In the evening. The Number One Clubhouse……

  Ah Guang went there with Xu Youning’s favorite food. He took the elevator to basement two and knocked on the door of the room at the end of the corridor.

  “Who’s that?” Xu Youning’s alert voice came from inside the room.

  “Sister Youning, it’s me.” Ah Guang tried to say in a relaxed voice. “I’m here to see you.”


  “Ah Guang?” Xu Youning felt relieved. “Come in.”


  Ah Guang had his palm scanned, opened the door, and went into the room. He looked at Xu Youning, who was sitting on the bed.

  He barely remembered the scene when he met Xu Youning for the first time, but he knew very well how he had fallen in love with her.

  In his mind, there were two kinds of women around Mu Sijue.

  One kind was sexy and charming. They were absolute stunners who worked at places of carnal pleasure. It seemed that each part of their bodies had been built according to aesthetic standards. However, he felt bored after he saw too many women like them.

  The other kind worked for Mu Sijue. They were always poker-faced, ruthless and resolute. They were skillful career women who were even more bloodthirsty than a man like Ah Guang.

  As for Xu Youning, she wasn’t like any kind of them. She was the kind of woman who was both beautiful and enterprising.

  Xu Youning was a unique beauty who could lick the blood on the point of a dagger with a cold look. She was his cup of tea.

  Unfortunately, Xu Youning adored Mu Sijue.

  That morning, when he saw Xu Youning walking out of Mu Sijue’s apartment, he could only console himself with the thought that he would find his happiness one day.

  However, it turned out that neither he nor Mu Sijue could be happy.

  Seeing Ah Guang lost in his thoughts, Xu Youning smiled and asked, “What time is it now? There’s no daylight here, and I have no clock or watch. I don’t even know when to sleep.”


  Ah Guang looked at his watch and said, “It’s eight o’clock in the evening.”


  “Evening?” Xu Youning smiled. “I just woke up. I thought it was morning.”


  “Sister Youning……” Ah Guang couldn’t stay as relaxed as Xu Youning. He hesitated, feeling awkward.

  Xu Youning was amused. She looked at Ah Guang and said, “Please speak your mind. It’s not like you to hesitate. I’ve heard the worst news in the world and I’ve lost the most important person in my life. To be frank, there’s nothing I can’t accept now.”


  Ah Guang hesitated for a moment and stammered, “Seventh Brother asked me to…… get rid of you in secret…… tomorrow night.”


  Xu Youning processed Ah Guang’s words over and over again.

  After that, Xu Youning accepted the fact and said indifferently, “Oh. I see.”


  Ah Guang became surprised—Xu Youning’s casual reaction was beyond his expectation. He had thought that if Xu Youning would be shocked once she heard the news, or surprised for a while at the very least.

  However, she wasn’t shocked or surprised at all. She just replied “oh”, as if the thing she was going to lose the next day wasn’t her life but some inconsequential stuff.

  Xu Youning saw through Ah Guang. She shrugged and said, “Anyway, I don’t want to live. Mu Sijue asked you to kill me. That’s not too bad, because in that case, I don’t have to find a way to commit suicide in this d*mn room.”


  “Sister Youning.” Ah Guang rushed toward Xu Youning and hugged her. He held her hands and said, “Didn’t Auntie Sun tell you about it? Your grandma’s biggest wish before she left was for you to live a good life. Don’t give up, will you?”


  With that, he quietly placed an item in Xu Youning’s palm.

  It surprised Xu Youning. She felt the outline of that item, then realized that Ah Guang had given her a key. She clenched it, while her palm was slightly sweating. “Ah Guang……”


  “To be or not to be, it’s up to you.” Ah Guang interrupted Xu Youning and held her hands tightly. “It’s your last chance. If you give up, you will regret it. Because…… it’s not how you think it happened.” That was all he could tell her.

  Xu Youning knew what Ah Guang was implying, but she chose to play dumb. She sneered and said, “Was it? The fact is that my grandma passed away and she’ll never come back!” She pushed Ah Guang away. “I won’t let Mu Sijue off if I live on!”


  Ah Guang shook his head with disappointment. “Do you think that Seventh Brother is the kind of person who could be ruthless to an innocent old lady?”


  “You’ve been working for Mu Sijue for a longer time than me. You should know better than me how merciless he can be, don’t you?” Xu Youning sneered. “Don’t tell me that you think he’s a good man. That’s not funny.”


  The pity in Ah Guang’s eyes finally turned into disappointment. He looked at Xu Youning and said, “Maybe Seventh Brother’s decision is right. Tomorrow…… it’s up to you to decide whether to leave or not. This is the last time I help you.”


  With that, Ah Guang left without looking back.

  He knew very well how Granny Xu was like Xu Youning’s obsession. After losing her only family, Xu Youning had almost gone mad. It was unlikely that she would believe Mu Sijue’s words.

  Therefore, perhaps Mu Sijue’s decision not to tell her the truth was right. Only by finding out the truth herself would Xu Youning believe that Mu Sijue wasn’t the murderer. If they told her the truth directly, she would just take it as a lie.

  In the room.

  Xu Youning stood where she was, hearing Ah Guang stepping farther and farther away. Before long, silence returned to basement two, and she could no longer hear anything.

  From then on, she wouldn’t hear it anymore.

  Xu Youning sat on the bed as if collapsed, with her eyes fixed on the ceiling light, while unconsciously clenching the key that Ah Guang had given her.

  “Tomorrow……” she thought.

  “Tomorrow I’ll know how I’ll end up.”


  The MJ Technology Corp……

  The secretary placed a cup of coffee by Mu Sijue’s hand. She thought for a while, and before leaving, she reminded Mu Sijue, “Mr. Mu, it’s late.”


  Mu Sijue checked the time. It was precisely 10 o’clock. Without even looking up, he said, “You may leave for the day.”


  The secretary had something to say, and she opened her mouth but said nothing. In the end, she left the office silently.

  She just felt strange.

  Mu Sijue wasn’t a workaholic in a strict sense, and he had always worked with high efficiency. Usually, he would leave the company as soon as his work was done. During those two months, he had even left early in a good mood sometimes.

  It had been a long time since he had stayed late at the company.

  The secretary recalled Yang Shanshan’s words in the morning. “Xu Youning is a mole. She works for your sworn enemy!”


  “Perhaps Mu Sijue’s mood…… was affected by Xu Youning, wasn’t it?” the secretary wondered. That’s why she didn’t dare to ask him anything.

  In the office.

  Mu Sijue looked at the steaming black coffee. He picked up the cup and put it down, then he opened a folder, in which was the document that he was supposed to deal with the next day.

  However, before he could read a line, those words turned into Xu Youning’s smiling face before his eyes.

  He closed his eyes and kneaded his temple hard, trying and failing to drive Xu Youning’s face away from his mind. Not only did Xu Youning’s face appear in his mind, but also the scenes where they had been together.

  Only then did he realize that he remembered everything about Xu Youning clearly, including the way her lips looked like when she smiled. Everything about her seemed to have been engraved in his mind, with extreme vividness.

  “I like you!”


  He remembered that Xu Youning had said those words to him in the ward, with resoluteness in her eyes, as if she had exhausted herself just to risk everything for love.

  He had almost believed her words for a moment.

  However, more than ten hours ago, Xu Youning told him that it was all a play.

  With a “bang” sound, Mu Sijue closed the folder and stood up to leave the office.

  The driver received the message from Mu Sijue that he was going downstairs. He stopped the car at the gate of the company and waited for him. Seeing him walk out of the building, the driver hurried to get out of the car and open the door for him. “Mr. Mu, where do you want to go, the mansion or your apartment?”


  Mu Sijue said, “Drive me to the Number One Clubhouse.”


  The driver was surprised, but he nodded at once. “Got it.”


  “It’s late. Mu Sijue has rarely gone to the club when he has nothing to do there. Oh, Xu Youning is locked there.” With that, the driver didn’t feel strange anymore.

  When they reached the club, Mu Sijue told the driver, “Don’t wait for me. You may go back first.”


  With that, he got out of the car and strode toward the club.

  After entering the elevator, he glanced at the numbers on the panels. In the end, he pressed the “top floor” button.

  It was late, and he had nothing to do there. He wondered why he had gone there.

  “To see Xu Youning? Oh, that’s too ironic.”


  However, Xu Youning was there. And that was indeed the reason he had gone there.

  As soon as Mu Sijue stepped out of the elevator, the club manager immediately followed him and said, “Seventh Brother, do you need……”


  “No.” Mu Sijue’s voice was full of terrifying coldness. “No one is allowed to come in without my permission.”


  The manager nodded. “Got it.”


  Mu Sijue shut himself in the office, with no lights on. He just lit a cigarette and smoked. The smoke lingered in front of his frowning face, but it couldn’t hide his gloomy eyes.

  As time went by, cigarette butts occupied the ashtray, while the lights outside the window went off one by one. Half of the city fell asleep in the small hours.

  Mu Sijue checked the time. It was 2:30 in the morning.

  He left the office. After entering the elevator, he hit several numbers in succession. Then the elevator went down and finally stopped at basement two.

  The voice-stop function of the elevator didn’t work when it reached that floor. As its bright and tough doors opened, the sound-activated lights in the corridor lit up one by one.

  He got out of the elevator and walked in the lights toward Xu Youning’s room. He stood outside for a while, then he had his palm scanned and quietly entered the room.

  Xu Youning didn’t notice anything wrong. She huddled herself up on the small bed, like an unborn baby who was in its mother’s womb.

  She was soundly asleep, like the way she looked when she was asleep beside him.

  Mu Sijue slowly approached Xu Youning and reached out his hand, but he finally stopped there without touching her cheek.

  He wondered, “What’s the use of touching her? Xu Youning doesn’t believe me. After tomorrow, we will be sworn enemies if she doesn’t die.”


  Mu Sijue slowly withdrew his hand, as if he was trying to release Xu Youning, as if he were taking her out of his heart. Although he felt a dull pain in his body, he tried not to be affected by it.

  In the end, Mu Sijue clenched his fist, then he turned and left.

  Mu Sijue didn’t expect that one day in the future he would only be able to wake up with regret whenever he dreamed of it.

  If he had followed his heart and touched Xu Youning, if he had been determined to tell her all the truth, like the way she had expressed her feelings for him, instead of forcing her to stay, what happened afterward would have been a different story……