Shen Yelan had no idea how long she'd been unconscious. When she finally opened her eyes, the first thing that hit her was the excruciating pain throughout her body, which made a groan escape her lips.
She forced herself to sit up. Then, using the wall as support, she limped to the closet. She pushed the clothes aside without looking at them, reached into the back, and pressed the small button hidden in the corner. With a barely perceptible click, the back wall of the closet slid open, revealing another room.
The room behind it was several times larger than the one she'd slept in.
In front of her was a wall with multiple monitors mounted on it. At the moment, they were all switched off, reveling her battered reflection. On one side, there was a rack displaying an array of smartwatches, laptops, burner phones, miniature cameras, GPS trackers, wiretaps, fake passports and IDs, and other advanced gadgets.
There was also a locker that was stacked with s cash, both local and foreign currency, along with gold bars and other valuable assets.
To the left was a wall that displayed all types of weapons and equipment neatly organized on racks and shelves. Each one was more lethal than the others, and some were even customized with her signature logo in gold.
Shen Yelan ignored all of that and limped straight to the last cupboard. She pulled it open, revealing rows and rows of medical supplies. The upper shelves were full of Western medicine and equipment, while the lower shelves were filled with traditional stuff.
It was a fully stocked hospital, but it had everything she needed during emergencies like right now.
She began to take out everything she needed, sat on the couch, and started working on herself.
It was a slow and agonizing process. The body she was in was uncooperative and her hands were still shaking and there were a few moments where she had to stop and breathe through the pain before she could continue. But she knew what she was doing.
In her past life, after surviving an assassination attempt by poisoning that had nearly claimed her life she'd decided to learn poison. But you couldn't learn poison without learning medicine first. Turned out she had a gift for it.
After a couple of hours, she was finally patched up. She had wiped her body with a wet cloth as taking a shower was impossible in her state and had changed into a dress. The original form-fitting dress that once reached her knees now swallowed her whole.
She was currently sitting before the array of screens. Next to her on the table, there was a steaming cup of instant noodles and an open soda can.
Her small fingers were moving so fast over the keyboard that they seemed almost a blur. Lines of code scrolled rapidly across the large screen in the center. The surrounding smaller screens were filled with documents, photographs, and one of them even had a live CCTV footage of a family gathered in a living room.
Finally, her fingers stopped moving. She picked up the cup of instant noodles and leaned back in the chair, and slowly started to slurp the noodles.
On the big screen, there was a text conversation between two people. In between those messages, there was a picture of a little girl with beautiful gray eyes, smiling innocently at the camera. The last message read, "task completed".
A slow smile spread across her face. Even though she had put on medicine on her face, the face was still swollen with bruises all over, and one of her eyes was swollen shut. Yet somehow it did not diminish the beauty of her smile.
That smile was the same as the one in the picture, except this smile was eerily terrifying. Anyone who saw it would have run away, fearing for his life.
"Good…Very good," Shen Yelan murmured.
It turned out the kidnapping of Shen Yelan was not exactly a kidnapping.
Her gaze moved to the screen that was playing the CCTV footage. It was showing the scene directly from the Shen family estate.
A girl roughly the same age as this body was sitting at the piano. Her skills were average and she made many mistakes, but the adults overlooked them all and clapped for her when it ended. The girl stood up and, her princess pink dress twirling around her as she gave a childish bow.
"I knew my daughter was the best. With her skills, she will definitely win this competition." Feng Xin was the one who was cheering the loudest for her daughter.
Shen Yelan stared at that woman who was dressed in expensive clothes and jewelry, and her gaze narrowed.
Feng Xin. She would remember that name.
The text conversation on the screen was between Feng Xin and the kidnappers. Though she had used a spare phone that was not under her name and had also deleted the messages, for someone like Shen Yelan, it was not difficult to recover them.
The rest of the Shen family was unaware of this, but this did not mean they were innocent. Because after Shen Yelan went missing, they did not bother to look for her. They only contacted the police a few days after she went missing, and then, never once visited the police station to ask for any news. It was safe to say that for them, Shen Yelan's disappearance was a blessing.
She wasn't surprised. The memories she had gained from this body were enough to reveal her importance in the Shen family.
She had never heard of this family before in her past life, which meant they were not important enough for her to know. The only information she had about them was based on the memories of this body, which was not much. The Shen family was a generational family that had roots going back a hundred years in South City, though their power had been declining over the years.
The Old Master had a son and a daughter, while his wife had passed away a decade ago.
His eldest son, Shen Chengwei, who happened to be the father of this body, had married thrice. His first wife died while giving birth to his eldest son, who, for some reason, lived with her mother's family after her death and had no contact with the Shen family.
Shen Chengwei did not marry for a few years, but he did play around with women here and there. During that period, he met Shen Yelan's mother. That woman had gotten pregnant after a drunken night mistake. The Shen family could never let a child of theirs live outside, so he had no choice but to marry her. It was a cold, loveless arrangement from the start. Her mother married him for money. Shen Chengwei married her only because of the child.
Even after marriage, Shen Chengwei continued his carefree lifestyle, which made the couple fight every day. That marriage did not last long, and they divorced a few years later. Her mother walked away with the money and Shen Yelan was left behind. Shen Chengwei had never liked his second wife, and because of that, he couldn't bring himself to care about their daughter either.
A few months after the divorce, he married again. This time, it was the woman he'd actually fallen in love with while still married to wife number two. She already had a daughter who was just a few months younger than Shen Yelan. Shen Chengwei treated them as if they were his own flesh and blood and even gave them his family name.
In the end, Shen Yelan was left alone like a stranger in her own family.
Shen Yelan stared at the happy family on the screen.
She could not go back to the Shen family. Well, at least not for now. She knew the shortcomings of her current body. Going back in this state was like suicide.
But that's okay.
She was a really patient person.