Stepdaughter of a wealthy family? The little darling of a Beijing tycoon

On Friday after school, Cao Lei waited at the elementary school gate early.

The little girl came out of school and saw the kind older brother she often bumped into on the street. Her eyes lit up instantly, and she ran up to him, saying, "Big brother, did you wait for me today?"

Cao Lei smiled gently, his tone patient and kind: "Yes, it's Friday, school lets out early today. I'll take you to play nearby for a while, and then I'll take you home in half an hour, okay?"

The girl hesitated for a moment, but seeing the other person's sincere and gentle appearance, and thinking about her loneliness of walking home alone all year round and having few playmates, she finally nodded and agreed.

She followed Cao Lei without any suspicion. The road became increasingly remote, gradually moving away from residential areas and leading directly to a deserted, abandoned factory area on the outskirts of the city.

A question arose in the girl's mind, and she asked softly, "Big brother, there's nobody here. What are we doing here?"

"Look at that abandoned factory over there," Cao Lei pointed, coaxing him in a relaxed tone. "We hid a lot of mineral water bottles we collected in there before. We can sell them to make money. Haven't you always wanted to help Mom with household expenses? Today we'll collect the bottles and sell them, and I'll treat you to ice cream and snacks."

Upon hearing that it would be a way to earn money and ease the burden on her family, the girl instantly put aside all her worries, her eyes filled with anticipation: "Okay!"

She obediently followed Cao Lei into the empty and desolate abandoned factory building. As soon as she stepped into the lobby, she saw three unfamiliar teenagers standing or sitting inside.

The girl's heart tightened slightly, and she asked疑惑地问道, "Big brother, who are these people?"

"They're my classmates, both seniors from No. 1 High School," Cao Lei explained casually. "They came specifically to help collect the bottles."

The girl completely lowered her guard and peered out: "Where's that bottle? Let's go get it!"

"It's inside."

The gentleness in Cao Lei's eyes completely vanished, and he quietly turned around and gave Zhang Zhen a wink from the shadows.

Zhang Zhen and his men instantly understood and, taking advantage of the little girl's unguarded moment of looking down, quickly blocked all escape routes. Cao Lei turned around and, with a "click," firmly locked the factory gate.

The moment the cold sound of the door closing shattered the illusion of gentleness, it was completely destroyed.

Four teenagers, who had been plotting for a long time, revealed the twisted malice hidden beneath their innocent exteriors. They had been scheming for days and were already harboring evil intentions. Now, they completely revealed their hideous faces, trapping an innocent little girl in the empty, cold factory.

The girl instantly sensed danger looming over her, her face turning deathly pale. She finally realized she had been tricked. Trembling with fear, she burst into tears, sobbing and pleading for them to let her go home.

But this was a heinous act they had meticulously planned for a long time, so how could they possibly give up so easily?

The four men were already consumed by their twisted desires. Faced with the child's helpless cries and pleas, they were not moved in the slightest, but instead felt a morbid pleasure.

In the cold, desolate abandoned factory, the cries and pleas of children echoed intermittently. This utterly destroyed a girl's life and sowed the seeds of an inescapable, bloody tragedy for the four people who would suffer misfortune for the next eighteen years.

After a long while, the four people's agitated and distorted emotions gradually calmed down.

In the instant they regained their senses, a tremendous panic finally enveloped them.

Only then did they belatedly realize their fear, but the heinous crime had already been committed, and there was no going back.

Fear and confusion gripped the four men, who dared not linger any longer. They cruelly abandoned the little girl, who lay paralyzed on the ground, utterly hopeless and helpless, in the cold, desolate, and deserted factory, and fled the scene in a panic.

On their way home, the four boys, pale-faced, looked at each other and made a vicious yet tacit agreement—

What happened today must remain a secret, never to be mentioned again for the rest of my life, and no one is allowed to divulge a single word about it.

Meanwhile, as dusk fell, the girl's mother, who had worked hard all day at her stall, packed up and returned home, only to find the house empty; her daughter was nowhere to be seen. The usually well-behaved and punctual child's prolonged absence filled the mother with a sense of foreboding. After searching everywhere to no avail, she broke down and called the police that very night.

Police quickly launched a search and investigation, and finally found the little girl, who looked like a completely shattered doll, barely alive deep inside the remote abandoned factory.

The moment she witnessed her daughter's tragic state, the girl's mother was heartbroken and overwhelmed with grief. Endless remorse overwhelmed her; she repeatedly blamed herself, thinking that if she hadn't been working day and night to make a living, if she had spent more time picking up and dropping off her daughter and protecting her safety, her daughter would never have suffered such a devastating tragedy.

The police attached great importance to this heinous case of child abuse and immediately established a special task force to investigate it.

Eighteen years ago, however, urban surveillance coverage was extremely low, and there were no cameras at all in the wastelands and abandoned factories on the outskirts of the city, so there were almost no clues to be found.

The experienced detective had suspected Cao Lei, who frequently bumped into and chatted with the little girl, based on the clues he had gathered. However, Cao Lei was extremely composed and remained calm when questioned. He insisted that he had only bumped into the girl after school, chatted with her casually, and that they had parted ways at the intersection. He claimed that he had spent the rest of the time doing his homework in the park with three other classmates.

The other three had already coordinated their stories, testifying for each other and covering for one another.

There was no surveillance footage, no witnesses, and no substantial evidence. All four were top students with excellent grades, and in everyone's eyes, they were of good character and had bright futures.

Ultimately, the police had exhausted all leads, and the trail went cold.

This extremely cruel crime was thus completely buried, becoming a cold case that remained unsolved for eighteen years without anyone seeking justice.

Four mischievous teenagers escaped all legal punishment through lies and luck, living peacefully for many years.

After that devastating tragedy, the girl's mother was utterly heartbroken.

To escape this shadowy, sorrowful city and sever all ties with her painful past, she took her young daughter and fled to another place. With the assistance of the police and the help of many kind-hearted people, the mother and girl received long-term professional psychological intervention and counseling treatment.

Childhood trauma is so severe and painful that the brain instinctively seals away and buries this dark and cruel memory deep in the heart as a form of self-protection.

For the next eighteen years, the girl seemed no different from any other ordinary person, growing up steadily, completing her studies smoothly, graduating and becoming an adult, following a seemingly perfect and stable life trajectory. After becoming an adult, she met a gentle and considerate boyfriend, and the two were deeply in love, with a stable and sweet relationship.

But no one knows that the deep-seated scar in her heart has never healed. Post-traumatic stress disorder is etched into her very being; even if the memory is sealed away, the body's instinctive fear has never disappeared. Faced with intimate touch, she always subconsciously stiffens, flinches, and feels extreme rejection, unable to openly accept the closeness of the opposite sex, for reasons she herself doesn't understand.