204: Chapter 204 Julie

The girl's name was Julie, and she was twenty-six years old this year.

It had been exactly three years since she graduated from a prestigious university with a degree in design.

She was now a lead designer at a well-known design firm in Zhongzhou City.

She earned a handsome monthly salary, possessed outstanding abilities, was beautiful, had a tall and slender figure, and carried a gentle and clean aura.

In the eyes of her colleagues, she was an excellent young woman with a limitless future; to her friends, she was a winner in life to be envied.

Furthermore, she had a fiancé who loved her dearly.

Her fiancé's name was Zhang Haonan.

He came from a wealthy family; his parents were officials within the government system, and he ran his own technology company.

He was young, successful, gentle, and considerate.

The two of them had fallen in love at first sight.

Zhang Haonan treated Julie very well.

Knowing that Julie found it exhausting to squeeze onto the Subway to commute, he personally brought the latest BMW 5 Series model to her.

Knowing her love for design, he gave her full responsibility for his company's renovation project.

They had been dating for a year, and their relationship had progressed naturally and steadily.

Their parents had already met for dinner, and the wedding date was set for the second half of this year; even the venue and wedding photography had been finalized.

Julie had rejoiced countless times late at night, thinking she had finally broken free from that dark nightmare of years ago.

She thought she had finally escaped the demon who had ruined half her life.

She thought she could finally be like any ordinary happy girl—dating, getting married, having children, and having a warm, complete home.

To have a life that was clean, open, and aboveboard.

She thought the scars of the past had scabbed over and fallen off, never to be uncovered again.

But she never could have imagined it.

That night three years ago, the one that had sent her plunging into hell and which she could never let go of for the rest of her life...

That evil spirit cloaked in a facade of honesty would be like an unshakeable poisonous thorn.

Once again, it crawled out from the dark abyss, bit down hard on her throat, and dragged her back into the boundless, sunless depths.

Looking at the text message on her phone, Julie's entire body couldn't help but tremble.

The person who sent the message was named Liu Ziqiang.

A man in his fifties who looked honest and simple on the outside.

Walking down the street, he would seem like the most ordinary low-level laborer, even making people feel a bit of pity for him.

But it was such an unremarkable-looking man who was the existence Julie feared most, hated most, and most wanted to completely erase from the world.

He was the lingering nightmare in her midnight dreams, the scar hidden in the deepest part of her heart that she never dared to touch.

Looking at the extreme malice in the threat on the screen...

Julie's vision gradually blurred.

Her brain went blank uncontrollably; her thoughts were like a kite with a broken string, suddenly being jerked back to three years ago.

To that night that changed her life, that made her live in shadows forever, that sent her plunging into hell.

...

Three years ago.

Julie had just graduated from university.

Carrying the most beautiful aspirations for the future...

With her simple luggage, she found a design job related to her major in a second-tier city near her Hometown.

At that time, she was young, innocent, and inexperienced in the ways of the world.

She was full of kindness and trust toward the world, with no defense whatsoever against the wickedness of human hearts.

She always felt that as long as she treated others with sincerity, the world would respond with gentleness.

As a newcomer to the workplace, working overtime was a common occurrence.

To pass her probation as soon as possible and to create project proposals that satisfied her superiors, Julie put in almost all her effort.

That day, to rush an urgent commercial design case, she stayed busy in the office building until past ten o'clock at night.

The lights of the entire office building were almost all extinguished.

The corridors were so quiet she could hear her own footsteps.

A cold wind seeped through the cracks in the windows, making her shudder involuntarily.

After packing her computer and materials, Julie dragged her exhausted body out of the office building.

The night was already thick and heavy; the streetlights were dim, the traffic on the road was thinning, and most of the roadside shops had closed their doors.

She took out her phone, habitually opened her usual ride-hailing app, and placed an order with trembling fingers, only wanting to get back to her rented room as quickly as possible for a good sleep.

After waiting for less than five minutes, an ordinary silver-gray sedan slowly stopped in front of her.

The license plate number was exactly the same as shown on the app; there was nothing unusual.

The car window slowly rolled down, and a man about fifty years old was sitting in the driver's seat.

This man was Liu Ziqiang.

He wore an old blue jacket that had faded from washing, with frayed cuffs; he looked honest and dull, even carrying a bit of the poverty and humility of a low-level laborer.

Seeing Julie, he immediately revealed a mouth of yellowed teeth, a simple smile piling up on his face, and his voice, though hoarse, sounded exceptionally gentle.

“Young lady, you called for the car, right? Get in quickly. The wind is strong at night; don't catch a cold.”

Julie didn't have the slightest suspicion; she even secretly sighed in her heart that adult life isn't easy, and this driver seemed to work so hard yet remained so kind.

Without any guard, she pulled open the car door and sat in the passenger seat.

She habitually buckled her seatbelt and softly stated the address of her rented Residential Complex, her voice carrying a hint of softness due to fatigue.

“Alright, I know that Residential Complex. It’s not far; we’ll be there in ten-odd minutes.”

Liu Ziqiang nodded with a smile, his tone as cordial as a distant relative caring for a junior, and then he slowly started the car.

Along the way, Liu Ziqiang would occasionally strike up a conversation.

He asked if she had just finished work and if working overtime was exhausting.

He urged her to take care of her health while striving alone as a girl; his tone was full of concern, without the slightest hint of impropriety.

Julie responded politely, her heart completely unguarded, treating him as just a warm-hearted driver.

After several consecutive days of staying up late for overtime, her body was already exhausted to the extreme; her eyelids felt as heavy as lead, and as she leaned against the soft seat, waves of drowsiness surged up frantically.

She let down all her guard, closing her eyes slightly to rest, even thinking to herself that she must get a good sleep over the weekend to make up for all the lost rest.

She was completely unaware that she hadn't boarded a ride-hailing car heading home at all, but a death train driving straight to hell.

The man beside her, who seemed honest, gentle, and kind, was not some ordinary person struggling to make a living, but a hungry wolf in human skin.

A pair of murky, yellowed eyes had been greedily scanning her young and beautiful face, her slender white neck, and the soft curves of her figure from start to finish.

Evil thoughts and malicious intent were hidden in the depths of his eyes, perfectly concealed by his honest appearance.

The car drove smoothly for about ten minutes, but it did not follow the normal route to her Residential Complex.

Instead, he turned the steering wheel and veered into a remote, narrow, abandoned alley that didn't even have streetlights.

Both sides of the alley were old factories that had long since stopped production; the walls were mottled and peeling, and it was pitch black with not a single soul in sight.

Only the rustling of the wind through the weeds sounded exceptionally eerie and frightening in the silent night.

The roar of the car engine echoed in the narrow alley, like the footsteps of the Grim Reaper, drawing closer bit by bit.

Julie snapped her eyes open, a strong sense of unease instantly rising in her heart.

It was a girl's unique, instinctive intuition for danger.

She furrowed her brows sharply and turned her head to look at the man beside her, her voice trembling slightly from tension.

“Sir, did you take a wrong turn? The Residential Complex I live in isn't in this direction. This place is too remote.”

At that moment, all the honesty, gentleness, and kindness on Liu Ziqiang's face vanished without a trace.

It was as if a mask had been violently torn to shreds, revealing the sinister, wretched, and ferocious true face underneath.

He slowly stepped on the brakes, bringing the car to a dead stop in the deepest, most hidden part of the alley.

Then he turned around abruptly, those murky eyes staring intently at Julie, his gaze cold and slimy, licking over her body like a venomous snake's tongue, making her skin crawl.

“Wrong turn?”

He gave a cold laugh, his voice changing from its original hoarseness and gentleness to something fierce and greasy, filled with threat.

“Young lady, I didn't take a wrong turn. I brought you here on purpose. Did you really think I was taking you home?”

...