Jia collapsed in his arms and he effortlessly caught her. Mingshen picked her in her arms and put her on the bed once again. He rang the bell and his assistant, Lu Bojing hurriedly entered. "Yes, Boss!"

"Bring a chain," he coldly ordered.

Lu Bojing was horrified. "C-C-Chain?"

Mingshen slowly turned and stared at him. "You have trouble understanding my words, Mr. Lu?"

A shiver ran down his spine. "N-No of course n-not!"

"Why are you stammering so much? It's annoying," he said in distaste.

"I-I am just wondering why y-you would need a chain, Boss…"

"To tame a wild animal so that she wouldn't escape," he sneered.

"Who is the wild animal, Boss?" He was horrified. "Did something dangerous sneak in!?"

His mouth twitched. "Who else but Spicy!?"

Lu Bojing furrowed his brows. "Who is Spicy?"

Mingshen grabbed the scalpel from Jia's hands and pointed it towards him. Lu Bojing scrammed away towards the edge of the room in horror.

"Time to open your brain."

Lu Bojing sobbed hard. "Apologies, Boss! Please forgive me!"

"Who else would I be talking about but this woman!?" Mingshen glared at him.

He was dumbfounded. "W-why would you want to chain an unconscious woman?"

Is Boss that hardcore? He wondered. Poor her. Can't she even sleep peacefully?

He sneered. "Unconscious? She is awake as of twenty-two minutes already."

He widened his eyes. "Subject 076 is awake!?"

"Yes. Of course, her first thought process would be to escape from here. This is not exactly a legitimate hospital. This is still the Underworld. I cannot let her go for various reasons."

Lu Bojing peeked at the woman in the adjacent ward.

Well, that is one of them…

"Heh. If she gets out, she would first contact either her cop buddies or her dumb sister, Lihua. Either of which is not feasible for me."

Mingshen sat beside Jia and smiled as he tucked the lock of her hair behind her ear. "I cannot let Spicy escape. She is the ticket to saving that woman over there," he laughed.

Lu Bojing didn't understand why he was so obsessed with saving that woman. As far as he knew, Mingshen wasn't capable of thinking anything nice and compassionate about any living creature on this planet. His heart didn't work that way, he nodded.

He had even this blasphemous thought that she might be his secret girlfriend. But even the mere thought about it made him shudder.

Boss and girlfriend? It doesn't fit at all!

Mingshen narrowed his eyes. "What are you thinking? Why do I feel that you are dissing me?"

He stiffened. "Of course not Boss! I will never dare!"

"So scram away and bring the cuffs."

Lu Bojing ran away and a minute later brought handcuffs with him. Mingshen locked Jia's wrist on the saline poll and threw the key away.

Lu Bojing peeked. "Boss, why are you locking her anyway? She cannot escape even if she tries. After all, she cannot bypass our security."

Mingshen laughed. "Who are you kidding? She is a cop. And she is sharp as hell. Who knows what is cooking in her mind? Only an idiot will take her lightly. That would be such disrespect to her."

His mouth twitched.

"She is so weak that she would fall if I just slightly pushed her, yet she pinned me on the wall and pointed a scalpel on my neck," his eyes twinkled as he said that.

Lu Bojing wanted to faint.

W-what did you say? Song Jia threatened you? Threatened Yang Mingshen!? And she is still alive? You haven't killed her yet!?

He suddenly looked at Jia in a new light and actually wanted to bow down before her.

I don't know if I should call you courageous or stupid, woman, but I do admire you!

"Her mental fortitude is something else…" Mingshen admitted in a stupor. "Just perfect candidate for my research subject."

"..."

"Keep monitoring her condition. I have injected a slight dose of chloroform for now. But she will be awake once again. I don't want her heart to take a hit because of her unneeded enthusiasm for escaping here. I have worked hard on fixing it. Cannot let my effort go to waste."

He looked at the woman from the glass window and narrowed his eyes.

Once you are alive and kicking, I can finally dump you out of my lab, he sneered.

Mingshen looked back at Jia and tilted his head. "Ah such a shame to kill a feisty woman like you," he sighed. "But don't worry, when the time comes, I will make your death completely painless as a reward for amusing me today."

Lu Bojing was speechless.

This man…

---

Jiang villa.

Lihua gathered everybody in her room and she stood at the center of it.

Jiang Fai whined. "Sister-in-law, will you finally tell why you called us and what is this super important discussion you have to do with us? You just hastily asked us to gather without telling us anything."

"I had no time to explain in detail to each one of you, so I gathered you all here!"

Jiang Ruiling raised her brow. "I feel that something is cooking in your mind."

She brightened. "Of course. And it's super fun!"

Jiang Li sneered. "Care to tell us what it is?"

"Hehe, why don't you all guess? It's a special day today."

Jiang Fai frowned. "A special day?" Then he beamed. "Oh, oh! Is it your birthday!?"

"Close! But not quite correct. It's someone's birthday day indeed but it's not me."

"Ah?"

Jiang Fai looked around. He knew everybody's birthday and it wasn't today. Everybody else thought the same.

Jiang Lanying said, "Lixue, whose birthday is it? We know everyone's birthday here but none of them have it today."

"There is one person that you are missing to include," Lihua smiled.

Jiang Xiurang touched her chin. "Really now... Nobody comes to my mind."

"It's because you haven't seen that person for a long time now."

Jiang Ninghong narrowed her eyes. "Jiang Yubi."

"Ding! Ding! You got it right, Aunt! We will be celebrating Mom's birthday today!"