The Real Young Master is Entangled by the Paranoid Fake Young Master - Chapter 58

Zhaoqing turned the key, and the internal gears of the safe let out a rhythmic click-clack. As he finished the second rotation, his heart hammered against his ribs. He had already sent messages to Fang Yang and Xie Chengxuan.

Downstairs, the music was blaring and the guests were lost in the revelry. If he didn’t seize this moment to escape, he might never get another chance. He glanced at the remote for his electronic ankle shackle, perched atop the highest shelf of the bookcase. Since Yuening was hosting the banquet, he couldn’t keep the remote on him. Zhaoqing wondered if Yuening had left it there on purpose, but after weeks of playing the submissive captive, his “numbing” act seemed to have finally paid off.

Xiao Yue had been working in the kitchen for days. Though the other help marginalized her, she had befriended the older women who handled the waste disposal. Sometimes, when they were lazy, they let Xiao Yue take the kitchen scraps out. The guards at the back gate had seen her enough times to assume she was just another servant handling the trash.

When the banquet reached its peak, the kitchen staff would surely sneak away to watch the excitement. At that moment, Xiao Yue would smuggle Zhaoqing out in a vegetable bin. If they were caught, Fang Yang and the others were waiting at the back gate to extract him by force. It was a desperate gamble, but the only one he had.

I have to leave. I can’t stay in this house for another second.

Zhaoqing licked his lips, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead. Just let me find my mother’s relic… then I can fly far away.

Please, don’t let there be an alarm.

With a final turn, the safe door creaked open. Zhaoqing let out a sigh of relief and pushed the door wide. However, his breath hitched. Inside, there was only a dusty glove, half a jar of black ointment, and a wooden cane.

Just then, the door behind him swung open. As Zhaoqing spun around in terror, Yuening’s voice rang out:

“Zhaozhao, what are you looking for?”

Yuening leaned leisurely against the doorframe, waving a kraft paper envelope in his hand. “Are you looking for this?”

“Give it back!” Zhaoqing lunged forward, trying to snatch it. “Give it back, Song Yuening! That belongs to my mother! Give it back! Don’t make me hate you!”

His voice cracked with the strain of his shouting.

“I’ll give it to you,” Yuening said simply. “But only if you come with me.”

“Where?” Zhaoqing feigned ignorance.

“You know where. I’m going abroad, and I’m taking you with me.” Yuening didn’t leave him any room for delusion. “Zhaozhao, I’m begging you. Come with me, okay?”

Yuening watched him with a mix of stubborn obsession and a naive, nervous hope. Zhaoqing stared back, but his eyes drifted to the crowd of bodyguards and servants standing behind Yuening.

Among them stood Xiao Yue.

In an instant, everything clicked. Zhaoqing let out a dry laugh that sounded like a sob. Xiao Yue averted her eyes, unable to face him.

“She, she was your person all along, wasn’t she?”

Zhaoqing didn’t ask “How could you betray me?” He asked, “You’ve been monitoring me since the moment I met her, haven’t you? I was so stupid. I actually thought there was one person in this house who was sincere toward me. I forgot there is no such thing as ‘sincerity’ in the Song family.”

“Young Master, it’s because—!” Xiao Yue’s heart ached. She wanted to say her family was sick, that she had no choice, that her heart wasn’t made of stone. But the words died in her throat. She was the one who drugged his milk. She was the one who reported his every move. And today, she was the one who set the trap to make him believe he could escape.

Young Master Yuening, killing the heart is the cruelest way to kill a man.

“I won’t go with you,” Zhaoqing said, his voice flat. “You’re terrifying. The Song family is terrifying. I want nothing to do with you ever again.”

He pulled the nail clipper he had used on Fang Haoyang earlier and pressed it against his own throat. “Either you let me go today, or I die here. Being with you is no different from being dead anyway!”

Yuening’s eyes flashed with a whirlwind of emotions. Suddenly, his expression shifted back to a chilling calm. A guard whispered something in his ear, and Yuening’s grip on the situation tightened once more.

“Zhaozhao,” he said, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous register. “Guess what I found? At the back gate some eyesores have appeared.”

He spat the word “eyesores” with venom. “Zhaozhao, if you dare to die, they won’t live either. I’ve already sent a decoy out the gate. Your ‘saviors’ couldn’t wait to chase after them. Too bad I planted a new type of electronic explosive on that decoy. One command from me, and they all die.”

“You wouldn’t! Song Yuening! I will never forgive you!” Zhaoqing’s hands shook so violently he could barely hold the metal tool.

“Zhaozhao, if you’re dead, what does your ‘forgiveness’ matter to me?” Yuening laughed.

“They are innocent! How can you do this!”

“Time is running out, Zhaozhao. Five… four… three…”

Zhaoqing let the nail clipper fall. Immediately, guards swarmed him. In the chaos, someone sprayed the familiar jasmine sedative, and the world began to fade. Before he lost consciousness, he murmured one last thing:

“Fang Yang… don’t hurt Fang Yang… Song Yuening…”

Fang Yang. Yuening repeated the name in his mind. So, even more than Xie Chengxuan, the one you care about most is Fang Yang. How truly envious.

“Be careful with him!” Xiao Yue pushed the guards aside, terrified they would bruise him. Yuening scooped Zhaoqing up and turned to the servants. “Pack his bags. We leave today.”

He couldn’t stay in S-City any longer. Too many people were hunting for his Zhaozhao. He carried Zhaoqing to a waiting Maybach and called Jiang Jinhua.

“I heard we have a private island near Fiji. It’s not school time yet; I’m taking Zhaozhao there for a vacation. No problems with that, right, Dad?”

Jiang Jinhua was stunned by the word “Dad” it was the first time Yuening had ever called him that. He would have given his son ten islands at that point.

The Jiang Villa (Servant’s Quarters)

“Chen Lian, you’ll stay here,” an older servant said, showing him to a small room before shutting the door.

Chen Lian looked at his injured leg and his meager belongings, his face twisted with hatred. Soon, a knock sounded.

“Who is it?”

“Lian, open up! It’s me.”

A teenage girl in an expensive dress walked in Zhenzhen, the daughter of the Jiang family’s assistant butler. Chen Lian found her annoying and spoiled, but he needed her.

“Lian, why did it take so long to open the door?” she pouted, launching into a gossip session about the Jiang house.

Chen Lian feigned interest until he heard a specific detail. He grabbed the girl’s shoulders. “Zhenzhen, what did you just say? That Song Yuening the one close to the Jiangs, is taking a private island for a vacation? And your father is the one arranging it?”

“Can you… can you ask your father to add my name to the service staff for the trip? I won’t let the masters see me; I’ll just do the cleaning in the back. I just want to see what an island looks like. Please, my sweet Zhenzhen?”