Chapter 54 Including Her
The alley was piled with garbage half a person high, and the stench mixed with the damp, musty smell hit you.
The dim streetlights cast shadows through the dense, tangled wires, and in the light, the woman's face turned a deep purplish-red, her fingers almost poking the man's nose across the street.
"Cheng Huaiyuan! Hand over my son! Or I'll fight you to the death!"
Cheng Huaiyuan stepped back, spat on the ground, and spoke with malice.
"Pah! I'll hand him over? I bet that brat Ruan Zhengyi got his money after he succeeded!"
"You promised to take the next step after recording the threatening video, but now you've vanished without a trace, and you still dare to ask me questions?"
"You're talking nonsense!" The woman's voice suddenly rose, its sharp, tearful tone piercing the deathly silence of the alley.
"Zhengyi has disappeared! He's not answering his phone or replying to WeChat messages, and I can't find him anywhere!"
Wang Yanqin's voice already sounded like she was about to cry.
"If you hadn't said you wanted to cooperate on a big heist, and that you could succeed by targeting Ruan Yi, we would have been on the ship long ago, and we would have already smuggled ourselves into the US!"
The woman's tone had long been shattered by anger and breakdown.
"Now look what's happened! Both plans have fallen through, we haven't seen the money, and my son is gone! It must be your doing!"
Cheng Huaiyuan's reputation has been known to everyone ever since he was kicked out of the Ruan family, for his numerous affairs, gambling, and extreme greed.
It has nothing to do with the handsome man who used to portray himself as a man who deeply loved his wife.
"Me, playing tricks?" Cheng Huaiyuan sneered, his eyes filled with a terrifyingly sinister glint.
"Who was it that immediately suggested dividing up the Ruan family's assets, eager to take the lion's share? Now that he's gone, he's blaming me. I think he already got the money from Ruan Yi, abandoned you, his mother, and ran off with the money!"
"You're talking nonsense! Zhengyi isn't that kind of person!"
Wang Yanqin was hit where it hurt, and she lunged forward, her nails digging fiercely at the man's face.
"Give me back my son! You heartless bastard!"
Cheng Huaiyuan was prepared, grabbed her wrist, and shoved her back hard.
Wang Yanqin slammed into the wall, her lower back hitting a pile of beer bottles, and she groaned in pain.
Looking at her disheveled appearance, Cheng Huaiyuan spat again, cursed, and turned to leave.
"You crazy woman, I'm not going to argue with you!"
The man strode out of the alley, his anxiety no less than that of the woman from before.
That day, when he thought that Ruan Zhengyi, who inherited his father's bald and weak physique, must have already finished, he thought that Ruan Zhengyi was already done.
When I returned to that building, the room was already empty.
The cabinet in the corner, which should have contained surveillance equipment, was completely empty.
The footprints on the ground had disappeared, leaving the area as clean as if no one had ever been there, let alone any signs of a struggle or assault.
At that moment, he made the worst-case scenario plan: that girl Ruan Yi had definitely been won over by that brat Ruan Zhengyi.
If he had known this would happen, he would never have agreed to cooperate in the first place.
He could have simply pretended to be unwell; Ruan Yi was his own daughter, and he would have received a sum of money long ago.
There's no need to argue with Wang Yanqin now and get yourself into a mess you can't shake off.
These past few days, he's been watching the news closely and listening intently to what the neighbors are saying.
Ruan Zhengyi has disappeared, and the Ruan family has made no move whatsoever. They have neither called the police nor spread any rumors of "the Ruan family's daughter being humiliated." It is eerily quiet.
It seems they simply don't have the guts to give up and do whatever they want.
The last trace of hesitation vanished from the man's ferocious face.
The last vestige of guilt he felt towards Ruan Yi was completely consumed by ruthlessness.
Cheng Huaiyuan walked into the shadows at the street corner, took out his phone, and dialed the number he knew by heart.
The phone was answered after ringing twice. A woman's voice came through the receiver; she wasn't young, but she had a deliberately cultivated coquettish charm.
"Hey, Huaiyuan? You're calling me at this hour, is there some good news?"
Cheng Huaiyuan's voice was full of hostility.
"What good news?! That beast Ruan Zhengyi has vanished into thin air, there's not even a trace of the video!"
"Tsk, neither end is going smoothly."
The woman's voice deepened, carrying a clear sense of disappointment.
“I’m also in a difficult situation. Lately, the Ruan family has become incredibly cunning. I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that someone is watching me, and it seems like… we’ve already been discovered.”
"You're overthinking it!" the man said in a low voice, his tone impatient and certain.
"Who could possibly know? Aside from that little girl who bumped into you once when she was little and didn't remember anything, who else would know that you and I are related? How old was she back then? She was probably scared out of her wits by you, and now she probably doesn't even remember what you look like."
"You've been in the Ruan family for almost twenty years. You're right under Ruan Ying's nose. Why would she suspect you? Don't scare yourself!"
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the line before the woman's voice, tinged with even greater unease, came through.
“But I always felt something was wrong… The person staring at me didn’t seem to be the mother and daughter, but someone else. I can’t explain it, but I just felt really uncomfortable.”
"Stop talking nonsense!" The man kicked a pebble on the side of the road hard.
"Never mind who it is, just keep the medicine on! Since that kid's gone under, let's start here."
"We really can't act rashly now."
The woman's voice was hesitant.
"That little slut Ruan Yi has been acting really strange lately. I don't know what triggered her, but she's getting everything tested! Everyone's suspicious; she's probably heard something."
"Her?" The man sneered, anger rising in his throat.
"Then let's take her too! Since she's in the way, let's deal with her first! What can a little girl do to cause trouble?"
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone before the woman's voice finally rang out again, carrying a hint of resolute determination fueled by self-interest.
"...Okay, I understand."
After all, if it succeeds, Cheng Huaiyuan can come back, and she can step over the Ruan family mother and daughter to move into the Ruan family's main residence with dignity and become the true mistress of the Ruan family.
"I'll hang up now, Huaiyuan."
The woman paused, then gave the receiver an exaggerated kiss, saying, "Wait for my good news."
The man responded on the other end, and then the two hung up the phone.
In the darkness of night, the woman stood in the corner of the garden tool shed deep in the garden of the Ruan family villa, surrounded by neatly trimmed bushes whose leaves rustled softly in the wind.
She put her phone back in her pocket and took two steps when she heard a soft "whoosh" behind her.
It looked like someone had stepped on a dead leaf.
The woman froze, then turned around abruptly.
It was pitch black all around, with only the lights from the main house in the distance shining through.
This wasn't the first time; lately, she'd felt like someone was watching her.
But every time I deliberately searched, I couldn't find a single person.
"It must be an illusion..."
She muttered to herself, pressing her hand to her pounding chest.
"It's so dark, there's no one around."
A shadow slowly emerged from the darkness around the corner.
The night was so thick it almost swallowed him whole, only vaguely outlining the shape of his broad shoulders.
He stood still, his aura calm and indifferent, as if everything had been expected.
However, it did not cause him any ripples.
Until that name "Ruan Yi" drifted into my ears.
The next second, the eyes in the shadows narrowed slightly in the darkness.
The silent night was filled with a chill.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
