Chapter 124: 123: Feed him.

"Be good, turn around." Shi Wei called out to her, but seeing that she still didn’t move, he softly grasped her ankle and gave it a gentle tug to the side.

When the icy touch reached her skin, Yu Zhi’s mind went blank, buzzing incessantly. She froze for a moment, and her delicate face immediately flushed an intense scarlet.

Even though the man moved with the utmost gentleness, his actions still made the young woman tremble uncontrollably.

Shi Wei never thought that one day he’d be doing something like this, but at this very moment, he found himself thoroughly enjoying it.

"All done." The man leaned forward and kissed her on the corner of her lips, then calmly screwed the lid back onto the ointment jar.

From start to finish, there wasn’t a trace of shyness on Shi Wei’s face. On the contrary, it was Yu Zhi who—without an ounce of composure—had turned as red as a tomato.

She wasn’t sure why, but an inexplicable sense of annoyance surged within her. Irritated, she retreated under the blanket again, refusing to interact with him.

"Zhizhi, want me to help you get dressed?" Shi Wei asked through the quilt, enveloping the soft lump beneath.

His voice was husky, his faintly rosy lips curving into a subtle arc of amusement.

Upon hearing this, Yu Zhi abruptly sat up, clutching the edge of the quilt tightly. Her eyes dropped slightly, and even her fluttering lashes seemed imbued with an indiscernible sense of embarrassment. "I can do it myself. You should leave first."

"You’re sure you don’t need my help?"

"I don’t!" Yu Zhi lightly pushed him, signaling for him to leave immediately.

Shi Wei suppressed the urge to grin and, recalling the girl’s exhaustion last night, refrained from teasing her further.

He placed the clothes he had prepared earlier onto her knees. "I’ll wait for you downstairs."

Yu Zhi murmured her acknowledgement. Only after he turned and left did she slowly get up.

Standing by the bed, she lowered her gaze and looked herself over. In the next moment, her light coffee-colored eyes seemed to mist over.

At the staircase landing, Yu Zhi gripped the railing, her steps painstakingly slow. With every step she took, her legs trembled uncontrollably.

Luckily, the man downstairs had been keeping an ear out for any noise from above. He quickly noticed something was amiss.

"Zhizhi, why didn’t you call me?" Shi Wei furrowed his brows and strode forward to scoop the girl up in his arms, carrying her straight over to the sofa.

After handing her a bowl filled with vegetable porridge, the man lowered his head and focused on massaging her legs, attempting to ease her discomfort.

Yu Zhi scooped up a spoonful of porridge, blew on it lightly, and after making sure it wasn’t too hot, asked, "Have you eaten?"

"Hmm, I’ve eaten." The man remained with his head bowed, his tousled hair brushing lightly against his forehead—a picture of lazy indifference.

His shirt wasn’t buttoned up completely, and whenever his throat moved, a quick downward glance was all it took to catch a clear glimpse.

Yu Zhi shifted her gaze away from his Adam’s apple, held the spoon out toward his lips, and spoke in a soft, elegant voice tinged with affection, "Let’s eat together."

From the moment Shi Wei came downstairs until now, there was barely enough time for him to prepare a pot of porridge.

Yu Zhi knew perfectly well that he was lying to keep her from worrying, but she tactfully chose not to expose him.

Shi Wei glanced sideways at the girl. The slightly upturned corners of his peach-blossom eyes were brimming with unrestrained joy.

Taking the spoonful she offered, a ripple of warmth spread through his chest.

After the two had finished their porridge, taking turns feeding each other, Chen Cai knocked on the Shi Family’s door.

He stood in the chilly wind for quite some time before the door slowly creaked open.

"Boss, the man from last night got away." Chen Cai stood properly by the couch, not daring to lift his head as he spoke.

Upon hearing this, Shi Wei froze briefly, his hand halting mid-massage of the girl’s fingers. The thick lashes of his eyes masked any discernible emotion, and his tone remained calm: "What happened?"

Though his demeanor appeared devoid of anger, the faint chill in his words sent shivers down Chen Cai’s spine.

Not daring to omit a single detail, Chen Cai recounted the events exactly as they had transpired.

After severely beating the man last night, Chen Cai and his brothers took him to an undeveloped plot of land on the outskirts of town.

They had tied him to a pillar and tortured him past midnight before leaving, ensuring ten men were stationed there to watch over the victim.

However, upon returning this morning, not only had all ten men been incapacitated, but the man himself was nowhere to be found.

"He probably used some kind of sedative to knock everyone out, don’t you think?" Yu Zhi reclined languidly on the sofa, seemingly unsurprised by the situation’s outcome.

"Exactly right, Boss Lady! You’re so astute!" Chen Cai had been about to mention this himself but couldn’t resist slipping in a compliment.

He knew full well that pleasing the Boss Lady meant better days ahead for him, at least without fear of being shipped off to Africa.

"Zhizhi, do you know this man?" Shi Wei raised an eyebrow, albeit phrased as a question, his tone carried an air of certainty.

"Yes. He came for me." The girl’s eyes flickered with cold malice—brief yet unmistakable to the man who caught sight of it.

Shi Wei recalled how she’d looked last night, her fury bubbling over as if she wished to see the man dead. His gaze darkened.

He took her delicate hand in his, sliding his fingers between hers until they intertwined completely.

Gently tracing circles across the skin on the back of her hand with his thumb, his deep voice was devoid of any discernible emotion. "Chen Cai, you have three days."

"Understood, Boss." Chen Cai let out a tiny sigh of relief before leaving in a hurry to handle the matter.

Once the man was gone, Yu Zhi didn’t wait for Shi Wei to speak, instead taking the initiative to explain her connection to the fugitive: "His name is K. My friend and I helped rescue him from an underground boxing ring."

K was an orphan, and on the day Yu Zhi and her friend encountered him, he’d been conned into the boxing ring.

Back then, K only knew rudimentary self-defense techniques, which were entirely inadequate against the staff members at the ring. He had no choice but to go along with their coercion and enter the arena.

The outcome was predictable. Feeling pity for the boy, Yu Zhi asked Wen Renche to bail him out, never expecting trouble to follow as a result.

At first, K was genuinely grateful to them, even professing his willingness to serve as their servant for life. But as time went on, greed—a facet of human nature—inevitably surfaced under the glare of sunlight.

The longer K stayed with them and the more he was exposed to, the less satisfied he became with his position.

Gratitude for rescuing him turned to dust, swept away by his ambition for monetary gain.

"When we realized K had betrayed us, we locked him up in Australia, but somehow he managed to escape." Yu Zhi frowned deeply as she spoke.

With no way to contact Wen Renche, and now facing K’s sudden reappearance, Yu Zhi found it hard not to worry.

Shi Wei gently massaged the crease between her brows. His voice softened considerably. "Don’t overthink it; we’ll find him soon."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Tip: You can use left, right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.Tap the middle of the screen to reveal Reading Options.

If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report
Follow our Telegram channel at https://t.me/novelfire to receive the latest notifications about daily updated chapters.