3 – Sister, Don’t Leave Me Behind…
The alley was dimly lit.
By the faint moonlight, Gu Yuan could vaguely make out several burly men not far away, surrounding a white-clad youth in the corner, kicking and punching him while hurling abuse.
“Stop playing dead! Get up!”
“A father’s debt must be paid by the son. Don’t tell us you have no money—you’re a celebrity, isn’t it easy for you to get cash?”
“If you don’t pay up, we’ll beat you to death!”
The youth remained silent throughout, only the dull thuds of fists and feet landing on his body echoing in the darkness.
He seemed to sense someone approaching and slowly raised his head. Slivers of moonlight fell across his cheeks, illuminating his features as pale as jade. A trace of blood lingered at the corner of his lips, adding a touch of fragile, haunting beauty.
He didn’t cry for help—he simply looked at her.
His eyes were bright, like stars in the night sky.
Well, well—a beauty in distress…
Gu Yuan smiled with keen interest.
The burly men noticed her movement and followed her gaze, spotting Gu Yuan as she approached slowly. They glared at her with murderous intent.
The leader rolled up his sleeves and sneered, “Thought someone was coming to save him, huh? Turns out it’s just some woman. I’d advise you to mind your own business and scram!”
“You gentlemen misunderstand.”
Gu Yuan shook her head, utterly unbothered by their ferocious appearance. She stepped forward slowly, as leisurely as if taking a casual stroll.
She spoke with a smile, “I just wanted to tell you—you’re not going to kill him like that. How about I give you a demonstration…”
The men stared at her, utterly bewildered.
Gu Yuan walked to the middle of them and crouched down slowly before the youth, a friendly smile on her lips as she gazed into his beautiful eyes.
Then she reached out and gripped his throat.
The men watched in shock.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
Gu Yuan’s smile was faint, her deep, probing gaze fixed on the handsome youth before her. Her fingers tightened slowly, her voice calm, “I’ll show you how to kill someone…”
The men: “!!”
This completely threw them off!
They stood frozen, exchanging panicked glances with each other, staring at her in terror.
“Bei Chen, nice acting.”
Gu Yuan smiled as she looked at the youth in her grasp, her tone certain. In an instant, murderous intent surged in her eyes.
The youth’s gaze was dazed and fragile.
He seemed utterly weak, without even the strength to resist. His pale hand feebly clutched her wrist, letting out faint, dying struggles.
As her hand tightened gradually.
His eyes grew dimmer and dimmer.
Gu Yuan watched the youth about to die in her hands, her expression cold and detached as she waited. Yet she never saw a single trace of abnormality in him.
The smile at her lips slowly faded, and the wariness and testing in her eyes gradually dissolved.
She let go at the very last moment.
The youth, spared from death, gasped heavily, letting out a few weak coughs. The corners of his eyes were tinged red, yet he still clung tightly to her wrist.
The men breathed a sigh of relief.
Then they cursed at her, “Hey! Are you insane?! If you killed him, who would we get the money from?!”
Gu Yuan pulled the youth’s hand away.
She rose slowly, smiling at the men as she pointed a cold gun barrel at them.
“Want some ghost money?”
The men’s faces twisted in terror, and they waved their hands frantically. “No, no! We’re just hired hands! Please don’t kill us!”
They scrambled away in a panic.
Gu Yuan looked down at the youth from above.
“Who are you?”
Her voice was icy cold, as if she were interrogating a criminal.
“My name is Chi Yu…” The young man’s voice was a bit hoarse, and he looked at her scrutinizing gaze with timidity. “I’m not lying to you. You can search on your phone and you’ll know…”
Gu Yuan took out her phone and searched.
Well, well. He really did show up. This ragged, pathetic weakling before her actually had a Baidu entry—and he was a young Best Actor winner.
It was her fault for being so out of touch.
But that only made her more confused. “Why are they demanding payment from you?”
Chi Yu lowered his eyes and explained, “My father borrowed money from loan sharks to gamble and racked up a huge debt. When he was drunk, he beat my mother to death and was executed. So the creditors came looking for me…”
Gu Yuan frowned. “A prestigious Best Actor like you—you don’t even have a bodyguard?”
Chi Yu said in a low voice, “I can’t afford one.”
Gu Yuan: “…”
Gu Yuan was silent for a moment. “As I recall, with your status in the entertainment industry, your pay should be considerable.”
“My father owed one billion.”
Gu Yuan: “…”
To rack up that much debt just from drinking, gambling, and whoring—he really was something. He must have been set up, fattened up like a lamb for the slaughter…
She also saw some negative news on her phone, like how his scumbag father used the media to accuse him of being unfilial, stormed the film set to cause trouble, and threatened him using his mother—all to force him to hand over money…
Gu Yuan fell silent. He seemed even worse off than her.
“What about your agency? They don’t help?”
Chi Yu shook his head. “My father got involved with people in the underworld. The company thought I was too much trouble and already terminated my contract. Everyone thinks I’m a problem. No one is willing to help me…”
The young man struggled to get up.
But because of his injuries, he fell back down, looking up at her with a helpless gaze that landed on her.
His face was somewhat pale, and the traces of blood at the corner of his lips made him look so fragile and tragically beautiful.
Gu Yuan looked at him for a while.
The young man had a miserable background, and now he was covered in wounds, yet his handsome features still shone through. He was truly pitiful to behold…
But she remained expressionless and spoke bluntly.
“You really are a problem.”
He was the worst-off Best Actor she had ever seen.
The young man lowered his eyes in disappointment.
Gu Yuan stared at him coldly. His reaction to her probing earlier had shown no flaws, and the information online was hard to fabricate—his timeline stretched back over a long period, following the trajectory of an ordinary actor.
Debuting, landing his first role, starring in his first drama, winning his first award…
As a public figure, every single one of these milestones was recorded on camera, so real.
But still, he had let something slip.
Gu Yuan raised the gun in her hand, pointing the muzzle at him. Her gaze was deep and cold, and she curled her lips into a smile, speaking with meaning. “Best Actor Chi, you don’t seem at all surprised to see me holding a gun…”
Chi Yu looked at her, lost and bewildered.
“Aren’t you a police officer?”
Gu Yuan: “…”
Would a police officer choke you by the neck?
She looked at the young man’s clear, helpless gaze, and the bruise marks her fingers had left on his pale neck.
Gu Yuan finally felt a tiny bit of guilt.
She put away her gun and turned to leave.
He really was weak, helpless, and pitiful…
But what the hell did that have to do with her?
Scaring off the debt collectors for him was already going above and beyond. The rest was none of her business.
But just as she took a step forward,
she felt something cool around her ankle. Looking down, she saw the young man’s slender, fair hand, stained with traces of blood, gripping her ankle.
His hands were cold, trembling slightly.
She heard him let out a helpless, feeble whimper like a stray cat, “Sister… don’t leave me…”
Gu Yuan’s expression froze for a moment.
A sudden sharp pain shot through her mind, and countless fragmented images flashed before her eyes—bloody, violent, heart-wrenching…
None of the frames were clear enough to make out.
Yet she knew with certainty that these were her experiences from four years ago—everything she had endured after being sold into the Bay of Evil, that barbaric, sinful hell on earth.
That was her unforgettable nightmare.
That was her psychological trauma—memories she had only managed to forget after four years of therapy with a psychologist.
Suddenly, a scene surfaced in her mind.
In the darkness filled with blood and severed limbs, a bloodstained, trembling hand reached out.
In a foreign land, in that hell on earth, she heard someone like her let out a desperate whimper, “Sister… don’t leave me…”
Gu Yuan couldn’t recall more.
She didn’t want to think about it either, but in the end, she still turned around—just as she had four years ago.
And took hold of the hand he had reached out to her.