After Becoming a CEO, I Ended Up With the Gorgeous Lunatic Villainess - Chapter 16

He Shu carried Cen Qianyi back to the bedroom with the care of someone handling a live grenade. The distance was short, but she ended up sweating more than when she had climbed a mountain with someone on her back.

As Cen Qianyi’s back touched the soft mattress, the warmth from earlier faded. There was a strange sensation. It wasn’t exactly pain, but it was strong enough to make her aware of it.

Just as she was wondering what the woman was up to now, the mattress dipped slightly beneath her again. A moment later, her vision brightened. The woman’s tear-streaked face came into view.

He Shu didn’t dare meet Cen Qianyi’s gaze. She lowered her eyes, took a deep breath, and held her hand.

“Sleeping with your master. Are you happy?”

He Shu certainly was not. There was a bomb lying beside her. How could she possibly fall asleep under those conditions?

With a face full of despair, she removed one of the cuffs from Cen Qianyi’s wrist and locked the other to the bedpost.

What a shame. The script only allowed for one hand to be cuffed.

If it were up to her, she would have bound both hands and feet. That would have made her feel safer.

Cen Qianyi stared at the cuff on her wrist. It suddenly reminded her of waking up in the hospital. Back then, she had also been cuffed to the woman.

She shook her wrist, making the metal cuff clang against the bedpost with a clear ‘clang clang’ sound. He Shu nearly had a heart attack.

Her body trembled involuntarily. Sensing Cen Qianyi had something to say, she looked toward the ball gag in her mouth. But she couldn’t take it off. The script didn’t allow it.

Not only was it off-limits, she was even required to tease her a little. He Shu reluctantly followed the prompt and pressed on the ball in Cen Qianyi’s mouth.

“Baby, you look so adorable like this. Like a little goldfish.”

Goldfish? She was a shark! Playing a goldfish? Not even eighty koi could save the original host from this stupidity!

He Shu stiffly reached out and hugged this ‘shark.’

“Baby, you’re going to like this. I knew it from the moment I saw you.”

As she spoke, her hand slid behind Cen Qianyi’s back and gently drew a circle, as if to remind her what ‘this’ referred to.

“We’ll stop here for today. Tomorrow, I’ll show you something even more fun.”

At that moment, He Shu thought about tomorrow’s script. Compared to what was coming, today’s events were child’s play…

Tomorrow was going to be intense. Truly asking for death…

She shut her eyes, overwhelmed by despair.

Cen Qianyi had been watching her closely and caught the emotion flickering in her eyes. Her own eyes narrowed slightly.

What was she sad and hopeless about?

Cen Qianyi recalled the tears that had fallen onto her neck earlier. This woman was strange. She was clearly the one initiating everything, yet she didn’t seem happy about it.

Even the words she had just spoken didn’t sound like her own.

But who was forcing her to do these things? To say those words?

Watching the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, Cen Qianyi felt ripples within.

Why was she crying again?

This weepy woman was nothing like the one described in the documents she had read.

According to those, He Shu was the CEO and chairwoman of the He Corporation. She held absolute authority, ruling even more firmly than her mother had before her death.

Cen Qianyi had reviewed her methods that afternoon. They were harsh. Only someone ruthless could survive in her position.

He Shu had lost her family to various ‘accidents’ since she was twelve. Somehow, she always survived.

After taking over the company as an adult, senior executives who opposed her died one by one in mysterious ‘accidents.’

Cen Qianyi had once asked He Shu if she had ever killed anyone. She had sworn up and down that she hadn’t.

Liar. Or maybe she didn’t count ‘accidents’ as murder.

From all the data, He Shu came off as cunning, calculating, and utterly ruthless.

How could someone like that be the same person crying at the drop of a hat?

He Shu had no idea Cen Qianyi was doubting her identity. Even if she had, she wouldn’t have cared. She really was He Shu.

“Baby, sweet dreams tonight. I’ll take you to watch the sunrise tomorrow.”

Her voice trembled as she recited the last line of her script.

Even the system’s cheerful announcement that she had cleared the scene didn’t lift her spirits.

She didn’t care about rewards. The thought of having to ‘walk the dog’ tomorrow morning made her want to strangle the system.

The system, of course, was unapologetic.

“Haven’t you ever raised a dog? First thing in the morning, you take them for a walk.”

He Shu was so furious she felt chest pain. She had never raised a ‘dog’ like this before.

And she’d never met a system this inhuman.

Calling it a dog was an insult to dogs.

With a groan, He Shu turned off the lights, pulled the blanket over her head, and curled up under it.

Cen Qianyi blinked. She watched the woman say one last line then flop down like she was being chased by a dog. The darkness didn’t stop her from seeing her every move.

He Shu had thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep with a ‘bomb’ lying beside her.

But she had underestimated how sleep-deprived she really was.

A true night owl death statistic…

Once she had a pillow, she was out cold.

Cen Qianyi watched her roll a few times on the pillow and then start breathing softly in sleep. Her confusion only grew.

The documents said that since her family’s deaths, He Shu had developed insomnia and needed medication to fall asleep.

Now, listening to her soft snores in the dark, Cen Qianyi raised an eyebrow. Who made up those documents?

Falling asleep in seconds being misdiagnosed as a sleep disorder…

Or was it something else? Cen Qianyi propped herself up slightly, looking at the woman beside her. Was this person not He Shu at all?

He Shu shifted in her sleep, sensing someone moving nearby. Maybe it was Qianqian again.

This silly dog was too old to still need company to sleep.

She reached out and hugged the dog, lifting one leg over in a practiced motion.

“Qianqian, be good. Time to sleep.”

Suddenly pinned under her, Cen Qianyi’s brow twitched. She thought the woman had woken up, but after muttering that line, she simply ground her teeth a bit, whimpered, and fell back into a peaceful snore.

Cen Qianyi: …

She better hope this wasn’t all an act.

Cen Qianyi reached out to push the leg pressing down on her, but the woman gripped her hand, clearly displeased.

Still dreaming, He Shu clasped the ‘paw’ of her naughty dog and pressed it to her chest. “Be good, Qianqian…”

Cen Qianyi frowned. That name again. So familiar, so tender. Like she was calling out to someone she had known and loved for a long time…

Had she known someone named Qianqian before?

Cen Qianyi tried to pull her hand back. She didn’t want to be mistaken for someone else. In the struggle, the woman’s sleeve slipped up.

Cen Qianyi paused, noticing something odd about the skin on her arm.

In the dark, she could make out patches of uneven coloring. She couldn’t see clearly, but the texture felt strange.

Thinking of something, she turned on the nightlight.

Under the warm glow, the red patches on He Shu’s arm became obvious. They were fresh burns, some quite severe, with blistered and wrinkled skin.

Cen Qianyi lifted the sleeve on the other arm. It was the same on the other arm. There were burns and water blisters.

She remembered hearing someone draw a sharp breath earlier in the other room. Was this when the burns happened?

So… Cen Qianyi let go, eyes filled with uncertainty. She wasn’t just ‘playing’ with her. She was also ‘playing’ with herself?

Did she really think this was fun?

And yet she played herself into this state?

Cen Qianyi reached behind her and touched her own back. She couldn’t see it, but based on the lack of pain and what she felt, there was nothing like what was on He Shu’s arms.

Why?

She looked at the woman, trying to find a reason that made sense.

She thought of the candles, some burning and others already snuffed out, and then remembered the final red candle that had been used on her. A faint idea formed in her mind, though it seemed improbable.

She looked again at the woman. Why was she so strange?

Cen Qianyi rarely cared to understand what others were thinking. She was rarely curious. Most people were predictable.

But this woman… was different.

The only one like her she had ever met.

Who was she really?

Cen Qianyi recalled the birth records she had found. They stated that He Shu had been born with a distinctive birthmark on her chest.

She lifted the blanket and gently raised the woman’s shirt to check.

She had to confirm if this woman was truly He Shu.

But the moment she saw the paw-shaped birthmark on the woman’s chest, her first thought was that maybe the documents had been faked.

So she really was He Shu?

Then how could the same person who was careful not to injure others while ‘playing’ also be responsible for those carefully planned ‘accidents’?

Split personality?

One strong, one emotional?

Had she encountered the emotional one?

“Mm, it itches.”

A murmur snapped Cen Qianyi back. She looked down. The lifted hem had brushed exposed skin, and the woman seemed uncomfortable, scratching herself and leaving faint red lines.

Cen Qianyi hurriedly pulled the blanket back over her. She hadn’t noticed the shirt had ridden up too far. What had been hidden during her outfit change that day was now fully visible.

First tight and perky, now round… A new thought popped into her head.

She pulled the blanket back up and turned off the light, staring once more at the ceiling shrouded in darkness.

Time passed slowly. Even the insects outside had gone quiet.

Finally, the images in her head began to fade.

…

The night grew deeper.

The world became quieter.

All things fell into dreams.

In the still of the night, Cen Qianyi suddenly opened her eyes. In the blink of an eye, she slipped free from the handcuff, rolled off the bed, and disappeared silently beneath it.

Someone had entered with clear killing intent.

Fang Nian had slipped past the guards and successfully infiltrated the bedroom where her target was.

She looked at the sleeping woman on the bed and frowned.

Was this Yi?

She didn’t seem the least bit alert…

Then again, it had to be thanks to her skill. Not a single guard had been disturbed, and the surveillance systems had all been rewritten.

Smiling, Fang Nian pulled a syringe from her belt pouch and approached to inject it. That was when she noticed something was off.

Too late.

Her grip loosened. The syringe was snatched away. Her arms were twisted behind her, and the unmistakable click of handcuffs followed.

A sharp sting pierced her neck. The needle had gone in. A finger pressed against her lips.

A whisper brushed her ear like a phantom. “If you want to live, stay quiet.”

Fang Nian cursed her carelessness. But anyone who could sneak up on her this silently and disarm her this easily was clearly stronger.

Probably someone from the Bounty Alliance.

A top-tier one.

She complied, waiting for what came next.

“You from the Bounty Alliance?”

The voice was low and cold, like a hawk circling just overhead. Danger was thick in the air.

“You… You came to kill Yi too?”

Yi?

Cen Qianyi’s eyes narrowed. So the target was her?

But the woman in bed was who the intruder had tried to inject.

Thinking quickly, Cen Qianyi tested her. “How did you find this place?”

Fang Nian immediately assumed she was another assassin. They had picked the same job.

“We’re on the same side. Easy to talk. Since I found Yi first… how about we split the bounty?”

Cen Qianyi was sure now. This woman was here to kill Yi but had mistaken the sleeping woman for her.

How had that misunderstanding happened?

When she got no response, Fang Nian hurried to change her offer. “Twenty-eighty. You take eighty.”

Cen Qianyi stared at her, her gaze dark.

Fang Nian sensed the danger. “All of it is yours! Just let me go!”

Suddenly, she twisted her neck, breaking free of the grip. She reached for her gun, but it was intercepted with ease. Realizing she had no chance, she immediately shifted tactics and lunged for the syringe instead.

Cen Qianyi casually tossed it aside. The syringe rolled under the bed. She raised her gun, pointing the barrel at Fang Nian’s throat. Forced to tilt her head up, Fang Nian froze.

“Don’t… don’t kill me. I—”

She stopped.

Looking into those pale purple eyes, her mind blanked. She forgot what she wanted to say.

The lenses of her night-vision goggles seemed to shimmer and spin…

Before she lost consciousness, Fang Nian realized what a terrible mistake she had made.

The woman before her was Yi.

Cen Qianyi watched the focus fade from her eyes, then lowered her weapon.

“Name.”

“Fang Nian.”

“Why did you think the woman on the bed was Yi?”

Fang Nian answered like a robot. She took out her phone and handed it over.

“Today, the organization received an anonymous tip…”

Her mechanical voice calmly explained how the tip had led her here. How she had traced the sender and pinpointed this location.

Cen Qianyi looked at the message and understood how the mistake had happened.

Indeed, the specific details of those jobs should have only been known to her.

She shifted her gaze to the woman on the bed. Even in the dim light, she could make out her peaceful sleeping face.

“A special person.”

Cen Qianyi repeated the sender’s ID out loud.

She remembered how the woman had introduced herself—”He Shu, as in ‘special.’”

She tilted her head slightly. Special, indeed.

She stared quietly for a long while. She could see every strand of eyebrow, but no matter how long she stared, she couldn’t figure out how the woman knew.

Yet the result was clear. She didn’t just know. She understood everything with striking precision.

And she wanted Cen Qianyi caught.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have sent that anonymous report.

If she was caught, there would be only one outcome…

She wanted her dead.

Cen Qianyi narrowed her eyes. A faint smile curled her lips.

Everyone who had wanted her dead had died first.

She turned to Fang Nian. “Who else knows?”

“Only me. I deleted the message. No trace left.”

Cen Qianyi’s lips curled. No, there was one more.

She looked again at He Shu. No matter how cleanly you delete it, the sender always remembers. She could send it again if she wanted to.

Cen Qianyi checked her magazine. Full.

She chambered a round and handed the gun back to Fang Nian, then returned to the bed.

She cuffed herself again and looked at the woman beside her. With her free hand, she gently stroked her peaceful face.

She never left anyone alive who knew her secrets…

Releasing her touch, Cen Qianyi looked at Fang Nian and gave the final command.

“Shoot. Kill her.”