Volume One, Chapter 123: She Is the One Who Lives in the Core of His Heart

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“Woooo, woooo…”

It was an overcast night, the moon hidden behind thick, heavy clouds.
Everything around was swallowed by darkness.

The low, mournful growl came with a flood of footsteps.

When the burlap sack was pulled from his head, Sang Dawei saw a single familiar shape and could not force a sound from his throat anymore.

A few paces away, in the dark, stood a man’s broad, upright silhouette.
He seemed familiar.

Before Sang Dawei could place him, the man turned.

“Wooo... woooo...”

The spark of relief in Sang Dawei’s eyes died the instant it met Lu Jinian’s darkened expression.

The rag in his mouth was ripped away, and Sang Dawei dropped to his knees with a dull thud.
“Boss Lu, Boss Lu, I was wrong… I know I shouldn’t have lied, but I had no choice, I…”

Bang!

Lu Jinian stepped forward and drove a vicious kick into Sang Dawei’s chest.
Sang Dawei could not even cry out in pain before collapsing.

Blood-red rage burned under Lu Jinian’s eyes.
How dare Sang Dawei do this?
How dare he deceive him?
How dare he do that to Sang Wan?

Not a word came out of him.
All he could see was Sang Wan’s eyes in his mind—
that look of utter disappointment, that disgust.
She must have been so hurt by him.

To love means even a shadow can be poisoned; hate works no differently.
She hated Sang Dawei deeply. He should have stood beside her.
What had he done?

The report his men brought in was only a thin page.
Yet in those few lines, every word branded Sang Dawei as unworthy of being a husband, unworthy of being a father, even unworthy of being called human—a beast’s conduct.

“Lu, Boss…”
He finally drew one long breath, but it felt like fire in his chest; every breath sent pain through him.

“I… I truly know I was wrong. Please, please spare me, let me live. I… I am Xiao Wan’s father, I am your…”
The words *father-in-law* never came.

Then Lu Jinian’s voice, cold and level:
“Hit him.”

Sang Dawei’s eyes bulged wide.
In the next instant, the agony landed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!
Like steel tubing.
Like baseball bats.

Lu Jinian’s men had taken his order as if they meant to kill him outright.
Yet even fainting did not come.

Pain spread through every limb; he could not even lift his hands.
Blood streamed down his forehead and blurred his sight.

He could still see Lu Jinian coming, near and then closer.
Clang!
The stick struck the ground and bounced.

Sang Dawei’s face was pinned under Lu Jinian’s boot, ground down hard.
“You should be grateful this is a society under rule of law,” Lu Jinian said. “Otherwise, you would have died a hundred times by now.”

Footsteps faded into the distance.
Sang Dawei lay sprawled, twitching, gasping—one breath short of life, then another.

When a dark figure stepped out of the shadows, his heart jolted despite the numbness.

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“Help… help me…”
His breath was thread-thin.

Sang Dawei forced open his blood-muddied eyes and saw a line of figures approaching from afar.
In the cold white moonlight, black jackets and black trousers stretched into endless shapes.

He kept begging, “Save me… save me…”

“Sang Dawei?”
The leader’s voice cut the night.
Sang Dawei’s eyes froze.

Who was it?
How did this man know his name?

Before he could answer, someone strode forward, grabbed his collar, and hauled him up.
Through blood-blurred vision, Sang Dawei saw a handsome, sinister-smiling face.

“Sorry I’m late!”

Lou Ye looked over, regret on his face, then glanced toward the direction where Lu Jinian had disappeared; for a flicker of a moment, hard anger flashed in his eyes.

“You… you…”
Sang Dawei could not even ask who.

He only hoped this man would give him a clean end.

Lou Ye asked the one holding him, “How bad is he?”

“His arm is broken, his leg too…”
The man said.

He gave him a shake, then pressed his palm along Sang Dawei’s sagging chest and back.
“Three ribs broken as well.”

“He knocked him out too hard,” Lou Ye muttered, not approving.

Sang Dawei’s eyes moved, flickering.

Lou Ye asked, almost casually, “He won’t last in the Capital. I can send you out of the country. How about that?”

What kind of mercy was this?
Hope flashed in Sang Dawei’s eyes. “You—you are…?”

“Do you know Sang Wan?”
Lou Ye’s smile warmed.

“She is mine.”

“I… I…”
Not one bone in his body was free of pain, yet Sang Dawei struggled with all his might, as if he had finally realized this was the last chance to run.

Lou Ye then ordered in a hard tone, “Send him to northern Myanmar. Take care of him well. Remember—let him live long. Let him stay alive, long and long.”

“Yes!” came the reply.

“I…I am… Sang Wan’s…”
His shrill voice cut off abruptly.

The clouds slowly parted, and cold, clear moonlight spread across the earth.

A Maybach came to a stop beneath the apartment building.
When Lou Ye stepped toward the elevator, even in that brief walk his brow still burned with fury.

His anger halted of its own accord.
He had nearly, for Sang Wan, let it go too easily.

The elevator doors opened with a soft hum, and a familiar scent drifted from the living room; Lou Ye’s fury thinned and thinned away.

What a fool of a world—
If everyone knew she was the one Lou Ye held closest to his heart,
whether a clerk in the Lou household or the idle onlookers in online forums,
no one would dare to defame her so shamelessly.

Meow…

The bedroom door stood half-open. The black cat crept out with cautious steps, but as it prepared to leap, it suddenly spun and turned back.
Lou Ye frowned.

He sniffed once.

Everything else was normal—yet Lou Ye knew the cat had caught the scent of blood clinging to him.

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He was in no mood to step in, yet not willing to step out either.
Lou Ye stood in the doorway for a long time without moving.

“Ah!”
A brief cry died at once, stopped by a hand pressed over Xu Yiyi’s mouth. She stared at the dark shape in the doorway, slowly lowered her hand, then, as if startled from a nightmare, thumped her own chest and stepped forward.

“Master Lou, Master Lou… that was terrifying!”

“Where is Sang Wan?”
“She’s asleep.”

“Go check once.”

Xu Yiyi wanted to say, Why don’t you go yourself?
But confronted with Lou Ye’s cold, dark eyes, she said nothing. She drifted in like a ghost into the master bedroom.

Then she came back, holding her phone toward him.
Even in sleep, it seemed her brows were lightly knotted in worry.

“Send me the photo.”

Lou Ye said it, and as he turned to leave he added,
“Sang Dawei has left the Capital. He will never return in this life. Reassure her.”

“Oh.”

Xu Yiyi nodded, and watched him turn away. The door closed with a hum.

She looked down and saw a WeChat message from Lou Ye:
[??]

In haste, she sent him the photo of the sleeping beauty.
Then a massive transfer envelope appeared in the chat window.

Xu Yiyi: …

That night, Sang Wan slept fitfully.
She woke before the alarm even rang.
After washing up, she opened the door and the apartment was full of fragrance.

Xu Yiyi was already bustling in the kitchen.
On the table: soybean milk, fried dough sticks, soup dumplings, and milk with an Americano sandwich.
At a glance it was a pleasing blend of east and west.

Watching Xu Yiyi move like a busy little bee, Sang Wan frowned in confusion.
“You used to be the champion of sleeping in, weren’t you?”

No way around it.
The boss has given me too much, she thought with a bitter smile.
If I don’t do something, I’ll feel guilty.

Xu Yiyi came over with a fruit tray, adding color to the breakfast spread.
She spoke plainly: “Master Lou said Sang Dawei has left the Capital and won’t trouble you again. He said you could be at ease.”

Sang Wan blinked in surprise.
“Since when did he tell you that?”

“Last night, on WeChat.”

Half of her thought was, I should have guessed this—this is exactly Lou Ye’s style.
The other half was pure helplessness.

Sang Wan did not know what to do.
After all, she had deleted him. Calling him back just to say thanks would feel strange.

And besides, yesterday she had made everything clear: this was the end.
Between them, it was over.

A proper former lover ought to become as good as dead.

Though she and Lou Ye were not truly exes, this quiet, wordless ending was probably the only thing possible.

That is what Sang Wan told herself.
Yet when, at ten o’clock, she entered the grand conference room and saw that figure in the front leather chair,
her heart seemed to stop, and she stood there, at a loss for how to face it.