Chapter 18: Calling to Account

Shen Zhaoxi said, “When he’s about to draw his last breath, throw him into the water dungeon and see just how many days he can survive.”
A black-clad bodyguard asked, “Miss, what if he dies?”
After all, with his limbs severed and locked inside a dog cage, survival was already impossible. Once he was thrown into the water dungeon, he’d be left hanging by a thread, forced to watch as the venomous snakes inside gnawed away at his flesh.
Just thinking of the mass of writhing black snakes in the water dungeon made the man’s body tense, fear spreading through his heart.
“Dead?” Shen Zhaoxi chuckled softly. “Then he’ll make a fine meal for the little creatures in the water dungeon. They do love human flesh, you know. If we throw him in…” She paused, her gaze suddenly falling on the man before her—a man brazen enough to covet her. Her arched brows, tinged with a hint of playful anger, exuded a seductive aura. Her eyes were as deep as water, yet carried a chilling oppression. “How long do you think it will take them to strip you to the bone?”
“You…” The man’s voice trembled with terror, as though he could already imagine the horrors she was capable of through her teasing and alluring gaze.
Seeing his face slick with cold sweat, panic written all over it, Shen Zhaoxi crouched down, her fair, jade-like hand gently patting his cheek, almost with a sense of care.
“Remember, in your next life, choose wisely and never again mistake your place before me.”
At the headquarters of the W Group, this young lady stood just beneath the matriarch—second only to her, above all others.
Aside from the Old Lady, most people in the group took their orders from her.
“If you want to cross me, you’d better weigh exactly what you’re worth.”
“Gong Shenxi!”
Seeing the bodyguards approach to seize him, the man panicked and tried to shake them off, shouting, “Gong Shenxi, the Old Lady has issued strict orders these past years: no vigilante punishments! You can’t kill me!”
That order was given to stop the internal bloodshed within the group and to curb the growing evil of extrajudicial punishments.
Yet now, the man hoped to use this order to threaten Gong Shenxi, but it seemed to have little effect.
“What are you waiting for?” Shen Zhaoxi’s gaze was icy as she swept her eyes over them. “When a dog bites its master, it’s only right for the master to strike back. That’s not vigilante punishment. Now take him away and do as I said!”
“Yes, Miss!” Only then did the bodyguards dare to close in. After all, this man was also a high-ranking member of the group, favored by the Old Lady herself. Yet he had only himself to blame for not restraining his lust and daring to harass the young lady right here in headquarters.
If he didn’t die, it would hardly be in keeping with Miss Shen’s style.
“Gong Shenxi!”
“Gong Shenxi!”
“Gong Shenxi, what exactly do you intend to do?”

“You’re abusing your power—I want to see the Old Lady! I demand to see—” As he was dragged toward the building’s entrance, the man kept shouting in defiance. Shen Zhaoxi narrowed her eyes, clearly irritated by the noise, raised a hand, and signaled her men to knock him out and take him away.
What was this, if not a man deluding himself into thinking he was untouchable? Used to throwing his weight around within the group, now that Shen Zhaoxi had put him in his place, he was left completely unprepared.
The unguarded always fall the hardest.
“Miss, are you all right?”
At that moment, Yu Mo stepped forward, lips pressed in concern, glancing at her face and lowering his voice cautiously.
She was still injured, but thanks to the doctors’ care, much improved.
Shen Zhaoxi shook her head and had just turned to leave when a woman’s voice called out from ahead: “Gong Shenxi!”—addressing her by name.
The voice was powerful and commanding, with the unmistakable presence of a formidable woman. Shen Zhaoxi looked up and saw a woman in a magenta suit striding toward her in high heels, followed by dozens of black-clad bodyguards—an imposing force.
In an instant, the lobby was filled with people.
Hundreds surged in, surrounding everyone on the first floor.
The woman stopped in front of Shen Zhaoxi, removed her sunglasses with a swift, graceful motion, and asked, “Miss, where are you off to in such a hurry?”
With her sunglasses off, her exquisitely made-up face and alabaster skin were revealed, her red lips curling into a smile aimed at Shen Zhaoxi.
Aunt Qiong.
Catching a clear view of the woman’s face, Shen Zhaoxi halted for a moment.
She narrowed her eyes, sizing up the newcomer and her entourage. Was she here to settle accounts?
“So, Aunt Qiong, what brings you here?”
Shen Zhaoxi smiled, feigning nonchalance as she raised her brows and met the woman’s blocking gaze head-on.
“Gong Shenxi!” Suddenly, the woman’s face darkened, her bright red lips now set with a cold ruthlessness.
“You have the nerve to call me Aunt Qiong after what you’ve done? You murdered my daughter, then burned her body to ashes in that abandoned factory—leaving me not even a last glimpse of her remains.”
So, she was already aware of the events in Sand City.
No surprise, really. Aunt Qiong—Gong Xiali’s birth mother—had worked tirelessly in W Group for years, carefully plotting the day she and her daughter would take over the group’s assets.
Gong Xiali had schemed against her, set a trap for her in Sand City. Aunt Qiong could hardly have been ignorant of it.
Thus, with Shen Zhaoxi returning alive from Sand City, while her daughter vanished without a trace, it was clear Aunt Qiong knew her daughter was dead.
She had come this time to seek justice for her daughter—to demand an explanation.
“Aunt Qiong, without proof, those are not words one ought to say,” Shen Zhaoxi replied, smiling calmly as if she had nothing to do with the murder.

“Gong Shenxi, how long do you think you can keep up this act?” The woman’s facade cracked at Shen Zhaoxi’s light smile. Furious, she ordered her people to hold up a tablet and play a video for all to see.
In the dimly lit footage, a young woman lay on the floor of an abandoned factory, her face bloodied, her body battered, unable to rise… The person in the video was none other than Gong Shenxi, who had been abducted from a rundown shelter and taken to Gong Xiali.
This proved that, at the time, Gong Shenxi had indeed fallen into Gong Xiali’s hands—but the video contained only that segment, never showing Gong Xiali’s face.
Gong Xiali was no fool; she would never let herself be caught on camera. That would have been proof enough that Shenxi was at her mercy.
The video had been filmed by Gong Xiali as a report for her mother—a twist of fate, since in the end, it was Gong Xiali who died at Shenxi’s hands.
Once the video ended, Aunt Qiong’s eyes could no longer conceal their murderous intent.
Her gaze, as poisonous as venom, fixed hatefully upon Shen Zhaoxi. “Here is your evidence. What have you to say for yourself?”
“Hm?” Shen Zhaoxi raised a brow, as if she hadn’t understood, giving a low, amused laugh. “Aunt Qiong, what is this video supposed to prove?”
“The woman in the video is me—not your daughter.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly, as if testing the waters.
“Exactly—that’s the point. You were tortured like that, yet you still walked out alive, while my daughter died in that factory, her body burned to nothing but smoke and ash!” As Aunt Qiong spoke, her face grew visibly darker.
Shen Zhaoxi nodded as if she’d finally understood.
“Oh, so what you mean is—your daughter was the one who captured me?”
Aunt Qiong’s brow furrowed.
“What are you talking about?”
“But isn’t that what you just implied?”
If the woman in the video was her, and if Gong Xiali hadn’t been the captor, then on what grounds was Aunt Qiong accusing her?
If she was to admit to being the one who killed Gong Xiali,
Then the person who had captured and tortured her to the point of being covered in blood was none other than Gong Xiali.
Either way, it was a dead end.
“You—!”
It was only then that Aunt Qiong realized what Shen Zhaoxi was insinuating, her brows tightening and her face growing ashen.