Jin Xueli sat on her bed, an inexplicable nervousness creeping into her chest.
Su Li’s condition right now was seriously off.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t be talking so incoherently like this.
Maybe Su Li didn’t even have her phone in her hands right now.
Was she kidnapped?
That thought surfaced in Jin Xueli’s mind, and the more she considered it, the more certain she became.
With Lan Yinyun backed into a corner with no way out, doing something like this was only too normal.
Jin Xueli felt a twinge of self-reproach.
If she had let Su Li stay here and keep her company a little longer, would the outcome have been different?
With herself by Su Li’s side, Lan Yinyun would never have dared to lay a hand on her.
Jin Xueli quickly had someone investigate the status of Lan Yinyun’s mother’s surgery.
The Jin Family had the best medical resources in the world.
So if Lan Yinyun wanted to treat her mother, she would definitely go through the Jin Family’s channels.
As for her sister, unless she was in a desperate hurry to stand up again, slowly nurturing her body through the Jin Family’s channels wouldn’t pose much of a problem.
Sure enough, Jin Xueli learned that Lan Yinyun’s mother had already been hospitalized.
What should she do?
She felt both nervous and troubled.
From what she knew of Lan Yinyun, if the woman had money on her, she never would have waited this long to get her mother hospitalized.
Even if Lan Yinyun was her sister’s butler, so what?
That didn’t mean she couldn’t be replaced.
It was just that even she had become aware of that sense of crisis.
Jin Xueli understood perfectly well the mentality of her family’s employees—overconsuming on credit, desperately yearning to climb into high society.
They thought that by witnessing how her family lived, they could work hard enough to join them.
Wanting to achieve in one generation what her family had built over several generations? That was nothing but a pipe dream.
But Jin Xueli never said anything about it.
She merely watched coldly from the sidelines as these people blindly chased luxury goods and social circles, never once considering whether their own value could match the circles they wanted to enter.
They were nothing but replaceable chess pieces, yet they spent their days lost in fleeting, glamorous illusions.
Never once considering the fact that the Jin Family might abandon them.
Jin Xueli didn’t believe Lan Yinyun wouldn’t try to scrape together money while her mother lay gravely ill in bed.
She just had no way, no other channel to get money.
The only way to obtain money was through her own sister.
And her sister…
She was probably filled with curiosity about this girl who had successfully escaped her plans.
Jin Xueli unconsciously swallowed, quickly getting up from her bed, intending to leave the infirmary.
Su Li had saved her life once.
She had to save Su Li’s life too.
Remembering those girls whose faces had been beaten deformed by Jin Ke’er, who ended up in the Jin Family Hospital, she couldn’t allow that to happen to Su Li.
A fragile girl like Su Li, if she got bullied…
…
Jin Xueli’s heart was filled with deep fear, but a fanciful illusion also surfaced in her mind.
What if she could rescue Su Li like a hero?
Would their feelings for each other heat up rapidly?
Become best friends?
Jin Xueli thought about this, then quickly shook her head.
Su Li might be suffering who knows what kind of torture right now.
And here she was, still thinking about useless things like that.
…
Su Li was bound inside an empty room.
Not long after Jin Ke’er left, a pair of stockings had been pulled over her eyes.
And her mouth was stuffed with another pair of stockings as well.
The surroundings were completely silent, not a single sound.
Not even the sound of wind slapping against the window.
Time itself seemed to pass more slowly here.
Only her faint breathing echoed in her ears.
The darkness pressed down on her senses like something solid, yet Su Li’s face showed little emotional fluctuation.
For her, everything was the same as usual, no real difference.
It wasn’t as if she’d never been locked in a dark room before.
As far as Su Li was concerned, Jin Ke’er’s methods weren’t particularly sophisticated.
Once the other party realized she couldn’t satisfy her needs through Su Li.
She would move to the next stage.
Either rage or abandoning her in this place.
Su Li knew all too well how one loses their value to another person.
All Jin Ke’er wanted was for her to provide emotional value.
Sorry, but she was going to disappoint her.
Su Li closed her eyes and composed herself, only hoping that her cat wouldn’t worry because of her.
Calculating the time, it should be about time for the appointment with Bai Huizi.
…
[Position]
Looking at the location message that came through on the phone, the employee responsible for handling Su Li’s chat messages had no idea how to reply.
“Miss, someone just sent Su Li a location message.”
After hesitating for a moment, she still decided to consult Jin Ke’er.
Already in a rage, Jin Ke’er halted mid-step.
She stared at the employee who couldn’t even handle her job properly, instantly flew into a fury, her face gradually darkening.
“Slap!”
A sharp, crisp sound rang out as Su Li’s phone hit the floor, yet it didn’t shatter.
The employee didn’t even dare to cover her cheek, only hanging her head low, body trembling.
“You worthless piece of trash!
I spent all that money not to have you come here asking me questions!
If I have to handle everything myself, then what do I need you for?”
Jin Ke’er’s voice was shrill and piercing. Watching the employee cowering on the ground trembling, a satisfied smile crept onto her face.
This was normal.
Why should Su Li act like nothing was wrong?
This was what a normal person’s reaction should be.
Fear, trembling, shaking.
She rose and left, thinking about how to make Su Li compromise quickly.
…
“Hm, no reply?”
Bai Huizi sat upright in the restaurant beneath the crystal chandelier, her fingertips tapping lightly against the rim of her champagne glass.
The phone screen reflected her furrowed brow.
For the first time ever, Su Li hadn’t replied to a transfer confirmation.
She pushed away her plate, her silk dress brushing against the gilded chair back. After tapping her fingers on the table ten times, her expression gradually darkened.
Her knife and fork scraped harshly against the porcelain plate, and a nearby waitress stumbled back half a step in fright.
But Bai Huizi didn’t pay that any mind. She simply made a phone call and said a few words.
“Help me check where this location is right now.”
She had placed a tracker on Su Li’s phone long ago.
Of course, even without the deliberately placed tracker, finding out Su Li’s position wouldn’t be difficult for her.
As the owner, how could she watch her pet get lost?
She needed to know its location at all times.
It didn’t take long before a location message was sent to Bai Huizi’s phone.
“The Jin Family?”