NB Chapter3

My backward glance had clearly stepped into Zhang Mingsheng’s minefield.

Using the excuse that his “wife and children were shaken,” he refused to let me show my face at the police station. Even so, he couldn’t escape the media’s attention; they swarmed to the scene, desperate to pry open the mystery surrounding the so-called “Mrs. Zhang.”

To this day, I still haven’t left a single clear photograph of my face in the outside world. Amid the relentless flashes of cameras and thrusting black microphones, I kept my sunglasses on, and my hat brim pulled low, letting the driver and butler who had hurried over from home lift me into Zhang Mingsheng’s Rolls-Royce.

The sudden glare of lights and the boisterous crowd did not panic me; it was only a single gaze that made my right hand tremble.

I knew my junior was watching me. He stood in the crowd, his face grim. He had always looked down on people like Zhang Mingsheng. To him now, I was nothing more than the wife of some playboy; a mysterious, unfamiliar woman.

I was no longer his “Senior,” that senior he used to tease for being a workaholic who was too busy to even shave. Now, I wasn’t even sure whether I could still hold a gun. At that thought, a sharp pain suddenly flared in my wrist, far more intense than when it had first been cut open.

I sat in the back seat filled with a sense of emptiness as if the entire world had lost its gravity and I could only float in silence.

I wanted to look at him one more time.

But I couldn’t.

I comforted myself with the thought that my junior was both straightforward and clever, someone very likable. He knew how to maintain his edge while navigating the world perfectly. I believed that he must have lived well these past few years. And I could not allow any of that to be destroyed.

At that time, when I turned back to look at my junior just once, I heard the sound of Zhang Mingsheng cocking his gun.

He was warning me.

So even though I heard footsteps outside the window suddenly quicken, I hurriedly rolled up the dark grey car window. Being separated by a pane of glass felt like being divided by countless layers of mountains. Through the blur, I saw my junior step out of the car and present his identification to Zhang Mingsheng: “Senior Inspector of the Major Crimes Unit, Li Yi.”

Zhang Mingsheng let out a short laugh, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. “Inspector Li, it’s been years. You’ve been promoted.”

According to Zhang Mingsheng, after I went missing, the police discovered that he had been driving through the street where I disappeared at the time, but they ultimately found no relevant evidence.

However, Li Yi remained convinced that my disappearance was connected to Zhang Mingsheng. He repeatedly showed up at his door until my residence eventually caught fire, and my “body” was identified by my mentor. Only then did he stop coming around.

Zhang Mingsheng had praised Li Yi to me, saying that this junior of mine was more like a real cop than the rest of those fools, yet the look in his eyes when he watched me was so cold and sinister that it made my blood run cold. Back then, I was still living in that windowless basement level, barely clothed; thinking about it now, it feels like another lifetime.

In that sense, Li Yi and Zhang Mingsheng are old acquaintances.

That day, Zhang Mingsheng didn’t return from the police station until noon the following morning. Because I had been on a plane, I wasn’t wearing my leg restraints, and after encountering the kidnappers on the road, my legs remained free until the butler delivered me back to the villa. But I had no opportunity to escape.

Zhang Mingsheng’s domestic servants were assigned to him by his aunt. Her late husband had a career in politics, and the staff he left behind were all deeply indebted to the main family; loyal and formidable. With my current physical condition, I would have been hard-pressed to overcome them. On top of that, both children were badly shaken; Keke even came down with a high fever. I had to juggle calling the family doctor and coaxing Xiao Yuan, who had been frightened into silence.

Aunt Liu was away in her hometown on leave and couldn’t make it back. The moment those bodyguards stepped into the house, Keke became so panicked she burst into tears; I told them to get the hell out and ordered them never to wear black clothes again for the rest of their lives. Only the elderly butler, Old Liu, assisted me throughout the ordeal.

Zhang Mingsheng once said that when it comes to the people by your side, quality matters more than quantity. Back then, I thought it made sense; now, I can only think he was talking nonsense.

The doctor came, did a brief examination, prescribed some medicine, and left in a hurry. I stayed sitting on the bed the entire time; he didn’t even dare to look up at me. Later, I fell asleep in the second-floor children’s bedroom while holding Keke and Xiao Yuan.

In my dreamlike haze, I felt as though I had turned into a clam without a shell, bare and exposed, while a pair of large hands forcibly pried me open in a fit of focused rage.

I am still not used to it; I have never been used to it in my entire life. I was born deformed; people like me mostly lack the ability to bear children for their whole lives. Zhang Mingsheng doesn’t seem to think so; he is a man who enjoys defying the heavens.

I took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to relax. Zhang Mingsheng draped himself over me like a mountain of ice. His clothes were cold, and his hands were equally cold; that chill mixed with the perfume he always wore; a faint, woody vine scent, made me shiver. I knew he must have carried me to the bedroom while I was asleep. Sometimes I truly admire his physical strength; I am, after all, someone who passed the police academy physically. My height and weight were both within the normal range. Perhaps my muscles had atrophied, and I had lost quite a bit of weight over the years, but he was only a few centimeters taller than me, yet he could still lift me whenever he pleased.

I closed my eyes and said, “I’m not some dog by the roadside that you can just have whenever you want.”

Zhang Mingsheng chuckled in my ear. “In that case, I’ll help you.”

He pulled a spray with an inhaler from the drawer and pressed it to my lips; his tone brooks no refusal: “Open up. Breathe.”

Since my health began to decline, he rarely let me use this kind of thing. A colorless, odorless “healthy” aphrodisiac that would also leave me in a daze day and night. Zhang Mingsheng needed me awake.

It was strange, really. Zhang Mingsheng clearly enjoyed my despair more when I was conscious, yet he never passed up a chance to plunge me into a state of senselessness.

That night, I lost my sense of clarity. My perceptions blurred, and the world seemed to press heavily on me. I felt a strange, distorted “happiness” as though I were about to take flight, trembling so violently that my vision eventually went dark. For the first time in three years, it felt as though I had returned to those basement days when I could no longer distinguish who I was. A love twisted into obsession, when stripped of reason, feels less like physical violation and more like a punishment in itself.

When I woke up the next day, I found a needle in the back of my hand and an IV bottle hanging above me. The doctor had already been here. My body was no longer what it used to be; a single inhalation of that stimulant had been enough to make me collapse and lose consciousness. Zhang Mingsheng sat by the bed peeling an apple, looking every bit the impeccably dressed, good husband.

Neither of us bring up that night again.

Until today, I didn’t realize that the grudge in Zhang Mingsheng’s heart had still not been laid to rest.

He has a huge problem with Li Yi.

Naturally, he knew that two kidnappings occurring so close together was far too coincidental; and he also knew that Li Yi, a Senior Inspector of the Major Crimes Unit who had long harbored suspicions about him, would inevitably come knocking on his door once again.

Zhang Mingsheng picked up the remote and gave it a soft click. The massive screen in the bedroom immediately displayed the surveillance footage from the front gate. It was a gloomy, overcast morning, making the footage look gray and hazy. Li Yi looked exhausted, dark circles shadowing his sharp eyes, but in his brown jacket he still carried himself upright and composed. He stood on the street looking to the right for a moment, likely spotting Zhang Mingsheng’s assistant and driver waiting outside.

A policewoman stepped forward and rang the doorbell of the Zhang residence. The butler opened the door, and Ah Hai also appeared in the camera’s frame.

Looking at the screen, Zhang Mingsheng suddenly said, “Do you know? This junior of yours is truly quite clever.”

I didn’t answer; my eyes were fixed on Li Yi who was on the monitor.

By the time I realized my behavior looked far too provocative, Zhang Mingsheng had already turned back to stare at me intently. “That day at the police station, Li Yi asked me again if I had actually seen Officer Yu back then. I told him, Your senior and I were total strangers.”

“Officer Yu.” Even now, in front of outsiders, he still calls me “Officer Yu.”

Suddenly, Zhang Mingsheng gave a self-deprecating laugh. “He then asked, ‘Mr. Zhang, how did you know that Officer Yu was my senior?'”

I froze as well.

Li Yi always called me “Officer Yu” in public, only when we were alone would he address me as a senior. That was our mentor’s instruction. Back when I was promoted, I had three or four team members under me. Our mentor said that although I was outstanding and a good officer, I was too mild-mannered, had a good temper, and tended to take on responsibility myself. He believed that if someone as talented as Li Yi was willing to bolster my authority, only then would our colleagues in the Major Crimes Unit follow my lead. Li Yi obeyed every word.

As time went on, very few people knew that we shared the same mentor.

Zhang Mingsheng rarely dealt with the police and couldn’t possibly have known. According to his own claims, Officer Yu and Officer Li should have been nothing more than a pair of colleagues in his eyes.

This time, Zhang Mingsheng had made a slip of the tongue.

I laughed inwardly; so, Zhang Mingsheng has his days too. He must be incredibly frustrated.

Zhang Mingsheng stood up. Instead of turning off the television screen, he leaned down and helped me pick something off my face. ” Xiao Yuan seems to have been in a bad mood these past couple of days.”

I gave a noncommittal “mm,” thinking to myself: You still have the nerve to say that.

“When I get back, if the weather is good, I’ll take you all horseback riding.”

I hadn’t expected him to make such a friendly gesture, and for a moment I was at a loss for words. I simply said, “Okay.”

The moment the word left my mouth, he walked out of my bedroom.

After waiting three or four minutes, I saw Zhang Mingsheng appear at the villa entrance. He was impeccably dressed, standing in stark contrast to the plainly dressed police. The audio pickup at the gate was slightly delayed; it was only after Zhang Mingsheng began to speak that his voice echoed through the screen.

Zhang Mingsheng smiled. “Officer Li is so early?”

Li Yi said, “A kidnapping occurred yesterday. We suspect it may have been the work of the same gang.”

Zhang Mingsheng replied, “I am sorry to hear that. However, if you police had caught those two cars that day, perhaps another kidnapping wouldn’t have happened.”

Zhang Mingsheng had said that Li Yi just happened to be investigating a case nearby; upon hearing the police broadcast and the gunshots, he had immediately turned back, which was how he arrived in time.

Li Yi said, “That was indeed our failure, but we now require the cooperation of you and your family.”

Zhang Mingsheng said, “My bodyguards and I gave statements for the entire day. Isn’t that enough?”Li Yi said, “There is also your wife.”

His gaze was resolute, showing no intention of backing down at all.

Zhang Mingsheng laughed. He said, “Officer Li is truly persistent. One can tell at a glance that you’re a bachelor with plenty of time on your hands. But my wife is timid and easily frightened, and he has two children to care for. I’m afraid he doesn’t have the time. If there is nothing else, I must rush to a meeting. I won’t see you out.”

With that, he walked past Li Yi. The driver opened the door of the car for him, and he inclined his body slightly before stepping into the car.

Having been publicly slighted, Li Yi’s expression shifted slightly, but he composed himself instantly. He turned and shouted toward Zhang Mingsheng, “Mr. Zhang, as you said, I am single and have plenty of time. I will wait.”

Zhang Mingsheng lowered the car window, revealing half of his face while smiling faintly. “Very well. Then please, Officer Li, take your time waiting.”

After he spoke, the window rolled up. In the brief, hazy moment before the gap fully closed, Zhang Mingsheng glanced toward the surveillance camera. He was looking at me.

But I was wondering: Single? How could Li Yi be single?

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