Facing the person lunging at him, Chen Mo showed no trace of panic on his face.
Because Ji Tingzhou moved swiftly.
It was only at this moment that Chen Mo realized just how half-hearted Ji Tingzhou had been during their usual sparring sessions.
Annoyed, he lifted his eyelids slightly and glanced at Ji Tingzhou, who was disdainfully tossing aside a corpse and looked as if he wanted to strip off his bloodstained clothes right then and there.
Ji Nian had already gone inside.
The commotion outside had woken Ji Wanting.
Her sleep had always been poor, and now that she was roused, she was itching to vent her anger.
Unfortunately, Mu Xiu—the one who had always indulged her—was dead.
She saw it through the window.
The man Ji Tingzhou had impaled was flung aside like trash.
As he collapsed, Mu Xiu’s dark eyes fixed on the direction where Ji Wanting stood. When her figure reflected in his gaze, the lifelessness in his eyes suddenly ignited with color, as if someone had lit a flame inside them.
She had been the pillar of his life.
His everything.
Growing up, Mu Xiu had been dull and withdrawn, despised by his foster family and forced to live among chickens and ducks. He endured insults and abuse, surviving in silence.
At twelve, his biological father—having lost his only son—retrieved him and brought him back into the family.
Mu Xiu was gifted, even unnaturally brilliant. His neglectful father decided to invest in his education, hoping to reap rewards once he achieved success.
And so, Mu Xiu was admitted to the best university in S City.
It was also in this city that he met the person who would change his life forever.
It was a rainy day. His classmates had sent him on an errand, and as he returned with their purchases, someone bumped into him, scattering the change in his hands across the ground.
He bent down to pick it up.
But a damp bill was suddenly pinned under a red high heel.
The shoe was beautiful, but the foot beneath it was even more exquisite—so much so that Mu Xiu, who had spent his life being treated as an emotionless freak, felt an overwhelming urge to kneel and kiss it.
He didn’t understand this feeling.
But when he looked up and met the face hidden behind a veil, revealing only a pair of eyes, his breath caught, and his heart pounded like thunder.
"My shoe is dirty. Can you clean it for me?"
These were the first words Ji Wanting ever spoke to him.
From that moment on, Mu Xiu became obsessed. He scoured the city for any trace of her, learning that she was Ji Wanting, the eldest daughter of the Ji family.
He lost his mind, spending every cent of his living expenses chasing after her. When he ran out of money, he wrote papers for others, cheated on exams, sold his blood, even fought in underground rings. Fortunately, he had a knack for everything he did, so he didn’t die—though he came close a few times before getting the hang of it.
At his lowest, he even considered taking the fall for someone else’s crime. But the thought of being locked away, unable to see Ji Wanting—and likely executed—made him back out.
Despite all this, Ji Wanting didn’t even know he existed.
But it didn’t matter. Mu Xiu was content just to catch glimpses of her.
If he were colorblind, Ji Wanting would be the only hue in his world. Without her, everything faded into dull monochrome.
Just when he thought his life would continue this way forever, Ji Wanting’s father—some old man whose name he couldn’t be bothered to remember—summoned him one day and asked if he’d be willing to take over an organization.
Mu Xiu refused.
And was beaten half to death.
The old man asked again.
Mu Xiu refused again.
And was beaten half to death again.
Finally, the old man had Ji Wanting brought in and told her to ask him one more time.
Lying on the ground, his head split open, Mu Xiu stubbornly kept his eyes open, staring at her through a haze of blood. Without hesitation, he nodded.
He didn’t know why the old man had chosen him. But he was glad it was him.
If it hadn’t been, Ji Wanting would have truly been thrown to the dogs.
Ji Wanting was left broken, her face gnawed to ruin, stripped of skin, nothing but festering flesh reeking of decay. She clung to life by a thread—but Mu Xiu didn’t care.
He dropped out of school, abandoned the little he had, and did everything to keep her alive. By day, he worked menial jobs like a beast of burden; by night, he scavenged through trash. Sometimes, he found clothes in the garbage that might suit her, washed and mended them, then dressed her in them.
Later, when Ji Wanting regained consciousness, she said she didn’t want to live in such a place, wear such clothes, and demanded her face be fixed.
Only then did Mu Xiu remember the organization the old man had left him. He set it into motion.
And planted a bomb for Ji Tingzhou along the way.
Even if Ji Wanting could no longer paint, even if she had lost her beauty, Mu Xiu still loved her.
Just like now.
Even as his life ended, his final gaze fixed on her—while her eyes held only Ji Tingzhou, indifferent to his fate—he still loved her.
He loved her cold nature, her cruel sharpness.
Even if she were nothing but a rotting, maggot-infested lump of flesh devoid of emotion, he would still love her beyond reason.
There was no explanation.
So…
Let’s die together, Ji Wanting.
This hell—only I can accompany you in it.
...
Ji Nian stepped inside and was nearly blinded by the garish decor.
The exterior was a shabby shack, but the interior looked like the Palace of Versailles.
She saw Ji Wanting but not Shen Qingtang.
Her expression darkened instantly.
[I have a bad feeling about this…]
Shen Qingtang was with Zhiliao.
She wrestled with her thoughts for a moment.
Mu Xiu’s allies had either died, fled, or defected to Ji Tingzhou’s side.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been alone here.
This was the consequence of ruling through brute force, disregarding his subordinates’ lives, and fostering nothing but hatred among them—no management, no operation.
But even if he had known, Mu Xiu probably wouldn’t have cared.
When Ji Tingzhou entered, Ji Nian glanced at him.
"Dad…"
She hesitated.
Ji Tingzhou had only recently undergone surgery. She worried that seeing Ji Wanting might agitate him.
"I’m fine."
Ji Tingzhou’s voice was calm. He had shed his bloodied coat, leaving only a white shirt and black trousers, making him look even younger.
"Compared to me, Chen Mo is in worse shape."
He was hinting for Ji Nian to check on Chen Mo, who was mutilating a corpse with an unsettlingly deranged look in his eyes.
This was the first time he had ever encouraged Ji Nian to approach Chen Mo.
Understanding that he likely wanted to settle things alone, Ji Nian stepped outside.
Ji Tingzhou crossed the threshold, walking forward without so much as a flicker of emotion under Ji Wanting’s scorching gaze.
After so many years, Ji Tingzhou saw Ji Wanting again.
Crippled and barely propped up by pillows, her cascading hair and stunning face looked almost unchanged from the past.
"Xiao Zhou."
Ji Wanting seemed delighted, smiling at Ji Tingzhou as if she were nothing more than a sister overjoyed to reunite with her younger brother—if one ignored the eerie atmosphere.
"Aside from the craniotomy, what else did you do to Ji Nian?"
That he hadn’t immediately killed her was a testament to Ji Tingzhou’s self-restraint.
Hearing that his first words upon their reunion were about Ji Nian didn’t seem to surprise Ji Wanting.
She giggled softly, her gaze tender as it lingered on Ji Tingzhou, but she avoided answering directly.
"Xiao Zhou, our family is finally together again."
"Oh… wait, no."
"What a shame you didn’t bring Xiao Zhen along."
After examining the brain Ji Tingzhou had seized from the wine cellar basement, they confirmed it belonged to Ji Yanzhen. Disgusted, Ji Tingzhou immediately ordered it to be ground up and flushed down the toilet.
Now, hearing Ji Wanting’s words, his eyes narrowed.
Suddenly, he noticed something.
For instance.
Though displayed like mere decorations, the undeniable truth remained—they were bones or desiccated flesh fragments hanging on the walls, nearly surrounding him entirely… remnants of people.
"This is Dad… I went through so much trouble to find just one small piece of his bone. That length of intestine belongs to Little Feng, and those toes over there? They’re from your little sister Xiaomei. Remember her? She used to love playing with you, always praising you, saying, ‘Big Brother Zhou’s screams sound so lovely.’"
"And that one over there, all dried up now—I bet Zhou can’t even recognize it. That’s Ren Ren. As a child, he was just as disobedient as you, so unlike a member of the Ji family. Dad skinned the person who corrupted him right in front of him, chopped the flesh, and made dumplings out of it for him to eat. After that, he became… well-behaved. Haha."
Recalling the past, Ji Wanting wore a blissfully intoxicated expression as she murmured softly, "Look, Zhou… our family is reunited again…"
