Chapter 72: A Countdown to Life or Death

Hearing these words, Zhu Zhixi felt his blood run cold. His mind was in chaos, yet his physiological reactions were so clear that even his teeth began to chatter.

Why do this to Fu Rangyi… Why would he think of such a way to torture him? It’s terrifying. So malicious.

He did nothing wrong.

Fear spread like a rising tide. Zhu Zhixi wasn’t afraid of dying. He had long accepted that he was half a dead man walking. What was death? Ever since the countdown appeared, he had already died countless times in his imagination; it was just that no one knew. What he feared was his own death becoming a lifelong nightmare for Fu Rangyi.

“Scared?” In the darkness, Xiao Xiang’s voice was like a phantom, wandering in the dark space, enveloping him.

It was so cold. The biting wind blew through him, seeping into every trembling bone.

“Haha, so scared you can’t even speak?” Xiao Xiang’s face was lost in the shadows, his tone light. But despite this, the madness in him was fully revealed.

“Do you know why I chose this building? It’s not just because the view is good.” He looked at Zhu Zhixi. “I specifically studied the public notice for the demolition details. These ten buildings will be blown up in three stages. This one is on the outside, in the very first group to be demolished.”

“Soon, this place will come crashing down with a boom. But don’t worry, you won’t be blown to bits. The explosives are all buried in the foundation.”

“You’ll just be crushed alive by concrete blocks and steel bars.”

No.

This isn’t a dead end yet. He couldn’t just wait to die.

My brother’s phone has a location tracker, which can at least give a general area. How can I let Zhu Zeran know?

“Xiao Xiang, this isn’t worth it for you. I don’t want to die here. Whatever you want, just make one phone call to my brother, and he’ll give you anything.”

Hearing this, Xiao Xiang laughed instead. Without a hint of hesitation, he said mockingly, “Did you think I was just trying to scare you? Don’t even think about exchanging yourself for ransom. I won’t contact anyone. But if you strongly insist, I can certainly send this video to your dear brother and your father as well.”

The path to asking Zhu Zeran for help was cut off just like that.

He could only rely on himself.

He was glad Xiao Xiang had tied his hands behind his back. He desperately reached with his fingertips, trying to feel for the knot along the layers of rope.

He couldn’t reach it.

Zhu Zhixi leaned back slightly, quietly raising his wrists to touch the back of the chair, trying to find the knot’s location.

Soon, he discovered a protrusion above his wrists. After tying his hands, Xiao Xiang had wrapped the rope around the top and tied a dead knot.

After discovering this, Zhu Zhixi took a deep breath, trying his best to suppress his panic.

This method of tying was certainly secure. If it was pulled tight enough and the knot was dead-tight, it couldn’t be easily undone.

But it also had a weakness. Unlike a handcuff knot that tightens with struggling, this ordinary method of binding left some room for his wrists to move.

He clenched his fists, crossed his wrists, and constantly wiggled and rubbed them together.

To avoid being discovered, Zhu Zhixi spoke, trying to divert his attention. “If you record all of this, you’ll be exposing yourself, won’t you? When this all comes out, you won’t be able to escape either. Kidnapping, murder, your life will be over…”

Xiao Xiang sneered, interrupting him. “My life has been over for a long time.”

He approached step by step, carrying the stun baton. Afraid of being found out, Zhu Zhixi stopped moving his hands.

“Everything was ruined from the moment I left that school because of Fu Rangyi. His father, who never showed his face, suddenly remembered he had a son. Because of him, no school would hire me. I tried to work on my own, but people came to wreck my business every day. I was pushed into a corner with no way out, forced to crawl back.”

Zhu Zhixi listened intently, afraid to provoke him, and only went along with what he said. “That’s not a dead end. You could have gone to a different place, started over…”

Xiao Xiang laughed. “Start over? I wanted to start over peacefully, but what did my life savings get me? You rich people just pack up and run off with our blood and sweat money. Why should you get away with it!”

As Xiao Xiang spoke, his emotions suddenly erupted. He yelled out, his whole person like a malevolent spirit. Zhu Zhixi froze for a second, his hands stopping.

The room became exceptionally quiet, with only the howling of the wind, as if it were a continuation of Xiao Xiang’s hysteria.

Then what about Fu Rangyi?

What right do you have to leave such a deep trauma on him, to make him feel like he’s better off dead during every susceptible period?

Zhu Zhixi’s emotions were extremely complex. Hatred crept into his heart, making him want to fight desperately, to crash into this person and perish together with him. Might as well die together.

Then no one could threaten Fu Rangyi anymore.

But as soon as that name circled in his mind, Zhu Zhixi’s heart ached so much he could hardly breathe. The dense hatred that had grown suddenly withered.

He calmed down again.

To lower Xiao Xiang’s guard, he tried to feign panic. “I know you want revenge, but…”

“But this wasn’t our family’s doing. My brother just took over this mess. The real estate developer that went bust wasn’t the Zhu family. You know that. How about this? You take me to the airport with you. After you get the money and are on a plane out of the country, you can release me. That way, you can completely change your identity and live the rest of your life without worries…”

“Live without worries?”

Hearing this phrase, Xiao Xiang gave a hideous smile. He raised the stun baton and patted his cheek with it. “I don’t need money anymore. No amount of money can cure my glands now.”

Glands.

Zhu Zhixi glanced at his neck. He really was seriously ill.

“I forgot, you’re a Beta. Someone like you, born without pheromones, has no idea how painful it is for an Omega with crippled glands to be able to smell but not receive a single shred of comfort!”

Zhu Zhixi suddenly found an opening. “No, I understand.”

He looked into Xiao Xiang’s eyes, trying his best to arouse the other’s empathy. “My mother was an Omega. She passed away from gland cancer. In her final days, she tried every treatment. Her glands were eventually removed. She was in so much pain every day. She said it felt like ants were crawling all over her body, gnawing at her bones…”

As he said this, Zhu Zhixi’s teeth began to chatter, and his voice trembled. This was not an act.

However, Xiao Xiang fell silent, staring at him motionlessly.

Finally, he smiled, turned around, his tone cold as if pronouncing a death sentence. “Stop struggling, little young master.”

“Don’t be so naive. At this point, there’s no way I’d let you go because of a few light words. You’re already on a dead-end path. This is your grave.”

Zhu Zhixi’s heart sank to the bottom.

Xiao Xiang had gone completely mad. He didn’t want freedom or money. He was at a dead end, living a life worse than death, with no hope, only wanting revenge. This kind of person was the most terrifying. There was no room for negotiation, not a single crack to pry open.

Xiao Xiang simply wanted him to die here.

Even if he untied the ropes on his wrists, what then? His shoulders and legs were still tied down. Xiao Xiang had no intention of leaving. He had no chance of saving himself.

The explosives buried under the building would detonate on schedule, but the only screen showing the time was now facing away from him. He couldn’t see it at all.

He didn’t even know what time it was. What should I do?

Xiao Xiang let out a long sigh, walked around behind the tripod, and crossed his arms, staring at the screen. After a short while, he looked up and spoke in a teasing tone, “Time is precious. You see, you’ve wasted so much of it. There are only exactly 14 minutes left.”

14 minutes exactly. Tick. Tock…

Zhu Zhixi’s eyes suddenly widened. To Xiao Xiang, it was just the shock of extreme panic, a helpless loss of focus.

But in fact, Zhu Zhixi was staring at the center of his upper field of vision.

[4 days 18 hours 14 minutes 09 seconds]

His death sentence, at this moment, had unexpectedly become his lifeline.

Having the concrete information of 14 minutes remaining, Zhu Zhixi quickly synchronized the time and, through calculation, obtained an explosion countdown that only he could see and hear.

This precise time lock was like a ray of light appearing in a dark, desperate situation. He suddenly felt a bit more confident. At least now, he knew exactly at what minute and second the bomb would trigger, instead of being anxious and constantly worrying that the next second would be the end.

“Actually, this amount of time is quite enough. You can do a lot with it,” he said with a smile. “For example, you can say a few last words to your young husband in front of the camera.”

Last words?

Hearing this, Zhu Zhixi didn’t fly into a rage. Instead, he became unnaturally calm.

The him of a few days ago would never have been able to do this. The ups and downs of the past two days had completely changed him in the face of death.

He detached himself into a third-person perspective, jumping out of the tormenting emotional seesaw.

All anti-human phenomena are irrational. Irrationality means flaws. With only a dozen minutes left, Xiao Xiang could have left him here alone and fled to a safe area. But he chose not to leave, instead continuing to provoke him with words, forcing Zhu Zhixi into a new round of breakdown.

Why?

Did he want to record his complete breakdown? Wasn’t the desperate wait before death enough? Newlywed partner. Young husband. Why does he keep mentioning these words?

He clearly had a hundred ways to get revenge on Fu Rangyi. Why choose this method now?

A thought flashed through his mind like a lit match, igniting a small flame. He looked up at Xiao Xiang. “I have no last words for him.”

Xiao Xiang turned around and stared at him. His expression, which had been almost hysterical just moments before, now held a trace of doubt.

Just as I thought.

“To be honest, I didn’t even know what you were talking about before. I just thought it was absurd. Why are you taking out your grudge against the Fu family on me? What exactly happened between you and Fu Rangyi that made his father push you to a dead end?”

Zhu Zhixi looked at him without evasion, his tone light and fast. “Do you think I’m a very important person to Fu Rangyi?”

Xiao Xiang fell silent, but his eyes were clearly wavering.

“You’re mistaken. Let me go now. If you want to kidnap someone, go kidnap him.” Zhu Zhixi put on the airs of a young master. “Fu Rangyi and I are just in a business marriage, a fake one, with no feelings whatsoever.”

Xiao Xiang laughed, his face saying don’t even try to fool me.

“It’s come to this, and you’re still trying to trick me? A fake marriage, you really came up with that. I saw you two coming out of the apartment building together with my own eyes! And you had his pheromones on you!”

Good. Now someone else is on the verge of a breakdown.

“It’s all fake. You were fooled too. My backpack has the fake marriage contract between me and Fu Rangyi,” Zhu Zhixi told him.

Xiao Xiang said nothing, but his eyes had already darted towards the backpack.

“Coincidentally, I came home this time specifically to get this contract. I’m in love with someone else, and I don’t even want to pretend anymore. I just want to end the contract early. I flew to C City a few days ago, you know? It was to discuss this with him. If you don’t believe me, go take a look. The terms of the contract are written out very clearly. We have to live together, we have to deal with each other’s families…”

Finally, Xiao Xiang wavered. He strode quickly towards the backpack thrown on the floor, grabbed it, and yanked the zipper open.

Inside, there really was a contract.

“Since you have such a deep hatred for him, you should be able to recognize his handwriting.”

“Impossible…”

At this moment, the foundation of his revenge plan suddenly shook, as if it were really about to collapse.

“Why is it impossible? The Fu family’s business needed to transition and needed my family’s connections. The Fu family pushed out this unimportant son as a tool for the marriage alliance. My father chose Fu Rangyi from a group of Alphas with comparable family backgrounds. It’s that simple.”

It was all there in black and white, clear as day. Even the date was from over two months ago, so there was no possibility of foreknowledge. This was, without a doubt, a contract for a fake marriage.

Xiao Xiang’s face gradually twisted. His hand clenched, crumpling the papers.

“If you kill me, Fu Rangyi will be relieved. The marriage happened, his Fu family got the resources, and Fu Rangyi, with the reputation of a widower, can legitimately remain single in the future. No one will force him into another relationship when his previous partner died so tragically…”

“Shut up!” Xiao Xiang interrupted him, threw the contract aside, and strode over. His empty left hand grabbed the collar of Zhu Zhixi’s shirt, his chest heaving rapidly.

Zhu Zhixi looked at him, and also at the little time he had left, confronting him in the darkness. He spoke softly, “Your glands… they haven’t been completely removed, have they? You can still smell, can’t you?”

“Here, smell me.” Zhu Zhixi tilted his head slightly. “Feel it? The Alpha pheromones on me, are they Fu Rangyi’s? You wouldn’t forget your enemy’s pheromone scent, would you?”

Death was closing in. Xiao Xiang fell silent, but his breathing grew heavier.

Zhu Zhixi’s neck was turning red from the tight collar, but he didn’t stop. “You probably don’t know… For us Betas, it’s not easy to retain so many pheromones, unless there’s intimate contact… To tell you the truth, before coming here, I had just parted from my lover. These are his pheromones. How about it, do they smell good?”

Hearing this, the string in Xiao Xiang’s mind that had been stretched to its limit finally snapped completely. This close, of course he could smell it.

These were not Fu Rangyi’s pheromones at all!

He had even seen that person, a young Alpha with an equally beautiful face.

What was all this? A scam?

Fu Rangyi was still the same Fu Rangyi, cold-hearted, incapable of loving anyone. No, he didn’t have a heart at all. He didn’t love him, he only loved money and power. He would rather be a pawn for exchanging resources than spare him a single glance!

He had been completely fooled, like a clown…

However, in that instant, a hand appeared out of nowhere and snatched the stun baton from his right hand. Click. The switch was flipped. A blue spark flashed in the darkness. The next second, the electrified baton was viciously jabbed into his abdomen.

The electric current shot through his entire body, paralyzing every nerve.

In disbelief, Xiao Xiang let go and collapsed.

Zhu Zhixi gasped for breath, the freshly untied rope still hanging from his wrists, which were chafed and bleeding. Without time to think, he untied the knot that secured the rope over his shoulders to the back of the chair. Then he bent down, his fingers picking at the dead knot by his ankles, pulling it out bit by bit. Finally, with his legs free, he got up from the chair, ran to grab his backpack, and stuffed the scattered contract pages inside.

There were less than three minutes left.

Was there enough time to get downstairs? He wasn’t familiar with the building’s layout. There were no lights at all. It would take a long time just to find the stairs. And the closer he got to the first floor, the closer he would be to the explosives, and the more dangerous it would be. He might just get blown to bits as he ran down.

What should I do?

Tick-tock, tick-tock–

The sound of the countdown was in his ears. Zhu Zhixi gradually got used to the sound and surprisingly didn’t feel panicked anymore.

He looked around. Finally, his gaze landed on the empty window opening. Inside is not an option. I can only look for a way out.

Reaching out, Zhu Zhixi felt the side of his backpack and found a coil of blue outdoor rope that he always kept inside. Without hesitation, he wrapped the rope around his waist and tied a bowline knot at the end.

It wasn’t long enough. He connected the thick rope scattered on the floor.

Still not long enough. What now? He couldn’t just hang outside a lower floor; it was still dangerous.

He suddenly remembered Xiao Xiang’s words. Since the demolition was in stages, with the outer layer being blown up first, then jumping from here to an inner, adjacent building still offered hope.

So, Zhu Zhixi quickly picked up the stun baton and tied it tightly to the other end of the rope. Holding the simple fixed rope, he walked to the edge of the window opening. He supported himself against the wall, leaned half his body out, aimed for the adjacent window opening, and threw the end with the stun baton.

With a thud, the stun baton pulled the rope back into the room. Zhu Zhixi quickly ran over, pulled the stun baton tight, wrapped it three times around the narrow wall between the two window openings, and tied a clove hitch. That wall became his pillar of support.

Standing on the edge of the window opening, Zhu Zhixi looked down. Below him was a sea of darkness.

The toe of his canvas shoe moved slightly forward. A speck of construction dust fell in the friction, disappearing as if it had sunk into a bottomless pit.

He took a deep breath and stepped back, step by step.

I can do this. I’ve bungee jumped, climbed treacherous cliffs, and skydived. This is nothing…

Tick-tock–

[4 days 18 hours 1 minute 17 seconds]

Retreating to the far end of the living room, with his back against the wall, Zhu Zhixi took a running start with all his might and leaped out of the window.

The blue night rope drew a diagonal line in the darkness—

The opposite window opening, like a huge escape hatch, grew closer and closer…

No.

Just a little short–

Zhu Zhixi used his last ounce of strength to reach out, desperately stretching forward, and finally, just barely, grabbed onto the scaffolding.

With the dual support of the rope and the scaffolding, he managed to hang on, narrowly escaping death. He breathed a sigh of relief.

However, in the next second, he felt a sudden pull at his waist. Startled, Zhu Zhixi whipped his head around. In the window opening he had just been trapped in, a black shadow stood like the grim reaper. Supporting himself against the wall, he pulled off the end with the stun baton and coldly threw it down.

Oh no.

The balance was abruptly broken. Under the force of gravity, Zhu Zhixi’s body became exceptionally heavy. The end of the scaffolding he was holding with one hand couldn’t bear the weight and was already bent.

Crack.

The rusted iron frame broke. His body plummeted.

But he still hadn’t given up. He gripped the broken iron frame in his hand, scraping downwards, trying to hook onto any frame he could catch. As long as it caught, there was hope.

Since the countdown says I still have four days, I definitely won’t die here.

Sparks flew, a rapid sense of weightlessness. Zhu Zhixi was dizzy, just a step away from death.

In a daze, he suddenly heard a familiar sound. He had heard it before. The sound of flapping wings—

A white feather fell before his eyes, like a snowflake. The next second, with a bang, he was caught in mid-air, held securely by a pair of strong arms.

The pain of the impact was overwhelming. Zhu Zhixi took a second to recover before opening his eyes. “…Xiao Yu?”

But the next second, he widened his eyes, completely stunned—the person holding him was not Xiao Yu at all.

“Fu Rangyi?”