Zihan's day vanished into a blur of boardroom arguments, closed-door negotiations, paperwork, and endless calls. By the time he finally shut his laptop, the lights of the city had long softened into midnight glow.
He glanced at his watch and frowned.
"It's almost midnight… Guo Min would be annoyed," he murmured.
He took the lift down in a hurry, strode through the lobby, and slid into the back seat as his driver started the engine without a word.
When he got home, his eyes immediately narrowed.
It was the head maid who came to welcome him, not Guo Min. He couldn't feel her presence at all. "Where is my wife?" he asked quietly.
The maid lowered her head. "She hasn't returned yet, Young Master."
Zihan dismissed them with a wave and sat down on the sofa, fingers tapping once against his knee before going still.
She did mention going out with her friends… but something was wrong. Time crawled. The clock ticked past midnight.
His anxiety sharpened into a tight pressure behind his chest. He pulled out his phone and dialed the shadow guards he'd assigned to her hours earlier.
"She's safe, sir," one of them reported. "No unusual activity."
The words cooled his blood, briefly.
He dialed Guo Min next.
First call... it rang.
No answer.
Second call ...it rang.
No answer.
Third call... it rang
Still nothing.
Zihan stood abruptly, already moving toward the door of their room when his phone vibrated in his palm. A message flashed across the screen. His breath caught. The control he'd forced down all night snapped in an instant. For a heartbeat, he couldn't breathe. Then his instincts kicked in. Zihan turned sharply and moved in long strides toward the garage, his mind already in motion.
Crystal Jade Lounge. A few hours earlier
The atmosphere inside the lounge was warm and alive with soft music and laughter.
Guo Min, Ruoxi, and Lixi sat curled into the plush sofas with wine glasses in hand, their heels kicked off carelessly by the table. Their conversation drifted from fashion to gossip, from relationships to harmless teasing. At some point, the three of them were no longer sitting, they were dancing around the room, tipsy and laughing like girls with no worries in the world.
But... "…Lixi's losing her pregnancy glow." Ruoxi had spoken before her brain caught up with her mouth.
"Ow!" she yelped when Guo Min slapped the back of her head.
"Seriously, Ruoxi, when will you mature?" Guo Min scoffed, rolling her eyes. Then she sighed and turned toward Lixi, ready to smooth things over.
But she froze.
So did Ruoxi.
A tear slid silently down Lixi's cheek.
"Lixi… are you okay?" Guo Min asked softly.
"I'm sorry," Ruoxi blurted out, already pulling her into a tight hug. "I didn't mean it like that."
"Yes, don't take Ruoxi's words to heart," Guo Min added gently, moving closer.
Lixi shook her head, wiping at her eyes, but more tears followed.
"…I'm sorry," she whispered. "I… I offended Yufan. It was unforgivable. I'm such a bad person… Why did I do that?". Her shoulders shook as the words spilled out.
Guo Min reached out and gently cupped Lixi's face, forcing her to look up.
"It's okay, Lixi. You just have to talk it out with him," she said softly.
"I'm really sorry…" Lixi whispered again.
Guo Min exhaled slowly, her thumb brushing away the tear still clinging to Lixi's cheek.
"It's okay. Fights are normal between husbands and wives. Yufan can be gentle when he wants to be, just try to make him understand whatever it is you're feeling."
Lixi nodded, sniffing as her breathing finally evened out. "Thank you…"
Ruoxi crossed her arms and clicked her tongue dramatically.
"You shouldn't be sad when you're carrying a whole human being. Tsk… looks like it's time to lecture my brother about how to treat women properly."
The tension eased.
Laughter spilled into the room, warm and light, wrapping around them like a shield, if only for a moment.
They laughed until their throats hurt and the wine glasses sat empty on the table, fingerprints fogging the rims.
When it was finally time to leave, they stood at the entrance of the lounge, reluctant goodbyes hanging in the air.
"Text me when you get home," Ruoxi insisted, pulling Lixi into a tight hug.
Guo Min smiled. "Both of you do the same for confirmation that I need to know if my girls get home safe."
The night was still young. None of them sensed the shadow waiting at the edge of their laughter.
They parted ways in the parking lot beneath rows of glowing streetlights and expensive cars. Engines roared to life, doors shut one by one, and soon, the parking lot was empty, like nothing had ever happened there at all.
Guo Min settled into the back seat of her car, heels kicked off, and her blazer loosened. The city streamed past the tinted windows in ribbons of neon light. She checked her phone once, then again. Everything felt… ordinary, yet a shaky feeling lurked around her heart.
Something bad is looming.
The highway had thinned out into long, dark stretches when the first car appeared.
Then another.
And another.
Before she could process what was happening, her car slowed... not by choice.
The driver cursed under his breath. "Madam… something's wrong."
The vehicles surrounded them like predators closing in on injured prey. Her heart slammed violently against her ribs. The driver barely managed to reach for the door before a gunshot shattered the window. Glass exploded inward. Guo Min screamed.
Hands wrenched the door open. A masked man yanked her by the arm with brute force as she fought, clawing, kicking, screaming against unfamiliar bodies.
"Let go of me!" she shrieked, striking one of them across the face, and just then her phone rings, Zihan's name coming into view, trying to fight her way to it but a blow to her head sent stars flooding her vision.
She was dragged onto the cold asphalt, the smell of smoke and burning rubber cutting into her lungs. Her hair was grabbed from behind, forcing her head back.
Then... A hand clamped over her mouth. Something was pressed to her face. A handkerchief. At first she held her breath. She kicked. She struggled. She bit.
But the faint sweetness seeped into her lungs, sliding down her throat like poison disguised as air. Her vision blurred. Her limbs weakened.
Her last conscious thought was a broken scream that never left her chest. Everything went black. The highway swallowed the scene whole.
And when the cars finally disappeared into the night, all that remained on the empty road was shattered glass… and the echo of a woman who never made it home.
Back to the present.
Zihan's car tore through the highway like a bullet, the city lights blurring into unrecognizable streaks beyond the windshield.
Then his phone rang. He didn't glance at the screen before answering. A familiar voice came on the line...tight, strained.
"President Zhu… we lost her."
The words sank slowly… then all at once. Zihan's fingers tightened around the steering wheel, veins surfacing beneath his skin. "… Repeat that."
"Our men were forced off her trail. The vehicle disappeared near the east junction. We're tracking CCTV now, but Young Madam...she's missing."
For a second, the world went strangely quiet.
Then... Zihan laughed.
Low.
Sharp.
Broken.
A sound that did not belong to a sane man.
"So…" he murmured, eyes darkening as the speedometer climbed, "someone decided today was worth dying for."
His foot pressed harder on the accelerator.
The wind roared against the car as if the world itself was trying to stop him. He welcomed it.
"Tell every single one of you to pray," he continued calmly, terrifyingly calm, "because if she is harmed, then none of you deserve tomorrow."
The call ended. Inside the car, silence returned, but it was violent, suffocating. Zihan's jaw locked.
He would deal with the guards later.
But first... He was going to bring his wife home, no matter how much blood it took.