drowning tide

As the weather forecast said, after nightfall it rained harder and harder, and the dense rain curtains blurred the neon lights attached to the high-rise buildings into large grotesque wet shadows, which were endlessly visible to the naked eye.

There are several well-trained bodyguards standing in front of the No. [-] elevator in the underground parking lot of a high-end apartment. Other residents see their black clothes and sunglasses in uniform suits, as neat as a classic scene from a gangster movie, and consciously go around to the spare elevator For fear of getting into trouble.

"Assistant Yin, do you want us to take you up?"

Those who were surrounded in the middle skillfully pressed the number 22, and refused their kindness without raising their heads, "No need."

"But Mr. Wen asked us to ensure your safety."

"I take the elevator up and don't need too many people."

His attitude was very firm, and those few people knew that persuasion was useless, so they retreated, "We are nearby, please contact us immediately if there is any situation."

"Well, thank you for your hard work."

Nie Xicheng entered the elevator and watched the door slowly close, isolating the others.

Wen Zhicheng claimed that he was not a harsh boss who was ignorant of empathy, and gave him two days off before leaving, asking him to rest and recuperate at home. In other words, he actually changed the office from the company to his home.

The elevator stopped on the 22nd floor, and he took a step but didn't go any further: the aisle is a U-shaped structure, the elevator is in the middle, and the small door at the back is the power supply room, and a heavy copper lock is hung on the door. Things can be seen to the end at a glance, and there is basically no possibility of hiding people.

His residence is 2203 on the left. The overhead light in the entrance is voice-activated. Before the key is inserted and the door is fully opened, warm light leaks faintly from the gap.

When most people see this scene, they will think of words such as "warmth" and "warmth", but for Nie Xicheng, who has been fleeing for a long time, he only sees the traces of the mechanism being passive.

Someone has been here in his absence—at best, to investigate and collect evidence to see if there are any clues that have been overlooked, at worst, the killer sent to continue the failed murder of the day, at this time Lurking in a corner of the house waiting to deliver his fatal blow.

In order not to startle the others, he entered the door pretending nothing happened, and then locked the door behind him.There was a pistol that was always loaded in the bottom shelf of the shoe cabinet. When he squatted down to take the gun, he saw a pair of Jimmy Choo diamond-encrusted high heels on the shoe rack.

This pair of shoes looked familiar. There was someone in his social circle who liked this brand very much, but just to be on the safe side, he didn't let his guard down. He touched the gun cautiously, stood up and walked towards the inner room.

Not in the living room and dining room, nor in the study with the wide open door, then the answer is simple, this unexpected guest is hiding in his bedroom.

"Ah Yuan, are you back?"

He pressed his hand on the half-closed door, and then a familiar female voice came from inside.He recognized the owner of the voice as Wen Li.

"Why are you here?" He quietly hid the pistol behind him, planning to find a place to put it away quietly later.

"I asked you out several times and you ignored me, so I decided to come to you in person, what's the problem?"

Wen Li's tone was full of resentment, and she didn't intend to explain why she appeared in his bedroom at all.

"I have a job." Nie Xicheng turned his body to avoid her outstretched arm, "How did you get in?"

"It must be that Dad has pushed his job to you again. He is such an adult, and he can't even do such a small thing. It's shameful. If he treats you badly, you tell me, and I will find him for you. Explanation." Wen Li tilted his head and blinked playfully, "Is it strange that I have a key?"

I don't know that this apartment and the whole building are property under Wen Zhicheng's name - although Wen Zhengting has kept him from intervening in family affairs for so many years, he is his own son after all, and none of these ostensible material comforts are missing from him.

"Mr. Wen gave me such a high salary, and it is my duty to share his worries."

Nie Xicheng took her to the living room, while he turned around and went into the kitchen, "Mineral water or scented tea?"

Wen Li, who was left out in the cold, shouted behind him, "I can give you a salary, why don't you say that it is your duty to make me happy?!"

Not wanting to bother with a spoiled young lady at all, he opened the cupboard to find out the tea leaves and prepare to make tea.

"Mr. Wen's bodyguards are downstairs, I'll call them and ask them to take you home..."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a rush of footsteps, turned around and faced Wen Li's face full of grievances.

"I don't want to go back... What's wrong with you?" Because it was easier to do things with rolled up sleeves, she finally noticed the bandages on his body, and she couldn't help covering her mouth and exclaiming.

"There was a little accident." Nie Xicheng didn't want to tell her too much about the day's events, so he vaguely and generally said that he was running after someone on the road.

"It must be that Dad is not good and asked you to do some dangerous work."

Since he was disturbed, Nie Xicheng didn't plan to make tea anymore.He didn't want to continue dealing with her, "I'll ask someone to take you back, don't go out casually these days, just do as I say, I will make it difficult for you to have an accident."

Interpreting the last sentence as this person's concern for her, Wen Li's eyes lit up, "Can't I stay?" She asked expectantly.

"It's not safe and there are no guest rooms."

It was originally a two-bedroom apartment, and the second bedroom was converted into a study for office use, but even if there was another bed, Nie Xicheng didn't intend to let her stay.

"Let the bodyguards come up and guard the outside." Wen Li abruptly narrowed the distance between the two, her soft chest almost pressed against his chest, "I like you, what are you afraid of? Dad Then rely on you, even if you really attack me, he won't kill you."

He looked sideways, thinking of a similar scene and another person.

The moment Yi Huai approached during the day, the first thing he wanted to do was to lower his head and kiss him.

—If the vague desires of countless nights mean nothing, what about this clear and definite impulse?

"Grandpa mentioned to me about marriage today. He wanted to marry me to Brother Luo. I told him that I absolutely don't want to marry someone I don't like." Jin Jin said, "Stay with me. Dad has no other children besides me. If you marry me, you can inherit the Wen family. You can get what so many people dream of."

Nie Xicheng pressed the hand on her shoulder that wanted to pull her away, and paused, "Do you know what you're talking about?"

These things that originally belonged to him were spoken out by this man as a favor of charity.

Wen Li lowered her head, immersed in her imagination about the future, and couldn't see the sneer at the corner of his mouth, "Stay with me. As long as I get pregnant, we will go to LA to register for marriage, so that no one will be able to We separated. I tried it, and Dad is actually very satisfied with you, but he doesn't know how to speak. "

Her body is soft and warm, exuding the sweet and warm fragrance of flowers, but for Nie Xicheng, this touch made him sick. He pushed her away, ignoring her surprised expression in pain, and ordered coldly, "Go back, don't let me Say it a third time."

"Coward, you obviously like me."

Wen Li's eyes were red, and she bit her lips tightly to keep the tears from streaming down.She never expected that she would get such a response for her shameless confession, "You obviously like me, otherwise why would you remind me to be safe!"

"You are Mr. Wen's daughter, that's all." Nie Xicheng slowed down a little, "It's late, it's time to go back."

"Liar, you liar." Wen Li stared at him, her eyes suddenly became more serious, "I see, who is it? Who did you fall in love with? You were not like this when you were in the United States. You hugged him just now. When you look at me, the person you think of is her, right?"

Nie Xicheng immediately retorted, "No one."

This too quick answer made Wen Li even crazier, "There must be, I know, you must have fallen in love with someone else."

These accusations were like curses, and countless tiredness flooded his heart, making him unwilling to continue entangled with Wen Li, "...then there must be." Even he himself was not sure whether such a relationship was true or not. like.

Perhaps his affirmative answer stimulated her, she took two steps back, looked at him in disbelief—it was one thing to conjecture, but another to admit it—then stumbled out.

"Wen Li just left from my place. It seems that she ran out secretly. Please pay attention to her safety."

The door was slammed down hard, causing the walls to tremble a few times. Nie Xicheng shrugged and sent a message to the bodyguard who was guarding downstairs. When he turned his head, he saw an expensive platinum bag next to it on the sofa. There were a few paper bags, probably Wen Li forgot to take them away.

God knows whether Wen Li will fight back because of this. Under such circumstances, he doesn't want to stay in this place at all.

Wenchen is like a beautiful flower, gorgeous and vigorous, growing toward the bright side. In fact, its roots are entrenched in countless corpses, greedily absorbing the flesh and blood of the tragic dead, and his blood relatives are one of them.

Even without Yi Huai, it is absolutely impossible for him to fall in love with her - any existence related to the Wen family makes him feel sincere hatred.

·

When the hour hand pointed to 11 o'clock, Nie Xicheng, who took a shower and changed into clean clothes, went out again.

The events of the day had exhausted him physically and mentally, sustained only by an untimely eagerness.

Before he couldn't turn back, he wanted to see that person again.

It was raining heavily, and even with an umbrella, his trouser legs and cuffs would still be wet. He was standing by the side of the road, waiting for the driver to send a message, when suddenly such a message popped up on the screen.

"Assistant Yin, we have picked up Miss, and we are now on our way to send her home."

It seems that thanks to his report, the bodyguards successfully stopped Wen Li from rushing out of his house, and sent someone to take her home.

"Thank you."

His car was basically no different from being scrapped after being hit like that, even if it needs to be repaired, it must be returned to the original factory, so Wen Zhicheng promised to let him go to his garage to pick another one on the day when he resumed work... At this moment, a lemon yellow car The taxi sped past him, if he hadn't dodged in time, he might have been splashed with sewage.

After a while, the "caused" car slowly backed up and lowered the window in front of him, "Is that you? I'm sorry, I didn't notice you standing here just now. You said you were doing it in black." What, it's creepy at night."

"Go to Hanhua Road Renxin Hospital." Nie Xicheng didn't answer his words, opened the car door and sat in.

There was a greasy aroma of claypot rice in the car. The driver was a warm-hearted middle-aged man. As soon as he heard that he was going to the hospital, he immediately asked, "Young man, what's wrong with you? Do you want me to drive faster, but the weather No, I’m afraid of accidents if I drive too fast.”

"Just to see a doctor."

Next, no matter what the driver told him, Nie Xicheng either did not answer, or answered as briefly as possible. The driver who understood the hint of "refusing to talk" stopped trying to talk to him and tried to drive the car here. Be calm.

On the way, Nie Xicheng felt the phone vibrating in his pocket, and when he took it out, he saw that it was an unrecognizable strange number.Most people would take this as a harassing call and reject it, but he didn't do it.

"can I help you?"

After confirming the connection, there was a beep on the other end of the phone, and a mechanical female voice with electric noise came, "Hello, do you need a credit card cash-out service? Our company sincerely recommends..."

"unnecessary."

Even though he said no, Nie Xicheng still listened to the 30-second long advertisement with restraint, until at a certain moment, the speaker suddenly changed into a man, "It's me."

"Unlimited credit card?" Nie Xicheng changed his posture and said lazily, "Can you tell me about the specific process?"

"The departure date was brought forward a day because the shadow had spread to his lungs, and he couldn't last much longer."

"How can there be such a good thing? You are not a fraud, are you?"

"Lawyer He came in the afternoon. Mr. Wen talked to him alone for a long time. Maybe the content of the will has something to do with it. I still stick to my opinion. If you want Wen Zhicheng to take over, then Wen Fan cannot live. He and that This will is the biggest variable in the whole plan."

"Sorry, I'm still not interested in this kind of thing, I suggest you don't spend your mind on this crooked way..."

The other side hung decisively, Nie Xicheng pressed his temple, and sighed contradictoryly.He had considered what the other party said a long time ago, Wen Zhicheng and Wen Fan, two wills... Now Luo Yi is added.

The sword of Damocles hangs above his head, and every step is like walking a tightrope... He raised his head and met the worried and alert eyes of the driver in the rearview mirror.

Knowing what the other party misunderstood, he laughed and said, "I haven't been reduced to cashing out credit cards yet."

"That's good," the driver looked at him suspiciously for a long while, and he seemed to believe it, "Young people nowadays have a lot of ideas, and they always feel that we are old-fashioned and ignorant, but ah, there is nothing in this world that you can get something for nothing, don't be careless. Take a detour."

"I know."

Nie Xicheng kept making promises that he would not do such a thing, and the driver turned his attention back to driving.

"Listen to the radio? I'm refreshing. If you think it's noisy, I'll turn it off."

Nie Xicheng was not disgusted with this proposal, "Listen."

It was an old song from the past, he closed his eyes and listened slowly.

cold wind in wind center

I lost my dream and disappeared before it passed

There are all kinds of heartaches at the moment

everything in my heart is empty

The sky is dark and the light is like a dream

bewildered bewildered

follow a cold wind

When the last syllable dissipated in the wet night, he heard someone say it, and when he opened his eyes, he could see the huge signboard that said "Purdue helps the world, benevolent and loving".

Purdue to help the world, benevolent and benevolent...

"It's all a lie." He pressed his forehead against the cold glass, "There is no such thing."