When Shen Chu'an woke up, she found herself lying on a large bed, feeling feverish in waves, and her limbs numb. She had no strength in her body and her mind was in a fog. All she felt was unbearable discomfort as she writhingly tossed and turned in the bed.
Even the simplest of fools would know what had happened.
The glass of red wine she had drunk was drugged!
Within no more than ten minutes, she had been reduced to this state, showing just how potent the drug was.
Chen Wenwen was sitting by the bed, watching her with an expression that reveled in her misfortune.
"Awake yet? How do you feel?"
Shen Chu'an shook her head in an attempt to stay clear-headed, bit her lip, and moaned. Her voice was halting, "Where is... this place?"
Chen Wenwen giggled, "It's definitely not the soccer field anymore, where exactly I'm not sure. Right now, you only need to know one thing."
She waggled a mini camera in her hand, her voice low and filled with endless malice, "In a little while, some men will come in, maybe seven or eight, and given your state, you can guess what will happen, right? After it's over, I'll send the video to your husband's email. How do you think he will react, Mrs. Fu?"
The last three words she emphasized with a heavy tone.
It took Shen Chu'an a while to comprehend what Chen Wenwen was insinuating. Furious, she struggled to throw a pillow at her from the bed.
"Shameless! Do you... do you realize that what you're doing is illegal!"
Chen Wenwen scoffed, "Illegal? Do you think someone like me fears breaking the law? It was you who pushed me to a dead end first! But today, at most I'm an accomplice. The one truly out to get you is someone you cannot afford to offend!"
"You really are lucky, luring Mr. Fu with just your fox-like face! And to think I assumed it was Secretary-General Qi. It seems I really underestimated you!"
"But your good luck is about to run out. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being too ostentatious. You deserve everything that's coming to you!"
After saying that, she walked out with a laugh, turning back to add, "By the way, those men might be a bit late, so Mrs. Fu, please try to maintain some dignity in the meantime, alright?"
The camera, the size of a bottle cap, was fixed on the table. Shen Chu'an was both frantic and angry. She struggled to get up from the bed to switch off the damned camera, but she was too weak to do anything but flail about on the bed.
As time passed, the effects of the drug intensified. She rolled from one end of the bed to the other, barely suppressing her ragged breath and moans, her body relentlessly rubbing against the sheets. A glass of water was nowhere near enough to quench this fiery inferno.
Shen Chu'an ground her teeth in anger.
She knew Chen Wenwen's words rang true: there had to be someone more formidable who wanted to harm her. Otherwise, by herself, Chen Wenwen wouldn't have been able to enter the soccer field, let alone know she was Mrs. Fu.
Who could it be?
Her thoughts were too chaotic to make sense of it all, but she was certain it had something to do with Huaichen. The thought of that paranoid and unreasonable man, and that now she was being harmed because of him, made all the past tenderness and touching moments vanish. All she wished for was a knife in her hand, to stab him ten, no, twenty times!
At that moment, the door to the room suddenly made a sound, opening a crack.
Shen Chu'an could no longer see who was coming in; she just wished for a knife in her hand!
…
"Is Lady Bai Fuli still here?" Fu Huaichen asked.
In the clubhouse, the manager was checking the parking information again and then told him, "Lady Bai Fuli had already left four hours ago; her car was only parked here for twenty minutes."
Fu Huaichen frowned, "Is this the kind of place suitable for inviting an elderly person like her?"
The manager explained, "Actually, Lady Bai wasn't originally on the guest list, but since she is your grandmother, so..."
So when she arrived, they couldn't just refuse her entry, especially since she was a key decision-maker in the Bai Family enterprise, a VIP that even the clubhouse couldn't invite at will. Despite being over eighty, she was neither deaf nor blind, and was still in robust health. Many high-level executives from her enterprises were esteemed guests of the clubhouse. A person of her stature was not someone a mere entertainment club could afford to offend.
Fu Huaichen closed his eyes. Four hours ago, wasn't that precisely when Shen Chu'an went missing?
If it was really the grandmother's doing, then Fu Huaichen could guess why.
"President Fu, do you think... should we call the police?"
"No need, I know where she is."
In the car, Fu Huaichen dialed the familiar number on his phone.
"It was you, wasn't it?"
On the other end of the phone, Bai Fuli's voice was aged and feeble, with the slowness characteristic of the elderly, "I'm already of such an old age. How does the old saying go? 'Take off the shoes and socks today, not sure if they'll be worn tomorrow.' What can I do?"
Fu Huaichen massaged his temples, "I know you're dissatisfied with my marriage because I didn't marry the person you had in mind, but Shen Chu'an has nothing to do with this. I married her of my own accord; it was my choice to pick her."
"Hmph, you child, as stubborn as you were when you were young. Do you think by just randomly finding someone and getting a marriage certificate, the matter would be swept under the rug? You're thinking too beautifully. That girl's family is..."
"Shen Chu'an is pregnant," Fu Huaichen interrupted her. "We had a relationship a long time ago. Certainly, she was too anxious that day, but I can't let my child be left outside, bearing the name of an illegitimate child. Once the child is born, I will divorce her."
"...You're not lying to me?"
"Where is she?"
This was the first time Fu Huaichen had ever lied, and he got Shen Chu'an's address as he wished.
"You'd better get there quickly. If someone gets there before you, it would only show that the child is not fated to have such luck."
The car sped along the road, and ten minutes later, Fu Huaichen arrived at the villa.
It was one of the Bai Family's properties—one that not even Fu Huaichen knew about. By the time he arrived, there were four or five people peeking around at the entrance. Most of them weren't very brave, possibly because they had guilty consciences, so they hardly dared to enter. When they saw a luxury car coming, they immediately ran away as if hit on the back of the head.
Fu Huaichen knew what they were there for, which was exactly why he looked more distressed than ever.
Pushing open the door and approaching the bedroom, he heard a series of agonized moans from inside. Unable to bear it any longer, he kicked the door open.
Shen Chu'an had already taken off most of her clothes herself, almost half-naked, with a face as red as an overripe shrimp, a thin layer of sweat on her body, and her slender, fair legs crossed, presenting a graceful and exquisite silhouette.
As the door opened, her eyes were still bewildered, shimmering with tearful glints, her lips had been bitten until they bled, and a drop of blood slowly slid down from the corner of her mouth.
In the moment when their eyes met, Fu Huaichen felt a thunderous roar in his brain.