Inside the spacious nanny van, there were still two extra seats behind Xu WanZhi. Two of Mu XiYuan's underlings sat there. Both of them in black. Both of them masked.
Under the threat posted by Mu XiYuan's knife, Xu WanZhi didn't do much in terms of struggling. The two men tied up her arms and legs and even had her eyes covered up.
The car drove for about half an hour. Toward the second half of their journey, the road became very ruggedly and they bounced up and down over it. They must have driven to some remote locations.
After they have arrived at their destination, the car slowly came to a stop. Someone carried Xu WanZhi out of the car, walked over to a room with a pungent smell, and tied her up on a chair.
The mask over her eyes was yanked off violently. Xu WanZhi looked around and it seemed like she was placed in a storeroom that had once held seafood. There weren't a lot of extra items around except for a few large metal thermal boxes.
Standing not too far away from her, Mu XiYuan had been texting nonstop, most likely confirming with his underlings as to their next steps. Xu WanZhi couldn't quite figure out what his next steps were going to be but also worried that if he didn't start talking soon, the more time went by, the more dangerous it would be for Mu ZhenYu. She wet her dried lips a little and be the first to break the silence. "Did you kidnap me because you had misplaced your trust in Qin Sheng and went bankrupt and decided to take a page from Ms. Wang LiZhen's book and blackmail Mu ZhenYu for a large amount? I am curious though. Exactly how much are you going to ask for?"
Xu WanZhi knew that Mu XiYuan wasn't going to engage with her initially. But she knew that Mu XiYuan was a conceited person who always bragged that he was smarter and better at scheming than his brother. And that was why she purposefully made him sound stupid. Sure enough, Mu XiYuan took the bait and couldn't help but turned toward her.
"My dear sister-in-law. You have so underestimated me. Money is not necessarily what everyone in this world want." Mu XiYuan shoved his cellphone back into his pocket and smiled in contempt. Walking over to her, he said, "I've heard that my brother never wanted to marry that Liang ZhiQuan, which was why he hired you to play your role with him. I heard he offered $50 million straight up. Was that true?"
Xu WanZhi raised her brows. "You heard right."
"Oh yes." Mu XiYuan straightened up his back. "Even though you had been scheming this whole time, had the old lady on your side, and finally able to marry into a prestigious family, but… that is not what I am after. Back in my days, I almost got into Wharton. If I wanted to start over again, I don't need Mu ZhenYu's money. Nor do I care for his money."
Hearing that, Xu WanZhi stuck her tongue out quickly. "Almost means you didn't. You think just anyone can get into Wharton? What you were lacking was probably the same as how you've misjudged so much and placed your trust in the poor man Qin Sheng. The distance between you and Wharton was probably the same as the distance between you and Mu ZhenYu. You might think you had just missed it by a smudge when, in reality, you were way off."
Mu XiYuan was immediately enraged. He walked up and grabbed Xu WanZhi by her collar. "Xu WanZhi, what exactly did Mu ZhenYu offered up to you? Why would you stand by him so for just $50 million? I have offered you a lot of money back in the days as well. Why wouldn't you come over to my side?"
Looking at the infuriated Mu XiYuan, Xu WanZhi only felt that she was looking at a beast who had lost control of itself. She sneered and she wasn't afraid of him at all. In fact, she said to him calmly, "You asked me why I stand by Mu ZhenYu all the way. Truth be told, I don't know either. At the beginning, I just wanted to carry out the contract like I was paid to do, then I can go off with my money. I ended up with an engagement ring. It's sort of like a transformation… that's the way that many things are in life. If it's meant to be, you can't avoid it. If it isn't, look at the way you and Wang LiZhen had fought for it, all your effort was still moot."
"Hahahaha. I guess you had fallen in love with him and got yourself dragged into this." Mu XiYuan let go of her and returned to the expression that he was in control of it all. "Xu WanZhi, I feel bad for you. If all you like is money and just wanted the lifestyle of being rich, we make a good couple. The entire Mu's could belong to us. I had even thought about that you are pretty enough that I can take you out to places. I can totally afford to keep you as Mrs. Mu. Then you can look for lovers on the side as could I. It will be a symbiotic relationship. Wouldn't that be nice? But no, you have to go and fall in love with that brother of mine."
Xu WanZhi stretched the corners of her mouth and smiled in resignation.
What she regretted about wasn't the fact that she had fallen in love with Mu ZhenYu, but that she just found out that she had fallen in love with him and hadn't has a chance to tell him.
That moment, Mu XiYuan's cellphone rang. By now, he didn't care about avoiding Xu WanZhi anymore and picked up the phone right in front of her.
Xu WanZhi had good hearing and she could hear what the person on the other end was saying.
"Old Man Mu had made his move. I just caught wind from our buddies inside that said that there was an outbreak at Wang LiZhen's prison during exercise time and she was stabbed accidentally. But my man saw that she had many wounds and bruises on her body. She was probably tortured beforehand. In fact, it was possible that she didn't die from the stab wound. That could have been added later."
Mu XiYuan mumbled a "Mmm" lowly. He was awfully calm when he listened to person over the call as though it was his birth mother than was being discussed but some random woman.
After a while, he hung up the phone and started to laugh.
"Xu WanZhi… hahahaha. Did you hear that? Mu XueLin had my mother killed." His face was twisted from the gloomy smile and his eyes were as dark as they could be. "That's woman for you. She was too soft. All these years being next to Mu XueLin, she had a million chances to take care of him and take his money. Yet, she was being an idiot and insisted on staying by the man's side. She felt that she'd have someone to rely on that way. Then what? She ended up losing her life over it. Sadly, my poor mother probably didn't even know what she died of. She must think that the order was given by Mu ZhenYu."
Walking over to Xu WanZhi, he bent down and looked into her eyes at her level. "That's what I am telling you, Xu WanZhi. You should never rely on a man. If you don't pull yourself out soon enough, you will end up the same way as her."
Xu WanZhi looked back at him fearlessly. "Don't worry. That won't happen to me. Mu ZhenYu is not the same as Mu XueLin. And I am no Wang LiZhen."
"HAHAHAHA. Right, right, right." Mu XiYuan lowered his head, pulled out his cellphone and dialed a video chat request. It didn't take long for the other end to pick up. Xu WanZhi could clearly see Mu ZhenYu's face appearing on Mu XiYuan's screen
"Hi Big Brother. Long time no see." Mu XiYuan walked over to Xu WanZhi. Holding his cellphone with his right hand, he made sure Mu ZhenYu could see both of them at the same time. He pulled out his sharp little knife from earlier and pressed it against Xu WanZhi's neck. "Look who I have here."
Touched by the ice-cold blade, Xu WanZhi shuddered.
Seeing that Xu WanZhi was tied up on the chair, Mu ZhenYu was filled with anger almost immediately. "Mu XiYuan, what do you think you are doing?"
"Hmmm, something fun, I guess?" Mu XiYuan turned his head and planted a kiss on Xu WanZhi's cheek. "What do you think I am doing, Big Brother?"
Mu ZhenYu stood up suddenly. "Mu XiYuan, if you hurt her, I will tear you apart."
Mu XiYuan narrowed his eyes and stood up straight reflexively. Xu WanZhi disappeared from the screen. "Don't worry, Big Brother, nothing is going to happen until you got here. I'll be sending you my location shortly. I suggest you get over here in 30 minutes or less. Else I will let everyone try out my sister-in-law."
Having said that, he turned off the camera and was about to hang up the phone. But he changed his mind the last minute. Lifting up his cellphone, he said, "Oh, by the way, come alone. I have many men on the way. I suggest you think twice before you try anything stupid."
After he hung up the phone, he narrowed his eyes relaxingly and walked back over toward Xu WanZhi. Sitting down on top of an abandoned gasoline barrel, he said to her, "Xu WanZhi, are you crazy for Mu ZhenYu? Now you can see if your faith has been misplaced."
There was no request for ransom in his entire conversation with Mu ZhenYu. It'd seem that the purpose of this kidnapping was not money. That made Xu WanZhi felt even more alarmed. If it wasn't money that he wanted, then what was it?
"Have you forgotten something?" Xu WanZhi had to try again. "You've spent so much effort in getting me here but you seemed to have forgotten to ask for a ransom."
"Brat, I've already told you, money isn't what I am after!" Mu XiYuan tossed away his knife and it lodged in a piece of wood. "You are right. You are not Wang LiZhen. Wang LiZhen died from Mu XueLin's doing. You won't. You will just… become a widow."
In that very moment, Xu WanZhi knew what he meant.
He never intended for Mu ZhenYu to make it there. He only captured her as bait so Mu ZhenYu would lose all the bodyguards that he had. That way he'd be able to take care of Mu ZhenYu on his way here.
Recalling the original novel, it never mentioned how Qin Sheng and Liang ZhiQuan took care of the big villain Mu ZhenYu. Now she got it. That was because Mu ZhenYu's death was not caused by those two. It was caused by Mu XiYuan.
Mu XiYuan had been watching Xu WanZhi's expression closely. He knew that she had figured out his plan when she heard the term "widow" from him. But that was quite alright. He had 10 plus underlings with him there and all of them fierce. She was a woman who was tied up and wouldn't be able to escape even if she had wanted to. He stood up, tossed his cellphone on the ground and stomped on it with his luxurious shoe. The screen of the cellphone cracked immediately.
He stomped on it a few more times and, after confirming that the phone could no longer be used, looked over at Xu WanZhi. "Now we wait."
What he hadn't expected was that the moment he finished talking, Xu WanZhi suddenly struggled free from her bondage and, somehow, had his knife that was lodged in a piece of wood in her had and she aimed it straight at him.
Mu XiYuan had some training in martial arts when he was a child as well. She was fast, but he was able to dodge out of her way.
He lifted the corners of his mouth, smiled, and reached for the knife in her hand as he said to her, "Sister-in-law, do you really think you will be able to fight me?"
Nevertheless, before he finished his sentence, she was able to get to him first and plunged the knife right through his palm and nailed it onto a wooden post.
With his hand nailed at the height of his knee, Mu XiYuan needed to drop to his knee to not injure his shoulder. He let out a cry of pian and dropped to his knee. A group of men ran into the warehouse when they heard his cry. Xu WanZhi grabbed Mu XiYuan by his hair and said, "Quickly, tell them to stay where they are."