“Vicky, wait here for me.”

After giving the instruction, Chu Minghuan walked towards the restroom. In her dazed state, she mistakenly entered the men’s restroom. As she hurriedly tried to back out, the corner of her eye caught sight of someone slumped against the wall.

She focused her attention, and saw that it was a man, his head hanging low, breathing heavily, with large beads of sweat dripping from his neck. It didn’t look good.

She quickly walked over to him, crouching down to check on him. “Sir, are you okay? Are you sick?”

The man lifted his head to look at her. His hair was damp with sweat, hanging messily over his forehead. He had sharp brows and star-like eyes, a handsome face with a faint flush, and his gaze was unfocused and dreamy.

Chu Minghuan felt her heart miss a beat.

This man… he’s so handsome! His bronzed skin gave off a rugged, rebellious vibe, but now mixed with a hint of vulnerability. His lips were moist, radiating an irresistible kind of sex appeal.

“What’s going on outside?” he asked, breathing heavily.

“Oh, it’s just a police inspection,” she replied nonchalantly, though still concerned. “Are you okay? Should I take you to the hospital with my friend?”

Mo Tingfeng gritted his teeth in silence, his expression unreadable. He had just been drugged, and now the police had come for an inspection—someone was clearly trying to frame him.

Yu and Ding must be avoiding him to prevent drawing attention from the police, but he couldn’t just sit here and wait!

Mo Tingfeng pressed his hand to his chest, struggling to stabilize his breath. He used his other hand to support himself on the wall and unsteadily tried to stand.

“Be careful!” Chu Minghuan instinctively reached out to help him, but as her hand was halfway to him, she hesitated, staring at him in disbelief. “You… you’re the one the police are looking for!”

She realized it too late!

Mo Tingfeng’s eyes flickered. Taking advantage of her hesitation, he grabbed her slender neck with his arm. “Take me out,” he ordered in a hoarse voice, right next to her ear.

Chu Minghuan gasped. “You’re the one they’re after!” She cursed herself for not figuring it out sooner.

Now that she knew, he couldn’t let her go, or she would definitely report him to the police.

Mo Tingfeng fought the dizziness, his arm tightening around her throat, pressing just enough to make it difficult for her to breathe.

“W-What do you want?” she stammered, panic rising.

“Don’t be afraid. Just take me out quietly, I won’t hurt you.”

“Won’t hurt me? Yeah, right!”

Chu Minghuan cursed inwardly, her mind racing. “There are cops outside. You think I can sneak you out without anyone noticing?”

“The storage room is behind the restroom. There’s a side door in it.”

She hadn’t expected the store’s storage room to have a back entrance through the restroom. Could it be specifically designed for guests like him to escape? If they went that way, they wouldn’t need to pass through the lobby.

“You know this place pretty well!” she remarked, surprised that he even knew about such a secretive little door.

He noticed the sarcasm in her voice and raised an eyebrow. He thought that under such threatening circumstances, she would be terrified, but instead, she was mocking him.

“Go!” he commanded.

Chu Minghuan felt something cold press against her back. Could it be the barrel of a gun? Was he threatening her with a gun?

Her expression hardened, her mind growing more focused. Having worked as a social worker for a few years, she had dealt with some troublesome individuals. While this was the first time someone had threatened her with a gun, it only made her more stubborn.

She wasn’t the type to back down under pressure. Did he think she was easy to bully?

She secretly sneered, pretending to be flustered, her voice trembling. “Okay, okay, I’ll take you, just don’t rush me.”

“Now!” The pressure against her back intensified.

Chu Minghuan bit her lip. Under Mo Tingfeng’s grip, she moved step by step forward. He was almost leaning entirely on her, his body swaying unsteadily, yet the hand still pressing against her throat remained firm and strong.

He must be holding himself up with sheer willpower.

Well then, let’s see who can last longer.

Under Mo Tingfeng’s guidance, Chu Minghuan found a hidden door in the corner of the restroom. She pushed it open, and it led to a storage room filled with various items. If you weren’t careful, you wouldn’t notice that behind some of the items, there was an exit leading outside the building.

He cannot escape! Chu Minghuan gritted her teeth in anger.

I cannot be caught by the police, Mo Tingfeng firmly decided.

Both of them had their own ulterior motives. As they approached the exit, Chu Minghuan suddenly let out a sharp scream. The piercing sound startled Mo Tingfeng, causing his grip to loosen instinctively. Seizing the brief moment of opportunity, she used the self-defense techniques she had learned in high school. She forcefully elbowed his lower abdomen, then used the sharp heel of her shoe to stomp on his foot. As he winced in pain and loosened his grip, she quickly bent at the waist, turned around, and kicked him squarely in the groin.

He was stunned and immediately covered his vulnerable area, stumbling backward. She didn’t give him a chance to recover and immediately bolted for the main hall of the nightclub, where she found the first police officer she saw.

“Officer, someone is holding me hostage!”

The next day at the office, Vicky loudly recounted Chu Minghuan’s harrowing experience from the night before. Her colleagues listened in shock.

After her dramatic retelling, Vicky seemed pleased with herself, smiling at Chu Minghuan while apologizing for what happened.

Did she genuinely mean to apologize?

Chu Minghuan couldn’t sense any sincerity from Vicky, instead, it felt like she was reveling in telling the story, as if she had witnessed it all firsthand.

“That was so satisfying!” Vicky said, getting more excited as she thought about it. “You don’t know, the look on Mo Tingfeng’s face when he was arrested—like a dumb man who had eaten something bitter—was priceless! Hahaha. Let’s see if he dares to hang out in nightclubs again, or pick up random girls like that!”