Chapter 246: You should be punished too!

The black SUV pulled to a stop at the edge of the stadium parking lot. Three men stepped out from the rear doors, silent and in uniform.

Mark emerged from the driver’s side. His gaze swept the scene in a practised arc.

It landed first on Cixi, cataloguing the battered state of her, the scrapes and bruises that had not been there when she left the Palace that morning. Then his attention shifted to Lily, who stood next to Cixi with her arms wrapped around herself. Then his eyes settled on Zoyar, before finally on the three figures sitting on the ground with their wrists bound.

Silviya. Kevin. Ronny.

Mark shook his head in disappointment, written all over his face. It was genuine exasperation of a man who had seen too many people make the destructive mistake of touching something that belonged to Cassian Crown. In this situation, they tried to harm someone Cassian was obsessed with or more like, in love with.

"You three will be turned into sausages and fed to animals," he declared their future casually.

The colour drained from their faces. Ronny’s skin turned the shade of wet cement. Kevin, already broken and bleeding, went a shade paler than he already was. Silviya’s defiance cracked, her bravado dissolving into something thin and trembling.

"Y-you cannot do that!" Ronny’s painful voice pitched upward. "It’s inhuman.... It is illegal! Do you sick mafia people have no respect for the law?"

Mark lifted both eyebrows, staring at Ronny in disbelief as though he had made a joke. Mark gave that response when someone made a joke. He would raise his eyebrows, saying, ’That joke was quite funny, especially coming from a moron like you.’

He didn’t waste time replying. He signalled the men sitting in the SUV with a flick of his fingers.

Three men stepped out of the SUV immediately. Two of them grabbed Kevin and Ronny by their arms and hauled them upright without warning or care. The third reached for Silviya.

"Stuff them with the other dead bodies," Mark ordered his men with folksy indifference, as if placing a lunch order.

Lily’s eyes turned wider. Her mouth fell open, shaping itself into a silent O of horror.

Zoyar’s attention swung to Lily. His gaze found her face, reading the horror written across it. Mark had spoken about the dead body in front of her. A girl who made coffees and attended classes, and always witnessed blood whenever the mafia was involved.

Feeling Zoyar’s stare, Lily shut her mouth immediately. Her wide eyes remained wide, but she forced her lips into something that was trying very hard to pass as a smile. It miserably failed. It sat on her face with the rigid, unconvincing quality of a person smiling during a hostage negotiation. But she held it, her teeth pressing together behind her lips, her chin dipping in a small, instinctive nod, the universal gesture of ’I am fine, I am completely fine, please do not worry about me.’

Who wouldn’t smile and remain humble in front of the mafia, fully aware of what they were capable of? How could she ever forget what the mafia truly represented...?

"Let me go!" Silviya yelled. "I am a commissioner’s daughter! You cannot do this to me!"

The man took her arms, pulled them behind her back, and secured them with a zip tie. The plastic bit into her wrists. Silviya cried out, the pain mixing with fury and disbelief.

"My father will not leave you!" She thrashed against the grip, her long hair whipping across her face. "You are making a huge mistake!" Her gaze found Cixi with a stare loaded with venom. "This is all because of you!" Silviya’s voice turned savage. "Whom did you seduce this time? Did you send another Vide—"

Smack!

A hand connected with Silviya’s cheek. This time it was Lily’s.

Silviya’s head snapped sideways. More red marks bloomed across her cheek.

Cixi walked to Silviya slowly, carrying no heat, anger, or emotion. "If you are not realising what is happening," Cixi spoke every word slowly, spacing them out, planting each one into Silviya’s consciousness like seeds in hard soil, "let me spell it out for you." She stood directly in front of her. "They are the Mafia, and they have no regard for the law. With their extensive wealth, they bend the rules to suit their needs, effectively making the law irrelevant. The law, which should have protected civilians from them, didn’t eradicate them. Instead, they welcomed them as part of the economy. And those who sit in high ranks accepted their money and pretended they were doing nothing wrong. So stop with your annoying yap and watch closely. This is how normal people live in fear every day. Fear of not making enough money. Fear of an uncertain future. Fear of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Fear of being murdered or kidnapped.... Welcome to reality, Silviya. It’s time you learn what true fear feels like."

Silviya’s defiance flickered for once. An unexpected emotion Cixi had never witnessed before was now clearly visible to her. Silviya always carried a steady stream of malicious confidence. But today, for the first time, Cixi saw something different in her eyes—fear.

"If I were you," Cixi continued, dropping her voice lower, "I would be worried about whether I would ever see another sunlight after today."

Ronny, Kevin and Silviya stood motionless in trepidation.

"So, Silviya, enjoy the sun for the last time." She let the words settle between them. "Unless I forgive you, you will never see the light or the beautiful, colourful life the world offers." Cixi had witnessed what Cassian’s prison looked like. "Enjoy your ride."

The men worked efficiently. Black cloth hoods were pulled over Silviya’s head, then Kevin’s, then Ronny’s. They were guided to the back of the SUV. Mark opened the boot, and all three were placed inside with dead bodies.

The boot closed with a heavy thud, making the three culprits flinch.

Mark was rounding the vehicle toward the driver’s door when Cixi walked up to him. "Hi, Mark! How are you doing? Long time no see!"

Mark’s paused his stride. His expression remained composed, professional, the face of a man who had spent years perfecting the art of revealing nothing.

"Hello, Miss McLore. Yes, it has been a while." There was no smile on his face. Mark assessed her injuries once more. "You need to take care of your wounds before Boss loses his mind." After finishing what he needed to say, he then turned toward the car, only to be interrupted by Cixi.

"We should go out and eat sometime," Cixi called after him, raising her hand in a wave. "Maybe the same place as last time. Where we ate the entire menu."

Mark paused, and after a quick thought, he turned to face Cixi. His lips moved by a millimetre, and what emerged could, with generous interpretation, be called the distant relative of a smile. "Sure," he said, and nodded once.

Then he climbed into the SUV, started the engine, and pulled away with three hooded prisoners in the boot and the faintest hint of warmth still sitting on his face.

Once the car disappeared, she lowered her waving hand slowly and turned to Lily, who stood rooted to the spot, looking as though she had just witnessed something that would take her approximately three to five business days to process.

"Lily," Cixi said gently, walking to her. "You should be punished too."