And she wasn't dead! 

She told him she would wait for him forever! but she lied about many other things...

But no! She didn't lie about that, he had seen in it in her eyes s.h.i.+mmering like the deep ocean in full moon night.

He still remembered how she had hugged him, how she had smiled at him and called him back to say Goodbye...

But no! It couldn't be a bye for them. He doesn't accept a bye like that!

One time...one more time and he would give her anything that she desires. He would take her wherever she wanted. Just...just one more time!

He was clutching the steering wheel hard and driving in an insane for the second time in the same day for the same woman because she was slipping like sand from his hand...again. 

His throat felt like all his words were stuck in his throat and he could feel their hardness and th.o.r.n.y-edges in his throat.

He was trying to look clear at the winds.h.i.+eld in the heavy rush hour, but his heart was beating harder and harder as if registering his own protest at the injustice of fate like it never had as he neared the eventful road. 

He wasn't going to sob for her, grief for her nor will his heart ache for the hollowness in it because you only did it for someone dead.

And she wasn't dead!

He kept repeating it like a mantra under his breath that it was hard to tell who he was actually trying to a.s.sure but no matter how he tried to explain himself the hardly suppressed agony-filed whispers couldn't be ignored.

When he had received the call Jiang Cheng was with him and had tagged along, forcefully. He didn't stop him, he couldn't. Against his better judgement, whatever the man was, he loved his adopted sister Lei Xinyi to bits.

He just couldn't do that to him despite all odds.

Jiang Cheng was on the co-pilot seat with his hands covering his defeated man's expression. There was nowhere the manipulative man who was trying to lose Li Yuan's better judgement in the web of words.

He was just an orphan, lonely, strayed, broken man, that a glue name Lei Xinyi was holding together and now, now she was...

Jiang Cheng rubbed his face harshly to exterminate the existence of the tears that had escaped his eyes, he was holding his face in his hands and muttering, "...I promised to protect her from the world and I...I couldn't even protect her from herself. I was her only family, even then I couldn't protect her..."

"I didn't deserve her...this world didn't deserve her... My little sister..."

Li Yuan felt his resolves were breaking. Every word of Jiang Cheng was like a sledgehammer on his s.h.i.+eld that he had built to protect his sanity.

No he just had her yesterday night... she can't be gone now! She was a liar and a deceitful b*tch but she still wouldn't do that to him! He wouldn't allow it. She can betray him but, no. She can't leave him alone like that!

His eyes were frantically looking at all the possible directions to keep his mind busy to not conjure the possibilities. He remembered her, even if it was just a skin she wore like a snake, but he wanted her.

It felt like the same tragedy of years ago was repeating itself, he was helpless then as a teenage and today he was helpless too when he was the most powerful man in the country.

He speed-drove on the abandoned road till he could see the ash-black burnt forest and he felt like his limbs had left him and subconsciously he slowed the car. He wanted to go to her but it wasn't the place he wanted to find her in.

He had seen scenarios more gruesome and traumatic than this but he couldn't imagine her here, consumed in the wildfire.

His heart was drumming wild tunes. He felt like it was hard to breathe. Jiang Cheng had quietened too but his face was tear-stricken now. His eyes crimson and face pale, like he had lost his soul.

The car took seconds to reach there which felt like an eternity, the place was filled with his people the authorities were standing by the corner not daring to interrupt.

Li Yuan stopped the car but didn't turn the engine off. He should turn back. What he was going to see would drive him insane. He couldn't see her like that.

Could he see her pale smooth skin turns to burnt flesh? Could he see her chipping mouth quietened for eternity? Once he sees her, she would be dead to him and all her memories would die with her.

Where did he go wrong? Wasn't he giving her everything? Didn't he try to protect her? How did they end up like that?

But why did he care? She wasn't even his real fiance! But...but she is what he wanted! 

Wa...was he too late to realize that? 

He sat in the car, not daring to move. He heard the door slamming and knew Jiang Cheng had gotten out. But how could he? How could he go there to see his Raven perished into ash?

Why didn't she try to tell him? He would have been engaged for days, months but he would never throw her to the curb! He would eventually bend the universe for her! Why didn't she?

Di..Did she not even trust him that much? He trusted her.

She is a liar, traitor and murderer, a thorough criminal. A sinner. But she was his sinner! His twin soul, soulmate! 

Either she liked it or not the day she tattoed her name on his body when they first met, she was his. And fate just brought her back to him for a reason when he had been looking for her for years now.

He didn't give up on her then, he wasn't giving up now.

Yu w.a.n.g and Ji Zhou were standing by the door of his car waiting for him to come out. No one said a word. There was nothing left to say.

He took a deep breath. No, he would fight for her, he wouldn't shut down. It was by far not an accident. His raven would be avenged... Whoever did this would regret the day he laid his filthy eyes on his raven!

She wasn't leaving him, not now, not ever! He would fight the heavens if it was worth it!

He wiped the wetness from his eyes. He didn't know when he cried last. h.e.l.l, he didn't even shed a tear on his father funeral!

He fisted his hands and looked ahead with sharp eyes. He would avenge his beloved then mourn his loss.

He got out of the car and slammed the door shut and walked straight ahead. Ji Zhou and Yu w.a.n.g followed him.

His heart was hammering hard. Any moment she could come in front of him and slay his heart. He had survived many wars but her defeated eyes weren't something he would. 

She said she would wait for him forever and that was when he promised he would always return to her. No matter where she goes...

Ji Zhou a.s.sessed his Master cold and stoic expression. A storm was brewing. The girl was going to take the world down with her.

With sharp eyes, Li Yuan looked at the remains of the disaster. There was a car horizontally laid on the road with a bike broken laid flat on a distance with blood around it.

A dead wolf was on their left. It wasn't hard to place two and two together. 

The wolf was freshly dead with a bullet wound, which it cleared that it was killed to throw on the rider to distract and that is when the car would have come out of nowhere.

After the diversion, the driver would have clashed with the SUV. It would have caused fatal damage By how far the bike had flown, it was a bad hit and the driver must be driving in an insane speed.

It was too precisely well-planed to be a coincidence. Someone knew she was coming here so they preplanned it. Someone she trusted...someone who was an accomplice...

Ji Zhou took that opportunity to update, "Reportedly, there was a new Harley stolen yesterday in our neighbourhood by the midnight. The model and nameplate matches." He pointed at the busted bike there. He didn't dare mention her at once.

The bike was a little monster. He didn't have any idea she could drive a thing like that. But then again he had no idea about her at all.

He saw no recognition of his words on Li Yuan face who was looking at the incidental vehicles with sharp piercing eyes, but continued none the less, "The tracker path and the truck path was traced materially and it was a juncture where they may meet and then there are tracks in the forest that trails on the abandoned road."

"It was a trap. In the forest, there were footsteps that weren't older than a day or two. After the incident, the fire must be lit to remove traces or simply used to direct attention. The fire has nothing to do with the vehicles."