Quiet Madness

When Lin Meng heard the voice behind her, it felt like a jolt of electricity shot through her body from head to toe. She felt rooted to the spot, without even the strength to turn her head.

Cold arms wrapped around her neck. “Mengmeng-jie, let’s go home first.”

The world spun. She forced out one trembling word: “No—”

But the next moment, the person behind her hauled her into a car, and Lin Meng’s mind went completely blank. She tried to struggle, but that familiar ache and itch rose at her neck again.

She slumped into the person’s arms and lost consciousness.

*

Lin Meng felt as though she had fallen into a desert. She had finally found an oasis, but the cool water had become scalding under the blazing sun. She could even feel her throat about to catch fire.

“So... so uncomfortable...”

The next moment, a pair of ice-cold hands caressed her burning cheeks. Like grasping a lifeline, Lin Meng gripped one of them.

The coolness eased the scorching sensation that made it hard to breathe. She nuzzled against the hand, clinging to it. “Thirsty, so thirsty...”

As soon as the words left her mouth, something warm and soft pressed against her lips, and cool water was transferred into her mouth. She craved that water, the thing that could free her from the burning torment.

A wet, slippery tongue swept across her mouth, and she drank from that source almost madly, until breathing was no longer difficult.

...

When Lin Meng woke again, she was still staring at the ceiling of the same villa she had been in before. The scene she had seen through the coffee shop window seemed like a dream; in truth, she had never escaped this villa.

Lin Meng wanted to get up, but her whole body was sore and weak. When she turned her head to the side, she found an IV drip still in her hand.

What had happened to her?

Just as she was trying to make sense of her situation, the bedroom door handle turned, and that familiar figure walked in.

When Yun Huaizhu saw that Lin Meng was awake, surprise flickered across her haggard face. “Mengmeng-jie, you’re finally awake! You slept so long—I was worried sick.”

Seeing Yun Huaizhu, Lin Meng realized that those images in her memory were most likely not hallucinations.

Yun Huaizhu walked over, sat on the edge of the bed, and took Lin Meng’s hand—the one without the IV. “Mengmeng-jie, really, you’re a grown woman, and you went out without adding a layer. It’s almost November, the nights are so cold, so you caught a chill and ran a high fever.”

Hearing this, Lin Meng spoke hoarsely. “Zhuzhu, why... why did you do this?”

Yun Huaizhu gazed at Lin Meng’s face. Last night, Su Yutang’s pheromones had triggered her heat cycle early. But given Lin Meng’s current condition, she probably couldn’t help her through it, so she had used a large dose of suppressants to endure it.

She had locked Lin Meng in this villa in the suburbs, far from any people, precisely to prevent unsavory characters from finding her and to keep Lin Meng from running away.

But she hadn’t expected that Lin Meng would guess the villa’s password and even find the phone she had hidden.

From here to the national highway, it would take at least two hours on foot. When she had brought the feverish Lin Meng back last night, she had discovered the blisters on Lin Meng’s big toe. It had broken her heart to see them, but she couldn’t not do this.

Su Yutang was clearly out to destroy her. She had originally planned to settle her career in the country and then take Lin Meng abroad to live. She hadn’t expected Su Yutang to want to hunt her down completely, leaving her no chance at all.

If it were only Su Yutang, that would be one thing, but the key was that Huo Yi might also be involved. She was powerless against the two of them, and sometimes couldn’t attend to Lin Meng. What if one of those two, like her, wanted to possess Lin Meng for themselves?

So she could only strike first and temporarily lock Lin Meng here.

Yun Huaizhu didn’t directly answer Lin Meng’s question. She reached out and touched Lin Meng’s forehead. “Mm, the fever’s gone, but Mengmeng-jie’s health seems to have deteriorated a lot. It shows that Huo Yi and that Eldest Miss Su didn’t take good care of you when they took you out.”

“Zhuzhu... I’m fine now. When are you going to send me back? Or I can go back by myself. I still have work...”

Yun Huaizhu suppressed the gloom about to show on her face. She narrowed her eyes and smiled. “No need, Mengmeng-jie. I’ve already helped you submit a resignation to your company. You don’t need to work now. You don’t need to toil outside anymore. Whatever you want, I can give you. However much money you want, I can give you too. As long as you stay here obediently.”

A flicker of surprise flashed through Lin Meng’s eyes when she heard this. “Why?”

Yun Huaizhu’s cool fingers stroked her cheek. “Because I’ve been a bit busy lately, and it might not be convenient for me to go to your home to take care of you, so I simply brought you here. But don’t worry, Mengmeng-jie, this won’t last too long. Once I’ve dealt with everything, the two of us will fly far away together, okay?”

Although Yun Huaizhu spoke with a kind smile throughout, Lin Meng could feel the restless madness stirring inside her.

She grabbed the hand Yun Huaizhu was using to stroke her. “Zhuzhu, even so, you don’t have to lock me up here. As long as you talk to me properly, we can still...”

“Can still what?” Yun Huaizhu’s expression changed abruptly. “The moment I let my guard down, you get spirited away by Huo Yi. You went traveling with her without telling me. I locked you here because I was afraid your heart would lean toward them, but you still escaped from here, and you even went to Su Yutang’s apartment. Were you trying to ask her for help, to say I imprisoned you?”

Lin Meng’s eyes widened abruptly. “No! That’s not it. I only saw you two chatting when I came back... I saw on TV that your family went bankrupt, and I thought you would...”

Seeing how nervous Lin Meng was, Yun Huaizhu suddenly laughed. She stepped forward and embraced Lin Meng. “You thought I would abandon my pride and bow to her, then beg her to give me a way out, right?”

Lin Meng choked up instantly at those words.

Yun Huaizhu smiled helplessly. “Maybe in the past I would have done that, but now I have you. Apart from you, I won’t bow or compromise to anyone.”

Her words made Lin Meng’s heart tremble.

So Yun Huaizhu meeting with Su Yutang wasn’t following the plot. But if Su Yutang continued to target Yun Huaizhu, how could Yun Huaizhu’s death trap be resolved?

Thinking of this, Lin Meng pushed Yun Huaizhu away. She looked at her with deep worry. “Zhuzhu, let me out. As long as I talk to Eldest Miss Su properly, she definitely won’t target you anymore.”

When Yun Huaizhu heard Lin Meng mention Su Yutang again, the emotions she had long suppressed finally erupted. “How do you know that if you talk to her, she won’t target me? Are your words that effective on her? Is she your dog?”

Lin Meng had never seen Yun Huaizhu so fierce and stern. She was so shocked she didn’t know what to say.

“That’s right... maybe your words do work on her. Because she’s the kind of person who stands at the very top of Jing City. She’s arrogant to everyone, but only to you is she so accommodating. Even a fool can see she likes you. But what about me? I like you too. How can I watch you go beg her for my sake?” After saying this, the veins on Yun Huaizhu’s forehead bulged, and her expression became aggrieved yet ferocious.

Lin Meng shook her head desperately. “No, that’s not it, Zhuzhu. I only want you to stay away from that pain. If doing this can help you, I don’t think it’s a humiliation. Your affection is precious. If I’ve made you sad, then I don’t deserve your affection—it’s my fault.”

“Enough!”

Yun Huaizhu roared, and the bedroom instantly fell silent.

She grabbed Lin Meng’s shoulders almost obsessively, forcing Lin Meng to look at her. “You don’t need to doubt my love for you. What I care about now is whether you have ever loved me. No... not loved me, liked me. The kind of liking between lovers. Even if you liked me for just one moment, I would feel satisfied. That’s why I care about you, why I don’t want to send you into someone else’s arms. I can only do this, otherwise I’ll go mad—I don’t know what else I might do!”

Yun Huaizhu had still revealed her most unsightly side to Lin Meng. In the end, she said one last thing, almost despairingly, weakly, lightly: “Do you understand?”

When Yun Huaizhu asked whether Lin Meng had ever liked her for even a moment, Lin Meng suddenly felt her heart tremble in an unusual way.

What Lin Meng had initially liked was probably the gentle, strong, kind, and beautiful Yun Huaizhu from the novel, but that was merely a reader’s affection for a two-dimensional character. Yet after truly coming into contact with Yun Huaizhu, she discovered that the real Yun Huaizhu was quite different from the one in the novel in many ways. But the real Yun Huaizhu was just as she had imagined.

Perhaps she really did like Yun Huaizhu.

But she couldn’t tell what kind of liking it was.

She understood Yun Huaizhu’s wounds, knew Yun Huaizhu’s persistent obsession all along.

Yun Huaizhu was not a delicate little white flower, but green grass growing on a high ridge, still tenacious after wind and rain.

In that novel, divorced from the current plot, every time Yun Huaizhu begged for mercy, every compromise, consumed her self-respect and her tenacious vitality. Wild grass might burn away in autumn, but when spring comes it still draws nutrients and grows wildly.

But in the novel, she pulled out her own roots one by one, until she could only compromise, could only sink into the boundary between love and hate, desire and despair.

When Lin Meng truly understood Yun Huaizhu, she realized that when she had read the novel, she hadn’t actually cared about the character’s experiences—only about that ‘together’ ending.

She actually owed Yun Huaizhu an apology.

But she hoped Yun Huaizhu would just fall into the abyss like this.

Lin Meng’s eyes gradually grew moist. She grabbed Yun Huaizhu’s arm. “I’m sorry, Zhuzhu, I’m sorry...”

She kept repeating this one sentence. The obsessive thought in Yun Huaizhu’s mind—to possess her regardless of her wishes—suddenly faded a little.

Why was Lin Meng saying so many sorries to her?

Was it because Lin Meng had never liked her the way a lover would?

Was everything just her own wishful thinking?

When Yun Huaizhu saw that Lin Meng’s saline was almost finished, she lifted Lin Meng’s hand. “Mengmeng-jie, you don’t need to apologize to me. My liking you is voluntary. Whether you like me or not, I don’t care. As long as you can stay by my side, that’s enough.”

After saying this, she pulled out the needle from the back of Lin Meng’s hand and pressed on the bleeding spot.

Pain is only temporary. No matter how severe the wound, sooner or later it will heal.

So she really didn’t care whether Lin Meng liked her or not. She only needed to keep Lin Meng by her side.

...

A week passed. Su Yutang stood in the hallway of Lin Meng’s rental apartment, staring gloomily at the tightly closed door.

She had only gone to bed to let Lin Meng go home; she hadn’t expected that several people would end up waiting for Lin Meng to submit a resignation to her company.

Su Yutang had immediately sensed something was wrong, so she had called Lin Meng. But she had called more than a dozen times and Lin Meng hadn’t answered. Frantic with worry, she had rushed to Lin Meng’s home, only to find that Lin Meng wasn’t there at all.

At the time, she had still comforted herself: Lin Meng couldn’t possibly have left Jing City just like that. Lin Meng was a person with principles; she hadn’t finished her work handover, so she would at least have to come to the company again.

But Su Yutang waited for a long time. She even went to Lin Meng’s doorstep every day and waited for an hour, but Lin Meng still didn’t appear.

Had Lin Meng really made up her mind to stay away from her?

Thinking of this, Su Yutang slammed her fist against the wall.

No. She absolutely would not allow Lin Meng to escape from her side. Even if Lin Meng ran to the ends of the earth, she would drag her back!

Just as Su Yutang took out her phone to have someone investigate Lin Meng’s whereabouts, Si Bingxia happened to call her. “Eldest Miss, we’ve found Miss Cen. Also, our people have discovered that Miss Huo Yi and Yun Huaizhu have been in frequent contact lately. They seem to be discussing some kind of collaboration.”

Hearing this, Su Yutang’s expression suddenly turned angry. She gripped her phone tightly. “Send more people to watch the two of them. Report to me immediately if anything happens.”

“Yes, I understand.”

After hanging up, Su Yutang, almost unable to control herself, clenched her fist and smashed it against the wall.

If Huo Yi could betray her once, she could betray her a second time. Perhaps Huo Yi was now thinking of how to conspire with Yun Huaizhu to eliminate her, this stumbling block.

But the Su family had stood firm in Jing City for nearly a century, and not just on financial power. If Huo Yi and Yun Huaizhu thought they could topple her, they were dreaming!

She had now located Cen Jingshu. Yun Huaizhu’s means of threatening her were no longer effective. Now she only needed to deliver the final blow to Yun Huaizhu and kick her out of the game.

As for Huo Yi... once Yun Huaizhu was out of her sight, she would naturally deal with this old fox properly.

The most important thing now was still to find Lin Meng first.

...

Lin Meng walked to the landline phone at the corner of the second-floor landing. She tried dialing a number, but it failed. Then she followed the direction of the phone cord plug and found that the cord had long been unplugged.

Since Yun Huaizhu wanted to cut off her contact with the outside world, even if she plugged it back in, it probably wouldn’t work.

But Lin Meng still held onto a sliver of hope. She tried plugging it in, but the result was as she expected.

Last time, Yun Huaizhu had hidden Lin Meng’s phone too shallowly, which had allowed Lin Meng to find it quickly. So this time, she had given Lin Meng an entertainment phone that couldn’t send messages or make calls—a way to relieve Lin Meng’s boredom.

After all, according to her plan, Lin Meng would still be living in this villa for another half month.

Seeing that she couldn’t send messages or make calls, Lin Meng tried the password lock. The password on the lock was still the one she had cracked, but Yun Huaizhu had also set up a dual fingerprint recognition on the lock.

If Yun Huaizhu didn’t personally come to open the door, she would truly be trapped here forever.

The thought of being trapped here with no contact with the outside world made Lin Meng inexplicably restless. Recently, she had been so anxious that her appetite had worsened, but...

She was drawn over by the exquisite, delicious dishes on the dining table. Although her appetite was worse than before, Yun Huaizhu’s cooking was truly too fragrant. She hadn’t eaten anything all day. Just smelling the aroma of the food, her stomach was already letting out hungry growls.

Actually, besides having a poor appetite from anxiety, Lin Meng had also wanted to protest Yun Huaizhu’s house arrest by ‘fasting.’

The protest could continue, but there was no need for the fasting anymore.

Lin Meng sat at the dining table and wolfed down two bowls of rice. After drinking a bottle of strawberry-flavored yogurt, she instantly felt much better.

Sure enough, eating something when you’re in a bad mood works wonders.

Just as Lin Meng relaxed, the villa’s password lock sounded. She instantly became alert at the sound. She poked her head out toward the entrance and saw Yun Huaizhu come back, looking exhausted as she changed her shoes.

She walked to the dining table in the living room and, finding that Lin Meng had already eaten, the exhaustion on her face was suddenly replaced by a smile. “Aiya, Mengmeng-jie is still the Mengmeng-jie I know. Once my business is done, we can eat together every day.”

Hearing this, Lin Meng’s face instantly flushed red. She was clearly in a cold war with Yun Huaizhu, yet she had still eaten Yun Huaizhu’s cooking. She really had no backbone at all.

Yun Huaizhu sat down next to Lin Meng and then also picked up an unopened bottle of strawberry yogurt and drank it.

Driving from here to the city center took at least two hours. Besides personally cooking for her every day, Yun Huaizhu also had to drive from the city back to this godforsaken place. Honestly, when she was at her poorest, the place she rented was far from her company, but even her commute hadn’t been as long as Yun Huaizhu’s.

Yun Huaizhu did this every day. She really worried about Yun Huaizhu’s health.

Thinking of this, Lin Meng took the initiative to break the icy atmosphere. “Zhuzhu, what have you been busy with lately? You leave early and come back late every day. Isn’t your company... isn’t it already... not busy anymore? Why do you still have so much to do every day?”

She was afraid of hurting Yun Huaizhu, so she didn’t mention the word ‘bankrupt.’

Hearing Lin Meng’s concern, a sweet smile instantly appeared on Yun Huaizhu’s face. “Mengmeng-jie caring about me like this makes me really happy. Actually, the company I declared bankrupt was just an old company of our Yun Corporation. My main development focus isn’t on that company, so bankruptcy doesn’t matter much.”

Lin Meng had been a rich person, so she didn’t know things could work like that.

It seemed the business wars written in novels were still too unrealistic.

“Zhuzhu, if you’re so busy, you really don’t have to come here every day. As long as you let me leave...”

Hearing Lin Meng negotiating with her in such a soft, clingy tone, Yun Huaizhu couldn’t muster a trace of anger. “Mengmeng-jie, don’t even think about that. Of course I come back every day because I’m afraid you’ll be lonely. But don’t worry, Mengmeng-jie. At most half a month and my affairs will be settled. I’ve already bought a property in Country M. Once everything is done, we’ll go to Country M, okay?”

Lin Meng looked at Yun Huaizhu in some shock.

Yun Huaizhu seemed to have become somewhat willful and self-assertive.

She had never agreed to go to Country M with Yun Huaizhu. Everything she had was here, and she had already discussed with her mother in this world that she would go home for the New Year.

Afraid of angering Yun Huaizhu, Lin Meng said tactfully. “Zhuzhu, I told my mom I’m going back for New Year this year.”

She didn’t want to go to Country M with Yun Huaizhu.

Yun Huaizhu smiled lightly when she heard this. “No problem, then we’ll bring Auntie along to Country M. The house I bought in Country M is quite big.”

Lin Meng: “...”

That wasn’t what she meant.

It seemed she would have to find a way to leave within half a month.

Lin Meng really was becoming somewhat frightening to her. She skipped over this topic and asked with concern. “Zhuzhu, what have you been busy with lately?”

Yun Huaizhu smiled when she heard this. “Busy liquidating all my domestic assets, and the company... although my company’s performance has been declining under the Su family’s targeting, the core projects still have great development value. So right now, I’m looking for someone who can buy the company in one go. At most half a month, I can definitely get it done.”

After saying this, Yun Huaizhu gave Lin Meng a reassuring look.

She was clearly stating a fact in a calm, gentle tone, but Lin Meng felt that beneath those calm words hid a surging madness.

Judging by Yun Huaizhu’s current behavior, Lin Meng really was somewhat afraid.

Lin Meng didn’t understand Yun Huaizhu’s company matters, but from her words she gathered this—Yun Huaizhu intended to abandon everything here and stake it all on taking her to Country M.

Lin Meng was so shocked she couldn’t recover for a long time. After a moment, Yun Huaizhu stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Lin Meng’s waist. Like before, she buried her head in Lin Meng’s chest. “Soon. We’ll be together very soon.”

Lin Meng suddenly felt as though she had been wrapped up by a cold snake. No matter how she struggled, she couldn’t break free. “Does it have to be like this?”

Yun Huaizhu murmured a soft “Mm” into her embrace.

Lin Meng’s mind instantly exploded with a buzz, then went blank.

She clearly liked Yun Huaizhu, so why did she want to run away so badly now?

Every cell in her body was screaming at her to escape this place quickly.

...

This time, Yun Huaizhu brought Lin Meng a phone—of course, this phone could only call Yun Huaizhu. Lin Meng didn’t want Yun Huaizhu to get up so early every day to cook for her, so she thought of having Yun Huaizhu order takeout for her.

Lin Meng insisted, so Yun Huaizhu could only go along with her.

Near the main door was a storage room, and the storage room was also sealed with iron bars over the window. However, the gaps between the iron bars here were a bit wider than the ones upstairs, so Lin Meng could take the takeout through them.

Every day when Lin Meng wanted takeout, she would call Yun Huaizhu, and Yun Huaizhu could use that as an excuse to hear Lin Meng’s voice more.

Lin Meng ordered from the same shop’s omurice for several days in a row. She noticed that the same person always delivered the food, so when that person handed the takeout through, she tossed out a written note.

The delivery person was called Xiaoxin.

Although there were a few scattered villas here, it was still far from the city. If the owner here hadn’t paid well enough, she wouldn’t have come all this way to deliver food.

Xiaoxin also found it strange. This villa clearly had a front door, but the person ordering takeout always took the food through the window. At first she thought she had stumbled into some crime scene, but every time she delivered the food, the person inside would always politely say “thank you.”

Maybe she was overthinking it.

Today, when she delivered the takeout, a note suddenly flew out from the window. Xiaoxin opened it with a puzzled look. It read: Hello, my girlfriend and I had a fight. She’s locked me up here now, and I can’t contact the outside world. Below is the phone number of another friend of mine. You only need to tell her that Lin Meng is here.

Friend’s number: 131××××××

Also, after receiving the note, leave immediately. Don’t make a sound.

Thank you!