Chapter 84: Yang Xun... Your Brother-in-Law

BOOM!!!

Xu Qian felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. The phone nearly slipped from her hand.

Yang Xun!

The face in the photo was none other than Yang Xun’s!

The useless live-in son-in-law she despised from the bottom of her heart!

The man she’d called a worthless bastard countless times!

She stared at the photo, her pupils contracting violently, her mind a complete blank.

’Impossible!’

’Absolutely impossible!!’

Xu Qian’s hands began to tremble uncontrollably, her fingertips turning white.

Shock, bewilderment, and fury!

The three emotions flooded her mind at once, a torrent that shattered her reason.

However, she didn’t erupt immediately.

Xu Qian took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. She quietly glanced at Yang Xun, who was still meditating cross-legged, then tiptoed out of bed. Barefoot, she walked out of the bedroom and gently closed the door behind her.

Once in the living room, she quickly found the number saved under "Detective" in her contacts and dialed it.

BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...

The call connected quickly.

"Hello!"

Xu Qian’s voice trembled as she asked, "I got the photo. Are you sure... the person in the picture is the one I asked you to investigate?"

"One hundred percent certain!"

A steady, middle-aged man’s voice came from the other end. "Miss Xu, I personally tailed him for several days. There’s absolutely no mistake!"

Xu Qian gritted her teeth and pressed, "Is it possible... that he’s just a look-alike?"

"Miss Xu, I’ve been in this business for twelve years and I’ve never made a mistake." The man’s tone was resolute. "If I’m wrong, you won’t pay a single cent! Besides, I didn’t just get his face. I also got a picture of his electric scooter. I even wrote down the license plate number. You can verify it yourself."

"..."

Xu Qian fell silent. For a moment, she didn’t know what to say.

"Miss Xu? Are you still there?"

"Yes... I understand. Thank you."

The moment she hung up, Xu Qian collapsed onto the living room sofa as if her bones had been removed.

The phone slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor.

She broke.

Completely and utterly broke.

The scenes from last night flashed through her mind like a frantic slideshow.

The moment she was thrown onto the bed.

The moment her clothes were torn to shreds.

The tearing pain of her first time.

The humiliation of crawling over like a dog.

And... the pleasure that made her very soul tremble.

Her virginity had been taken by Yang Xun.

By the man she despised most!

Her own sister’s husband!

Her... brother-in-law!

A strangled sob escaped her.

Xu Qian buried her face in her hands. An unprecedented wave of humiliation and nausea churned in her stomach, threatening to overwhelm her.

Tears streamed silently through her fingers.

For over twenty years, she had guarded her most precious possession, only for it to be stolen by a man she saw as no more than an ant.

And it had happened in a livestream, in front of hundreds of people!

She had even begged him!

Crawled to him like a dog and begged!

At this thought, Xu Qian’s entire body trembled violently as if electrocuted. Her nails dug so deeply into her palms that they drew blood, but she felt nothing.

"Yang Xun... Yang Xun..."

She muttered his name, the hatred in her eyes growing deeper with each repetition.

Her gaze slowly shifted, landing on the fruit knife on the coffee table.

Its blade glinted coldly in the morning light.

Xu Qian stared at the knife, her expression growing dark and crazed. She slowly reached out, her slender fingers closing around the hilt.

The cold touch on her palm cleared her chaotic mind slightly.

’Kill him.’

’Kill this goddamn beast!’

Clutching the fruit knife, Xu Qian walked toward the bedroom step by step, barefoot and silent, like a leopardess stalking her prey.

CREAK!!

The bedroom door was pushed open.

However, the scene that greeted her made her freeze for a moment.

Yang Xun was already awake.

He was standing by the bed getting dressed, still wearing that silver-white mask that had hidden his identity from her for so long!!

Hearing the door, Yang Xun turned his head. Seeing Xu Qian at the doorway, he grinned and greeted her casually, just as he always did. "Morning. You’re up early? I thought you’d sleep until noon at least..."

His voice trailed off halfway through the sentence.

Because he saw Xu Qian’s eyes.

Those normally charming eyes were as red as if they’d been soaked in blood, and a terrifying fire of rage burned in their depths.

And in her right hand, she was clutching a fruit knife that gleamed with a cold light.

Yang Xun’s heart clenched. A terrible premonition washed over him like ice water, drenching him from head to toe.

"You beast... I’ll kill you!!"

The next moment, Xu Qian let out a heart-wrenching shriek, her voice piercing to the extreme, like a wild animal pushed to the brink.

Her eyes bloodshot, she raised the fruit knife and charged at Yang Xun with reckless abandon!

The tip of the blade was aimed straight at his chest, its speed and force making it clear this was no act.

She truly intended to kill him!

A cold glint flashed!

Yang Xun’s pupils shrank. His body instinctively dodged to the side as his right hand shot out like lightning, precisely grabbing Xu Qian’s knife-wielding wrist and twisting it sharply.

CLANG!!

The fruit knife flew from her grasp, hit the wall, and bounced to the floor.

Yang Xun seized the opportunity to twist Xu Qian’s arms behind her back, locking her in a tight hold from behind. "Have you lost your mind?!" he barked coldly.

"Let me go!! Let me go!! You beast!!"

Xu Qian struggled frantically like a madwoman, kicking her legs and spewing one curse after another.

"Calm down! You can kill someone with a knife!"

Yang Xun said coldly, his eyes narrowed.

"Kill someone? I’m here to take *your* life!!"

Xu Qian thrashed wildly, but against the power of the Third Layer of the Qi Refining Realm, her struggles were like an ant trying to shake a tree.

"What is wrong with you? Look at yourself! What kind of state are you in?"

Yang Xun held Xu Qian firmly and asked with a frown.

"You’re still pretending?!!"

Xu Qian suddenly stopped struggling. Her body trembled slightly as her voice dropped to a low hiss, as if squeezed through her teeth. "Yang Xun... still playing dumb? You won’t give up until you’re cornered, is that it?! See for yourself!"

With that, she used all her strength to create a sliver of space for her pinned right hand, shaking her phone out of her pajama pocket. It landed on the floor, screen-up.

Yang Xun looked down. His heart jolted violently when he saw the face in the photo.

The person in the picture was him!

It was a clear profile shot, his features distinct, taken just after he’d removed his mask to make a call in the shadows of the alley behind the "Elysian Fields" massage parlor.

He knew the dusty gray brick wall in the background all too well.

This was the exact corner where he had stopped to call Xu Qian yesterday afternoon after leaving Huang Qi’s massage parlor!

’I was secretly photographed!’

Yang Xun understood everything in an instant.

’Looks like my dear sister-in-law has been secretly investigating who’s behind the mask.’

"Well then. I didn’t expect to be found out so quickly."

Yang Xun was silent for two seconds, then slowly released his grip on Xu Qian’s hands.

He didn’t explain or argue. He simply raised his right hand, his fingertips touching the edge of his mask.

Then, he slowly took off the silver-white mask.

The moment the mask came off, the morning light fell upon his face.

Sharp brows, piercing eyes, a high-bridged nose, and a jawline as sharp as if carved from stone. His thin lips were pressed together slightly. His face was angular and strikingly handsome.

"Yang Xun!!!"

Xu Qian turned around, her swollen, bloodshot eyes fixed on that face.

It was exactly the same as in the photo.

And it matched, feature for feature, the face of the useless live-in son-in-law from her memories.

"Now you see clearly."

Yang Xun held the mask, his voice perfectly calm as he spoke, enunciating every word. "It’s me. Yang Xun... your brother-in-law."