Chapter 7

Chapter 7

If Luo Xia wanted a kidney, she would have to target the village chief’s two sons.

She hired a private investigator and received their files that same night.

The elder son, Guo Lang’an, was a successful attorney in Beijing.

The younger, Guo Langtao, worked for a local government-affiliated institution, a position his father had secured through personal connections.

Luo Xia set the files down. Guo Lang’an was too powerful to provoke. Guo Langtao, on the other hand, offered possibilities.

Her investigator had uncovered a secret from his past.

He Yulin had been Guo Langtao’s girlfriend. When she was three months pregnant, she returned to their rented apartment after work and overheard a conversation inside.

“Take good care of my child!” a middle-aged man said.

He Yulin froze.

“Don’t worry, Brother Hong. The baby’s not born yet, but you promised three hundred thousand. Give me some now. Prenatal care costs money….”

Confused, He Yulin opened the door and stared at the two men.

One was the boyfriend she planned to marry. The other was an oily, balding man in his forties.

Fragments of the past rushed back. Guo Langtao had once proposed surrogacy.

“Yulin, we’d get three hundred thousand for having a baby for someone else. My family can add a little more, and we’d finally afford a home. Life would be easier….”

“Don’t be stubborn. I love you, but we can’t make money our enemy!”

He Yulin had refused, and Guo Langtao never mentioned it again.

Now she covered her belly, disbelief filling her eyes.

Was the baby inside her not Guo Langtao’s?

One look at the fat, greasy man beside him made her want to vomit.

Guo Langtao panicked. “Yulin, come inside. Please.”

“Tell me the truth. Is this baby yours?” Terror shone in her eyes.

She had conceived after getting drunk one night. Parts of that night had always felt wrong, but she told herself the sounds and impressions were drunken hallucinations. Now she knew they had been real.

Silence filled the room. He Yulin clenched her teeth and fled.

Behind her, the middle-aged man shouted, “Be careful with my child! Do you still want the three hundred thousand?”

Guo Langtao raced after her. He Yulin tumbled down the stairs.

She died at the hospital despite emergency treatment. She was nineteen.

Everyone knew He Yulin had died after a fall and miscarriage. No one knew the truth behind it.

Luo Xia smiled. That kidney would be hers.

At the hospital, Liu Xiaoxiao had just finished work when she saw Gu Xinyue waiting outside.

“Xinyue….”

Pale-faced, Gu Xinyue led her to a nearby cafe.

“What is this? Are you trying to romance me now?” Liu Xiaoxiao laughed.

Gu Xinyue’s eyes darkened. She slapped photographs of Guan Nana and Yang Juhua onto the table.

Liu Xiaoxiao’s expression grew complicated. “What is this supposed to mean?”

“You lied to me. Think very carefully before you explain why.”

Gu Xinyue was no longer the old Qin Jiajia. When a friend did something wrong, she would not invent excuses to soothe herself.

She did not know why Liu Xiaoxiao had killed Guan Nana and Yang Juhua.

If she did not know, she would ask.

“One phone call is all it takes to send you to prison.” Gu Xinyue took out her phone.

“Don’t!” Liu Xiaoxiao drew a sharp breath.

“I falsified Luo Xia’s medical report for you. Is this how you repay me?” Hurt entered her eyes.

Gu Xinyue laughed coldly. “One has nothing to do with the other.”

Liu Xiaoxiao’s face tightened. “We’ll talk somewhere else.”

“Fine.”

They moved to Gu Xinyue’s apartment.

Gu Xinyue knew Liu Xiaoxiao as a doctor, someone who healed the sick with her hands. She had never imagined those same hands, trained to hold a scalpel, could become tools of murder.

Again, the foundations of her world shifted.

Gu Xinyue and Liu Xiaoxiao had first met in the orphanage, though they were not close then. Qin Jiajia had eyes only for Luo Xia; Luo Xia was her best friend.

Later, relatives found Liu Xiaoxiao and took her away. The girls did not meet again for years.

After Gu Xinyue returned from reconstructive surgery abroad, some burns had still not healed. She went to a hospital, where Liu Xiaoxiao recognized her and asked about the villa fire. In time, they became friends.

“When did you do it?” Gu Xinyue folded her arms, gaze cold.

“Take out your phone first.” Liu Xiaoxiao feared she might be recording.

Gu Xinyue placed it on the table and turned it off in front of her.

“Our friendship clearly never meant much to you, or you wouldn’t suspect me.” Liu Xiaoxiao’s voice held a mocking edge.

She sighed, her expression composed. “You know how careful I am. I thought I could hide it longer. I didn’t expect you to find out so soon.”

She had indeed been meticulous. The crime scenes held no flaws. She erased every fingerprint and had no visible motive. The police could investigate for eight lifetimes and never suspect her; even if they did, they would find no proof.

Gu Xinyue sneered. “How long did you intend to keep it from me? Do you hate Luo Xia and Zhong Mingjiang too? Is your hatred somehow deeper than mine?”

Liu Xiaoxiao told her everything. She killed Guan Nana so police would believe Luo Xia was the murderer and convict her. She killed Yang Juhua to frame both Luo Xia and Zhong Mingjiang. Liu Xiaoxiao had known about Gu Xinyue’s plan and knew she would prepare the forest to torment them.

So she hid the body beforehand in a place that would not be found too quickly.

Both plans failed. Zhong Mingjiang and Luo Xia still escaped the law.
Liu Xiaoxiao rubbed her temples. “Xinyue, I knew you were too kind to take a life. But when I think of what they did to you, it hurts. I wanted to help.”

She had no personal grudge against them. Gu Xinyue bit her lip. “You murdered innocent people. Guan Nana was innocent. Yang Juhua was innocent.”

“Weren’t you innocent too? Nothing can be gained without sacrifice. Don’t you understand?”

Gu Xinyue went still, unable to refute her.

She had been innocent when Zhong Mingjiang raped her. Innocent when her best friend stole her husband. Innocent through every cruelty that followed.

“You violated their right to live.”

“Didn’t Luo Xia and Zhong Mingjiang violate yours? They stole your property and destroyed your health!” Liu Xiaoxiao’s voice sharpened with rage.

“Zhong Mingjiang spends your money keeping women. Luo Xia used your money to study abroad, returned in glory, and stole your husband. They cut out your uterus, killed your baby, and burned you until you almost…”

“Enough.”

“I watched Luo Xia disconnect your grandfather’s oxygen with my own eyes. I was only an intern then, and I was terrified. I didn’t have the courage to call the police!” Liu Xiaoxiao clawed at her hair. “Half of what happened to you is my fault. I’m only trying to make amends.”

If she had reported Luo Xia then, Luo Xia would have been arrested and everything afterward could have been prevented.

“Enough, Xiaoxiao.” Gu Xinyue looked into her eyes. “From now on, we aren’t friends. I can’t remain friends with a murderer. You’re still a good doctor. Go back to healing people and saving lives.”

“I won’t report you, but I want you out of this. This is between them and me. Do you hear me?”

Gu Xinyue opened the door and found Gu Cangbei standing outside, his expression unreadable.

She closed the door at once, took his hand, and drew him downstairs.

His face remained cool. “You believed that nonsense?”

“Xiaoxiao became involved because of me. Promise you won’t go to the police.” Gu Xinyue’s eyes pleaded.

“Are you certain?” He gripped her shoulders so hard her frame whitened beneath his fingers.

“Yes.” Her voice was barely audible.

With no idea where her courage came from, Gu Xinyue handed him something she had hidden in her pocket. Her body trembled unseen in the darkness. “These are recent records of illicit gains from Luo Dayuan’s casino.”

She had promised Gu Cangbei, and she would keep that promise. The man he hated most was Luo Dayuan.

Gu Cangbei stared, then accepted the documents. Knowing she had obtained them by selling herself to Zhong Mingjiang left his chest painfully tight.

After several steps, he stopped. “Gu Xinyue, revenge is one thing. Don’t degrade yourself beneath Zhong Mingjiang.”

First he had demanded to know why she had not slept with Zhong Mingjiang. Now he called sleeping with him self-degradation.

Pain twisted inside Gu Xinyue.

Gu Cangbei was impossible.

He wanted revenge and understood everything, yet the thought of her with Zhong Mingjiang infuriated him.

If she had not entered Zhong Mingjiang’s bedroom and climbed into his bed, how could she have obtained such confidential records so easily?

Elsewhere in the night, Guo Langtao was sick with fear.

A woman had appeared without warning, demanded one of his kidneys, and revealed that she knew what had happened to He Yulin.

Only three people alive should have known: Guo Langtao, the man who paid to use He Yulin as a surrogate, and Guo Lang’an.

The paying man disappeared after He Yulin died. Her parents knew nothing. Guo Lang’an had helped settle the matter and would never expose him.

“How did you find out?” Guo Langtao demanded.

Luo Xia smiled. “That doesn’t matter. I will pay one million for a kidney, and I will keep your secret.”

He narrowed his eyes. “What if I refuse?”

“Then I give the police the contract you signed. You drugged and exploited your own girlfriend’s body for three hundred thousand. When she discovered it, she fell down the stairs, miscarried, and died. What will your wife and daughter think? Perhaps it isn’t intentional murder, but it certainly involves rape…”

Sweat streamed down Guo Langtao’s face.

“Stop.”

He had been young and greedy, and his hunger for quick money killed He Yulin. The memory had tormented him ever since.

She had loved him from a young age. He had failed to treasure her. Now he had a family, but looking back still made him despise himself.

He covered his face. “Why do you need my kidney? Why mine?”

“A woman named Yang Juhua once lived in your village. I’m her daughter.”

“Yang Juhua had only a son. He disappeared after her husband died. You expect me to believe this?”

“Later, the men in your village…” Luo Xia gave a bitter laugh. “You were young, but surely you heard the stories.”

Guo Langtao frowned. He remembered rumors that Yang Juhua tempted every man she saw.

“One of those men was your father,” Luo Xia said. “And I was the result. I’m your half sister. Give me a kidney and you’ll receive the money. If you ever need my help, I’ll owe you.”

Cornered, Guo Langtao had no choice but to agree.

In the operating room, he lay on the table. Anesthetic entered his veins, and his eyes slowly closed….