Chapter 82: The Truth Revealed; The Mystery of Identity part 1
“How clever,” the woman said, her lips curling into a smirk. “You aren’t leaving, and no one is coming to save you.”
Behind her, several tall shadows loomed, making the already narrow stairwell feel exceptionally cramped.
“What did you do?!”
Lu Xunye jerked Shen Yunqian behind him, his eyes filled with wariness as he glared at the woman. “I’m warning you, don’t do anything reckless.”
As he spoke, he noticed that the man who had been taken away earlier had been rescued and was now being supported by others.
Due to blood loss and pain, the man’s forehead was covered in a fine sheen of sweat, and his lips were terrifyingly pale. “Forgive me… I failed to complete the task you entrusted to me.”
He didn’t cry out in pain; instead, he looked at the woman with an expression of intense trepidation. “But I beg of you…”
“Your daughter’s medical expenses will be covered,” the woman interrupted him timely, pointing to the bodyguard supporting him. “Take him to have his wound treated.”
After they left, the dim corner brightened slightly. Out of the corner of his eye, Lu Xunye spotted two men lying unconscious and sprawled across the stairs.
One of them was bleeding profusely from a wound in his abdomen, the blood staining the bluish-grey concrete stairs beneath him. They were Shen Yunqian’s people who had left earlier.
The enemies before them pressed closer, forcing Lu Xunye and Shen Yunqian back into the empty, dilapidated room.
Calling it a “room” was an exaggeration; it was essentially a platform built of steel frames. This unfinished model unit was littered with scrap metal and construction waste.
The iron scaffolding against the plastered walls had yet to be dismantled. In the distance were several openings where the daylight streamed in.
It made them feel like parrots trapped in a cage—even if they opened their mouths to scream for help, no one would come. This feeling of being completely controlled made Lu Xunye want to curse.
Before he could speak, his thoughts were disrupted by a voice behind him—light, yet suppressed with heavy, complex emotions.
“The one who conspired with Shen Qizhao was you. The one who killed Uncle Zhang to silence him was also you. Even… the plot against my parents involved you. Correct?”
But there was only one person behind Lu Xunye.
Stunned, he stepped aside, his gaze shifting to Shen Yunqian’s pale face. He silently squeezed the other’s cold hand, wondering if Shen Yunqian was overthinking things.
However, in the next second, his thoughts were shattered.
“Should I call you Ms. Fu Lan, or… Auntie Song Lan?” Shen Yunqian’s voice sounded as if he were grinding his teeth.
“Oh my!” Fu Lan touched her face, looking at him like a beloved junior, her eyes filled with maternal affection. “Back then, I was being hunted by enemies and had no choice but to fake my death to escape. You weren’t even ten years old then, right? I didn’t expect that after so many years, little Yunqian would recognize me at a glance. I didn’t take care of you for all those years in vain.”
“!!!” Lu Xunye’s eyes widened in shock, and he unconsciously let go of the other’s hand. “You… you two…” Shen Yunqian actually knew the person who wanted to kill him!
“Yunqian has grown so tall now! Back then, you weren’t even as high as my chest. Come, let Auntie have a look.”
With a nostalgic tone, Fu Lan walked toward him, raising her hand as if to ruffle Shen Yunqian’s hair like she used to.
Her hand froze just above the youth’s head. The momentary flash of coldness on her otherwise amiable face did not escape Shen Yunqian’s notice.
Amidst the sudden turn of events, the bodyguards behind Fu Lan weren’t useless either.
Seeing the situation, they immediately aimed their guns at Shen Yunqian. Lu Xunye blurted out, “Don’t you dare!”
Shen Yunqian’s eyes were dark and somber. The tidal wave of suppressed emotions forced a crimson tint into the corners of his eyes as he tightened his grip on the gun pressed against Fu Lan’s throat.
Lu Xunye saw a slight tremor in his arm; even his knuckles were white from the force of his grip. For a moment, Lu Xunye didn’t know how to put his feelings into words.
Hoarse words escaped Shen Yunqian’s throat, his index finger resting on the trigger. “Don’t. Push. Me.”
“Put down the gun if you don’t want to die!” The second bodyguard chambered a round.
The crisp mechanical sound echoed in the room where one could hear a pin drop. Lu Xunye steeled his heart, stepped forward, and blocked the barrel of the gun. His heart raced so wildly it felt as if it were pounding against his eardrums.
For a moment, the air seemed to stand still. His breathing was rapid. He reached back to touch the nape of his neck; the flesh and even the nerves beneath his palm were throbbing with pain.
It felt as if something were about to be stripped from his body, leaving his heart feeling inexplicably stifled and heavy.
He gritted his teeth and tensed his muscles, forcing his eyes open, but the barrel of the gun before him began to lose focus.
His vision blurred. He let out a low curse. “F*ck.”
Strangely, the pain—which usually came on violently and lasted a long time—vanished instantly, so suddenly that he almost stumbled.
His mind cleared, making it seem as if everything had been a hallucination.
At that moment, Fu Lan gestured for the first and second bodyguards to step back.
Even though the men with guns retreated, Lu Xunye did not let down his guard. His mind raced, calculating the possibility of escape.
Fu Lan narrowed her eyes, studying the Shen Yunqian before her, who had long since shed his childhood innocence. The image of the child who had smiled at her so brightly years ago overlapped with the cold-eyed man now pointing a gun at her. She couldn’t help but feel a momentary daze.
Perhaps thinking she could manipulate Shen Yunqian’s temperament, she actually reached out and grabbed the barrel of the gun pressed against her vitals.
She looked as though she wanted to have a proper talk. “The one who wanted your parents’ lives wasn’t me. I was merely entrusted by your uncle to place some soothing incense in a car. It was just for relaxation; it wasn’t meant to take lives.”
“I only found out from the news later that your parents were in that car. Shen Qizhao once did me a favor, so I helped him—just as Big Brother Shen and his wife were once kind to me and my son. How could I bite the hand that fed me?”
“Your parents nearly won the first trial. Naturally, Shen Qizhao couldn’t let them continue the lawsuit. Otherwise, if the investigation reached him, he would have been the one in prison.”
“If you want to blame someone, blame Shen Qizhao for tampering with the car for the sake of wealth. He bribed the driver to commit murder, though that driver, Old Zhang, has already atoned for his sins.”
Fu Lan’s voice was eerie, like a snake’s tongue flicking against an ear, bringing a sticky, chilling sensation that seeped into one’s bones.
“Let me tell you some more good news. Shen Qizhao was set up and investigated by the police. He begged me to save him.”
Shen Yunqian’s eyelashes fluttered. He finally turned his gaze toward her with gravity.
“Naturally, I had to help. I provided the money and the effort, but the moment he left the police station, he was stabbed to death by a woman. Tell me, isn’t he a waste?”
When mentioning Shen Qizhao, a crack appeared in Fu Lan’s gentle mask. Realizing she had lost her composure, she instantly smoothed her brow and asked Shen Yunqian softly, “Shen Qizhao is dead… are you happy, little Yunqian?”
She let go of the gun barrel and reached forward to straighten Shen Yunqian’s wrinkled collar. Her eyes were smiling, yet she seemed to be mocking him. “How do you think his wife found out her child had been swapped?”
“A mother killing the murderer to avenge her child, sacrificing the rest of her life in the process—how grand.”
She shifted the topic. “Little Yunqian has also learned to kill with a borrowed knife to avenge his mother.”
Shen Yunqian was deaf to her mockery, staring intently at her. “So… your ‘death’ had nothing to do with my parents either. Back then, you deliberately used the excuse of swapping cars with them to escape the Si family’s pursuit. You just didn’t expect an accident would happen. You banked on the fact that they felt indebted to you and wouldn’t argue.”
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