Liu Dui more or less knew about Jian Yi"s banishment from the Qi family. After all, the news was reported extensively by the newspaper and internet media at that time, so it was difficult not to notice it.

Thus, Jian Yi really had the motive to commit the crime.

"If it was Jian Yi, he would surely contact you. Since he isn"t working now and is in hiding, first and foremost his money would become less day by day, and I suppose this was the reason he abducted Mrs. Qi. First, he wanted to seek revenge on you by demanding a large amount of money. Secondly, he needed an ample amount of funds for him to run away," theorized Liu Dui. He turned his head and said to Dong Jiadi, "Jiadi, please investigate for any recent use of Jian Yi"s credit card from the records."

After a while, Dong Jiadi said, "He withdrew all his savings in the bank around one month ago. Moreover, he used his credit card to purchase triazolam and sevoflurane, ropes, and knives two weeks ago. He also bought some daily necessities. He went over the limit of his credit cards and didn"t have any further records of expenses via them after that."

According to their investigations to date, it was almost confirmed that Jian Yi was the person who abducted Song Yu.

Qi Chengzhi stood up suddenly—he could no longer sit in silence. His hand was still holding Song Yu"s phone. In the list of recent contacts, his name was the first one to appear on it. Qi Chengzhi"s eyes had turned red, and he wished that time could flow backward so he could accompany Song Yu to return home no matter what.

"Do you have Jian Yi"s number?" Qi Chengzhi turned his head and asked Cheng Dongge.

Cheng Dongge immediately found it. Qi Chengzhi memorized it and called the number. As expected, the number was no longer owned by anyone. He was just trying his luck in any means he could think of since there were no better ways available. He was hoping that someone would answer the call.

The two teams that Liu Dui sent previously had returned too.

"I had removed the monitoring device at the main road in front of the entrance of the residential area," said Xiao Chen. He pa.s.sed the device to Liu Dui and he switched it on. After a while, the device"s screen displayed a car without a number plate.

Liu Dui paused it and enlarged the image. From the blurred image, he could vaguely see an unconscious Song Yu with her eyes closed. The driver was a man who wore a baseball cap and a mask, obscuring his face entirely.

After that, the car took a turn into a small lane and went out of sight.

Qi Chengzhi truly hoped he could enter the image to save her. Song Donglin was clenching his teeth furiously. He wiped off the tears on his face that flowed from his eyes just now.

Fang Zi said, "We had asked the neighbors living nearby and a young married couple who were staying there said that they were pa.s.sing by downstairs when the incident happened. According to them, there was indeed a man who wore a cap and a mask carrying a pregnant lady. They inquired about her, and the man told them he was her husband and she suddenly fainted, so he was rus.h.i.+ng to bring her to the hospital."

"He was wearing a cap and a mask—it was such a strange attire. Didn"t they feel that it was abnormal?" Qi Chengzhi was unsettled, if the young couple could sense that it was suspicious, they would stop him right away or secretly lodge a police report.

Fang Zi sighed and said, "They were probably afraid to invite troubles, we spent quite some effort to make them talk about it and be the witness. At first, they were unwilling to cooperate and told us that they did not see anything suspicious."

"How could they do this!" said Qi Chengyue agitatedly. "If they reported it to the police, this wouldn"t have happened to Song Yu!"

Cheng Dongge hugged Qi Chengyue and patted her back to calm her down.

Song Donglin buried his face in his palms—he felt like he could no longer bear this with his mental strength.

Qi Chengzhi"s eyes were bloodshot and he was praying incessantly in his heart that Song Yu was safe. If Jian Yi did this just for money, then Song Yu"s safety would be a.s.sured. So long as Song Yu could be safe, he would pay him no matter Jian Yi requested how much money from him. He wanted her unharmed.

…

…

Just as Qi Chengzhi and the police were striving to find for Song Yu, she regained consciousness slowly. She felt a little dazed due to the drugs. She forcibly frowned and move her eyes, and she slowly remembered that she was at the staircase and was on the way home at first. It was then when a person suddenly appeared out of nowhere and smashed her cell phone. He then covered her mouth and nose with his gloved hand. She slowly lost consciousness and could not remember anything after that.

Song Yu"s face turned pale and she was totally awakened by her nervousness due to the current situation. She found out that her legs were tied together by hemp ropes and her hands were tied to her back. She was sitting on a damp cement floor and her back was leaning against a mottled wall.

Most of the limestone on the surface of the wall had peeled off and areas of black interspersed among areas of gray. It was bone-chilling here.

Song Yu tried to struggle with her arms which were tied to her back and even tried to use her fingers to reach for the knot, but she could not touch even the edge of the knot.

Song Yu was worried that the cold of the ground would be bad for the baby, so she struggled very hard. Her back was leaning against the wall and she tried to support her body with her hands and pushed herself to stand. However, she was also afraid that she would suddenly fall due to a lack of strength and hurt the baby. She proceeded with the utmost care and was able to stand up at last. She supported her body against the wall with her hands from the beginning as she dared not let her back touch the freezing wall.

She looked around her surroundings—the room looked like a small workshop and it was extremely dirty and messy. There were a few buckets of water and three buckets of paint beside the wall. There were some old machines in which she was unsure of their functions placed at the opposite wall.

There were a few windows at the highest part of the wall, just below the ceiling. The windows were covered by dust and through the rays of sunlight s.h.i.+ning into the room through the dirty small windows, she could see the thick layer of dust on the floor.

Both of her legs were bound tightly together. She would have to hop if she wanted to move around but she dared not do it because she was pregnant. 

At this moment, she could hear a loud and low sound coming from the iron door. Immediately after that, Song Yu saw the iron door opened and a man wearing a baseball cap and a mask walked into the room. He quickly shut the door after entering the room.

"You"re awake?" The voice was frosty and even sounded cold-hearted. It contained a feeling of arrogance probably because he had the power to determine whether she would live or not.

Song Yu"s stared at him with her eyes wide open, her eyes filled with disbelief. "Jian Yi, it"s you!"

Derisive and soft laughter could be heard from behind his mask. Jian Yi then removed his cap and his mask to reveal his face which she had not seen for a long time.

"Jian Yi, what are you doing?!" shouted an enraged Song Yu. "Are you crazy?"

"Song Song, stop struggling, stop worrying and just stay here, I won"t hurt you." Jian Yi smiled and tried to rea.s.sure her. "We had known each other for more than twenty years. Don"t you trust me?"

"You said you won"t hurt me, but what are you doing now? You knocked me out, brought me here, and tied my hands and legs. Jian Yi, what are you thinking?" Song Yu believed he was already deranged.

He also said that they had known each other for more than twenty years, but how did he change into a person like this? She could still remember vividly the scene of her saving him from a group of teenagers—the memory did not fade a little even after a long time. She could still remember that Jian Yi was an honest and gentle teenager during that time, but without her knowing, he had become more extreme and hideous as time pa.s.ses.

"What am I thinking? I just wanted to ask for what was supposed to be mine." Jian Yi sneered at her.

"What did you lose that has belonged to you? What are you trying to ask for?" Song Yu did not understand what Jian Yi was thinking. How could he think that the things that he lost were being seized by others?

"Asking for what? Aren"t you curious about the reason I am wearing like this?" Jian Yi sneered. "That day on the roadside, I saw you sitting in the car."

Song Yu"s expression changed. "It was you on that day?"

Jian Yi sn.i.g.g.e.red. "Do you remember how despondent I was that day? Song Song, we hadn"t met for such a long time. Aren"t you concerned about my recent condition?"

"Don"t call me that, I feel disgusted when I heard you calling me like that. If you really care about our friends.h.i.+p, you wouldn"t have kidnapped me today and tied me up like this." Song Yu struggled for a while with her hands. "You want to have a good old chat, right? Free me first, then I can chat with you slowly."

"What do I really want? You didn"t know about my matters?" Jian Yi snorted. "Right, it was impossible that Qi Chengzhi would tell you about it. I could still accept that the Qi family banished me and didn"t pay me whatsoever. However, Qi Chengzhi bullied me excessively—he went so far as to ask the police to force me to wipe out a group that smuggled unlicensed cars. Now the boss of the group had managed to escape and was trying to search for me everywhere. Do you think I"d live if the boss caught me? I have to hide to stay alive. I didn"t even dare go to the company. I lost my job and spent all my money. My life was ruined by Qi Chengzhi and I"m going to seize it back!"

"Smuggling unlicensed cars…" mumbled Song Yu, she could not fully react to what he said for a moment. "Why were you involved in car-smuggling? If you don"t know them, why would the police asked you to help in the investigation?"

Song Yu suddenly paused because she remembered that Qi Chengzhi mentioned to her before about an unlicensed car when they talked about the investigation of the accident. He told her that the Hummer was unlicensed.

"You acquired the Hummer from the car-smuggling group and used it to hit Chengzhi the night before our wedding, right?" Song Yu narrowed her eyes and fumed. "It was you who wanted to murder him, and it was you who hurt him first! That wasn"t the first time you tried to hit him! You"re allowed to hurt him, but he can"t seek revenge? Besides, did Qi Chengzhi do something wrong? Didn"t you have dealings with the car-smuggling group? If you"re innocent, why would the police find you? You only have yourself to blame for everything that had happened to you. How could you blame others, how could you s.h.i.+ft the blame to others for your own mistakes?"

"I did nothing wrong. It was all Qi Chengzhi"s fault! If he didn"t banish me from the Qi family, would I become so demoralized? He chased me out and smashed my car, and he had gone too far by bullying me like that! If it wasn"t for him, I"d still be in the Qi family. I wouldn"t have to work for others and try to please others, even reduced to buying smuggled cars!" raged a fuming Jian Yi. His eyes were bloodshot and he appeared like he had turned into a devil. It was extremely frightening.

"You"re the one who wronged Chengyue. You had an extramarital affair and you"re hoping the Qi family would present you with power and money? All the wealth and position that you wanted belonged to the Qi family. Since they gave them to you, they could take back them if they wished. Those things belong to you and you have no right to demand them. The Qi family and Chengzhi don"t owe you anything," said Song Yu coldly.

"Who said so! They owed me everything." Jian Yi"s eyes turned red due to his anger. Hatred overrode him when he thought about the good life he could have lived, but now he had to hide everywhere and did not have a place to live. He even spent almost all his money. "Song Song, don"t you understand? I"ve never liked Guan Xiaolin before. Why would I have an affair with her? I did that for you. I know so long as I"m still married to Qi Chengyue, you would never accept me, so I must divorce her. When I saw you were marrying Qi Chengzhi but was powerless to do anything, do you know how much it had hurt and how much pain I suffered?"

Jian Yi walked toward her and held Song Yu"s arm with both of his hands. "If you were willing to wait for me for a few more years so that I could grow my career, I would"ve divorce Qi Chengyue and married you. Of course, you didn"t want to wait and marry Qi Chengzhi, so I decided not to wait too. I could only set out my plans by gaining Guan Xiaolin"s support, so even if I divorced Qi Chengyue, I could still have my career and could still take good care of you and not let you suffer. Once I have a stable and successful career, I would break up with her straight away. I had planned everything since the beginning, you didn"t need to know about the divorce of Qi Chengyue and I and the affair between Guan Xiaolin and I. I"ve never thought of marrying her anyway, I only wanted to marry you. However, I didn"t expect that you"d see what I did. The reason I divorced Qi Chengyue and insisted on getting the shares was all because of you!"

"I knew that you were used to living a good life with Qi Chengzhi, so I would never let you go through hards.h.i.+ps with me. Guan Xiao was pregnant with my child, so the wealth and power of the Guan family would be mine sooner or later. However, Qi Chengzhi couldn"t stand seeing me living well, so he was determined to make me lose everything. He forced Guan Xiaolin to get an abortion so that the Guan family will never accept me after I lost my child. Wasn"t he using the influence of the Qi family to bully others? He murdered my child. Are you telling me that I shouldn"t seek revenge?"

Song Yu shook her head slowly. "You were never aware of your wrongdoings, you even felt that it wasn"t wrong to make use of a woman to obtain a high position or become successful by illegal means. You had hurt so many women one after another. Have you ever thought that even though Guan Xiaolin was wrong to be your lover, she truly loved you, yet you still made use of her? Your child wasn"t killed by anyone else but you. You made use of Chengyue and Guan Xiaolin and allowed yourself to mistreat others, but you couldn"t accept others mistreating you? If you didn"t employ all these illegal means but work hard and honestly by relying on your ability, you wouldn"t be in this kind of situation."

"When didn"t I show my abilities?! It was Qi Chengyue who refused to give me a chance, he purposely held me down because he was afraid that I would surpa.s.s him. If his family background isn"t so great, how could he possibly hold me down? If I had the same background as him, I wouldn"t be inferior to him—I"d be even better than him!" said Jian Yi emotionally. "He was always jealous of me because you liked me!"

"Jian Yi, please stop saying that I like you. I felt disgusted just by thinking of it. I told you before, I don"t like you, and the person I like is the one who saved me from the cold water of the lake. He is Qi Chengzhi. You lied to me and had occupied his position for more than ten years. If it weren"t for the misunderstanding, I would never like you." Song Yu paused for a while and stared at Jian Yi seriously. "To be honest, from the beginning until now, the person I like is Qi Chengzhi."

"Heh, you said I lied but I did that because I liked you. It was a white lie. I lied because I like you. You want to blame me because of this? If I don"t like you, why should I lie? In your eyes, Qi Chengzhi is a saint and never lied to you, right?" Jian Yi snorted in disdain. "It was he who bankrupted the Song family but concealed it so that he could be with you. He made you sleep in the same bed with your enemy and even made you pregnant. Compared to him, I merely didn"t tell you the truth about the person who rescued you. What I did was just a harmless prank compared to him. How could you judge us with a double standard?"

"Could you stop mentioning about the bankruptcy, I"m sick of it. He concealed it from me but he already confessed to me, unlike you who did something dirty but still tried so hard to find an excuse for yourself and insisted that it wasn"t your fault no matter what," said an annoyed Song Yu.

"Okay, I"ll stop talking about the bankruptcy, I"ll talk about something else. You suppose how did Qi Chengyue find out and went to Shengyue at that time? It was Qi Chengzhi who threatened Guan Xiaolin and requested her to take a photo of us together and sent it to Qi Chengyue so that she found out about it. The humiliation that you suffered at Chengyue would never happen if it were not for the actions of Qi Chengzhi because Qi Chengyue would never go there and you wouldn"t suffer such a big humiliation and Qi Chengyue would never make things difficult for you."

As for him, he would be together with Song Yu until now. Song Yu still would not fall for Qi Chengzhi, not to mention marrying him.

"Did you ever think of how Qi Chengzhi blackmail Guan Xiaolin? You thought that Qi Chengzhi helped you when Guan Yu stole your design plan, but he was making use of that incident to blackmail Guan Xiaolin. If she didn"t wish to see Guan Yu lost his reputation, she would have to help him do that. That"s the reason Qi Chengyue went to find you, the humiliation you suffered at Chengyue was actually caused by Qi Chengzhi. Have you ever thought of why did you meet him so timely right after you left Chengyue? He was obviously in love with you at that time, but he pretended to be kind-hearted and sent you to my house to listen to my explanations. He did that because he had sent Guan Xiaolin to find me earlier and intentionally told you all of the things that happened so that you would hate me and become disappointed with me, then he could seize the chance to win your heart." Jian Yi snorted at Song Yu coolly. "He"s that kind of person who"d do anything to achieve his aim. At first, he caused the Song family to go bankrupt to be with you. After he met you again, he used all kinds of foul means to destroy our relations.h.i.+p."

Song Yu shook her head irritatedly. "Jian Yi, what are your intentions of telling me these? He did all of that just to let me see your true colors. If you didn"t do any of those things—if you"re righteous, honest, and weren"t guilty of what you did—he could never find the opportunity to do that. You were the cause of your downfall from the beginning. You kept on saying that the things you did were done for me, but they were done for your benefits. Jian Yi, do you dare to look at yourself in the mirror and admit the actual thoughts in your mind and talk honestly for once? Stop using me as your excuse, you don"t love me as deep as you claimed. All the things you did were to satisfy the greed in your heart. You wished to become rich and have a high status. In the past, I was out of your league and you thought you didn"t deserve me. When I was in a difficult situation, you thought that you could rescue me and make me admire you because our positions had changed. However, you didn"t expect there is a Qi Chengzhi who is hundreds and thousands of times better than you in every aspect. You"re not really in love with me—you just can"t let go of me and unwilling to resign. You wanted to be better than Qi Chengzhi, and the true reason you did all of these was to beat the people who were better than you in the past, not for my good as you repeatedly claimed. However, in reality, you"ll never be on par with Qi Chengzhi."

"That"s enough!" shouted Jian Yi furiously to interrupt her. Song Yu was shocked by him.

She took a deep breath and slowly calmed down. She then continued, "Actually, the true reason that makes me forgive him no matter what he does is because I love Qi Chengzhi. Even if he"s wicked and evil toward others and beyond redemption, as long as he still loves me, I"d love him too. I"d forgive him and never blame him for anything."

"You finally admitted that no matter what I do, regardless of the things I do were good or bad, you would never accept me?" questioned Jian Yi coldly.

Song Yu did not answer him, she inhaled deeply. "Jian Yi, please let me go. Aren"t you in need of money to run away? I"ll give you the money, so release me now before they found out what you did. I could find an excuse and act as though nothing happened. I"ll give you the money to run away and hide from those people. Otherwise, this would be considered as abduction and you will go to jail."

"Give me money?" Jian Yi sneered derisively. "How much could you give me? A hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, or a million?"

Song Yu"s expression did not change. "How much do you want?" 

Jian Yi did not answer her question, he took out a disposable cell phone from his pocket and called a number. After a while, Song Yu heard him said, "Qi Chengzhi."

Song Yu could feel as though her heart was lifted to her throat, she really wanted to call him but she was afraid that Qi Chengzhi would be very worried if she shouted rashly.

She was unsure whether he had found out that she was missing. She did not know how long had pa.s.sed since the time she was kidnapped and what the time was.

Qi Chengzhi was still in the police station. When he saw a bunch of unfamiliar numbers, he became fully alert. He answered the call and heard Jian Yi"s voice. "Jian Yi," he said his name frigidly.

Dong Jiadi immediately started to track the location of his phone"s signal, he heard Qi Chengzhi say, "Why are you calling me?"

Jian Yi snorted. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Why, don"t tell me you haven"t found out that Song Yu was missing until now?"

Qi Chengzhi narrowed his eyes. He then talked with a soft voice, but he made sure Jian Yi could hear it. "Dongge, please go and ask Xiao Fan whether Song Yu is around or not?"

Cheng Dongge just stayed there and did nothing, he waited for around one minute, then he replied to him anxiously, "I asked Xiao Fan about it, he had sent Song Yu back to the Song family. He left when he saw Song Yu walked into her block. I had called Song Yu"s parents and Madam Song told me that Song Yu hadn"t returned home and she didn"t know that Song Yu is coming back today."

Jian Yi could vaguely hear what Cheng Dongge said from the phone. He sneered coldly. "Seems like you"re not concerned about Song Yu, you didn"t even know she was missing."

Dong Jiadi gave Liu Dui an "OK" gesture. Liu Dui nodded and went to make preparations.

Qi Chengzhi clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes. "You kidnapped Song Yu?" said Qi Chengzhi.

"Don"t use such an unpleasant term. She followed me without fighting against me at all," said Jian Yi mockingly. He sneered at Song Yu and saw she was glaring at him furiously. She was red in the face but remained silent.

Jian Yi pouted and he heard Qi Chengzhi asked him, "You said you brought her away, do you have any evidence?"

Song Yu was clenching her teeth and sneered at Jian Yi contemptuously before she turned her head and looked away. Suddenly, she felt a hand touching her belly. She looked down and saw Jian Yi was putting his hand on her bulging belly. He applied some pressure and his fingertips sank into the flesh of her belly.

"I felt extremely annoyed by the child of Qi Chengzhi and you," whispered Jian Yi into Song Yu"s ear as he lowered his head.

A repulsion surged within Song Yu and she felt nauseated, especially because Jian Yi was so close to her and her ears could feel his breath—she found it utterly disgusting. Song Yu felt the chills when he threatened to harm her child all of a sudden.