What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms

Chapter 280: Facing Death

Lin Yan was speaking to Duan Xiaolin with his head respectfully bowed, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed his son shrinking back. Frowning, he reached out and forcefully pulled Lin Ziyan forward.

“Your Honor, this is my son, Lin Ziyan. He has been studying under me recently, spending his time rotating through various military departments. He’s not much older than General Ling, but unfortunately, he lacks the General’s promising talent. When the General returns from the front, I’ll definitely have to ask him to take this boy out to the battlefield for some real training.”

“Two months ago, it seems Young Master Lin did go out for training with a deployment team,” the man sitting in the armchair observed, his tone dangerously calm as he raised his eyes. “Being able to return from the wasteland completely unscathed… I suppose that counts as surviving the battlefield.”

Lin Yan chuckled awkwardly. “That deployment hardly counted as true training. He mostly just went out to stretch his legs and didn’t manage to secure any real military merit. He’ll only prove himself truly capable when he makes a significant contribution and earns the right to personally claim credit before Your Honor.”

He gave Lin Ziyan a firm pat on the back and smiled. “Ziyan, this is Chief Judge Duan.”

Looking up and fully registering the man’s face, Lin Ziyan’s knees buckled. He collapsed onto the floor.

His eyes were wide with sheer, unadulterated terror. “Dad… is he really the Chief Judge?”

“Get up!” Lin Yan hissed, mortified. “What kind of embarrassing behavior is this in front of the Chief Judge?!”

Duan Xiaolin tilted his head, watching the spectacle with dark amusement. “Young Master Lin, why are you so nervous?”

Lin Ziyan pointed a trembling finger at him. “You…”

Duan Xiaolin’s long, narrow eyes narrowed slightly. “What?”

Under the blinding glare of the overhead incandescent lights, the man’s tall, imposing figure radiated an aura so suffocatingly intimidating it was almost impossible to look at him directly.

Lin Yan desperately tried to smooth things over. “My son rarely participates in high-level headquarters meetings. This is his first time formally meeting Your Honor, so it’s understandable that he’s a little overwhelmed…”

The man chuckled softly and stood up. “Commander Lin, quite a few members of your Lin family have recently been taken into custody down in the water dungeon. You don’t think I’m deliberately targeting the Lin family, do you?”

Lin Yan was visibly startled, but he forced a tight smile. “How could I possibly think such a thing! If Your Honor sees fit to investigate, then by all means, investigate thoroughly. The Lin family will cooperate unconditionally.”

“Good.”

Duan Xiaolin cast a brief glance toward Qiu Chao.

Qiu Chao immediately understood the silent command. He reached into his metal case and began extracting his ‘props’.

The heavy doors opened, and several of Lin’s subordinates were dragged into the room by Franlun operatives. Lin Ziyan immediately recognized two of them as his personal bodyguards.

Without a word of warning, Qiu Chao began brutally interrogating them right there in the office, acting as if no one else were in the room. His methods were horrifically precise and exceptionally cruel.

In just a few short breaths, the pristine office was flooded with the pungent, sickening stench of fresh blood.

One of the men on the floor had already died from the sheer agony, yet his nervous system was still convulsing uncontrollably, his ruined body writhing on the carpet like a skinned worm.

Finally, one of the surviving guards couldn’t take the torture anymore. He broke.

“I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything! The Lin family has been secretly abducting refugees and forcibly extracting their crystal cores! They’ve been conducting illegal biological experiments non-stop! I have… I can show you the evidence! It’s all hidden in the Lin family’s basement laboratories… They even knew that the natural disasters were coming, so they’ve been hoarding refugees to harvest their organs as emergency biological reserves!”

The guard hysterically vomited the horrifying truth all at once.

With every single word he screamed, the faces of the Lin father and son turned a paler shade of white.

“How dare you?!” Lin Yan roared, pointing a shaking finger at his subordinate. “Who instructed you to spew these lies?! You’re making baseless accusations! The Lin family has always acted with absolute integrity! How can we tolerate you spouting this treasonous nonsense to frame us?!”

Qiu Chao chuckled darkly, wiping a bloody scalpel on a cloth. “One person’s testimony might be considered unreliable. But if the testimonies of ten people, or a hundred people… all perfectly align, how does Commander Lin think this case should be judged?”

“That’s… that’s impossible!” Lin Yan stammered.

“If you don’t believe me, you are welcome to accompany me down to the water dungeon to hear it for yourself,” Qiu Chao offered brightly. “Franlun’s water dungeon is incredibly spacious; we’ve managed to fit quite a lot of your people down there.”

He looked down at the bleeding guard. “If you had just confessed sooner, Commander Lin’s son wouldn’t have had to suffer so much.”

Lin Yan’s head snapped up. “What does any of this have to do with my son?!”

This time, Duan Xiaolin didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he slowly crouched down directly in front of the trembling Lin Ziyan.

He smoothly drew a suppressed pistol, cocked it, and without a shred of hesitation, fired a single shot point-blank into Lin Ziyan’s kneecap.

The bullet shattered the bone instantly.

Lin Ziyan broke down, shrieking in absolute agony.

“It is my sworn duty to investigate,” Duan Xiaolin said slowly, entirely unfazed by the screaming. “I hope Commander Lin will not mind my methods. You see, Young Master Lin has been in frequent contact with various refugees over the past few days. Mysteriously, every single one of them disappeared without a trace, only to be found dead the very next morning, their bodies covered in fatal wounds. Furthermore, there was a convenient string of hit-and-run car accidents a short while ago that severely injured several pedestrians and crippled their legs. Naturally, I am obligated to investigate these matters thoroughly.”

“Your Honor! This has to be a misunderstanding!” Lin Yan cried out, horrified. “My son is indeed a bit playful and reckless, but he would never murder people in cold blood!”

“Commander Lin, I sincerely hope you can come to understand that refugees are also human beings. Their lives possess value. The only way I can ensure you comprehend the gravity of their pain is to let you experience it firsthand.”

Without even blinking, the man shifted his aim and fired a second shot, permanently crippling Lin Ziyan’s other leg.

He then reached out with his free hand, his cold fingers clamping down viciously around Lin Ziyan’s throat. He squeezed, instantly cutting off the man’s airway and turning his face a deathly, liverish purple.

“Young Master Lin,” Duan Xiaolin murmured softly, “you seemed incredibly surprised to see me tonight.”

He leaned in closer, his dark eyes practically glowing with malice. “Can you tell me exactly why you are so afraid of me?”

Lin Ziyan felt as though he had been plunged into the deepest abyss of hell.

This was the first time in his sheltered life he had ever been forced to confront the suffocating, absolute terror of impending death. The crushing pressure around his throat grew heavier by the second. He could vividly hear the sickening sound of his own cervical vertebrae beginning to crack under the strain.

His body began to tremble uncontrollably, violent convulsions tearing through his frame as oxygen deprivation set in. The excruciating agony of his shattered knees somehow felt insignificant compared to the terrifying, inescapable pressure crushing his windpipe.

“Did you do something wrong?” Duan Xiaolin whispered. “Or… did those arrogant eyes of yours happen to look at someone they shouldn’t have?”

Lin Yan stood frozen, completely incapable of understanding what the Chief Judge was implying.

By the time Lin Ziyan’s oxygen-starved brain finally processed the threat, the man had already pressed the smoking barrel of his pistol firmly against the young master’s right eye.

The cold, black muzzle was jammed ruthlessly into his eye socket, pressing so hard it felt as though it might rupture the globe entirely. The firing pin sat a mere millimeter away from the fragile tissue of his eye.

Lin Ziyan opened his mouth, desperately trying to scream, but it felt as if every bone in his body had been pulverized. Even the slightest twitch sent agonizing shockwaves through his system.

This man was unspeakably cruel. On the surface, it appeared he was merely dispensing a standard, albeit brutal, punishment. But every single strike was calculated to inflict an excruciating, soul-shattering agony that defied description.

Lin Yan was completely dumbfounded.

He had witnessed Duan Xiaolin’s ruthless methods before. That was exactly why he considered himself a wise man; he had willingly surrendered his personal stockpile of crystal cores early on to ensure the Lin family wasn’t targeted in the initial purges. He had never imagined that the horrific interrogation techniques usually reserved for hardened criminals would be unleashed upon his own son.

Seeing Lin Ziyan bleeding profusely onto the carpet, his legs ruined, Lin Yan broke down. “Your Honor! Please, I beg you to investigate this matter thoroughly! My son would never do such things! I implore you to review the case files—if not for me, then for the sake of his grandfather and his history with the Marshal!”

Duan Xiaolin remained entirely unmoved, the muzzle of his gun still pressed bruisingly hard into Lin Ziyan’s eye. “Investigate? But we already have.”

He let out a cold laugh. “Witness testimonies, forensic data, physical evidence… Whatever Commander Lin wishes to review, Franlun has it all meticulously documented.”

“That…”

“San She,” Duan Xiaolin called out.

The terrifying operative stepped out of the shadows, immediately presenting a stack of physical evidence files and forensic reports to Lin Yan. Immediately afterward, a holographic projection flared to life, displaying the recorded testimonies of several key witnesses.

“The surviving victims are currently recovering in the military hospital, and they are fully prepared to testify,” San She stated coldly. “Whatever further evidence the Commander requires, Franlun will be more than happy to provide.”

Lin Yan personally reviewed the data. Every single piece of evidence was absolutely irrefutable.

He stared down at Lin Ziyan in absolute horror and disbelief. “You unfilial son!”

He was only just now discovering the sheer scale of the heinous, sloppy atrocities his idiot son had been committing outside their walls! Not only had he committed these crimes, but he had managed to get caught completely red-handed!

“Commander Lin, Franlun will settle the Lin family’s extensive accounts one by one. We still have plenty of time,” Duan Xiaolin said smoothly, casually adjusting his glasses with his free hand. “As for Young Master Lin… what a pity.”

He pulled the trigger.

A muffled crack echoed through the room. A spray of warm blood splattered across Duan Xiaolin’s pristine wrist.

He accepted the clean handkerchief Qiu Chao silently offered and meticulously wiped his fingertips. He completely ignored Lin Ziyan, who was now writhing on the floor, clutching his ruined right eye socket and screaming in unimaginably horrific agony.

Duan Xiaolin calmly stood up and returned to his armchair. Seeing Lin Yan trembling, still frozen in absolute shock, he curled his thin lips into a terrifying smile.

“I apologize for the mess. That last gunshot was a strictly personal matter between myself and Young Master Lin; it does not count as part of Franlun’s official punishment. If Commander Lin has any objections to my conduct, please feel free to file a formal complaint.”

Chapter 281: There Are Still Children

Lin Yan emerged from the office, still violently shaken and ashen-faced.

His crisp military uniform, as well as his hands, were now stained with blood.

Behind him, two of his subordinates were awkwardly dragging the unconscious Lin Ziyan out of the room.

The bloodstains trailing across the floor pierced Lin Yan’s heart, making him feel as though half his life had been drained away. The future of the Lin family was suddenly looking incredibly precarious. With the state they were currently in, he feared they might not even survive the coming natural disasters.

He let out a heavy sigh. “Be gentle,” he muttered to his men. “Don’t jostle his injuries.”

What a horrific, unmitigated disaster this had turned out to be!

Ma Mengjia had been forced to wait right at the outer entrance of the Franlun building. She had tried to go inside, but the terrifying, masked operatives guarding the doors looked incredibly menacing. They had flatly refused her entry, completely denying her any chance to get closer. She was left standing outside, utterly blind to the horrors unfolding inside the headquarters.

She had been waiting for a long time, and her legs were aching from standing. If she hadn’t been so desperate to secure her ties with the Lin family, she never would have waited this long in such abysmal weather. The gale-force wind felt like icy knives slicing into her very bones.

Taking a deep breath, she finally spotted Lin Yan emerging from the entrance. She immediately instructed a subordinate to bring an umbrella and rushed over to greet him.

She plastered on her sweetest smile. “Dad, you’ve finally come out! I was so worried about you and Brother Lin, so I had the driver bring me here. The weather is so awful tonight, and it’s freezing out. Please take care of your health… By the way, where is Brother Lin? Why didn’t he come out with you? Was he asked to stay behind by the Chief Judge?”

Her heart leaped at the prospect. If Lin Ziyan was kept behind by the Chief Judge, it must mean there were important matters to arrange!

She had just heard a brief run-down from the subordinates regarding exactly who the Chief Judge was. He was an absolute titan at headquarters. As long as Lin Ziyan performed well tonight, she would never have to worry about her status, wealth, or power ever again.

As soon as Ma Mengjia finished speaking, Lin Yan shot her a look of pure, unadulterated disgust. “Shut up! Is this a place a woman like you can just casually waltz up to?!”

Ma Mengjia recoiled, startled. “Dad, I just wanted to come and pick you and Brother Lin up. It’s so late, and I was worried you might get hurt on your way back…”

“I said shut up! A woman like you has no right to speak here!”

Ma Mengjia was so humiliated and angered by the screaming that she almost burst into tears. She didn’t dare argue further. Lowering her head, she asked cautiously, “Dad, where is Brother Lin?”

Lin Yan’s expression twisted with a complex mixture of unbearable heartache and seething anger. He didn’t answer.

A moment later, Ma Mengjia finally saw the man being carried out by two guards from behind him.

His face was completely covered in blood.

He looked incredibly frightening. It was especially horrific around his right eye socket, where the eyeball had clearly been obliterated.

Upon closer inspection, Ma Mengjia gasped in pure shock. Her eyes widened in absolute terror, and her knees buckled.

Fortunately, one of the nearby subordinates rushed forward to catch her. That was the only reason she, a heavily pregnant woman, didn’t collapse directly onto the hard pavement and potentially injure the baby.

Mindful of her pregnancy, Lin Yan forcibly reigned in a fraction of his impatience. “Go back to the estate. Ziyan has been brutally tortured here. Leave the rest of the fallout to me.”

“Tortured… how could he be tortured?!” Ma Mengjia screamed, her voice cracking with despair. “Who would dare do this to him?! Why did they ruin his eye?! And what happened to his legs?! Why is he covered in so much blood?!”

She lunged forward, frantically patting Lin Ziyan’s face.

The eyeball had been severely, permanently destroyed, the gruesome injury bleeding heavily down his cheek. Whoever had done this had been unspeakably ruthless, deliberately targeting only his most vulnerable points.

“Brother Lin! Wake up! Why is this happening?!”

Lin Yan pinched the bridge of his nose in exhaustion. “Take her back to the estate. She is absolutely forbidden from coming to a place like this ever again.”

With that, he turned and led his men away, leaving her behind.

Ma Mengjia stood there in disbelief for a long time, a bone-deep coldness sweeping over her entire body. As she stared after them, a wave of revulsion also washed over her at the sight of Lin Ziyan’s mangled, grotesque appearance; the sheer gore of it made her skin crawl.

“Miss, you should really get in the car,” a subordinate urged gently. “The rain is getting heavier. If we don’t leave right now, the streets will flood, and we won’t be able to get back at all. If you keep standing out in this storm, what will happen to the baby?”

Yes, she was carrying a child! That child was her absolute meal ticket; it could not be harmed!

Ma Mengjia didn’t even register getting into the car. She sat in the backseat in a complete daze, her mind relentlessly flashing with the horrific image of Lin Ziyan’s ruined face… Only one terrifying thought occupied her mind: What is going to happen to me and my child now? What will become of us?

As the car began to move, Ma Mengjia was still immersed in her panicked grief, but she slowly forced herself to focus.

I need to go find the Marshal!

I’ll go find the Marshal and demand an explanation! Lin Ziyan cannot just be crippled like this without consequence!

But she couldn’t understand why Lin Yan had seemed so oddly resigned and terrified just now…

As the car drove slowly down the flooded street, it happened to pass by a man descending the exterior staircase of a nearby building.

She saw Duan Xiaolin.

The man’s perfect, sharp profile was almost impossible to look away from. His tall, imposing figure looked even more striking against the backdrop of the stormy darkness.

Ma Mengjia instinctively reached for the window switch, wanting to call out to him and ask for help. But then her eyes fell to his side.

She saw the suppressed pistol in his hand, its black muzzle still dripping thick, fresh blood onto the pavement.

Several terrifying, masked operatives were following respectfully right behind him, reporting something to him. The man lifted his thin eyelids, adjusted his silver-rimmed glasses with his free hand, smoothly holstered his weapon, and slid into his own waiting car.

By the time Ma Mengjia fully registered what she was seeing, their vehicles had already passed each other, widening the distance between them.

Her lips parted slightly in silent horror.

Those masked men trailing him… they were all operatives of Franlun. Why on earth were Franlun executioners acting like Duan Xiaolin’s subordinates?

What exactly was Brother Duan’s true identity?

And that bloody gun in his hand… Could Lin Ziyan’s horrific injuries somehow be related to him? But no, that couldn’t be right; Lin Ziyan’s injuries were clearly inflicted by the Chief Judge of Franlun…

She didn’t dare think any further.

Whether the truth was good or bad, she suddenly had the sinking realization that she absolutely did not want to know the answer.

CRACK!

A deafening clap of thunder echoed violently across the sky, the vibrations so intense they felt as though they were going to shatter people’s eardrums.

Pei Xiqing jolted awake with a gasp.

She shot up in bed, clutching the blankets against her chest, her heart hammering wildly.

Outside the window, the torrential rain was still pouring relentlessly. The sky was as dark and thick as ink; she couldn’t see anything clearly through the glass.

How long had she been asleep?

She fumbled for the clock. It read ten o’clock.

Wait—no. It was already 10:00 a.m. the following day.

Pei Xiqing immediately scrambled out of bed and yanked the heavy curtains all the way open.

The sky outside was pitch black. There wasn’t a single ray of natural sunlight penetrating the dense cloud cover. The only illumination came from the vibrant, flickering neon lights of the various skyscrapers within the headquarters grid, mimicking a perpetual night.

It seemed the entire planetary day-night cycle had been completely thrown into chaos.

After quickly washing up, she headed downstairs and poured some fresh food into Xiaobai’s bowl.

Duan Xiaolin wasn’t home. He was likely still stuck at Franlun headquarters, desperately coordinating the disaster response schedules.

She knelt down and gently patted the massive dog’s head. “Are you scared, baby?”

Xiaobai immediately lay down beside her, affectionately nuzzling his large head against her calf for comfort.

The weather outside was absolutely apocalyptic, but thankfully, the temperature inside the villa was warm and comfortable, and their heavy-duty refrigerator was fully stocked. Leaning against Xiaobai’s warm, sturdy bulk helped her suppress a lot of her lingering anxiety.

Wrapping herself in a thick, cozy blanket, Pei Xiqing played a game of fetch with Xiaobai using a durable chew-bone. No matter what corner of the living room she threw it to, Xiaobai would happily retrieve it and drop it at her feet.

Another massive boom of thunder rumbled across the sky, shaking the floorboards.

She couldn’t help but hug the dog tightly.

This is terrifying…

In the days that followed, the capital was constantly battered by severe, unnatural weather and a barrage of escalating natural disasters. In just three short days, humanity had already begun to feel the true, overwhelming power of this planetary cataclysm.

Pei Xiqing didn’t step foot outside once. She remained comfortably nestled on her soft living room sofa. Duan Xiaolin would return periodically between crisis meetings to feed her, constantly bringing back lavish seafood spreads and other delicious, hot meals.

If it weren’t for the endless, oppressive torrential rain raging outside the windows, her life would have felt no different than it did before the storm hit. She ate, slept, woke up to play with Xiaobai, and spent hours connected to the military’s secure network, reading various classified documents and reviewing the scattered intelligence reports Ling Lang managed to transmit from the front lines outside the walls.

It was already 2:00 p.m. on the fourth day. She was sitting cross-legged on the fluffy living room carpet, deeply engrossed in reading the latest apocalyptic news bulletins on her datapad, when she suddenly thought she heard a noise.

Someone was knocking on the gate.

The heavy thud of the perimeter gate was surprisingly distinct, even over the roar of the rain.

Xiaobai had noticed it before she did. His ears had perked up seconds earlier, and he was now staring warily in the direction of the front entrance, emitting a low growl.

Pei Xiqing stood up. Still wearing her slippers, she grabbed a heavy umbrella from the stand and walked out into the courtyard with Xiaobai by her side.

The perimeter of the villa was secured by a towering, incredibly sturdy wrought-iron gate. The metal slats were packed tightly together, allowing those inside to see out clearly, while completely obscuring the interior from anyone on the street.

Holding the umbrella against the wind, she walked up to the gate and quickly pulled up the external camera feed on the biometric recognition panel to see who was standing outside.

Chapter 282: Is It Hard to Guess?

Ma Mengjia stood outside the gate, clutching her umbrella with trembling hands. Her eyes were red and swollen, and she was accompanied by a few of the men who had been with Lin Ziyan earlier. She kept slamming her hand against the iron gate, her expression a mix of despair and frantic pleading.

“Miss Pei! Are you inside? Please, I’m begging you, just see me! Miss Pei!”

Pei Xiqing activated the intercom system. “Ma Mengjia, what are you doing here? How did you even find this place?”

Ma Mengjia’s eyes widened in surprise when she heard the voice, but she could only see the imposing, locked door. A flicker of hope ignited in her eyes. “Please, just see me! I found this place through an officer named Qiu Chao. Please, you have to open the door—I have something incredibly important to tell you!”

It had taken the Lin family’s extensive network of connections to even get a moment of Qiu Chao’s time. He had only offered them a single, cryptic piece of information: the person living at this address was the only one with the power to plead for mercy on Duan Xiaolin’s behalf. After days of frantic searching and dead ends, she had finally tracked the location down to Pei Xiqing.

Pei Xiqing made no move to unlock the gate. Beside her, Xiaobai let out a few low, protective barks at the door, which were enough to send the men accompanying Ma Mengjia scurrying back in fear.

“There are parasites in there… how could there be parasites in there?!” one of the men shrieked.

Ma Mengjia was startled, but she desperately ignored the fear. “Miss Pei, please, for the sake of the villagers who saved you back then, and for the sake of my sister Ma Mengxiang who spent so much time chopping firewood for you—I really have something vital to tell you! Please!”

“Just tell me now,” Pei Xiqing replied, her grip tightening on the umbrella handle. “The situation outside is incredibly dangerous and complicated. It isn’t convenient for me to meet with you, especially considering you are Lin Ziyan’s wife. I’m not going to open the door.”

Ma Mengjia hesitated, then blurted out, “Brother Duan… who exactly is he? Can you tell me the truth?”

“Why are you asking about that all of a sudden?”

“I saw Brother Duan at Franlun a few days ago, but I couldn’t figure out his identity. The staff there wouldn’t reveal anything… And that Commander Qiu Chao said that you were the only one who could save Brother Lin, so I came to try. I never imagined you were the one actually living here.”

Pei Xiqing asked, puzzled, “Save whom? Lin Ziyan?”

“Yes!” Ma Mengjia shouted. “Please, you have to save him! He’s dying! The people from Franlun are going to drag him to the water dungeon for interrogation; he won’t survive that!”

Pei Xiqing frowned. “Why was he taken to the water dungeon in the first place?”

“I…”

“Only the most heinous criminals are sent to the water dungeon,” Pei Xiqing cut in, curling her lip. “Petty thieves are usually just punished or locked in solitary confinement. What did he do to get in there? Could it be because he enjoyed running over refugees with his car, bullying the weak, and harming his own kind?”

Ma Mengjia went speechless, her breath hitching.

“How… how did you know?” she finally whispered.

“Is it hard to guess?” Pei Xiqing asked. It had been obvious the moment she laid eyes on Lin Ziyan.

“But he… he didn’t mean it! If you give him a chance, he can change!”

“That isn’t something I can get involved in,” Pei Xiqing said firmly. “I’m sorry, you’ve come to the wrong person. I cannot help you with this.”

“But who is Brother Duan, really? What is his relationship with Franlun? If you can’t help, I’ll risk everything and go find Brother Duan directly. He’ll surely save someone for the sake of our shared history in the village!”

“And what do you think that would accomplish?”

Ma Mengjia faltered. “I don’t know…” She then boldly speculated, “Is he… is he a wealthy merchant who supplies Franlun with luxury goods?”

Pei Xiqing laughed. “That doesn’t even come close.”

If he were just a businessman in a place like Franlun—a city that literally consumed its own people—he wouldn’t have much leverage. Ma Mengjia figured it would be better to go back and beg the old patriarch of the Lin family for another strategy. But she had already tried visiting the Marshal’s residence, only to be completely shut out; the Marshal was avoiding all members of the Lin family. Many were already whispering about the impending downfall of the Lin household.

That’s impossible! Ma Mengjia thought.

Suddenly, Pei Xiqing asked, “Haven’t you inquired about the presiding judge of Franlun?”

“Of course I have! You don’t need to remind me; the Lin family has people for that.”

“Since the Lin family has those resources, why haven’t they discovered the presiding judge’s surname?”

She pondered for a second. “It seems to be… Duan?”

In an instant, the world in Ma Mengjia’s mind underwent a cataclysmic shift.

The gate remained closed. There was no sound from within. Ma Mengjia collapsed to the ground, her mind reeling from the shocking revelation that “Brother Duan” was the presiding judge of Franlun.

Why… why?! How can Pei Xiqing be this lucky?!

They had hidden it so perfectly. They had deceived her, deceived everyone—they had lied to them all so thoroughly! If she had known the truth earlier, why would she have been stupid enough to prioritize saving Lin Ziyan at headquarters?

Pei Xiqing watched from the second-floor balcony as Ma Mengjia was helped into her car, limping and broken. She couldn’t help but send a message to Qiu Chao.

“Why did you reveal my identity to her?”

Qiu Chao’s voice came back, grinning. “If it weren’t for Brother Duan’s explicit instructions, do you think I’d dare to act so recklessly? So? Are you going to plead for Lin Ziyan now? As long as you say the word, Brother Duan will make an exception just for you~”

Pei Xiqing smiled wryly. “No need. Let’s just stick to Franlun’s rules.”

“Understood.”

She hung up.

It seemed that Duan Xiaolin had granted the villagers a measure of mercy. He hadn’t truly exterminated them all. After all, the villagers were mostly simple, honest people. Otherwise, he never would have agreed to let Ma Mengjia come and plead for their lives.

However, Ma Mengjia was one thing; she might have a chance to repent. But Lin Ziyan could not. He was rotten to the core. If he were allowed to continue, he would harm countless refugees long before they were ever touched by the natural disasters.

Pei Xiqing sent another brief message to Qiu Chao.

“Please keep an eye on Ma Mengjia, Brother Qiu. Make sure she doesn’t lose that baby.”

Qiu Chao replied: No problem.

Pei Xiqing sank back onto the sofa. She closed her eyes, feeling a heavy, creeping exhaustion. Outside, the faint, desperate screams and cries for help could still be heard as countless people fled, seeking refuge from the escalating natural disaster.

There was nothing she could change. If a cataclysm was truly inevitable, they could only face it in the best way they knew how.

Like this novel? Read Advance Chapters (PDF & EPUB Format)