Volume 1, Chapter 10: Your Husband Doesn't Love You

The grip on her phone tightened so abruptly that her knuckles turned white.

If she hadn't misheard... that was Qin Yu.

It felt as though something had reached into her chest and wrenched her heart. Bai Ruoxi froze, and it took a few seconds for her to react. "Qin Yu?" she managed to say.

"Jinglan is asleep. It's not convenient for him to answer the phone. What is it?"

"You can tell me whatever you need to say. It's the same thing."

"Hello?"

Her vision began to blur. Jiang Jinglan disliked anyone other than his assistants touching his phone, yet Qin Yu was able to answer it. Where was Jiang Jinglan? Why did Qin Yu say he was sleeping? Even though she was the one who held the title of Mrs. Jiang and Qin Yu was the outsider, why did she feel like she was the one who didn't belong?

No, that wasn't right. It shouldn't be like this!

The narrow, dilapidated alley was crowded with people. The sound of Bai Ruoyun’s shouts blended with the lewd, mocking laughter surrounding them. But Bai Ruoxi seemed unable to hear any of it. She clutched the phone with desperate obsession, her voice raspy, as if she had aged several years in an instant.

She struggled to keep her tone normal to maintain her dignity, but her words were choked with sobs and desperation. "Let Jiang Jinglan answer the phone! Tell him I’m in danger! Let him answer!"

Her voice rose, and she scanned the people around her with bloodshot eyes.

Qin Yu sounded troubled. "I'm sorry, it really isn't convenient for Jinglan... Excuse me, he's calling me. I have to hang up."

Before Bai Ruoxi could reply, the line went dead.

*Beep—beep—*

The cold, harsh dial tone pierced her eardrums like a blade carving into her heart. The air, thick with the stench of sweat, pressed in on her from all sides. Why, in the peak of mid-May, did it feel so cold?

Bai Ruoxi dialed Jiang Jinglan’s number again and again. Her fingers trembled uncontrollably, and sweat dripped from her knuckles. Once, twice... ten times, and every call was rejected.

*Thud.*

The phone slipped from her hand and hit the ground. Bai Ruoxi stared at the group of thugs before her, a wave of despair washing over her. She had lost the gamble.

"What's wrong? Mr. Jiang won't take your calls?" The man with the receding hairline who seemed to be the leader spoke with a suggestive smirk. "If your husband doesn't care about you, let us brothers take care of you instead."

With that, he gestured to the men around him.

"What are you standing there for? Tie her up."

The man paused, rubbed his hands together, and leaned toward Bai Ruoxi with a lecherous tone. "Mrs. Jiang, if you’re willing to come with us nicely, I can spare your friend. Besides, since you’ve taken that drug, you’ll need someone to help you cool off sooner or later. You’re coming with us either way."

"You wouldn't dare!" Bai Ruoyun’s voice trembled with rage. "Do you even know who she is? How dare you try to kidnap her?"

"We know exactly who she is, which is why we dare to do it." The man laughed, revealing two rows of tobacco-stained yellow teeth. "She's just the fake daughter of the Bai family, Bai Ruoxi, the one who stole someone else's place. Is there anyone in the country who doesn't know how she crawled into Jiang Jinglan's bed while he was drunk just to become Mrs. Jiang?"

"It’s only because Jiang Jinglan is particular that he gave her a title. Anyone else would have tossed her aside after a night."

"A bastard from nowhere, thinking she’s fit to sleep in the bed of the Jiang Group’s CEO."

As he finished, the thugs around them erupted in raucous laughter. Vulgar, filthy gossip filled the air. The man looked at Bai Ruoxi with a mixture of mockery and greed. "I heard Jiang's first love, Miss Qin, is back. It’s not right for you to be occupying her spot..."

"Accept your fate. If you serve us well, we'll only send the video to Mr. Jiang. But... if you don't want that video ending up on the internet, you'll probably have to serve us for a bit longer. Once we get bored, we might just delete it."

As he spoke, one of the men produced a towel soaked in sedative and moved to cover Bai Ruoxi’s face. She struggled desperately, only to be shoved to the ground. Her body slammed hard against the pavement, scraping her face and leaving her in stinging pain. Her white dress was torn in the scuffle, revealing the camisole underneath.

The sight only further excited the men, their gazes becoming even more brazen.

Disgust, fury, and despair... a sense of extreme humiliation flooded Bai Ruoxi’s heart. If she were really to be violated by these people, she would rather die.

She reached out, struggling to grab the phone that had fallen earlier. Just as her fingertips brushed the scorching metal casing, her wrist was pinned down by a foot wearing a flip-flop. Sharp pain shot through her arm. The young thug ground his foot into her wrist, pressing down as if he were crushing a stone.

"Ah!" Bai Ruoxi let out a sharp, piercing scream.

"Ruoxi!" Bai Ruoyun, held back by several thugs, cried out in alarm.

Unfortunately, her phone and bag had been snatched by the gang, and this road was too remote for a cry for help or a call to the police to be effective. She could only watch in frantic helplessness.

"Pah!" The middle-aged man spat on the ground.

"If you won't drink the toast of friendship, you'll drink the forfeit of punishment. Strip her and film it; let's see if she dares to resist then. She has such an innocent face—I want her to come with us willingly. I've never experienced being served by a beauty, especially one that Jiang Jinglan has already slept with."

Bai Ruoxi’s heart skipped a beat. She wept, "Let me go, I’ll give you money."

"A fake daughter, a substitute for the CEO's first love—you don't have a penny to your name!" The man spat again. "Don't try to fool me. You're finished today."

"Boss, it's bad! Security guards are coming!" one of the shorter thugs said nervously.

"How is that possible? This road is desolate. The employer specifically told me to wait for Bai Ruoxi here."

Seeing the leader walk toward the back of the crowd, Bai Ruoxi felt a slight sense of relief. Lu Ming had finally arrived.

Over thirty people, including security guards and senior management from the Jiade Plaza, had arrived. When they saw Bai Ruoxi pinned to the ground, all the executives gasped in shock. If their young boss was harmed on their property, and if Chairman Qiao found out, their jobs would be gone—and they would likely face severe punishment.

The security guards subdued the thugs. Lu Ming rushed forward to help Bai Ruoxi up.

Seeing that the situation had turned, the man with the receding hairline quickly tried to explain, "Boss, let's talk this over. It’s all a misunderstanding. This woman is my wife; we were just having a domestic dispute."

He stepped forward as if to drag Bai Ruoxi away, but Lu Ming kicked him aside.

"Save it for the police..."

The thugs were handed over to the authorities by security. Bai Ruoyun and Bai Ruoxi were taken back to Jinzhi. After such a major incident, the venue ceased operations and closed its doors early.

Lu Ming went to find a doctor to treat Bai Ruoxi’s wounds, leaving only Bai Ruoxi and Bai Ruoyun in the lobby. Seeing Bai Ruoxi staring blankly at her shattered phone, Bai Ruoyun spoke in a low voice, "When you were on the phone earlier, I thought you were calling the police. But you were calling Jiang Jinglan..."

After a few seconds of silence, Bai Ruoxi raised her reddened, tear-filled eyes. The wound on her cheekbone had already scabbed over, and her makeup was ruined by tears and dirt, making her look as though she had been shattered into pieces.

"Lu Ming would have found me anyway," she whispered. "I... I just wanted to see. I wanted to see if Jiang Jinglan would care about me even a little bit."