“Help! Don’t! Don’t kill me! Don’t——”
The panicked screams came from the sofa. Qin Jinhuan rushed over just with just a few steps, and saw Mu Yu curled up on the sofa. Her hands were moving frantically, and her pale face was filled with horror.
Was she having a nightmare?
He grabbed her shoulders and shook them, “Wake up. Wake up, quickly.”
Mu Yu opened her dull eyes. When she finally saw the person who was standing in front of her, she immediately hugged him and broke into tears.
Her sad and shrill cries created havoc in Qin Jinhuan’s heart. He hugged her tightly, whispering comforting words into her ears, while wondering about the dreams that had scared her to this extent. As far as he was aware, her mental state wasn’t that weak.
After a while, Mu Yu calmed down a little.. When she lifted her head and saw him, she pushed him away as if she was jolted by electricity, and apologized continuously, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. About that… I’ve dirtied your shirt.”
“It’s nothing. Did you have a nightmare?”
“N-No.” Mu Yu avoided his questioning gaze. She lowered her head, and ran quickly into the bathroom.
Even so, Qin Jinhuan could still see clearly the traces of fear in her eyes that hadn’t completely faded away. He couldn’t help but frown.
Help… Don’t kill me…
Did she dream of me killing her?
Did she really think that I’m a devilish murderer?
Besides being speechless, he couldn’t find other phrases to describe his feelings right now.
After a while, he saw Mu Yu walking out of the bathroom, and wanted to go up to her to do some explanation. However, she avoided his gaze yet again, and quickly went up the bed, curling herself up under the sheets. Even her head was also buried underneath. He instantly lost the intention of speaking to her. Without looking at her again, he walked into the bathroom.
At this moment, he paused for a moment as he heard her phone rang. Pulling a small gap on the bathroom’s door, he sneakily tilted his head to listen closely.
“I’m fine, don’t worry. Yes, I’m already in bed. I’ll rest early. You should rest early too. Goodbye.”
Mu Yu had tried her best to lower her voice, but he could still hear everything clearly. After he quickly finished brushing his teeth, he shut his phone off, came out of the bathroom and told Mu Yu, “My phone’s battery had died. I need your phone to make a call.”
He initially expected her to counter with a question—“Isn’t there a landline?” or so on—but she didn’t ask anything. She just quickly unlocked her phone and handed him the phone. Then, she went back to be buried under the sheets.
The words that he had planned to say were all swallowed back down his throat. He opened her dialed contacts and saw that the most recent caller was Jiang Wenwen. When he placed the phone to its original place, he seemed to be murmuring to himself, “Never mind, I’ll just go and look for Zijun.” He put on his robe and went downstairs.
Mu Yu, who was under the sheets, could actually hear everything outside clearly, but she didn’t move an inch until Qin Jinhuan walked out of the room.
Oh dear…
A helpless sigh came faintly from the sheets.
She didn’t dare to fall asleep, but it wasn’t because she was afraid of Qin Jinhuan. It was because of the rain today. Moreover, Fu Hongyun’s incident had a really big impact on her. Every time when it rained, if she had suffered any kind of shock or trauma, she would have the kind of nightmare that was uncontrollably horrific.
Of course, Qin Jinhuan had made her feel just as terrified today.
She took her phone, wanting to call Xin Yihan to seek his consolation. He was the only one who knew about her secret besides her parents. After opening her phonebook, she then put down her phone again. She couldn’t rely on him like she used to. She must learn how to face everything by herself.
She straightened up. After taking a few deep breaths, she called her dad. This was the last person that she relied on for another form of mental support.
“Yu? You haven’t slept?”
Hearing the concern in her dad’s voice, Mu Yu realized that this phone call would worry her parents. She immediately faked a relaxed laugh and said, “I’m almost ready for bed. I suddenly remembered that I’m going for a ‘honeymoon’ with Young Master Qin the day after tomorrow. So, I plan to go back and visit you tomorrow. Just telling you in advance.”
“Okay, okay.” Mu Ziyao was obviously relieved and responded with a laugh. “You really could have missed us if you didn’t make this call. Your mum and I are planning to go to the hospital tomorrow.”
Mu Yu was very anxious. “Who’s not feeling well?”
“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it. We’re just setting up a profile record in the hospital so that it would be convenient to have body check ups regularly in the future. It’s Young Master Qin who arranged it. There won’t be a problem if we go a day after.”
“There’s really nothing wrong with you guys?”
“Nothing is going on with us. We’re enjoying life now.” Her mum, Hu Meiling, had interrupted suddenly. “Not only is the place we stay in comfortable, we even have a maid and a family doctor to take care of us.”
“Really?”
“You’re already coming to visit us tomorrow. If we lie, we couldn’t keep it from you for long anyway.”
Just at this moment, Mu Ziyao intercepted with a heavy tone, “We are enjoying our lives here, but you are suffering instead…”
“Hey, dad, my life is better than yours. Don’t you forget, Young Master Qin needs me. Doesn’t he have to worship me like a god instead?”
“I guess so.”
“Actually, Young Master Qin is a very nice person.” At the other end of the line, Hu Meiling snatched the phone again. “Okay, Yu, go and rest early. Tomorrow, early in the morning, I will ask the maid to buy the ingredients for your favorite dishes. I will personally cook for you.”
“Alright, my dear daughter, we’ll be waiting for you.”
“Okay.”
Mu Yu ended the call with a smile. When she heard her parents praising Qin Jinhuan through the phone, her heart couldn’t help but feel much more relieved. After lying back on the bed, for some unknown reasons, the horror that she felt in her heart had faded away. She stared at the ceiling silently as she, with all her might, forced herself to stop thinking about her dream, and tried to plan out her words to ask for the day off from Qin Jinhuan.
Almost half an hour later, Qin Jinhuan was back. She quickly sat up and asked cautiously, “I want to visit my parents tomorrow. Is that okay?”
Qin Jinhuan took a glance at her and said, “I’ll accompany you to visit them.”
“No need, there’s no need. You just have to tell me where they’re living.” When she saw that he hadn’t given in, she immediately said, “We’re going for our honeymoon the day after tomorrow. You’ll have to arrange all your work stuff properly.”
When he saw that she was obviously looking much calmer, Qin Jinhuan was a bit surprised and then corrected himself, “Let Huang Bo send you there.”
“Thank you.”
“Come back soon.”
“I will. Thank you, thank you.” Mu Yu was extremely happy as she didn’t expect to get the day off so easily.
Qin Jinhuan glanced at her from the corner of his eye and didn’t say anything else. However, his expression had become much more relaxed.
Buried in their own thoughts, the both of them got into bed and didn’t speak for the rest of the night.
On the second day, Mu Yu got up and meticulously dressed herself up. Under the company of Qin Jinhuan, she got into Huang Bo’s car, and went to the place where Qin Jinhuan had secretly arranged for her parents to stay. She had initially thought that her parents wouldn’t be in a good mental state after being put under house arrest. That was why she was extremely surprised when she saw them beaming brightly in front of her. She then saw the maid that her mum told her about. It was then that she completely believed them when they told her Qin Jinhuan had taken good care of them.
The family of three hadn’t seen each other for a long time, so they chatted for hours until they were interrupted by Jiang Wenwen’s call. When Jiang Wenwen learned that she was at her parents’ house, Jiang Wenwen insisted on coming over to eat with them. Mu Yu was somewhat surprised. After thinking for a bit, she lied that her parents had moved to a new place, and asked Huang Bo to fetch Jiang Wenwen from the place as told.
When it was almost ten in the morning, Jiang Wenwen had come over. Mu Yu asked her parents to prepare lunch, and then quickly grabbed her best friend into the bedroom.
“Hey, I haven’t greeted Uncle and Auntie yet.”
“Get to the important things and tell me.” Mu Yu already sat down and stared at her seriously.
Jiang Wenwen laughed jokingly. “How did you know I have something important to tell you?”
“The last time you came, you were chased out by my mum. If it wasn’t for something important, would you dare visit my mum again?” Mu Yu made a look as if she had seen through her with just one glance. “What is it actually? Is it Bing’s boss…”
“No, no, it’s Fu Hongyun.” Jiang Wenwen interrupted her assumptions. “I heard that the main reason that caused her to commit suicide isn’t because her shop was closed down, but because she had done too many terrible things.”
Mu Yu was very surprised. “What kind of terrible things?”
“She always led the workers in the shop to manipulate the young innocent girls who had no money and high vanity to enter her shop and try on her clothes. Then, she would secretly do something to the clothes which caused them to be easily damaged. After that, she would demand them to compensate according to the retail price. As you may have known, the clothes in her shop were fetching more than 10,000 a piece. These little girls definitely were unable to compensate for it. She would then take this opportunity to persuade them to sell themselves in the Nightclub City. If they refused, she would ask them to take nude pictures of themselves to pay off the debt when she was in a better mood, and threatened them with said pictures afterwards to blackmail them into selling themselves. When she was in a bad mood, she would send those little girls straight to the Nightclub City. Didn’t she try to send us there that day? These little girls had never even stepped into society, how could they stand such intimidation and threats? Moreover, they assumed that they were at faults, so most of them would choose to succumb. According to what I’ve heard, most of the girls in Nightclub City were supplied by her.”
Mu Yu was stunned. “My God! Isn’t this just pimping and encouraging prostitution?”
“That’s right! This kind of person is better left for dead!” Jiang Wenwen was also gritting her teeth.
“How did you know about all these?”
“Bing told me. He said that after Fu Hongyun’s death, the police had started to investigate the cause of her death. Her workers, who were involved in her dirty schemes, had provided the police information in order to protect themselves when they saw how everything was being unfolded. They had pushed all the responsibilities to Fu Hongyun, who’s already dead.
Mu Yu was still suspicious. “Didn’t Fu Hongyun do things very secretively? Why was everything uncovered as soon as she died?”
“I-I’m not really sure about this.” Jiang Wenwen paused for a while and continued saying, “Bing said actually there was someone who reported this to the authority of Heavenly Shopping Center before, but it fell under the radar. After the commotion we made the day before yesterday, Young Master got involved in it, and found something fishy about the whole thing. He had called the police and requested a thorough investigation. Fu Hongyun then panicked. She knew that her crimes were severe and chose to commit suicide. Bing said it was a smart move that she commited suicide. Or else, not only would all her properties be confiscated, she would also be sentenced to jail for the rest of her life. For now, at least she could leave some money for her kids that aren’t grown up yet. I believe that after a few days, the police will make a statement regarding all her crimes to the public.”
“Oh, so it turns out to be this way.” Mu Yu shook her head angrily.
No wonder Qin Jinhuan and Huang Bo both said that Fu Hongyun only had herself to blame.
This Qin Jinhuan, he had known the real reason of Fu Hongyun’s death but didn’t tell me, leaving me to make my own assumptions and getting so jittery. I even had that nightmare which I hadn’t had for so long.
Looking at Mu Yu as if she was deep in her thoughts, Jiang Wenwen secretly heaved a sigh of relief, knowing that she had finally carried out the task that Qin Jinhuan had asked of her.
Qin Jinhuan had called her last night and asked her about Mu Yu’s situation. She told him that whenever Mu Yu felt pressured or threatened on a rainy day, Mu Yu would have nightmares. Of course, she didn’t know the contents of Mu Yu’s nightmare, or why Mu Yu would have such nightmares. After listening to what she said, Qin Jinhuan told her about the cause of Fu Hongyun’s death, and said that Mu Yu had misunderstood him because of this incident, so he wanted her to seek an opportunity to explain to Mu Yu.
“For now, we don’t have to feel guilty. You don’t even know about this. Bing was shocked at your reaction yesterday. Once he learned about the real cause of Fu Hongyun’s suicide, he had came to tell me and asked me to pass the message to you.” She happily hugged Mu Yu’s arms. “By the way, Bing wants me to tell you…”
Bang! Bang! Bang! A wave of hurried knocks on the door had cut off Jiang Wenwen’s voice. Then, Mu Ziyao’s anxious voice rang outside, “Yu, come out quickly! Quickly!”