Chapter 172: Please save her

Time: 6:02 PM. Thirty-one hour and twenty-eight minutes left.

Impossible... It's impossible.

Xue Jingjing slightly craned her neck to glance at Rodey amidst the tearing pain now coursing through her body. She was stunned to see such a handsome man before her, smiling coldly at her.

For a moment, she couldn't breathe. His dark gaze, menacing yet breathtaking expression and that devilish smirk on his face made him look like the bad boy type where girls flocked around such guys.

But then his increasing pressure on her neck made her come back to reality.

No! He cannot know this! How can he know what happened? Nobody knows the truth!

Xue Xiying's state was just as terrible.

"Since nobody knew that you pushed babe, you and your pathetic mother begged your father to keep quiet about it. He felt pitiful, seeing your ugly faces with tears and snot, so he said nothing. But, he compensated in his own way by paying her bills that obviously didn't sit well with you two but given the situation, you couldn't do anything. But you did when he died."

Rodey laughed as if a crazy ghost had taken over him. "I mean, hey! Babe and her mother obviously don't know anything, so why not take advantage? We will live here, claiming that they should pay our debt. They didn't even know that you brought it upon yourself."

He spoke with an overdramatic expression, "'If not for my husband, Yue wouldn't have been alive...' 'We are homeless because all the money went to her surgery…' And so began the emotional shit."

Ying Lan had to take the support of a chair to steady herself. Now that she remembered in those days, her brother-in-law seemed as if he wanted to say something to her so many times, but he always hesitated. She didn't know why, but he looked guilty of something.

She still vividly remembered how Ying Yue was so close to her death, lying pale on that hospital bed. There was almost no hope in her coming out alive. She could have really lost the only child she had.

Ying Lan quietly said with a grim expression. "Please leave her."

"Yes, Lan. Tell this man! Jingjing never pushed Yue! She is innocent. How can she hurt her sister?"

Xue Jingjing frantically said, "Yes, Aunt. I love Yue. I could never hurt her! This man is lying! We don't even know him. How can you believe him over me?"

"Ahahaha! Never hurt her?"

Rodey narrowed his eyes. A predatory light flashed past his dark and dangerous gaze. He roughly dragged her up from the chair.

*SLAP*

Xue Jingjing's face was harshly thrown to the right as a loud, crisp clap resounded throughout the room 

Silence.

"J-Jingjing!" Xue Xiying supported her. Jingjing was shell-shocked, and that strong, burning pain on her cheek turned her eyes wet again. A clear palm-print imprinted on it.

"Y-you you…" 

He clutched her hair and ruthlessly pulled it as if he would tear it apart from her head. "Ahhh!"

"Never hurt her? Just like how you pushed her again when she helped you, and you ran away today, letting her get kidnapped? Is this your sisterly love? Wow. I am so touched that I am about to cry now."

"What!?" Ying Lan was horrified. "K-Kidnapped? My Yue… my Yue is kidnapped?"

He didn't respond and sneered at Jingjing. "Aww. It seems like you didn't tell her about your selfless sisterly love that you displayed today."

"Jingjing. What's going on?" Ying Lan was trembling. "Where is Yue? You said that she was still at the interview place. Where is she? Why am I unable to contact her?"

"A-Aunt…No please listen-"

Ying Lan suddenly grabbed her and slapped her on the same cheek again. Jingjing felt as if her cheek would slit open. Her face was a mess now.

"Where is Yue!!" She violently shook her.

"Lan!" Xue Xiying interfered. "How could you hit her!? How dare you slap my -"

*PAK*

Xue Xiying's face was tilted to the side too as Ying Lan tightly slapped across her face. She looked at her dumbfounded. "Lan...you beat me...you beat your elder sister!"

"Shut up!" Tears trickled down. "My Yue...I cannot believe," she gasped, "you two could go to this length to hurt her...Just what did my daughter ever do to you that you hate her so much. Even animals won't go this far!"

"Aunt. I-It's really a misunderstanding. I don't know anything…"

Ying Lan was utterly disgusted with her acting. "Shut your mouth Jingjing!"

She rushed towards Rodey. "Y-you know where my daughter is, right?" Her small, slightly aged body was shivering, "My Yue...you know where she is. P-please, bring her back... please, I cannot live without her. W-what do they want from her? Money? I will give you everything I have, o-okay? Take all my jewelry and assets that I have. But please, please bring my daughter back…"

Her eyes turned red and sore. She had folded her hands, almost begging him.

Rodey looked at her with a sharp gaze. His tall body towered over her in a threatening stance. 

"What if I bring her back but kill you instead?" He smiled. "You understand, right? If I let her go free, then somebody has to compensate…"

Ying Lan's teary gaze brightened. "Will my daughter be safe if you kill me? Will she be fine? Will you bring her back? Then kill me! I just want my Yue alive. Kill me if that makes her free."

She tremblingly brought his hand, holding the gun and pointed it at her forehead. "Shoot me. But promise me that you will let Yue go…Please. She is only twenty. She has so much to see of this world yet," she sobbed, "I have lived enough. It doesn't matter if I die. So-so please kill me and bring her back if that's what it takes."

Rodey stood rooted the whole time. The past came haunting back to him.

'Take him! Kill him! He is unwanted anyway.'

'Please don't kill me. I want to live. Do anything you want to with him!'

'He is just a burden. He is filthy. He makes me feel filthy!'

'I am disgusted to be his mother. Kill him, but please let me go…'

His mother's begging and crying voice kept hammering inside his head.

That was one mother who was ready to sacrifice her child's life to save her own, and there was this one in front of him.

Rodey expressionlessly looked at Ying Lan and calmly withdrew the gun. His hawk-like gaze fell on Jingjing again, and she cowered behind her mother.

He took one large step and grabbed her arm.

"Let me go! I didn't hurt her! I did nothing! Mom, please help!"

"Jingjing…" Xue Xiying broke into tears, but she was helpless.

Rodey sneered. "I said and exposed what I had to. Now time to take you to your hell."

Her eyes widened in horror. "W-what?"

"You really have a poor memory. Didn't I say before that I will show you what kind of world you pushed babe into? I am taking you exactly there."

He knocked the back of her head with his gun.

"Ah…" 

A sharp pain shot in her head, and she fainted.

"This makes things easier."

"Jingjing!" Xue Xiying was about to catch her, but Rodey landed one straight and hard kick on her belly, and she collapsed with a thud, clutching her stomach.

"Ahhh!!" She was almost close to passing out.

Rodey carried Jingjing on his shoulder and walked out.

"Not a word to the cops," He warned Ying Lan.

"W-wait! Yue. What about Yue? You said if you kill me, then Yue will be free." Ying Lan said, but he kept on walking away.

"Please don't go!" She chased after him, "Where is Yue? Who took her? Please bring her back...T-take me with you too! I want to see her." She kept crying, but he didn't stop and now he was almost at the door.

Her voice was almost a whisper now. "You...you are the man who stayed in her room last night, right?"

The foot that was about to step out stopped. He slowly turned. "What?"

"I know it was you. I knew something was wrong with Yue yesterday. She seemed too nervous about something. She even lied about the blood on the stairs. I may be old, but I know the difference between blood and ketchup. So when I went to check on her, I heard whispers coming from her room. I heard a man's voice and then hers talking back to him."

He stayed quiet.

"Yue had never lied until now, much less hide a man in her room. She never even had a boyfriend."

Silence.

"I-I don't know who you are and how you met Yue. But I trust her. She must have a reason for what she did. And I think that you think differently about her too. Apart from me, no one likes to be with Yue. Nobody ever treated her nicely, but you came all the way here to avenge her kidnapping. That means you care about her. So-so please…" her shoulders trembled, "Please don't let any harm come to her. Please save her..."

Rodey stood there for a long time.

Without saying anything, he turned once again, and before he disappeared with Jingjing, he said one last thing,

"Your curry rice was delicious."