*This Chapter is dedicated to the amazing readers who have supported the novel with golden tickets and power stones. Thank you for being such a vital part of this journey!

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Both of them turned towards the main door at once.

The pounding shook through the apartment with such force that even the broken furniture seemed to shudder beneath it.

The knock of the sound no longer felt usual. It sensed like something was trying to tear its way inside.

Cixi took her chance. And before the man could fully turn his attention back to her, she hurled herself at him, ignoring the sharp agony that ripped through her right shoulder the moment she moved too fast. Her hand flew straight for the gun. Her fingers locked around his wrist with desperate force, and she threw all her weight into him.

He swore and jerked his arm violently, but Cixi clung on.

Another shot rang out.

The bullet went wild and struck somewhere above and behind them. A burst of plaster dust rained down from the ceiling, scattering over her hair and shoulders.

Cixi flinched hard, yet she did not let go of his wrist.

The man twisted viciously, trying to wrench his hand free, but she grabbed at him with both hands now, her nails digging into his skin as her whole body strained against the strength in his arm.

He was stronger than she was. Far stronger. Yet to take this man down had turned her grip wild and stubborn.

Cixi’s slipper skidded across the floor, and her hip struck the edge of a chair so sharply that pain shot through her side. The chair tipped at once, scraping and crashing sideways. Then both of them went down with it.

The man fell backward with the chair collapsing beneath him with a splintering crack.

Cixi landed half over him, still fighting for the gun as though that single piece of metal had become the line between life and death.

The man drove his elbow brutally into her ribs.

Pain burst through her blinding, but fear blocked it out and kept her moving. She didn’t lose her grip on his wrist, which held a gun, forcing the barrel away from her face, away from her chest, away from any part of her he might blow apart in the next second.

Another fierce knock shook the front door.

Still, neither of them stopped struggling.

The man snarled through his teeth, twisting underneath her, trying to free the weapon.

Cixi panted with exertion, her hair falling over her face, her body shaking from strain, and the gun jerked wildly between them, feeling unsafe.

Then the knocking stopped. The silence might have lasted less than a breath before an explosion came next.

The blast was so sudden and forceful that Cixi cried out and instinctively turned her head. The ruined front door flew off its hinges and slammed into the wall with a noisy crash.

The entire apartment shook from the force of it.

Before Cixi could think about what was happening, men in black suits stormed inside.

They came in like a wave of darkness. Their footsteps thundered over the broken floor, and the sight of them made the air inside the apartment feel even tighter, even deadlier.

The man with a gun on the floor snarled when he saw more men coming. Rage twisted his face at once as he felt cornered, ambushed, trapped.

And then, with shocking speed, he turned on Cixi instead, turning her onto her back and with his free hand, he squeezed her throat almost with the intention of breaking her neck.

It was so tight that the world seemed to jolt around her. She gagged.

Her grip nearly slipped from his wrist, yet she still held on, refusing to let him fully aim the gun even as her lungs began to burn.

Before everyone present at the scene could fully register what had happened, the man strangling Cixi was suddenly seized from behind by the nape of his neck. Five fingers clamped down with a ferocity far greater than the grip he had on Cixi, forcing him to release her.

In that instant, he was yanked away from her, as if he were weightless, and hurled into the side wall with an overwhelming force that left an audible thud. His face met the surface with a painful impact, sending shockwaves and shifting the atmosphere to stunned disbelief.

Not only did his glasses shatter on impact, but his nose also broke, and his teeth and lips were smashed against the wall. The pain burst through his skull so painfully that his vision spun at once, turning everything into a blur before him. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. The force of the blow had stolen even that from him. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Cixi folded in on herself, coughing hard.

Air rushed into her lungs in ragged, painful gulps. Her throat stung. Each breath felt rough. For a few seconds, her eyes watered so much that all she could see was a blur of movement and dark shapes passing by her.

When her vision cleared, it stopped on him.

Cassian!

He stood there with a grim look on his face, staring right at her.

For one strange second, relief should have come. It should have loosened something in her chest, made her feel safe, and made her think the danger had passed.

Oddly, it did not. Because Cassian’s handsome face looked darker than she had ever seen it. There was something in him now that made him seem like a true devil, with a missing horn.

Cixi was still struggling to breathe properly, let alone feel relief.

As the seconds passed, she realised he was not looking into her eyes.

Rather, he was looking at her neck, which had turned a violent red. And the marks of the man’s fingerprints stood out starkly, ugly and vivid.

Around them, Cassian’s men moved swiftly and quietly. Two of them hauled the unconscious man upright, who looked no more than dead weight.

Cassian lowered himself at last, crouching on one heel before her.

Even then, even so close, he did not reach out to her for support.

He only looked.

And after a few seconds, he slowly shook his head.

And after a few seconds had passed, only then did Cixi see that he was slowly shaking his head. And that gesture struck her harder. It looked less like anger and more like disappointment in her, and for some reason, that stung.

"Taking advantage of my protection. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk."