462 Pay the price
Cai Lingyun was left to his own after the big confrontation with Jun and Ai. He laid on the floor, writhing with pain. There wasn’t anything much to say after they confirmed the truth behind Guiying’s split personality disorder.
Moreover, Ai was quite shaken up by the incident of the writing competition coming to light. So, Jun thought it was for the best to take Ai back home and deal with Cai Lingyun later.
“Don’t go…Ai, don’t leave me…”
After coming back to his senses, he started regretting his actions. He lamented his loss temper and felt angry at himself for shouting at Ai and humiliating her.
“No. How could I talk to Ai like that…? I need to apologize to her. I don’t want her to hate me…She must be so hurt,” he coughed. “I need to go to her side…”
He tried to stand, but Jun’s jabs on his knee and abdomen had rendered him motionless. Suddenly, he heard a click of the doorknob twisting.
His face shone with hope. “Ai! I knew you would be back…W-wait, I am coming to you.”
He painfully dragged his body but as he raised his head, he noticed a looming figure of a man’s instead. From his viewpoint, he saw a pair of boots and long legs before his sight. He slowly craned his neck upwards, and a sharp shudder passed through his spine.
“Y-you!”
His face turned white as if he saw a ghost and he started shaking with fear.
“You are the only w-who punched me that day at Guiying’s house! Why are you here!?”
Zixin gave him an apathetic stare. His eyes held no emotions as if he was looking at trash. He simply silently fixed his gaze at him that only unnerved Cai Lingyun further.
“I heard everything.”
Cai Lingyun blinked.
“I was there when you were talking to Jun. Or I should say when he was interrogating you.”
His eyes widened.
With the way he addressed him as Jun…does he know him? H-How is this possible?
He jolted when Zixin bent on his left knee. “So tell me what should I do with you?”
First Jun and now Zixin – both times Cai Lingyun felt as if his head rested on a guillotine.
“You…you have nothing to do with this! W-who the hell are you even in the first place? You just barged in that day and interfered in my matters…You even put me to jail! I won’t forgive you!”
Recalling his grievances, Cai Lingyun felt anger surging through his veins. “Every single one of you getting into my private matters! Who the hell are you to Guiying to stick your nose into her life!?”
Zixin grabbed his neck, his fingers viciously applying pressure into his nerves. Cai Lingyun’s eyes widened once again but this time due to suffocation. Zixin wasn’t showing any mercy at all as he literally strangled him.
“I am Guiying’s friend. Somebody who treasures her. Somebody who wants to cherish her,” Zixin spoke slowly but clearly. “Somebody better than you who wouldn’t hit her to release his pent up stress,” at the end, his voice turned chilly.
Cai Lingyun flailed his arms and legs like a fish trying to survive out of the sea. The more constricted his breaths became, the more tears fell and darkness covered his sight. In just few seconds, he already fell unconscious.
Zixin calmly released his grip. But he wasn’t done with him. His black eyes gleamed with lethality and pain too. Pain for Guiying who suffered by his hands.
He felt something moist on the back of his hand and saw that it were his own tears that gently rested on his skin. He touched his wet eyelashes. Imagining Guiying’s childhood to be filled with nothing but grief made him feel difficult to breathe.
Zixin closed his eyes and remained still for a long time. As he opened them, his irises glimmered with determination.
You might be forgiving towards your brother, Guiying, but I cannot be like that, he thought with a plain, stoic expression as he stared at an unconscious Cai Lingyun.
He has to suffer. For all that he has done to you, he HAS to pay its price.
And I will do it my way.
—
The same evening, Xing Bi was drying her wet hair as she stepped out of the bathroom after a long, relaxing warm bath. She felt her stiff muscles loosen up, and she released a sigh of satisfaction. The hot air from the drier blew across her hair.
Suddenly, the lights went out and darkness enveloped her room. Not just her room but outside the area as well.
“Aish!” She sighed and waited for the electricity to come back.
Her phone shone with light with a message from Hou Lin. She quickly opened it which said,
‘Miss. Sun seems to have copied some files into her personal pendrive.’
After their last conversation, Xing Bi and Hou Lin decided to keep an eye on Sun Bai just in case as she was frequently meeting up with Lu Bohai. He belonged to the rival company, Shi Publishing and someone who was in a dire state to save his job.
pAn,Da-n0v e1,c
Office files into her personal device?
She texted him back.
‘How? We are not allowed to access our personal devices or emails through Sky’s computer systems.’
‘I thought of that too. I am also unsure at the moment.’
She bit her lip and typed. ‘Is there any way to know what files she copied?’
Hou Lin’s reply came back a minute later. ‘I will try.’
Xing Bi let out another sigh and kept her phone aside.
Ugh, this is getting more complicated…
Suddenly, she heard some untoward sounds coming from outside her flat. It sounded too close to her house.
Xing Bi stiffened.
The lights were out and an unknown person was making noise in front of her house.
W-who could it be? It’s past dinner time already…
She jumped in her place when her doorbell rang. At this moment, the door felt like a scary thing to open. She was about to go outside when she saw somebody’s silhouette entering her house.
Xing Bi let out a silent gasp with her eyes wide open.
H-How did he come in? A thief? Serial killer? R-rapist?
Am I going to die today!?