Thief of Heart: You Can't Run Away From Me

There would be a grand exhibition of diamonds held at the Grand Hotel at 9 p.m. today. It was about to begin, so the hall was already full of guests.

Despite that, the owner of those diamonds was in the presidential suite on the top floor. He stared deeply at the scene projected on the TV screen while swirling the champagne in his glass, seemingly enjoying his time to the fullest.

A predatory smile was gradually formed on his lips as he pondered about what kind of bad guys this blue diamond could attract.

In the corridor of the top floor

Minnie Gu smoothed out the wrinkles on the uniform she just stole from a hotel's waitress and then walked towards the presidential suite with a tray in her hands.

Five years ago, because of the cruel reality, she had to send her newborn child to Michael Lu. Considering his identity, she thought it'd be easy for him to bring the child up. However, she forgot that him being able to bring the child up didn't necessarily mean he could educate the child well.

"If a child doesn't behave well, he's probably pretending to be naughty. All you need to do is beat him up. He'll definitely change!" "What's the use of teachers? Can they be eaten?" "Only when you have money can you have friends. If you don't have money, you can only live a hard life with your poor family!"

Those were what he said in the variety shows he'd participated in. The more she watched those shows, the more dumbfounded she was. This was actually how her dear son had been educated by his biological dad! Thus, she decided to steal her son back and educate him herself.

Before she realized it, she already arrived in front of the presidential suite. She knocked on the door and said, "Room service! Sir, I've brought you the rose wine you ordered!"

Michael Lu opened the door and saw a woman in a waitress's uniform standing at the doorstep. He took a glance at the wine and then looked up and down at Minnie Gu with a faint smile.

Everyone in S City knew that he was allergic to wine and only drank champagne. He wondered which idiot was so impatient they took action before the exhibition started. They even assigned the job to such an amateur woman at that.

Weren't they afraid that he'd mistreat this beautiful woman?

"The rose wine I ordered?" Michael took a sip of his champagne with a faint smile.

"Yes!" Minnie winked at Michael flirtatiously. "My name is Rose. This is the wine!"

He had to admit—this was a nice trick! He originally thought she had poor acting skill, but her purpose turned out to be seducing him!

Wasn't she afraid he'd sleep with her and then ghost her?

"Why don't you let me in first?" Minnie pouted coquettishly and walked into the room. Her hips swayed along the way.

An evil glint flashed through Michael's eyes. Since she had taken the initiative, it'd be a waste of her kindness if he refused.

"How about we have some drinks first?" Minnie asked.

"No, thanks. I prefer to do the deed when I'm sober." Michael took the glass of wine Minnie offered and put it aside. The change in her eyes naturally didn't escape his notice. He then used one of his hands to raise her chin, while his other hand roamed about her body.

'Good! She didn't take any weapons with her!'

"Please wait... I want to take a shower first." Minnie caught his roaming hand.

"It's all the same whether you take a shower first or not. I don't mind." Michael pushed Minnie towards the bed and climbed on top of her. Just as he had expected, the little seducer seemed flustered by his action.

Since she dared to play tricks on him, she shouldn't blame him for being ruthless.

"Don't be too impatient... The night is still long. We..." Minnie struggled, but she suddenly felt something cold clasping her left wrist. The damn man had handcuffed her!

"What are you doing?"

"It'll be more interesting this way."

'Damn it!' Minnie cursed in her heart. Why didn't she know Michael had such a fetish? She nervously looked around. At this moment, she finally noticed the handcuffs and the shackles stretching out from the four bedposts!

Michael smiled confidently. It was as if everything was under his control.

All of a sudden, however, his expression changed. He looked at Minnie in disbelief and soon fell limp on her body.

"How could this be? I didn't touch your wine!" he asked hoarsely, completely baffled as to how he still got drugged.

Minnie pushed his body away. "Mr. Lu, I've heard that you're a very cautious man. You'd definitely frisk every suspicious person who came to you, so I didn't put the drug in the wine, but on my clothes...

The wine was just a feint, a deliberate flaw in my action! If I didn't let you think you'd successfully seen through my plan, how could I've succeeded so easily?"

While his consciousness was getting blurrier and blurrier, he couldn't help but begrudgingly admire the woman's cunningness.

"Please have a good rest tonight, Mr. Lu!" Minnie blew him a kiss. As she had expected, Michael couldn't hold on any longer. He fell asleep with his head askew in a mere few seconds. The victory in her gaze faded and turned into an open longing. Bitter tears soon filled her eyes. She missed this damn man so much!

Unfortunately, she didn't have the privilege to get emotional now. She quickly composed herself, took out a bobby pin from her hair, and used it to unlock the handcuff around her wrist.

"Michael, I love you..." Upon giving Michael a goodbye peck on the corner of his mouth, Minnie withdrew from the room. Like a cat, she jumped off the balcony, going all the way down from one balcony to another.

At this moment, the hotel's ballroom where the exhibition was held was already full of people. They all focused their attention on the huge, blue diamond placed in the center of the exhibition stand. Under the lights in the ballroom, the diamond seemed to look even more dazzling.

Minnie ducked out of everyone's sight and tried to flee the garden without being seen by anyone. In midway, however, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. Her eyes glinted in the dark. From the distance, she'd spotted a female guest strolling around the garden. Thus, she swiftly changed her direction, sneaking up on the oblivious woman as fast and as quietly as a cat. She then hit the back of her neck at the first chance she got, knocking her out cold in an instant. Although she felt slightly apologetic to her unconscious victim, she still dragged her into the shrubberies nearby and swapped their clothes.

Minnie, who was now in that woman's dress, confidently walked through the garden. The night breezes blew from time to time, causing her to shiver from the cold. She couldn't help but purse her lips when she recalled how exposed her cleavage and back were in this dress. With obvious disgust in her gaze, she pulled the dress up, trying to cover up more. Her attempt ended up in vain for after walking a couple of steps, her dress slipped down again. It was almost as if it was challenging her. It was indeed frustrating, but she had no choice. To get into the exhibition, she had to either put this dress on or find another guest's dress, which was both time consuming and risky.

When Minnie walked through the back door of the ballroom, her wristband beeped, and she passed safely into the exhibition. A sly smile emerged on her face, but she soon held it back and put on an indifferent expression. She walked into the crowd calmly, wondering if her child had come or not. According to what she heard, her child would also attend the diamond exhibition tonight, but she didn't know at what time he'd come.

As she looked around searching for her child, she saw a scene that petrified her.

The man, who should be sleeping in the presidential suite, was also here, totally conscious, surrounded by a group of sharply-dressed top executives and heavyweights of the business world. She really didn't understand. How could he wake up so soon?

In any case, the situation had changed.

Should she quit the operation? But she wasn't reconciled! She'd prepared for today for such a long time. Now was the best chance she'd probably ever have. If she failed, Michael would protect her child even more tightly, and she'd have an even smaller chance of getting him back.

A sudden commotion in the ballroom snapped Minnie out of her thoughts.

Crash!

"AH!!!"

Loud crashing noise and a shrill shriek rang out successively. The champagne tower arranged on a table situated at the right side of the hall had collapsed. An intelligent-looking little boy wearing rollerblades was laughing out loud, pointing at the fat woman lying among the glass shards. "You fatty! You're really courting death! How dare you pat my face?!"

"Help! Help! Help!" the woman shouted at the top of her lungs. Her thin evening dress simply couldn't protect her from the sharp glass shards. The woman lay on the floor and screamed. Luckily, it didn't take long for the security to arrive on the scene, and the woman was soon carried away by the medics.

Michael quickly swept his gaze over the mess. A cold, ruthless glint flashed across his eyes. He strode towards the boy and asked gravely, "What did you do?"

"She patted my face. What if she accidentally scratches me?" Bruce Lu stared at Michael and blinked his eyes innocently. He looked as beautiful as a little angel, but his words were unscrupulous and remorseless.

"Did you not know that you'd injure her by pushing her down? Fortunately, there was no one else around this champagne tower. If it collapsed and fell on someone, they'd lose their life!"

"So what? Daddy, you just need to compensate them for it. We have a lot of money anyway!" Almost all the guests drew a sharp breath. It was really terrifying to hear such arrogant, ignorant words coming from the mouth of a five-year-old kid.

"Shut up! Go and apologize to Ms. Sun!"

"No, I won't!" Bruce shook his head, took out a platinum card from his pocket, and threw it on the floor. He raised his head and looked at the guests around arrogantly. "I'll pay for her medical expenses. I have a lot of money..."

"Oh my God! Such a presumptuous child!"

"What a troublemaker!"

"How could an excellent man like Mr. Lu have such a son? The child's upbringing is really... Tsk, tsk, in the future, he'll definitely bankrupt the Lu Group if he's set as the successor!"

"Can he take over the Lu Group? With his presumptuous, arrogant nature, even whether he can grow up or not is still debatable..." the man whispered and exchanged glances with the guests beside him, hinting that with his current temperament, Bruce might not survive into adulthood.

Minnie stared at the little boy standing next to Michael from afar. The whispers of the guests around echoed in her mind. All of a sudden, she felt like she was engulfed in helplessness. Her son was angelic in terms of appearance but devilish in character.

Was this really their child?

When she saw the media reporting him as arrogant and domineering, she thought they were exaggerating. She thought they must've set the bar too high and expected too much from him because he was Michael's son, so when he failed to meet the standard they set, they'd inevitably be disappointed in him and talk bad about him.

Now, it seemed that the media still tried to leave Michael with some dignity. They'd really been very euphemistic!

Compared with how he was in the news, the real Bruce was even far more arrogant. He was rude, arrogant, cruel, and indifferent towards life.

In short, he was an obnoxious little turd through and through.

"Bruce!" Michael finally lost his temper. He glared at his son and raised his hand. Before the slap could land, however, Bruce suddenly sobbed so fiercely that his shoulders were all shaking. Before long, his sobs turned into full-blown tragic cries. Tears were streaming down his face. Taking advantage of Michael's stunned state, Bruce pounced on him and hugged his hand.

"Daddy! Please don't hit me. It'll hurt! If you don't like me anymore, I'll die and go to the underworld to find Mommy!"

Michael's raised hand trembled. He stared at his son's face, which was exactly the same as Minnie's, heaved a tired sigh, and weakly put down his hand.

"Mr. Sun, my son is naughty. Please forgive him. I'll pay for Ms. Sun's medical fee and compensate her for the psychological damage she suffered. Let's talk about cooperation in detail later!"

Minnie was really surprised that such an incident ended this easily. Did Michael always clean up after Bruce's mess like this? To say she was dumbfounded was an understatement. Instead of ending the matter like this, she'd rather he slapped Bruce and let Bruce understand his mistake.

Wasn't he quite cruel to her back then? How could he become so accommodating when he faced their child?

Soon afterward, Michael and Mr. Sun went out together, seemingly talking about business. Bruce gazed at his father's back and wiped his eyes. No trace of tears could be seen on his face.

He threw one last cheeky smile at the crowd watching him and then continued to skate around the ballroom. From time to time, he'd pull ribbons and balloons he passed. The guests were avoiding him like he was some sort of a plague, but he wasn't ashamed. In fact, he actually seemed complacent.

Minnie watched everything unfold before her eyes in silence. The more she watched, the more determined she was to steal the child back and personally discipline him.

Although she wasn't as powerful and influential as Michael, at the very least she wouldn't let her son grow up into a dreg of society that was avoided by everyone like a plague.

With that thought in mind, Minnie took a deep breath and calmed herself down. She stared at the blue diamond placed in the middle of the ballroom and stealthily inched closer to it, ready to launch the hidden weapon in her wristband.

Bang!

"Ouch!"

The huge crystal chandelier in the middle of the hall suddenly fell. The guests standing under it were almost crushed under its weight. Chaos broke out in the ballroom. People were running all over the place, screaming in panic.