Once Chu Jiao came out of the restroom, she saw that Yoshida had gone to the side and began chatting with others, so she heaved a breath of relief.

If she hadn’t considered the fact that Yan Zhan might have future business with him at work, she wouldn’t have been able to resist her strong urge of outright offending him then and there. She wouldn’t even have bothered to trade pleasantries with this crafty-looking Japanese in the first place.

Chu Jiao became a little drowsy after eagerly taking a sip of the juice that she hadn’t finished a while back and eating some more fruits. She didn’t know if the hall was too stuffy to begin with, making her feel a little warm as though a small fire was lit in her heart.

She lazily rubbed her eyes and stood up slowly, fully planning on asking Yan Zhan if they could finally go back home.

After taking a step or two, Chu Jiao felt that the light in front of her had turned blurry, the different colored lights melding into one another, just like a kaleidoscope.

Her body swayed a little, and suddenly, she couldn’t see the scenery right before her eyes. A hand then abruptly reached out to support her unsteady state.

“Miss Chu, are you alright?” Yoshida Hideaki’s concerned voice quickly floated into Chu Jiao’s ear, “You must be drunk. Why don’t I take you to rest?”

Realization immediately struck Chu Jiao hard.

She had been too careless.

She tried her best to push the man next to her away, “I’m fine, please let me go!”

“Aiii, how could you be alright? You can barely stand straight.” The girl’s strength was akin to an itch, so, like the ‘gentleman’ Yoshida Hideaki was, he put an arm around the girl’s back and held her arm with the other to support her, leading Chu Jiao into the inner hall of the living room. “You need a quiet place to rest…”

“I…I don’t need… Yan… …” Chu Jiao wanted to call out Yan Zhan’s name, but a jacket was immediately thrown over her head, covering her face completely and muffling her voice in the process, “Yan Zhan…save me…”

※

Yan Zhan was currently conversing with the German businessman Bell about buying new weapons when he suddenly felt his girl calling him.

While holding his wine glass, he turned his head around for a look but was unfortunately unable to see even the slightest hint of the girl’s shadow.

“Mr. Yan, how much do you plan to buy this time? We can still negotiate the price…Mr. Yan…Mr. Yan?”

When Bell saw that his important client looked a little distracted during their conversation, he slightly waved his hand in an attempt to recall his attention.

“Mr. Bell, can we put off our conversation for a later time?” Yan Zhan abruptly put down his wine glass and apologized, his thick brows locked in a scrunch.

“No worries, do attend to your matters.” Bell was quite good at observing people and quickly turned to his side politely, “If you need help, Mr. Yan can let me know any time.”

“Understood. Thank you.”

Yan Zhan swiftly called Adjutant Li over and asked him if he was keeping track of Chu Jiao’s whereabouts.

“She was just in the Southwest corner,” Adjutant Li lowered his head with a self-reproaching look, “Afterwards, a few Japanese guests came to ask me about you and so my attention was diverted…”

“It’s alright. Go look around the hall for now. I’ll go inside and take a look.” Even though Yan Zhan was feeling extremely anxious at the moment, he still acted sensibly in this social gathering. After giving instructions to Adjutant Li, he quickly walked towards the rest area.

Since before, his memory was better than average. At this moment, despite there being many guests coming and going in the hall, as long as he had laid eyes on them once, he was able to remember who had been where.

After eliminating all the people he had never come into contact with, only 2 to 3 people that he knew of weren’t present in the room anymore.

Yan Zhan’s sense of unease grew wildly. Suddenly recalling Adjutant Li saying that the Japanese had held him up, he suddenly had a terrible premonition.

※

“Hehehe, Miss Chu, Chu Belle… I, Yoshida, really like you…”

Chu Jiao was half-supported and half-embraced by Yoshida Hideaki into a room for guests to rest in. Her whole person was already devoid of any strength to resist his attempts, so she could only allow him to recklessly throw her on the bed.

“Huff… Yoshida Hideaki… how dare you!” Chu Jiao felt her body burning up and knew that she must have ingested some kind of drug. She did her best to resist the dry heat and sternly warned the man, who had just begun to unbuckle his belt, “I am Yan Zhan’s woman… if you… really touched… you touched me… he will… kill… …kill you…”

“Hehe,” Hideaki Yoshida enjoyed the image of women struggling to their deaths. While speedily taking off his clothes, he disdainfully said, “Yan Zhan, will he even dare?”

“I’m an aide of the Great Japanese empire! Moreover, you are still not his wife. What title do you have for him to kill me?… Miss Chu, why don’t you follow me instead…I will treat you well…”

“Ahhhh… Get lost!”

For the first time in her life, Chu Jiao hated herself for being too careless and ending up in such dire circumstances.

She urgently and anxiously shouted for Yan Zhan’s name in her heart, but didn’t harbor any hope of being saved by him and simply shut her eyes in resignation.