Chapter 220

Chapter 220

The other passengers in the compartment all lowered their heads.

‘Oh, these gloves are actually a perfect fit. The pattern on the floor seems quite nice. Not a single loose thread on these pants either…’

Only one hotheaded young person stared directly, eyes wide with excitement, wearing a dazed, entranced expression. When her gaze met Zhong Ning’s, she belatedly realized and quickly lowered her head as well.

For a moment, the only sound in the train compartment was the rustling of plastic packaging being torn open.

"Did they hit you anywhere else?" Xie Shiqing, calmed slightly by a kiss, no longer fretted about the lack of food, and turned her attention back to other matters.

"Actually, they didn’t hit me that much. It was mainly Zhong Lin." Zhong Ning said.

She couldn’t be bothered to call her 'mother' anymore—there was no need to keep up the act.

"She doesn’t have much strength. Even if she hit me a couple of times, it didn’t hurt."

Zhong Ning downplayed the situation and didn’t mention the blows from the bodyguards, mostly because she didn’t want Xie Shiqing to worry.

The bodyguards had far more strength and weren’t holding back at all. She had taken a punch to the stomach that left her in pain for a long while—nearly passed out. Even now, breathing still hurt.

But telling Xie Shiqing any of this would only make her more anxious. The injury on her face was already enough to make her heart ache—no need to add more weight to her shoulders.

When they returned to the police station together, Zhong Ning gave a statement. She was the victim, and some of the information had already been provided by Xie Shiqing. It didn’t take long before Zhong Ning came out.

It was on Zhong Lin’s side that the situation dragged on. She insisted she was merely disciplining her daughter, and while her methods might have been excessive, wasn’t it understandable? Her own daughter had handed over the massive Zhong family enterprise to an outsider—clearly siding against her own family. Of course she had gotten emotional and overreacted. Surely that was forgivable?

The interrogation had reached a stalemate when Xie Shiqing let out a cold laugh. She took a USB drive from the newly arrived Assistant Fang and handed it to the police.

Trying to wriggle out of this? Keep dreaming!

---

Zhong Ning held a corner of the blanket in one hand, her fingertips buried in the soft, deep blue fabric, but her eyes followed Xie Shiqing, watching her speak to the police about Zhong Lin.

The sudden kidnapping had completely caught her off guard.

She had thought Zhong Lin had only come to yell at her. Or, at worst, if things escalated physically, judging by their body sizes, Zhong Ning hadn’t felt intimidated.

What she hadn’t expected was to be ambushed.

The back of her neck still hurt. This kind of knock-out technique was something she’d only seen in TV dramas before. Experiencing it firsthand was far from pleasant.

When Zhong Ning woke up, it was already the early hours of the next morning. The people guarding her hadn’t given her food or water. She was someone who normally had breakfast on time, and the emptiness in her stomach was glaring.

But more troubling was the situation she now found herself in.

Zhong Lin had clearly lost her grip on sanity.

To raise a daughter like Zhong Zinuan was already a sign that the parent wasn’t exactly normal either. Zhong Lin cared most about her company and her money. She had spent a lifetime climbing upward, only to be outmaneuvered by a younger generation and lose everything.

Xie Shiqing had intentionally pushed her into this corner—not just stripping her of everything, but forcing her to suffer defeat after defeat.

Busy cleaning up the aftermath and having gone without sleep all night, Zhong Lin began a prolonged verbal onslaught the moment she saw that Zhong Ning had regained consciousness.

She called her stupid, useless trash seduced by another woman—an incompetent fool with no ambition, no drive.

She went on about how hard she had worked, how much effort she had poured into the Xie family, and when her temper flared, she even wanted to use violence.

Zhong Lin had never hit anyone before. She liked to use her brain, using strategy and intelligence to crush her competitors. But when a person was pushed to the brink, there was nothing they would not do.

In her rage, she even tried to pull away the towel stuffed in Zhong Ning’s mouth, wanting to hear her cry bitterly and beg for mercy.

There was no begging, only ridicule.

Zhong Lin slapped her once herself, and still felt it was not enough, so she had the bodyguard strike her as well.

Zhong Lin hit people without any technique; the pain came and went. The bodyguard, however, truly struck with ruthless precision. She was trained, knew how to apply force, where to hit to make it hurt more, and how to avoid causing irreversible damage to the body.

Using the excuse of going to the restroom, Zhong Ning lifted the hem of her clothes and lowered her head to look. On what had once been a smooth lower abdomen was a large patch of bruising, the edges tinged with deep dark purple, like a damaged, swollen eggplant.

She raised her hand and lightly touched the injured area. A sharp pain shot through her nerve endings straight to her brain. Zhong Ning hissed and sucked in a breath, and the person in the mirror immediately bared her teeth in pain.

It really hurt, it hurt so much…

She even thought injections were painful, let alone taking a solid punch.

She let the hem of her clothes fall back down, and when she walked out, the expression on her face had already returned to normal.

Xie Shiqing had finished speaking with the police. The follow-up matters were handed over to the capable Assistant Fang. Her annual salary was higher than what the boss of a small company earned, and Xie Shiqing was never stingy when it came to spending money on capable talent.

Moreover, Assistant Fang was a beta who believed in not marrying, practically a heaven-sent worker.

“Let’s go to the hospital first.” Xie Shiqing said.

“They’re just superficial injuries…”

“Go to the hospital.” Xie Shiqing did not waste words and pulled Zhong Ning toward the exit. She knew Zhong Ning disliked hospitals, but was this the time to be stubborn?

Michelle temporarily acted as the driver and was responsible for driving. The two of them sat in the back seat.

The moment the partition rose, Xie Shiqing grabbed the lower hem of her clothes. “I, I want to take a look first…”

“It’s just a bruise.” Zhong Ning held her hand, gripping her fingers. “There’s nothing to see.”

“I want to see.” Xie Shiqing lifted her eyes. “I want to see.”

Zhong Ning loosened her grip.

The hem of her top was lifted, revealing a large expanse of swollen, purplish skin, with a deep blackish bruise in the center. Trembling fingertips hovered lightly over it. Xie Shiqing bent down, and the closer she looked, the more terrifying it seemed.

A drop of scalding tears fell onto it. Zhong Ning was startled and quickly pulled her upright. “It just looks scary. They’re really just superficial injuries. Apply some medicated wine and it’ll be fine in a few days.”

Xie Shiqing’s tears still would not stop. “It’s all my fault.”