Chapter 26
Chapter 26
On the floor, Zhou Qingyan had witnessed everything. She stood dumbfounded. She didn’t understand.
Why had Zhang Xueya, who’d devoted so much effort to Li Zhehan and loathed Zhao Xiuming, chosen the latter at the last moment?
Had she never liked Li Zhehan at all? Had she only wanted his money?
But that didn’t make sense either. If it were about money, she should still have saved Li Zhehan.
The mystery seemed to point to an almost impossible answer: the person Zhang Xueya truly loved was Zhao Xiuming.
But… how could that explain all the awful things she’d done to him?
Who would cheat on their true love, spread rumors about him, and let others misunderstand and bully him?
Zhou Qingyan truly couldn’t understand. Her shock at this even outweighed her grief over Li Zhehan’s death.
For a long time, she didn’t know what expression she should wear.
“Xueya, you…” she said stiffly.
Zhang Xueya said nothing, avoiding Zhou Qingyan’s eyes as if hiding from her.
Zhao Xiuming, on the other hand, was looking up at the enormous cocoon on the ceiling with considerable interest.
Standing in the dim light, he could sense the strange changes within it. Something was merging and being born. It seemed they would have to wait a little longer.
He brought his attention back to his surroundings and met the bewildered Zhou Qingyan’s gaze.
She suddenly shuddered, then rushed toward him for a hug.
In the end, she really did want Zhao Xiuming to survive more than Li Zhehan.
She despised herself for it, even as she silently rejoiced.
Zhao Xiuming raised a hand and pressed his knuckles against her approaching forehead, refusing the embrace.
Apparently unfamiliar with embarrassment, Zhou Qingyan turned and hugged Zhang Xueya instead.
“Xueya, how are you feeling?” she asked. “Does your stomach hurt?”
Zhang Xueya patted her back, her gaze moving between her and Zhao Xiuming. “I’m all right,” she said soothingly.
Only then did Zhou Qingyan let go. Belatedly noticing the wounds on Zhang Xueya’s hand, she said, “I’ll wipe it with my clothes.”
No sooner had she spoken than a handkerchief was offered from beside her. It was Zhao Xiuming.
His right hand was badly mutated. His left still looked human, though the skin over his well-defined fingers was deathly pale and his nails had turned dark.
Their gaze traveled up from his wrist. His wide neckline exposed a beautiful neck covered in black veins. Tendrils writhed beneath the flesh with an eerie, sticky sound.
In the poorly lit room, Zhou Qingyan and Zhang Xueya couldn’t make out his precise condition. But he didn’t look frightening. Once they grew used to him, they might even find him rather attractive.
His face had the texture of white plastic. Yet his handsome features made him look less like those mannequins and more like the lifelike ball-jointed dolls girls liked.
After a long moment without a response, he shook the handkerchief. “Use this.”
Zhou Qingyan recognized it as the handkerchief he’d used to wipe Assistant Li’s sweat. Compared with their filthy clothes, it counted as clean. She took it and began wiping.
Slumped on the floor beside them, Assistant Li broke the strange atmosphere between the two women and the man. He sounded certain. “Zhang Xueya, you want to keep that child.”
All around the room, the tendrils were still contracting. Strands packed so densely across the entrance that it was sealed shut. The sight was nauseating; a few glances were enough to make a person dizzy.
They were like the snake in a game of Snake that had filled the entire screen. There was no gap to escape through.
Forced to face one another, they could only stay where they were. Zhao Xiuming folded his arms to watch the show. The masked biker appeared without a sound.
Unsurprised, Zhao Xiuming asked nothing and leaned lazily against him.
But the biker gripped his waist with both hands, lifted him, and set him down in a different spot.
Those hands felt like iron clamps. They squeezed so hard that his waist hurt.
The moment his feet touched the ground, Zhao Xiuming turned and punched him. “That hurts.”
“Can’t you fucking hold me properly?”
The biker didn’t hit back. Instead, he continued to stand in front of Zhao Xiuming.
Belatedly sensing something, Zhao Xiuming realized everyone else was looking their way.
Zhou Qingyan was surprised to see the biker, and a little frightened.
Assistant Li frowned. He realized the players might not have been the ones who’d blown up the hospital, but he didn’t dare ask now.
Zhang Xueya had stopped responding to his questions. Instead, she was staring intently at Zhao Xiuming, her gaze burning.
Unconcerned by the looks directed at him, Zhao Xiuming raised an eyebrow at her. “He’s asking you a question. Why are you looking at me?”
The heat in her gaze turned to reproach. Though she said nothing, he had the distinct impression she was calling him a fucking idiot.
At last she deigned to shift her attention to Assistant Li. No longer even trying to pretend, she merely scoffed.
Assistant Li cautiously softened his earlier cold tone. “Carrying a child of the Li family won’t give you the entire family.”
“In fact, blood ties don’t matter that much to families like theirs.”
“You may not get what you want. You may not be able to marry into wealth.”
Now that was…
Exactly what Zhao Xiuming wanted to hear. Fight! Come on, fight!
They’d jumped straight from a horror movie into a wealthy-family drama. Brilliant.
Zhang Xueya finally reacted, her expression scornful. “You think I want the Li family? Who wants them? This child is mine alone.”
Assistant Li clearly didn’t believe her. He tried to reason with her. “I’m not trying to criticize you. Using the resources you already possess to move up in society takes ability too. I only want to ask what you plan to do next.”
She laughed in anger. “You keep saying you’re not criticizing me, but every word drips with contempt.”
“Do you think I’m stupid? Worry about getting yourself out alive first.”
“Zhao Xiuming will get us out,” Assistant Li said with certainty.
Zhao Xiuming hadn’t expected to be dragged into this. Tilting his head, he pointed at himself. “Me?”
Assistant Li nodded. “I thought we were all in the same boat now.”
“My dying here does you no good. If I get out, everyone benefits.”
Zhao Xiuming smiled and spread his hands. “What can I do? I’m such a good person.”
Zhang Xueya snorted, looking hesitant.
She relaxed. After wrestling with herself for a moment, she finally asked, “Zhao Xiuming.”
“Isn’t there anything you want to ask me?”
He shook his head. He wasn’t interested and had no questions.
His attitude left her feeling stifled. “What, do you think I’m such a scheming liar that you don’t want to hear my excuses?”
“Or have you lost your nerve? Too scared to ask because I might keep lying to you?”
He blinked his all-black eye. He looked very inhuman now. With that gaze, he resembled some sort of alien pet.
“No.” He wanted to explain a little, but couldn’t be bothered to waste the words.
Zhang Xueya pressed him. “Then why?”
“I think you’re very clever. You know what I want to say.”
“Are you afraid of me?”
Zhao Xiuming had a bad feeling. A few simple remarks had somehow left him at a loss.
Yet Zhang Xueya couldn’t smile. “I think you have very strong intuition. Or rather, you work out what’s going on very quickly, then assume it’s just intuition.”
“I’m suffering, Zhao Xiuming. I’m suffering.”
Her tone was light. Despite her obvious misery, she brought it up as casually as a joke. “Do you know why?”
He nodded. Without waiting for her to continue, he said bluntly, “Probably because romance novels only go as far as the wedding, and you aren’t happy with your future.”
Zhang Xueya froze, looking at him with a gaze full of conflicting emotions. “You really do know everything.”
“Then do you know…”
She drew closer and closer, smiling faintly, affection beginning to show in her eyes.
There it was again. That strange, burning intensity.
In his mind, Zhao Xiuming heard the System click his tongue.
The next second, the tall figure intervened again, stepping directly between Zhao Xiuming and Zhang Xueya.
Zhao Xiuming felt as though a wall had blocked his view. Another look revealed it wasn’t a wall, but a man’s back.
The biker was exceptionally tall. The powerful muscles of his back shifted beneath his black armored riding gear.
“Little Darling?”
Zhao Xiuming tried to rest a hand on his shoulder, but the biker seemed displeased and turned aside, avoiding his touch.
Zhao Xiuming wasn’t angry at all. If anything, he was relieved.
Thankfully, the biker’s intervention had rescued him from that strange atmosphere.
He withdrew his hand without fuss and asked curiously, “Don’t you only act when I’m in danger?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Is there danger somewhere?”
The biker looked down at him through his goggles, then raised a hand and tapped Zhao Xiuming’s forehead without the slightest gentleness.
It seemed to mean, Just you wait.
Even more puzzled, Zhao Xiuming stepped back and asked Zhang Xueya with some seriousness, “You weren’t coming over to kill me just now, were you?”
Zhang Xueya said nothing.
She looked worse than if she’d just eaten shit.