Sharing Dreams with My Bestie's Cousin

This Mu Yanzhou made Chong Wanyin feel alien and scared.

Even when she had racked her brains to kill Wen Yinxi, she had never seen Mu Yanzhou look at her with such eyes, as if looking at someone on their deathbed.

By the time Chong Wanyin finally thought to escape his "tenderness," she could no longer move an inch. Only her hand could barely lift, her finger already on the door-open button, but she couldn’t press it down with any force.

Despair came crashing down like a blanket—

She was utterly powerless.

Her breathing also began to grow rapid.

In her mouth she repeated one sentence over and over, "I am Chong Wanyin, I am Chong Wanyin... I am not Hong Wanying, I am not..."

Chong Wanyin’s pale face bore few signs of aging; she had always taken good care of herself, hoping someday to be with Mu Yanzhou again.

She even planned to kill Wen Zhi first, then that idiot Wen Yiwan.

Unfortunately, because she and Wen Yiwan were at odds all year round, Wen Yiwan was very wary of her, and their few discussions had always ended unhappily. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Those scenes flashed through Chong Wanyin’s mind one by one.

The more images there were, the faster her breath became, her chest heaving wildly, nearly suffocating.

Only when she heard Mu Yanzhou’s voice did she snap back to reality, realizing at some point Mu Yanzhou’s hand had clamped around her neck, the suffocating pressure turning her already pale face the color of liver.

"Could it be I got the name Hong Wanying wrong?" Mu Yanzhou’s voice was getting closer.

Chong Wanyin gasped for breath, trying to inhale deeply. She wanted to scream, but the hand on her neck tightened more and more; she couldn’t form a complete sentence, "Yanzhou, I am... Chong... Wanyin..."

Chong Wanyin initially had a wound on her neck, but Mu Yanzhou’s grip almost cost her half her life.

But the worst was yet to come.

Suddenly, a knife in Mu Yanzhou’s hand was pressed against Chong Wanyin’s face; expressionless, he traced her face with it, "I never saw the autopsy report after Yinxi died."

Chong Wanyin felt as if she were in an icehouse.

She tried to dodge the knife in Mu Yanzhou’s hand, but her futile struggle only made him let go of her neck.

After being suffocated for too long and now finally able to breathe, Chong Wanyin inhaled almost greedily.

The heavy smell of iodine filled her nostrils, causing Chong Wanyin’s tears to flow endlessly.

She was in a sorry and desperate state, repeatedly trying to press the door-open button with her hands.

But those two hands couldn’t muster any strength.

Crying, she said, "Yanzhou, don’t treat me like this, Yinxi’s death had nothing to do with me, it really didn’t, why did you believe me at first, but now you don’t, Yanzhou..."

Mu Yanzhou watched quietly as Chong Wanyin made her last desperate struggle.

He watched her press the button again and again, but she could never actually press it; he watched her use up the last of her energy trying to beg for her life, but to no avail; he watched her look of fear and despair...

"Yinxi felt the same despair back then. Did you spare her?" Mu Yanzhou’s voice was cold and sharp, his eyes shattered.

That sentence instantly reminded Chong Wanyin of what she had done back in the days.

Back then, Wen Yinxi was covered in wounds, lying on the ground like a dog.

With Wen Yinxi’s daughter as leverage, she said, "Crawl over here and beg me now, and I’ll spare your daughter."

She had deceived Wen Yinxi, claiming she had captured Wen Zhi; without this reason, Wen Yinxi would have never fallen into her hands.

Who would have thought that on that very day, Wen Yinxi, the proudest rose of Bai City, truly, for the sake of her daughter, dragged her wounded body over like a dog, crawling at her feet, grabbing her pant leg and begging her, "Don’t hurt my Zhizhi, please Wanyin..."

By that time, Wen Yinxi’s breaths had become weak.

Her head had been injured, her face steeped in fresh blood. Locks of hair glued together by the blood, several of her ribs were broken, one of the tendons in her foot had been picked apart, and one arm had been dislocated and fractured...

Every injury on Wen Yinxi’s body was inflicted by Chong Wanyin’s hands.

What drove Chong Wanyin to madness years later, to the point of even wanting to kill Wen Yinxi, was another murder case.

Because Wen Yinxi had inadvertently learned a secret of Chong Wanyin’s.

If this secret were exposed, Chong Wanyin would be doomed forever.

Actually, Chong Wanyin just needed to send someone to kill Wen Yinxi to quell the matter, and her secret would never be known by anyone else.

But the person who knew her secret just had to be Wen Yinxi, turning it into an act of revenge fueled by both old grudges and new hatred. For Chong Wanyin, the resentment from when Wen Yinxi took Mu Yanzhou away from her back then was something she could never let go of.

She wanted to seize this opportunity to make Wen Yinxi suffer a horrible death.

"Wanying, I promise you I will not reveal this secret. I will keep it until I die, just please don’t hurt my Zhizhi. She’s still young, she has such a long life ahead of her..."

Wen Yinxi’s head knocked against the ground, her voice growing fainter and fainter, "Wanying, I’m begging you..."

If at that moment Chong Wanyin had any shred of conscience left, had given Wen Yinxi a chance to live, and provided her with timely medical treatment, Wen Yinxi surely wouldn’t have died.

But Chong Wanyin had tortured Wen Yinxi to a sub-human state. If Wen Yinxi didn’t die, Chong Wanyin would have no way to escape culpability for her crimes.

In the end, Chong Wanyin had someone strangle Wen Yinxi to death.

This is why Wen Zhi chose to use a belt, in the very same way, to strangle Chong Wanyin to death.

Because the autopsy report on Wen Yinxi’s body indicated that while she had many injuries, they were not enough to be fatal on their own, and ultimately it was determined from the strangulation marks on her neck that Wen Yinxi died from suffocation.

Strangled to death alive...

Subjected to inhumane torture before death...

The body was not discovered until several days later...

...

"Hong Wanying, did you always think that you covered your tracks perfectly, that I wouldn’t find the evidence of you killing Yinxi?" Mu Yanzhou’s expression was terrifyingly calm as he reached out and gently took hold of Chong Wanyin’s ankle.

The gentler his touch, the greater Chong Wanyin’s fear became.

She shook her head, still denying it, "Yanzhou, Yinxi’s death has nothing to do with me. I never anticipated she would die in such a way. It pains my heart to even think about it."

Mu Yanzhou said, "Since it pains your heart, why don’t you go down there and keep her company?"

Chong Wanyin’s pupils suddenly constricted, "No, no no, Yanzhou listen to me... *cough cough cough*... *cough cough*..."

Before she could finish speaking, Chong Wanyin began to cough violently.

She struggled to move backwards, but Mu Yanzhou still held her ankle tightly and said, "Yinxi’s tendons were cut back then."

"Mu Yanzhou! I was wrong." Chong Wanyin was truly scared now,

Especially as the images of Wen Yinxi being tortured to death by her surfaced in her mind, one by one, reminding her of the wrongdoings she committed in the past—and the kind of retribution she would now face!

At that moment, Mu Yanzhou took out his phone with his free hand and sent a message.

Zhan Feng, who had been waiting not far from the car, had just finished listening to a recording sent by Mu Yanzhou not long before, and then he saw a new message come through.

Upon seeing this new message, Zhan Feng furrowed his brows and slowly started walking toward the car...