Zhan Yahui laid on her bed, slightly drunk and delirious and staring at the ceiling with a bored expression.
"Ah this sucks…" she mumbled. "But this is the last time it sucks for me. The bastard of that brother is dead…" she sinisterly laughed at Cai Lingyun's death. "It felt good to see him choking like that haha. Guiying, you idiot. You must be feeling so happy now. He is finallyyyyyyyy dead~"
She let out a sigh and rolled lazily on her bed. "But you are not alive anymore to see him dead and feel free, are you now? A pity…" she clicked her tongue. "You are such an idiot, Guiying. You should have told me that he was fucking beating you…Or maybe I should have realized that he would come for you…Ah we both were stupid…"
Zhan Yahui chuckled. "But this sobbing and moping ends today. This is soooooooo not me. I have better things to do than just feeling so weird over Guiying's death," she slightly hiccuped, "I was just using her anyway…I am not done with my revenge yet," she drunkenly laughed. "I have to completely annihilate the Liu family and I have to…take control of Shi Publishing for that…"
Suddenly, the door banged with such fierce intensity that Zhan Yahui felt a headache popping in her.
"Fuck who is that!?" She exclaimed.
That idiot's death is already messing with my head and now somebody is banging on my door like it's the end of the world! I will fucking kill you!
She somehow made her way outside her room and opened the door with a twisted, angry countenance that leaked of bloodshed. But before she could say anything, she was violently pushed inside, facing the wrath of an outraged father.
"What the hell!" Zhan Yahui gnashed her jaw and looked at him, balancing herself. "Who the fuck are you barging in my house like a hooligan!? Do you want to die!?"
She noticed another woman standing beside him, but she focused on the man right now.
"I guess killing people comes easy for you, doesn't it?" Zhou Yichen clenched his fists as he stared at the woman and the villain of his daughter's life.
My Ai-chan…died because of this woman…
His eyes ached with grief but they still carried the blaze left behind by the injustice of Ai's murder.
"First you killed Xing Bi. Then when Ai wanted to know the truth, you killed her too! This is the truth, isn't it?"
Zhan Yahui narrowed her eyes. For a few moments, she couldn't understand who these people were suddenly talking about Ai. But looking at them closely made her aware of their identity.
"Ah…You are Zhou Ai's parents."
The carefree smile on her lips agitated and irked Zhou Yichen even further.
"Yes, we are Ai's parents. The same Ai's whose life you destroyed ever since she stepped into Dream High! Whose dreams, career and aspirations - all of it which you eroded like a slow poison killing your body…" his moist eyelashes fluttered. "But then you went as far as murdering the only thing left in her life and that was her life itself! Who the hell do you think you are fucking and messing up with someone's life as if it's a toy!"
The fury of a father roared in every corner and crevices of her house.
Zhan Yahui was inwardly wondering where Zhou Yichen could have found out her link in Ai's death. But she had a feeling that he had evidence of her involvement or even if he didn't at the moment, it wouldn't be so far.
She gritted her teeth at her own foolishness.
I remember now. Lin was telling me that somebody was poking in Zhou Ai's death and refusing to let go of it like a stubborn mule. But I was…
She remembered Guiying lying dead on her bed with an empty bottle of sleeping pills at her side.
If only I wasn't mulling over her death so much!
At first, Xie Nuying was trying desperately to make Zhou Yichen leave with her but seeing Zhan Yahui's casual attitude was as good as her admitting that she didn't care about Ai or regretted having any hand in her death.
"You really…plotted her death, didn't you?"
Zhan Yahui smiled. She walked to the side of the couch where there was a small table.
Zhou Yichen and Xie Nuying stared at her drawing a gun out of it and pointing its nozzle at Zhou Yichen.
"I get it now why your daughter was so annoying. Being stubborn is a hereditary trait it seems. Don't blame me for anything, Mr. and Mrs. Zhou. Zhou Ai had no business in returning to Beijing and digging up the buried truth. Couldn't she have just lived quietly?"
They gazed at her, aghast.
"Trust me. I don't have any personal grudge against her or even Xing Bi. But they were just…" she sighed. "I would like to say that they invited death into their lives rather than me planning it just like how you are doing it right now. And I am sorry to say but this is as far as you go."
Without even a twitch of her brow, she pulled the trigger. The bullet hit straight into Zhou Yichen's chest, causing a deafening silence to follow.
"Yichen…?"
Zhou Yichen clutched his chest and saw his palm wet with his blood as he collapsed.
"It was my mistake that I ignored your interference earlier. So let me rectify my error."
"Yichen!"
Xie Nuying caught his back and supported his weight on her thighs as she tremblingly looked at him. "Yi-Yichen…Blood…You are bleeding…"
She couldn't think straight as her thoughts kept jumping here and there.
Wh-what should I do…? Ho-Hospital…I should take him to the hospital…
Zhou Yichen felt the blood sapping out of him and so did his life slowly but surely. His eyes teared up as the world was blurring before him.
"I…am sorry Nuying…" he said with a hoarse voice. "I should…have listened…to you…But Ai-chan's death…I couldn't…" tears slipped from the corner of his eyes, "I couldn't hold…back…Indeed I am…always so stupid…"
Xie Nuying vigorously shook her head. "N-No! You are not stupid! A-and don't talk like you are dying! I will…I will-"
"Nuying."
He felt his consciousness fading away and he strongly knew that he wouldn't wake up ever again once he closed his eyes.
"Even after…we got separated…I always kept loving you. I…" he painfully gasped, "love you, Nuying…I am sorry…I couldn't say it all this time…But I never stopped loving you…"
With a last painful breath, his eyes closed themselves and his body slightly shook. That movement made a tiny, round thing slip out of his shirt's pocket.
Xie Nuying numbly stared at his wedding ring. He thought he would have thrown it away but…
Just like me…he didn't.
"Yichen…wake up Yichen…" she blankly shook his shoulders. "You cannot close your eyes like this. This is not the time to sleep…W-wake up Yichen…I-I have so many things to say to you…You cannot keep sleeping like this Yichen!"
Tears fiercely poured out of her eyes as she hugged him hard, wailing like a child.
But none of it affected Zhan Yahui as she pointed the gun at Xie Nuying. "Don't worry. Let me end your sorrow for you. You will be more than happy to join your daughter and husband in the afterlife, won't you? So let me fulfill your wish."
With that, a second gunshot echoed, the bullet piercing Xie Nuying this time. She didn't resist nor did she scream. She painfully lowered her head and bumped it on Zhou Yichen's forehead, whispering her last words.
"I also… never stopped loving you, Yichen. I still love you…very, very much…"
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