Hard to Escape Chapter 18.1

Candle: Apologies but this and the next release will be shorter than usual, this is another of those short chapters ^^;;

When I came to, my entire head had gone on strike. My temples throbbed in pain, and I could barely open my eyes. I ma.s.saged my forehead and attempted to stretch, but discovered that my limbs were weak and sore and my foot had fallen asleep. There was no way I could move.

After I'd blanked out for a good while, I finally noticed that I was contorted in some weird position and sitting in some closet with the doors closed. Above my head hung a few coats. The closet wasn't that big and perfectly accommodated my body. But I was unable to stretch out any of my limbs.

Last night, under the influence of my troubled mood, I had chugged the whole bottle of wine. I kept going till I was dead drunk and couldn't tell left from right. I could clearly remember wanting to go back to bed, but by that time I had already lost any ability to think rationally. That's probably how I ended up in this closet.

But my head still throbbed painfully. I took a deep breath and decided to slowly inch my way out. But then I heard a loud Bang, as if a door had suddenly been thrown open. Then came the sound of high heels clicking on the floor.

"Ge! Are you keeping her by your side because you want to ruin me?! You clearly know what she means to us! Ge, you've always known how much I've hated that person! You better tell me clearly, Ge. Tell me that all that fiancee nonsense you said was in order to trick her!"

My heartbeat rapidly sped up. As if possessed, I quieted down, restrained myself from taking any deep breaths, and continued hiding in my spot in the closet.

The next person who spoke sure enough was Yin Li. Considering that it was his sister he was speaking to, the tone of his voice was awfully cold. "Yin Xuan, she is my fiancée and your future sister-in-law. I hope that in the future when you speak, you pay more attention to your choice of words. This is also more befitting of our Yin family's upbringing."

"Ever since I was small, you've always been on my side. Before, you would also always ask me to come back earlier from France. No wonder this year you didn't bring it up anymore. Hahaha! What a joke. And here I was, thinking I had the world's best big brother." Yin Xuan's voice practically dripped with hatred. "Ge, do you know how many years I've hated her? You clearly know it! I suffered so much pain in those years, so much pressure. And all because of who?! She might as well be the G.o.dd.a.m.n Devil. She's stolen all the things I've wanted in the past. And now, she's not even sparing my brother. Ge, when you brought her away, do you know how much I trusted you? I thought you were taking away my nightmares, that you were going to seal this demon away forever. Hahaha, I never expected you to actually say you want to marry her!"

The pace of Yin Xuan's words quickened. She didn't even let Yin Li speak and continued to say, "Ge, think about it more rationally. Even if you had a guilty conscience and wanted to compensate her, you can just give her some money and send her away, out of sight, out of mind.1 Find a person to keep an eye on her, and as long as she doesn't recover her memories, let her live peacefully. Why the need to keep this demon by your side? Moreover, Li Jing has already seen her face. It probably won't be long before there'll be news from France. Once that side intervenes, it'll be hard for us to get out of this mess. This woman is just a nuisance for the both of us."

1 The actual saying used by the author is 眼不见为净, “what the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over”. Has more of a “don't see and don't feel bad about” meaning but I thought “out of sight, out of mind” was the closest English equivalent.

"Xuan Xuan, yesterday night you were also this headstrong. You even threatened to kill yourself to have me get rid of her. I stayed behind with you to argue back and forth over this for the whole night. Yet when we came back today, Yan Xiao already wasn't here anymore. I don't know why she's suddenly vanished, maybe she remembered something. Maybe Li Jing said something to her or came to find her. Either way, if you hadn't kicked up such a fuss yesterday, she would have been perfectly fine by my side right now, she wouldn't have gone out anywhere. Her phone's still in her room and she didn't take anything away with her, not even her wallet or clothes. I don't know what'll happen to her now that she's wandering outside all by herself." Yin Li's tone sounded like he was starting to get angry.

"Ge, from the start this was all a mistake. You shouldn't have hidden it from me that she had already woken up. Even more than that, you shouldn't have hid that her foot was already healed. Li Jing's life is now finally back on the right track. He said that he wanted to come back to find some inspiration. I believed that everything would begin to improve, that things would develop in the right direction. But now Li Jing has seen her! I didn't even have the time to prepare, because my brother didn't tell me anything! She's a person who deserves to just disappear!"

"Yin Xuan, you already owe her too much! From now on, stay away from her."

"A lowlife like her, from the start she should have just saved us the trouble and died! I can't wait for her to drop dead!"

“Pa!” A crisp slap sounded. Then came Yin Xuan's hysteric shrieking. "Ge, you actually dare hit me over a woman like this! Back then at times like this, you never raised a hand at me. Yet you hit me for the first time over this!?"

I never expected things to turn out like this with Yin Xuan's outburst. But after I'd been eavesdropping like this for a while, my foot had fallen asleep again. I lifted my leg, hoping to shift its position, but I didn't antic.i.p.ate that I'd neglected to keep my balance. With this one careless misstep I came tumbling out of the wardrobe.

Candle: Our esteemed Author loves to slap down a big shocker right after giving us some fluff…