Chapter 2 Getting Drunk In The Bar

"Jannie, you know I've been chasing after him for so long. How could he not feel guilty about making out with another woman?" Alivia absentmindedly swirled the wine in her glass as it stained her lips with an enticing shade of crimson with every sip. By this time, she was already a bit tipsy.

Also brandishing a glass of wine between her fingers, Janice looked at Alivia and burst into laughter.

"The fact that you have feelings for him is your concern, not his. What does it have to do with him? He has every right to be with whomever he chooses. Why should he feel guilty about that?" Janice's straightforward response was clearly meant as a blow to Alivia.

She raised her head from her arms and dried her eyes with the back of her hand like a child. "You're right! I feel so cheap now. I've been running after him like a hapless little girl while he keeps pushing me away. Perhaps, one day he will point his finger at my face while he's making out with some random wench and say that I'm the bitch that keeps pestering him.

Jannie, why are we so unlucky? How is it that we both fell in love with such men? Malcolm is just as bad as Leonel Fu!"

"Malcolm"— that name was like a curse, which made Janice's head ache in an instant.

She leaned back and sighed deeply, rubbing her temples with her forefingers and thumbs.

"Alivia, you know very well that he has his own problems to deal with, so I don't really blame him." With that, she gulped down the remaining wine in one swig, while the bartender was observant enough to refill her glass right after.

Alivia wanted to say something more, but when she saw the tears in Janice's eyes, they stifled her words and transformed them into a sigh of despair. She chugged her wine down and the bartender refilled it again.

The two drank glass after glass, completely disregarding their own capacity to drink. As such, in less than an hour, they were both drunk out of their minds, barely able to sit up straight at the bar counter.

About a minute later, two men stared at Janice and Alivia furtively as their eyes gleamed with an amorous light.

"Bro, look over there!" The man bit his lower lip as he spoke, drooling from the corners of his mouth as he was almost unable to control his desire.

The other man standing next to him, looked just as desperate and shameless as he wiped his lips and gawked at the women salaciously.

"Nice! Let's go and show them a good time. How can we let such beauties slip through our fingers?" Soon after, they both rushed out of the bar, seemingly in a hurry, each with a woman in their arms.

They were so excited to leave that they forgot about Janice's and Alivia's bags and left them at the bar counter.

Fortunately, a concerned young woman who recognized the two sleazy men quickly walked over to grab their bags from the counter. Apparently, the rascals were from this area and were notorious for preying on drunk women to satiate their desires. When she saw Janice and Alivia leave with them, she decided to quietly go through their bags to see if she could find their cellphones so she could contact someone who could save them from those lecherous predators.

Fortunately, Janice's phone didn't require a password to unlock and she had managed to gain access with just a simple swipe. She scrolled through the contact list and noticed the name "Malc" at once.

Since it looked like a nickname, she assumed that he must have been close to the owner of the phone and she called his number without further hesitation.

Meanwhile, Malcolm, who was in the SY Company at the time, took his phone out of his pocket and found that Janice was calling him.

"Mr. Rong, do you want me to leave?" asked Caleb Huo. Malcolm frowned, hanging up the call and replied, "There's no need. Please continue."

After delivering his report, Caleb collected the files and packed his bag to leave. When he thought back to the call Malcolm didn't answer, he stopped and wondered whether he should remind him about it or not.

Malcolm was meticulously going over some papers, but when he realized that Caleb hadn't left yet, he raised his head to look up at him and said, "Anything else?"

After a brief pause, Caleb decided to remind him. "Mr. Rong, the phone call you rejected earlier... Was it from Mrs. Rong?"

The words "Mrs. Rong" seemed to have touched a nerve as Malcolm clenched his jaw in anger. Suddenly, he raised his head and narrowed his eyes into a furious, bloodshot glare with an intensity that tightened Caleb's chest.

"Who allowed you to call her Mrs. Rong?" How could a woman like her be his wife?

Caleb felt a jolt of fear lance through his gut as he lowered his head and murmured, "I am deeply sorry, Mr. Rong. It won't happen again." Then he bowed his head, clutching the files to his chest and walked out of the office as quickly as he could.

Malcolm shook his head to clear his angry thoughts after Caleb left and started writing again. After a minute, however, he threw his pen at the wall in anger and slumped back in his chair as his lips formed a grimace.

With great reluctance, he took out his phone and looked at the name "Janice" on the screen, as feelings of discomfort crept into his heart. However, his uneasy expression soon turned cold as soon as he recalled a scene in his head.

Putting his phone on the table, he picked up another pen and carried on with his work, instead of calling her back.

The young woman who had called him from Janice's phone was flustered. Fearing for her own safety, she didn't dare to call the police, so she decided to look through Janice's contacts in hopes that someone would answer.

Since the person labelled "Malc" didn't take the call. and Alivia's phone was in another bag, she had to place her hopes on the next person, which happened to be "Roy".

Fortunately, as soon as the call was connected, it was answered by the gentle and affectionate voice of a man.

"Jannie, why are you calling me at this time?" His voice was deep and soft, captivating listeners like a soft spring breeze.

A stunned silence followed, as the woman felt stupefied by his soothing voice.

Before long, Roy Jiang became increasingly aware of the awkward silence on the other end of the call. The tenderness of his voice soon disappeared as his curious inquisitiveness took over almost immediately.

"You are not Jannie! Who is this? Where is Jannie?"

The woman paused and quickly explained the whole story to the best of her knowledge.

Within seconds, Roy's eyes widened in horror as he clenched his fist and punched the wall. Without further delay, he rushed downstairs and walked out the door without his coat, leaving his family behind in baffled confusion.

The only concern running through his mind was Janice's safety.

He jumped into the driver's seat and drove off as fast as he could while he was still on the line. Now that he finally had some time to think, an important question popped into his mind.

"Did you try to call anyone else before me?" Roy asked as he sped through the busy roads at a terrifyingly high speed. He drove through a red light recklessly, but he had no time to care about anything else.

If he could get to Janice even a second earlier, he could minimize her suffering.

With that thought commanding his actions, he stepped on the accelerator even harder.

The woman on the other end of the line had no idea how recklessly Roy was driving, but she replied to him honestly, "I tried calling a number with the name "Malc" but there was no response. In fact, he was the first name on the contact list, but he didn't even bother to answer!"

Roy almost lost control of the steering wheel when he heard that.

Malcolm didn't answer the phone?

Perhaps that didn't surprise Roy as much as he thought it would.

After a long silence, he said, "Okay, thank you. Please wait for me there! I'll get there as soon as I can!"

As soon as he hung up, he made a few phone calls, asking the people he knew to help him locate Janice and Alivia.

Meanwhile, after the effects of the alcohol wore out and Janice finally came to her senses, she scanned her surroundings and realized that they were being held in some cheap hotel room by the two men who accompanied them out of the bar. The two despicable men who had brought them to this hotel were happy to see the helpless women tremble in fear as their desperation only helped to fuel their excitement even more. Janice had successfully borrowed a cellphone from the men. Of course, the price was that the women could not resist when they did something after the phone call. Janice didn't refuse. Although Alivia stopped her again and again, she agreed without hesitation.

In her mind, she just wanted to call Malcolm to confirm one thing.

Janice sent a text message to Malcolm's number just in case he wouldn't answer because she knew he wouldn't respond to an unknown number.

And yet, she received no response from him.

Driven by desperation, Janice didn't want to give up and she bit her lip and tried calling Malcolm again.

She called his number fifteen times before he finally answered. Janice's eyes were red and swollen from all the crying and her voice trembled.

"Malc..."

Suddenly, the expression of the man sitting in his office stiffened. Gradually, the light in his office shone on him, but it did not make his side face softer.

"What's wrong?"

As usual, she was greeted with a cold and harsh indifference from Malcolm.