Chapter 5

Deep autumn had settled in.
The wind was sharp, the air thinning into chill.
Ling Ze, dressed in a beige trench coat and carrying an umbrella, cut a tall, slender figure. His skin was cool and fair, his manner refined and distant, like a melancholic prince stepped straight out of a manga.
Today, as usual, he planned to listen to an opera performance first, then attend one of his father’s cocktail parties.
On a whim, he decided to walk.
That was when he spotted Mu Yang, who ought to have been “home” by now.
There was a girl with him who looked familiar.
He stopped.
Through the bright pane of glass, Ling Ze could see them clearly.
The two inside were talking; Mu Yang’s expression was strangely complicated.
The girl was holding onto his hand, refusing to let go, and Mu Yang, who usually had a patience level of zero, seemed… indulgent.
Normally, he would’ve shaken her off and walked away by now.
“Senior Mu, please help me.”
The more Jiang Wei replayed everything in her mind, the more she felt she’d gone too far.
Maybe all those things in the dream were punishment for her.
If she didn’t want them to come true, she had to act quickly.
Her gut told her that in that other future, Ling Ze had found out she’d been secretly selling his “merchandise”, and that was why he punished her.
“I’ll talk to him. Don’t worry.”
Her fingers wrapped around his wrist, and as Mu Yang listened to her earnestly distancing herself from Ling Ze, a quiet thrill ran through him.
So she really didn’t like that guy.
In the end, he agreed readily, and even invited Jiang Wei to go for a drive with him.
She refused on the spot.
She didn’t want any connection with Ling Ze, and she didn’t want to be entangled with Mu Yang either.
These rich heirs lived in a completely different world.
She had zero interest in being anyone’s mistress or side piece and she had even less interest in being someone’s lackey.
Mu Yang didn’t push. Hands in his pockets, he left in a surprisingly good mood.
Only after he exited did Ling Ze finally step inside.
He was a naturally suspicious person. Watching Mu Yang and Jiang Wei through the window, replaying the day they had “accidentally” rescued her together…
In his mind, the outline of a scheming, money-obsessed girl began to take shape.
He curved his lips into a mild, pleasant smile.
“Hello, oh, Senior Ling, it’s you!”
Jiang Wei nearly jumped.
Speak of the devil.
Her nerves spiked.
If Senior Ling ever found out she’d been collecting his used things and reselling them behind his back, she’d probably end up worse than Liu Feifei.
“I heard your voice from a distance,” he said. “Didn’t expect you to be working here. I thought I’d come in and support my junior a little.”
He chose a seat by the window and sat down.
“Are you busy? Sit and have a drink.”
“Boss, close the shop to other customers for today. Any losses or expenses, we’ll put them on my card. Is that alright?”
His tone was as gentle as always, but the pressure behind it left no room for refusal.
The black crystal card landed on the table with a soft tap.
The café owner stared, first at the card, then at Jiang Wei, momentarily stunned. He recalled the guy with the supercar from earlier.
Two rich young masters, both here for her?
Had he accidentally hired a top-tier femme fatale as a waitress?
She looked so obedient and well-behaved, he never would’ve guessed.
Seeing the boss’s eyes flash with gossip, Jiang Wei’s heart sank.
She knew exactly what he was imagining about her, Mu Yang, and Ling Ze.
She shot him a desperate look, silently begging him not to say anything stupid.
“Ah, ah, alright, alright. Weiwei, your friend, huh? You two chat then.”
The boss walked off, congratulating himself on his “insight,” quietly sighing about how messy the rich circle must be. Money was money, though, he’d take it.
Hearing that Ling Ze had “heard her voice from far away,” Jiang Wei’s palms grew slick with sweat.
Had he overheard her conversation with Senior Mu?
She forced herself to stay calm.
“Jiang Wei? Good name. Smart. Resourceful.”
Ling Ze watched her with a faint smile, eyes sweeping over her in quiet assessment.
That look made goosebumps ripple down her spine.
It was the gaze of a hunting wolf spotting a plump rabbit on the open plain.
Did he hear?
What do I do, just admit it?
But if he had heard her conversation with Senior Mu earlier, would he really look this calm?
Mu Yang certainly hadn’t.
“Senior Ling, I don’t understand what you mean,” she said softly.
Her lips curved in a slight smile, her brows knitting just enough to look puzzled. Innocent. Naive, like a girl who’d never seen the darker corners of the world.
“I took care of Liu Feifei for you. How do you plan to repay me, junior?”
He stated his price outright.
After all, it was the first time someone had dared use his name like that.
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about, Senior.”
“You’re clever enough, but now you’re pretending to be stupid.” He laughed under his breath. “Borrowing my hand to get rid of someone… Junior, you don’t seem quite as harmless as you look.”
Hearing that, Jiang Wei quietly exhaled.
So he hadn’t overheard what she said to Mu Yang just now.
Good.
Her silence only made Ling Ze more certain he’d struck a nerve.
He disliked anyone using his name for dirty work, but what he loathed even more was being used himself.
Before he’d seen her with Mu Yang through the glass, he’d intended to give Jiang Wei a small, contained “lesson.”
Now… he’d changed his mind.
He’d thought of something more entertaining.
If Mu Yang truly fell for a girl like this, calculating, flexible, good at playing the victim, the Mu family’s future drama would be quite a show.
His smile deepened, and Jiang Wei felt even more lost.
He’d marched in, radiating hostility, she’d assumed he came to settle scores.
Who knew he’d just… let it go?
Still, she felt she owed him an explanation about that day. When she’d first gotten the note, she genuinely hadn’t planned to use Ling Ze to solve her problems.
Once she got past her earlier panic, Jiang Wei steadied herself and explained carefully, seriously, that she hadn’t intended to borrow his hand to “deal with” Liu Feifei.
Ling Ze listened, lips faintly curved, neither confirming nor denying.
He didn’t say he forgave her and he didn’t say he’d pursue it either.
Instead, he smoothly shifted to prying into her relationship with Mu Yang.
Jiang Wei didn’t overthink it.
She simply said she was very grateful to Mu Yang for taking her to the infirmary that day, so she’d treated him to a cup of coffee.
Because Ling Ze had already watched them through the window, saw her grabbing Mu Yang’s hand, he clearly didn’t fully buy that version of events.
But he wasn’t in any hurry to get the full story.
Sensing his persistent curiosity, Jiang Wei couldn’t help asking:
“Senior, you seem very interested in my relationship with Senior Mu?”
“Just making conversation. No need to take it too seriously.”
He glanced at the expensive quartz watch on his wrist, then casually invited her to join him at the opera. The theater was staging Sostet’s Redemption that evening.
Perhaps because he’d discovered something mildly… exciting today, he was surprisingly patient as he explained the plot to her:
In a distant kingdom in the West, a beautiful princess marries a neighboring king in the name of love and peace. The king, who owns rich gold mines, enters into an alliance with her homeland. Together, their countries grow powerful.
But as the king’s power swells, so does his ambition.
Once the princess ages and loses her beauty, he shows his true face. No longer needing to bow to her homeland, he grows cruel and unrestrained. He fills his harem with new consorts and sires more princes.
The fragile princess, unprepared for storms and treachery, slowly withers away in the deep palace, leaving behind a single son.
That son is the protagonist: Prince Sostet.
He grows up under the abuse of his stepmother and the bullying of his half-brothers. Talented and outstanding, backed in secret by his mother’s homeland, he becomes the undisputed heir to the throne.
What no one knows is that, deep within, he carries a blood-soaked hunger.
He hates sunlight.
He hates laughter.
He hates everything that looks warm and beautiful.
Until, after ascending the throne, he goes hunting and meets a kind, gentle girl in the countryside.
She brings color and life into his dark, ashen world. She is hailed as his great salvation. From then on, Sostet supposedly lives happily ever after.
This… sounds like a gender-swapped Snow White, Jiang Wei thought.
But seeing Ling Ze’s expression, she kept that part to herself.
Instead, she played along.
“This Prince Sostet is so pitiful,” she said. “But at least he meets a kind girl and gets to live happily in the end.”
Ling Ze let out a low, derisive laugh.
“Everyone says Sostet’s salvation is that girl. I don’t think so,” he said. “A demon who claws his way out of hell is never redeemed by a woman. His only real salvation is the absolute power he gains once he takes the throne. Don’t you think so, junior?
The next thing he should do is get rid of his stepmother and his half-brothers, and lock the old king away.”
It should have been just another Western fairy tale.
But listening to Ling Ze describe it so softly, Jiang Wei felt a chill creep over her skin.
It sounded like he was talking about something else entirely.
Especially when his eyes darkened mid-sentence. For a moment, his expression was nothing like the polite, polished persona he showed the world.
But by the time she looked again, his face was perfectly calm.
For no clear reason, Jiang Wei felt cold.
She hugged her uniform tighter around herself and politely declined his invitation.
From behind the bar, the café owner had been eavesdropping the whole time.
He was now fully convinced Jiang Wei was some sort of living legend, a girl who rejected two rich young masters in a single day.
Leaving the café, Jiang Wei watched Ling Ze’s figure disappear down the street.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that he was… mismatched inside and out.
Something about him was off.
A fine drizzle began to fall, hanging a curtain of water over the already foggy sky.
A modified black van roared past, spraying a wave of muddy water over her white pants and sneakers, spotting them with filthy droplets.
She was still fuming about that when she heard a commotion up ahead.
Jiang Wei scrubbed at her eyes and squinted, making sure she wasn’t imagining things.
Her heart climbed into her throat.
The van was heading straight for Ling Ze.
From where she was, she couldn’t see clearly, but she could make out several hulking men jumping out of the van. Their movements were quick and practiced. Ling Ze was shoved, dragged…and then gone, stuffed into the vehicle like luggage.
He’d probably been drugged.
Jiang Wei hesitated.
She thought of the dream, the harm Ling Ze had done to her there, the filthy things he’d done.
She really, really didn’t want to save him.
But after a few seconds, another thought pushed in.
A dream was just a dream.
If she stood here and watched him get taken by God-knows-who and did nothing,
then how was she any different from the villains in that world?
The thought made her stomach twist.
Before she could overthink it, Jiang Wei bolted.
She didn’t even bother taking off her work apron.
“Help! Somebody, help!” she shouted as she ran.
Hearing someone calling out, the men moving Ling Ze sped up immediately.
The van was about to peel away. There were only a few pedestrians around. Some looked like they wanted to help, but seeing a whole van full of muscle-bound men, they shrank back.
“Driver! Driver, please, chase that van!”
Jiang Wei had sprinted after the van for quite a distance. Her lungs burned; her legs felt like jelly. Finally, gasping for air, she threw herself in front of a passing taxi.