Chapter 24: Learning to Escape

 Chapter 24: Learning to Escape

She hadn't dreamt of him for a long time.

After dreaming of him, a feeling of nostalgia welled up in her heart.

South Phoenix lay alone on the bed, raising her hand to touch her forehead.

What had happened recently? She couldn't help but think of him.

Was it because of her body's discomfort after the rebirth, or was it because of Lord Rong Five's nickname, "Madman"?

"Madman" was, after all, a derogatory term, and she had heard it many times over the years, but she had never reminisced about the past because of this word so frequently.

Especially that past, which involved someone who was already dead.

Although she felt nostalgia, it also brought pain and sorrow.

If she continued like this, it wouldn't be him using her as a stand-in, but rather her using him as a stand-in.

South Phoenix didn't want to stay in this estate any longer.

The wardrobe in her room was filled with new clothes. She picked out a tracksuit, put it on, and went downstairs. Breakfast was prepared in the kitchen, but the man was not in the dining room.

"Mrs. Tian, where is Lord Rong Five?" South Phoenix asked.

Mrs. Tian replied with a smile, "Lord Rong Five left early this morning and instructed us not to wake you up, so you could sleep in."

"Did he say when he would be back?" South Phoenix asked.

Mrs. Tian answered, "Lord Rong Five is very busy and usually returns after 7 p.m."

"Alright, I understand." South Phoenix went downstairs, had breakfast, and absentmindedly slipped an egg into her pocket.

By noon, the male and female servants in the estate were changing shifts. South Phoenix took her phone and went to the bathroom.

Forty minutes later, Mrs. Tian received a call from Yang Bo.

Yang Bo asked, "Mrs. Tian, what is Miss doing right now?"

Mrs. Tian replied, "Assistant Yang, Miss is in the study."

"In the study?" Yang Bo responded, "Can you go check on her? Miss has been in the bathroom for 40 minutes."

Mrs. Tian hesitated, "..."

How could she explain that they were concerned because Lord Rong Five had been unable to see Miss on the monitor for 40 minutes, and he was so angry that he seemed like he wanted to kill someone?

Feeling embarrassed, she simply relayed Yang Bo's message and knocked on the study door. There was no response from inside. With Yang Bo's permission, she entered the study and went to the bathroom.

She looked at the surveillance camera in the bathroom and cautiously asked, "Miss, are you alright?"

There was no sound coming from the bathroom.

"Miss? Are you..." Constipated?

She couldn't bring herself to say it.

Still no response from the bathroom.

After calling out several times, Mrs. Tian began to worry that something was wrong. She raised her phone and said, "Assistant Yang, Miss... Miss seems to be gone."

"What do you mean, gone?!" Yang Bo was startled, "Can you speak clearly!"

Mrs. Tian finally realized that she needed to clarify, "No, not gone, but Miss is not in the bathroom. She seems to have run away!"

Lord Rong Five had been monitoring the situation on his phone all along. He had heard the conversation through the speaker.

In an instant, his face turned pitch black.

He kicked the seat in front of him, exclaiming furiously, "I told you to drive faster! Can't you hear me?!"

The driver accelerated, running red lights all the way, until they reached the estate. Lord Rong Five and Yang Bo rushed to his study, then followed a group of people to the motorcycle parking area in the backyard.

The butler reported anxiously, "Lord Rong Five, we've confirmed that one motorcycle is missing. Miss seems to have escaped on a motorcycle."

Lord Rong Five sneered, "She's got some skills, she's learned to escape."

"Five, what should we do now?" Yang Bo asked urgently.

Lord Rong Five replied, "What can we do? We need to find her. Track her phone!"

Yang Bo quickly checked the phone tracking app, then lowered his head and said, "Five, the phone tracking program has been disabled by Miss."

"Good, really good."

A heavy, oppressive atmosphere hung over the vineyard.

...

In a run-down van, five or six men wearing black hoods crowded inside.

In front of them, a woman tied up with her hands and feet bound and her mouth gagged was none other than Ye Nanhuang's mother, Xie Yu.

"You shouldn't blame us." One of the kidnappers in a red shirt said to Xie Yu, "If it weren't for that bastard Ye Guangda, owing our brothers hundreds of workers' annual wages, we wouldn't be doing this!"

Another kidnapper in black clutched his knife blade, gritting his teeth. "My mother is waiting for this money to have surgery. I really need this money! It's the salary we deserve for our hard work. Why shouldn't we have it?"

"My whole family lives in a basement, with nothing to eat or drink. We've been driven from one place to another. We've been owed this money for so long. Should I let my whole family starve to death?!"

"My daughter can't afford her school fees!"

"Mrs. Ye, we know you're not a bad person, but the situation forced us to do this. Your husband, Ye Guangda, owes a huge amount in factory wages, yet he still maintains his mistresses and extramarital affairs. He's a shameless scoundrel!"

"You're his wife, he should be willing to redeem you by giving us our hard-earned money, right?!"

"That money originally belonged to us!"

In a corner, a short man with an intense, menacing look kept staring at her without saying a word.

Xie Yu looked at the workers with their faces covered by hoods.

She remembered that just a few months ago, Ye Guangda had asked her for money because the workers had caused a disturbance.

She clearly remembered that she had used her dowry money to give it to him to fill this big hole.

Where had the money gone?

Hadn't it been given to the workers?

Xie Yu's hands and feet were icy cold. It wasn't because of the desperate workers in front of her, but because of her husband of twenty years.

Was he even worthy of being called a human being anymore?