CHAPTER 75: CHAPTER 75; MRS LU TAKEN HOSTAGE 2

Shuyin’s species, her people, were beautiful, seductive, powerful. But when it came to love, they were cold and practical. Mermaids didn’t love the way humans did. They formed bonds of necessity, of political alliance, of mutual benefit. But romantic love? The kind that made humans destroy themselves for another person?

That was uniquely human stupidity.

"Please help me," the woman, begged now, desperation replacing anger. "I can give you anything. Absolutely anything. Just help me get my children back. Help me escape him. Please."

"What’s your full name?" Shuyin asked, though she already knew from reading it in the woman’s surface thoughts.

"Chen Wan," she replied quickly. "My maiden name was Zhao, but I gave that up when I married him. Another stupid decision."

"Ooh." Shuyin’s jade eye focused on her with renewed interest. "If I help you, what’s in it for me? I don’t do charity work, you know. Everything has a price."

Chen Wan didn’t hesitate even for a second. "If you can get rid of the man, permanently, you can have the company. All of it. The assets, the bank accounts, everything I’m technically still entitled to even though he’s stolen it. It’s worth over two billion yuan. It’s yours if you can free me from him."

"We get rid of him?" Shuyin’s eyes snapped open fully now, her jade eye blazing with interest. "You want him dead?"

"Yes." Chen Wan’s voice was steady, certain, filled with the kind of cold hatred that came from years of abuse. "He’s not just abusing me. It’s the entire family. My father-in-law, my husband’s brothers, they’re all the same. They abuse every woman in that household. Even the children, innocent children who don’t deserve any of it. They’re animals. All of them. Animals who need to burn in hell."

The hatred in her voice was so pure, so consuming, that even Shuyin, who had spent three years being tortured by humans and bore her own deep hatred for the species, was slightly impressed.

"Ooohhh..." Shuyin tilted her head, studying Chen Wan with new appreciation. "Don’t you guys have the strength to beat them back? To fight them yourself?"

Chen Wan laughed bitterly. "I tried. Once. My husband broke three of my ribs and my wrist, then had me committed for psychiatric evaluation. Told the doctors I’d attacked him in a psychotic episode. They believed him, of course. He’s powerful. Influential. And I’m just his crazy wife."

Shuyin fell silent, considering.

She’d been a princess in her own realm. Adored by her father, the King of their race beneath the waters. Beautiful, powerful, and untouchable. No male of her species would have dared to raise a hand against her.

If they dared, her brothers and father would hunt those men down and complete alienation.

The only beings who’d ever hurt her had been the humans at the research institution. The ones who’d captured her, caged her, studied her like a specimen for three years. The ones she fully intended to destroy as soon as she had the strength.

But this woman... this Chen Wan... had been systematically destroyed by someone she’d loved. By someone she’d trusted with everything.

It was a uniquely human kind of cruelty.

And perhaps, Shuyin thought, it could be a uniquely useful alliance.

"All right," she said finally. "I’ll help you. But understand, when I say ’get rid of him,’ I mean permanently. No half-measures. No mercy. Are you prepared for that?"

Chen Wan met her glowing jade eye without flinching. "I’ve dreamed about his death every night for two years. Yes. I’m prepared."

"Good." Shuyin leaned back against the seat, her body still cold but stabilizing now. "Then we have a deal. I’ll free you from your husband and his family. You’ll give me control of the company and assets. And maybe..." her lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile, "maybe I’ll teach you how to fight back properly. So next time someone tries to cage you, you can tear their throat out yourself."

Chen Wan stared at this strange woman with glowing eyes who spoke so casually about murder and violence, and felt something she hadn’t felt in years.

Hope.

In the front seat, Ah-Ling kept his eyes on the road and his thoughts carefully neutral. He’d heard every word of this conversation. Heard his employer’s wife, the Madam, agree to help murder someone.

He would report none of it.

Because he’d also been with Lu Yuze long enough to know that some battles couldn’t be fought through legal channels. Some enemies required solutions that existed outside the law.

And if the Madam was building her own network, her own power base, separate from but complementary to the master’s...

Well, that just made her more valuable.

The convoy continued its winding route through industrial districts and back roads, heading toward the Lu estate where safety and secrets waited in equal measure.

And in the back seat, two women who’d both been caged by humans in different ways began planning their revenge.

"You really are a beautiful woman! Sigh! You only wasted your years on that stupid human!" Shuyin reached out and gently caressed Chen Wan’s face, her cold fingers tracing the hollows of her cheeks before moving the fringes of her hair back behind her ear with surprising tenderness.

Chen Wan immediately became shy, heat rising to her face despite everything. How could this woman be so casually romantic in such a situation? The gesture was intimate, unexpected, and completely at odds with the violent escape they’d just made from the hospital.

"How many kids do you have and how old are they?" Shuyin inquired, her jade eye studying Chen Wan’s features with genuine curiosity. She was truly beautiful, or would be, once the bruises healed and the haunted look left her eyes.

"I have three kids," Chen Wan’s voice softened immediately at the mention of her children, love and longing mixing with pain. "They’re five years old. Triplets, one boy and two girls..."