The sky over Jing City grew steadily gloomier, heavy with dark clouds as if the entire world were being swallowed by darkness.
“Slap—!”
A blow fueled by intense hatred landed squarely on Su Yinian’s face. The sound echoed through the empty, abandoned warehouse, sharp and jarring.
The moment the strike connected, Song Xiran felt an instant wave of satisfaction wash over her. Lu Yunhui gently pulled Song Xiran’s hand to his lips, blowing on it with a look of deep distress.
“Babe, your hand is all red. It breaks my heart to see this.”
Leaning against Lu Yunhui’s chest, Song Xiran pouted and whined in an exaggeratedly sweet voice, “Yunhui-gege, just looking at this bitch makes my blood boil. My hand hurts so much…”
Lu Yunhui pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Next time, don’t be so reckless. If you want to vent, let me handle it.”
With both legs completely shattered, Su Yinian had been knocked flat to the ground by the sheer force of the blow, proof of just how hard Song Xiran had hit her. Her delicate face, already covered in bruises, now bore several distinct, crimson handprints. A few loose strands of hair clung messily to her cheeks, and a trace of blood stained the corner of her lips.
Yet even in her utter wretchedness, nothing could hide the striking beauty of her refined features.
Su Yinian’s dark, luminous peach-blossom eyes churned with a deep, burning hatred as she glared fixedly at the two people standing before her.
Song Xiran—her best friend of many years, to whom she had given her absolute trust and sincerity.
Lu Yunhui—the man who had spent all these years swearing up and down how much he loved her.
How laughable. How utterly, bitterly laughable…
She never could have imagined that one day, she would be stabbed in the back by the people closest to her.
Today marked the seventh day Su Yinian had been locked away in this place. Over the past week, Song Xiran and Lu Yunhui had exhausted every imaginable method to torture her behind the scenes. Although Su Yinian had only seen them in person on her very first day here, the overhead security cameras made it clear they were watching her every move, every second of the day.
At first, they deprived her of food and water. After leaving her to starve for two days, they tossed her moldy meals and filthy ditch water. When Su Yinian refused to eat, their guards forced her jaw open and crammed the foul mess down her throat.
Later on, they had someone systematically pull out each of the nails from all ten of her fingers, one by one.
Just yesterday, they ordered her Achilles tendons severed…
Every single day brought a fresh form of torture. Su Yinian’s entire body was wracked with a deep, searing agony—so intense that the pain had finally begun to dull into numbness.
Having grown up cherished and protected by her parents, Su Yinian had never suffered a fraction of this kind of torment. Every single fingertip was a mangled, swollen mess of raw flesh, oozing a sickening mixture of blood and pus. Her ankles, once slender and gracefully shaped, were likewise torn and bloody.
There were countless moments when she wished Song Xiran and Lu Yunhui would just give her a quick, clean end. But because the two of them stayed away, they certainly weren’t going to grant her the mercy of a quick death.
Now that they had finally decided to show their faces, Su Yinian had a million things she wanted to say, a million questions she wanted to ask. But looking at the cold, ruthless expressions on their faces, she suddenly realized: what was the point of asking anything at all?
The reality was right in front of her. Everything she was suffering was entirely engineered by their hands.
Even so, Su Yinian couldn’t wrap her head around it. She couldn’t understand why—why would they do this to her?
For all these years, she had never done a single thing to wrong either of them. Whenever Song Xiran asked for something, Su Yinian had always gone above and beyond to deliver.
And yet, this was Song Xiran’s payback?!
Seeing the two people she had trusted most standing right in front of her, hugging and clinging to each other, made Su Yinian physically sick just sharing the same air.
“You guys… are so disgusting!”
“Bitch! You’ve got some nerve. Say that again!”
Su Yinian let out a dark, mocking huff from the back of her throat, lifting her bloodless little face. “What, you want to hear it again?”
“I said—you guys are completely, utterly sickening!”
Cursing her as a bitch, Song Xiran took a menacing step forward, raising her hand to strike again, only to be pulled back by Lu Yunhui.
“Babe, step aside and let me handle this.”
Song Xiran shot Su Yinian a venomous glare, then stood on her tiptoes to press a light, seductive kiss to Lu Yunhui’s lips. “Then I’ll leave the hard work to you, Yunhui-gege.”
“Not hard at all. I’d do anything for you, babe.”
Lowering his head, Lu Yunhui grabbed the back of Song Xiran’s head and pulled her into a heavy, deep kiss. Encouraged by her response, his arms tightened around her waist as he prolonged the embrace.
It was only when Song Xiran finally pushed him away that it stopped, cutting off whatever R-rated scene might have followed next.
Noticing Lu Yunhui’s unsatisfied expression, Song Xiran coaxed him softly, “Once everything is settled, I’ll make sure to reward you properly tonight.”
With that promise, Lu Yunhui turned back to Su Yinian, completely content.
He took a step forward, squatted down in front of her, and let out a light, contemptuous laugh. Reaching out, he grabbed a handful of Su Yinian’s hair and jerked her head back, forcing her to look him in the eye before landing two hard slaps across her face.
“When are you going to drop this high-and-mighty attitude? Still think you’re some kind of precious little princess? You made my baby Ranran angry. Tell me, how should I punish you for that?”
The blows left Su Yinian’s ears ringing with a sharp whine, plunging her into temporary deafness. Her face was swollen beyond recognition, and it took her a long, agonizing moment to pull herself together.
Biting down hard on her bloodless lower lip, she glared at him with a murderous hatred that seemed capable of tearing him limb from limb.
“If you have the guts, just kill me! I’ll come back as a ghost and never let you go!”
Lu Yunhui gave her hair another harsh yank, pushing his tongue against his cheek with a sneer. “Don’t be in such a rush. Today’s the day we send you off to the next world.”
Su Yinian kept her furious gaze locked onto him, her eyes burning red with rage. “You two will pay for everything you’ve done! You’ll get what’s coming to you!”
Squatting beside Lu Yunhui, Song Xiran covered her mouth with an exaggerated gasp, playfully clinging to his arm. “Yunhui-gege, I’m so scared. Niannian says she’s going to make us pay.”
Lu Yunhui pinched Su Yinian’s jaw hard, curving his lips in a mocking smirk. “I’d love to see what kind of price we have to pay! Even if there’s such a thing as karma, you’ll be the one paving the road ahead of us.”
Song Xiran let out a cynical laugh. “Brother Yunhui, why would karma ever come for us? We’re going to live happily ever after.”
She stood up, crossed her arms, and looked down at Su Yinian from on high. “Niannian, you can rest easy on your way out. Don’t worry about how we’re doing down here. Now that even the Fu Group belongs to us, Yunhui-gege and I are going to live wonderfully.”
Hearing those words, Su Yinian froze completely, her voice trembling as the realization hit her.
“What did you say?! What happened to the Fu Group?”
The Fu Group… Fu Zhiyan…
How on earth had the Fu Group fallen into Song Xiran and Lu Yunhui’s hands?