Back in Hong Kong, Xie Huai immediately checked Qi Xu’s tracker. The device was still transmitting normally, even though Qi Xu’s phone had been turned off. Not a scratch on the tracker.
Xie Huai’s brow twitched—then pain surged through him. He had the urge to lock Qi Xu up for life.
He sent the tracker data to his contacts in the capital. Less than an hour later, the villa on the outskirts—where Qi Xu was being held—was surrounded. Not even a fly could escape.
Xie Huai, restraining his fury, boarded his private jet back to the capital. It was 2 a.m. by the time he landed.
As soon as he exited the airport, Shen Fengkai’s men came to greet him. Dressed in a black coat, Xie Huai moved like a force of nature. One look from him was enough to crush the air around them with pressure.
When Qi Xu went missing, the Shen family sent Shen Fengkai to handle the situation. The old man gave him full access to his personal network—every connection he had—all for one goal: bring Qi Xu back safely.
Shen Fengkai had been waiting in the car for a long time, but Xie Huai never got in. Left with no choice, Shen Fengkai finally took the initiative and got into Xie Huai’s car instead.
“There were signs of a struggle in the hotel restroom. That’s probably where Qi Xu was forced out. In the elevator footage, both men wore hats. The car they used had fake plates, so we haven’t been able to track it. The police are reviewing surveillance from all angles.”
“We’re pretty sure this wasn’t a kidnapping for money. The family hasn’t received any calls demanding ransom.”
The entire Shen family was in a panic. Zeng Yun had already prepared a large sum in case a ransom was demanded. Her eyes were swollen from crying. Shen Zhuohai completely fell apart, and it was only the old man who managed to keep the household together.
Even the Xie family patriarch stepped in to help. Xie Yaoting personally paid the Shen family a visit.
On the laptop in front of Xie Huai was a freeze-frame: Qi Xu flanked by two strangers in the elevator.
One held his arm in a tight grip. The other had a blade pressed to his back. But in the split second before the elevator doors closed, Qi Xu subtly made a hand gesture.
More specifically, a pinky swear.
The moment Xie Huai saw that gesture, his anger exploded.
That was the promise Qi Xu made the night before Xie Huai flew to Hong Kong. They were in bed, and Qi Xu had coaxed him into a pinky swear—he promised to behave, stay put in the capital, and wait until Xie Huai returned to settle everything.
Xie Huai didn’t fly to Hong Kong just for work. He had already uncovered proof that Shen Zeyu had orchestrated the car crash. He had gone there to make sure the evidence didn’t vanish.
Qi Xu had never been one to listen. Xie Huai should’ve seen that coming.
He shut the laptop. “Shen Fengkai, if I help your family find Qi Xu, the only payment I want is that from this day forward, Qi Xu has nothing to do with the Shen family.”
Shen Fengkai’s expression darkened instantly. “What’s that supposed to mean? Qi Xu is part of the Shen family. That’s a fact you can’t change.”
Xie Huai gave him a cold look. “Then let’s change it. Qi Xu never considered you his family. And you never treated him like he was part of yours. You didn’t care before—now he’s mine to look after. He’ll be a hundred times better off with me than with the Shens. Or are you trying to squeeze more benefits out of him too?”
Shen Fengkai exploded with rage. “Are you saying we’re selling our son off?”
Xie Huai stared at Shen Fengkai’s tantrum, then calmly delivered the final blow once Shen had worked himself into a frenzy:
“You chose Shen Zeyu. I only want Qi Xu. His kidnapping? That’s your so-called good son Shen Zeyu’s doing.”
Shen Fengkai looked shaken, unwilling to believe it. “Wasn’t Zeyu locked up by you?”
Xie Huai didn’t waste time arguing. He simply played a recording.
“Ah Huai! You finally picked up…”
The voice was hoarse, emotionally unstable, and spoke with an eerie undertone. Shen Fengkai recognized it instantly—it was Shen Zeyu.
Xie Huai remained silent. Shen Zeyu’s voice grew increasingly frantic, teetering on the edge of madness.
“Say something, Ah Huai. I just want to hear your voice. Please…”
Xie Huai still didn’t respond.
Shen Zeyu’s mental state spiraled. He suddenly burst out laughing—hysterical and crazed.
“Why do you love Qi Xu? I loved you first. Why can’t you love me? What does he have that I don’t? He’s from nowhere, just happens to have Shen blood in him. I was the one who got the elite education with you. We belong together.”
Then, coldly:
“If he disappeared… would you love me instead?”
At that point, Xie Huai already knew exactly when Qi Xu had gone missing. This call from Shen Zeyu only confirmed everything—and made it worse.
“Running and hiding isn’t much of a life. Make the most of your last day.”
To Shen Zeyu, those words weren’t a countdown—they were a dream come true.
“Hate lasts longer than love… Ah Huai, go ahead and hate me.”
But Xie Huai replied coldly,
“You’re nothing but a pitiful, flailing clown—not even worth hating.”
That icy tone shattered the last sliver of hope in Shen Zeyu’s heart.
“Why won’t you hate me? After everything I’ve done, you should hate me. Ah Huai, please, hate me—or I swear, I’ll make Qi Xu disappear from this world.”
No one knew how Xie Huai reacted in that moment, but Shen Fengkai, sitting beside him, felt an overwhelming chill. The hair on his arms stood on end.
The recording ended. It had been a five-minute call from a public phone booth—cut off as the time ran out.
Shen Fengkai sat slumped back in his seat, utterly stunned. His eyes were unfocused, as though the wind had been knocked out of him.
All of this… had been orchestrated by Shen Zeyu.
The same Shen Zeyu he’d called his little brother for eighteen years.
Still reeling, Shen Fengkai glanced out the window—and finally realized they weren’t headed to the hotel.
“Where are we going? Aren’t we supposed to go to the hotel?”
That was the actual crime scene—where Qi Xu had disappeared.
They had ditched the police entirely. Every vehicle behind them was one of Xie Huai’s men.
Inside the car, Xie Huai received a message from overseas:
“Want to save Qi Xu? Let Shen Zeyu go.”
He didn’t respond.
Instead, he pulled up the GPS tracker app and confirmed Qi Xu’s location:
A villa on the outskirts.
Qi Xu, disciplined to the minute, had probably hit his physical limit for staying awake. It was past 2 a.m.—well into his danger zone.
By this point, Xie Huai should’ve landed in the capital. He was likely closing in.
Qi Xu, ever calm, had even managed to doze off for a while. But it was so cold, he woke up from the chill alone.
The basement door creaked open again. Qi Xu was dragged to the top floor.
It seemed Song Ruoming had gotten word. He was rushing to pack things up. Qi Xu was tied to a chair.
Nervous and jumpy, Song Ruoming stared at his phone. The moment it rang, he snatched it up without hesitation.
“Zeyu? Where are you?”
Qi Xu’s eyes lifted slightly at the mention of Shen Zeyu’s name. He watched Song Ruoming’s face light up like someone who had lost the world and suddenly found it again.
“Did Xie Huai really let you go? We’re heading to the airport soon—wait for me.”
Whatever Shen Zeyu said in response, it made Song Ruoming hand the phone to Qi Guohui.
Qi Guohui took it cautiously, tense at first as he listened to Shen Zeyu speak. Slowly, his expression eased, and a faint smile crept across his face.
When he returned the phone to Song Ruoming, he was also handed a thick wad of cash. Without hesitation, he left the villa. No one stopped him.
Now that Shen Zeyu had been released, there was no reason for Song Ruoming to keep dragging Qi Xu into this. He had to leave before Xie Huai found out where Qi Xu was.
He walked up to Qi Xu, who was still tightly bound, and looked down at him from above.
“Qi Xu, I should thank you for being accepted back into the Shen family. Zeyu couldn’t win against you. He had no one left—only me to lean on.”
Song Ruoming had known, even back at Fang Qian’s birthday party, that Shen Zeyu had called him to play the victim. He’d known the whole plot was rushed, sloppy, bound to be exposed.
But no one had expected Qi Xu, the boy from a mountain village, to be this sharp—to see right through it all.
In the end, when he and Xu Yichen exposed the school bullying scandal, Song Ruoming took the fall. He didn’t resist it—because by then, he already knew Shen Zeyu had fallen too deep. He had chosen to follow him into the abyss.
Qi Xu’s voice was cold:
“No one left? Who in the Shen family wasn’t on his side? And for what? Jealousy? Because I’m with Xie Huai?”
Something in those words must’ve struck a nerve.
Song Ruoming exploded.
“He wasn’t jealous of that! He just couldn’t stand that you took everything from him! He was pampered his whole life, adored by everyone, and then you showed up and stole the spotlight. I just… did what I had to, to make him happy!”
Qi Xu stared out into the darkness beyond the window.
“Shen Zeyu got released that fast? You really think Xie Huai trusts you that much? Shouldn’t he have brought him here for a proper exchange?”
Song Ruoming shoved him hard.
“Shut up! Zeyu’s not like you—he’s pure. He said we’d spend the rest of our lives together.”
Qi Xu, still tied to the chair, was shoved so hard he toppled to the floor. His arm went numb from the pressure.
One of the bodyguards leaned in and whispered something to Song Ruoming. His expression darkened immediately.
“You’re buying time.”
So Xie Huai had found them.
In the split-second that Song Ruoming was stunned by Xie Huai’s speed, Qi Xu struck—sweeping his leg sideways and knocking Song Ruoming to the ground. In a flash, he was on top of him, pressing a piece of wire—retrieved earlier from the basement—against his neck.
Everyone froze, completely caught off guard. No one had noticed Qi Xu had already freed himself from the ropes.
Song Ruoming felt the cold, thin wire dig into the delicate skin on his neck.
Qi Xu gave a slow, chilling smile.
“It’s just wire, but if I stab it into your carotid artery, it’ll bleed just the same.”
Song Ruoming stopped struggling. He remembered Qi Xu’s ruthlessness all too well—the birthday party scene still haunted him.
Qi Xu hauled him upright, forcing him to his feet. The bodyguards in front of them tensed, watching closely.
The roles had reversed—Qi Xu was now the threat, fully in control.
From downstairs came the sound of footsteps and shouting. Chen Wei was the first to rush in, immediately engaging the bodyguards in a fight.
Lao Gao followed right behind and joined the fray.
At that moment, Xie Huai arrived upstairs—and saw Qi Xu holding the wire to Song Ruoming’s throat.
Before he could say anything, Shen Fengkai’s face went pale.
“Qi Xu—!”
Qi Xu tilted his head slightly and gave Xie Huai a faint smirk. But Xie Huai didn’t react—his face was stone-cold, stern, and terrifying.
Then it happened—just as Xie Huai stepped toward him, Song Ruoming suddenly lashed out. He pulled a small knife from behind his waist and slashed Qi Xu’s arm.
Qi Xu winced and lost grip for just a second—the wire jabbed into the side of Song Ruoming’s neck, just below the artery, missing the fatal spot.
Grimacing in pain, Song Ruoming turned the knife on Qi Xu, pressing it against him with wild, bloodshot eyes.
“Back off! Get me a car—now! Or we all go down together!”
He didn’t want to hurt anyone. But with his bodyguards falling one after another, his escape window to the airport had vanished. Shen Zeyu was still waiting for him.
When Xie Huai saw the blood running down Qi Xu’s arm—bright red, dripping—his pupils contracted. A sharp jolt of fear and rage stabbed through his heart.
Xie Huai drew a deep breath, his chest rising and falling, eyes so dark and steady they sent a chill down everyone’s spine. Without a word, he took a set of car keys from his pocket and placed them on the table.
Outside, in the heavy snow, Qi Guohui—who had left earlier—secretly doubled back.
Everyone’s focus was upstairs, so he slipped through the back door, into the kitchen… and set a fire.
By the time anyone noticed, the flames had already taken hold. The kitchen had a gas tank—an explosion was imminent.
Smoke poured in thick waves as one of Xie Huai’s men burst into the room upstairs, panicked.
“Young Master Xie! The kitchen’s on fire—it’s bad! We have to evacuate now!”
Acrid white smoke was already filling the top floor, stinging eyes and clouding vision.
Song Ruoming panicked. He didn’t want to die. Frantic, he shoved Qi Xu toward the stairs.
“Downstairs! Move!”
Shen Fengkai had already been escorted out by Chen Wei. Only three people remained on the top floor now: Xie Huai, Song Ruoming, and Qi Xu.
In the haze, Xie Huai and Qi Xu locked eyes.
Song Ruoming was coughing hard. The smoke was too much—tears welled in his eyes, uncontrollably.
At that moment, Qi Xu threw his elbow back hard, forcing Song Ruoming to loosen his grip. Qi quickly ducked down, and Xie Huai moved in with a sharp shove, knocking the small knife from Song Ruoming’s hand—only to catch a kick to the chest that sent him staggering back against the wall.
Qi Xu snatched up the knife immediately, but Xie Huai took it from him and hurled it out the window.
Now wasn’t the time for talking—the smoke was getting thicker by the second. Qi Xu squeezed Xie Huai’s hand and pulled him toward the stairs.
Just as they reached the stairwell, Song Ruoming charged at them from behind, slamming into Qi Xu and sending him stumbling. He lost his footing and fell toward the stairs.
Xie Huai caught him on instinct, wrapping his arms tightly around him—but momentum took over. He couldn’t pull Qi Xu back. The two of them tumbled down the stairs together.
Even with Xie Huai doing everything to shield him, Qi Xu still took a hard hit on the way down. The trauma, combined with shock, sent him spiraling into unconsciousness by the time they reached the bottom.
