At eight in the evening, Du Hao emerged from the apartment parking garage in high spirits.
He had just finished a phone call with Su Wanyu, and they had agreed to visit an art exhibition together over the weekend.
As he approached his car, he pulled out his car keys.
Suddenly, hurried footsteps sounded from behind.
Before Du Hao could turn around, a heavy blow struck the back of his head.
Darkness clouded his vision, and he lost consciousness.
When he awoke, he found his hands bound behind his back, kneeling on the cold concrete floor.
His head throbbed with pain, and the taste of blood filled his mouth.
With great effort, he lifted his head and saw a leather armchair placed in front of him, starkly out of place in its surroundings.
Someone was sitting in it.
The dim light outlined the figure.
She wore a simple white trench coat, legs crossed, idly playing with a metal lighter. The crisp “click” sound echoed with each open and close.
The flame illuminated her impassive profile, breathtakingly beautiful.
Beside her stood seven or eight young men, all dressed impeccably, but now they stood with arms crossed, staring at him with hostile eyes, as if watching prey caught in a trap.
“Awake?”
Lin Ran spoke, her voice echoing through the empty factory.
Du Hao struggled to stand, but his legs gave way, and he fell back to his knees. “Lin Ran! Are you fucking crazy? What gives you the right to tie me up?”
“What gives me the right?” Lin Ran stopped playing with the lighter and looked up at him. “Don’t you have any idea?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Du Hao roared. “Let me go now! This is illegal confinement!”
Lin Ran casually tossed the lighter aside and picked up a baseball bat from the ground.
Beside her, Chen Chao caught the lighter and used it to light the cigarette dangling from his lips.
Lin Ran gripped the baseball bat and walked unhurriedly toward Du Hao.
The sound of her high heels tapping against the concrete floor echoed through the vast, silent factory, each step seeming to strike directly at Du Hao’s heart.
Seeing the weapon in Lin Ran’s hand, fear flickered in Du Hao’s eyes. He blustered, “What do you think you’re doing?! I’m warning you, don’t do anything reckless!!”
Lin Ran stopped in front of him, looking down at him from above. Her red lips parted slightly, curling into a mocking smile.
“Hiring hackers to ruin my reputation—you play dirty, don’t you, Young Master Du?”
Du Hao stiffened, his pupils contracting sharply.
How could she know?!
“You—do you have proof?” he retorted, glaring at her defiantly. “Without proof, you’re just slandering me!”
“Proof?” Lin Ran tilted her head, as if considering the question, then answered honestly, “No.”
Just as Du Hao began to relax, Lin Ran’s baseball bat swung up without warning, cutting through the air with a whoosh before crashing down hard onto his shoulder!
Thud!
He let out a scream as the impact sent him sprawling to the ground.
Excruciating pain shot through his shoulder; he felt as though his bones might have cracked. Cold sweat instantly drenched his back!
Lin Ran placed her foot on his shoulder and pressed down slightly. “Still pretending with me?”
“Argh—!”
Du Hao let out a piercing howl, the pain nearly causing him to black out.
Lin Ran looked down at his face, twisted in agony, her voice still calm. “Now, do we have proof?”
Du Hao was in too much pain to speak, only able to glare at her with hatred.
“Oh, not yet.”
Lin Ran answered her own question, increasing the pressure under her foot. She listened with satisfaction as his screams grew even more agonized.
“No matter. I’ll beat you until you confess. Won’t that be proof enough?”
She insultingly tapped Du Hao’s sweat-drenched, dust-covered face with the baseball bat.
“Young Master Du, your bones aren’t as tough as your mouth. I wonder how many more hits they can take?”
Du Hao had been pampered and domineering since childhood—when had he ever suffered such physical pain?
Looking into Lin Ran’s icy eyes, pain and fear were frantically destroying his psychological defenses.
But he still clung to a shred of luck and the arrogant nature befitting a young master, enduring the excruciating pain as he roared.
“Lin Ran! I’m the young master of the Du family in Jiangcheng! How dare you lay such heavy hands on me? Aren’t you afraid of sparking conflict between our families?!”
He tried to intimidate her with his family’s influence.
Upon hearing this, Lin Ran reacted as if she had heard an utterly boring joke.
She lifted her foot, crouched down, and met the eyes of Du Hao, who was sprawled on the ground.
Her eyes, deep as pools in the dim light, clearly reflected Du Hao’s disheveled and wretched image.
“Du Hao,” she called his name, her voice soft, “look carefully. This is Jing City.”
“The Du family?”
She paused, a look of extreme mockery curling at the corner of her mouth. “What kind of thing is that?”
“You…” Du Hao was stunned by the contempt in her words.
Lin Ran continued unhurriedly, “Your father, Du Jianming, has two illegitimate sons outside. They’re both better at pleasing your father than you are, and one of them is even already involved in the company’s business, right?”
Du Hao’s face instantly turned as pale as paper. No one outside the Du family knew about this—how could Lin Ran be so well-informed?!
“Do you think your shrewd, pragmatic father would go to all lengths to confront my Lin family for the sake of a useless son like you, who only stirs up trouble?”
Lin Ran paused, watching as the last glimmer of light in Du Hao’s eyes completely vanished before delivering the final blow.
“Or would he consider this… a convenient opportunity to replace the heir?”
Du Hao stiffened all over, as if his backbone had been instantly ripped out, and he could no longer even feel the pain.
Lin Ran’s words were like a scalpel, precisely dissecting the most disgraceful and fragile truths beneath his glamorous exterior.
His father’s neglect, his favoritism toward the illegitimate sons, the undercurrents within the family…
All of it was laid bare before his eyes by Lin Ran.
If today’s incident blew up and the Lin family pursued it relentlessly, even going so far as to support the illegitimate sons instead…
Then what he would lose wouldn’t just be his dignity and health—it would be the entire future of the Du family!
Weighing the pros and cons, a fierce will to survive and a clear understanding of his own situation instantly overwhelmed everything else.
“I’ll talk…” Du Hao spoke as if resigned to his fate.
“It was me. I hired a hacker to photoshop the images, aiming to ruin your reputation.”
“And what else?”
“And…” Du Hao hesitated. “Nothing else.”
Lin Ran snorted coldly. “Do you think I’m easy to fool?”
“Will you cooperate now, or do I have to beat it out of you?”
As soon as she finished speaking, Lin Ran waved to Chen Chao and the others. “Come here.”
They quickly gathered around.
Du Hao’s heart tightened. Closing his eyes, he blurted out desperately, “Su Wanyu!”
“It was her! She came to me saying you bullied her and asked me to help her get revenge!”
Du Hao’s eyes were filled with grief and despair.
He hadn’t wanted to expose Su Wanyu, but Lin Ran’s attitude made it clear she knew there was someone else involved.
If he didn’t speak up, the consequences would be unimaginable.
After listening, Lin Ran showed no expression on her face. She waved her hand, and Chen Chao and the others stepped back.
“If you had been this cooperative from the start, you wouldn’t have had to suffer all this physical pain.”
Du Hao lay sprawled on the floor, not daring to retort.
Lin Ran settled back into her chair. “I’ll give you a way out.”
“Go to the police station and turn yourself in. Explain everything from start to finish, including Su Wanyu’s involvement, in full detail.”
“Of course, you can choose not to mention her, but you’ll bear the consequences.”
Du Hao’s head snapped up.
Turn himself in?
That would ruin his entire life!
How could the dignified heir of the Du family be someone with a criminal record?!
At this moment, all pride, all love—none of it mattered compared to his future.
He crawled forward on his knees, his expression desperate.
“Lin Ran! I know I was wrong! Can’t we settle this privately? Don’t make me turn myself in! I really can’t do it!”
Lin Ran raised an eyebrow. “Don’t want to turn yourself in, huh… Well, that makes things tricky~”
She drew out the last syllable, her smile like that of a fox holding all the cards.