Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Pressing her lips together, An Xiaoning continued to ask her in a gentle voice, “Can you see where the chains are?”
“In my dungeon. She’ll never be able to escape for the rest of her life. How pathetic and sad is it that she’s currently in a living hell?” said Shi Xiaoyu, grabbing onto the bedsheets tightly.
“Where’s the dungeon?”
“Below me… who would’ve thought that there’d be a dungeon below me?” Shi Xiaoyu muttered.
An Xiaoning sat down and asked, “Does your husband know about this?”
“No, I’m the only one who knows about this dungeon. He thinks she’s dead. Hahahaha, everyone thinks she’s already dead…”
An Xiaoning again gave her a scene to imagine, “The person you’ve put in a living hell is standing right in front of you right now. She’s lying on top of a float with your husband and roaming about leisurely on the surface of the ocean…”
“Rui is mine, Rui is mine! I want you to die, I’m going to kill you…” Shi Xiaoyu murmured, flailing her arms about in the air with a grimace on her face. She was seething with anger and resentment.
“Shi Qingzhou was washed away by the massive waves all of a sudden…”
Shi Xiaoyu let out a malicious laugh and sneered, “You deserve it. I hope you drown to death. That way, Rui will never be able to see you again…”
“Shi Qingzhou has been rescued and you return to the Autumn Palace together. Tuoba Shuo requests to marry Shi Qingzhou, but your parents-in-law have decided to execute Shi Qingzhou. Who saved Shi Qingzhou…?” An Xiaoning asked, trying to sound Shi Xiaoyu out by telling her a story based on the events she had roughly heard about from Tuoba Shuo.
“Rui and Shi Qingzhou’s Teacher who’s a high priest were the ones who saved her together. She doesn’t love Rui at all. Yet, Rui is so madly in love with her, to the extent that he raped her in order to get her pregnant. That’s how much he loves that woman. Why, oh why, can’t he just give me some of his love?”
“The child is born…” An Xiaoning continued.
“I can’t allow Shi Qingzhou to snatch my position away, so I took a huge risk and locked her up forcefully. I finally got to vent all my pent-up anger and beat her into a pulp…”
“How did you answer your beloved Rui when he asked about why she had gone missing?”
“I told him that she had fled after abandoning the child and was executed in secret by his parents. I then showed him a photo I took of her while she was unconscious. Rui then thought she had died…”
Anger surged through An Xiaoning’s veins, and she curbed her urge to kill Shi Xiaoyu before asking, “What did you do to the child in the end?”
“Rui told me to send the child out of the Autumn Palace. I knew he wouldn’t see the child again, and I thus instructed my people to abandon her and let her fend for herself. If I’d known earlier that the child would become who she is today, I would’ve definitely strangled her to death back then…”
At last, An Xiaoning said, “The ocean is really vast and you’re bursting with euphoria. You want to continue drifting on the surface…”
As soon as she finished speaking, An Xiaoning saved the recording and did not snap Shi Xiaoyu out of hypnosis immediately.
If Shi Xiaoyu was not broken out of her trance via verbal command, she would fall into a deep sleep one hour later.
By the time she woke up again, she would not remember anything at all.
An Xiaoning squinted and scrutinized Shi Xiaoyu’s bed.
An Xiaoning was very certain that the basement of Shi Xiaoyu’s room was a secret chamber, based on the latter’s description.
The switch was just below the bed.
It was a piece of cake to find it.
The moment An Xiaoning pressed a button, which was deeply obscured beneath the bed, the mattress sprung up gently with a faint, ringing sound.
An Xiaoning did not jump in immediately and instead tried to see if the secret passageway would be sealed automatically.
As expected, the opening to the secret chamber was closed automatically after 30 seconds and the bedsheets were still intact, leaving no trace at all.
A fruit knife on the dressing table caught An Xiaoning’s attention.
She walked toward the dressing table, picked up the fruit knife, and walked toward the bed. Just as she was about to stab Shi Xiaoyu in her chest, Tuoba Rui appeared by the door at an untimely juncture.
“Xiaoyu, why aren’t you asleep yet?”
An Xiaoning immediately switched off the table lamp.
She thought that Tuoba Rui would leave after realizing that there was no response from Shi Xiaoyu. To her astonishment, he instructed his bodyguards, “Bring me the spare keys.”
An Xiaoning hurriedly returned the fruit knife to its original position and frantically pressed the switch below the bed. She plunged inside immediately, and the crack was sealed again within thirty seconds.
An Xiaoning touched the bed frame to find that there was more there than meets the eye.
What seemed to be an ordinary wooden plank turned out to be a top-quality soundproofing material.
As she continued to walk into the chamber slowly, a few planks began to move closer toward each other all of a sudden, in order to seal the opening.
It was obviously for soundproofing purposes.
Thus, she was relieved to know that they could not hear her from upstairs.
The glow from the night luminescent pearl lit up the basement, allowing her to guide herself down the stairs slowly. While walking, she then whipped out the gun she had stolen from the guard earlier.
Once she reached a corner, she caught sight of two men guarding the dungeon, just like she had expected.
The two male guards did not suspect anything when they heard the sounds of her footsteps since they thought it was merely Shi Xiaoyu. The moment they realized that it was a trespasser, they were instantly shot to death by An Xiaoning, who fired a bullet at each of them in their temple and chest, respectively. There was no time for them to even react or shriek.
An Xiaoning was a sharpshooter.
Noticing that the guards had been shot to death, Shi Qingzhou asked softly, “You… you are?”
Standing at only a short distance away, An Xiaoning looked at the woman in front of her who had a disheveled appearance and asked, “Were they the only ones guarding you?”
“Yes… who… are you…”
An Xiaoning walked toward Shi Qingzhou, who was kneeling on the ground, and squatted down slowly. She then removed the surgical mask and the black headscarf, followed by her human skin mask.
Shi Qingzhou burst into tears at the instant that she saw An Xiaoning’s true appearance after the mask was removed, her lips quivering uncontrollably. She tried to hug the latter but to no avail, since her wrists were bound to chains, which produced a loud and crisp metallic screech every time she tried to move. The sounds were exceptionally loud, for Shi Qingzhou was struggling with great force.
An Xiaoning extended her arms to hug her. “Mother, it’s me,” she said with tears streaming down her face.
Shi Qingzhou bawled and wailed loudly in agony. “Baby…” she cried, choking with sobs.
“Mother, let me get you out of here. Are the keys to the chains with those two guards?”
“Yes, they would unchain me every day during mealtimes or when I had to use the washroom.”
An Xiaoning immediately zoomed toward the men she had just shot and fumbled about their clothing for the keys. After finding the keys, she used them to unlock the chains on Shi Qingzhou’s arms and legs.
Due to the fact that she had been shackled and trapped in the basement for so many years, Shi Qingzhou could no longer manage to stand straight on both feet.
An Xiaoning supported her weight and asked, “Are there any other passageways here apart from the one that leads upstairs?” An Xiaoning asked.
Shi Qingzhou answered softly, “Yes, the two guards would take turns to keep an eye on me. Sometimes, one of them will remain here while the other goes out to have his meal. There’s a door on that wall. Baby, let’s go out from there.”
An Xiaoning sped toward the spot her mother was pointing at and asked, “Is this the brick?”
“Yes, just give it a little push.”
An Xiaoning did as instructed and pushed the brick inwards. Soon, a narrow door opened abruptly.