Chapter 766 - Living in Hell (1)
When Tang Moyu arrived at work the next day, she found her assistant's desk empty, with Cheng Ning nowhere to be found. She looked around the floor and the pantry, but she didn't find her assistant.
"Has Miss Cheng reported at work today?" she asked the guard that was stationed just outside her office.
The man shook his head in response. None of them had seen Cheng Ning yet.
"No, Madam. Miss Cheng hasn't arrived yet," he informed her.
Tang Moyu cupped her chin and glanced at the empty spot where she usually found Cheng Ning. Did something happen? She wondered. Well, this wasn't the first time she arrived at work first before her assistant, but Cheng Ning would have left her a message or given her a call if she was coming late for the day.
Tang Moyu pulled out her phone and checked her inbox for her assistant's text messages but there was none. There were also no missed calls and voicemails left for her to hear.
'Where are you?' She sent Cheng Ning a short text message as she entered her office. Something about her assistant's absence didn't feel right.
After five minutes of waiting for Cheng Ning's response, Tang Moyu decided to give her a call, but it wouldn't connect as the operator informed her that Cheng Ning's phone was out of coverage. It was either she turned off her phone or her power died.
Still, Tang Moyu remained calm and started working on her own, but she occasionally glanced at the time, waiting for Cheng Ning's arrival. When two hours had passed and not even her assistant's shadow could be seen, Tang Moyu decided that she had enough.
She might be overthinking things. Did something happen to Cheng Ning last night when she met her friends? Had she overslept somehow? Tang Moyu wondered. Perhaps she could see Cheng Ning herself to make sure nothing bad happened to her.
However, just as she had slid her arms on her coat, stepped out of her office and ready to leave, the landline on Cheng Ning's desk rang, taking her attention. Since Cheng Ning was the one responsible to answer and make phone calls for her, Tang Moyu rarely answered the phone installed in her office.
Tang Moyu wasn't able to answer the phone the first time, but when it rang for the second time, it gave her an ominous feeling that something might have happened.
She walked towards her assistant's desk and carefully picked up the receiver.
"Hello," she said in a bland tone.
"Finally! Madam Feng you answered the call!" A man's voice was heard coming from the other line. "I thought you aren't missing your little assistant."
Tang Moyu's eyes widened at that, before turning towards her bodyguards, gesturing them to call her husband from his office.
"Who are you? And how do you know my assistant?" she demanded, not allowing the other person to know how nervous she was.
So, she was right. Something happened to Cheng Ning last night that she wasn't able to report for work today.
"Who am I?" The man laughed at her. "I thought you already know given how your husband cooperated with the police to conduct a manhunt just to find me."
At that moment, Feng Tianyi came, giving her a confused look. Hearing what the other person said over the phone that Tang Moyu had put on a loudspeaker, he then understood why he was summoned by his wife.
He immediately powered up the computer on Cheng Ning's desk and tried to track where the call came from. They couldn't waste this chance to find out where he was hiding and where he was keeping the old nurse and Cheng Ning.
Seeing what her husband was doing, Tang Moyu knew she needed to prolong the phone call to give Feng Tianyi enough time to get the exact location of Zhu Ziqian.
"Zhu Ziqian! What have you done to my assistant?!" Tang Moyu demanded. "She has nothing to do with this!"
"I know, I know." The man ignored her question. "I even have this traitorous old wench who tried to sell me out to you," he sighed. "Troublesome people!"
"Do you really think you would get justice for your wife and child by kidnapping and killing innocent people? Zhu Ziqian, have you ever thought what they would think of you if they knew what you've done?"
"Don't give me that bullshit, Tang Moyu!" Zhu Ziqian was obviously agitated when the empress mentioned his deceased loved ones. "I've been living in hell since your husband killed my family! Feng Tianyi ruined my life and I would make sure he would suffer and regret coming back!"
Feng Tianyi's fingers faltered for a moment, his thin lips pressed together.
"Who gave him the right to lead a happy life when he ruined ours? Since the system wouldn't give us the justice we deserve, then I'll do it myself," Zhu Ziqian sneered with contempt.
"You are only ruining your life. Doing this wouldn't bring the dead back to life," Tang Moyu countered. The expression her husband had at the moment pained her but she knew that she cannot ignore the fact that Zhu Ziqian was doing this because he was also hurt from what happened to his family.
"It sure won't." This time Zhu Ziqian laughed again, making Tang Moyu think that he'd already lost his radical mind a long time ago, and his urge to have revenge against Feng Tianyi was what was keeping him going.
"Then what do you want? Head Nurse Yu and Cheng Ning are innocent people. Your wife and child were innocent people too. Do you really want innocent people to lose their lives because of you?" she asked him.
"Then Madam Feng, are you willing to take their place?" Zhu Ziqian's question made Feng Tianyi want to punch the monitor in front of him and wreak havoc right there and then, but he didn't. He knew he needed to calm down.
"What are you saying?" Tang Moyu asked with the intention of keeping him on the line.
"It's pretty simple, Madam Feng. I will release these two unharmed if you are willing to take their place."
This content is taken from freewebnove(l).com