I Want a Lifetime with You
Chapter 123

All of a sudden, some unknown force seemed to have grabbed Shi Nuan's feet in the dark. With a thud, she fell sitting on the ground, and her phone dropped right out of her grasp.

Shi Nuan seemed to have hit on the countertop basin before she fell on the ground. The acute pain radiating from her back was so intense that she almost shed tears. The washroom was still pitch-black, so she reached out her hands and tried to replace support to stand up. However, at that instant, a sharp jolting pain shot up her legs, plopping her right back onto the floor again.

"Help! Anyone there?"

It took Shi Nuan a lot of strength before she could finally crawl her way out. Yet, when her hand reached the doorknob, Shi Nuan found that the door had been locked from the outside. She tried everything she could to open it, but her efforts were to no avail. A wave a terror washed over her as she sat alone in the dark.

Unconsciously, Shi Nuan's breathing had become shallow. Fear slowly crept up on her, swallowing her alive as time ticked past in the gloomy washroom. Right then, it had felt like a déjà vu moment when Shi Nuan recalled her childhood incident. It happened when she was at home. At that time, she was accidentally locked in the closet. No matter how much she screamed, no one came to her rescue. She thought she was going to die in there. And she most probably would have suffocated in the closet if it was not for Mr. Yang. He was the only one who had bothered to look through high and low to replace her when he realized that she went missing.

I need to calm down. Ok. Breathe. Shi Nuan gnawed on her bottom lip and forced herself to keep a cool head. She reached out her hands again and felt every inch of the floor, trying to replace her cellphone, but couldn't.

Meanwhile, Fu Chengyan had heard Shi Nuan's scream just as he was going to hang up the call. His eyes darkened and he stood up abruptly. "May? May? Say something!" But there was no reply. "What happened?"

Li Heng narrowed his eyes. The room that was noisy and happening had turned into complete silence instantly. He looked at Fu Chengyan's rigid expression and realized that it was no simple matter. Then Li Heng slightly lifted his arm, motioning to those who were still joking. Everyone stopped their chattering instantly.

Nonetheless, Fu Chengyan pursed his lips and just stared at his cellphone. The call cut off from Shi Nuan's side. But when Fu Chengyan tried calling again, he could not get through.

The usually calm Fu Chengyan looked like a totally different person now. He seemed to have lost his wits as his face paled. "Zhou Zheng."

Zhou Zheng, who stood outside the room, immediately came in when he heard Fu Chengyan. "Yes? Master Chengyan."

"Cut off all exits of this place and lock it down immediately. Do not let anyone in or out. Ask your men to check everyone in this building, and do not miss out on anyone. Focus on those who were at the same gathering as May," growled Fu Chengyan as he fixated his gaze on Li Heng.

"Gathering?" Li Heng's eyes darkened when he saw Fu Chengyan's serious appearance. Then, he raised his hand to signal Liang Lin to come in, "Did anyone special come in today?" Liang Lin took a look at Fu Chengyan then said, "Master Chengyan's wife is here today with her friends on the second floor. Song Shen was the one who booked out the whole floor."

"Song Shen? I don't care who it is, no one leaves today," Fu Chengyan squinted his eyes and looked at Li Heng with a snarl.

Liang Lin was feeling a bit troubled, so he darted his eyes towards Li Heng. However, Li Heng merely waved his hand, "You heard Chengyan. If anything happens to his wife, I will make sure you are the first to be punished."

Those words sent shivers down his spine. Instantly, he adjusted his glasses and said, "Got it, Mr. Li. I'll get right to it now."

Right away, Ling Lin and Zhou Zheng led a whole search party. This was the first time they saw Fu Chengyan acting like this, and it was terrifying.

After Zhou Zheng and Liang Lin left, Li Heng stood up and asked, "Are you suspecting that someone did this to your wife?"

Fu Chengyan pursed his lips and glanced at Li Heng. He appeared gravely somber and said, "Watch your words, Heng."

Li Heng, on the other hand, quirked his eyebrows and patted Fu Chengyan on his shoulders. "Don't worry. No one would dare to make chaos at Jingxiu's territory." Li Heng then turned to look at Su Shaoqing, who kept himself quiet this whole time, "What's on your mind?"

Su Shaoqing raised his eyebrows and put on a serious expression. "I think someone is trying to challenge Chengyan's limit," Su Shaoqing implied. Fu Chengyan took one glance at him and said, "You are not going anywhere."

"What? Why not?" Su Shaoqing protested.

"You are a doctor. You are obligated to save lives, and someone's life is at stake now," Fu Chengyan said as he grabbed his coat and left the room in a hurry.

Su Shaoqing wanted to follow, but Li Heng stopped him. He curled his lips and drooped his hand on Su Shaoqing's shoulder. "He is looking for his wife. Why would you want to join in?"

"There are things that you don't know. Chengyan has always been a level-headed person. Things are different with this woman. He is losing his mind, and that's what we don't get to see every day. I have met with the woman a couple of times. She looks pretty and even looks somewhat similar to that person. However, Chengyan had always only lost his temper because of this woman, so I am worried that..."

Li Heng's eyes darkened, and he snorted coldly, "Well, there is nothing to worry about. Chengyan is the most dependable among the four of us, other than Jingxiu. He knows what he wants. He always does, so just leave him be."

In the meantime, Shi Nuan, who had probed in the dark for a fairly long time, had finally got up from the floor. After adapting herself to the darkness, Shi Nuan had come to realize what was actually happening. All the lights in the washroom had suddenly stopped working. Even the door was locked from the outside. This is definitely not a coincidence!

Shi Nuan quickly retraced everything that had happened today. Soon after, she understood that someone had deliberately done this to her. Except for Shi Wei, Anna, and Su Su, Shi Nuan could not think of anyone who would want to hurt her, as the rest had no reason to come after her.

Moreover, only Shi Wei and Anna would use these petty little tricks. Shi Nuan calmed down after she had pieced the puzzle together. It all made sense to her now.

She took a deep breath and slowly gathered herself as her hand touched the countertop basin. Once again, she explored her way to the door and forced it to open but could not. Shi Nuan then tried to knock or the door as loud as she could, making sharp noises, "Hello?"

"Anyone?"

"Anyone out there?"

Shi Nuan's voice echoed in the washroom. Soon after that, she heard a hissing noise, causing her to shiver in terror.

It was said that the rest of our senses would heighten when we lost one of them, and that was true for Shi Nuan. Shi Nuan couldn't see, so she sensed that this hiss was more than mere imagination. The calmness that she finally gathered back just shattered into pieces when she started panicking again.

Crap! There's a snake!

Although Shi Nuan could not tell the exact location of the snake, it sounded like it was right in front of her.

A chill went down Shi Nuan's spine, and she had goosebumps all over her. She did not dare to move or make a noise at all.

Right at that moment, Shi Nuan could hear footsteps from outside the door, and they sounded like they were heading towards the washroom. After a while, it stopped right in front of the door. "Is there anyone inside?"

It was an unfamiliar but recognizable voice. Shi Nuan could tell instantly since she just heard that voice earlier. It's Qin Yue! "Yes, I'm here. I need help," Shi Nuan's voice trembled as she spoke out. "Nuan? Is that you?" Qin Yue frowned.

"Yes. It's me. The door is locked. Can you unlock it?" Shi Nuan kept her voice down as much as possible. She was worried that her sudden movement would startle the snake. But even so, she still spooked the snake. In just a split second, it's natural predator instinct acted and attacked her calf.

"Ahh!" Shi Nuan screamed. The pain was too unbearable that she fell on the floor.

"Nuan! Nuan! What happened? Nuan? Answer me!" Qin Yue tried to unlock the doorknob with force.

"Snake. There is a snake," Shi Nuan said through clenched teeth. She was starting to feel dizzy.

Once Qin Yue learned about her situation, he panicked. She was all he could think of. "Nuan, stay away from the door. I'm going to bust in," said Qin Yue as he kicked on the door as hard as he could. After a few attempts, the door burst opened. "Nuan, are you OK?"

Qin Yue was immediately greeted with a pale-looking Shi Nuan, who lay half-conscious on the floor, and a hissing snake in front of her.

He reacted quickly and grabbed the snake by its tail. Then Qin Yue smashed it onto the countertop as hard as he could, ending its life instantly. After he got rid of it, he immediately carried Shi Nuan in his arms and rushed out of the washroom.

"Nuan, are you alright?" Qin Yue placed her carefully on the floor.

"I..." Shi Nuan croaked but could not say anything else. Her head felt heavier and heavier by the minute. Qin Yue thought that it was odd, so he lowered his gaze to check on her. And sure enough, he found a bite mark on Shi Nuan's calf. "That snake is venomous. Nuan, bear with me. I'm going to suck out the venom," said Qin Yue.

"No, you don't have to..." Shi Nuan shook her head to stop Qin Yue.

"This is not the time to hesitate. I told you, the snake is venomous," Qin Yue disregarded Shi Nuan's resistance. Then, he crouched down and sucked out the venom bit by bit.

It was only then when Song Rongrong and the rest noticed that Shi Nuan had taken too long for her toilet break, so they went around looking for her anxiously. However, most of them were stopped by Ling Lin. Zhou Zheng, and their men, while only a few of them made it to the washroom. They ran into the scene where Qin Yue was seen with his lips on Shi Nuan's calf. "What's going on here?" they uttered in shock. "Qin Yue, Shi Nuan, what are you both doing here? You..." Shi Wei looked appalled when she shouted at them. It was as if they were having a shameful affair.

"Someone locked Shi Nuan in the washroom and released a snake in there on purpose," Qin Yue snarled at Shi Wei when he heard what she said. He was just trying to save Shi Nuan's life, yet Shi Wei had implied that something was going on between them.

"This is more than just a coincidence." Qin Yue scanned through the crowd and finally settled his gaze on Shi Wei and Anna.

Anna saw Qin Yue's gaze that landed on her and glared back, "On purpose, you say. Well, I see what's going on here. I'd say that this is more like a set up for seduction! What snake? Where is it?" Though she sounded dignified, there was a hint of remorse in her voice.

"You..." Before Qin Yue could finish the sentence, a group of men in black came over.

The man, who was obviously the leader, glanced at the crowd, "That's a very bold move to cause chaos in Prosperous Dynasty. You're stepping on the wrong toes!" He said in a cold voice, with hardly any warmth, yet his eyes remained fixated on Shi Nuan.

Shi Nuan's face had drained of color at that moment. Even though she was still dizzy, she could sense that the man was looking at her, so she returned his gaze.

The man was Liang Lin. He had seen Shi Nuan before and knew who she was, but Shi Nuan did not recognize him.

Liang Lin looked at Shi Nuan's overly clammy face, and he could instantly tell something was not right. Thus, he walked over and asked, "Miss, are you alright?"

Shi Nuan shook her head, "I..."

"Get this lady to the room and get a doctor to check on her," Liang Lin instructed. But before one of them could take Shi Nuan away, Song Rongrong and Su Yian rushed over and stopped them, "Who are you guys? What are you going to do to her?"