An Su quickly examined her surroundings. Although the lighting was dim, it was still enough to look around. She was currently bound to a chair with some rope.
Iron chains that served an unknown purpose hung from all four walls. The floor was dotted with layers of dried bloodstains and they let off a putrid smell that was a mixture of rot and blood.
It was the spitting image of a classic torture chamber used for criminals back in ancient times.
‘Where am I…? This type of place still exists?’
“Where’s Madam Qi?” ‘Wasn’t she with me too? How come I don’t see her anywhere?’
Shi Sheng ridiculed her from the side, “Who do you think brought you here?”
An Su’s eyes widened in disbelief. ‘How could that be? Madam Qi is such a gentle person; why would she kidnap me? I don’t remember having any enmity with her either!’
Shi Sheng floated around the torture room, causing the rusty chains on the walls to rattle. In this otherwise quiet place, the rattling sound was enough to startle An Su’s ears.
Creeeak—
Just then, the door to the gruesome basement opened and a woman wearing exquisite makeup entered, carrying a surgical tray in her hands.
Once she saw who it was, An Su’s last bit of hope vanished. ‘It really was her…’
Shi Sheng was silently standing in the corner. Madam Qi seemed to be unaware of her presence as she headed straight for An Su.
She gently placed the tray on the table to the side of the chair, allowing An Su to get a clear look at the tray’s contents: scalpels, pincers, tweezers, and all sorts of medical instruments that shone with cold light even in the dimness.
Goosebumps popped up all over An Su’s body. “Madam Qi, what are you doing? I have no enmity with you; why did you tie me up here?”
At this moment, Madam Qi was no longer the gentle woman she had previously shown herself to be. She forcefully gripped An Su’s chin and spoke with a twisted expression, “Why? Don’t you vixens always try to seduce him? Just what makes you lot so cheap?! Always wanting to climb into some rich man’s bed whenever you have the slightest bit of looks?”
An Su was at a complete loss as to what Madam Qi was rambling on about.
“Just look at this face. The tenderness really makes one jealous!” Madam Qi had a crazed look in her eyes as she reached out with her slender fingers and traced An Su’s face from her forehead, to her brows, to her cheeks, and then her lips. “If I peeled off this skin of yours, would you still have the face to seduce others?”
‘Peeling off skin?! Seducing people? Seducing who?!
Did Madam Qi… seduce Mister Qi?’
An Su felt startled as her brain continued processing all this new information.
“Madam Qi…” An Su had some difficulty speaking due to her chin being pinched, so her words came out slightly garbled. “You… misunderstand! I- I never… never seduced Mister Qi!”
Upon hearing her words, Madam Qi’s control snapped and in the next second she slapped An Su. “Bitch, you still dare to say you didn’t seduce him! I saw it with my own eyes!”
An Su’s head was spinning from the slap and she subconsciously looked over in Shi Sheng’s direction.
“Who’re you making that look for, huh? He can’t see you now! You were getting all cocky just because he doted on you, weren’t you?! Well, will he still like you without your pretty looks?!” Madam Qi smiled viciously.
She released An Su’s chin and turned to pick up one of the instruments laying on the doctor’s tray.
An Su watched on in fear. ‘Is this woman mad?!’
A coldly gleaming scalpel pressed against her cheek as it glided against her skin like a poisonous snake.
“Hahaha! All of you sluts should just die! Die!” Madam Qi’s gaze turned savage and her hand began to press down.
But just then, the lights in the basement went out and the room fell into total darkness.
An Su felt something cold cut the ropes binding her. Without them holding her down, she immediately shoved Madam Qi away before running towards the direction where she remembered the door was.
She reached the door, but was unable to open it.
Suddenly, a sharp pain could be felt from her scalp as someone yanked An Su back by her hair, causing her to crash into the chains on the wall beside. Pain and numbness swept through her nerves.
“Slut, you dared to run!” Madam Qi had a surprising amount of strength; she roughly forced An Su against the wall and wrapped her up with the chains.
Shi Sheng simply stood in the corner again and watched as An Su was tied up once more. She couldn’t help but facepalm speechlessly.
‘The FL’s combat ability is really… I guess all the combat ability goes to the ML in these types of novels…’
Shi Sheng drew her sword and swept it past the chains hanging on the walls, causing a clinking noise to ring madly throughout the basement.
Madam Qi halted. “Who?!”
The only reply was the constant rattling of chains.
“Stop acting so mysterious! Show yourself!” Madam Qi’s gaze frantically probed into the darkness. But there wasn’t the slightest amount of light in here; she wouldn’t have seen her own hand if it lay before her eyes, let alone anything else. She couldn’t help but start trembling.
“Well? Aren’t you going to run? What? Are you waiting for me to carry you out with an eight-man sedan[1]?” Shi Sheng’s voice travelled to An Su’s ears.
‘Although I really shouldn’t be picking flaws with your phrasing right now… Aren’t eight-man sedans supposed to be used in weddings?’
An Su took a deep breath before forcefully kicking Madam Qi in the stomach and running swiftly towards the door once more.
This time, she easily opened it, but what she saw outside made her stop in her tracks. ‘Are those… dogs?!’
Two large hounds half the height of a human were lying down in the middle of a narrow pathway. Upon hearing the commotion from the door, they lifted their heads as one. Seeing that it was a human, they both stood up, bared their teeth, and growled. Their ferocious gazes caused An Su’s scalp to grow numb.
‘Dogs ahead, a loony behind… Where am I going to run?’
Shi Sheng had appeared in front of her at some point, and was currently looking at her with a speechless expression.
“Ghost-jiejie! Help!” An Su didn’t care about dignity anymore as she cried out to Shi Sheng for help. ‘Ghost-jiejie is very powerful! I have to tightly hug her big thigh!’
Shi Sheng turned around and walked back with her sword in tow. The hounds, sensing danger, immediately turned to bark madly at the floating sword. Unfortunately, Madam Qi finally caught up.
She immediately lunged towards An Su with a vicious expression, “Bitch!”
An Su gritted her teeth. ‘Fuck it! At most I’ll die! I’ll still be a pretty lady 20 years later!’
She sprinted towards Shi Sheng. When humans faced the threat of death, they’d somehow always manage to find that one last burst of energy for a final attempt to survive. An Su managed to dodge the hounds and safely reach the other side.
Without needing Shi Sheng to remind (insult) her, she wisely ran towards the light coming from outside.
Shi Sheng only used her sword to distract the hounds, but didn’t attack them. Once An Su was past them, she kept her sword and flew towards the exit at a speed much faster than An Su could run.
“Ghost-jiejie, wait for me!” An Su broke the record for her fastest running speed in her whole life. Once she’d escaped the basement, she hurriedly slammed the door shut and placed a sizable rock on for good measure.
Only then did she sit down and pant.
‘I nearly died back there. Too close!’
“Ghost-jiejie, thank you!” An Su exclaimed as she wiped away the stream of tears and snot on her face. “If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve died already! Ghost-jiejie, you’re a good person!”
The Shi Sheng who had been issued the ‘good person card,’ “You’re thinking too much. I just wanted to see how dumb you could be.”
‘I(bbb) don’t have the time to be Lei Feng[2]! This is all for the sake of ensuring the ML will never have his feelings reciprocated! Of course I can’t let him save you, otherwise you’d definitely fall for him!’
“Ah?” An Su stared at Shi Sheng in a ditsy, but slightly cute way.
“Idiot,” Shi Sheng loftily spoke.
The ‘idiot’ An Su, “…” ‘Am I really that dumb?’
[1] I think it’s also known as a bridal sedan.
[2] The man who may or may not have existed. The CCP made him out to be a sterling role model who’d do anything to help his country and countrymen.