【The path to salvation lies within it.】
【To save others is also to save oneself.】
A strange voice echoed beside her ears. Song Qingxian looked around, yet no one was speaking. Where did that voice come from?
In the end, her gaze landed on Lu Nanzhan before her.
Save someone? Save who? Surely it could not mean this lunatic in front of her.
A trace of astonishment appeared in Lu Nanzhan’s eyes. His heart pounded violently because, just now, his Xianxian had gently stroked his head.
Lu Nanzhan lightly grasped Song Qingxian’s wrist and pressed a kiss against it. “Xianxian, don’t you know a man’s head can’t be touched so casually?”
Song Qingxian froze awkwardly in place. “I… didn’t mean to…”
Lu Nanzhan wrapped an arm around her waist. She watched his sexy Adam’s apple bob twice before he lowered his head and captured her soft lips, sucking on them forcefully.
“Mmph…”
For Song Qingxian, who had been single since birth, this was her first kiss. Instinctively, she pushed and hit Lu Nanzhan with all her strength.
Yet Lu Nanzhan only tightened his hold on her and rubbed harder against her soft lips. In her panic, she accidentally bit through his lip, but even then he still did not stop. Gradually, she tasted the faint metallic scent of blood.
A thin silver strand slid from the corner of their lips.
Just as Song Qingxian felt the last trace of air being drained from her lungs, Lu Nanzhan finally released her.
He casually wiped his lips, and the smear of blood blooming there looked both beautiful and sinister.
Lu Nanzhan’s voice was low and deep. “Xianxian, I already told you, you’re not allowed to bite during a kiss. You forgot again.”
His deep voice sent a bone chilling coldness through Song Qingxian.
This man was terrifying.
The overwhelming pressure and coldness he radiated in reality were thousands of times more frightening than anything described in the novel.
Song Qingxian noticed that the number above his head had changed again.
It had become 99.
She could not understand it at all. What exactly did this number represent?
Lu Nanzhan’s large hand gently stroked her abdomen. “Xianxian, you really are cruel to me.”
“Lu… Lu Nanzhan…” Song Qingxian cautiously called his name. “Don’t… don’t act impulsively.”
“Impulsive?” Lu Nanzhan curled his lips into a cold sneer. “Xianxian, I know you deliberately lured me here today.”
“You worked together with Fang Cheng. Wasn’t today supposed to be your plan to threaten me into dying together with you, all so I’d give up the company?”
Song Qingxian frowned. This detail did not seem to have appeared in the novel.
Fang Cheng, however, sounded familiar. He was one of Lu Nanzhan’s bodyguards, someone Song Qingxian had bribed before and who had even helped her escape.
The smile on Lu Nanzhan’s lips remained chilling. “He actually dared to betray me. Do you know what happened to him?”
Song Qingxian pressed her lips together in silence.
“I threw him into the cage with Shuangye.” Lu Nanzhan’s tone was calm and emotionless. “Shuangye hasn’t eaten for two days. I imagine it can finally have a full meal now.”
Shuangye was a wolf raised by Lu Nanzhan. Though it was a savage beast by nature, he had trained it into complete obedience, though only toward him alone.
Song Qingxian stared at him, her thin shoulders trembling uncontrollably. She desperately wanted to escape, to get away from this cruel and bloodthirsty man before her.
Lu Nanzhan took in every trace of fear in her expression. Holding her in his arms, he leaned close to her ear, his thin lips brushing against it.
“Xianxian, this time I’ll grant your wish, alright?”
“After I die, the company, the shares, everything under my name will all go to Lu Chiyan. Then you’ll finally get what you want, won’t you?”
Song Qingxian looked at him in disbelief. “What do you mean?”
Lu Nanzhan’s lips curved upward into an incomparably sinister smile.
The next second, endless flames rushed toward them.
Song Qingxian vaguely saw the number above his head turn into 100.
So this was what it felt like to be burned alive by fire.
Pain! Pain so unbearable she wished for death.
It felt as though her flesh was splitting apart, the agony sinking deep into her bones.
Lu Nanzhan held her tightly in his embrace. “Xianxian, now we’ll be together forever.”
Yet the pain quickly faded away. Dazed and disoriented, Song Qingxian thought that she was probably dead.
Would she be able to return to reality?
Or would she disappear alongside the “Song Qingxian” in the novel?
Song Qingxian opened her eyes. A faint burning sensation still lingered on her body as she sat collapsed on the ground.
She lowered her head and looked at her arms. Smooth and uninjured, they showed no sign of having just experienced a fire or explosion.
She looked around. It was still the same dilapidated warehouse, with a group of bodyguards dressed in black standing nearby.
Lu Nanzhan stepped toward her in his black leather shoes. Slowly approaching, he reached out with his strong hand and helped Song Qingxian to her feet.
“Xianxian, why did you run away again? Naughty girls get punished.”
Song Qingxian stared at him in shock.
She had not died?
Had she been reborn inside the novel?
She noticed the number above Lu Nanzhan’s head was still there.
It was actually 92.
Song Qingxian carefully recalled everything that had just happened. When she touched Lu Nanzhan’s head, the number dropped. When she bit his lip during the kiss, the number rose.
Afterward, for some unknown reason, the number became 100, and the warehouse exploded.
Could this number represent Lu Nanzhan’s mood? Did reaching 100 trigger an explosion? Song Qingxian silently speculated.
She decided to test her theory.
Raising her hand, she gently stroked Lu Nanzhan’s head.
Sure enough, the number dropped again, 91.
The dark hostility in Lu Nanzhan’s expression softened slightly. Wrapping an arm around Song Qingxian’s waist, his somewhat rough palm gently smoothed out her messy hair.
“Xianxian, are you trying to please me?”
According to the novel’s plot, Song Qingxian was supposed to tell Lu Nanzhan that she had aborted the child.
Song Qingxian silently shook her head.
She absolutely could not follow the original plot.
If she said it, Lu Nanzhan would definitely explode.
Even though she had been reborn, she had no desire to experience that horrifying burning pain a second time.
“Hm?” Seeing her distracted, Lu Nanzhan tightened his hold around her waist.
Song Qingxian cautiously lifted her head to look at the number above him.
Thankfully, it had not changed.
What should she do?
Song Qingxian silently considered her options. Should she try pleasing him?
Lu Nanzhan’s large hand gently stroked her lower abdomen. “Baby, did you miss Daddy?”
Song Qingxian placed her soft hand over Lu Nanzhan’s. “Mm, of course the baby misses Daddy.”
The number became 88.
Lu Nanzhan’s hand actually trembled slightly.
The next moment, his tall figure lowered as he dropped to one knee on the floor. Pressing his ear against Song Qingxian’s abdomen, he listened for a long time before speaking in a muffled voice.
“Why can’t I hear the baby?”
At this point, the child had already been aborted by Song Qingxian.
Her heart raced wildly, but she forced herself to remain calm. “The baby is still so small. Of course you can’t hear anything yet.”
To her surprise, Lu Nanzhan’s lips curved upward slightly.
It was not his usual cold, sinister smile, but one carrying a trace of softness.
He slowly stood up. “That’s true. I really want to meet her soon.”
Song Qingxian finally let out a sigh of relief.
Leaving this warehouse that could explode at any moment was the smartest choice.
Her beautiful, fragile eyes gazed at Lu Nanzhan. “Let’s go home.”
Lu Nanzhan looked at her in surprise.
Home?
“You mean going back to Nanshan?”
Lu Nanzhan’s villa estate was located halfway up Nanshan Mountain. Song Qingxian had never once called that place home.
When she was in a better mood, she would call it “your house” or “your villa.” Most of the time, however, she referred to it as a prison or a cage.
Song Qingxian gently nodded. “Mm.”
The number above Lu Nanzhan’s head dropped again, changing to 86.