Nights in the mountains were characterized by their menacing coldness and the frigid air suffusing them . Under the moonlight, there was a burst of orange light appeared in a certain corner of the village . The light slowly enlarged and soon revealed itself to be a ball of flame . A split second later, an explosion sounded and the roof of a bamboo hut burst asunder . The peculiar thing was that despite such a huge stir, n.o.body was screaming . n.o.body came running out of the buildings, either .

Ying Qingcang's eyes shot open . Another loud boom sounded beside his ear . He got up in haste and ran to the window to see what was happening . His eyes widened at what he saw . In one swift motion, he picked Xin Qing up . Just then, Chieftain Mo Lin and Boss Wan's voices sounded outside his door .

"You carry him!" Ying Qingcang tossed Xiao Rui into the chieftain's arms . There was an uncharacteristic look of panic on Boss Wan's face right then . "I can't find Huanhuan," Boss Wan said .

"Let's get out of here first . The explosions are drawing close," Ying Qingcang said, leading the way outside .

Chieftain Mo Lin carried Xiao Rui and ran after them . "They've all been drugged," Chieftain Mo Lin wailed . "n.o.body was awake during the blast . They're all dead . Who did this? Which maniac is capable of such a s.a.d.i.s.tic act?"

Ying Qingcang's face turned grim as he ran . Xin Qing was still fast asleep in his arms . Boss Wan ran ahead to the front of the group, shouting Chen Huan's name as he did . All of a sudden, Boss Wan halted in his steps . Then, he turned around and ran in another direction .

Ying Qingcang and the chieftain followed him . Even from afar, they were able to discern Chen Huan's profile amidst the flame, and right now, she was holding a flaming torch in her hand .

"Huanhuan?" Boss Wan ran towards her and noticed the vacant look in her eyes . She could not even hear him screaming .

Then, the old chieftain shouted in horror . "Hypnosis?"

"Come on, man . Knock her out!" Ying Qingcang said sternly . "She's setting off the explosives . "

Boss Wan's palm connected with Chen Huan's neck . Then, he picked up her unconscious form and ran .

The old chieftain's heart-wrenching yells sounded out: "Save them! We have to save them!"

"It's too late," Ying Qingcang said, staring at him . "Unless you have a way to instantly wake them up . Otherwise, we won't have time to carry them out one by one . "

Chieftain Mo Lin shook his head as he cried . "I can't watch them all die while I do nothing . You take Xiao Rui away . "

While Ying Qingcang and the chieftain argued, Boss Wan suddenly yelled from ahead . "Look out! The water tower is about to collapse!"

The tallest building in the entire village was a tower used to store water . Its supporting structure had just been destroyed by the explosives . As a result, the entire structure was tilting and leaning towards the trees and wooden cabins beside it . Ying Qingcang's eyes turned glacial . "Catch!" he yelled before tossing Xin Qing towards Boss Wan .

Boss Wan quickly set Chen Huan on the ground and caught Xin Qing in mid-air . The two of them crashed down to the ground . The old chieftain tossed Xiao Rui away from him almost at the same time as the tower crashed down upon Ying Qingcang and the chieftain .

Boss Wan crawled along the ground, looking the worse for wear . His gaze never wavered as he stared at the burning wood and collapsing walls before him . All of a sudden, a series of panicked footsteps sounded behind him . He turned his head around abruptly and sighed in relief .

"Hurry up, get them out of here . . . "

Bit by bit, streaks of white formed in the horizon . Although the night had finally pa.s.sed, everything had changed .

"How many men do we have left?" Boss Wan asked . He and a bunch of people were now standing in front of the village's entrance . On the ground lay Xin Qing, Chen Huan, and Xiao Rui respectively . None of them were awake yet .

One of his men spoke in voice laced with pain: "There's five of us left . We didn't eat much last night, that was why we woke up in time to escape . The other brothers . . . "

Chen Huan s.h.i.+fted . Boss Wan quickly helped her up . "Huanhuan?"

"My . . . My head hurts . What's wrong with me?" Chen Huan touched the back of her head . Her whole body felt exhausted . Then, she saw everyone standing around her, looking utterly disheveled and grimy . Xin Qing and Xiao Rui were still lying on the ground unmovingly .

"What happened?" she asked in a panic . "What's wrong with everyone?"

Boss Wan recounted last night's events to her, though he did not mention the part about her being hypnotized .

"Then why are you guys still standing around? Hurry up and save them!" Chen Huan stood up and dashed into the village . Boss Wan held her back . "Hey, don't be so impulsive . It's good that you've woken up . You need to stay here and look after Xin Qing . We'll go in now and look for Ah Cang . "

Just when the men were about to enter the village, Chen Huan saw Xin Qing's eyes blinking open .

"Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" Chen Huan held Xin Qing's arms . Xin Qing rubbed her eyes . Before Xin Qing could even open her mouth, Boss Wan spoke first: "Xin Qing, you have to calm down . For the sake of the baby . . . "

Xin Qing went still with shock .

The entire village was in ruins . All that was left of the houses were the charred remains of their supporting frames; some did not even have those left . The smog caused by the explosives stung all of their noses . Boss Wan stood in front of the place where Ying Qingcang and the chieftain had been buried under the collapsing tower last night . He watched as his men began pulling piece after piece of broken planks from the ground . He could not afford to look for the others . The longer they waited, the more danger Ying Qingcang would be in .

Xin Qing stood on the sidelines, staring stupidly at the everything before her . Chen Huan had her arm wrapped around Xin Qing, patting her shoulder occasionally as a gesture of comfort .

"Ah Cang! Ah Cang!" Xin Qing yelled out suddenly, das.h.i.+ng forward . Not even Chen Huan was quick enough to stop her . Xin Qing ran towards the rubble, dropped to her knees, and began sifting through the debris herself . She pushed the planks apart with total abandon . Not once did she stop to check if the planks had any nails on them . "Ah Cang! Ah Cang, don't scare me like this, okay? Come out now, please . Hurry up! Show yourself!"

Even Boss Wan's men had stopped digging by then . They had already dug to the bottom of the pile . They found nothing .

"Xin Qing, stop . You need to watch out for your baby," Chen Huan said, moving in to help Xin Qing to her feet . Somehow, Xin Qing found the strength to shove Chen Huan aside . Then, Xin Qing turned to one of Boss Wan's men beside her, her hands clutching the hem of his pants . "Why aren't you guys digging . Don't you dare stop digging . Hurry up and dig! Ah Cang is still waiting! I can hear him calling me . Hurry up and dig, d.a.m.n it!" After her tirade, Xin Qing started digging once again, s.h.i.+fting piece after piece of charred wood until her palms were riddled with splinters and all her nails were broken .

Xiao Rui, who had woken up some time during the commotion, walked up to her . "There are no longer any signs of life here . "

Xin Qing stared blankly at a piece of black, charred wood . "Nonsense," she mumbled softly, "he's still down there . You're all lying . "

"He isn't there," Xiao Rui said, crouching down . "Which means he isn't dead . "

"Yes, yes, yes . . . " Xin Qing nodded vigorously . "He . . . He'll be fine . He won't abandon me . He won't . . . "

Chen Huan heaved a sigh of relief, but a split second later, she saw Xin Qing's body go limp . Chen Huan reached out just in time to catch her . Then, Boss Wan spoke out in his deep voice: "Start clearing up the other places right now . Finish the job as quickly as you can . Then we'll get the h.e.l.l out of here . "

A month later .

"She refuses to drink it again?" Zhang Mi said, watching Young Master Shen descend the stairs with the bowl of medicine .

"Drank half of it," Young Master Shen said in a dejected tone . Despair oozed from his entire being .

Zhang Mi burst into tears . "What are we going to do now? Forget that she's skipping her meals, but now she's even refusing to take her medicine . What if she has another episode? She'll die of pain . "

Ah Nan and Ah Che came in from outside . Ah Nan was carrying a bunch of doc.u.ments with him . "Still refusing to come down?" Ah Nan asked .

"I'll bring them up!" Zhang Mi said, taking the doc.u.ments from Ah Nan . After drying her tears, she headed upstairs .

Ah Che and Ah Nan sat down . "It's been a month, and yet we still can't find anything . Not even a corpse," Young Master Shen said with a sigh .

"It means that the young master isn't dead!" Ah Che said with fervor . "We'll keep looking . We'll find him eventually . "

The front door opened with a loud bang . Chen Huan ran inside . "Ying Qingcang isn't dead! I'm sure of it!"

Boss Wan followed behind Chen Huan, shaking his head . Then, he pulled Chen Huan to sit down . Chen Huan fixed her gaze on him . "You believe it, too, don't you! That he isn't dead?"

"Huanhuan, that isn't your fault . You-"

"Stop it! Stop talking!" Chen Huan yelled, burying her face into her hands .

Not long after they had left the village, Chen Huan had found out that she had been hypnotized . She learnt that she had been the one who had set off the explosives that killed everyone . She could barely live with herself these days, so much so that she felt the urge to take her own life . She could not bring herself to face Xin Qing . Every day, she would follow Aunt Tian around and perform any ch.o.r.e available at Ying's residence like some kind of nanny . Whenever Xunxun made Ah Sha cry, she would slap him right in the face .

Everyone knew that Chen Huan had been struggling with guilt . Even so, none of them knew how to comfort her, especially Boss Wan . Boss Wan had always hoped that Chuan Huan would stay by his side and stop running around . He had gotten his wish now, just not in the way he wanted . Right now, he would rather have Chen Huan running around as long as she could resolve her internal conflict .

"What's happening at Ying Enterprises?" Young Master Shen asked Ah Nan .

"Ying Enterprises no longer exists . All its a.s.sets had already been transferred to the young miss . In a few days, the HQ of Ying Enterprises will be renovated . The name of the building will be changed to Xin Enterprises . "

"What about old man Ying? What's his reaction to all this?" Young Master Shen had never let Xin Qing out of his sight recently . Now that he thought about it, Ying Hao had yet to show up despite the fact that they had immediately called to notify everyone back in England after the incident .

A look of suspicion formed in Ah Che's eyes . "The old master . . . He's missing," Ah Che said in a doubtful tone .

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That's what the guys over at England told me . The day before the young master got into trouble, the old master left the house and never returned," Ah Che said, clenching his hands into tight fists . "They've called the police and made a missing person's report . The cops are looking for him too . "

Boss Wan's scowl grew darker by the second . "None of us could find any traces of him," Boss Wan growled in frustration . "The villagers are all dead . All their corpses have been accounted for . "

"All except for Ying Qingcang and the chieftain," Young Master Shen said, a vacant look forming on his face . "If they really were taken by someone, the abductors would've surely planted two fake bodies to fool us . But right now, there is just nothing . "

"My guys have searched through the area in a one hundred mile radius . They didn't find any leads . Not a single trace either," Boss Wan said . He deeply regretted not planting a GPS device on Ying Qingcang from the get-go .

Zhang Mi walked down the staircase and handed the doc.u.ments to Ah Nan . "She signed everything . "

"Is she staring off into s.p.a.ce again?" asked Chen Huan .

"No . I persuaded her to drink a gla.s.s of milk . She's asleep now," Zhang Mi said, her eyes turning red at the rims . Still, she held back her tears . She knew that Chen Huan would feel even more guilty if she cried in front of Chen Huan .

Soon, the rumors of the accident encountered by the President of Ying Enterprises spread out among the public . All members of the press were in full-blown a.s.sault mode, bombarding the world with all kinds of news related to the incident . Some had claimed that Ying Qingcang had perished in the accident and that Xin Qing had inherited all his a.s.sets . Others had claimed that Ying Qingcang was just missing, only that Xin Qing had seduced the executives of Ying Enterprises to hand Ying Enterprises over to her . Some had even claimed that Xin Qing had been the one behind Ying Qingcang's death, and that this "Black Widow" had now become the wealthiest person in S City .

Regardless of the truth, Xin Qing had become the subject of public controversy . All women were jealous of her . The lowly n.o.body that was once the daughter of the Xin family had now claimed Ying Enterprises in just a few short years . Correction, now it had even been renamed to Xin Enterprises . She became the President of Xin Financial Group and owned ninety percent of the total shares .

While everyone was jealous of her and making wild guesses about her whereabouts, Xin Qing had never shown her face to the public . The reporters had not been able to track her down, either . All that had added more fuel to the controversy surrounding her . The entire city was now filled with absurd claims .

In the pitch-black house, a single lamp hung in the center of the room . The light from the lamp illuminated a bed, where a man lay . Xin Qing walked over to the bed and immediately recognized the familiar face . "Ah Cang!" she cried out happily .