Villain Boss Chapter 191
Translated by Digitalian (ko-fi)
Chapter 191: Please Protect Her
Since vomiting blood in the laboratory, Shen Lang seemed to have aged ten years overnight. When the servants passed by the corridor, they could hear bursts of coughing coming from inside the door.
The servants wisely kept their heads down and hurried past, trying not to linger at the door.
Upon hearing that Jiang Ran had come to visit the old man, Shen Yang smiled helplessly and said, "Don't let her in. I'm afraid Grandpa will be driven to his grave."
Having received the instructions, Zheng Li went out to reply to Jiang Ran, "Miss Ranran, Senior Mr. Shen is still unconscious. Why don’t you come again next time?"
Did he simply not want to see her? Jiang Ran sighed in disappointment, but didn't press the matter. "Okay, is Eldest Brother busy right now? I'd like to see him."
Knowing Shen Yang's thoughts, this request was even more difficult to fulfil than seeing Shen Lang. "I'm sorry, Mr. Shen Yang is very busy right now and doesn't have time to meet with guests."
Jiang Ran sighed. "I'm not a guest," she muttered to herself for a moment, then turned and left.
Zheng Li wiped the sweat from his forehead.
The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the old man's face, making him look even more weathered and worn.
Zheng Li turned to look at the second-floor window.
There, the young man stood tall, watching the girl's departing figure, motionless for a long time.
This morning, Shen Lang received a package.
In the apocalypse, who would still use express delivery? The package was placed at the front door with Shen Lang's name and the recipient's address written on it.
No sender information was found.
The package contained only a small USB drive, the contents of which were everything recorded in the living room of Si Xu’s apartment.
Including what that person said about Shen Yang liking Jiang Ranran.
Zheng Li was secretly relieved. Whether Si Xu showed leniency to the Shen family out of consideration for Jiang Ran, or simply didn’t want to tarnish Jiang Ran's reputation, the video he released had some unnecessary information removed.
Otherwise...
The Shen family and Jiang Ran would have now become the laughingstock of everyone in the base.
……
Jiang Ran walked slowly, her slender figure bathed in the sunset. Her shadow, stretched long by the orange-red light, made her appear even more alone and pitiful.
The young man raised his right hand and gently pressed it against the French windows, as if he wanted to touch the sunset outside the window through the glass.
Until the girl's figure completely disappeared from sight, he lowered his hand and turned away without a second thought.
……
The coughing in the room was intermittent, and the old man's heavy breathing could be heard from time to time.
Being tricked by Si Xu alone wasn’t enough to make the old man so despondent.
After the turmoil of last night, when the old man woke up, he was told that Xie Chengzhi had left Xiling base with Luo Rui overnight.
Xie Chengzhi had run away.
That was why he waited until midnight last night but didn't receive any reinforcements from Team Z.
How could there be any reinforcements? The people in Team Z didn't receive any signal to take action.
Upon hearing this news, Shen Lang, who had just woken up, coughed up blood again and collapsed onto the bed.
"Grandpa." Setting down the medicine bowl, Shen Yang sat down beside the bed, looking at the old man. "Ranran just came to see you."
Shen Lang coughed and sneered. "She came to see me? She must’ve wanted to laugh at me. Cough, cough!"
"Grandpa, it was wrong of you to scheme against her."
"Wrong? Haha, Yang, when did you start getting hung up on right and wrong?" Resentful toward his grandson, Shen Lang closed his eyes and sneered. "What’s right? Was it right of you to scheme against Pei Wan'er back then?"
When the old story was brought up again, Shen Yang lowered his eyes to hide the darkness in them. He changed his sitting posture and leaned back in his chair in a somewhat relaxed manner.
"Grandpa."
He let out a breath, feeling it was time to make a clean break, or at least, to make Shen Lang understand what he really wanted.
"Using Pei Wan'er was my doing, because at that time, apart from Si Xu, I couldn't find anyone in the entire base who could oppose him."
"Why did you want to oppose Si Xu? Shen Yang, you were willing to risk your life to crush the Yu family. Why? Just to make it easier for you to indulge in your womanizing?!"
The old man grew angrier as he spoke, pounding the bed frame with his eyes wide with fury.
"Power! The power we finally got! You're going to give it all up for a woman?!"
"Grandpa," Shen Yang said with a wry smile, "you're wrong."
Power? Hah! What use was that other than adding to the burden? Only those who were blinded by greed would pursue it so frantically.
Shen Lang was taken aback. "Not power? Haha." As if he'd heard a joke, Shen Lang laughed loudly. "If it's not for ruling over others, then what is it for? Shen Yang, tell me!"
After a long silence, a sorrowful smile crossed Shen Yang's lips. "I want to rule over others... simply so that when necessary, I can be free from your constraints and anyone's control, to protect those I want to protect."
He wanted to elevate the Shen family to a high position and wield his own power. He wanted to…
He wanted many things, but he wanted so many things, only to protect that person.
"For me, status, power—everything I gained by using Pei Wan'er and Si Xu—was all for her sake."
The old man stared blankly at his eldest grandson, as if he had never known the person in front of him before.
"Grandpa, do you have nightmares?"
"..."
"I do." A hint of bitterness crept into his usually carefree voice. "Every night, I dream of my aunt, of the walls covered in blood, and of her eyes that refused to shut."
Upon hearing this, the old man's fierce expression vanished, replaced by tension and unease. "You... you saw it?"
"I was in the room when my aunt died." After having so many nightmares, he gradually got used to it and could mention it casually. "Grandpa, that day, I was in the room."
Having overheard his grandfather's conversation with his subordinate, he sneaked into Shen Muxin's room to give her a warning.
"Aunt, Grandpa hired a hypnotist to hypnotize you... Wh-what should we do?"
The young child didn't quite understand what Shen Muxin was holding onto, let alone what Shen Lang was obsessed with.
Upon hearing this, Shen Muxin simply smiled gently and took a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
"Yangyang, have you seen your little sister Ranran?"
He nodded. "Ranran is still in the hospital. Grandpa promised her that she can come to see you after she's discharged."
Since being taken back to the Shen family, Shen Lang had kept his daughter locked in her room, strictly limiting the number of times and the occasions the mother and daughter could meet.
At first, Shen Muxin would plead and argue, but over time, she seemed to gradually accept this way of life.
"I see." She smiled thoughtfully, a hint of pity in her eyes. "Yangyang, do you like Ranran?"
He was stunned, and his face turned red. "She always hits me, she's not ladylike at all..." But now that the little girl was lying in bed, her body covered in tubes, and on the verge of death, he felt a pang of heartache.
Shen Muxin chuckled and patted his head. "Ranran is a good child. She has suffered a lot. Yangyang, you’re a good child too. If one day I’m gone, please protect her..."
"Aunt?" he asked blankly. "What do you mean by gone?"
The woman seemed about to say something, but suddenly stopped.
They heard footsteps in the corridor.
For a moment, Shen Muxin panicked and pulled him into the closet.
He crouched inside the closet and, through the narrow gap, heard her questioning Shen Lang and her desperate cries.
Grandpa said that women were weak, and if one used some means, they would become submissive.
He didn’t agree with that and argued back, for which Shen Lang punished him with a ruler.
Later he realized that the old man's words, which he regarded as a truth, had been shattered by his own daughter.
No matter how much she pleaded, Shen Lang wouldn't give up his interrogation. When the hypnotist entered, the usually gentle and obedient woman resolutely slammed her head against the wall.
Blood splattered.
Her body slid softly to the ground, her dazed eyes staring directly in his direction.
Shen Yang bit his hand until it bled before he could barely suppress his terrified screams.
