Chapter 50: Let Shen Lichuan Wait
It was nine o’clock at night, the rain had stopped, and the wind had lessened.
The provincial capital’s neon lights stretched endlessly. Viewed from above, mist floated between the tall buildings, making everything blurry and indistinct, unable to be seen clearly, vanishing.
Liang Chaosu stood by the floor-to-ceiling window. Colorful light and shadow occasionally brushed past him, swallowed by the chilling darkness in his eyes.
His private assistant stood not far away, reporting softly, “Mr. Shen’s secretary booked a flight at Nanyi Airport. Miss Lian Cheng did not appear even at takeoff. I’ve calculated based on land travel speed, and any airport within four hours’ reach, like Jianghe Airport in Yun and Liancheng, also has no record of Miss Lian Cheng traveling.
After he finished his report, he withdrew, and it was the next person’s turn.
“No trace of Miss Lian Cheng has been found at the intersections of the provincial capital and surrounding counties and cities.”
“Surveillance shows that at 2:26 PM, Miss Lian Cheng and Bai Ying entered the urban village in Dongcheng and have not appeared since.”
“Miss Lian Cheng’s mobile phone was found in a trash can five hundred meters from the urban village on Dong Second Ring Road, along with her phone card.”
“Since Miss Lian Cheng joined the Shenheng project team, she has repeatedly asked about the hometowns of the team members. After I organized the information, I found that most of them were from small, economically underdeveloped counties. Tai Duoduo, whom you instructed me to pay special attention to, also mentioned that Miss Lian Cheng wanted to compile a list of economical travel destinations, without identification, and with a strong sense of humanity.”
One by one, people came in, and one by one, they went out.
On the desk behind Liang Chaosu, stacks of documents piled up.
Until the last person bent over and closed the door.
The room was silent. The neon lights reflected in the floor-to-ceiling window were multicolored. After a long while, a cold laugh suddenly broke the stillness.
A man’s face appeared, as if frozen in a blizzard, from his eyes to the corners of his mouth, sinister and murderous.
It matched.
It matched her rebellious spirit that suddenly disappeared, her submissive attitude.
It wasn’t that the lesson had been taught and she was scared of him.
It was rather that the lesson was too light, and her desire to escape was unyielding.
The more she endured, the more she wanted to leave him.
To the point where she bore the humiliation and readily agreed to a blind date with that dirty thing Liu Qingsong, hiding it from him.
Even when he discovered it and blocked it, she was scared, but she never regretted it.
Liang Chaosu sat behind his desk and, in order, reread the files the assistants had compiled. Several details within them were so meticulous, so calm, that his eyes almost overflowed with coldness.
He tore open his shirt collar, buttons flying off, revealing a chest that rose and fell rapidly.
The new wounds on his fingers split open as he clenched them, blood sliding down his fingers and pooling on the screen.
He ignored it and unlocked the screen.
The phone connected.
The man’s voice was piercingly cold, “One, investigate the cities she asked about in the Shenheng project team. Two, retrieve the spending records of all her accounts at various banks. Three, closely monitor the movements of Bai Ying of the Bai Family, both in reality and online.”
As for whether Shen Lichuan had other tricks abroad, or if she would find another way to meet up with Shen Lichuan.
A chilling glint flashed in Liang Chaosu’s eyes; he would personally confirm it.
…………
The bus stopped at a key station in Cui County. Lian Cheng, wearing a mask and hat, quickly exited through the gate.
During the final moments of the check on the bus, a newly arrived bus behind them had more than half of its passengers without identification. The traffic police on that bus called for backup.
Two traffic police officers, who had already reached the row in front of her, glanced roughly. Seeing no one in the back rows, they hurried out of the car. Lian Cheng had narrowly escaped.
That night, Lian Cheng stayed in a small, remote motel in the suburbs of Cui County. The price was even cheaper than Tai Duoduo had mentioned, only twenty.
The environment was naturally not good. The room smelled of mold, with a broken table, a rotten chair, and a hard bed. The bed sheets and quilt were from the owner’s own home, from the 1980s with peony and red flower patterns. Unfortunately, there was a large hole in the middle, revealing yellowed and blackened cotton wadding inside.
The owner’s wife followed her gaze and slapped her thigh, cursing, “Oh, I knew those two young punks weren’t decent people. No matter how young and capable they are, they can’t have so much butt flesh that they ruin my quilt.”
She grabbed the quilt and slung it over her shoulder. “I know you young ladies like to be clean. Sister is kind, so I’ll give you a fifty percent discount on the cost of changing the quilt, three yuan.”
Lian Cheng took out the change the owner’s wife had just given her. The smallest denomination was ten yuan, which she paid. “Do you have food?”
“We didn’t before, but we do now,” the owner’s wife said, accepting it unceremoniously. “Do you want noodles? Five more yuan if you want meat.”
Lian Cheng was extravagant. Not only did she add meat, but she also added five yuan worth of scrambled eggs.
She wasn’t picky about plain food, but the daughter in her belly needed nutrition.
After eating her fill, Lian Cheng lay down in her clothes on the newly changed quilt, her gaze fixed on the not-so-clean, white ceiling.
Honestly, she had never lived in such an environment her entire life, nor eaten noodles that were so salty they stung her mouth, or oily scrambled eggs.
Compared to the extravagant luxury of high society mansions, with indoor fresh air systems purifying the air, a bland diet, with little salt, oil, or carbohydrates, and ingredients flown in globally every day.
She surprisingly felt no sense of falling or discomfort.
Here, there were no Howling Dog spirits, no Three Eyes, no incestuous forbidden relationships, and no increasingly hostile parents.
There was no precariousness, no wind and frost, no swords, no imminent danger.
She lay there quietly. Her internal organs, lungs, limbs, and bones, and the acupoints that were constantly tense, relaxed, loosened. Every blood vessel was unblocked, and blood flowed lightly through her entire body.
A sour, swelling sensation spread through Lian Cheng’s heart, an itchy numbness. Her throat involuntarily choked up; she wanted to cry.
But she didn’t.
She felt relaxed, joyful, and free, finally able to breathe. She felt every breath of air entering her lungs. The smell of mold turned into soil, blooming on her.
Moreover, she had two hundred thousand yuan, which was her remaining savings after bribing the head of gynecology.
By comparison, it wasn’t even enough for a single hairpin for Liang Wenfei.
But looking at the owner’s wife’s room, the meal, and the prices in the small town filled with the scent of human life.
Two hundred thousand yuan was enough for her to safely and steadily give birth to her daughter, breastfeed her, wean her, teach her to walk, teach her to talk…
To call her mom.
Mom—
The room’s lights suddenly went out. In the darkness, there were intermittent sobs.
………………
In the latter half of the night, Liang Wenfei, half-asleep, heard a rapid knocking at the door.
Sister Liu, a servant with whom she had a good relationship, called out sharply, “Young Lady, Young Lady, wake up, the Eldest Young Master is back, Young Lady—”
Liang Wenfei pushed her silk eye mask to the top of her head, her eyes hazy, and opened the door.
“What is it?”
Sister Liu sighed with relief and bowed with a smile, “The Eldest Young Master is back and has instructed me to pack your luggage and take you downstairs within fifteen minutes.”
Liang Wenfei looked downstairs, her face bewildered. “Pack my luggage? To go where?”
How could Sister Liu answer this question?
The Eldest Young Master was sharp and aloof; though he spoke little, his words were always final.
Among the Liang family servants, apart from the butler and Aunt Wang who had been there the longest, no one usually dared to ask about his affairs, let alone approach him playfully.
Sister Liu was on duty that night. The man suddenly entered, covered in dew, exuding a chilling aura. The air pressure around him was so low it could crush a person’s heart; it was unlikely to be good news.
She could only shake her head.
Liang Wenfei looked displeased. “You useless idiot who knows nothing, it’s only because my family is kind that we pay you such a high salary to support an imbecile like you.”
She changed her clothes and went downstairs.
The living room lights were not on, but the light strips around the sofa were lit, casting a pearly white glow that, in the deep, dark rainy night, appeared unnaturally ghastly white.
In the depths of the light, Liang Chaosu leaned against the sofa, resting with his eyes closed. He wore a black shirt and black trousers, with only his right hand, wrapped in gauze, showing a bit of white.
As she took the last step downstairs, about to call out, the man opened his eyes.
His pitch-black eyes were colder and darker than the endless darkness of the winter night.
Like a barren, deathly abyss, once you fell in, you would be completely annihilated.
Liang Wenfei almost suffocated, her heart contracting to the extreme. “Brother—Brother—”
Liang Chaosu’s gaze locked onto her. “Call Shen Lichuan and tell him to wait at the airport.”
