TCOR CH48

Chapter 48: How Long Do You Think He Can Live?

After a good cry to let off some steam, I decided that life would go on as usual. I would lock all my memories of Shen Wunian into the deepest recesses of my mind, never to be thought of again.

Peng Dai and Xie Yunze were probably curious about my breakdown, but they didn’t ask any questions. Even the subject of Redvein Syndrome seemed to have disappeared from our daily conversations.

The human body is amazing. Not only can physical wounds heal over time, but so can emotional wounds. It took only a week, but the once heartbreaking pain slowly faded away.

During that week, I went about my daily life as usual, but a lot happened in the Liang family.

Liang Huiyun’s funeral was quite grand, with politicians, businessmen, and celebrities attending. Even the evening news reported the death of this legendary businessman under the headline, “Mourning in Sorrow”.

I didn’t pay much attention to the news, but my phone would inevitably push news based on big data, and sometimes my classmates would also talk about it.

Liang Huiyun’s will was announced after the funeral. Liang Zai was given the majority of Parkway’s shares and officially became the new chairman and general manager of the group. Liang Weiren was also given shares, but his shareholding ranked only third.

The will was redrafted half a month before Liang Huiyun’s death. Liang Weiren questioned the validity of the will, arguing that his father had long been ill and delirious. Liang Huiyun’s lawyer gave an interview to the media, saying that the will was legal and in order, and that Mr. Liang had only changed his will out of extreme disappointment with Liang Weiren. At the time, the other party was conscious and speaking fluently. There were videos, recordings, and handwritten wills as evidence, so it was not true that the will was not legal just because someone said so.

Two days later, the Parkway Group suddenly announced that the wind power project it had been developing with an American energy company for the past few years, which had cost the group billions of dollars, was involved in a high-risk fraud. Parkway’s stock price plummeted. Liang held a press conference overnight, saying he would find out what had happened and give shareholders an explanation.

The next day, the police moved into the Parkway building to investigate the case. Liang Weiren was detained for investigation and released 24 hours later. Subsequently, Ashmakine, an American art dealer who had not yet left the country, was also summoned and released 24 hours later.

Although neither was arrested, it was rumored that their passports had been confiscated and they were barred from leaving the country.

All this happened within a week.

In addition, I often dreamed of Shen Wunian during those days. Sometimes he was secretly meeting with Liang Zai, and sometimes he was reassuring Ashmakine with various excuses and asking the other party to be patient.

Combining the dreams with the reality, I guessed that he was trying to use Liang Weiren’s case to trap Ashmakine in the country and then further implement his own plan.

But none of this had anything to do with me anymore.

The arrival of exam week left me no time to think about him. I was so busy studying in the library all day that I even had to suspend my activities in the photography club. To ensure a good night’s sleep, I even asked the doctor to prescribe a box of sleeping pills. If you take one before going to bed at night, you can sleep without any dreams.

I also asked the doctor how long it would take for the red worms in my body to disappear, and the doctor replied, “It’s hard to say.

“After reaching a certain level of affection for Redvein, the Redvein worms will enter a state of conjugation. At this stage, the male worm will stop releasing toxins, and Redvein will no longer be able to see the red lines. As far as humans are concerned, they are effectively cured and no longer need to pay too much attention. How long does the conjugation take? It could be a day or two, or a month or two. The longest conjugation recorded by the Control Bureau was six months.

Six months… If mating is considered a union, then these worms are really capable of taking six months.

Of course, I didn’t want my dream mating with Shen Wunian to last six months, but the red worms didn’t follow my wishes.

At the end of June, the heat gradually increased and the holiday season began. As usual, I stayed in Jiang City and got a part-time job at a 24-hour convenience store near the school.

The grocery store worked three shifts, which was a bit more strenuous, but it didn’t require much thinking, so it was a relief for me after the brutal exam week I had just experienced.

“I’ll go first!”

After the evening shift, I waved goodbye to my colleagues and stepped out of the grocery store. As usual, I was walking down the street when I suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar figure around the corner.

Thinking that I was hallucinating from overworking my eyes, I rubbed my eyes and looked over to see Pei Huachen running toward me with a bright smile.

“Little Ai!” As I got closer, I noticed that he was covered in dust, as if he had rolled around in the mud a few times.

“Why are you out here alone?” I looked behind him and couldn’t see the bodyguard anywhere.

It was bizarre to see Pei Huachen walking alone on the street at 2 in the morning.

“I snuck out,” he said without hesitation, looking completely justified. I hid on top of the van.

“Mr. Liang locked me in and wouldn’t let me out. I felt he was being unreasonable, so I had a fight with him and then snuck out on my own. I even deliberately gave my phone to someone else in case they found me too quickly.”

“Gave it to someone else?”

“I gave it to the cab driver. It has GPS on it, so even if Mr. Liang finds out I’m missing, he’ll go to the driver first.”

I twitched at the corner of my mouth, “You’re pretty smart.

It’s so late, let’s take him back to his place first and contact Liang Zai tomorrow. It’s summer vacation, and Xie Yunze is at home, so he can sleep in Xie Yunze’s room.

Gosh, I can’t imagine how Liang Zai will feel when he finds out that Pei Huanchen is missing tomorrow.

“Come with me,” I said to Pei Huanchen, leading him to the apartment building. You can’t just leave without saying anything. You met me today, but what if you hadn’t? There are a lot of bad people out there.

“I know where you are. I can see the red lines on you. We’re the same kind.”

I froze, stopped, and turned to look at him. “You… you can see the red lines?”

Pei Huanchen’s voice became a little lower: “Mr. Liang won’t let me tell anyone about this, but you’re my friend, and I choose to believe you.”

It was after 2:00 a.m., there were basically no pedestrians on the street, and there were very few cars. In the distance, there was only a black car approaching from the end of the street.

At that moment, I suddenly realized something: “So you knew from the beginning… that I am Shen Wunian’s healer.”

“I…” Pei Huanchen tugged at the hem of his shirt with both hands, looking helpless. I can’t expose Redvein at will. This is… This is a rule that Mimic must obey.

Thinking about those experiments with Mimic, I stared at him for a long time. After a series of struggles, I finally sighed and decided not to argue with him anymore.

“Forget it…”

A harsh screeching sound drowned out my voice. Before I could react, two masked men in black jumped out of the parked black car next to me. One held a handkerchief over my nose and mouth, and the other pushed us into the car.

“Um…” I became increasingly disoriented. I tried to stay awake, but my eyes couldn’t help but close.

When I woke up, I was in an empty room with no windows. There was a security camera in the corner of the ceiling. Pei Huanchen and I were tied up separately and thrown on the floor.

It took me a long time to focus my vision. I saw that Pei Huanchen was still unconscious, so I rushed over to check on him.

“Huanchen! Huanchen!” I kept calling his name as I bent my body toward him.

With my relentless persistence, he finally woke up slowly.

“Little Ai…” He blinked slowly, “Where are we…?

I looked around, just as confused: I don’t know either.

But I had a vague feeling that this was most likely Liang Zai’s doing, that Pei Huanchen had just suffered a misfortune, and that I was the little weed by the fishpond.

Maybe they saw on the surveillance camera that we had woken up. Soon after, the door opened and Liang Weiren came in, looking haggard.

When he appeared in front of us without any disguise, I secretly cursed in my heart. According to the laws of some movies and TV dramas I’ve seen, if the kidnapper doesn’t care about being seen in his true face, it’s very likely that he doesn’t want the hostage to leave alive.

“Uncle?” Pei Huanchen straightened up as if to stand up. “Uncle, why did you kidnap us? Was it because Mr. Liang was angry with me for sneaking out, so you asked him to bring me back? As he said this, he shook his head, “No, then why did you kidnap Zhong Ai?

“Who is your uncle? A little bastard like you doesn’t even deserve to be related to me?” Liang Weiren’s face was stern and his eyes showed disgust.

He walked over to Pei Huanchen and grabbed his chin, forcing him to look up.

“He made me feel bad, so I have to make him feel bad,” he said calmly, and without warning, he raised his hand and slapped Pei Huanchen.

Then, as if to vent the anger Liang Zai felt there, he began to hit Pei Huanchen like crazy.

He hit him so hard that Pei Huanchen’s head started to bleed. He even stepped on Pei Huanchen’s head with his foot and kicked him hard with the toe of his shoe in the softest part of his stomach, as if he wanted to beat him to death.

And not only did Pei Huachen not beg for mercy, he did not even make a sound. It was as if he was used to the pain, and just submitted and accepted it completely.

“Stop…stop!” I tried to bend over and hit his leg, causing him to stumble.

Liang Weiren stood firmly against the wall, his eyes shooting a murderous glare at me. Come and die for yourself…’ he said, turning to me.

I swallowed, my heels scraping the floor as I moved backwards. I was terrified, but still tried to defend myself: “If you want to get back at Liang Zai, you have to do it slowly, bit by bit, like cutting meat with a dull knife.

“You… take a camera, film Pei Huanchen, and send the footage to Liang Zai. Then secretly watch his reaction. Wouldn’t that be… more interesting?”

I didn’t even know what I was talking about, but as I spoke, Liang Weiren actually stopped and thought about it.

“You’re right,” he said as he looked at Pei Huanchen and muttered, “I want to destroy everything he cherishes. It used to be his mother, and now it’s his little treasure. I want to see him crumble, watch him suffer, and make him regret turning against me!” After saying this, he quickly turned and left the room.

The iron door closed again and my tense muscles suddenly relaxed. My heartbeat was so fast that it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.

“Huanchen, are you okay?” I hurried to Pei Huanchen’s side and asked about his condition.

He was lying on the ground, his face bruised and swollen. He was already dirty, as if he had rolled around in the mud, and now with the blood stains, it added to the pitifulness.

“Mr. Liang… will not suffer for me.” His dark hair hid his eyes, which were slightly narrowed, and a bluish tint shone through the strands.

His voice was very, very soft, as if he no longer had the strength to speak. “I am not irreplaceable.

“You are, you are irreplaceable! Don’t fall asleep, Huanchen, don’t fall asleep…”

No matter how I called him, he slowly closed his eyes. I was so worried that I was about to cry, but at that time, Liang Weiren returned.

He walked up to me, grabbed me by the neck and threw me aside, and started taking pictures of Pei Huanchen.

Front, side, overhead, he took pictures for four or five minutes, capturing Pei Huanchen’s miserable condition from every angle, before reluctantly stopping.

Looking at the photos on his phone, he walked over to me again: “I wanted to bury you alive, but the foreigner said you’re useful, so I’ll let you live for now.”

I was still rejoicing that I could keep my life when he continued: “But you have to go somewhere else.”

Before I could finish, he slammed his phone into my temple.

With a sharp pain in my head, I passed out again.

In the dark study, Liang Zai sat behind a large desk, Shen Wunian sat across from him, and a man who looked like a secretary stood next to the desk.

“We accessed the surveillance cameras along the way and found that Young Master Huanchen was abducted by a black commercial vehicle. Another person who was kidnapped was a university student named…” The secretary looked over the information in his hands and reported a name, “Zhong Ai.

Shen Wunian paused as if he hadn’t heard it, looked up and asked, “What’s the name?”

The secretary looked at the information again and repeated, “Zhong —-Ai”.

Leaning on his hands, Liang Zai hung his head in pain and rubbed his forehead.

“Zhong Ai…” Shen Wunian chewed on the name and suddenly laughed.

“Liang Zai, how long do you think he can live?”