Prisoner?
Zhou Qiting suddenly opened her eyes. In the dim light, she saw an unfamiliar ceiling. The dull pain in her shoulder instantly reminded her of what had happened before she fainted.
The person who was so close to her three months ago looked at her with those golden eyes. The impact of memories and reality made her stand there, unable to even utter a word. She was caught off guard and was quickly counterattacked by Zhou Min who broke into the lounge. After feeling a tingling pain in her deltoid muscle, she was carried directly on his shoulder and lost consciousness not long after.
How could you be...she...
As her consciousness returned, many emotions were stuck in her throat. She bit her lower lip tightly, trying to swallow the sudden sadness with the help of the pain.
Not long after, Zhou Qiting regained his composure and scanned the surrounding environment inch by inch to determine his current situation.
The light in the room came from the rechargeable magnetic night light at the head of the wrought iron bed and the white light coming through the gap under the door not far away. She couldn't tell whether it was natural light or lamplight, nor could she tell whether it was day or night.
There were two curtains hanging on the wall opposite the end of the bed. The reason why they were not called windows was that the curtains did not look thick and were not made of light-blocking material, but they were completely opaque. Zhou Qiting came to a conclusion immediately.
The windows of the room were sealed shut.
She supported her exhausted body with her elbows and managed to sit up in bed. The thin quilt that slipped off made her notice what she was wearing.
It was not the dress she was wearing before she fell into a coma, but a silk nightgown.
Anger quickly overwhelmed the sadness in his heart, and the stinging pain of biting his lower lip and the taste of blood could not cover it up.
She held onto the edge of the bed, ignoring the plush slippers beside the bed, and stepped onto the floor barefoot. The chill was far below her body temperature, and she staggered to the door and tried to pull down the doorknob.
Unexpectedly, the door was not locked. Zhou Yiting slowly opened the door and saw the person sitting in the middle of the empty living room.
The person sitting on the chair was like a lifeless tree. His spine was straight, but his expression was lifeless. He just looked up at the clock hanging on the opposite wall, as if he was counting the passing of his life along with the second hand.
Zhou Min heard the door open, but he didn't get up. Instead, he turned his head to look at Zhou Qiting. When a smile slowly spread from the corner of his mouth to his eyes, he said softly, "You're awake."
There seemed to be frost in Zhou Qiting's eyes. He just stared at her without saying a word, and his hands hanging by his side clenched and unclenched.
There was a prisoner standing by the door and a murderer sitting on a chair, with silence flowing strangely between the two.
Almost recovered.
Zhou Qiting walked up to her step by step and raised his right hand——
Zhou Min raised his hand and grabbed the slap that was about to hit his face, laughing: "You think..."
Snap——
Her words were interrupted by a slap on the right cheek, and Zhou Min's gaze shifted. The burning pain on her cheek and the buzzing in her ears made her stunned for a moment.
After hitting someone, the left hand quickly grabbed her throat again, with such force that the words spoken by the person who tightened his knuckles to exert force trembled slightly with the movement.
"Zhou Min..."
Fifteen years later, Zhou Qiting once again called out the name of the person in front of her. She stared directly at the hateful golden spot, anger surging through her clenched teeth: "Go to hell..."
Perhaps because of the pain from the palm print on his face, or because of the tightness of his hands, or perhaps because of the endless hatred in the eyes of the person in front of him, a surge of excitement rose from the bottom of his heart. Zhou Min's cheeks turned red from lack of oxygen. When he heard Zhou Qiting finally say his name, the smile on the corner of his mouth became even more intense.
"I told you... soon... you will know..."
Hearing her bring up what she said on the bed, Zhou Qiting became even angrier, but he had just woken up from a coma, and the strength of one hand was always limited.
Zhou Min felt the left hand on his neck, which could no longer be tightened, and said with a smile: "You can't kill me like this..."
After saying that, he let go of Zhou Qiting's right hand that was being held.
Snap——
Because his right hand was his dominant hand, the pain on Zhou Min's left cheek was more acute at this moment.
"You approached me just to humiliate me in this way?" Zhou Yiting grabbed her neck tightly with both hands, but couldn't make the smile on her face fade in the slightest.
"Okay..." The fun was almost over, and Zhou Min pressed his fingers on the inside of Zhou Qiting's wrist, compressing her ulnar nerve so that her hands would become numb and loosen from his neck.
His hands were then bound by a hand, and no matter how hard Zhou Yiting tried to break free, he was unable to break free. He was suddenly pulled back and fell into Zhou Min's arms, with another hand holding his waist tightly, making him unable to move.
"Let me go!"
Zhou Min's face was still flushed. He met Zhou Qiting's murderous gaze and said slowly: "I didn't approach you just to humiliate you..."
"After all, Miss Zhou's identity is really useful. Not only did it allow me to escape the security encirclement unscathed, but it also allowed me to shake off all the people who were following me..."
She pretended to be sincere: "Zhou Qiting, thank you."
Feeling Zhou Qiting's body trembling with anger after hearing these words, she continued to provoke: "By the way, when your mother was talking to me on the road, her voice was shaking the whole time. Do you think she was angry or scared?"
Looking at the person in front of him whose face was getting paler and whose lower lip, which had just clotted with blood, was bitten again, Zhou Min smiled sarcastically and said softly, "You must be angry with me too, right? In this respect, you and your daughter are quite similar."
She tilted her head again and said distressedly, "But she seems to have mistaken me for an ordinary kidnapper. She must have followed your phone's location and chased me somewhere else, right?"
Hearing the word "kidnapper," Zhou Qiting finally spoke, but not with fear, but with anger, "What is your purpose? Is it still for the money?"
Still? Zhou Min narrowed his eyes, thinking about the word, and thought of a possibility. So he didn't answer directly, but asked: "Do you remember what you promised me?"
"Promise? You and those kidnappers were in cahoots, just trying to use me..."
"In the same group?" Zhou Min interrupted her upon hearing the absurd first half of her sentence. He didn't want to defend himself, but asked with interest, "Then may I ask, how did you find out that I was in the same group with them?"
Hearing her question without any guilt, Zhou Qiting laughed in anger: "Why, you don't even remember what you did?"
If you hadn't led me out of the safe area, how could I have been kidnapped?
Later, they pretended to take me away just to take advantage of my promise and convert the money they got from the kidnapping and extortion into legal donations to avoid the trouble of money laundering.
Zhou Qiting didn't want to talk about the painful past of being used, so he sneered and said, "I saw you being adopted by the mastermind who kidnapped me."
In the feedback video after the adoption, Zhou Min's rough head was gently stroked by a white hand. There was a red mole on the index finger joint of that hand. Zhou Yiting would never forget that it was that hand that tightly covered her mouth on the day of the kidnapping, preventing her from calling for help.
In the video, Zhou Min timidly called the woman "Mom".
Zhou Qiting had previously thought that Zhou Min was forced, but when she told this to her mother, her mother was silent for a moment before telling Zhou Qiting the truth, saying that Zhou Min had actually been bribed by that woman a long time ago, and all this was a collusion between them.
This truth hurt Zhou Yiting deeply, making it difficult for her to trust anyone again. However, her trust again after many years led her into the abyss again.
"So you knew..." Zhou Min muttered absentmindedly.
It turns out you knew that the person who adopted me was one of the kidnappers.
Then do you know what kind of life I have been living since then?
Zhou Min still remembers how she felt when she learned that someone insisted on adopting her. It was as if someone suddenly picked up the garbage abandoned on the roadside and recognized the value of her existence in the world.
How can we not be happy? And how can we not be afraid?
She searched her pockets but couldn't find anything to repay the recognition.
So she thought that she had to be very good to the person who adopted her in the future so that she could be worthy of the other party's firm choice.
So, no matter whether he was whipped or beaten later, Zhou Min gritted his teeth and endured it.
As long as I can make my mother happy, what does this little pain matter?
What's more, every time after being beaten, her mother would comfort her gently and say to her, Xiao Min, love is painful.
So this is love. When he heard it for the first time, Zhou Min felt the touch on his head in a daze, feeling the "love" he had never received before.
This is love, this is love... Zhou Min used these words over and over again to numb himself and endure the pain again and again.
Perhaps it was the body's self-protection mechanism that was triggered, or perhaps she accepted this "love" from the bottom of her heart, and later Zhou Min really came to like the pain.
If she hadn't accidentally learned the truth in the end, she would probably have lived her whole life with this false "love".
The memory was but a moment away. Zhou Min raised his eyes again and said jokingly, "So you knew it so long ago. I wanted to tell you in person."
The hand that was around Zhou Qiting's waist loosened and instead pinched her chin. Zhou Min admired the anger in her eyes, but it was not enough, so he chuckled and said, "How about it, did my acting some time ago help you relive the feeling of being deceived in the past?"
"Zhou Min..." Zhou Qiting's eyes welled up as she recalled what happened during that time, but her anger still overwhelmed her sadness. She gritted her teeth and said, "I won't let you go."
"What a pity, you don't have a chance."
Zhou Min stood up and pulled her, letting her stagger all the way with him to the gate not far away. Then he released his grip on her hands, raised his chin, and motioned her to look at the modified, heavy iron gate.
"Do you remember the second promise you made to me?"
What? A hint of doubt flashed across Zhou Qiting's eyes, and then he understood what Zhou Min's second promise was, and his brows gradually knitted together.
Looking at Zhou Qiting's changing expression, Zhou Min knew that she must have remembered, so he changed his tone and spoke in a serious tone.
"Zhou Qiting, die with me."
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