Chapter 134 Shattered Glass Beads (11)

Chapter 134: Shattered Glass Beads (11)

For a period after Lu Jingtang's disappearance, Fu Nanyu was like a tireless machine, relentlessly searching the world for her while simultaneously running his company. He often slept less than three hours a day, rising to tackle work, sometimes flying abroad for leads immediately after a meeting, without a moment's respite.

Li Chen and Qi Heng, unable to bear watching him, offered to take over the search, but Fu Nanyu refused. He insisted on seeing with his own eyes whether the person was Lu Jingtang before he would stop.

In the rare lulls when there were no leads and no work, he wouldn't seek distraction. Instead, he'd sit alone in his study, watching the surveillance footage of Lu Jingtang's departure over and over again for hours, only to realize the sky had already darkened when he finally snapped back to awareness.

To be honest, Li Chen and Qi Heng hadn't initially believed Lu Jingtang would so easily betray the Fu family and leak its core secrets. But the surveillance video was undeniable proof—the person who entered Fu Nanyu’s study and stole the documents was indeed Lu Jingtang. It seemed that because Grandpa Fu disapproved of her relationship with Fu Nanyu and wanted to send her abroad, she sought revenge on the Fu family.

With the evidence laid bare, they had no choice but to believe.

At first, everyone assumed Fu Nanyu was watching the footage to find clues.

About half a year after Lu Jingtang’s disappearance, Fu Nanyu suddenly stopped his worldwide search. He no longer worked himself to the bone, as if he had gradually begun to forget the pain and betrayal.

Everything associated with the name "Lu Jingtang" slowly faded from people’s memories.

Public opinion of Lu Jingtang shifted from “Shameless—threw away her privileged life to become an ungrateful wretch,” to “That ungrateful adopted daughter of the Fu family,” and finally to, “Lu Jingtang? Who’s that? You can’t even find her online…”

A year later, Ji Yunyin was released from the psychiatric hospital. This time, she didn’t shamelessly chase after Fu Nanyu. She had grown wiser—she took the postgraduate entrance exams, was admitted to a prestigious university within two months, studied traditional Chinese painting, and was taken in as the closed-door disciple of a master painter, rapidly making a name for herself.

She applied for a job at Fu Corporation, intending to start from the bottom, but unexpectedly saved a crucial business partner of the company. Her actions helped the embattled Fu Corporation secure a multi-billion-dollar deal, and within a month, she climbed to the position of the CEO's chief assistant.

This time, Fu Nanyu didn't push her away. They attended events together, were photographed side by side, made it onto financial news, and were praised as a perfect match.

Chris wasn’t human. Even in human form, his movements were utterly silent.

Lu Jingtang only noticed him when he was already standing before her. By then, only her head and right hand could still move. Since being trapped in this space, she had been forced to lie on the ground, feeling the slow death of her body. At first, it was just her feet losing mobility, then her lower body went completely numb. Gradually, her internal organs began to shut down.

In this cold, hollow space, there was no sense of time. She could only roughly estimate the passage of days by observing how often Fu Nanyu changed his clothes in the footage she saw. She watched as Fu Nanyu slowly forgot her. As more time passed, she no longer needed to eat because every part of her body had completely died. She had become neither human nor ghost—a *thing*.

Although she didn’t need to eat, Chris still brought her food from the outside because he was too curious—what could possibly be going on in her mind?

Humans have their pride. Anyone else tortured to such a state would have given up long ago.

But not Lu Jingtang. She still had the will to eat. Without even glancing at Chris, she struggled to use her right hand to pick up the food placed on the ground, taking bite after bite of the bread. With her round head and round eyes, she looked like a stubborn puppy.

Chris half-crouched, studying this human in front of him. He rarely brought her liquid food, opting instead for things like bread that she could eat with her hands. Liquid food required spoons or chopsticks.

Given any opportunity, any tool—even a single chopstick—Lu Jingtang would attempt to kill him with it.

Just like now. Lu Jingtang had somehow hidden a disposable wooden chopstick, whittling one end with her fingertips into a sharp point. With precise force, she slammed the sharpened end deep into his throat.