The mansion of the Hayes Family...

Before leaving the club, Wesley drank generously. He forgot how he had returned to the mansion, where warm lights shone on the ancient bricks, lengthening his shadow.

He reached out a hand to steady himself against the gate, in a state of disheveled hair and messy clothes. Because of alcohol and cigarettes, he looked no longer as calm as he had always been, but more like a punctured balloon.

Afterward, at some point, it was said that in the 30-plus years of Wesley's life, he had always been alert except for that moment, which could have been the best opportunity for others to kill him secretly.

However, it turned out that Wesley didn't give anyone the chance to kill him at that moment.

He pounded at the massive wooden gate with his palm and called out, "Aunt Helen..."

Aunt Helen had turned in earlier that day. However, as soon as she heard Wesley's first shout, she woke up from her dream. She got up in a hurry and hastened to open the gate, then Wesley fell forward on to her unexpectedly.

Wesley was no longer the little boy from a decade before. He was more than 185 cm tall at the moment, which made it hard for Aunt Helen to steady him.

With an "ouch", Aunt Helen closed the gate while managing to support Wesley. She patted him on the back and whispered, "Wesley?"

"..." Wesley heard Aunt Helen calling him but he didn't respond. He felt exhausted and closed his eyes.

Aunt Helen knew Wesley well. Without saying any more words, she walked him through the courtyard and helped him to his room.

Aunt Helen recalled the last time Wesley had also returned like that, and it was all because of Yuna.

She thought, "This time, I guess, is still about Yuna."

Back in the room, Aunt Helen turned on a table lamp instead of the ceiling light. After helping Wesley to sit down on the sofa, she crouched down beside him and asked softly, "Are you hungry?"

Wesley opened his eyes and looked at Aunt Helen. After a long while, he said, "I don't know."

Aunt Helen realized that Wesley wasn't answering that question.

She held Wesley's hands and asked, "Tell me. What happened?"

"..."

"..."

After a long while, Wesley said, "She was working undercover for another man, and I knew about it long before." He leaned back in the sofa, smiling as if he was laughing at himself. "I once thought about never revealing her secret."

Indeed, he had thought that, after sending Rowdy to prison one day, he would try his best to prevent Rowdy from contacting Yuna.

That way, there would be no turning back for Yuna, and in his eyes, it was likely that she could do nothing but stay with him.

As long as she chose to stay and forgot about Rowdy, he would gladly give her a chance to forever keep the secret that she was Rowdy's mole to herself.

However, simply due to a trap, Yuna's critical faculties seemed to have deserted her. As a result, she maintained that he had killed her grandmother, and she wanted to kill him at all costs.

He thought, "Maybe in Yuna's mind, the words 'Wesley' are equivalent to 'a mission'."

"I'm the task that Rowdy assigned her. She did all that to me just to finish her task and then return to Rowdy."

After a while, Aunt Helen realized what had happened. She sighed and asked, "What are you going to do now?"

"I've locked her up," Wesley said, "According to the rules, I should make her disappear from this world silently."

"... Xiao Qi, are you determined to do that?" Aunt Helen suddenly asked after a brief hesitation.

"..." Wesley looked as if having been hit in his vital organs. He sat on the sofa, stunned; within half a second, he looked low-spirited, completely baffled.

"You're reluctant to do that. You wouldn't hesitate otherwise." Aunt Helen said with certainty, as if she had already heard Wesley's.

Wesley stood up and walked to the window. He said with faint sarcasm, "Aunt Helen, she is special and irreplaceable, and I admit it. But... I'm not so crazy as to be reluctant to do that. She is a threat to the interests of the whole Hayes Family. I know what to do."

Aunt Helen gazed at Wesley's back in the dim light.

She knew that Wesley looked inconsistent with his tone at that moment, but she decided not to persuade him anymore. She just sighed and said, "I think that some people only appear once in our lives, so never make a decision that will make you regret. Wesley, sometimes, you may just need to express yourself."

With that, Aunt Helen went out of Wesley's room and closed the door behind her.

With only the table lamp on and the door closed, half of the room seemed to be suddenly filled with darkness.

Wesley took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from the drawer of the nightstand.

He lit a cigarette and took a long drag. With the smoke slowly rotating in his lungs, he carefully felt how it brought a brief numbness to his mind.

"Express myself?"

He wondered, "Maybe Aunt Helen is right-Yuna has been lying to me. But how can I say that I always told her the truth?"

That night, Wesley didn't sleep at all. Early next morning, he went downstairs and found that there were two bowls and two pairs of chopsticks on the table.

Aunt Helen went out of the kitchen with steamed buns. She saw through his doubts and said, "Kai called and told me that he was coming."

As soon as Wesley sat down, Kai ran into the house from the yard. He greeted him with a smile and said, "Good morning, Brother Wesley."

Wesley raised his chin toward the chair across from him and nodded. "Have a seat," he said, poker-faced.

"All right." Kai sat down and said, "By the way, I didn't find you yesterday, so I couldn't tell you about it. I've locked Yuna... uh, Yuna up at basement two.

Wesley said indifferently, "Keep a close eye on her. She's tougher than you may think."

"Don't worry." Kai waved his hand and said leisurely, "She said yesterday that she went to your office to court death."

Wesley laid down his chopsticks and looked up at Kai. "Tell me more."

Kai replied "oh", then he tried to say indifferently, "Yuna said that there was no point for her to live in this world since her grandmother passed away, except for feeling guilty. But her grandmother wanted her to live well. She went to the club to find you yesterday because she knew that once she wound up in your hands, she was as good as dead."

Wesley sneered. "Does Yuna want me to end her life?"

Kai nodded and said, "That's what she means. Well, that's to say... she wants to take advantage of you!"

"She can whistle for that!"

Wesley suddenly stood up and left.

Aunt Helen walked over with hot soybean milk. Seeing that Wesley didn't eat much for breakfast, she called anxiously, "Xiao Qi." Before she could say anything more, Kai stopped her.

Kai grinned and said, "Aunt Helen, never mind. Brother Wesley is going to see Yuna."

Aunt Helen felt confused and said, "Yesterday, he told me that he would punish Yuna according to the rules. I'm worried that..."

"You don't have to worry about it anymore!" Kai gave her a proud smile and said, "I've racked my brains for a whole night and came up with this idea. Now, I'm sure that Brother Wesley won't punish Yuna!"

Aunt Helen asked with confusion, "What did you do?"

"I told Brother Wesley that Yuna to him because she wanted to court death!" Kai said, "You know Brother Wesley the best. No one can interfere with his decisions. But if his decision happens to be what others want, he won't agree at all! Now he knows that Yuna wants to die, so he won't give her what she wants!"

With that, Kai clenched his fists with confidence.

Aunt Helen thought for a while and said, "I hope so. But I'm worried that... Yuna may really want to end her life."

In fact, Wesley shared the same worry as Aunt Helen.

The Number One Clubhouse...

The squealing sounds and a sudden brake disrupted the peace of the morning. Wesley got out of his car, without even closing the door. He walked into the club and went straight down to basement two.

After leaving the elevator, he quickened his strides and stopped outside the room at the end of the corridor. H be hesitated for a moment before opening the door.

He had thought that no matter what happened, Yuna would live on, without expecting Kai to tell him that Yuna wanted to die.

"I haven't settled the old scores with her. How dare she die now?"

With that, Wesley had his palm scanned and then pushed the door open.

Yuna lay huddled up in bed.

The bed in that room was very small, barely one meter long. Yuna huddled on it, hugging herself with her folded arms to keep her guard. Her lying position of self-protection made her look like a helpless stray creature.

She arched her back to the extreme, with her head deeply buried in the pillow, on which there were visible tear stains.

He thought, "Maybe she will still cry for a long time before she can accept the fact that Granny Wallace passed away."

Wesley felt a stab of pain in his heart, but he immediately ignored it. He said coldly, "Yuna."

Yuna was asleep.

She saw her grandmother in her dream.

Although her grandmother was standing in the dark, oddly, she could see her.

Her grandmother looked at her with a smile and said, "Yuna, you should live on."

She suddenly burst into tears and cried, "Grandma, I miss you."

"I didn't leave you alone. You shouldn't miss me so much," her grandmother said, "Sugar, I'll be with you in a different way. You are still young. You will experience a lot in your life. Never give up. Just live on."

She shook her head and pleaded with her runny eyes, "Grandma, I'm sorry. Take me with you. Don't leave me alone. I won't lie to you anymore..."

"Oh, my child." Her grandmother smiled helplessly, while her eyes were full of love. "How could I take you with me? You should have your own life. I don't blame you. Although you have been wayward since childhood, you were always a good girl to me. I believe that there is a special reason for your choices. I support you. Don't blame yourself anymore. I don't want to see you like this."

"..." Yuna could do nothing but cry.

At that moment, her grandmother suddenly smiled and waved at her. "Yuna, I have to leave."

"Please don't, grandma..." she pleaded, "Grandma, don't go..."

No matter how hard she pleaded, the darkness spread and drowned her grandmother. When she was in the deepest depths of her despair, there suddenly came Wesley's voice.

"Yuna." His voice sounded callous, full of anger and malice.

Yuna's eyes snapped open...