Chapter 19: Dilapidated

It rained in C City last night.

The damp chill was carried by the cold wind, slicing across pedestrians’ skin like the edge of a thin blade.

Even though the rain had stopped this morning, the moisture still clung to everything, bone-deep and inescapable.

The piled-up snow along both sides of the street had hardened further.

Some hurried passersby tossed candy wrappers and nut shells onto the mounds, adding splashes of other colors to the white heaps.

Outside the villa in C City’s distant suburbs, a bulky middle-aged man exhaled a long stream of smoke.

The wind scattered the smoke, and he flicked the cigarette butt into the snow, grinding it under his shoe.

“Brother Qiang, how come it’s still not done? We’ve been squatting here for two hours already.”

Beside him, a middle-aged woman wrapped in a thick dark-purple scarf squatted on the ground, rubbing her hands together and blowing warm air onto them as she spoke.

“Isn’t that what I’m doing? What’s the point of rushing me? This is advanced technology, you don’t understand a thing—just know how to nag.”

Wang Qiang shot her an impatient look but kept working, operating the small drone that slowly rose higher and higher.

It drifted over the sharp-angled rooftops of the English-style villas, disappearing into the white mist as a barely visible black speck.

Two weeks earlier, he had come here to scout the area.

He’d roughly figured out the villa district’s layout and even had a brief encounter with the Gu family’s young lady.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t taken a liking to the two dogs he’d brought along that day—otherwise, he could have made an easy profit.

Still, this time he had brought advanced equipment.

Once he mapped the route and brought it back, he could find a chance to steal the dogs.

He’d read online that the rich young lady spent more money pampering those dogs than he could earn in a lifetime.

Just recently, she’d shown off a dog collar.

It looked no different from any other collar, but it cost a full three million!

Spending so much just to raise a dog—wasn’t that the same as throwing money into the water?

Instead of using it for charity, she wasted it on pets.

Once he stole the dog, he’d squeeze some money out of her, then poison the animal so it would die right after being returned.

That would teach those filthy rich people how money ought to be spent!

“Bro–Brother Qiang, is it… is it done y–yet?”

The woman kept repeating the same few words.

Just as Wang Qiang was about to curse her out, she quickly changed the subject to avoid his wrath.

“Brother Qiang, Brother Qiang, which one is the big fancy house where that rich lady lives?”

“Far away,” Wang Qiang said lazily, not bothering to explain further.

He rubbed his palms against his pants and continued maneuvering the drone through the air.

The low hum gradually faded into the sky.

On the rain- and snow-washed asphalt road below, a striking lake-blue Ferrari sped past.

Mingyue drove away from the villa district.

Outside the car window, scenery blurred backward into one long, still frame before coming to a halt in front of an old street.

Inside the bustling alley, vendors and passersby filled the air with noise and life.

Someone squatted by the roadside, breaking a roasted sweet potato into two steaming halves.

Another carried a live fish tied with straw rope in one hand and a bag of hot pot seasoning in the other.

Excited, Mingyue looked outside the window, then pulled out her phone from the orange-printed cloth bag at her side.

She snapped a picture and sent it to the August Fifth group chat.

“This place is so retro! Attached photo.”

At Changchuan Hospital, Su Zhi stood by the blinds and glanced at her phone during a break.

She tapped the photo open, said nothing, and set the phone aside again.

In the Gu family’s main residence, Gu Wanting sat barefoot in a swing chair, rocking gently.

She enlarged the photo and replied with just two words:

“Run-down.”

Mingyue read the comment and laughed uncontrollably.

Exiting the chat, she scrolled to her contacts.

“The number you dialed is not in service—”

Before the prerecorded voice finished, she hung up and tossed the phone aside.

She rolled down the car window slightly, resting her chin on her hand as she obediently looked outside.

Today, Mingyue wore a chest-high ruqun of orange and cream, tied at the waist with a deep-blue sash.

In her hair, a jade hairpin adorned with the motif of a bird chasing the moon held dangling tassels like willow branches swaying in the wind.

Graceful and poised, she sat in the Ferrari.

The tassels swayed lightly by her ear, drawing more and more pedestrians to stop and stare.

Though annoyed in her heart, she kept a soft smile on her lips and slowly rolled the window back up.

At the end of the street, inside the vegetable market, Huo Xin was quietly picking out cauliflower, head lowered.

She hadn’t noticed the scene outside at all.

She wore an ordinary oversized down jacket, black short boots, and carried a floral umbrella, blending seamlessly into the mundane crowd around her.

Mingyue watched her silently.

She raised her hand, covering the fleeting coldness in her eyes.

To her, Gu Wanting, and Su Zhi, this former Huo family young lady seemed more like an outsider who had barged into the villa by mistake.

On August Fifth, the composure she’d forced onto her face and her nervous attempts at hiding it had been fragile, like a soap bubble ready to pop at a single touch.

Hypocritical.

Arrogant.

Opportunistic.

Someone whose bottom could be seen with a single glance.

Only a family like the Huos, once dabbling in the underworld but desperate to clean up their name, could have raised a person like that.

Even now, they still wondered how Su Zhi and Huo Xin had ever become friends.

After all, the gap between them was that of a firefly on the ground versus the moon in the sky—worlds apart.

And yet…

And yet, the boy locked in the basement remembered only her name.

Not in a cry of agony.

Not in a gnash of hatred.

But in sleep—softly, almost dependently, whispering it without reservation.

That day, when Mingyue tied up Yu Zhu’s hair, the peachwood comb dug into her palm, leaving bloody marks.

And she suddenly realized.

All the world’s most moving declarations of love paled in comparison to the way he spoke her name.

But Huo Xin.

Huo Xin!

Why did it have to be Huo Xin?

A god dragged into the mire, no matter how wretched, no matter how self-loathing, should never place hope in mortals.

Even less should he fall in love with a ridiculous clown.

If they were to fall together into ruin and degradation, unable to pull themselves out, then they should watch human love and hatred with cold detachment.

They should destroy their own love equally, leaving no favoritism.

But someone had broken that unspoken rule.

If that was the case, then who ever said the game had to be limited to only so many players?

The secret the Huo family had fought so hard to cover up—the two bodies buried beneath the abandoned factory floor—Mingyue had easily uncovered with just a wave of her hand.

A few vague words had been enough to stir countless others to investigate, to restore peace and justice to C City.

And so, she was out.

Mingyue watched Huo Xin struggle to open her umbrella as she left the market.

When she passed the Ferrari, she clearly hesitated, pressing her umbrella lower to cover her face before hurrying away.

Mingyue almost called out to her, but then thought better of it.

Too cruel.

If she moved again, forcing her to relocate, wouldn’t that spoil the fun?

The tassels on her hairpin tinkled faintly.

Mingyue switched back to the chat interface and replied:

“Mm, it does look kind of run-down.”

Yes.

All the better.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Male Body, Female Soul

DramaFemale ProtagonistGender Bender

Read Now →
Not interested