Chapter Twenty-One: Nangong Yuchen, Radiating Deadly Intent

The private room was in utter chaos. The floor and the long glass table at the center were littered with empty bottles, and the air was thick with the stench of alcohol.

"Get away from me!"

On the left-hand sofa, Ke Xin Nangong was in tears, struggling fiercely. Her hair was disheveled, her clothes in disarray, and the porcelain-like complexion of her delicate face was drenched in tears. Her pitiful, desperate resistance tugged painfully at the heart.

In front of her, a young man with golden, tousled hair—his surname Zhou—stood shirtless, his expression twisted. Seeing her so vulnerable only inflamed his possessive desire. As he tore at Ke Xin's clothing with increasing force, he grinned wickedly. "Didn't you want to see your parents? Why are you regretting it now?"

He was nothing like the gentleman he had seemed yesterday—now, drunk on lust, he was a madman.

"Mmm... get away from me!"

"Zhou Haoran, you bastard! Let Ke Xin go right now! Otherwise, Star Academy will never let you off. Not even your father can save you!"

On the other side of the room, two girls, about sixteen or seventeen, were tightly bound, forced to watch Ke Xin's humiliation, and in their fury, shouted insults at him.

"Haha, Star Academy? Do you three ordinary students really think you can stir up trouble there? So naive!" Zhou Haoran paused, turning to glare at the girls. Their tied bodies accentuated their youthful beauty, and a lewd smile crept onto his face as he continued, "Long, strip these two impudent girls for me. I want them to learn the price of insulting me!"

"You animal!" The girls’ faces paled with panic as they tried to edge toward the interior of the room.

But the two black-clad youths guarding the door had already lost patience. They rushed over, pinning the girls onto the sofa, their hands roaming freely.

"Get your filthy hands off me!"

"Don't touch me!"

"Haha..." Zhou Haoran's satisfaction swelled as the room filled with girls’ screams. He turned back to his own vile business.

Ke Xin, hearing her friends’ desperate cries, fought back even harder, sobbing as she shouted, "Bastard! Let Li Li and Hui Yan go!"

Before coming here, she’d held onto a fragile hope—if she could meet some heirs of influential families, perhaps she would get a chance to see her parents and escape unscathed. But she realized she had been too naive. This was not a dance, it was the funeral of her innocence. Worse still, she had dragged her dearest friends into this nightmare.

Why did it have to be this way? Deep in her heart, the laughter of her family in Qinghu Town still echoed. Her parents’ gentle smiles, Yu Chen’s sweet, obedient face—all vivid in her mind, all ringing in her ears. Yet these were nothing but illusions, forever lost.

Why? She bitterly questioned herself.

"Haha, you'd better worry about yourself now," Zhou Haoran sneered, amused that she still cared for others at her own peril. "Ke Xin Nangong, if you become my woman, I promise you'll see your father every day—"

But before he could finish, the door to the room was kicked open with a thunderous crash!

Everyone inside turned toward the entrance, including Ke Xin, her dim eyes opening wide as she saw the figure in the doorway. Her delicate body trembled violently. "Yu... Chen!"

"Ke Xin!"

"You brat, are you looking for death?" Zhou Haoran snarled at the intruder who had ruined his fun. "You two, kill him!"

"Ke... Ke Xin!" Yu Chen Nangong stared, eyes nearly bursting with rage, at his sister—her clothes torn, her face streaked with tears. At that moment, he felt his blood boil, fury roaring within, and murderous intent overwhelming his reason.

He didn't bother to answer Zhou Haoran. He charged straight in, his voice thunderous with killing intent. "Die!"

"You brat—"

Long and the other black-clad youth had barely taken a step before Yu Chen, moving at lightning speed, smashed a fist into their chests.

A sickening crack of bone rang out. Long's chest collapsed under the blow; propelled by a force of three hundred kilograms, he flew back, taking the other youth with him as they crashed through the wall and tumbled from the second floor.

A panicked scream echoed from downstairs.

"Die!" With a roar, Yu Chen grabbed Zhou Haoran by the throat before he could react, lifting him off the ground.

He moved so quickly—from knocking out the two guards to seizing Zhou Haoran—it all happened in barely a second.

"Gurgle..." Zhou Haoran stared at the handsome, furious youth before him, his face ashen, his body trembling. "Who... who are you? Let go, or my father will—"

But before he could finish, Yu Chen, as if manhandling a chicken, slammed him into the center glass table.

"Ah..." A scream, inhuman in its agony, echoed through the room. The table shattered with a crash, and Zhou Haoran was buried in glass, his body covered in bloody wounds, curled up and barely clinging to life.

In the corner of the sofa, Ke Xin's two friends were pale with fear at the violent, bloody scene, their lips trembling. "Is that... Ke Xin's brother... Yu Chen Nangong?"

"So terrifying..."