Where the Moon Sets, My Heart Finds Peace - Chapter 7

It was only after He Zian left that Liu Yang edged closer again. With a smirk, he said, “Professor Jiang, this Friday, all of us budget teachers are getting together for dinner. The department head will be there too. He mentioned that since you just arrived, this will be your welcome dinner. Welcome to our big family.”

Jiang Jingyue’s immediate instinct was to refuse. But the words died in her throat.

As the youngest teacher in the office, declining outright would make her seem antisocial and rude. She had no choice but to brace herself and agree. “Alright, I understand.”

Over the next few days, life carried on as usual—filled with classes, lesson planning, and grading assignments.

Every day, He Zian would send her messages: “Good morning,” “Good night,” and occasional snippets of classroom gossip. Her tone was always clean, crisp, and sincere. During Architecture class, she always sat in the very front row, actively participating. From start to finish, her bright, focused gaze remained fixed on Jiang Jingyue.

Though Jiang Jingyue never said it aloud, a quiet sense of security settled in her heart. There was even a faint sweetness to it, one she hadn’t yet fully realized herself.

Friday arrived in a flash.

The dinner was held at a farmhouse restaurant not far from the school, a drive of just over ten minutes. After work, Jiang Jingyue carpooled there with the other teachers from her office.

The private dining room was packed. Including the department head, there were fifteen people in total, and a few teachers had brought their spouses. Among everyone at the table, Jiang Jingyue was the youngest. She and Li Ping, who was in her fifties, were the only female teachers present.

As the dinner began, the department head offered a few courteous remarks, making a special point to warmly welcome Jiang Jingyue into the fold.

With that, everyone raised their glasses for the first toast.

Everyone knew Li Ping was taking traditional Chinese medicine and couldn’t drink. A few other teachers who had brought their spouses also substituted tea for alcohol since they had to drive later.

Jiang Jingyue was about to follow suit and excuse herself, but the department head smiled and spoke up first. “Little Jiang, you don’t have to drink much. Just a few sips to show your respect is fine.”

The surrounding teachers chimed in. “We can’t have both female teachers sitting out. Little Jiang, you’ll have to represent the ladies. A little bit won’t hurt.”

Jiang Jingyue couldn’t withstand their collective enthusiasm.

During the three years she had worked at her family’s company after returning to China, she had attended plenty of social events and developed a decent tolerance. A few drinks shouldn’t be an issue. Giving up on refusing, she raised her glass and took a few sips.

Halfway through the dinner, Liu Yang’s eyes hadn’t wandered from Jiang Jingyue for a second.

At first, he merely stole glances while joking around. But as time went on, his gaze grew increasingly brazen, sticking to her profile and neck with an undisguised, greasy possessiveness that made the skin crawl.

Jiang Jingyue was entirely occupied chatting with the teachers next to her, completely unaware of that disgusting gaze.

Midway through, the department head took a phone call and had to leave early.

As the dinner drew to a close, those who had drunk too much were already unsteady on their feet, excused by their spouses to head home. The remaining group suggested going out for karaoke. Not wanting to go, Jiang Jingyue declined softly. “I think I’ll skip it. I’m not feeling very well, so I’d like to head back to campus.”

Liu Yang immediately cut in. “Perfect. I have something to take care of tonight too, so I’m skipping karaoke. I can drop Professor Jiang off on my way.”

Jiang Jingyue frowned and rejected the offer outright. “No need, Professor Liu. I’ll just hail a cab myself.”

Yet Liu Yang refused to back down, wearing a face of pure “good intentions.” “I already called a designated driver; he’s waiting right at the door. We’re colleagues, after all. Besides, it’s really hard to get a cab out here by the farmhouse.”

As he spoke, he flashed that overly familiar smile he thought looked charming.

Jiang Jingyue hesitated.

Liu Yang hadn’t been excessively attentive tonight, nor had he tried to force alcohol on her. Could she just be overthinking things? They worked in the same office, and with a designated driver present, surely he wouldn’t dare try anything.

After a moment of silence, she nodded slightly. “Then I’ll trouble you.”

A fleeting gleam of triumph flashed through the depths of Liu Yang’s eyes, vanishing in an instant.

The teachers heading to karaoke walked off in the opposite direction, while Jiang Jingyue followed Liu Yang to his car. The driver was already in the front seat. Having barely drunk tonight, Liu Yang appeared entirely sober.

Jiang Jingyue pulled open the rear door and slid inside. Liu Yang got in from the other side, joining her in the back seat.

The cramped space suddenly felt suffocating. An uneasy feeling rippled through Jiang Jingyue’s chest; she only wished to return to school as fast as possible.

The car crawled to a start.

From the moment they boarded, the driver hadn’t uttered a single word. The longer Jiang Jingyue sat there, the more her anxiety swelled. She discreetly observed the man. He was short and stocky, but his eyes kept darting to the rearview mirror—glancing at Liu Yang one second, and her the next. His expression was deeply unsettling.

What truly sent a chill down her spine was that the driver wasn’t wearing the standard vest of a designated driving service.

Furthermore, the car wasn’t heading toward the campus at all. Instead, it was accelerating down the national highway, steering toward the desolate, sparsely populated outskirts of the city.

An alarm blared in Jiang Jingyue’s head.

Her fingertips turned ice-cold, and a tremor ran through her body, but she didn’t scream or panic. Escalating the situation right now would only make things more dangerous. She had to stay calm.

The driver and Liu Yang were clearly in league with each other.

She quietly closed her eyes, pretending to drift off from exhaustion. Utilizing an angle hidden from Liu Yang, she slipped her phone out of her bag and switched it to silent to prevent any ringtones from giving her away.

She opened WeChat and tapped the familiar, pinned avatar at the top.

Her fingers shook, yet her resolve remained iron-clad as she typed out two words:

Save me.

Immediately after, she opened the real-time location sharing feature. Summoning every ounce of her remaining strength, she shoved the phone deep into the crevice beside her seat, concealing it entirely.

She placed all her chips on He Zian.

There was no logical reason for it; she just blindly trusted her.

Not long after, the car ground to a halt.

The surroundings were pitched in total darkness, save for the small patch of ground illuminated by the headlights.

Liu Yang’s vile voice sounded in her ear. “Professor Jiang, wake up. We’re here.”

Jiang Jingyue looked around, her heart instantly plummeting into an abyss.

The car was parked in a desolate stretch of wilderness. The wild grass grew taller than a person. The night was heavy, and they were entirely hemmed in by trees and brush, without a single glimmer of human life in sight.

A wave of icy despair submerged her completely.

Staring at her pale yet stubborn face, a twisted, triumphant grin spread across Liu Yang’s face. He called out to the front: “Xiao Pang, get out and keep watch. When I’m done, it’s your turn.”

The driver called Xiao Pang turned around, leering at Jiang Jingyue with a gaze so filthy his saliva practically pooled. “Brother Liu, I’ve never seen a woman this beautiful. You better hurry up!”

With that, he happily climbed out of the car.

Inside the cabin, only Jiang Jingyue and Liu Yang remained.

Jiang Jingyue felt entirely frozen. Her eyes turned sharp as shards of ice, locking onto Liu Yang. “Liu Yang, I would rather die than let you lay a finger on me.”

The mask of amiability shattered completely, exposing Liu Yang’s distorted, monstrous face. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been planning for today? From the very first day you stepped into that office, I had my eyes on you! You usually treat me like dirt—what are you acting so pure for? I dream about you every single night…”

The filthy, graphic words made Jiang Jingyue gag with revulsion.

But she couldn’t break down.

She had to buy time.

She didn’t know… if He Zian had seen her message.

She didn’t know… if that person would actually come to her rescue.

He Zian had just returned from a shower when her phone buzzed. The avatar flashing on the screen sent a sudden wave of warmth through her chest—it was Jiang Jingyue.

Her fingers flew to tap open the chat, but the moment she processed the text, the smile froze on her face. Her pupils contracted sharply, and her breath hitched.

Without a second thought, she whirled around and bolted out the door, not even taking the time to change out of her pajamas and slippers.

Her first instinct was to call Jiang Jingyue, but a terrifying thought stopped her: if she placed a call, would the live location sharing disconnect? No, she couldn’t risk it. Getting there was all that mattered.

He Zian sprinted with everything she had toward the school gates. While her eyes desperately tracked the direction of Jiang Jingyue’s shared location, she waved her arms frantically to hail a cab.

Finally, an empty taxi pulled up. He Zian practically threw herself inside. In a panic, she thrust her phone in front of the driver’s face, her voice trembling. “Driver, please go to this location. As fast as you can!”

The driver squinted at the GPS, his brow furrowing as he grumbled, “Young lady, going out there in the middle of the night isn’t easy. The roads are rough and full of potholes. Usually, we don’t go out there for less than a hundred and twenty yuan.”

“I’ll give you five hundred!” He Zian practically screamed, her knuckles turning white as she gripped her phone. “Driver, please, just go faster! It’s a matter of life and death, if we’re late it’ll be too late!”

Hearing the sheer desperation in her voice, the driver dropped his complaints instantly. Without another word, he slammed his foot on the gas, and the car shot forward like a rocket.

Unable to sit still, He Zian clenched her icy hands together, pressing anxiously, “Driver, how long will it take at the absolute fastest?”

“Thirty minutes at best. The road quality out there is just terrible.”

“Can you make it any faster? Can we get there in fifteen minutes?” He Zian pleaded, her heart hammering against her ribs. Her mind ran wild with horrific images of what Jiang Jingyue might be facing.

The driver sighed helplessly, a note of stress creeping into his voice. “Miss, this is a car, not a spaceship. I’m already pushing it to the limit.”

He Zian fell silent, her eyes locked onto the live location marker.

She dared not imagine what Jiang Jingyue was enduring. For someone as aloof and self-contained as Jiang Jingyue to send a late-night plea for help, she had to be in grave peril. He Zian didn’t even dare text or call anyone else, terrified that a momentary glitch in the network might sever that single, precious location stream and erase Jiang Jingyue’s trail entirely.

Spurred by He Zian’s relentless urgency, the driver pushed the vehicle harder. A journey that should have taken half an hour brought them near the destination in just over twenty minutes.

The moment the car screeched to a halt, He Zian threw the door open and leaped out. There were no streetlights here—only a dense wall of tall weeds and brush swallowed by pitch darkness. She couldn’t even make out a path; the only sound was the ominous rustling of leaves in the night wind.

She whipped around to face the driver, her voice sharp with desperation. “Driver, do you have anything in the car I can use for self-defense?”

The driver blinked, startled. After a brief hesitation, he rummaged through the trunk and pulled out a section of ribbed steel rebar, roughly a meter long. One end was wrapped tightly in several layers of cloth for a solid grip. Heavy and solid in her hand, the weapon instantly gave He Zian a surge of fierce resolve.

She took the steel bar, too rushed to even utter a proper thank you, and plunged into the thick overgrowth.

“Miss, you haven’t paid me yet!” the driver yelled after her.

Without looking back, He Zian’s voice cut through the dark with absolute authority: “Wait right there for me! If you leave, you won’t get a single cent!”

Watching her silhouette rapidly vanish into the wild grass, the driver’s mouth twitched. Ultimately, he couldn’t bring himself to drive away—after all, it was five hundred yuan.

On the other side of the brush, Jiang Jingyue was forcing herself to maintain an aura of calm, attempting to de-escalate Liu Yang’s volatile state. Her voice remained as steady as she could manage. “Liu Yang, calm down. Don’t do something reckless. This will only lead to consequences you can never recover from. It won’t do you any good.”

Outside the window, Xiao Pang rapped impatiently against the glass, urging, “Brother Liu, stop wasting breath on her! Hurry up, I can’t wait any longer!”

Liu Yang’s eyes burned with pure lust as he stared down at Jiang Jingyue.

Right now, her features were sharp and cold, yet carrying a fragile vulnerability forced out by the terror. The sight sent a wave of heat through him, his hormones surging violently. He couldn’t care less about her warnings. With a feral growl, he lunged straight at Jiang Jingyue.

Jiang Jingyue froze for a split second before fighting back with everything she had, her hands locked against his chest in a desperate struggle to keep him from pinning her down.

Peering through the glass, Xiao Pang watched the struggle with vile amusement, letting out a crude laugh. “Put some muscle into it, Brother Liu! Rip her clothes off! Hahaha!”

Sruggling through the dense, unforgiving brush, He Zian suddenly caught the faint sound of sickening laughter ahead to her left. Her heart seized violently. A dark, terrifying premonition gripped her soul.

She didn’t dare hesitate for another second. Gripping the steel bar with white knuckles, she broke into a frantic run, tearing through the darkness toward the sound of that laughter.

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