Mrs Fox Heinous Revenge: Can You Love A Villainess like Me?
Chapter 194: Shaken Hearts

Chapter 194: Shaken Hearts

Shaken, AiLin couldn’t explain the overwhelming need to flee, but her body responded instinctively. Her legs moved faster than ever, each step on the marble floor echoing in her ears. Her bag slipped from her hand as she ran, but she didn’t stop to retrieve it. She knew Li ZiChen would follow her— of course, he would— but that only made her more determined to escape. She had to outrun him, to leave now before facing him again.

If he looked at her the way Mrs. Jiang once had, full of disappointment and regret, AiLin knew it would shatter her. She wouldn’t survive it.

YanLan stood frozen, still reeling from the shock of what had unfolded. His mind barely registered what was happening until he saw Li ZiChen bolt past him like a force of nature, his footsteps like thunder in pursuit of AiLin.

"ZiChen!" YanLan called, but his voice was ignored, swallowed by the moment’s urgency.

"AiLin!" Li ZiChen shouted, his voice carrying desperation as he chased after her. He sped through the building, his frustration mounting as she disappeared into the night. She was fast, years of running had made her a natural, so fast that he couldn’t even catch her even if he wanted to.

The thought of Mei Hua stirred an ugly anger inside him. Had she orchestrated this? Had she deliberately pushed AiLin, knowing how fragile she already was?

The fragile AiLin, who couldn’t sleep and would stare at the dark room for eight hours, not knowing that everything surrounds her had turn pitch black, as if she was an empty shell of her own self.

The AiLin, who wandered in her sleep like a ghost, staring silently out of windows as if waiting for her soul to return.

The fury coursing through him was unbearable, each thought stoking it further. It boiled over as his fist collided with the wall beside him, the impact loud and violent, leaving a deep crater in its surface.

His chest heaved with labored breaths, his mind a storm of regret and anger. All he could think about was finding her. Before it was too late.

YanLan who had chased after him along with Tsuki and Taiyo was surprised to see that even they couldn’t catch up to AiLin who had left in such a storm. They looked at Li ZiChen in panic, confused at what they should do. Should they stay out of this one? Or help?

"Call every men in Beijing," Li ZiChen’s voice cracked as his knuckles had turned white from how tight he had balled his fist, "Let all of them know that the future wife of Li Family is missing. Find her no matter what."

YanLan blinked from his surprised and echoed, "But is this what she wants?"

"She’s in danger," Li ZiChen answered him, his eyes flickering dangerously. "Bring her home, that takes the priority now. If after talking to her, she told me that she doesn’t want to see me then I’ll leave. Now her safety is more important."

"But no one would harm her, calm down," YanLan tried to pat Li ZiChen’s shoulders only for him to swat it away.

Only then did YanLan saw the drop of cold sweat that had dripped from Li ZiChen’s forehead. The look of his anger seemed to have turned into something frightening that clouded his entire face, gone was that handsome face that people always admire, turning into something too frightening that even his cousin shuddered upon seeing.

"You don’t know what is dangerous to her now," Li ZiChen covered his face, "It’s not people who would harm her but herself. Her mental state is in a brink and this fucking goddamn people just have to hurt her again and again until she’s reduced to nothing. You don’t know how much I have tried to shelter her from pain. Why would you bring her here?!"

YanLan himself was shocked, he flinched and quiet down as he realized that perhaps during the time Mei Hua had mocked AiLin, he had turned to look at AiLin differently which she had caught by her gaze and perhaps that added to her fear.

YanLan’s fear raises to his throat as he recalled Li ZiChen’s words of how the most dangerous person to AiLin is herself, that she could... harm herself.

Fear finally sunk to every men in the room, realizing that they had made a grave mistake as they could prevent a danger from others but how could they prevent a danger made by the lady herself?

"Go, Go!"

The rest of the men dispersed without a word, leaving Li ZiChen standing alone, the weight of the moment crushing his shoulders. He staggered toward his car, his mind spinning as he slid into the driver’s seat. Where could AiLin be? What place in this vast, indifferent world could she possibly call home?

Nowhere.

Nowhere.

Nowhere.

Because of all those bastards who had torn apart her happiness. Because they had left her with nothing but ashes and scars, a hollowed-out life she no longer knew how to live.

Was this the reality AiLin had anticipated? That once her revenge was complete, she would find herself surrounded by nothing but the unbearable loneliness of being without a single soul to trust?

Li ZiChen’s hands tightened around the steering wheel, his knuckles whitening. Perhaps that was what terrified him most— what he refused to admit even to himself.

That fear of losing her was why he had urged her to consider therapy, hoping to crack open a door she had long since bolted shut. He had introduced her to his parents, kind people who knew what it meant to care, and to the nanny who had raised him, a woman with warmth and strength in equal measure. He wanted her to see, even in the smallest of gestures, that goodness still existed.

It was why he silently prayed that, once her revenge burned itself out, she might find another reason to keep going. Whether it was acting, becoming a teacher, or— God help him— even killing people, if that’s what it took to give her peace, he would help her. Anything to pull her back from the edge. Anything to stop her from believing that leaving the world was her only escape.

But he wasn’t sure if he had succeeded.

Every day, he thought about how well despair could disguise itself. How someone could laugh, smile, and look perfectly fine one moment, only to fall into darkness the next. The possibility haunted him. The fragility of it all.

He wasn’t confident that his efforts had made a difference. He didn’t know if he’d managed to convince her that the world could still hold joy, that there might be a corner somewhere with light waiting for her.

The uncertainty ate at him. Had he helped? Had he truly reached her? Or was he just grasping at the hope that he had?

Li ZiChen was so distracted that he couldn’t focus on driving. He wasn’t aware of the loud noises that echoed from his left side, how someone had honked so loudly to gain his attention but he wasn’t paying any of it as he was submerged in his own thoughts.

Then suddenly, he saw the blinding headlights of a truck bearing down on him. His instincts kicked in as he yanked the steering wheel hard while the truck roared, oblivious to the man who had stared straight into the white light that had taken his sight complete, causing for a moment where everything seemed to have froze while he stare at the shadow of the impending doom rushing to hit him...

On the other side of Beijing, hours have passed since AiLin had overheard Mei Hua’s words to Li ZiChen.

Ever since her secret about abortion been made public, she had found it hard to get back to herself. It was as if she was trapped in her own body. She tried to move herself, to go back and to explain, to understand instead of running away like a coward. But her body refuse to follow her demands, continuing to walk like an undead, a soulless person.

She couldn’t see Li ZiChen’s face but she had seen YanLan’s expression. His face screaming shock and seemingly disappointment had struck her deeper than she had expected, causing a deep wound inside her heart.

It wasn’t YanLan’s fault, she reasoned. Everyone in their right mind would be fearful of a woman who could easily take the life of a baby inside her stomach, especially with the false rumors that Mei Hua had uttered.

Li ZiChen had always been on her side, so he would also believe her this time.

He would. He would. He would. But why can’t this heart trust it? Why does her heart feel so numb?

She wanted to trust him, hadn’t he made it clear that he would always be on her side?

But a defective woman like her?

Does he also know the fact that her body is incapable of having a child ever again?

No he doesn’t. Would he think that she had deceived him when he found out then? If that happens... she should beg for his forgiveness.

He doesn’t deserve her.

Every thoughts haunt her. The more she wished it doesn’t bother her, the more it seemed to do just the complete opposite, leaving her with a sense of emptiness and just a deep abyss of despair.

It took her the fourth hour to finally give up and to let her body do the act, finding herself comforted by the silence and the rain that had somehow dripped down to her body.

It had turn out that while she had been walking without a destination, she had gone back to the first place she had visited when she was released from prison.

She remembered walking here, she also remembered seeing Jiang NianNian’s poster which had been torn apart after the Jiang Family scandals broke out. She also remembered that an old woman would offer her an umbrella.

"Excuse me miss?"

The familiar old woman’s voice echoed from her left.

She had turned her face, surprised to see a face she had thought she would only see once in her life...