107: Chapter 107 Feng Hua Lian

The phone call Liang Lingmeng received was instructing her to go to the Jinxiu Garden Residential Complex to carry out a mission.

Time rewound to half an hour ago.

Zhongzhou City

Jinxiu Home Residential Complex.

This old Residential Complex, built in the late nineties, appeared even more dilapidated amidst the heavy December snow.

Murky melted snow collected in the potholes of the road. Most of the sound-activated lights in the corridors were broken, and the few that remained were dim and flickering.

In Room 401, Unit 2 of Building 3, a pale energy-saving lamp swayed from the living room ceiling, casting flickering shadows.

Feng Hua Lian curled up in a corner, her hands shielding her head, her body trembling uncontrollably.

Her light blue pajamas had been torn, revealing dark purple bruises on her shoulders.

Her long hair was matted messily against her sweat-dampened face. Blood seeped from the corner of her mouth, and her left eye was so swollen she could barely open it.

Despite being covered in injuries from the beating...

...one could still tell she was very beautiful.

“You still dare to hide?” Liu Zhen kicked her in the stomach.

Feng Hua Lian let out a muffled groan, her body curling up like a shrimp, but she no longer even had the strength to scream.

She had been beaten like this for over an hour, going from her initial cries for mercy to her current state of numb endurance.

Liu Zhen crouched down and grabbed her hair, forcing her to look up.

Under the light, his face was contorted by alcohol and violence. His eyes were bloodshot, and his breath reeked of alcohol.

“I'm telling you, you're going tonight whether you like it or not!” he roared, spit flying onto Feng Hua Lian's face. “Brother Wang and his group are waiting downstairs! Spend one night with them, and the three-hundred-thousand-yuan debt will be deferred for a month! Do you hear me?”

Feng Hua Lian's lips quivered, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz. “I... won't go... That's selling...”

“Selling?” Liu Zhen laughed maniacally. “What do you think you are? Some pure college student? I'm telling you, from the day you started following me, you've been a whore!”

He let go, stood up, and paced unsteadily around the cramped living room.

The floor was littered with empty beer bottles and cigarette butts. The furniture was old and broken, and even the only decent TV had a crack in its screen.

“If it weren't for me, would you have been able to gain a foothold in Zhongzhou?” Liu Zhen turned and pointed at her nose, cursing. “A poor girl from the countryside like you, with no money and no connections—who would've looked twice at you? I was the one who took you in!”

Feng Hua Lian closed her eyes, tears mixing with blood as they flowed down.

She recalled that summer two years ago.

She had just graduated and come to Zhongzhou with only eight hundred yuan, dreaming of finding a good job in the big city.

But she looked for many jobs, and either people looked down on her for being a fresh graduate with no experience...

...or she found the jobs unsatisfactory.

At her most desperate, she ate instant noodles for three days in a rented room in an Urban Village, unable to even afford the next month's rent.

It was on that rainy day that she met Liu Zhen.

Back then, he wore a decent suit and helped her pay the ten yuan she had forgotten at a convenience store entrance.

He said he was a project manager at a construction company. He spoke politely and even treated her to a meal.

He listened to her talk about the hardships at home.

Her father had passed away early, her mother was sickly, and she had a younger brother in high school. They were all counting on her, the college student, to change their fate.

“Don't worry, you have me from now on,” Liu Zhen had said then, his gaze gentle.

Feng Hua Lian fell in love with him.

Or rather, she fell in love with the dream he wove for her.

A stable home, a shoulder to lean on, and the hope of escaping poverty.

But before they had lived together for even three months, Liu Zhen's true colors were revealed.

The so-called project manager was a lie; he was just a lowlife thug.

The suit was borrowed, and the gentleness was an act.

Furthermore, he gambled. When he lost money, he drank, and when he drank, he hit her.

The first time she was beaten, Feng Hua Lian was stunned.

She wanted to leave, but Liu Zhen knelt on the ground and cried, saying he had just been momentarily confused and promising never to gamble again.

Her heart softened.

Then came the second time, the third time...

Promises became a joke, and gentleness became a luxury.

Her salary card was taken, her ID was withheld, and Liu Zhen used her name to apply for four credit cards and take out five online loans.

Now, she was nearly two hundred thousand yuan in debt, bombarded daily by collection calls.

“I... I really can't...” Feng Hua Lian murmured, her voice filled with despair. “Liu Zhen, please let me go... I'll kowtow to you...”

She actually knelt down, her forehead pressing against the cold concrete floor as she kowtowed over and over.

Liu Zhen watched coldly, without a shred of pity in his eyes.

He walked to the coffee table, picked up a fruit knife, and weighed it in his hand.

“Let you go?” He sneered. “Sure, give me five hundred thousand yuan, and I'll leave immediately.”

Feng Hua Lian trembled all over.

Her monthly salary was four thousand five hundred yuan, and she gave it all to Liu Zhen, leaving her struggling even to eat.

Where would she get any more money?

“I... I don't have any...”

“Then do as you're told!” Liu Zhen suddenly flew into a rage, stabbing the knife into the coffee table, the blade vibrating with a hum. “Brother Wang and his group are still waiting downstairs! Get dressed up and go down with them! It's just one night—just endure it and it'll be over!”

Feng Hua Lian looked up at this man through her swollen eyes.

“No,” she said suddenly, her voice not loud, but exceptionally firm. “I'm not going.”

Liu Zhen was stunned, then flew into a towering rage. “What did you say?!”

“I said, I'm not going.” Feng Hua Lian leaned against the wall and struggled to stand up. “Liu Zhen, I'm breaking up with you. Today.”

The air solidified for a few seconds.

Then Liu Zhen burst into a fit of mad laughter. “Break up? Hahaha... In your dreams!”

He rushed over and slapped her to the ground. “I'm telling you, from the day you started following me, you've been mine in life and my ghost in death! You dare to break up? Believe me or not, I'll kill your whole family!”

He pulled a phone out of his pocket and pulled up a photo.

It was the entrance to Feng Hua Lian's Hometown home; her mother was crouching in the yard feeding chickens.

“See this? Your mom, your brother—I know where they all are.” Liu Zhen shoved the phone screen into her face. “If you dare take one step away from me, I'll find someone to kill them immediately! I mean what I say!”

Feng Hua Lian's blood ran cold instantly.

She knew Liu Zhen was capable of it.

He had once boastfully bragged to her that he had stabbed someone when he was younger, spent time in prison, and knew many people in the underworld.

The last flicker of hope was extinguished.

She slumped on the floor, her eyes hollow, like a shell whose soul had been drained away.

Outside the window, the snow was still falling. Snowflakes pelted the glass, quickly melting into streaks of water that looked like tears.

“If you keep hitting me, I... I'll call the police,” she suddenly whispered.

“What?” Liu Zhen didn't hear clearly.

“I said, I'm going to call the police.” Feng Hua Lian, driven by some unknown strength, suddenly scrambled up and rushed toward the bedroom.

Her phone was under the pillow.

She quickly reached the bed in the bedroom and pulled out the old phone with a cracked screen from under the pillow.

“110...” She tremblingly pressed the three digits.

“You're fucking asking for it!” Liu Zhen's roar came from behind her.

Feng Hua Lian pressed the call button.

The call was connected quickly.

“Hello? Help... Jinxiu Home, Building 3, Unit 2, Room 401... domestic violence... he's going to kill me...”

Liu Zhen punched her in the face.

He snatched the phone and hung up.

Then came an even more frenzied beating.

...