Chapter 23

I am stuck in her forgotten past. [Revised]

Cheng Sangluo disappeared into the long, dark alleyway amidst Lin Jin's maniacal laughter, without looking back.

Her head was half-lowered, and a pair of wolf-like eyes were hidden beneath her loose bangs, her eyes gleaming with a shrewd and fierce light.

If Lin Jin hadn't driven her to the brink, she wouldn't have revealed her true colors, which she had kept hidden all along.

Cheng Sangluo composed herself and returned to the entrance of the grocery store.

The old man was tidying up the fruit platters when he saw her coming. He couldn't help but greet her, "Did you see your friend off?"

"Hmm." Cheng Sangluo nodded lightly, not in the mood for conversation. Just as she was about to step into the stairwell, she turned back. "Sir, I want to discuss something with you. I'm not renting the attic anymore."

The old man put down the plate in his hand and asked, puzzled, "Did you find a good job? If you're going to terminate the lease, then terminate it. But from what you're saying... you're only giving up the attic?"

Cheng Sangluo subconsciously glanced back at the empty alleyway, took out her wallet and explained, "Yes, I'm only giving up the attic. I'll move directly to the room on the third floor. Your rent is cheap, and I can't bear to leave."

"Haha, that's right!" The old man burst into laughter again upon hearing the praise.

"This is the rent for the room on the third floor for a year." Cheng Sangluo handed the money to the old man without hesitation. "Please count it."

The old man trusted her and put the money in his pocket. "I'm at ease with you giving me the money. Settle down here with peace of mind. I'll put a new lock on your room when I have time."

"Then I'll trouble you." Cheng Sangluo thanked her politely, then made an excuse to leave. "I have some things to do, so I'll go upstairs first and come down to chat with you later."

The landlord waved a palm-leaf fan at her, saying, "Go away, go away, go take care of your business first."

Cheng Sangluo went straight up to the third floor, where the rarely visited room was at the end of the corridor.

The door, painted yellow, was severely damp, with its paint peeling and chipped. It also had an old-fashioned lock, making it easy for people to mistake it for a storage room.

She unlocked the door and pushed it open, only to be met with a thick, dusty smell. She couldn't help but raise her hand to wave away the unpleasant odor.

The room, without windows, let in no light, which was one of the reasons Cheng Sangluo chose this place.

She was very cautious; she closed the door forcefully, then tightened the deadbolt before turning on the light.

The low-wattage incandescent bulb emitted a dim, yellowish light, barely enough to illuminate the small space.

In an instant, a relationship diagram of the characters, as large as the wall, came into view.

Cheng Sangluo toyed with the oil-based pen between her fingers, while her other hand rested on the table behind her. She was tilting her head back and quietly observing the masterpiece of her investigation after her release from prison.

That intricate network of relationships, like a spider web with countless threads, tightly connects all those who have appeared and those who have not yet appeared.

Her gaze swept across each photo like a wolf's, finally settling on a certain person's face.

She uncapped the pen, drew a circle on the photo, and then crossed out a large X, representing the victory of conquering the city.

Below the photo, a card is firmly attached to the surface with transparent tape.

The familiar card was pale white, somewhat similar to the scene in the parking garage that day. When it was illuminated, it always showed a hint of disdainful coldness, just like its owner.

Cheng Sangluo stared at the person in the photo with cold eyes, her gaze slowly drifting to the room key.

She leaned closer, revealing a side of herself never before shown to anyone—a smile that was both eerie and sinister, and even the sound of her laughter was chillingly unfamiliar.

"How can you be so confident that you can humiliate me with just a stepping stone?" Cheng Sangluo gritted her teeth, swallowing the pain of the past few days, as if she were swallowing shards of glass, which made her throat ache and even gave her the illusion of tasting blood.

She clutched her forehead, silently enduring each hurt Lin Jin inflicted, each wound etched into her very being. It took her a long, long time to calm her turbulent emotions. "So...it's not just you who can act...I can act too..."

The faulty incandescent bulb flickered intermittently, emitting a hoarse electrical hum, adding a strong eerie atmosphere to the quiet room.

Cheng Sangluo's face was hidden in the shadows, but her sharp, eagle-like eyes, illuminated by a dim yellow light, were both bright and gloomy.

She didn't linger too much on Lin Jin's photo, but instead took a pen and wrote down some recent news on the wall.

At first, she was calm, and every stroke of her pen was neat and tidy. But then the image of herself picking up money from the ground flashed through her mind. She gritted her teeth and made a grinding sound. When the pen tip hit the wall, she pressed too hard and deformed it.

The hatred for Lin Jin lasted only a moment. When he looked at the nearly broken pen, the evil emotions that had just dissipated were stirred up again.

Cheng Sangluo rubbed the bridge of her nose in distress, returned to the table, threw the pen aside, and rested her hands on the edge of the table to relieve the weariness deep in her soul.

She couldn't quite remember when the seed of revenge was planted in her heart; it might have been when the final judgment was handed down, or it might have been in the dark and hopeless prison cell.

During those days of waiting for freedom to arrive, she could only relieve the daily pain by drawing tally marks.

As she tossed and turned in the dark of night, she could no longer imagine a bright future. Her growing despair grew wildly within the four white walls, eventually transforming into an unforgivable hatred that she was determined to spend her entire life trying to heal.

Lin Jin was the one who suddenly drew back the curtain on this revenge when Cheng Sangluo was completely clueless.

The room key, which she hesitated to pick up, seemed to burst into laughter in the silent parking garage, becoming a source of pain for Cheng Sangluo.

She was trampled under the feet of an insurmountable class, her soul scraped by this flimsy card, and thus the chaotic and formless hatred was finally made concrete.

It was Lin Jin's disdainful smile when she curled her lips, the cold light of the card turning white, and the glistening tears welling up in her eyes as she stood in the club's parking garage, holding her forehead and laughing helplessly.

She eventually picked up the room key, and at that moment, her revenge began to take shape.

Cheng Sangluo needed to leverage Lin Jin's influence while also shedding the humiliation of being under the powerful. This tortuous and painful path was fraught with peril, with each step treading on sharp shards of glass, leaving her bloodied and battered as she trudged on alone.

Today, she has managed to borrow money using her own methods, but she has also paid a heavy price by incurring huge debts.

That's good, there was no real bending over until the very end.

A chilling laugh suddenly echoed through the dimly lit room.

Cheng Sangluo shrugged, unable to stop laughing, a laugh that carried the pain of having no way back.

She suddenly grabbed the dagger beside her, turned around and threw it hard against the wall. The sharp tip of the blade accurately embedded itself in the photo in the center of the relationship diagram.

The man in the suit was not Xu Songheng. His deep-set eyebrows bore a resemblance to Lin Jin's, and he was the culprit who ruined Cheng Sangluo's life.

It is the origin of hatred.

*

Inside the silent Land Rover, Sheng He, under immense pressure, tried his best to drive as smoothly as possible.

Lin Jin had no plans to go anywhere, so he could only drive aimlessly along the main road.

The scenery along the seemingly endless coastline is delightful.

Despite the scorching sun, the sky was lifeless, the sea was dull and colorless, and the light could not penetrate Lin Jin's world, nor could the wind dispel the heavy gloom.

Sheng He glanced at the rearview mirror. The person who was looking distressed and silent had his eyes closed, and his whole body was filled with an inescapable weariness and loneliness.

Lin Jin is unhappy.

She leaned weakly against the car window, as if her body had been stripped away, or as if her soul had been ripped out, her mind a complete blank.

That blustering mockery and condescending arrogance crumbled at this moment, leaving only a sense of unease and self-reproach.

This powerful figure, who could obtain anything with ease, collapsed in defeat. The person he could not grasp transformed into an intense sense of failure, clinging to his shattered heart. It was an irresistible inner demon and a nightmare that was difficult to dispel.

Lin Jin sketched Cheng Sangluo's handsome face in her mind. The image of her in her memory was never blurry, which was why she remembered it so vividly. But the image of her in reality was blurry, a blurry image that she could not hold onto no matter what she tried.

Lin Jin rarely showed such a bitter smile, pondering why he had not gained any sense of accomplishment despite cleverly designing Cheng Sangluo.

It turns out that clumsy methods only push the person she loves further away; such a simple truth has become a problem she cannot solve.

She only wanted to hold onto that sliver of moonlight, but she hadn't considered how gentle the moonlight was. So she couldn't hide it or lock it away; she could only hold it in her palm and appreciate it carefully in her eyes.

Sheng He hesitated for a long time, and was about to ask the boss where he wanted to go, but Lin Jin spoke first, "Sheng He".

Sheng He shivered at the sound and asked alertly, "What's wrong, boss?"

Lin Jin turned her head to look at the street scene rushing past, and only slowly asked after she had mentally prepared herself, "Do you think I did something wrong?"

Perhaps, when she asked that question, she had already lowered her proud head. But how could someone born to stand on high ground easily accept the fact that they had made a mistake?

This is a common ailment of arrogance among those in power.

For Sheng He, this was undoubtedly a life-or-death question.

He slowed down the car and sighed helplessly, "As an observer, I feel sorry for Miss Cheng. I don't know why, but every time I see her, I feel so bitter. Forgive my poor words, I can't describe that feeling."

"Hmph, that's irrelevant. You're quite considerate, aren't you?" Lin Jin snorted and closed her eyes again.

"How many seven-year periods does a person have in their life?" She took a deep breath, then slowly let out the bitterness that seeped into her bones. "She doesn't know that she is my greatest joy, so she doesn't know how much she means to me."

Lin Jin's brows furrowed, but she couldn't stop her increasingly choked voice: "She's trapped in my dream, and I'm stuck in her forgotten past; it's all an illusion that we can't embrace."

That beautiful woman, with her hypocritical smile, haughty demeanor, and manipulative power, huddled tightly in the corner by the car window, clutching her frail body.

She cried silently.

*

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city.

The Lin family ancestral home is built in a privately planned mountain forest. It is a Suzhou-style garden courtyard villa that occupies almost half of the mountain.

By the time of Lin Jin, the Lin family was no longer thriving, so the private residence was mostly deserted.

Lin Sheng's residence is located in the secluded back mountain, which is also the villa furthest from the ancestral home. If you were to walk through that area at night, it would be so quiet that it would give you the creeps.

Located on the second basement level, the basement is an airtight gym, so dark it looks more like a dungeon where people are imprisoned.

Xu Songheng wore a custom-made gray suit, and his leather shoes were also shiny.

At this moment, he was running frantically on the treadmill, and the speed displayed on the screen had reached its limit.

His head was wrapped in plastic wrap, his hands were tied behind his back, and a string of fresh beef hung from his waist.

A group of tall, burly bodyguards surrounded the treadmill, each holding a ferocious pit bull.

The fresh beef was a deadly temptation. The pit bull bared its teeth and became frantic, straining to get its fill. Its taut, well-developed muscles were so powerful that even the bodyguards struggled to pull on its leash.

Even when breathing became extremely difficult, Xu Songheng still dared not relax.

He had to maintain his balance and go as fast as he could; a slight misstep would cause him to fall, and falling would mean being torn apart by these vicious dogs.

Lin Sheng's forehead veins bulged, and his dumbbell bench press form was beautiful. After finishing the last set, he slowly sat up, panting, and picked up the towel draped over his shoulder to wipe away the sweat.

His assistant handed him a bottle of mineral water. As he took the bottle, he snapped his fingers twice, and his barking dog instantly sat down quietly.

He walked to the treadmill, stared at the agonizing Xu Songheng, and coldly mocked, "You can even lose half your life just by running. What a useless piece of trash."

As he spoke, he turned off the treadmill.

As his speed decreased, Xu Songheng's physical strength reached its limit. His legs went weak, and he stumbled and fell awkwardly at Lin Sheng's feet.

He was panting heavily, causing the plastic wrap on his head to bounce up and down.

Lin Sheng squatted down and ripped off the plastic wrap from his head. His disdainful gaze was somewhat similar to Lin Jin's, looking at everything as if it were an animal, but there was also a fundamental difference.

His smile was not merely hypocritical; it revealed a silent ruthlessness, a cruelty that could stab someone in the back while he was laughing and joking.

Xu Songheng gasped for breath, his neck twitching, and managed to say, "Boss... could you give me some water... I'm sorry... I..."

As if he had heard some taboo words, Lin Sheng instantly lost his sinister smile and raised his hand to pour mineral water on Xu Songheng's head.

Perhaps feeling that such humiliation was not enough, he threw the bottle aside, grabbed Xu Songheng's hair and pulled it upwards violently, "How many times have I told you, I hate hearing the words 'I'm sorry' the most. 'I'm sorry' means failure, and those who fail have no right to ask for forgiveness."

Xu Songheng couldn't move his arms and could only curl up like a maggot.

He is despicable, so he has no need for dignity. He is willing to be a dog under the feet of the powerful, so his begging face is utterly ridiculous.

He nodded nervously, explaining hastily, "I'm so sorry... I didn't expect... no... I shouldn't have let Cheng Sangluo get involved with Lin Jin..."

"No, no, no, you still don't realize where you went wrong." Lin Sheng made a shushing gesture, interrupting Xu Songheng's speech.

He shook his wet hands, signaling the bodyguard to drag the person away and feed them to the dogs. He then rubbed his temples wearily, his tone utterly disappointed: "Cheng Sangluo is nothing but an ant. Even if she climbs up to Lin Jin, she won't make any noise. What makes me angry is that you made me lose face, lose face in front of Lin Jin. You know how much I hate that crazy woman."

Hearing Lin Sheng's disappointed words, Xu Songheng broke free from the bodyguard, knelt on the ground, and dragged himself to him: "Boss! Give me another chance, I will definitely do a good job, please believe me!"

Lin Sheng didn't kick him away, but instead enjoyed having someone under his feet, enjoying how this person wagged his tail and begged for mercy like an animal.

He grabbed Xu Songheng by the tie with one hand and slapped his face hard in a humiliating manner. "People who easily kneel down and beg for mercy are no good. You've caused me too much trouble. The mess from years ago is still not cleaned up. Why should I give you another chance?"

Xu Songheng, quick-witted, suddenly pleaded loudly, "I know, I know the old man has been unwell recently. This is a critical moment. I will do everything I can to help you hold off Lin Jin. I promise I won't ruin your plans this time, I promise I won't!"

Lin Sheng sat back down in his chair and beckoned his assistant to hand him a cigar.

Hearing Xu Songheng's suggestion, he did not continue the topic.

Xu Songheng knelt on the ground and moved a few steps, afraid that he would be torn apart by a pack of vicious dogs. He could only lean closer and whisper some plan.

Lin Sheng took a deep drag on his cigar, the smoke billowing from his lips, a whiff of conspiracy swirling within him. A glint of excitement gleamed in his sinister eyes. "Hmph, you're truly a clumsy dog, but you still have some use."

[Author's Note]

1. Pre-order novels: "The Detective's Lover" [criminal investigation] and "Becoming the Scandalous Lover of a Hong Kong Film Queen" are available for collection.