When Zhou Qin returned home, she only heard the sounds of a woman screaming and crying from the room.
She put down her bag expressionlessly, changed her shoes, and sat in the living room, turning on the television.
Last night, when Zhou Yang watched TV, he had the volume turned up very high. As soon as she turned on the TV now, the noise from the room suddenly stopped.
“Turn the volume down!” a man’s low angry roar came from the room.
Hearing his roar, Zhou Qin flinched and instinctively covered her ears. Then, she frantically grabbed the remote control and turned off the sound.
The woman’s low panting and talking from inside the room were clearly audible: “Someone is in the living room! Let me go quickly, or I’ll scream for help!!”
Zhou Qin’s mouth twitched when she heard this. She wondered why Zhou Deren had brought someone back today. So, it was a new, unwilling woman.
As soon as the woman finished shouting, a sound of whipping followed. Her arrogant voice weakened, becoming barely audible. Soon, the pained gasps turned into continuous, sharp screams.
Zhou Deren, panting heavily, said fiercely, “Go ahead and ask, see if she dares to help you!”
The woman’s low whimpers grated on Zhou Qin’s ears. She found it somewhat distasteful, but with nowhere else to go, she could only listen.
“Faster!” Zhou Deren’s angry roar was urgent, and the whip cracked against skin with a “pa pa” sound.
Zhou Qin couldn’t help but shrink back on the sofa, cursing in her heart, “Pervert!”
After a long while, the sounds from the room stopped, and the door was opened.
Zhou Deren walked out, naked. Seeing Zhou Qin sitting obediently on the sofa, he nodded with satisfaction and asked, “Did your son go to school?”
Zhou Qin replied meekly, “Yes.”
“Were you listening here the whole time?”
Zhou Qin nodded.
Zhou Deren burst into laughter. He walked to her side, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her with his foul-smelling mouth. With a perfunctory compliment, he said, “So good. Go clean up the person in the room.”
Zhou Qin resignedly stood up and walked into the room. It was rare for this old pervert to be so pleased with himself that he had the mind to praise her.
As Zhou Qin entered the room, a foul odor assailed her nostrils. A woman lay on the bed, her yellowed hair stuck to her face. She was naked, and the whip marks and sweat could be seen on her body.
She breathed shallowly. Zhou Qin went to her side, wiped her body, and found a set of clothes from her own wardrobe for her to wear.
She showed no particular expression throughout this process, as if she was accustomed to it. The woman lying on the bed, after an initial gasp when Zhou Qin touched her wounds while dressing her, said nothing further.
After Zhou Qin finished dressing her and saw that she seemed to have regained some strength, she thought to herself, “Bitch,” and then stood up. “Since you still have the strength, you can leave on your own. The driver should be waiting for you at the door. Go back where you came from.”
“Who are you?” the woman asked blankly.
Zhou Qin, not bothering to say more, pushed her out.
Jiang Rong stumbled out of the villa. As the other woman had said, a car was parked outside the gate, with a driver waiting.
She was so exhausted that she could barely walk, her arrogance having long since dissipated. She shamefully climbed into the car.
The driver looked at her with unusual eyes, seeing that she had walked out of the main gate herself.
As Jiang Rong left, she looked back at the house through the car window. The soreness in her body fueled her hatred.
If Qin Ningyi hadn’t interfered, they could have acquired that piece of land at their asking price.
With proper management, it would not only have been a great first step to making a fortune but also allowed them to establish a foothold in Yuchang City.
Now, the land was gone, and the Mr. Shen had given her to this old pervert.
It was all Qin Ningyi’s fault!
Jiang Rong completely forgot that it was she herself who had stubbornly insisted on risking everything to compete for that land. At the time, she had used the Jiang family as a facade and herself as a gamble to get Mr. Shen and Zhou Deren to agree to the plan.
However, some people always attribute their mistakes to others. This way, they can feel at ease by considering themselves victims and absolving themselves of their errors.
Few people in Yuchang City knew Jiang Rong’s true identity, and even fewer knew about her complex relationship with the Jiang family. This made it easy for her to once again assume the identity of a Jiang family daughter and obtain Qin Ningyi’s itinerary.
Sometimes, conspiracies and schemes can be detected and avoided in time. But the sudden foolishness of some stupid people can sometimes catch one completely off guard.
Qin Ningyi hadn’t given this matter much thought. An An was going to celebrate Ruan Ruan’s birthday today, and seeing that Huo Rou hadn’t been in good spirits lately, he had ordered a meal and decided to take her to a medicinal cuisine restaurant in the southern part of the city.
After work, he drove to pick up Huo Rou and headed towards the restaurant.
“Why the sudden craving for medicinal cuisine?” Huo Rou asked listlessly from the passenger seat, but her fatigue vanished as she looked at him, her face blooming with a smile.
While waiting for the traffic light, Qin Ningyi reached out and gently squeezed her tired face. She had gone to bed very early last night, but she still looked like she hadn’t slept enough this morning. He wondered how much work Xiao Yuda had piled on her.
The person who had always gone without makeup had now started to wear it every day.
Huo Rou’s breath hitched as she met his concerned gaze. Qin Ningyi turned his head back and started the car. “To nourish your body. You can’t go around feeling groggy like this every day.”
After they had driven for a while, the car fell silent. Huo Rou leaned against the car window and fell asleep.
He touched her somewhat cold cheek and turned the air conditioning up a little higher.
It got dark very early. Not long after they started driving, the streetlights flickered on, casting a warm glow under the neon signs.
On a steep slope, the accident came suddenly.
A large vehicle was speeding downhill. Qin Ningyi instinctively swerved further to the right, but the vehicle continued to charge towards them without slowing down.
The distance was extremely short, and the speed was incredibly high.
It was coming straight for him!
Qin Ningyi pressed the emergency call button in the car, slammed on the brakes, and glanced at Huo Rou beside him.
She swayed her head due to the inertia and struggled to wake up.
He scanned the road conditions on both sides and, without hesitation, turned the steering wheel sharply.
It was a primal instinct to seek safety.
At that moment, his greatest fear was Huo Rou getting hurt.
The screech of brakes and the sound of crashing cars echoed through the air.
Thick smoke billowed and rose under the streetlights. Cars around them stopped. Some people rushed to check the situation, while others called for help.
Amidst the chaos, on a balcony of a tall building in the distance, Jiang Rong smiled with satisfaction, looking through binoculars.
This was the consequence for Qin Ningyi harming her.
They weren’t so formidable after all; they were all acting like scared rabbits.
A chaotic attack could defeat a seasoned master. Jiang Rong’s plan, which was barely even a complete plan, had truly caught them off guard.
Meanwhile, Zhao Hengyu and Xiao Konglin, seeing the alarm address on their phones, quickly organized their men and rushed to the scene.