Midnight, one o'clock.
A delicate and petite figure darted out of the side door of the Huo Family villa, glanced around, and hurried along the cobblestone path towards the main road.
There were no streetlights in the suburbs, only the sparse stars in the sky for light. Fortunately, a flashlight was found in the guest room of the villa, preventing her from stumbling every few steps.
If she couldn't provoke them, couldn't she hide? Jiayi didn't look back and hastened her pace.
Inside the villa, on the second floor, the French windows of the master bedroom were half-open.
The man stood in front of the window, his eyes calm, watching as the girl's figure gradually disappeared into the night. His expression was unclear, indistinct between light and dark, masking his current mood.
"Young Master, should we call Miss Jiayi back? In the middle of the night, a girl could be in danger. It's dozens of kilometers from here to the city center, and there are several new construction sites along the way, which attract many odd-jobbers. Many of them are hoodlums who go out to find fun at night," the butler Luo said.
"If she likes to run, let her run," came the indifferent reply.
The wildness in the bones of the little beast was not removed; no matter how much she was called back, she would still run.
Let her learn a lesson, get hurt badly, then she'll understand what's right.
This was the law of survival in the business battlefield, and now, using it on a girl he had only met twice and was a stranger to him, was not bad either.
Jiayi walked along the asphalt road for a while, not knowing what time it was, just feeling that the path was getting darker and the flashlight was growing dimmer.
Eventually, the light suddenly went out as the flashlight completely ran out of battery.
Damn it! Jiayi shook the flashlight and sighed.
Groping in the dark, the absence of the flashlight's illumination made it increasingly black, and Jiayi began to feel nervous.
After all, walking alone at night would give anyone the chills, especially in the desolate rural countryside!
Chilled by the night wind, Jiayi felt goosebumps all over her body. After walking for what felt like forever without an end in sight, and not knowing how much longer it would take, she could only follow the main road. Jiayi was irritated and threw the flashlight ahead onto the ground.
With a "thud," the flashlight hit the ground, sounding exceptionally crisp in the quiet suburbs.
Suddenly, a flickering light appeared ahead, accompanied by footsteps, as if someone had been alerted by the sound of the flashlight being thrown.
Someone?! Jiayi's heart stirred with a touch of surprise, hoping it was a local resident or someone heading to the city center who might be able to give her a ride.
She groped forward and saw two figures walking towards her.
They were two young men wearing Southeast Asian-style checkered shirts, one with dyed yellow hair and the other with a tiger tooth tattoo on his arm. At the sight of the girl, they were startled but then immediately smiled at each other with a complex look in their eyes.
Jiayi stopped in her tracks, feeling a chill in her heart, realizing that she was probably not encountering good people.
The two men approached Jiayi with a sleazy air, "Tsk tsk, why is the lady wandering alone in the middle of the night? Do you live nearby? What happened to your face, you're injured, aren't you? Poor thing. Want to come with us back home, we can put some medicine on that for you?"
Jiayi didn't speak, sidestepped the two, and started walking faster ahead, but she noticed they were following her.
The tattooed guy caught up and spread his arms to block her way, grinning, "Miss, if you don't want to come to our place, that's fine. Two kilometers further on, there's a Clock Hotel. Wanna go?"
"Don't touch me, get lost!" Jiayi was filled with disgust.
"Hey! The little chick's got a fiery temper!" the yellow-haired guy teased, raising his hand to grab the girl's wrist, "Looking at you, let's go buy you some fashionable clothes."
"I'm calling the police now!" Jiayi dodged quickly,
"Call the police? In this desolate place, I'd like to see you try!" The laughter became lewd, offensive to the ear. The tattooed thug took the opportunity to seize her shoulders, and Jiayi startled, struggled and dodged to the side.
The thin dress that Auntie Li had dressed her in "ripped" open with a sound!
Jiayi lost her balance and fell onto the ground. Seizing the moment, she groped on the ground for a hard stone and clutched it in her palm.
The sight of the girl's half-exposed, snowy shoulder incited the two thugs. Although the girl's face was marred and her attire seemed old-fashioned, her underlying beauty was undeniable. Her skin was soft and delicate, like tofu.
Holding her must feel very comfortable...
Their eyes reddened as they stepped forward with large strides.
Jiayi panicked inside, raised the stone in her hand, and desperately hurled it at the blond thug who was closing in on her.
"Ahh—" A scream erupted as the blond thug couldn't dodge in time and was struck squarely on the forehead, feeling an acute pain. Touching it, his hand came away covered in blood.
The tattooed thug was startled and furiously shouted, "Motherf***er, do you want to die?" He raised his hand to slap Jiayi, but then a sharp, grating "screech—" rang out from the calm night. It was the sound of tires rubbing against the asphalt, accompanied by a beam of intense light.
The group was taken aback, looking towards the road ahead.
The sleek and aggressive black sports car tore through the night, like a menacing phantom sprite, speeding along the suburban road. It showed no sign of stopping, even within a few yards of the trio, charging directly at the two thugs.
"*******—" The tattooed thug's eyes bulged, thinking the car wouldn't dare to actually hit them and made no move to dodge.
The black sports car didn't slow down in time; instead, it executed a beautiful turn, revving the engine louder, and like an arrow unhesitatingly sped straight towards the tattooed thug—
"Ahh—" The tattooed thug realized too late and hurriedly cursed, darting off with the blond thug toward a side path, all the while spitting and swearing as they ran.
Jiayi watched breathlessly as the car scared away the two hoodlums.
The car door lifted, and the man's long legs were the first to emerge, still dressed in casual home attire. His white shirt was crisply open just enough to reveal the contours of his muscular chest, and the silver moonlight rendered his features cold and remote. At that moment, he glanced at the girl with her clothes torn to rags, with three parts scorn on his face:
"Still thinking of running?"
Jiayi swallowed, glanced back in the direction where the thugs had fled, then looked at the long road whose end she couldn't fathom. Finally, she bit her lip, saying nothing.
The man was right.
She encountered such trouble even before reaching the city center. What would she do next?
A lone girl, with no support or money, who couldn't even confirm her own name—what could happen next if she truly left? Not to speak of finding her family, she had no idea what other troubles lay ahead.
The man beside her, at least, she knew his background. The distinguished Crown Prince of the Huo Family, what could he do to her?
Huo Zhenyang watched the girl gradually relent, seemingly as expected, without surprise. He glanced at the passenger side, observing her forced compliance as she slowly approached the car.
The girl looked even more disheveled than when he had encountered her at the hunting ground the day before. Her dress's hem was torn into strips, and half of her snowy shoulder was exposed. The old wound on her face had not yet healed, and her knees bore several new ones, probably from the struggle on the ground.
Huo Zhenyang's eyes flashed slightly as he said coldly, "Since you're going to pretend to be my woman to deal with Jian Meiyi, your image can't be too poor. After returning, whether it's applying medicine or taking it, I order you to heal all wounds on your face within five days."
That was outrageously high-handed. How quickly her injuries healed wasn't for her to dictate.
But having just barely avoided a frightening ordeal, Jiayi wasn't in a position to argue and blurted out, "... I agree to help you deal with Miss Jian, but I have conditions."
Truly oblivious to danger until seeing the coffin. Even now, she wanted to bargain.
Huo Zhenyang looked at the girl who was wrapping her arms around herself and shivering in the night wind and couldn't help but laugh, "Speak."