Li Lingbai’s press conference was forcibly terminated. All the prepared press releases were like duds thrown into the deep sea, sinking without a sound. That night, the wind in Beijing was strong. The light seemed to be compressed by half, and the entire city resembled an elderly person in their final years—dim lights, a chaotic world, with the path ahead obscured by thick fog.

Tai Mingxiao would probably never forget this feeling for the rest of his life. He and Ye Meng were surrounded by reporters and media. Camera flashes nearly forced their way into their eyes, and microphones almost pried into their mouths. These people pounced like fierce tigers, treating them like emotionless pieces of raw pork, yet still hoping this raw meat would reveal some colorful insider information about the wealthy family.

Both he and Ye Meng knew that anything they said at this moment would be sensationalized by the media.

In the end, Tai Mingxiao only said to those cameras and microphones, with a heavy and ungraceful curse: “Li Lingbai is simply insane! I suggest you use that as your headline tonight.” Then, caught in the flood of people, he was stuffed into a police car by officers.

…

In the interrogation room, a beam of light suddenly flashed on with a “bang!” The officer adjusted the lamp head, aiming it at Ye Meng.

“You called the police yourself just now?”

An hour earlier, the Guanshan District Police Station had received a mysterious call. In the call, a woman with an extraordinarily calm voice reported a hotel address: “Someone is about to disrupt a press conference. Please get there immediately.”

Ye Meng, dressed in a clean, efficient black suit, sat in the interrogation chair. She tilted her head slightly back, her eyes devoid of emotion, and responded coolly with a “mm-hmm.”

This woman is calm, the officer thought silently.

“Why did you do it?” the officer asked routinely.

Ye Meng was studying the interrogation room light at that moment. Though it wasn’t that bright, it seemed more piercing than any light outside. The light source was like thousands of sharp needle tips, stabbing straight and continuously into her eyes and chest. In her daze, even blinking felt painful.

Her chest felt constricted. That twenty-year-old young man, what had he endured?

“You wouldn’t believe anything I say because nothing happened. Li Lingbai could claim at any time that she never intended to do that. If I asked you to collect evidence from the various media marketing accounts, Li Lingbai could completely shirk all responsibility,” Ye Meng smiled helplessly, turning her head slightly to the side. Her tone suggested a sense of helplessness yet somehow seemed in control. “What can I do? It seems I didn’t handle this very intelligently. At the very least, I should have let her say a few words so everyone would know what was happening and why I did what I did.”

The officer felt that her self-questioning and somewhat self-mocking words didn’t reveal anything. The officer was young, about twenty-five or twenty-six, and appeared inexperienced, like someone temporarily filling in. He gripped his pen, diligently recording every word Ye Meng said.

“But I’m very satisfied with the current outcome. Detention or a fine, I’m fine with either,” Ye Meng said.

Li Lingbai, of course, vehemently denied everything. After the police conducted a series of related inquiries, she stated that she knew nothing about it and emphatically demanded that Ye Meng and Tai Mingxiao produce evidence that she had been defaming her son.

By this time, all three had finished giving their statements and were out in the police station lobby, meeting face-to-face. Outside the door, a crowd of reporters was craning their necks, but they quickly withdrew when the police shouted at them.

The two of them knew Li Lingbai would say this. Ye Meng and Tai Mingxiao exchanged glances, both with mockery in their eyes.

Li Lingbai looked quite like a fake doll, with hollow eyes devoid of emotion. Her light gaze remained fixed on Ye Meng the entire time, treating Tai Mingxiao beside her as if he were invisible.

Because Ye Meng was too gentle. She wore a black suit with smooth, sharp lines throughout her body, mature and capable. If not for this confrontational meeting tonight, Li Lingbai felt that she would have been unable to resist giving her a second look in any other setting. She had a pair of extremely gentle eyes, yet within that gentleness, there was also a hint of casualness, flamboyance, and confidence.

She thought, there was a free spirit within her, one that was uninhibited, open, bright, yet also charming.

“What’s your relationship with my son?” Li Lingbai couldn’t help but ask.

“She and Li Jinyu are just ordinary friends,” Tai Mingxiao interrupted before Ye Meng could speak.

The media reporters outside were monitoring the dynamics inside in real time. Several media outlets were competing for tonight’s headline, making the atmosphere outside even more tense and confrontational than inside. Everyone was sweating profusely, recording the latest exclusive headline to be published immediately.

—”Write: Mysterious Woman Appears at Li Lingbai’s Press Conference Scene, Turns Out to Be Her Son’s Fiancée!”

Editor: “…”

Li Lingbai pressed aggressively: “Would an ordinary friend go this far for him? Miss Ye, you know, if I insist on pressing charges, with just one word from me, you could face three to five days in detention.”

Another urgent voice sounded from outside.

“Quick, quick, change it to—Li Lingbai’s Power Is Overwhelming, Orders Mysterious Woman to Be Sent to Prison.”

A young reporter grumbled with dissatisfaction: “How should we publish it?”

“Just publish it like this!”

Just as the words fell, another voice sounded from inside. The small leader from a certain weekly magazine immediately perked up his ears, plastered against the wall, and raised his hand, gesturing downward, “Wait, wait—”

Ye Meng looked at Li Lingbai and smiled instead, a smile so casual it was as if nothing mattered to her as if everything could be discarded. With a beaming smile, she said, “I said, I don’t care. I’ve achieved my goal, and I can bear the price I have to pay for it. Also, please remember, that I will be watching you at all times. Before you do anything harmful, think twice whether it will hurt your son. I can’t guarantee that what happened today won’t happen a second or third time. After all, I don’t have a big company like yours to manage.”

Like someone barefoot who doesn’t fear those wearing shoes, Li Lingbai felt helpless and a chilling tremor rose from the bottom of her heart for the first time. She felt she was about to go mad with anger!

Li Lingbai coldly curled her lips. Her rigid body could no longer express emotions through her face, except for those hollow eyes. Just as she was about to speak, her assistant suddenly handed her a phone, “Ms. Li, a call.”

Li Lingbai was about to impatiently wave it away when the assistant carefully added, “It’s your son.”

It naturally referred to Li Zhuofeng. Li Zhuofeng usually went to bed early and rarely called her at night. Li Lingbai frowned as she answered, only to hear a cold, familiar voice from the other end—

“Li Lingbai.”

This was the first time he didn’t call her Mom. Before, no matter when or where, no matter how coldly she treated him, he would always obediently call her Mom, including this recent return to Beijing. Despite her obvious displeasure, he still indifferently called her Mom.

The villa was dark. Li Jinyu, dressed in a shirt and trousers, leaned against the sofa. The curtains were open, and the cold moonlight filtered in from outside, falling at the edge of his clean shoes, making him appear extremely cold and sharp.

“What do you want?” Li Lingbai asked icily.

Li Jinyu slowly unbuttoned two buttons of his shirt, revealing his straight, hollow collarbone. He sat hunched on the sofa, his elbows resting on his legs, one hand holding the phone to his ear, his eyelids lowered, the other hand picking up the half cigarette previously resting on the coffee table. He pinched it between his index finger and thumb, took a drag, and then discarded it. As he crushed it underfoot, he said casually, “Let them go, or you won’t see Li Zhuofeng tonight. You know me, making someone disappear without a trace isn’t difficult for me.”

“So you admit it, don’t you?!” Li Lingbai’s eyes suddenly became fierce and sinister. “Was it you who killed your brother back then?!”

Li Jinyu leaned back, with the tip of one foot resting on the coffee table. “Does it matter whether I admit it or not? In your eyes, aren’t I just that murderer who escaped legal punishment?”

Li Lingbai gritted her teeth, her cheeks hollow, looking like a sharp-mouthed doll. “What’s your relationship with that woman?”

“She and Tai Mingxiao are both my friends,” Li Jinyu said flatly, without a trace of emotion. “You can try it and see if I’ll throw Li Zhuofeng from the top.”

“Bang!” Li Lingbai unexpectedly smashed the phone!

Ye Meng suddenly understood how Li Jinyu had developed his habit of smashing phones. After all these years as mother and son, there was still influence. She also suddenly understood why Li Jinyu disliked himself so much—he hated the small habits he had that resembled Li Lingbai’s.

That evening, Li Lingbai trended again, but this time with overwhelmingly negative reviews. As one rose, the other fell; they couldn’t delete them fast enough. It seemed some things could no longer be concealed.

The play had begun, and it was hard to end. But even if no one was watching from the audience, the show had to go on.

Li Jinyu invited Cai Yuanzheng for dinner, at the same mall as before. Li Jinyu smoked two cigarettes at the entrance before Cai Yuanzheng finally arrived, as elegant and refined as ever, with a smile full of apology, “Sorry, traffic was bad.”

Li Jinyu extinguished his cigarette, put his hands in his pockets, and sauntered in, saying lazily, “It’s fine, I just got here too.”

In Cai Yuanzheng’s impression, Li Jinyu was a man of few words. Not the cool type, nor the kind who would play freely, just very proper and polite, courteous to everyone, and very obedient. He was the youngest at the time, yet the team captain and the so-called campus heartthrob, so everyone took care of him like a younger brother.

Meeting again now, that feeling remained. Li Jinyu still felt like a younger brother, but Cai Yuanzheng felt he was no longer like Li Jinyu’s senior, more like an uncle.

The two walked to the private room. Li Jinyu pulled out a chair to sit down and casually asked, “I heard from Professor Lu that Senior is now writing novels?”

Cai Yuanzheng nodded and said, “Yes.”

“Online novels? Or what?” Li Jinyu wasn’t very familiar with this field and asked casually while looking at the menu, leaning back in his chair.

Cai Yuanzheng: “I write online too, just to make a living.”

Li Jinyu shook his head, “No, you’re quite impressive.”

Cai Yuanzheng began to ask in return, “What do you plan to do now that you’re back in Beijing?”

Li Jinyu finished ordering, closed the menu, and handed it to the waiter. He took a casual sip of tea and sincerely sought his advice, “I haven’t decided. I want to find something to do. Does Senior have any good recommendations?”

Cai Yuanzheng smiled, his crow’s feet from late nights slowly spreading: “What recommendations could I have? Am I going to persuade you to write books with me? Anyway, you can do anything, just don’t write books. Anyone in this business knows how it is.”

Li Jinyu smiled along, “I saw a book at a friend’s house recently, it was quite good, but I couldn’t find where to buy it, and it didn’t list the author, so I don’t know who wrote it.”

“What book?”

“Let me think,” Li Jinyu leaned back in his chair, one arm crossed over his chest, the other with his index finger tapping his temple in a thoughtful pose, mumbling, “I think it was called ‘The Door,’ but I heard that because a girl jumped off a building holding this book recently, the police listed it as a cult book? I think books aren’t that mystical. Maybe she was just using the book as a back support.”

Cai Yuanzheng sipped his tea and after a while, put down the cup: “Are you interested in ‘The Door’?”

“I’m quite interested,” Li Jinyu said. “What happened that year affected me a lot, so when I first saw that book, I felt somewhat comforted.”

“Have you been seeing a psychologist these past few years?”

“Yes,” Li Jinyu nodded.

Cai Yuanzheng paused, his eyes shifting slightly, and finally said, “How about this, I’ll introduce you to a psychologist who might be helpful.”

“Is it expensive?” Li Jinyu asked.

“You… shouldn’t be short on money, right?” Cai Yuanzheng looked at him.

“To be honest, the old man only gave me dry shares. I don’t have much cash on hand. If it’s too expensive, I can’t afford it,” Li Jinyu said, lowering his eyes.

“It’s not expensive. The initial consultation is free, and after that, it depends on your needs,” Cai Yuanzheng said.

Liang Yunan, in the car, heard every word of this conversation and thought these cult members were truly cunning, using appealing titles like “psychologist,” “psychological healer,” or “spiritual therapist” to deceive people who already had psychological issues. No wonder they were all so thoroughly brainwashed that they truly believed in some supernatural world where one could escape illness and natural laws.

“Issue a joint investigation notice. Bring Cai Yuanzheng in for questioning in a few days!” Liang Yunan said to the officer below his earpiece.

“Yes, sir!” the subordinate replied.

After meeting this so-called “psychologist,” Li Jinyu knew exactly what was in store. The clinic was located in a residential area, with small advertisements plastered all over the walls. After finishing his visit, Li Jinyu walked down the stairs, quietly reporting to Liang Yunan, “Third floor, no security windows, the unit with the red umbrella at the door.”

Liang Yunan said through the earpiece, “These desperate individuals usually don’t install security windows. Sometimes when the police inspect, they’d rather risk falling to their death than surrender.”

Li Jinyu circled out of the residential area and continued, “He’s not a professional psychologist. He probably doesn’t have a professional psychological counseling license. The initial consultation is just to gauge whether I meet their standards for ‘membership.'”

“They even have standards?” Liang Yunan, in another car, had someone record the address.

Li Jinyu, wearing a Bluetooth earpiece, opened the car door and sat in the driver’s seat. He leaned back without closing the door, with one foot loosely resting outside. While waiting for the engine to warm up, he said, “For members confirmed through this channel, I guess they’re mostly older people who haven’t had much education. Otherwise, they’d fear infiltration by police undercover agents. Also, don’t arrest Cai Yuanzheng yet.”

“Why not?”

“Eight years ago, Ye Meng’s mother had already joined ‘Yinzhen.’ At that time, Cai Yuanzheng was just a college student like me. He couldn’t have orchestrated something so significant. There must be another ‘Yinzhen.’ Arresting him would alert the others,” Li Jinyu had just finished speaking when, with a casual glance, he saw a familiar figure emerging from the building he had just left. “Liang Yunan, can you help me check—”

“What?” Liang Yunan was startled.

Li Jinyu pulled his foot back in and closed the car door, his gaze fixed straight on that figure: “My teacher, Lu Mingbo’s wife, Quan Siyun—what was she doing eight years ago?”

In a private hospital’s psychiatric VIP consultation room, the curtains were tightly closed, the light was dim, and the room temperature was set to the most comfortable eighteen degrees.

Li Lingbai had two gel instrument tubes inserted into her forehead, and Quan Siyun was gently massaging in circles along her sharp jawbone. “Your cerebral blood flow has been too rapid lately. Not sleeping well?”

Li Lingbai closed her eyes, her face almost devoid of warmth. She made an affirming sound, “Please prescribe me some medication later. I’m experiencing hallucinations again.”

“About your son?”

“Yes.”

“Is it the child with the knife?”

“Yes, he says he wants to cut open my stomach and dig out my uterus, so I can never be a mother again in this life.”

Quan Siyun continued slowly massaging her face in circles, letting out a long sigh. This sound seemed to seep from the top of her head, penetrating her bones and blood, reverberating heavily in her cold blood. “This is original sin. The Bible says, ‘When I was conceived in my mother’s womb, I already had sin.'”

The police office door was wide open. Liang Yunan made himself a scalding cup of Nescafé, sipping it noisily while asking absent-mindedly, “You’ve interacted with her for some time. What kind of person do you think your teacher’s wife is? Ambitious?”

Quan Siyun was something of a fallen heiress. In her early years, her father was a wealthy merchant. After she went to college, her family fortune declined, her father was imprisoned, and her mother committed suicide due to depression. She then married Lu Mingbo, who was a counselor at A University at the time. Moreover, Quan Siyun studied psychology and was a memory palace expert. Lu Mingbo initially learned the memory palace technique because of her, and later became the coach for Li Jinyu and his team.

Li Jinyu leaned back on his sofa, recalling carefully, “To be honest, Teacher Quan is a psychologist. She’s plain from head to toe, so plain that you can’t believe she was once a wealthy young lady. She doesn’t talk much and generally keeps her distance from us. I only remember one thing: Professor Lu listens to her a lot. The seniors in our team used to joke that Professor Lu was a bit henpecked.”

“She had a good relationship with my mother,” Li Jinyu suddenly remembered.

Liang Yunan looked at him and suddenly asked out of the blue, “How long has it been since you went home?”

“What’s the matter?” Li Jinyu slumped lazily down again, his head tilted back, staring at the ceiling.

Liang Yunan recalled, “Oh, I haven’t seen Ye Meng much lately.”

He laid his head back, rubbed his face, and then sat up from the back of the sofa, hunching forward with his elbows propped up. He picked up a cigarette from the coffee table, took a deep drag, and tossed the lighter back with a “clack,” showing no emotion. Crossing one leg over the other without much expression, he made an affirming sound, “She’s at my place.”

To be more precise, it was Li Changjin’s villa.

That day after leaving the police station, she watched Li Lingbai get into an extremely luxurious private car and leave. Following closely, a large car identical to Li Lingbai’s private vehicle slowly approached from the dimly lit end of the road. Without a word, they captured her and Tai Mingxiao, and then halfway through the journey, Tai Mingxiao was unceremoniously dropped off.

To this day, Ye Meng still doesn’t know how Tai Mingxiao got home that night.

If Auntie Zhang hadn’t said that the young master had asked for her to be brought back, Ye Meng would have called the police on the spot.

But that young master hadn’t appeared for a month.

Ye Meng felt she was exactly like a wealthy family’s new bride who had been married and then neglected by a rich young master.