chapter 15.2

Ai Wen entered the room and immediately shut the door behind her. Her palm-sized face was unable to mask her overwhelming excitement.

“Xiao Xiao, I found your mom. She really is in K City.”

Ai Wen gritted her teeth and said, “But her villa has more than 10 people watching her every move. I don’t know how to get her out. I’m worried that if we’re caught, they’ll move her somewhere else.”

Suddenly, Ai Wen seemed to think of something. She struggled to say, “Your mom– she’s insane.”

Although Ai Wen wasn’t able to rescue her best friend from the house, she had installed a camera by bribing an hourly employee.

Li Xiao fell silent.

“Get my mom out of there first. She’ll never be okay if she stays there for the rest of her life. Once we get her out, we can think of a way to cure her.”

Ai Wen’s eyes were red as she opened a video.

Li Xiao had already seen how Xu Manqin looked. She gave off a beautiful and alluring aura and was as graceful and luxurious as a peony. No matter what situation Xu Manqin was thrown in, she was always graceful. Thus she amassed a lot of followers online and was called the most beautiful designer. When the accusations against Xu Manqin were made public, the whole country was in an uproar.

The Xu Manqin in the video looked as though she had aged 10 years. Her once sleek black hair was disheveled and looked like a bird’s nest. Even though the clothes she wore were all designer labels, they were speckled with stains that hadn’t been cleaned.

Xu Manqin was tenderly hugging a pillow while facing a chair. “Nanjue, look. This is our child. She really resembles you. She’s our family’s little princess. When she gets married, I want to personally design her wedding dress and give her the most majestic wedding ceremony.”

Then, Xu Manqin set down her small child and grabbed a tablecloth. She draped it over the chair and said, “Do you like these clothes? I didn’t know what style you like, so I made multiple designs. Choose the one you like.”

Li Xiao watched as Xu Manqin spilled her innermost thoughts to the chair she thought was Li Nanjue. She looked like a maiden who had fallen head over heels. Li Xiao continued to watch as Xu Manqin coaxed the pillow, and designed a wedding dress on the floor.

Xu Manqin appeared to be in an ecstatic state of mind. She was entirely absorbed in her own world. Outsiders would pity her, but they’d still turn a blind eye.

Although Xu Manqin seemed to be happy that she had forgotten all the melancholic things, she was still pitiful.

Li Xiao couldn’t bring herself to watch the video any longer.

She firmly declared, “We have to get her out of there as quickly as possible.”

Ai Wen hummed in agreement, but her voice was hoarse.

The pair began to brainstorm every possible strategy.

Ai Wen’s plan was to drug the employees and put everyone to sleep.

Li Xiao had a better idea. She prepared to cut the power to the villa, which would cause the monitors to stop working. That way, it’d be easier to sneak in. Then, she’d start a fire and replace Xu Manqin with a corpse and sneak her outside.

Li Nanjue and Zhan Jiayin wouldn’t stop looking for Xu Manqin if they didn’t find her corpse.

As for the corpse, Li Xiao left that matter to Ai Wen. Bribing a poor family into giving them the corpse of their loved ones wasn’t hard. Just in case, they prepared a second corpse that was burnt to a crisp, so that the identity of the body wouldn’t be identifiable.

****

Li Xiao didn’t like to delay and started her operation later that night.

Ai Wen picked Li Xiao up. By the time they neared the villa, it was already midnight. The house was located halfway up a hill and had no nearby residents.

Ai Wen saw Li Xiao take out an amulet and climb up a telephone pole. Li Xiao stuck the amulet at the top of the pole. Li Xiao wasn’t worried about being seen. They were surrounded by dark, mountainous woodlands. It was so dark that you couldn’t even see your own hand.

But Ai Wen was scared witless. She was worried that Li Xiao would fall.

When Li Xiao descended, a long bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, striking the telephone pole with a loud crack. In the flash of light, one could see Ai Wen’s slightly pale face. Startled, she watched the lightning singe the wiring of the telephone pole.

At the same time, the brightly lit villa in the distance went dark.

In the darkness of the night, Li Xiao flashed Ai Wen a slight smile. “Okay, wait for me here.”

Li Xiao brought out the already prepared corpse bag with her. It was time to set off on her journey!

……

The lightning shut down all the electrical circuits in the area. When Li Xiao arrived at the villa, it was in a state of absolute chaos.

Because she had obscured herself from view, nobody could see Li Xiao.

Li Xiao overheard a bodyguard making a phone call to Li Nanjue and reporting the situation.

Li Xiao had already taken a look at the house’s floor plan and headed straight to the third floor where Xu Manqin’s room was. Right now, there was no one watching over her.

She opened the door to Xu Manqin’s bedroom and locked it from the inside. Even if a bodyguard had a key, they wouldn’t be able to enter. Raising her head, Li Xiao saw Xu Manqin sitting in front of the window. A tranquil expression was plastered on her face.

Was she not insane?

Li Xiao suddenly thought of a possibility and set the corpse on the ground. Her movements alerted Xu Manqin, who quickly changed her tranquil expression to the absent-minded one Li Xiao had seen in the video.

“Nanjue, Nanjue, where are you? It’s so dark here. I’m scared.”

The sudden change in her expression and tone left Li Xiao stupefied!

It was just like Li Xiao had thought! Xu Manqin wasn’t insane! She was just faking it!

Li Xiao took off her amulet and stepped forward. “Mom, it’s me.”

Xu Manqin bewilderedly looked at her. Her expression was complicated and flickered between doubt, astonishment, and relief.

“Xiao Xiao?”

“That’s me. Let’s get out of here first.”

Time was limited and Li Xiao didn’t have the heart to explain everything. “I’m going to take you out of here.”

Xu Manqin’s gaze fell on the corpse on the ground. She could somewhat guess what the plan was. She removed the bracelet she was wearing and placed it on the corpse’s wrist.

Li Xiao swept Xu Manqin off her feet and jumped from the third floor after setting the curtains on fire. This height was nothing to her even if she held a person in her arms.

A bolt of lightning struck the villa, and the lightning coupled with the fire made the mansion burn brightly. The fire that had started in Xu Manqin’s room began to spread to other areas of the home. Li Xiao wasn’t worried about the other people in the mansion. They patrolled in three shifts, and not one of them lived inside the villa. In the case of a fire, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to blindly throw themselves into the flames. Although Li Xiao didn’t like them, she wouldn’t go as far as killing them.

By the time Li Xiao had left, she had used up all the Heavenly Lightning Talismans she had brought with her.