Chapter 8

The Seventh Year.

I finally found the photographer of that picture.

“Do you know where he is now?”

He shook his head.

Seeing the disappointment on my face, he hesitated for a moment and lowered his voice.

“Actually, half a year ago, I took another photo of this person.”

I froze instantly.

“But the place where I took the photo is very dangerous. If I reveal it to you, I’ll have to leave here immediately and cross the ocean.”

“If you want it, you’ll have to pay a high price.”

I was still two million short.

After returning to the country, I went to find Fu Jun.

Before he could speak, Xu Wanning, who was by his side, laughed.

“How shameless. Do you really think you’re worth that much money?”

I ignored her and fixed my gaze firmly on Fu Jun. “Mr. Fu, whatever your terms are, just name them.”

He met my all-or-nothing stare and was momentarily taken aback.

But he still said, “Jingjing, Ah Ning has been unhappy lately. I need to cheer her up.”

“This matter will be decided by her.”

Xu Wanning looked at me and smiled slowly.

“Zhou Jing, didn’t you always pride yourself on being more talented than me? Didn’t you always look down on us rich people?”

“You want money? Fine. Then kneel and beg me for it.”

When I knelt in front of her, my lips were rubbed raw and bleeding.

Xu Wanning suddenly burst into laughter.

“You actually believed me? How could you be so stupid?”

She narrowed her eyes and said, “I was just kidding.”

“Back when your hand was broken, your dear brother went to my uncle, saying he wanted to bring me to justice-he didn’t know that while he was groveling and pleading, I was sitting in the next room enjoying the show.”

“Your brother, just like you, was an innocent and foolish lower-class person.”

“I heard he’s dead? Well, that’s truly-”

She leaned down slightly, her smile as sweet as a flower steeped in poison, breathtakingly beautiful.

“Justice served.”

The taut string in my mind snapped abruptly.

By the time I realized what I was doing, I had grabbed her hair and slammed her head against the edge of the table.

I bit into her shoulder, wishing I could tear off a piece of flesh.

Xu Wanning had never suffered like this before. She cried from the pain, tears streaming down her face.

But she was too pampered and weak to match my strength.

“Zhou Jing, are you insane?”

She struggled desperately to push me away, screaming hysterically, “You rabid dog!”

In the end, it was Fu Jun, sitting in his wheelchair, who called for the butler and the servants.

He wore a cold expression, shedding his usual mask of gentle hypocrisy for the first time in front of me.

“Jingjing, you’ve been married into this family for seven years, and you still haven’t learned what it means to have decorum.”

“I’ve been too kind to you, and now you’ve overstepped your bounds.”

When several people forcibly pulled me away, my mouth was full of blood.

Xu Wanning was on the verge of losing her mind.

She slapped me twice and then ordered the others to drag me into the bathroom.

The bathtub was filled with cold water.

My face was shoved into it, water flooding my nose and eyes, the pain making me tremble and convulse.

Just as I was about to suffocate, I was yanked up by my hair.

And then shoved back in.

In the final moment before I lost consciousness, I thought-

When He Zhou fell into the high seas,

Was it like this?

Was it this desperate?

Was it then that he thought of me?