Eternal Marriage

Miss Gu Escapes

Huang Tingyue’s fingers drummed the armrest of his presidential throne, his gaze slicing through the room like a blade. “Where is she?” His voice was a mix of venom and ice, barely disguising the rage that crackled beneath the surface.

“The mistress… escaped,” the butler stammered, his face pale with fear. “We were searching the main castle when she slipped through the rear gardens.”

“A escape?” Huang Tingyue’s laugh was devoid of humor, his teeth grinding into the word. “She thinks she can outsmart me?” His gaze swept over the trembling guards, their uniforms crisp against the opulence of the room. “Inform the security team—double their patrols. I want her found… alive.”

Gu Xiaoruan limped through the dark alleyway, her left ankle throbbing with each step. The moonlight painted the graffiti-covered walls in eerie shadows, and the sound of distant sirens echoed like a funeral dirge. Her high heels had snapped earlier, leaving her to navigate the uneven pavement in socks—a cruel irony given her desperate need for speed.

She reached the rundown apartment building, her heart pounding in her chest. The flickering neon sign above the entrance cast an otherworldly glow on the trash-strewn sidewalk. Her fingers froze as they brushed against the familiar outline of Actors’ Self-Cultivation—a book she’d left deliberately on the windowsill weeks ago. Now it lay crushed under a mound of rotting garbage, its pages yellowed and violated.

A sick realization dawned on her. Someone had been inside her room.

The landlord’s curses echoed through the stairwell as she ascended. “b***h! Pay your rent or get out!” The woman’s voice was thick with alcohol, her hair a tangled mess. Gu Xiaoruan’s fists clenched. “Where’s Zhongsheng? You said he was here!”

“Zhongsheng?” The landlord’s eyes widened, her mouth slurring with greed. “That retarded kid? Some men came last night… took him away. Said he was ‘family property.’”

Gu Xiaoruan’s blood ran cold. Family property. The words echoed Huang Tingyue’s threat, his cold logic laid bare. She lunged at the woman, her nails scratching at the paint-splattered walls. “You’re lying! He’s my brother—my responsibility!”

The landlord cowered, backing into a stack of broken furniture. “I don’t know! The guards had guns… tattoos on their arms with dragons!” Her voice rose in panic. “They said if I told anyone…”

A sharp pain shot through Gu Xiaoruan’s ankle. She collapsed onto the floor, her vision blurring with tears and anger. How could this be happening? She’d thought she’d escaped him… only to find herself trapped in a web far more dangerous than the castle.