Chapter 158: A Convincing Act

The blur from Lillian’s eyes cleared up and she finally had the chance to take a look around.She realized that she was in some kind of basement, one that had a dim lighting within.

Lillian tried moving, only to realize she was bound to the bed she was currently on with a pair of magnetic cuffs, making it a lot harder to move.

But what caught her attention was what..or rather who was before her. The woman wore a fitted silk dress embroidered with dark jade patterns.

Her makeup was flawless, her hair styled into a traditional updo accented by a gold pin. A pearl necklace rested against her collarbone, and on her wrist was a matching pearl made into a bracelet.

Everything about this woman screamed rich, but Lillian was sure she hadn’t seen or heard of someone like this.

"Hello, Lillian Hayes," the woman finally spoke up in a Mandarin accented English.

Lillian wasn’t too surprised at the fact that her kidnappers knew her name, so she just looked the woman in the face without saying anything in response.

"You look surprisingly calm for someone very far from her home and safety," Madam Xu spoke up again, a bit surprised at how calm she was.

But her words caused Lillian to frown a bit and she didn’t miss it.

"Oh, that’s right, you were forced to sleep during the entire trip," Madam Xu slowly approached the bed she was chained on as she continued, "welcome to China."

China?

The reason why she had been a bit calm when she first woke up was because she was sure Ethan would find her.

She was sure that he’d currently be looking for her, but all the way in China?

The distance between them was much much larger and the hope of her finding him now being a lot smaller, but then she reminded herself of who he was.

And that’s when her calmness returned.

"So," she said slowly, her voice was a bit hoarse but it was steady, "you drugged me, dragged me across an ocean, and chained me to a bed, all just to brag?"

Madam Xu let out a chuckle, one that was clearly dripping with contempt.

"Oh, I’m not bragging, I was simply establishing the facts. You are not in a position to delude yourself with hope.,

She reached out, brushing a stray strand of Lillian’s hair back behind her ear. It was meant to seem gentle, but the gesture sent a shiver of disgust down Lillian’s spine.

Moving her head away from Madam Xu’s touch, Lillian asked, "and what do you want from me?"

"You see," Madam Xu started, taking a seat on the bed, "your company

She continued, "OmniTech is young. Barely crawling. And yet—within months—it has disrupted global cybersecurity infrastructure, embarrassed organizations far older and more powerful..." Her painted lips curled. "And worst of all, it ruined my reputation."

"So this is a tantrum." Lillian asked.

This caused madam Xu to burst out in amused laughter, she seemed really entertained by Lillian’s answer as she continued laughing for a while.

"You are quite amusing, Lillian," she said, the amusement still in her voice. "However, I would strongly advise against testing the patience of your captor."

"Well, it’s my first time being kidnapped," Lillian shrugged, it might seem that she was making light of the situation she was in, but her brain was currently working overtime to figure out a way to let Ethan know where she was.

They had taken her phone and every other tech she had on her, so that was out of the question and she wasn’t stupid enough to believe she could break the restraints through sheer force.

No, if she wanted to walk out of this place, it would be through her mind and Ethan...well, mostly Ethan, but she didn’t intend on sitting idle.

Madam Xu calmly watched her, this time, her amusement seemed to have faded completely

"You are either very brave," she said, "or very foolish. Though the line between the two can be very thin."

"Now then, Lillian Hayes," Madam Xu continued, "if you wish to return to your country and back to your safe haven, you’ll tell me exactly what I want to know."

"And that is?" Lillian asked.

"Who is the person behind OmniTech Corp?" She asked, "who is your boss?"

"And if I don’t tell?" Lillian asked again.

Madam Xu’s lips curled into a thin smile, as if she was expecting that exact question.

"If you don’t tell me," she said softly, "then your stay here will become... unpleasant."

Lillian let out a slow breath. Her heart was pounding, but she wouldn’t give this woman even a glimpse of fear.

"Well," she began, meeting Madam Xu’s eyes head-on, "that’s going to be a problem."

"And why is that?" Xu asked as she raised a brow.

"Because I don’t know who he is."

With her words, silence fell.

Madam Xu stared at her for a moment, as if waiting for the punchline, but when Lillian didn’t continue, her expression twisted in irritation.

"You expect me to believe," Madam Xu said slowly, "that you’ve worked side-by-side with this ghost of a man... and you don’t know a single thing about him?"


"That’s correct."

"You are his Chief Operating Officer."

"Yes."

"You oversee every project he builds."

"Also yes."

"You share his victories, his wealth, his entire empire— and you don’t know even his name?"

"Yep."

Madam Xu’s jaw clenched, "do you take me for a fool?"

"...." Lillian didn’t answer that, but the look on her face told Xu everything she needed to know, their hostage was a stubborn one, and they might have to ’convince’ her to become cooperative.

"I really didn’t want to resort to this," Madam Xu let out a sigh as she spoke, "but you forced my hand."

With that, she stood up and walked to the other side of the bed, one that was far enough for Lillian to not be able to reach, and opened the drawer there.

In it was a golden desert eagle with two eastern dragons drawn on it. She gently picked it up and walked back towards Lillian, whose heart definitely was at her throat right now.

"This is how you Americans communicate right?" Madam Xu said as she took out the magazine and made sure it was loaded, "now then, let’s see how much this’ll convince you."

Lillian watched as she put the magazine back in, remove the safety, and placed the barrel so close to Lillian’s temple that the metal warmth prickled her skin.

Madam Xu smiled, a predator’s smile. "You can make this easy," she said, voice silk over steel. "Or I can make you permanently disappear."

Lillian’s swallowed, hoping to help her dry throat. She forced a dry laugh that came out as half-nervous, "you’ll get nothing by scaring me into confession if I truly don’t know anything."

"Is that so?" Madam Xu said, "then perhaps, you can give me something useful? Something I might use to find your boss."

And that’s when it finally clicked...no pun intended, she finally saw a way out and she hoped it worked.

"I-I d-don’t know how to find him," she started, letting her nervousness finally show, "but I can give you access to Sentinel’s back end."

Madam Xu’s eyes narrowed into slits.

"...Sentinel’s back end?" she repeated slowly, suspiciously looking at her. "You expect me to believe that OmniTech’s COO would simply hand over the backbone of the most dangerous cybersecurity AI on the market?"

Lillian forced her breathing to stay steady, just enough trembling to look afraid, not enough to look deceitful

"A-as I said," She started, "I don’t really know who he is, so I won’t give my life in exchange for his identity, as long as I’ll be allowed to leave, I’ll hand it over."

"And you think," Xu said, pacing slowly, gun still in hand, "that I wouldn’t have my engineers examine your ’access’ the moment you produce it?"

"I expect you to," Lillian said. "Because it’s real."

It was a lie wrapped perfectly in truth....one that would sound convincing any day.

Xu’s gaze move to the small terminal set up on a wheeled tray nearby, tools left behind by Jian Long’s technicians since this basement was his.

"And you can do this here?" she asked. "While chained, with no preparation and under surveillance."

Lillian let her eyes dart toward the console, letting just a bit of hesitant hope show.

"Yes," she said. "Just... not without a computer."

Xu’s eyes slid to the magnetic cuffs, then back to Lillian’s expression — weighing every micro-gesture, every twitch in her eyes, every possible motive.

"Or," Xu said lightly, "you are simply stalling. Hoping your mysterious ghost savior descends from the heavens. Hoping for rescue."

Lillian held her gaze.

"...would I offer you the only leverage I have left if that were true?" she countered.

Xu’s eyes got narrower as she continued observing Lillian, there was silence for a couple of seconds before

Click.

She put the safety back on and put the gun down.

"Get her a laptop."