Chapter 2

Chapter 2

An anonymous text glowed on the screen.

“Luo Xia, a life for a life. Your reckoning is here. Are you ready?”

The color drained from Luo Xia’s face. Her phone slipped from her hand and struck the floor, terror naked in her eyes. “It’s her. Her ghost has come back!”

People said the area around the villa had been haunted ever since Qin Jiajia burned to death two years ago. There had been no peace since, and many residents had moved away. Afraid of attracting bad luck, Luo Xia and Zhong Mingjiang had never gone near the place again.

“What if the Taoist’s talisman failed to hold her down? What if she’s come back?” The longer Luo Xia stared at the message, the more frightened she became.

Zhong Mingjiang happened to return just then. He frowned at her frantic rambling. “What nonsense are you talking about? If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have no reason to fear a ghost at your door.”

Perhaps guilt had gotten the better of him. The moment the words left his mouth, a chill crawled down his own spine.

Qin Jiajia’s screams seemed to echo in his mind, impossible to drive away.

“Mingjiang, what are we going to do?”

“Someone is playing tricks on us. I’ll find out who. Stop frightening yourself.” Zhong Mingjiang drew a deep breath.

Those with clean consciences had no reason to fear a ghost at the door. But what about those whose consciences were stained?

He remembered what had happened on his way home.

It had been late at night. After working overtime, Zhong Mingjiang drove home along a narrow back road, his head throbbing and his eyes sore with exhaustion.

Without warning, a pale figure in white flitted across the road ahead.

For all his swagger, Zhong Mingjiang cried out at the eerie sight. He slammed on the brakes, dense beads of sweat breaking across his forehead.

When he looked again, the road was empty.

He told himself he was overtired and seeing things. After returning home, he took a shower and planned to get a proper night’s sleep.

In the small hours, voices whispered endlessly beside his ear.

“Zhong Mingjiang… Mingjiang, please don’t!”

“We were sisters. Why did you do this to me?”

“The fire hurts so much. Mingjiang, save me….”

“It hurts…. Your baby was in my belly… Mingjiang!”

“This is my uterus…. Look, Mingjiang. Don’t you think the baby’s eyes look just like yours?”

The husband and wife, each lost in a different nightmare, jolted awake.

At first, Zhong Mingjiang refused to acknowledge his fear. But even now, two years later, memories of what they had done still robbed him of sleep and appetite.

“This is all your fault, you bitch! If you hadn’t seduced me, I never would’ve done those things to Jiajia!” Sick with agitation, he sprang up and slapped Luo Xia across the face.

After Qin Jiajia’s death, he had married Luo Xia. For a long while, married life had been exciting. Eventually, though, he decided Luo Xia was nothing special after all, and began seeking other women again.

“I betrayed my own best friend to be with you, Mingjiang. I only did it because I love you beyond reason!”

“To hell with your love. Get out of my sight.”

He had long since grown tired of her honeyed declarations.

The next day, at the office, Zhong Mingjiang finished signing a contract and noticed that the young assistant handing him the documents was someone new.

“Who are you?”

Gu Xinyue lowered her head shyly. “Mr. Zhong, I work in Logistics. Nana took the day off, so I’m filling in for her.”

“I see.” Zhong Mingjiang looked her up and down.

The faintest smile touched Gu Xinyue’s lips.

She looked barely twenty, with delicate features and a hint of bashfulness in her eyes. A greasy smile spread across Zhong Mingjiang’s face. “Work hard. Bring the contracts we need signed. You’re coming with me to the client’s company.”

Five years had passed, and Zhong Mingjiang had not changed at all. He still carried himself like a consummate professional, effortlessly handling every workplace detail.

Beneath the polished shell of a business elite lived a creature lower than any beast.

They were both human, yet Zhong Mingjiang made wearing a human face over an animal heart look effortless. The sheer skill of his deception was almost worthy of admiration.

“Get out of my way! Anyone who tries to stop me gets hit!” Luo Xia stormed into the company, high heels clacking furiously.

The female employees whispered among themselves.

“Did you hear? Mr. Zhong’s ex-wife and the current Mrs. Zhong used to be best friends!”

“Seriously? Then she seduced her best friend’s husband?”

“Exactly. How shameless can you get?”

“A man who can be lured away by your beauty can be lured away by someone else’s.”

“That’s the truth!”

The whispers went on and on. Luo Xia had come to assert her authority as Zhong Mingjiang’s wife. She had not expected anyone to dig up her sordid past.

She cared deeply about appearances, and her expression changed at once.

“Keep spreading lies and you’ll hear from my lawyer!” The office immediately fell silent.

Only a fool would throw an egg at a rock.

At that moment, Gu Xinyue picked up a folder and followed quietly behind Zhong Mingjiang.

For an instant, Luo Xia saw her younger self: the same fragile, innocent act as she trailed after Zhong Mingjiang like a pure white lotus.

Women these days had no shame. Married or single, as long as a man had money, they flocked to him without a thought for dignity.

“Mingjiang!” Luo Xia narrowed her eyes, her gaze fastening on Gu Xinyue.

Something about this woman felt strangely familiar. Yet no matter how hard Luo Xia searched her memory, she could not place her.

“Mingjiang, I need to speak to you.”

“Mr. Zhong, the driver is waiting outside.” Gu Xinyue smiled.

Luo Xia had aged. The tender freshness of years past was gone. Life with Zhong Mingjiang, and the endless parade of women she had to chase away, had likely worn her down.

Zhong Mingjiang ignored Luo Xia, swept past her, and strode away.

In the car, he sighed. “I’m sorry you had to see that. She’s always been like this. Whatever love we had died a long time ago.”

“You’re far too modest, Mr. Zhong,” Gu Xinyue replied.

Then she added, “Everyone in the city knows what happened back then.”

Zhong Mingjiang froze. Suddenly, he found himself wondering how outsiders had viewed those events. He had never cared before.

But after so many recent days spent in terror, his curiosity had inexplicably awakened.

“You mean what happened to my first wife?”

Gu Xinyue said nothing more, which only made him more eager to hear.

After he pressed her repeatedly, she finally spoke. “Your former wife betrayed you in the most disgraceful way, yet you forgave her and even gave her such a magnificent funeral. It was truly moving. Then you met the current Mrs. Zhong. The two of you seemed so deeply in love. I almost envy you….” Her voice held the faintest note of flirtation.
Desire stirred inside Zhong Mingjiang. “That’s all ancient history. She’s spent years trying to control me like a tigress. I’ve had enough of it!”

He had already marked Gu Xinyue as his prey and spared no effort in seducing her.

That evening, Zhong Mingjiang received a call from his friend Luo Dayuan. “Mingjiang, I’ve found everything you asked me to look into. Get over here.”

Alarmed, Zhong Mingjiang rushed to Luo Dayuan’s underground casino. The moment he sensed that the recent incidents did not add up, he had called Luo Dayuan. Luo Dayuan had subsequently dug up the ashes buried in the cemetery and sent them for testing.

“There was a problem, all right,” Luo Dayuan said. “The body from that night wasn’t Qin Jiajia.”

Zhong Mingjiang’s eyes widened. After Qin Jiajia supposedly died in the fire, he had bribed a medical examiner to falsify the autopsy report, afraid the case might otherwise raise questions. Yet it had never occurred to him to doubt whose body it was. He had simply arranged for an immediate cremation. As for the newspaper story, he had paid a reporter to invent it.

Now every recent event seemed designed to drag the past into the light.

Someone had sent Luo Xia an anonymous text. Someone had plastered photographs of Qin Jiajia’s charred body inside his car. Once, when he opened the door, he found a blood-soaked uterus on the passenger seat.

It had been an artificial prop, but the sight still sickened him for days, and the fear it inspired lingered far longer.

Every incident led back to Qin Jiajia’s death.

If the body had not been hers, then whose was it?

And if Qin Jiajia had not died, where was she now?

Were the voices haunting him at night merely dreams, or was someone deliberately tormenting him, making sure he never knew peace? A black cloud seemed to hang over Zhong Mingjiang’s head.

Could the woman in white he had glimpsed that night have been Qin Jiajia?

“Mingjiang, don’t worry yourself sick,” Luo Dayuan said with a taunting chuckle. “I sent those doctors back then. They all said Qin Jiajia’s heartbeat was fading and she was moments from death. Then you set the fire. Even if someone pulled her out alive, that doesn’t mean she survived afterward.”

Luo Dayuan was Zhong Mingjiang’s sworn brother.

In their youth, both men had trafficked drugs and weathered plenty of dangerous storms. Later, while evading the police, they had murdered every accomplice who knew too much.

Then they had supposedly turned over a new leaf.

Whenever Zhong Mingjiang harmed Qin Jiajia, Luo Dayuan helped clean up the aftermath. In return, Zhong Mingjiang financed the underground casino.

“Dayuan, keep investigating. The moment you learn anything, call me.”

“You can count on it.”

A few days later, Nana resigned, and Gu Xinyue successfully became Zhong Mingjiang’s secretary.

His lecherous nature remained unchanged. He often groped her in the office when he thought she was not paying attention, and his conversation was full of suggestive remarks. Whenever he found an opening, he steered their banter into something lewd.

At first they talked about family. Before long, he steered every conversation toward sex.

“Xinyue, how old were you your first time?”

Gu Xinyue was working on a spreadsheet. Zhong Mingjiang stood over her, staring brazenly at her curves.

She pretended not to notice and kept working.

It was all silicone anyway. He could stare as much as he liked.

Zhong Mingjiang persisted. “You must’ve been very young.”

“Fifteen,” Gu Xinyue answered coldly.

“With a boyfriend?”

“A teacher.”

“A teacher? Your gym teacher, right?” His curiosity sharpened. “What was it like? He was older, so was his size hard to…”

Gu Xinyue’s fingers paused. Her gaze turned glacial. “A little. But after enough times, he started to feel much too small.”

“You slut!”

Luo Xia’s voice arrived before she did, followed by her handbag flying through the doorway.

Gu Xinyue sprang aside, and the bag hit the floor. Luo Xia charged at her a second later. Feigning panic, Gu Xinyue flung herself into Zhong Mingjiang’s arms.

“Ah! Help me!”

The frightened, fragile cry ensnared Zhong Mingjiang completely.

Luo Xia lunged like a wild animal, her face contorted with rage. “Zhong Mingjiang, how dare you do this to me? Without me, would you have anything you have today? I was the one who gave you the idea! You’d still be a penniless nobody if it weren’t for me! If I hadn’t…”

Smack!

Zhong Mingjiang slapped her so hard she stood dazed for nearly half a minute.

“You… you hit me?”

“Keep making scenes, you shrew, and I’ll throw you out of this marriage without a penny!” he roared.

The woman in his arms kept rubbing against his chest. Zhong Mingjiang held Gu Xinyue tighter. “It’s all right. Ignore her. I’ll protect you.”

“Zhong Mingjiang, are you even human? It was bad enough that you slept with women behind my back. Now you’re doing it at the office! What will people think of me?”

Employees crowded outside the door to watch. Embarrassed, Zhong Mingjiang immediately released Gu Xinyue and gave Luo Xia a long, solemn sigh. “What is wrong with you? You fly into a rage over nothing. Now you’re attacking my secretary?”

“You knew Nana was here to keep an eye on you, so you threatened her into resigning just to put this woman beside you, didn’t you?” Luo Xia narrowed her eyes.

Several days earlier, Nana had called to say she could no longer help Luo Xia because someone had threatened to kill her. She had offered no details, but Luo Xia assumed Zhong Mingjiang was behind it.

“What are you talking about?” Zhong Mingjiang demanded.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about!” Luo Xia glared at Gu Xinyue. “Shameless home-wrecker! I’ll kill you!”

“Police! Nobody move!”

Several officers had appeared in the doorway without anyone noticing. Hearing Luo Xia threaten murder, they rushed in and snapped handcuffs onto both sides before someone was hurt.

Their reason for coming was simple.

Guan Nana had been murdered on the day she resigned and dumped into an underground well. Her body was not discovered until the stench spread through the surrounding area.

When police examined her phone, they found that the last call she made before her death was to Luo Xia….