CHAPTER 82: CHAPTER 82; ATTACK ON CHEN WAN’S HUSBAND

Lu Yuze turned to look at them both, then walked to the window. Outside, he could see Chen Ting still raging in the courtyard as security physically escorted him to his car after being dealt with. The man was screaming something, gesturing wildly, his face purple with fury.

Ah-Ling reappeared from the side corridor. "Mrs. Chen is secure in the west study, Master. She’s... not doing well. The panic attack was severe."

"Get her something to calm her nerves. And post guards outside the study door. If Chen Ting somehow gets back in...."

"He won’t, Master. I’ve already increased perimeter security. And I’ve filed an official trespass report with local police. If he returns without proper legal channels, he’ll be arrested on sight."

"Good. But that’s not enough, just make him lose all the powers he is bragging about, get rid of those people who are corrupt and I don’t care from what family they are..." Lu Yuze watched as Chen Ting’s car finally peeled out of the courtyard, tires throwing gravel, disappearing into the night with a screech of fury and defeat.

But Lu Yuze wasn’t fooled. This wasn’t over. Chen Ting had the look of a man who’d never been told "no" in his life, who’d always gotten his way through money, connections, and force.

He would surely be back. With lawyers, probably. Maybe police with legal writs. Definitely with plans to retrieve his "sick" wife and return her to whatever hell he’d created for her.

"Ah-Ling," Lu Yuze said quietly, still staring out the window. "I want everything on Chen Ting. Financial records, business dealings, legal history, and medical records, if you can get them. Everything. I want to know every skeleton in his closet, every illegal dealings, every person he’s hurt or threatened."

"You’re planning to destroy him," Ah-Ling said. It wasn’t a question.

"I’m planning to protect someone under my roof," Lu Yuze corrected. "If destroying him is necessary for that, then yes. He made a mistake tonight."

"What mistake, Master?"

Lu Yuze finally turned from the window, his electric blue eyes cold as ice. "He threatened my family in my own home. And he showed me exactly what kind of man he is. Now I know he needs to be eliminated. Professionally. Legally. Completely."

He looked back at his sleeping wife and daughter, then at the door where Chen Wan was hiding, terrified and traumatized.

"Shuyin promised to help her. To free her from that man. And I’m going to make sure she can keep that promise for whatever it takes."

Ah-Ling nodded, already pulling out his phone to begin the investigation. "I’ll have preliminary information by morning, Master. Full report within three days."

"Make it two," Lu Yuze said. "I have a feeling Chen Ting isn’t the patient type. He’ll be back soon, and when he comes, I want to be ready to bury him."

Outside, in the darkness beyond the mansion’s walls, Chen Ting sat in his car, gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles went white.

"That arrogant bastard," he seethed, his secretary cowering in the passenger seat. "Who does he think he is? I’ll destroy him. I’ll take everything he has. I’ll...."

"Sir," the secretary ventured carefully, "perhaps we should reconsider. Lu Yuze is... he’s powerful. Very powerful. Maybe we could find another approach...."

"I don’t care how powerful he is!" Chen Ting slammed his fist against the dashboard. "That’s my wife in there! Mine! And I’m going to get her back, even if I have to tear down his entire mansion to do it!"

He pulled out his phone and began making calls. Lawyers. Business associates. Friends in government positions. Calling in every favor, activating every connection, preparing for war.

Because that’s what this had become.

War.

And Chen Ting had never lost a war in his life.

He had no idea that the woman he was fighting to reclaim was under the protection of someone far more dangerous than Lu Yuze.

Someone who wasn’t bound by human laws or human morality.

Someone who was currently sleeping on a couch inside that mansion, recovering her strength.

Someone who, when she woke, would honor her promise to Chen Wan.

By destroying Chen Ting completely.

Not legally.

Not financially.

But permanently.

The way mermaids dealt with predators who hurt those under their protection.

Swift. Brutal. Final.

Chen Ting drove into the night, planning his next move, completely unaware that his death warrant had already been signed.

He just didn’t know it yet.

— — — — — —

Inside the mansion, Lu Yuze had finally settled back into his seat, the tension from Chen Ting’s intrusion still coiling through his muscles. He picked up his abandoned magazine but couldn’t focus on the words. His mind kept replaying the confrontation, analyzing every threat, every implication.

Ah-Ling was on his phone in the corner, already coordinating the investigation into Chen Ting’s background, speaking in low, clipped tones to contacts in various industries.

The sitting room had returned to its peaceful quiet, broken only by the soft, rhythmic breathing of the two women sleeping on the couches.

Except...

Shuyin’s breathing had suddenly changed.

Lu Yuze noticed it immediately, the shift from deep sleep to something else. Her chest still rose and fell steadily, her eyes remained closed, but there was a tension in her body now that hadn’t been there moments before. Her fingers, which had been relaxed against the couch cushion, were now curled slightly, as if gripping something invisible.

Her jade eyes, though closed, were glowing faintly beneath the eyelids, casting an eerie green light against her pale skin.

Lu Yuze set down his magazine and leaned forward, concerned. "Shuyin? Are you all right?"

She didn’t respond. Didn’t move. But the temperature in the room began to drop, frost forming in delicate patterns along the edges of the windows despite the climate control system running at full capacity.

And then, though her lips didn’t move, Lu Yuze heard her voice, not spoken aloud, but somehow resonating in the air itself, like a frequency just below human hearing.