GV – Chapter 64

Song Zhiqing’s eyes widened, and she couldn’t stop trembling.

A murder?

The surroundings fell silent at once. It hadn’t been noisy to begin with, but after Shen Wei collapsed, everything seemed to slow down. Sounds took longer to reach the ears, and the trail of every speck of dust became clearly visible.

The suspected passing of a life triggered a strange shift in the senses of all who were still living.

But this moment lasted only a short time before everything returned to being the scene of a violent crime.

Guo Siwan tightened her grip on the knife handle again. Song Zhiqing was whimpering uncontrollably. The one with the strongest reaction was Shangguan Xianxian. Heedless of everything, she slammed her head against Guo Siwan. The knife was still pressed against her neck, and with the movement, blood flowed like a torrent. Dust and tears mingled on her face, a chaotic mess like a refugee from a famine-stricken era resorting to cannibalism. The ice-and-jade-like young lady of the Shangguan family had collapsed along with Shen Wei.

Lying on the ground and struggling to breathe, Shen Wei raised a hand, wanting to stop her, but Guo Siwan stomped on it viciously.

“Don’t move now,” she said with a smile. “I never said I was only going to kill one person.”

If she wanted to be like Shangguan Chong, learning to kill was a required lesson, wasn’t it?

The first time she was robbed of her diamond necklace at gunpoint by three men near that godforsaken school in India, Guo Siwan hadn’t despaired. What made her despair was that after the necklace was taken, as the three men were attempting to rape her, a bodyguard hired by Shangguan Chong had finally strolled out at a leisurely pace.

From that second on, she knew to what extent she had been trampled upon.

So, naturally, she wouldn’t hesitate to make others suffer the same degradation.

The sniper wasn’t particularly high-end, just using an ordinary gun from a concealed location. This caused the shot to be quite loud. Hearing the gunshot, the bodyguards all rushed in. Guo Siwan frowned with a headache, wiped the bloodied knife clean on Song Zhiqing’s clothes, and said slowly, “You can’t move either. If you do, I have a gun over here, you know.”

The scene froze. The bullet hadn’t hit any of Shen Wei’s vital organs, but it was enough to make her pass out. Guo Siwan retracted her foot, satisfied.

She began to consider which part of the body would be best for a finishing blow.

It was nighttime, and the large lamps in the factory cast a scorching light. Drifting dust was exposed in everyone’s sweat-soaked eyes. The only signs of life were a few small flying insects. They couldn’t understand human language, and there was likely no cross-species magnetic field. One bold insect landed directly on the back of Guo Siwan’s hand. Guo Siwan had no time for it; she now wanted to talk to Song Zhiqing again. “Why isn’t Ye Yuhuan here? I thought she would come.”

The knife was still rubbing against Song Zhiqing’s abdomen. Song Zhiqing swallowed hard, grateful for the tape over her mouth; otherwise, crying out loud would be too humiliating.

She couldn’t help but want to bite it.

It was also dangerous.

But she still really wanted to bite it.

Biting it while crying—humiliating and dangerous.

Just as Guo Siwan reached out to peel the tape off Song Zhiqing’s face, and Song Zhiqing was contemplating where to bite, there was a thud. Following Shen Wei, Guo Siwan also collapsed.

Immediately followed by the overwhelming sound of police sirens.

Shangguan Xianxian immediately struggled, stretching her toes to inch her chair, bit by bit, toward Shen Wei. Blood was still streaming from her neck, staining her light-colored top and soaking her dark pants. She looked like a rain-soaked war painting.

Song Zhiqing couldn’t move. This referred not only to her still-bound limbs but also to her heart and breath. The scene was too familiar; just a dozen minutes ago, Shen Wei had collapsed in the same way.

Another… another person dead?

Had the world really become this dangerous?

Song Zhiqing began to tremble all over, tears streaming from her already red and swollen eyes. Shen Wei was her friend. Annoying, yes, but she admitted she was a friend. Guo Siwan was her classmate. Annoying, yes, but she was indeed her classmate.

They studied at the same school and had just seen each other at a banquet not long ago. They had both been so glamorous then. Who could have imagined this now?

But there was no bullet hole on Guo Siwan’s body, only a tiny red mark, pierced by the mouthparts of an insect.

It was poisoned. Potent, but not fatal.

A large dose would cause paralysis; a small dose would cause numbness.

This was something Ye Yuhuan had specially prepared for Ye Chu in the past. The little insect was also prepared for him.

And Ye Yuhuan herself jumped in through a window—the one closest to Song Zhiqing.

The sudden sound of her landing made Song Zhiqing jump. She whipped her head around and saw it was Ye Yuhuan. She immediately burst into muffled sobs. With her mouth still covered, the sounds were all squeezed from her throat. Peering through blurry, tear-filled eyes, she saw that Ye Yuhuan wasn’t looking so glamorous either. The window was filthy, and her pants were covered in dust. Her face was as beautiful as ever, but her expression was too tense, lacking the vibrant radiance of a beauty.

But Song Zhiqing couldn’t care less about that. Her tears flowed more fiercely than ever. Ye Yuhuan had actually come.

Wuwuwu, she was so scared she’d never see her again.

Ye Yuhuan wanted to wipe her tears, but her sudden intrusion had already caused some trouble for the police. She could only clench her fists and take deep breaths to suppress her impulse.

Shen Wei and Shangguan Xianxian had their own bodyguards to handle them, and the police were taking care of Guo Siwan. Ye Yuhuan stood silently to the side, watching as an officer unlocked Song Zhiqing’s handcuffs.

Song Zhiqing had stopped crying once the police officer approached her, but her eyelashes were still wet, making her look incredibly pitiful. She tilted her head to look at Ye Yuhuan’s expression, but she couldn’t read anything from it.

It wasn’t excitement, but rather a visible, suppressed emotion.

Was she very worried? Or scared?

The moment the handcuffs came off, Ye Yuhuan immediately walked over, her long, slender fingers touching the tape on Song Zhiqing’s face.

Her hand trembled.

Song Zhiqing wanted to comfort her, but unfortunately, she couldn’t speak right now, and her own appearance probably wasn’t very convincing.

She must be a mess, looking dirty and pathetic.

Ye Yuhuan was extremely gentle, so gentle it was almost slow, as she peeled the tape off bit by bit. Then she took out a wet wipe and gently cleaned Song Zhiqing’s face. She still didn’t say a word.

Her ink-black brows rested calmly above her peach-blossom eyes, which were half-closed. Her crimson lips, chapped from the long rush, had the color of a dried rose. A few strands of hair fell beside her cheek, and as she leaned down to wipe, they lightly brushed against Song Zhiqing’s face, causing a certain person’s heart to pound wildly.

“I’m fine,” Song Zhiqing said. She wanted to raise her hand to touch Ye Yuhuan’s cheek, but her limbs were too numb to move. She settled for the next best thing and touched their foreheads together.

Ye Yuhuan said in a low voice, “Don’t move.”

Alright, I’ll listen to you.

“Is Shen Wei okay?” Song Zhiqing couldn’t stop talking, partly out of genuine concern and partly out of nervousness.

Ye Yuhuan didn’t stop what she was doing but answered her, “She’s fine. She was wearing a bulletproof vest; all her vital areas were protected.”

Ye Yuhuan didn’t know the specifics. From the moment she entered, her attention had been solely on Song Zhiqing. She really didn’t have the capacity to worry about anyone else.

Song Zhiqing had understood the Morse code Shangguan Xianxian had tapped out earlier, so she had guessed that someone would come to rescue them soon, but she hadn’t expected Ye Yuhuan to be among them.

She was about to ask, but as she moved her lips, she touched Ye Yuhuan’s fingertips, which were just wiping her chin. Her lips immediately pressed together as if startled.

After letting Ye Yuhuan finish cleaning her up without moving a muscle, she no longer wanted to ask the question. It wasn’t important. Looking at Ye Yuhuan’s still-impassive face, Song Zhiqing repeated, “I’m fine.”

Ye Yuhuan folded the used wet wipe and put it back in its packet. Hearing her words, she glanced up, then looked down again, stuffing the packet into her pants pocket.

Only then did she reach out and pull Song Zhiqing into a tight embrace.

Through their pressed-together bodies, Song Zhiqing could feel the heart hidden beneath Ye Yuhuan’s skin pounding wildly. Ye Yuhuan’s skin was also hot, completely unlike her calm exterior. Song Zhiqing slowly wrapped her arms around Ye Yuhuan’s back, resting her face against Ye Yuhuan’s neck.

Sweat.

Sticky.

But it felt so intimate.

She liked it very much.

In that moment, the blood streaming from Shangguan Xianxian’s neck, the explosive sound of the gunshot, Shen Wei’s body lying limp like a sack of rice—it all seemed to fade away.

Cheng Changxue was right. I really am a love-struck fool.

Song Zhiqing wasn’t injured. Ye Yuhuan had already confirmed this after careful observation while standing aside, but the bloodstains on her clothes still made her very uncomfortable.

It was too dirty, too vicious. It didn’t belong in Song Zhiqing’s world.

Ye Yuhuan frowned, looking at her own clothes. She didn’t have a jacket. After borrowing one from a female police officer nearby, she covered up the annoying marks. Only then was Ye Yuhuan satisfied. She took Song Zhiqing’s hand and led her out. The entire time, Song Zhiqing was docile, letting herself be led, her eyes just following Ye Yuhuan intently. It was undeniable that she was a little dependent on Ye Yuhuan right now.

Outside the main gate were not only more police officers and the just-captured sniper, but also Gao Yiren and Song Chen.

Seeing their pale-faced daughter, Gao Yiren’s tears, which had just stopped, began to flow again. Song Chen’s eyes were red. The two of them practically ran to Song Zhiqing, immediately pushing Ye Yuhuan aside. After checking their daughter from top to bottom and confirming she had no other injuries besides some scrapes on her wrists and ankles, their hearts finally settled back into their chests.

The state Shen Wei and Shangguan Xianxian had been in when they were brought out had truly terrified them, and they had feared their own daughter would suffer the same fate.

After receiving her parents’ worried inquiries, Song Zhiqing finally had the energy to look for Ye Yuhuan, only to see her getting into a police car.

Following her daughter’s gaze, Gao Yiren also saw this. Knowing the full story, she said with a complicated expression, “Xiao Ye, she… she used some extreme measures to get you out quickly.”

The image of Guo Siwan suddenly collapsing flashed through Song Zhiqing’s mind.

She still didn’t know why Guo Siwan had suddenly fallen, but spurred by the series of terrifying events tonight, she subconsciously jumped to the most dreadful possibility.

Did “extreme measures” mean that Ye Yuhuan had killed Guo Siwan?

Gao Yiren was only halfway through her sentence when she saw her daughter, wiping her tears, rush toward Ye Yuhuan as if she were hurrying to die for love.

Hey, isn’t she just going to the police station to give a statement?

Why is she acting like this is a life-or-death parting?

But in Song Zhiqing’s heart, if Ye Yuhuan had to go to prison, it wasn’t much different from a life-or-death parting.

She forcefully pulled Ye Yuhuan out of the car, her voice still choked with sobs as she pleaded with a nearby police officer, “She only did it to save someone, can you please not sentence her?”

“Ah, a prison sentence? At most, Student Ye will be detained for a while for using a dangerous substance. It’s not serious enough for a prison sentence.”

“Wuwuwu, but Guo Siwan is dead.”

Ye Yuhuan took out a tissue and wiped the tears from Song Zhiqing’s face, sighing inwardly at how many times Song Zhiqing had cried tonight. Was there a reservoir hidden inside her body?

She explained in a gentle voice, “She’s not dead, just unconscious.”

She added, “I wouldn’t kill anyone.”

Song Zhiqing looked up at Ye Yuhuan. Her cool fingers were still tracing her face, her snow-white skin more dazzling than the moonlight. Song Zhiqing turned and, beating her to it, sat down in the police car.

She said resolutely, “Then I’m going with her.”

The police officer looked at Gao Yiren and Song Chen with a troubled expression. Of course, Song Zhiqing had to go to the station, but normally, a victim didn’t need to be debriefed immediately. They needed to be comforted by their family first, or rather, they needed to comfort their family first.

But then Gao Yiren and Song Chen turned and got into another police car next to them. “We’ll accompany our daughter too.”

The police had truly never seen a victim and their family act like this. Logically speaking, this young lady wasn’t even an adult yet. After going through so much, shouldn’t she get a good night’s sleep instead of following them to the station? They should know that the kidnappers would be there too.

However, seeing that they had all buckled their seatbelts, the officers exchanged glances and reluctantly got into the driver’s seat.

If you can calm your nerves at the police station, then to the police station it is.

And so, the police cars, carrying the kidnappers who had failed to escape, the sniper tied up like a worm, the genius chemist and mechanical craft enthusiast Ye Yuhuan, and the victim and her family, all set off for the police station.

Speaking of the kidnappers, the primary reason for their capture was a button Shangguan Xianxian had deliberately left in the car.

She had ten more identical buttons, each one a tracking device.

To be this cautious and still get shot—Shen Wei truly was the ill-fated female protagonist.

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