest beside his left pectoral, quickly soaking his clothes in blood. Ligrow frowned briefly but without hesitation kicked Ling Xinlu’s side. The force was so strong it could have broken bones, yet Ling Xinlu, still covering one eye, firmly hugged Ligrow’s leg with one arm and twisted his body as if to snap it.
Only hatred remained, desperate enough to destroy himself if necessary to take down this man.
Before Ling Xinlu could break Ligrow’s knee, Yuri intervened. She struck Ling Xinlu’s forearm with a fist, making him lose his grip on Ligrow’s leg.
“Gable! You dog of the Ligrow family! Don’t interfere!”
The glare from one eye soaked in blood was even more terrifying than the other. It looked like the form of a ghost, not a human.
Without a word, Yuri kicked Ling Xinlu’s ankle — already bent in a grotesque direction. A short scream burst from him as his unbalanced body collapsed. Yuri caught him in her arms and stood between him and Ligrow.
Ling Xinlu’s face was pale and covered with cold sweat. Yet those sharp blue eyes staring at Yuri had lost none of their brilliance.
“Let go, move aside. Don’t get in the way. I’ll kill you…!”
“Don’t you even know your own condition? Stay still if you don’t want to be embarrassed more in front of him.”
Yuri’s brief reprimand was in Ling Xinlu’s native tongue, one Ligrow didn’t understand. Ling Xinlu’s eyes flickered at it. Whether because it was Chinese or due to the words themselves, he said no more — just pained, muttering curses like “damn it, it hurts.”
“Looks like James really warned you, huh? Throwing yourself to protect that guy like that.”
Ligrow scoffed behind Yuri but didn’t seem eager to act further. Yuri frowned and looked back at Ligrow while supporting Ling Xinlu on one shoulder.
“James will cry.”
“That guy wouldn’t cry over this. Doesn’t matter. Find Tae-i first, Gable. I don’t plan to wait long.”
“You won’t have to wait long.”
At that moment, sirens sounded in the distance, growing nearer. An ambulance was approaching.
Yuri looked at Ling Xinlu, sweating profusely and biting his lips, struggling to hold onto consciousness amidst excruciating pain. She carefully removed his hand from his covered eye and fell silent for a moment. Ling Xinlu seemed to tense his grip slightly on her hand.
As the siren stopped nearby, Yuri finally spoke heavily.
“But first, we need to get to the airport with that ambulance.”