Chapter 20 - ​Chapter 20: The Crimson Threshold

​The basement door suddenly groaned under a heavy impact from the other side. The "rescue" team had found the hidden entrance. Xuan sprang to his feet, his face transforming into a mask of lethal intent. He reached into his waistband, pulling out a heavy, dark object—a key to a secondary lockdown that would flood the vents with sleep gas. "They're coming to take the 'victim'," he hissed, his eyes darting to the monitor. Ning lunged for him, wrapping her arms around his waist with an extreme level of possessiveness. "Don't do it, Xuan! If you use that, they'll have the evidence to lock you away forever! I can't live in a world where you're behind bars!" She was screaming now, her voice echoing off the gold-leafed ceiling. "Let me go out there! I'll tell them I'm here by choice! I'll tell them I hate the Wei family!" Xuan looked down at her, his jealousy warring with a sudden, sharp pang of agony. "If you go out there, Wei Chen will be the one to catch you as you fall. He'll put his hands on you. He'll comfort you. And I'll be watching from a screen, unable to rip his throat out." The thought was too much for him; he grabbed her hair and pulled her into a kiss that tasted of copper and desperation. It was a kiss of ownership, a brand of his soul upon hers. "I'd rather see us both in a cage than see you in his arms for a single second." Ning's heart hammered against his chest like a trapped bird. The extreme misunderstanding had pushed them to the edge of a cliff. She realized that her family, in their blind gratitude to the rivals, had created a monster out of the man she worshipped. "I won't let him touch me! I'll crawl on the ground before I take his hand!" she promised, her eyes wide and manic. "Just don't destroy yourself, Xuan! My love isn't worth your life!" Xuan's grip on the lockdown key tightened. "Your love is the only life I have," he whispered, his voice breaking with an extreme level of cryingness. He looked at the door as it began to splinter. "If they take you, Ning, I will burn the Wei estate to the ground with everyone inside. I will not stop until the debt is paid in blood." He pushed her into the corner, shielding her body with his own as the hinges of the vault door began to give way. The jealousy, the love, and the misery of the last twenty chapters culminated in this single moment of violent protection. He was ready to fight the world, not to save her, but to keep her. "Tell me one last time," he demanded as the wood cracked. "Who do you belong to?" Ning gripped his shirt, her knuckles white, her voice a scream of defiance. "Xuan! Only Xuan! Forever Xuan!" As the door burst open, the light from the hallway flooded in, blinding them both, a white veil falling over a love that had become a war zone