chapter 18

Once Blond pulled out his weapon, his body didn’t have the strength to follow through.

Growing more and more agitated, Blond gritted his teeth, cursed, and reached up to yank at Qiu Rongrong’s collar.

Just then.

Qiu Rongrong slowly put force into it, biting back the pain as she wrenched her right hand free from the knot.

The moment Blond leaned in, she shot her hand out and viciously grabbed the most vulnerable place on his body.

“Aaaah-!”

Blond instantly let out a pig-slaughter scream.

Qiu Rongrong spat in disgust to herself.

She didn’t have much strength.

But if you strike a snake, you strike where it hurts.

Even a weak grip, used on a spot like that, was enough to make Blond lose his ability to move.

Blond clutched his crotch and rolled on the ground.

Nearby, a few people had been clustered around Xu Zhao, fiddling with the camera. They were startled, froze for a few seconds, and only then realized something had happened.

Qiu Rongrong seized those few seconds and sprinted for the door.

This was the sports equipment room.

The soundproofing was good.

As long as she got out, Xu Zhao wouldn’t be able to lay a hand on her again.

As she ran, Qiu Rongrong snatched up a can of dog-repellent spray that had been set off to the side.

“Don’t let her run!” For an instant, Xu Zhao’s face went blank with panic. The expensive camera in his hands slammed to the floor, the lens cracking.

He was afraid Qiu Rongrong would really get outside and bring people over.

Qiu Rongrong didn’t care anymore. She whirled around and sprayed the dog repellent at them with everything she had.

“Get back! Don’t touch me!”

“Let go of me!! Help! Help me-!”

She could scream-loud enough to split ears. In a horror movie, she’d definitely be the kind of extra who dies first.

Several male classmates who followed Xu Zhao came cursing as they chased after her.

Every one of them tried to clamp a hand over her mouth.

The dog spray wasn’t weak.

The ones chasing her reeled and went down in a messy heap.

Someone tried to grab Qiu Rongrong’s shoulder from behind and drag her back.

The rough yank made her stumble and fall hard to the floor.

In the chaos, Xu Zhao stepped on Qiu Rongrong’s wrist and forcibly wrenched the dog spray from her hand.

“Quit screaming, you little bitch!”

“Run again and I’ll fucking kill you!”

Standing to the side, Xu Zhao barked orders, telling his lackeys to haul Qiu Rongrong back to the rack from earlier.

Right then, her screaming finally worked.

A familiar furious shout cut through the corridor-one that pierced straight into the equipment room-and the door was kicked open from the outside.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

Jiang Yuwei charged in with the counselor, both of them bristling with anger.

Xu Zhao froze. He hurriedly let go of Qiu Rongrong, who was still kicking and thrashing, covered his face, and vaulted straight out the window.

This was the second floor.

He landed and twisted his ankle, but he didn’t hesitate for a second-he abandoned his lackeys without looking back.

Qiu Rongrong sat on the floor, hair in disarray, her face smeared with dust and sweat. She panted hard and pointed toward the window. “Xu Zhao’s the mastermind. Don’t let him get away.”

Jiang Yuwei crouched and helped Qiu Rongrong up. There was an injury on Qiu Rongrong’s forehead, and the melted ice had soaked her top. Sitting on the floor, she’d been shivering uncontrollably.

“He had his people do this to me, and he wanted to film it. The camera’s over there-it’ll definitely have his fingerprints on it…” Qiu Rongrong said, trembling.

After being kidnapped twice in such a short time, Qiu Rongrong was on the verge of a breakdown.

The calm she’d shown earlier had only been something she forced out under extreme danger.

Now that she was out of immediate danger and the adrenaline still hadn’t faded, she shook all over. Every cell in her body screamed for justice.

Jiang Yuwei took off her own jacket and draped it over her. “Don’t be afraid.”

She explained what had happened.

“This afternoon in class, the teacher did roll call and you weren’t there. I didn’t answer for you, and the teacher got really mad and told me to contact you and make you come back to class.

I couldn’t get through to your phone. I was worried something had happened, so I went to the counselor.”

After that, Jiang Yuwei and the counselor asked around about Qiu Rongrong’s whereabouts. Someone told them Xu Zhao had taken her away, so they came looking.

The building where the sports equipment room was located was pretty out of the way.

They only found it because they heard Qiu Rongrong’s screams.

The counselor said she would help pursue Xu Zhao’s responsibility.

She and Jiang Yuwei were both witnesses.

She told Jiang Yuwei to support Qiu Rongrong to the infirmary for an examination first.

Qiu Rongrong did need to go to the infirmary.

Not to have the swelling on her head checked, but to find Tan Song.

There weren’t many people in the infirmary right now.

Tan Song’s gaze fell on the scraped, broken skin at her temple. She already looked delicate, and with the injury added on, she seemed even more pitiful. Looking at her, Tan Song suddenly felt that she was the same kind of person as him.
They were birds of a feather-two people to be pitied for the same reasons.

“What the hell happened to you?” Tan Song pulled a bottle of iodine from a nearby drawer and handed it to Qiu Rongrong. “Wipe it yourself.”

“Xu Zhao hit me.” Qiu Rongrong dragged over a round stool and sat down beside Tan Song.

Tan Song sighed. “If you’d stabbed me the first time, he probably wouldn’t be treating you like this now.”

“I don’t want a criminal record.”

“I wouldn’t sue you.”

“I still don’t want to do it.” Qiu Rongrong’s anger simmered. “Tan Song, tell me the truth. What kind of grudge do you have with Xu Zhao for him to hate you this much?”

“Do I have to say it?” Tan Song lowered his head, his eyes dark and heavy.

“Yes.” Qiu Rongrong swept her hair aside to show him. “He even smashed the back of my head-there’s a huge bump. If I got beaten up this badly, I at least deserve to know why.”

Tan Song fell silent.

Qiu Rongrong stayed put, refusing to leave, locked in a quiet standoff with him.

In the end, Tan Song gave in and told her the whole story.

“After my dad was sent to prison, my mom married Xu Zhao’s dad.”

So Tan Song and Xu Zhao were brothers in name.

That was… explosive.

Qiu Rongrong pressed, “What about Xu Zhao’s mom?”

Tan Song’s voice was flat. “After the divorce, she committed suicide because of depression.”

“Because of your mom?” The moment Qiu Rongrong asked, she saw Tan Song’s expression sink, and she hurried to patch it up. “I’m not saying your mom broke up someone else’s family-”

Before she could finish, Tan Song cut her off, sharp and furious.

“My mom wasn’t a mistress. Xu Yuanxiao told everyone he’d been divorced for years. My mom only got with him because of that!”

Tan Song had always insisted.

Insisted his father wasn’t a murderer.

Insisted his mother wasn’t a mistress.

But to the outside world, his father was a murderer, and his mother was a mistress.

“I’m sorry.” Qiu Rongrong realized what she’d said really was inappropriate.

Tan Song’s face dimmed even more. “My mom was deceived too.”

Xu Zhao’s father-Xu Yuanxiao-was the president of Xu Group.

In Guixu City, and even nationwide, he was a top-tier figure.

After her husband went to prison, Tan Song’s mother ran around borrowing money to hire lawyers. In the end, she borrowed from Xu Yuanxiao.

Xu Yuanxiao and Tan Song’s mother had history.

A story of childhood sweethearts and a poor boy.

Only later, the poor boy struck it rich, found his birth family, and became a second-generation rich kid. The childhood sweetheart married someone else, then fell on hard times. The two met again.

Once a man has money and power, he starts chasing the love he couldn’t have in his youth.

He agreed to lend her the money, did everything he could to hire lawyers and fight the case. The outcome was still bad, but his sincerity was undeniable. Tan Song’s mother was moved, and after her husband was sentenced to death in the first trial, she got together with Xu Yuanxiao.

Back then, Xu Yuanxiao hadn’t divorced at all.

Tan Song’s mother didn’t know.

She became “the mistress” without even realizing it.

And indirectly, it drove Xu Zhao’s biological mother to her death.

That was why Xu Zhao hated Tan Song’s entire family.

Qiu Rongrong let out a quiet sigh at the twisted karmic tie between the two households.

Tan Song’s sneakers were old.

He was already a senior, yet he still often wore the clothes from his freshman military training.

Every detail screamed how tight his life was.

“No wonder Xu Zhao keeps targeting you. But the Xu family is so rich-why didn’t you end up living the good life with them?”

“My mom doesn’t acknowledge me anymore.” A hollow smile surfaced on Tan Song’s face, like he was mocking his own current misery. “I live with my grandma now. A while back, the place she lived in burned down. I suspect someone set the fire on purpose…”

“You think Xu Zhao did it?” Qiu Rongrong felt something was off.

He was bad, sure-but his kind of bad was crude.

He had motive, but not the guts.

He wasn’t the type to commit arson and murder and leave no evidence.

“I used to suspect it was him. After you showed up, I stopped.”

“Xu Zhao was just being used-someone fanning the flames. A smokescreen right out in front.”

“Qiu Rongrong, the people who want to hurt me and the people who want to hurt you might be the same group.”

“There’s something fishy about what happened back then. My father isn’t the real culprit-at the very least, he wasn’t the one who planned the family massacre.”

“The real killer is someone else.”

“In my case, it’s about silencing me-so I can’t clear my father’s name.

“And in your case, it’s about cutting the weeds at the root. After all, you’re the only survivor…”