Chapter 55 After talking with the person in charge, ...
After finishing her conversation with the person in charge, Ji Qingyu glanced at the time as she walked out of the theater; it had already quietly passed midnight.
The winter night wind carried a chill, swirling up a few withered yellow leaves from the ground, sending them disappearing into the dim light. He instinctively pulled his coat tighter around himself.
Fu Han's car was indeed still in the same spot, with the headlights on. Fu Han was leaning back in the driver's seat, his head turned to the side and his eyes closed; he had actually fallen asleep.
Ji Qingyu walked over quietly. As she got closer, she could clearly see the two faint dark circles under Fu Han's eyes, like ink spreading across water. He reached out, his fingertips lightly tracing the shadows.
Fu Han's eyelashes trembled slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes.
Those usually cold eyes softened upon waking, and when they focused on Ji Qingyu's face, a gentle smile unconsciously appeared on their faces. That smile dispelled the coldness between Fu Han's brows, revealing a complete sense of dependence.
"Finished talking?" Fu Han's voice was hoarse from just waking up.
"Mmm," Ji Qingyu responded, her voice a little strained.
Fu Han stood up and naturally reached out to pull Ji Qingyu into his arms. His embrace was tight, as if he wanted to meld her into his body.
He buried his face in Ji Qingyu's neck, breathing deeply and almost greedily in the scent of her pheromones. The damp rain enveloped the car, carrying the unique fragrance of Ji Qingyu.
Sensing the barely perceptible restlessness and unease in Fu Han's emotions, Ji Qingyu did not struggle, but instead released more pheromones.
Inside the train carriage, the radio was still softly playing the nighttime news. The female anchor reported the latest news: "...It is reported that Fu Yunsheng's assets are facing a complete seizure, and recently, witnesses have claimed that he was suspected of appearing outside Songshan Prison."
"Looking back at Fu Yunsheng's attempts to rise to power, it seems he always fell short... Some netizens have even dug up old photos showing Fu Yunsheng kissing a man intimately on the street. Upon comparison, the figure bears a striking resemblance to Ji Ran, the former singer and entertainer recently investigated. Furthermore, some of Fu Yunsheng's assets have already been transferred to Ji Ran's name, and the two jointly own shell companies used to transfer illicit income. It is speculated that their relationship may go beyond a simple exchange of interests..."
Fu Han frowned slightly and reached out to turn off the radio. The carriage fell silent instantly, with only the soft breathing of the two of them remaining.
The car eventually came to a smooth stop in front of Ji Qingyu's apartment building.
Fu Han seemed reluctant to let go. After parking the car, he held Ji Qingyu's hand again, his fingertips caressing her slightly cool knuckles. His eyes were glued to Ji Qingyu's face, as if he couldn't get enough of looking at her.
"Alright, it's late, you should go back and rest." Ji Qingyu looked away awkwardly and withdrew her hand.
Fu Han looked at him, a hint of disappointment flashing in his eyes, but he still nodded, hooked his finger around Ji Qingyu's finger, and shook it twice.
Ji Qingyu's ears turned even redder.
Fu Han is always good at using these tricks.
Ji Qingyu got out of the car, waved to him, and turned to walk into the narrow alley leading to the apartment building. Fu Han watched Ji Qingyu's back until it completely disappeared into the shadows of the alley before slowly turning his gaze away and wearily rubbing his temples.
Ji Qingyu walked alone in the alley. The streetlights were old and in disrepair, barely illuminating the uneven stone path under her feet.
The surroundings were quiet, and his thoughts were still immersed in his conversation with the person in charge, pondering the plot of the stage play, trying to dispel the inexplicable unease that was welling up in his heart.
He had heard that Fu Yunsheng had run away. He had only met Fu Yunsheng briefly, but he understood that such a person would never accept defeat so easily.
Just as I was thinking, my thoughts came to an abrupt halt.
A tall figure suddenly blocked the alleyway in front of her. Ji Qingyu's heart skipped a beat, and she stopped abruptly, instinctively turning around to find that a similarly burly man had also appeared behind her, blocking her retreat.
Immediately afterwards, a figure he absolutely did not want to see appeared before him.
Fu Yunsheng.
Ji Qingyu's heart sank to the bottom instantly. His body reacted faster than his mind. He silently reached into his pocket and, relying on muscle memory, quickly pressed the emergency call button on the side of his phone.
"What are you trying to do?" Ji Qingyu forced herself to calm down, her voice sounding particularly clear in the quiet alley.
Fu Yunsheng twitched the corners of his mouth, a smile devoid of warmth, filled only with long-suppressed resentment and madness: "Nothing, just wanted to talk to you."
“We have nothing to talk about,” Ji Qingyu said, while glancing around out of the corner of her eye, searching for a possible escape route. The alley was too narrow, blocked from both ends, and practically a dead end.
"That's not up to you." Fu Yunsheng sneered, his eyes filled with a desperate resolve. "Take him away."
Two burly men immediately rushed forward and roughly grabbed Ji Qingyu's arms, one on each side. Struggling was futile; the difference in strength was too great. Ji Qingyu felt her phone vibrate very slightly in her pocket—an emergency call had been connected.
"Fu Yunsheng, you..." Ji Qingyu tried to say something, stalling for time, but a black hood suddenly covered his head, instantly depriving him of his vision. He was shoved forcefully and staggered into a car. The car door slammed shut, cutting him off from the outside world.
“Don’t blame me,” Fu Yunsheng’s icy voice rang in my ears, filled with deep-seated hatred. “Blame Fu Han for pushing you too hard.”
The vehicle started and drove along the bumpy road. Ji Qingyu forced herself to remain calm, analyzing her current situation. "You kidnapped me, what are you going to exchange him for?"
"Change what?" Fu Yunsheng's voice suddenly rose as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world, then turned cold and sharp, as if it had been poisoned. "When he comes, I want him to see with his own eyes how you die in front of him. I want him to taste what it means to be in unbearable pain."
"Why?" Ji Qingyu continued to ask, her tone still calm. "You finally managed to escape, why didn't you go far away instead of coming back to walk right into our trap?"
"Walking right into a trap?" Fu Yunsheng lunged closer, ripped off Ji Qingyu's hood, and roughly grabbed his collar, choking him almost to the point of suffocation. "If it weren't for you, our previous plan would have succeeded long ago, and we would have gotten those documents by now! Fu Han and Fu Yunbai should have been meeting their maker long ago! Tell me why, it's all because you ruined my plans!"
At such close range, Ji Qingyu could clearly see the bloodshot eyes in Fu Yunsheng's eyes and the almost overflowing madness.
“I thought,” Ji Qingyu’s face was a little pale from lack of oxygen, but her voice remained strangely soft and calm, “that you were doing this for Ji Ran.”
He clearly felt the hand gripping his collar tighten suddenly. "He was retaliated against by Fu Han and ruined because of you. He did so many shady things for you... Aren't you doing this to avenge him?"
"Shut up." Ji Qingyu's words were like a needle, precisely piercing Fu Yunsheng's most sensitive and vulnerable nerve. Like an enraged beast, he slammed Ji Qingyu hard against the back of the seat, then punched her heavily in the cheek.
A sharp pain shot through Ji Qingyu, his vision went black, his ears rang, and a metallic, sweet taste filled his mouth. The back of his head slammed against the hard chair back due to the inertia, causing a wave of dizziness. He tilted his head to the side, breathing rapidly, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes, fixed on Fu Yunsheng, remained clear and calm.
The vehicle eventually stopped in front of an abandoned warehouse. Ji Qingyu was roughly dragged out of the car and shoved into the warehouse. It was filled with clutter, and the air was thick with the smell of rust and dust.
Fu Yunsheng didn't seem to be in a hurry to act; it was as if he were performing some kind of ritual, waiting for the most important audience to enter. He ordered his men to tie Ji Qingyu to a chair, while he paced anxiously, glancing at the warehouse entrance every now and then.
Time ticked by, each second feeling like a slow, agonizing torture.
I don't know how much time passed, or perhaps not so much, but under this extreme oppression, the sense of time had become blurred. Outside the warehouse, the sound of an engine finally came, followed by hurried and firm footsteps, approaching from afar.
Clang—
The rusty iron gate was pushed open from the outside with great force, and blinding light poured in, probably from car headlights. Fu Han appeared alone in the doorway.
His gaze instantly locked onto Ji Qingyu, who was tied to the chair, and his eyes turned cold when he saw the bloodstains and swelling at the corner of his mouth.
"How did you get here so fast?" Fu Yunsheng was startled by his speed, then realized what was happening and turned sharply to look at Ji Qingyu. "It's you?"
"You dare hit him?" Fu Han's voice was filled with intense anger. The oppressive atmosphere spread like a tangible force, and for a moment, even the burly men that Fu Yunsheng had brought did not dare to step forward easily.
Fu Yunsheng felt a chill run down his spine from Fu Han's gaze, but there was no turning back now. As if to bolster his courage, he suddenly grabbed Ji Qingyu's hair, forcing him to face Fu Han. With his other hand, he pulled out a gleaming switchblade, snapped it open, and pressed it tightly against Ji Qingyu's neck.
The cold blade touched her skin, easily slicing through the epidermis, and beads of blood instantly seeped out, standing out starkly against Ji Qingyu's pale skin.
Fu Han seemed to be frozen in place, all his movements stiffening. He stared intently at the blood-red stain, his pupils contracting, his clenched fists turning white at the knuckles and veins bulging. He dared not move an inch.
In that critical, deathly silence, Ji Qingyu stared at Fu Han, blinking rapidly twice—a very subtle signal.
Then, to everyone's surprise, Ji Qingyu suddenly slammed his head back, the back of his head hitting Fu Yunsheng's nose hard. Then he used his elbow to smash Fu Yunsheng's arm holding the knife with all his might.
Caught off guard, Fu Yunsheng felt a sharp pain in his nose, and his arm holding the knife was jolted to the side. He never expected that Ji Qingyu would make the first move.
With a clang, the knife slipped from his hand and fell onto the cement floor.
Fu Han abruptly shook off the person who tried to rush up and stop him, rushed to Fu Yunsheng in a few steps, and punched him hard in the face. Fu Yunsheng screamed and staggered backward.
Fu Han didn't even look at him. He grabbed Ji Qingyu's wrist, who had just broken free of her ropes, and turned to rush towards the warehouse door.
"Catch them! Don't let them get away!" Fu Yunsheng covered his face and roared incoherently.
The men snapped out of their daze and rushed forward, grabbing whatever sticks were nearby. Ji Qingyu felt a sharp pain on his cheek; he seemed to have been grazed by the remaining edge of a blade during the fierce resistance. But he couldn't care less about that and desperately followed Fu Han as they ran outside.
The wind whistled behind her, and a thug wielding a baseball bat caught up, swinging it down to smash Ji Qingyu on the back of the head.
"Be careful." Without thinking, Fu Han suddenly pulled Ji Qingyu into his arms and used his broad back to take the heavy blow.
"Bang!" A muffled sound rang out, and Fu Han's body trembled violently. He let out a suppressed groan, and his face turned pale instantly.
"Fu Han!" Ji Qingyu exclaimed in shock, her heart almost stopping.
"It's alright!" Fu Han gritted his teeth, cold sweat beading on his forehead, but he forced himself to stay calm. He turned around and kicked the thug away, then grabbed Ji Qingyu and continued running. "Let's go!"
The two rushed out of the warehouse, where Fu Han's car was parked. They quickly opened the car door and got in. Fu Han, enduring the burning pain in his back, suddenly started the engine, and the car shot off like an arrow.
However, Fu Yunsheng had clearly made thorough preparations. The warehouse was not deserted; several dilapidated-looking vans started up simultaneously and surrounded them from different directions, clearly intending to trap them there.
Fu Han's face was grim. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, weaving left and right on the narrow, dilapidated factory roads, trying to shake off his pursuers. But there were too many other vehicles, and they kept a close watch on him.
“He’s gone mad…” Ji Qingyu’s voice tightened as she looked at the car lights getting closer and closer in the rearview mirror.
Fu Yunsheng had indeed gone mad. The car behind him accelerated recklessly, crashing violently into the side and rear of Fu Han's car, clearly intending to take them both down with him.
In the critical moment, Fu Han swerved the steering wheel without hesitation and shouted to Ji Qingyu, "Hold on tight!"
The tires screeched against the ground. In a split second, Fu Han swerved the car sideways, almost suicidally positioning his driver's side door precisely against the front of the van that was about to crash into him.
"Fu Han!" Ji Qingyu tried to stop him, but it was too late; everything happened in the blink of an eye.
With a loud crash, Ji Qingyu's figure swayed, his vision blurred, and darkness engulfed him. The last thing he remembered was the sound of an alarm and the metallic smell of blood.
He couldn't feel anything anymore, and could only instinctively reach out to grasp Fu Han's hand beside him.
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