Volume One, Chapter 79: A Demon Crawling Out of Hell

Mu Shaozhou was in the middle of a meeting, listening to the Group CFO’s report on this quarter’s operating profits.

He occasionally glanced down at his phone. The last message exchanged with Yu Mo was at the end of last month.

Since then, Yu Mo hadn’t contacted him, nor had he taken the initiative to reach out.

Mu Shaozhou’s lips pressed into a thin line, his pale, slender fingers tapping out a few words on the screen.

"Still mad at me?"

He paused, eyes lowered, then hit backspace to delete the words. After a moment, he typed again.

"My fault. / Pity me."

He deleted that too, finally settling on a single sentence.

"I want to see you."

He hit send.

A notification popped up: “Yu Mo has enabled friend verification. You are not yet friends. Please send a friend request. You can only chat after the other party approves.”

Mu Shaozhou: "…"

He stared at the red exclamation mark, feeling his heart turn cold.

Suddenly, he stood up.

The CFO, startled by the abrupt movement, looked at him in confusion and spoke cautiously, "President Mu, did I say something wrong?"

Without so much as a glance, Mu Shaozhou replied in a low voice, "The meeting will resume tomorrow."

With that, he left the room. As he pushed open the conference room door, he was already dialing Yu Mo’s number.

A cold, mechanical female voice came from the other end: "The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable…"

Mu Shaozhou’s brow furrowed tightly. He tried several more times, but the result was always the same. It was as if something vital inside him had been hollowed out.

Dai Ming followed behind him, not daring to make a sound. He had never seen the president with such an expression before.

Mu Shaozhou drove straight to Yu Mo’s apartment, but it was clear no one had lived there for a long time.

He drove on to the Yu family home.

As the car sped along, a sense of foreboding crept into his heart.

…

Meng Pei appeared before Yu Mo and Xiao Lin, adorned in jewels and pearls.

A false smile played on her lips as she first addressed Yu Mo.

"Yu Mo, we meet again. I never expected it would be under such circumstances."

Then she turned to Xiao Lin.

"Xiao Lin, when I first saw you, I didn’t recognize you at all. It seems life hasn’t treated you well these past years."

As if recalling something, she suddenly changed her tone.

"Well, that’s to be expected. What happiness comes from a shotgun marriage? You and Yu Hongxuan had no real foundation. Within a few years, you lost your beloved son, and three years later, your husband disappeared. Truly a tragedy, isn’t it? Ha!"

"Meng Pei, that’s enough!" Yu Mo stepped in front of her mother, shielding her from any further hurtful words.

Tears slid down Xiao Lin’s face as she looked up at Meng Pei’s elaborately made-up visage.

"All these years, you’ve been watching my life. You and Hongxuan broke up so long ago—those feelings should have faded."

"Let go?" Meng Pei’s eyes flashed with defiance, as if recalling a terrible past. Her jaw clenched so tightly her teeth threatened to crack. She forced the words out.

"I was the eldest daughter of the Meng family. I grew up with Yu Hongxuan—we were childhood sweethearts. Naturally, we ended up together. But the moment I decided to study abroad for a few years, he broke up with me. Less than a month after, he married you. Is that how he handles relationships? Twenty years together, and he discarded me so easily—of course he can abandon you too, Xiao Lin!"

Meng Pei threw her head back and laughed, but her laughter soon turned to sobs as tears traced down her cheeks.

Her gaze snapped back to Xiao Lin with a force that seemed capable of tearing someone apart, her words hoarse and desperate.

"I used to envy you—envy you for marrying him, for bearing his child. But now, I feel nothing but joy. Thank you for living the life that should have been mine. How does it taste? Does it bring you any happiness? Hahaha!"

Yu Mo rose to her feet and lunged at Meng Pei.

"Meng Pei, why are you really here?"

She couldn’t have come just to hurl insults at her mother—there had to be another purpose behind abducting the two of them.

Xiao Lin’s tears would not stop. Sitting on the floor, she recalled meeting and marrying her husband. Their relationship hadn't been particularly sweet, but it was respectful and fulfilling—not the tragic tale Meng Pei painted.

"Hongxuan isn’t that kind of man. Something must have happened to him—he wouldn’t stay away otherwise."

Meng Pei laughed with abandon.

"Xiao Lin, is that faith all that’s kept you going? Fine, let me show you how fragile your hope really is."

Yu Mo sensed danger but was too late to stop Meng Pei.

With a twisted smile, Meng Pei turned to Xiao Lin.

"You went to the Qi family asking to see my son last time. Let me tell you: Yanchen is actually your biological child. You haven’t seen him yet, have you? If you did, you’d know how much he looks like you…

You have no idea. When Yanchen first called out ‘Mama,’ it was so adorable. His first steps—he wobbled so sweetly. But you know none of this, because you don’t deserve to. You stole my love, so I took your beloved son. I want you to suffer so much that life is worse than death..."

"Stop it, please…!" Xiao Lin was already sobbing uncontrollably. So her son had been taken and raised by Meng Pei out of pure malice—the thought was suffocating.

Just imagining her child being raised by such a person left her breathless.

"Meng Pei, what do you want with my son? If you're angry, come for me, for Yu Hongxuan—why torment an innocent child!"

Meng Pei smiled with satisfaction at Xiao Lin’s cries, pleased with the reaction.

She had waited years for this moment. What a pity Yu Hongxuan wasn’t here—watching them both in agony would have been exquisite.

Yu Mo’s eyes reddened. For her mother to learn the truth in such a cruel way was unbearable.

"Enough! Meng Pei!"

Meng Pei shot Yu Mo a cold glance, clearly annoyed by the interruption.

"Xiao Lin, do you know what’s more satisfying than revenge? Having your dearest son in my grasp, tormenting him every day—it’s exhilarating!"

"Meng Pei!"

Yu Mo sprang up and kicked her to the ground, trying to halt her tirade.

Though knocked down, Meng Pei’s twisted grin didn’t fade. Seemingly immune to pain, she went on addressing Xiao Lin.

"Going hungry was routine. Qi Yanchen is the embodiment of you and Yu Hongxuan—I made sure he tasted the worst kind of suffering. When he was three, I nearly strangled him myself, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. If I had, you wouldn’t be in such agony now, would you? Hahaha…"

Xiao Lin struggled to her feet and staggered toward Meng Pei, desperate enough to tear her apart.

To shred this demon that had crawled out of hell.

She couldn’t imagine what sort of life her son had endured, how much pain and torment he’d suffered all these years.

"You monster!" Xiao Lin screamed, her tears long dried up, her bloodshot eyes fixed on Meng Pei with burning hatred.

"Someone! Help! Anyone!" Meng Pei finally couldn’t take it anymore and shouted toward the door.

But not a sound came from outside—it was deathly quiet.

Sensing something was wrong, she scrambled to her feet and reached for the doorknob.

Before she could touch it, the door was pushed open from the outside.

A pair of polished, jet-black leather shoes appeared before her.

She looked up involuntarily, her gaze meeting the newcomer’s.

One look, and her pupils contracted in terror—fear was etched plainly on her face.

The owner of the shoes raised his foot and kicked her hard in the shoulder, sending her rolling back two meters across the floor.