淫欲的代价

He arrived at the shop by 9:00 am.

Inside, just one table was occupied by three girls laughing amongst themselves as they indulged in chocolates and beverage.

Up ahead -in front of the counter- was an elderly lady being attended to by an employee. The customer was flipping through the shop catalogue but after a while, she grew frustrated.

He Yuan walked closer just in time to hear her sadly say,

"It\'s none of these and this catalogue is really huge. I don\'t think I\'ll be able to find it in time."

The employee attending to the old lady was a young woman -probably in her early twenties- with brown hair and a cute round face. She bit her lower lip thoughtfully before suggesting, "How about you describe it to me?"

The old lady smiled. "That works too. It is dark red -like burgundy- and has really pretty petals. It\'s also..." She gesticulated with both of her hands to show a height range. "...It\'s also this big. Oh and it has a bit of a chocolatey smell!"

Recognition finally dawned on the employee\'s eyes and she smiled happily. "That sounds a lot like chocolate cosmos!" She grabbed the catalogue and flipped through the pages until she arrived at a particular one. Next, she leaned closer to show the image to the elderly customer.

The old lady squinted her eyes at the image for two seconds before slamming her hands on the counter excitedly. "Yes, yes! That\'s the one!"

The employee smiled. "Unfortunately, we don\'t have that in shop but if you\'re willing to wait for a couple of days. It\'s possible to ship them in with our next batch."

The old lady pursed her lips before saying, "Would you have them ready by Tuesday?"

That was six days from now. The employee nodded her head frmly. "Definitely."

The old lady nodded in return, placed a deposit and walked out of the shop.

The employee finally noticed He Yuan standing at the side. She put on a polite smile. "Hello and welcome to Dream petals, how may I help you?"

He Yuan mostly interested with the manager of the shop so it wasn\'t surprising that the woman at the counter did not recognize him. He gave her a polite nod. "Hello. I\'m here for Manager Li. The name\'s Miss Xu.

"Oh." The lady said before reaching for her landline and dialing Manager Li. In the middle of the call, she looked at He Yuan in surprise and eight after the call ended she stood straighter and looked at him with a much brighter smile and more enthusiasm.

"Miss Xu, Manager Li would be here very soon. Please kindly take a seat. Do you need anything else? Tea, coffee, anything at all?"

He Yuan waved at her with a smile and remained standing. Less than a minute later, Manager Li walked into the shop from the office behind the counter with a bright smile on his face.

"Boss! I had no idea you were coming!"

"I was in the neighborhood." He Yuan said simply before walking in the direction of the office at the back.

-----------------

Two hours later, He Yuan was done going through the reports in the shop. He\'d also taken some time out to drop by the grocery store for a few toileteries, some more diapers and baby formulas.

With all his errands done, he decided to head home and put everything away in blissful peace before going over to the daycare for the twins.

The neighbourhood seemed calm as usual and He Yuan smoothly parked his car in the garage before heading to the house with the bags.

The second he stepped into the house though, his eyes turned sharp. The living room looked impeccable -just like he\'d left it- but... he could clearly detect that they were strangers in the house.

888\'s voice came then. [Four people. Two upstairs, two in the guestroom.]

He Yuan tsked inwardly. He\'d been ultra careful when searching for a house and had kept it a secret from everyone but, somehow, they were able to find him and the twins.

It was either the Hans or the Chens but judging from the fact that it had only been two days and the Hans were probably expecting a wretched Xu Lifen to come begging in a week, this was most likely the handiwork of the Chens.

In the original timeline, they had orchestrated an accident and taken the twins away. Obviously, that wouldn\'t work now because of the papers Han Tao had signed.

In order to make sure the twins ended up with the Hans after Xu Lifen\'s death, they had to ensure that he signed a contract transferring custody of the twins to Han Tao.

With a sneer, He Yuan calmly absorbed qi from the surroundings and, directly from his storage space, he began diffusing some paralysis dust into the atmosphere.

Since the availability of qi in this realm was not that high, it would probably take some time for the paralysis dust to cover the living room and cause any effect. Before that happened though, he took out a needle from his set and pierced it into his palm. The antidote.

[They\'re coming.]

He Yuan nodded, held the grocery bags firmly and then carried on like he hadn\'t noticed a thing.

Not long after, two men in black suddenly walked out of the guestroom and directly pointed their guns at him with stone cold expressions whilst a handsome young man in a black three-piece suit made a much grander entrance from the staircase.

The man gradually walked down the stairs with the last goon behind him. When he got to the bottom, he scrutinized the woman he\'d been sent to threaten. A pretty face and a curvy body. Just his type. Too bad he wasn\'t here for pleasure.

Seeing her \'stricken expression,\' he smirked in satisfaction and waved his arms around like he owned the place. "Nice house." He walked closer until he was standing before He Yuan.

"To be able to suddenly afford such a house after leaving the Han home without a single penny... It seems you\'d been keeping some kind of dirty secret from your ex husband."

He Yuan\'s expression remained the same as he gradually increased the distribution of the paralysis dust. To buy more time, he looked from one man to another in \'alarm\'. "What do you need?"

The suited man laughed. "So straightforward. I like that." He languidly walked over to seat on one of the double sofas, pulled out a gun from the inside of his suit jacket and casually beckoned He Yuan over with it. "Miss Xu. Let\'s have a talk shall we?"

888 began adding his own energy in minuscule quantities to speed up the process whilst He Yuan dropped the groceries and walked over to sit opposite the suited man.

The man in question gave another satisfied smirk before taking an envelope from one of his goons and sliding it across the centre table to He Yuan. "Let\'s not hold ourselves up, alright? Sign the papers and we\'d be done."

He Yuan slowly picked up the document and checked it out. Like he\'d guessed, it was truly about transferring custody of the twins.

888\'s voice came then. [It\'s done. In about 5 to 10 seconds, they would have inhaled a substantial amount.]

A smile tugged at the corners of He Yuan\'s lips as he looked up at the suited man across from him and flinged the document at his face. "No."

The man\'s face changed. He wasn\'t a very patient man. He glared at He Yuan and laughed humourlessly. "You think this is a joke?" Immediately after, he nudged his head at one of the goons.

The goon aimed at He Yuan\'s left leg and cocked his gun but before he could shoot,

CLANG!

THUD!

THUD!

THUD!

The gun fell and he bonelessly dropped to the floor. The other two also experienced the same thing. They all tried to move but realized they were frozen stiff. Alarmed, they stiffly called out to their leader, "Boss Di!"

Boss Di was equally as shocked but he quickly realized he also couldn\'t move a muscle. He glared at the woman opposite him fiercely. "What did you do?!"

He Yuan shrugged at him and left the living room. Upstairs, he grabbed a pair of surgical gloves, a tourniquet and a syringe from the set he\'d bought to use on Chen Meili.

Next he went downstairs to the kitchen to get a glass of water and some salt.

When he returned to the living room, all four men had completely red faces as they continuously tried to move their bodies without success.

Boss Di grinded his teeth. He felt very humiliated but he didn\'t dare act rashly. Although he did not believe that Xu Lifen had the guts to grab their guns and shoot them, he also did not rule out the possibility that people tended to do desperate things when they felt unsafe.

The thing that bothered him the most was how this seemingly defenseless woman had gotten him and his men in this state. What kind of poison did she use and when? Agitated, he closely watched the woman\'s every movement as he thought of a way out of this sticky situation.

On the other hand, He Yuan flicked three needles at the necks of the goons and knocked them out. Next, he tied the tourniquet around Boss Di\'s wrist area and locked eyes with him. "I have a few questions and I want straightforward answers.

-One. Where exactly are you supposed to meet up with Chen Bai to give him the documents and at what time?

pαndα---noνɐ1,сoМ -Two. What\'s his schedule?"

Boss Di pursed his lips. He was cautious but he was also a professional. Besides, his client was no small figure!

He Yuan met the suited man\'s unwillingness with a scoff. Next he took the syringe and injected 1ml of pure water into the man\'s veins.

"UGH!" Boss Di groaned in pain. He wanted to die. His veins were burning from the intrusion. He lasted for five seconds before losing consciousness.

He Yuan raised a brow. He didn\'t have any peculiar torture methods so he had decided to use this method. An injection of water into the veins could rupture a person\'s red blood cells. This could cause unimaginable pain and, of course, kill them.

SLAP!

Boss Di groggily regained consciousness from the vicious slap.

He Yuan pinched the man\'s chin. "Ready to talk?"

Boss Di wasn\'t seeing clearly. All he could see was the colour white and all he could feel was pain. He weighed his options. If he gave out his client then he could face death. He kept his mouth shut.

He Yuan smiled. He took some salt and added it to the glass of pure water. This way, the idiot would have a higher chance of living but would still go through unimaginable pain.

He couldn\'t have a criminal record on Xu Lifen\'s name afterall. His smile turned brighter as he injected another 1ml shot into the man\'s veins.

Boss Di screamed.