Chapter 145: A second attack on Zhang Ning

*Bai Li*

I had nothing better to do until Xin Lei would return, so I was going to sit on the bench, but then I heard some soft noises from Zhang Ning's ward in the right.

I narrowed my eyes. I felt my way and stepped a little closer towards the ward. I reached what felt like the door. I pinned my ear to it, and I could hear somebody's gasping voice from the ward.

I sensed she might be resisting something. The voices were muffled as if somebody...was choking her. My suspicions were confirmed because I heard somebody else talking, and then Zhang Ning respond to her, but their voices were too soft to decipher anything though I could feel that it might be a woman.

Zhang Xiulan? If it was her, she might be trying to kill Zhang Ning just like she attacked her at the Tianjin Port.

But how did she enter her ward?

"...is the truth...killed mom…"

Zhang Qiuyue? 

Then they talked about something more that I couldn't hear, but then I heard Zhang Ning's muffled voice.

"No! He won't...believe you…"

I heard a soft chuckle. But then their voices suddenly stopped.

"Mmpff!!" Zhang Ning yelped a little loudly this time.

Did she sense me? Because I could hear her hasty footsteps.

I didn't have time to think about it. I budged the door, and as expected, it was locked from the inside. I stepped back and, in one huge step, kicked the door hard.

*Clack*

I heard a clicking sound that meant the lock was undone. I pushed the door open, and I heard Zhang Ning's faint voice.

"B-Bai Li…?"

"Zhang Ning."

I felt a gust of wind brush past my face from straight ahead.

Window?

And I could still sense the presence of a third person. I heard her shift a step towards the window.

"Zhang Xiulan?"

No response.

Why isn't she saying anything again?

"Ah!"

Judging Zhang Ning's cry, I went towards her, and she suddenly landed in my arms. She gasped and coughed hard. "Haaa…"

She clutched my arm and tried to stand up. Then a few moments later, she said.

"You!"

Hm? Zhang Ning exclaimed but as a reaction to what? Did Zhang Xiulan sign something? But why didn't she talk?

I heard a shuffling noise, and then there was silence.

Did she escape?

"Ughh…"

I snapped out and asked, "Zhang Ning, are you okay?"

*Cough cough* "Yes…my throat hurt a bit…"

I felt her shivering. "It's okay. She isn't here now. You are safe."

"I am *cough* sorry...I always seem to bring trouble to you…"

"Well, it's not you. It's the culprit who is targeting you." 

"Oh... r-right. Um, Bai Li, can I ask you something?"

"Yes?" I sensed a bit of tension in her voice.

"Do you li-"

"Bai Li?"

I heard the familiar robotic voice that Xin Lei always used. I sensed her coming near me and heard her rapidly typing on her phone. "What happened? Why is Zhang Ning in such a state?"

I felt Zhang Ning jolt and clutch my sleeve. Whatever she might be wanting to ask, she didn't.

"Xiulan… she was here…" Zhang Ning weakly said.

"What!?" She typed.

So, I was right. From the conversation, it was evident that they were talking about Zhang Qiuyue, so it must have been Zhang Xiulan.

I felt Xin Lei touching my arms and helping Zhang Ning sit on the bed.

I heard her pitter-patter again. "Are you hurt anywhere? Wait, there are faint marks on your neck."

I said, "I heard her muffling sounds, so I guess Zhang Xiulan was choking her."

I heard the robotic voice again. "Don't worry. I have checked the marks. Thankfully, they are not deep and harsh. Your coughing will also recover soon enough."

"Thank you...and yes, she was strangling me…*cough cough* I was so terrified. I thought the guards would come in, but they didn't. I was starting to feel dizzy and *cough* I felt I would die, but then she suddenly stopped. I think she felt your... presence so let me go and tried to escape."

"She entered through the window, right?"

She gasped. "Yes. I was resting, and then I felt a shadow...loom over me…" she was breathlessly speaking.

"Then?"

"I panicked, and I was going to shout for help, but she covered my mouth. I tried to resist, but I was feeling weak, so...she had the upper hand...and then she started strangling me…"

I heard her sniffling and sobbing.

"I heard something related to Zhang Qiuyue. What was she saying?"

"That! She- *cough cough*."

She gasped and coughed again.

I heard Xin Lei typing again. "Stop. Don't get too excited to speak, or you will hurt your throat."

"O-okay…"

A minute later, she slowly spoke. "It was the same old story. She was blaming me for everything that happened. But...but this time she went so far as to say that I killed Mom. I didn't know she hated me to that extent to pin her...crime on me…" I heard her soft sobs.

"Xiulan asked Mom to sleep with her that night. Dad found her holding the knife with which she...s-stabbed Mom...and now she says that…I hoped that things would change after six years. Maybe she would have changed but it has turned for the worse! She completely hates the Zhang family now."

"Ning, Ning!"

I heard the familiar voice of Zhang Chao behind me. His footsteps sounded rushed and urgent as he passed by me.

"Ning! I heard that Bai Li suddenly broke the door...what happened!"

"Dad!" I heard Zhang Ning cry. "X-Xiulan barged into my room. She tried to strangle me…It's just we thought. She is back. She has returned to take revenge."

"So it is true…I, too, just got the news that Xiulan wasn't abroad. She is really back."

Zhang Chao's voice sounded tired.

I asked. "Where are the guards who were supposed to stand outside her ward? I didn't sense anybody outside."

"I interrogated them. Xiulan manipulated them to leave her ward somehow. Naturally, I fired them. Ughh...this is so difficult. I have to use all my resources to find her, or one day, she would really be successful in killing Ning! Thank God that you coincidentally came here in the hospital, too, or else...she would have strangled Ning to death."

I heard Xin Lei typing. "Do you have Zhang Xiulan's photo?"

"No, we don't."

Huh? This is strange. 

I said, "Aren't you family? Shouldn't you have some of her pictures?"

"We had. Actually…" I sensed Zhang Chao pause, and then I heard him sigh. "Well, actually, we did have pictures. But after that night, Qiuyue was...I immediately wiped all records of her when I sent her abroad. Though in our home, we still had a few photos, but the room where we had kept it caught on fire one day."

Hm…

"When did the fire accident happen?"

Zhang Ning answered. "I think it was about seven to eight months after Xiulan left abroad. I had asked Dad to keep at least some of her pictures as memories. But then the room caught on fire, and everything we had left of her was destroyed in that fire. All of it was burned into ashes. Even the camera with her digital photos was unusable anymore."

I heard Xin Lei typing. "What was the cause of the fire?"

"Some electrical malfunction. The board short-circuited, and the curtains caught on fire that spread to the rest of the room. Until the fire safety team came to extinguish it, everything was already destroyed."

Zhang Xiulan wanted to erase all the evidence of her existence. No wonder even Qi Qiang couldn't find anything on her.

I asked, "Do you know any place where Zhang Xiulan might be? I mean any hint about her whereabouts. Like any place she used to like visiting as a child?"

"No.," Zhang Chao said, "After Qiuyue's death, we didn't let her go anywhere. She was basically cooped up at home. And after we brought the psychiatrist, we didn't let her leave her room anytime. So she doesn't have any of those secret places you might be suggesting."

We left soon after.

In the corridor, I heard Xin Lei type. "What exactly happened?"

"I don't know much myself, but I heard some noises from her ward, and when I broke in, Zhang Xiulan already escaped. It was in the nick of time, or Zhang Ning would have been dead."

She typed again. "What was she asking you?"

"Hm? Oh, that. I don't know. You called me, and then she stopped talking. Why?"

Xin Lei was awfully quiet. I recalled the time outside Yi Xiaosi's office when she was in a similar mood when I saved Zhang Ning from Yi Xing.

I coughed.

Did she feel bad seeing Zhang Ning in my arms? Damn!

"Ughh…Zhang Ning tripped from her bed, so I just really helped her, that's all." I nervously said.

I heard her typing again. "Why do you always explain yourself? I know. I trust you. But I don't trust her."

"What do you mean?"

"I think Zhang Ning likes you."