Chapter 478 - A Confession (II)
"I believe."
Xiong Zhi stiffened.
"I believe you." Linfeng's eyes were serious.
He spoke every word solemnly. "Zhi'er, I believe that you are telling the truth."
He knew her personality well.
The whole world might tell him that Xiong Zhi was lying, but he would definitely believe in her.
Xiong Zhi's lips parted, but she could not say anything. She knew that Linfeng believed her.
However, it was precisely because of this that she was afraid.
Her vision blurred with unshed tears. She closed her eyes and hugged Linfeng tightly, hoping to draw more strength from him.
"But Linfeng…" she whispered hoarsely. "That was not all. The hellish nightmare just started."
Linfeng's hand trembled again.
He hugged her tightly, forgetting that she had a sore body. Right now, he just wanted to give her as much security as he could.
Obviously, this was the hardest part for her to retell.
He heard her take a long, trembling breath, before finally speaking.
The frail words of confession from a young woman lingered in the air, like echoes from a distant past.
"I… was taken by that beast."
"I was beaten and humiliated. For three years, I was locked away in a room. I spent every single day in fear."
"He's a beast. No, he's worse than a beast. His mind is sick. He did many terrible things to me."
"He…" Xiong Zhi's voice trembled.
Her fear of Gao Huan in this life had lessened a lot due to Linfeng's presence at her side.
She could encounter the beast with a straight face without trembling anymore. But it doesn't mean that the trauma of the past was gone. She just buried it deeply in her heart and soul. Whenever she thought of the past, the past Xiong Zhi would whisper to her the terrifying and painful experience.
"He instilled fear and pain in every corner of my being." Her tears fell.
She buried her head on his chest, afraid to look up.
She had told him her deepest secret. Her deep wound was exposed.
She laid there in his arms curled up while trembling pitifully.
Although Linfeng had an ominous premonition, but hearing her say such words still brought him waves of shock and fury.
His jaw clenched while he held her tightly.
He believed that the prophetic dream was indeed true.
What was unacceptable was that… he actually let the Young Miss suffer in that dream.
Xiong Zhi had said earlier that the dream was very realistic, no different from living in it.
Then it meant that she experienced those things vividly, the pain, the trauma, the fear, everything. It was almost like a parallel world.
He suddenly froze.
His sharp mind seemed to grasp on something.
…Xiong Zhi was afraid of telling him about the s.e.x.u.a.l abuse she suffered, almost like she truly experienced it firsthand.
If it was a just a nightmare, even if it was a prophetic dream, her reaction still was very… very much like an actual victim.
Such a prophetic dream happened to be true, what of other supernatural things?
Like a parallel world? If, what if the prophetic dream was not actually a dream, but memories from a parallel world that another Xiong Zhi had experienced?
Coldness and fear washed over him.
He shook his head violently, cursing himself for having such thoughts.
His Zhi'er already suffered so much from a dream, but he was thinking of another worse experience?
Linfeng felt Xiong Zhi trembled after his movement.
He immediately patted her back and kissed her head.
"I'm here, I'm here, don't be afraid."
As he whispered these words to her, he felt that the woman in his arms breathed out a sigh of relief.
His hand stiffened.
Was his Zhi'er thought that he would see her differently?
Was she thinking about this all this time?
Linfeng's eyes shook.
His heart was crushed into pieces.
He felt distressed for his Zhi'er.
He hugged and kissed her forehead multiple times while continuously saying those words. He wanted to comfort her as much as he could.
While he was gentle with her, his heart and thoughts weren't.
His eyes were stormy and cold.
Prophetic dream or parallel world, there was one thing for certain.
Those people deserved to be tortured and die for daring to make Xiong Zhi suffer.
His Xiong Zhi suffered in all kinds of torment?
She was beaten and humiliated?
His sweet, lovely, and sincere Xiong Zhi... suffered all of that?
The young man was silent, but there was murderous fury in his dark eyes.
Saying that it was a prophetic dream, then it meant that those people intended to do all those things to Zhi'er.
Also, Zhi'er had already experienced them vividly and became traumatized due to their malicious intentions.
His heart filled with murder while looking for an outlet finally found one.
That Guan Gao Huan...
He would not spare him.
Linfeng controlled the rage and desire to kill in his heart and continued patting Xiong Zhi's back gently.
Xiong Zhi continued to whisper.
"For three years, I lived in fear. I almost ended my life. I tried to escape, many times. But every time, I failed. I… I…"
She choked a sob back aggrievedly.
"I continuously waited for you—"
Linfeng felt his heart clench.
"And I once saw you serving at Xiong Wuyue's side."
"I did that?" Linfeng was shocked.
"Yes, but I did not understand why you did that. I thought, I thought that you had abandoned me and chose Xiong Wuyue."
"I will never do that," Linfeng swore.
His heart was in distress, blaming himself.
He knew instantly that he might have a reason for doing so, perhaps part of a plan to help Xiong Zhi or bring those people down, but it was a fact that he had hurt her.
Just imagining his Young Miss thinking that he was serving the people she hated the most, he felt as if his heart was crushed.
Xiong Zhi laid her ears on his chest, listening to his heartbeat.
"Yes. It was only when your spy came to me and told me that you'd been looking for me and planned to rescue me, that I finally felt hope."
"Linfeng, you did not abandon me. You looked for me," she said while tilting her face to look up at him.
There was a faint smile on her pale face.
But her smile looked painful to Linfeng.
He did not know what to say.
He still remembered what she said earlier, that they both died.
He failed to protect her.
His chest tightened painfully at that thought.
"It took three years. Guan Gao Huan at that time was already very formidable. He always sniffed out whenever you are about to find me, and then he'd take me to different locations."
"Until finally, on the day when I turned twenty-three, that beast came to me in a groom's suit."
"On that day, we finally met." Xiong Zhi told him about the fight on the dark road.
She told him the story in detail.
"It was an endless chase. Cars raced on the streets… I saw a lot of them crashing. There were gunshots all around… They spared no lives."
"Then you finally… got me."
"But..."
Xiong Zhi thought of that rainy night.
When Linfeng arrived by her side, his men and the pursuers were firing at each other.
People died one by one, creating puddles of blood on the road.
Someone had shouted at Linfeng to leave with a car, before getting shot down.
Then…
The man who came out of the black car in the distance.
She was sure that he was not the beast, but someone else with a high position.
Possibly, Guan Gao Huan's partner in crime.
"But someone killed you..."
"That man fired a shot at you, and, I couldn't stop it. I couldn't stop the flow of your blood..." she choked and started to sob.
It was the most heartbreaking moment for her, to see Linfeng lose his life little by little.
It felt painful, even until now.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Because of me…"
"I lived in that nightmare for many years, Linfeng. Every moment of that life is still crystal clear to me..."
Linfeng's eyes trembled.
He could not say anything, because every word felt pale.
He could only pat the woman in his arms and let her feel his warmth, hoping to give her security.
The couple fell silent for a long time.
Xiong Zhi's sobs also died down.
The chill of the night permeated everywhere.
The rustling of the leaves surrounded them.
"Zhi'er…"
"That's why I hate those people," Xiong Zhi blankly stopped his words.
"Those people who used me, who made us suffer. I want to bite them down before they can even retaliate. I only started with that father and daughter pair. It's not the end yet. They will face our payback in full."
"And that beast too, his waters are deep. There are many suspicious things around him. I want to take him down, but before that, I need to know who the people supporting him are in the shadows. Only… I think the person behind him is someone I can't handle yet alone, unless you are with me…"
XIong Zhi had investigated Guan Gao Huan.
There were many doubtful elements hovering around him. Like the poison he sent to Xiong De to deal with her grandfather. It was the same poison that Lu Yin Ze had taken before.
Then those companies on the list.
Xiong Zhi had connected the dots thanks to Gu Zhen's godly skills in investigating the list, as well as Lu Yin Ze's assistance.
But the more she investigated, the more she realized how big and complicated this matter was.
It was almost as if there was a giant spider in the dark spinning out webs everywhere to entrap people.
It was not only the Xiong family that was being targeted.
The Lu family as well as the Guan family, too.
But her evidence was still lacking, and that unknown side was not something that was easy to go against.
They were powerful.
This was why Xiong Zhi was busy getting powerful as well.
And besides, right now, she also had Linfeng.
The most capable and talented man that Xiong Zhi had ever known.
As if in response to her thoughts, Linfeng kissed Xiong Zhi's forehead.
His deep eyes held bottomless thoughts.
"I will always stay by your side. These people who made you suffer, whether it is a dream or not, they will have it coming," Linfeng said darkly.
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