Rebirth of a Star: Another Day, Another Drama

Chapter 18: Kidnapped (2)

Lan Jinyao ate the meal that she was served while on edge and filled with fear. In order to stall for extra time, she stuffed the food into her mouth, little by little. While she was eating, the man was just sitting motionlessly next to her as he stared at her. His intense stare made Lan Jinyao break out in a cold sweat from head to toe.

“How’s the taste?” asked the man.

Lan Jinyao continually nodded. Then, she gave him a thumbs-up and said, “It's very delicious! It's the first time I've ever eaten something so delicious. You must’ve learnt how to cook before, right?”

“Yes, that’s right! I learnt how to cook precisely for your sake!”

The man was looking at her tenderly, making Lan Jinyao feel like choking on her food. When she started incessantly coughing, a hand reached out and lightly patted her back.

Lan Jinyao was stunned. Wasn't this man treating Chen Meimei too well? If she made a tiny request now, would this man agree to it?

She tried by asking, “Uhm, is there a supermarket downstairs? I’d like to have some fruit after dinner, is that alright?”

“Really? I’ll go get you some right away! Just wait for a moment.”

The man immediately left the room, locking the door behind him before he went. Lan Jinyao could only kick at the door amidst her despair.

A minute later, Lan Jinyao returned to the bedroom and with just a glance, she noticed the wide-open window. Her eyes brightened as she ran towards it. When she looked out of it, she saw that this room was on the second floor. It wasn’t that high, and there was a green lawn below. Thus, even if she jumped down from here, her injuries wouldn’t be that bad. Thinking up to here, she quickly glanced at her surroundings. A courtyard enclosed the house, but the walls of the courtyard didn’t appear to be very high. The view outside the wall, however, wasn’t optimistic, as it looked like this place was in the middle of a deserted mountain without any nearby roads.

Lan Jinyao climbed down via the water pipe to the first floor and was about to make a run for it when she saw the man carrying a barrel of gasoline. The areas around the villa were already thoroughly drenched with gasoline.

When the man saw her, he dropped the barrel of gasoline and ran towards her. It didn’t take long before he’d restrained and brought her back to the room, where he then put her down on the bed and tied her up again. After that, Lan Jinyao heard him say with his eerie voice, “You’ve changed. You used to only like meat and didn’t like to eat fruit, but you actually asked me to buy fruit for you today. Hehe, as expected, women are really fickle creatures.”

Lan Jinyao silently cursed. This man must’ve gotten enraged because she’d tried to escape earlier. He had already finished pouring the gasoline...it looked like this house would be buried along with her.

But, even after realising all this, she still retorted fearlessly, “You said before that you wanted to stay with me for a lifetime. Could it be that you meant you want to die with me?”

The irrational man’s hands were clenched into fists. He’d clenched them so hard that even the veins on his arms were showing, and his whole body was shaking violently due to agitation he felt as he stared tensely at Lan Jinyao. His lips moved underneath the mask, but he only released a ‘tsk’ and didn’t say anything further.

Lan Jinyao noticed that this man’s mental disorder was quite severe! If she said something wrong in this kind of situation, she could trigger the man’s aggressive behaviour and then she would be sent ahead of time to meet the King of Hell.

“Take it easy and calm down, I was just asking… Really, I was just asking out of curiosity.”

The man didn’t touch her. Instead, he walked to the drawer beside him and took out a bottle of medicine. Lan Jinyao wanted to cry when she saw what was written on the medicine bottle. To think that it was a bottle of sleeping pills! Such a big bottle of sleeping pills for just the two of them? Then, there was no need for the gasoline anymore...they would be sent directly to the King of Hell once they swallowed those!

Lan Jinyao shook her head in horror and screamed, “Don’t come over here!...”

However, the man merely smiled at her. His voice was hoarse and unpleasant to the ear, yet it still contained a trace of tenderness as he comforted her and said, “Don't worry, I know that Meimei dislikes taking medicine. As a healthy baby, you never had to eat this kind of stuff during your childhood. So, I’ve prepared this for myself. I want to go a step ahead of you and wait for you there! If not, I’m afraid that we would get lost.”

Thank goodness, that wasn't for her to take!

After the man swallowed all the sleeping pills, he left the room. Soon after, a thick plume of smoke slowly spread into the room from the ground floor. Lan Jinyao could just make out the crackling sound of flames; he’d already lit the gasoline!

Not long after, the sound of footsteps could be heard outside the room. When the man pushed the door open and walked in, Lan Jinyao saw the raging fire rapidly spreading outside. So, she shouted at the man, “Close the door, quickly close the door!!”

After the man had closed the door for her, he walked to the bed and lay down beside her. He smiled and stared at her face-to-face. The man had taken off his mask, exposing his square-shaped face. He was actually quite good-looking, but there was a scar on his cheek, and that affected his overall looks and made it less pleasing to the eyes. A moment later, the man closed his eyes.

Following this, Lan Jinyao’s agonised screams could be heard echoing throughout the villa.

“Who can help me dial nine one one...?!”

At half past twelve, Fu Bainian started to become restless as the more he thought about it, the more he felt that something was off. He began calling Chen Meimei's number. However, all he got was a voice message telling him that the user’s phone was turned off. He frowned for so long that wrinkles started appearing on his forehead.

Normally, whenever he made a call, Chen Meimei would instantly pick up; regardless of what she was doing. That woman liked him so much, so how could she not answer his calls?

Fu Bainian realised that something was off and called Lan Jinyao's Agent. Not long after, he arrived at Lan Jinyao's residence. But, unexpectedly, her room was empty, and it looked like she hadn’t come back yet. Her Agent, who’d hurried over, looked at the empty room and said, “President Fu, how about we call the police?!”

Half an hour later, they received a report from the police telling them that a massive fire had broken out in a villa in the outskirts of the city and that they suspected that someone was trapped inside.

After Fu Bainian finished watching the recordings of the cameras monitoring Chen Meimei's residence, he jumped in his car and headed towards the villa.

Thick smoke filled the sky; it looked like an ocean of fire. The lawn in front of the villa was already burnt to ashes. The crackling sounds of the fire could be heard from outside, and amidst it, there seemed to be a weak female voice calling for help.

Fu Bainian stood on the road and examined his surroundings for a bit before climbing over the wall and nearing the villa. Once he was close to the building, he shouted, “Chen Meimei! Chen Meimei, are you in there?”

A head appeared inside the window amidst the dancing flames, and then a pair of raised hands. “Fu Bainian, s-save me!!”

That fatty woman sobbed helplessly. Her palms were bright red.

Fu Bainian took off his jacket, soaked it in the nearby pond, and then used it to cover his head before he rushed into the villa.

As he passed through the flames, water dripped all over him, causing steam to be emitted from his body by the time he arrived in front of Lan Jinyao. When she saw him, she hugged his waist and burst into tears.

“Don't cry; I'll get you out of here!”

Since he was quite tall, he took her hand and opened up a path ahead of her. His hair was dripping wet, and she didn’t know if it was water or sweat, but the droplets were slowly trickling down his face. She hid under his suit; her tears were completely blurring her vision.

In this one moment, Lan Jinyao felt as if she had the whole world at her fingertips.

When the beam above the door abruptly fell, Lan Jinyao’s body staggered forward, towards the exit, as she hadn’t managed to dodge the pair of hands that had pushed her from behind.

As she collapsed, feeling weak and dizzy, she looked on helplessly at the figure of the man that had helped her.

A split second before Lan Jinyao closed her eyes, she saw a group of firefighters rush inside the villa.