“Dragging a young, beautiful woman back to your room—what exactly do you think you’re going to do?”
The bandits were all dumbstruck. They had never encountered anything like this before.
They were robbers with standards, not some low-class street thugs.
There was honor even among thieves. Under normal circumstances, their principle was to make money peacefully; unless absolutely necessary, they would never harm hostages.
After all, in a sense, hostages were also their customers. Making every effort to improve the customer experience was part of their professional ethics.
Just as their boss always said: if they happened to meet again someday, it was better to be able to face each other.
And they were robbers with principles. If they said they were after money, then money was all they took—never sex.
They had never once let lust get the better of them or failed to keep their lower halves in check. What kind of people would that make them?
And so, this gang of robbers—who considered themselves capable, refined, and utterly unlike the rest—was now completely stunned.
They had never imagined the world could be such a dangerous place. These days, even robbers had to worry about protecting their chastity.
Their attempt to hijack the ship had failed, and they had ended up trapped instead. Now they were even going to lose their boss’s body in the bargain.
This was simply beyond all common sense. It wasn’t a matter of bad business; this time, they had to admit defeat. But with the strength of their organization, they would surely rise again.
At worst, they could stage a prison break. In any case, within a few years, their organization would definitely be rebuilt.
But there were so many people watching on this ship—everywhere they looked were prominent figures from society. There were even big names from the entertainment industry, not to mention several reporters.
Once this sensational hijacking hit the news, it would inevitably draw the attention of the entire world.
What would the headlines say?
“The infamous XX Organization fails to steal money and gets sexually robbed instead?” Even the sleaziest street muggers would never suffer such humiliating disgrace.
Where would they ever show their faces in the underworld again?
The robbers panicked. “Let go of our boss! You shameless woman—you ambushed him! What kind of guts does that take?”
“If you’ve got the nerve, fight our boss fair and square!”
Pei Liang gave them a half-smile. “Isn’t that exactly what I’m planning to do—fight him fair and square?”
Good God. They had been careless. Were women outside really this terrifying nowadays?
The appraiser even secretly resolved that, during future operations, they would need to add another item to their intelligence gathering.
Namely, the sexual preferences of any key figures involved.
Seeing that words were useless, the bandits could only try to look on the bright side.
The woman was gorgeous, with a killer figure, and she was a world-famous dancer. Their boss wasn’t exactly getting the worst of the deal.
Under ordinary circumstances, their boss might even have pursued her himself. After all, even though he was used to seeing beautiful women, this woman was unquestionably a top-tier beauty.
Even among a crowd of celebrities, her looks would have stood out as breathtaking. How could an ordinary person ever hope to get a woman this beautiful?
So... look on the bright side.
At least she wasn’t some female predator like that old hag who had just been shot dead. That would have been truly unbearable to witness.
A woman like this could at least preserve a little of their boss’s dignity.
The bandits had already begun talking themselves into accepting it, but the appraiser hurriedly said, “You can’t let her take the boss away.”
Everyone turned to look at him. The appraiser’s ears had gone red, as though what he was about to say was too embarrassing to voice.
“This woman... this woman is a pervert.”
“I was disguised as a waiter when I passed by them earlier. She took a drink from my tray. Do you know what she said to me?”
“She even tricked her own fiancé into taking turns with her sister. Who knows what she might do to our boss?”
The bandits sucked in a collective breath. The way they looked at Pei Liang changed instantly.
If her looks had still given them the impression that, even if they couldn’t take advantage of her, they wouldn’t be losing out, then now every last one of them felt their backsides clench.
Where was this woman’s fiancé now? He was lying on the floor like a dead fish after being shot by her.
She was already this twisted and ruthless toward her own fiancé—showing not the slightest bit of affection. Once she’d had her fun and found him annoying, she’d simply shot him.
As for them, a bunch of bandits with no human rights, wouldn’t all sorts of perverse tricks be used on their boss?
For a moment, none of the bandits dared to let their guard down.
They wailed in protest, “That’s right! You can’t take our boss away. We demand humane treatment for prisoners!”
“Don’t be fooled by how much of a womanizer our boss looks like. He’s actually very chaste. He’s not the kind of man who sleeps around.”
“That’s right! You can’t abuse our boss. If we’ve committed crimes, let the law judge us!”
“Forcing an innocent man—this is utterly deranged!”
“Where are the police? Call the police! I want to report this!”
“Hey, you idiots in the captain’s cabin! Did you hear that? Call the police, now!”
If he hadn’t been unable to move, Chu Yebai would have kicked these idiots to death one by one.
He had already glanced at the large clock on the wall. He hadn’t been unconscious for very long at all.
Not only had these idiots all been captured, several of them had even lost their lives. Now their brains seemed to have been gnawed on as well.
It was enough to make anyone suspect that the whole group had suddenly been poisoned with something that made people stupid.
Otherwise, Chu Yebai couldn’t understand why they had fallen into such a state over nothing more than one woman. Even with him as her hostage, the worst-case scenario should have been a standoff between the two sides. How had things possibly come to this?
The situation before him was utterly incomprehensible. As for the bodies of Ms. Zhu and her pretty-boy companion, Chu Yebai assumed they had simply been accidentally shot and killed during the confrontation.
That only made it even harder for him to understand. The other side had paid the price of just two lives and somehow taken control of every one of them?
Their casualties weren’t even remotely equal, and they had been the side holding the guns.
Chu Yebai refused to believe his people were that stupid. Which meant the question had come full circle, leaving the entire situation completely baffling.
Besides, even without him, the appraiser should have been able to take over the team’s commands and assignments in no time. And yet—
He looked toward the appraiser. The man had completely lost his usual composure, so at odds with his age. His face was red and his neck bulged as he joined the other idiots in denouncing Pei Liang.
“Don’t even think about laying your filthy hands on our boss!”
Pei Liang raised an eyebrow at him. “Shut up. Say one more word and I’ll drag you in too.”
The appraiser immediately clamped his mouth shut as though it had been sewn closed, not daring to utter another word.
But the surrounding bandits seemed to have found a solution.
“Drag us in too, then! As long as you don’t hurt our boss, anything goes. At worst, we’ll take his punishment for him.”
The big-voiced, rough-looking thug said, “Don’t think we’re a bunch of cowards afraid to die. Let me tell you, every single one of us here would gladly risk our lives for our boss without uttering a word.”
“We know your kind of sick woman likes playing with pretty boys. Little Seven, just endure a little suffering. So what if you’re taking the boss’s place?”
“No!” the appraiser said in a dry voice.
At first, the thugs thought they had misheard him. Their faces were still full of touching brotherly solidarity and self-sacrifice.
“Did you hear that? As long as you let our boss go, anyone here is willing to—”
“Anyone?” The thugs stared at the appraiser in disbelief.
“What the fuck did you say? Anyone?”
The appraiser said nothing, but his attitude had already made everything clear.
The thugs were furious. They glared at him with disappointment and a betrayed rage. “The boss is in mortal danger, and all you care about is yourself? Are you even one of us?”
“Exactly! How can you face the boss after everything he’s done to cultivate you?”
“You’re too much of a coward to suffer for your brothers. You don’t deserve to be one of us!”
The appraiser looked at them expressionlessly. “Aren’t you just relying on the fact that you all look harmless?”
“Bullshit! It’s not that we’re unwilling. We want to take the boss’s place, but she doesn’t even find us worth bothering with.”
Pei Liang’s voice drifted over. “Actually, taking a few more of you wouldn’t be a problem. There should be plenty of laxatives and hemorrhoid cream on the ship.”
After all, this was a luxury cruise ship of considerable size, with a highly professional medical team on board. They had taken every conceivable situation into account, so supplies of such everyday medicines would certainly not be lacking.
The moment the thugs heard that, they fell silent. They looked at Pei Liang as though they had dropped the soap in a prison shower and suddenly found a huge, muscular black man standing behind them.
After several long moments of silence, they watched helplessly as their boss was dragged away.
Their eyes were filled with tears, but their expressions plainly said: Boss, we really can’t help you this time. It’s not that we’re being disloyal.
Chu Yebai had only just woken up and had yet to process the devastating shock of his failed operation and the entire group being captured. Now he had to suffer the ‘betrayal’ of his own brothers as well.
And when Pei Liang left, she really did call for her sister.
The thugs clenched their buttocks even tighter. It seemed she really hadn’t been joking just now. Thankfully, they hadn’t taken any chances.
Pei Liang dragged Chu Yebai back to her room and threw him onto the bed.
Then she ordered her sister to pour her a glass of water.
Pei Ning poured the water over with trembling hands. Looking at Chu Yebai’s current disheveled state—he who, in her memory, had always been domineering and overbearing, radiating overwhelming authority no matter the situation—she felt a shiver run through her.
“Big Sis, h-here. Drink some water!”
Pei Liang drained the glass and let out a long breath. “It was too stuffy with so many people in the main hall. I talked so much in one go that my mouth dried out.”
“Haha! Yeah.” Pei Ning forced out a laugh.
By then, Chu Yebai had also adjusted his position on the bed.
Away from the main hall—and no longer having to look at that bunch of idiots under his command—his reason gradually returned.
There was no visible panic on his face now. On the contrary, he believed that as long as this woman had no immediate intention of killing him, there was still room for a turnaround.
Besides, it was only two women. To bring him alone into an enclosed space like this—wasn’t that overly presumptuous of them?
Chu Yebai was determined to make this woman realize that it would be the decision she regretted most in her life.
But now he lay on the bed, his white shirt missing two buttons after the rough treatment along the way. Together with the one he had undone earlier, a broad expanse of his chest was exposed.
There was no denying his body was scorching. He exuded the hormones of a mature man from every inch of him.
Unlike the earlier ones, who were essentially green and innocent, this man was practically a walking aphrodisiac—and he was fully aware of his own appeal.
He lay there looking at Pei Liang, his deep-set gaze fixed on her. “If you want to have a little fun with me, I’d be honored to oblige.”
“But isn’t it hard to enjoy yourself properly while I’m tied up?”
“Now that all my men are at your mercy, I have to work hard to please you, if only for their safety.”
Though he was not particularly close to Pei Liang, his voice seemed coated in honey, carrying a subtle electric current.
It made one’s heart itch and one’s legs go weak.
Who could possibly resist that?
Hearing him, Pei Liang wanted to toy with him even more.
She held Chu Yebai’s own gun in her hand, the muzzle aimed at his forehead.
He visibly stiffened for an instant, but relaxed again almost immediately, returning to his usual composure.
Pei Liang slid the barrel down along the line of his cheek, tipped up his chin, then traced it over his throat, circling once around his Adam’s apple.
In a low voice, she said, “I believe that if you put every trick you have to use, you’ll definitely satisfy me.”
“But different people call for different kinds of fun. When it comes to kidnappers, I like watching them go from arrogant and untouchable to crying and begging for mercy. This is just right.”
“After all, if a kidnapper and their victim aren’t bound up, where’s the spirit of it?”
The expression on Chu Yebai’s face shifted, though inwardly, he remained rather disdainful.
He had immense confidence in his own abilities, and that confidence had been built through real skill and repeated victories.
This time, he had capsized for no apparent reason. He had been unconscious throughout the entire ordeal, and at the start, he had effectively been caught off guard.
So no matter how bizarre the current situation was, Chu Yebai had no clear understanding of Pei Liang’s true capabilities.
He played along half-heartedly, a careless smile on his face, showing no sign that he intended to struggle.
His entire body was arranged in a relaxed, enticing pose.
Looking at Pei Liang, he said, “All right. As you wish.”
Yet as he spoke, a razor blade appeared between his fingers, hidden from view.
His fingers manipulated it with extraordinary dexterity. Even in such an awkward position, with both hands bound behind his back and unable to see what he was doing—
Most people would lose more than half their accuracy without the guidance of sight, but not Chu Yebai.
The blade slipped and turned between his fingers like a living thing, swiftly finding the right position.
With a light slice, one of the sturdy nylon zip ties snapped. Hidden beneath his body, it went unnoticed.
Just as he was about to cut the second one, Pei Liang’s amused voice rang out—
“Before that, though, there’s a question you need to answer. With your intelligence, I shouldn’t need to waste too many words negotiating, should I?”
Chu Yebai remembered that, before he lost consciousness, he had been questioning her sister. Now, the tables had turned.
As he continued sawing through the zip ties, he gestured for her to go ahead and ask.
Pei Liang said, “Your weapons and equipment are pretty impressive. Today’s operation may have been on a large scale, but surely you didn’t haul out every last piece of gear you own, did you?”
“So where’s your base? How many of you are still alive? No—”
Halfway through, she dismissed her own question.
“Or, if it’s more convenient, you could just tell me where the arms dealers you usually work with are based.”
Chu Yebai’s pupils contracted. He had never expected Pei Liang to ask something like that.
The look he gave her was one of utter disbelief. Unlike desperadoes like them, this woman was someone who had achieved remarkable success in high society.
Her real life was glamorous; she lacked neither fame nor fortune. It was inconceivable that she would ask such a question.
Was she planning to abandon the light for the dark and become an arms queen? Or had the profits from being robbed by them broadened her horizons and inspired a career change?
Or perhaps, after accomplishing an unparalleled feat and earning the admiration of the world once she disembarked, she wanted to take the opportunity to strike at arms smugglers and claim another achievement for herself?
Chu Yebai couldn’t make sense of it. Neither could Pei Ning.
Earlier, Pei Liang had needed to ask her in order to confirm the extent of the infection aboard the cruise ship, which meant that in her previous life, she hadn’t been on this ship.
So how could she know that, once Chu Yebai fully grasped the situation, the first thing he would do was raid the arms dealer he had always worked with?
Not everyone aboard this ship had known about that. Pei Ning only knew because, in her previous life, Zhong An had awakened his ability, infiltrated the elite ranks of the group, gone on missions with them, and later told her about it.
Chu Yebai glanced at Pei Ning in the room, then smiled at Pei Liang.
“That truly is a difficult question.”
“But unlike your sister, I know when to adapt to circumstances. So I can tell you.”
“But I’ll only tell you if you come a little closer. Would you?”
The words sounded like a pragmatic negotiation, but his tone was intensely provocative—like a seduction with something else hidden beneath it.
Pei Liang readily leaned closer. She was near him, but not so close that he could attack her with his teeth.
By then, all three nylon zip ties around Chu Yebai’s hands had been cut.
Watching Pei Liang lean forward, he did not immediately make a move the instant his hands were free. Like a patient hunter, having suffered once from underestimating her, he would not make the same mistake twice.
No matter how slender and fragile she appeared.
She knew to avoid an angle that would leave her open to a direct attack, so she had some sense of caution. But it was still far too naïve.
“They’re at—”
The timing was perfect. Just as Chu Yebai was about to strike, Pei Liang’s voice cut him off—
“If I were you, I wouldn’t choose this moment to reach out.”
Chu Yebai was startled. She already knew he had freed himself?
But the arrow was already on the string; there was no turning back. Her center of gravity was shifted forward. Even if they both reached out at the same time, her awkward angle would make her half a beat slower than him.
He would win.
With that thought, Chu Yebai made his move.
His arm shot toward Pei Liang’s neck like a venomous snake that had been coiled and waiting to strike, moving so fast it was almost impossible to follow with the naked eye.
But in the next instant, a searing pain shot through his wrist.
He didn’t need to look to know that the attack had been blocked—and that his joint had been dislocated in the process.
Yet Chu Yebai’s initial disadvantage did nothing to halt his movements.
Ignoring the pain entirely, he abandoned the use of his wrist and shifted all his strength to his elbow.
His wrist was under Pei Liang’s control, but his elbow was now dangerously close to her face.
All it would take was a quick upward thrust and a hit to shatter Pei Liang’s nose and leave her unable to fight.
His elbow was just about to connect. He could already feel the warmth of Pei Liang’s breath against his skin.
But in the next instant, the angle of his entire arm was twisted aside. The point of impact that should have been certain was forced off course, merely grazing Pei Liang’s cheek.
But Chu Yebai’s counterattack did not end there. He used the momentum to drive his shoulder forward, completing what his elbow had failed to do.
At the same time, he actually tore through the restraints around his leg. Having already predicted the angle at which Pei Liang would evade, he sent a kick straight toward that position.
This meticulous anticipation instantly placed Pei Liang, who had held the upper hand moments before, in a perilous situation.
If she didn’t dodge, his hard shoulder would smash into her nose. If she did, she would take the full force of a kick powerful enough to break through several nylon cable ties.
Although this man lived in a modern world of peace, his tactical intelligence was remarkably high.
He was ruthless and decisive, reacted swiftly, possessed an astonishing ability to make split-second judgments, and would stop at nothing to achieve his goal.
If he hadn’t been born in this era, then in the martial-arts world of the previous setting, he might well have become another peerless martial arts prodigy.
But he had chosen the wrong opponent.
From Pei Ning’s perspective, the entire exchange had lasted only three seconds. In the time it took her to blink, the two had already completed their dazzling flurry of moves—and determined the victor.
When Pei Ning came back to herself, Pei Liang was already standing beside the bed, her nose having been struck by Chu Yebai’s shoulder and the side of her face kicked by his leg.
In the end, she had chosen not to dodge, taking both attacks head-on.
Pei Ning’s heart pounded wildly, but the outcome did not surprise her.
Although Pei Liang had displayed impressive strength in the hall earlier, and it seemed that her abilities and physical condition had also returned to their pre-apocalypse state, making her far stronger than an ordinary person—
that definition of “ordinary” did not include Chu Yebai.
Until they had truly crossed blows, Pei Ning’s deeply ingrained belief from her past life remained unchanged: Chu Yebai could not be defeated by anyone.
Even setting aside his abilities and genetic enhancements, he was still formidable.
In her previous life, when he had been driven into desperate situations, he had achieved more than one glorious victory by defeating powerful ability users through nothing but skill and experience.
Pei Ning wasn’t the only one who thought so. Chu Yebai himself believed he had won.
A measure of tension eased from his heart, and he was just about to withdraw his limbs.
Then he felt his shoulder and calf being slowly guided back along their original paths.
It wasn’t his own doing.
At that moment, Pei Liang’s voice sounded strangely chilling in his ears.
“Not bad,” she said. “That was a really good combination.”
In Pei Liang’s eyes, this kind of style—ignoring pain entirely, even turning a disadvantage into an opportunity, while remaining meticulous, swift, tenacious, and unwilling to give up—was something rarely seen, even over the course of several lifetimes.
This man was no good person. He was arrogant and ruthless. Though he seemed easygoing during the robbery, in truth, he didn’t care much about human life.
And yet, he also possessed his own unique qualities that shone brightly.
Pei Liang’s features relaxed into a smile. Despite having just taken a heavy blow to the face, she showed not the slightest sign of disarray—let alone a broken, bleeding nose.
But in Chu Yebai’s eyes, that unblemished appearance was even more horrifying.
He said incredulously, “My strength isn’t so weak that it would produce a result like this.”
By then, sensation had slowly returned to his shoulder and ankle. They felt numb and heavy, nothing like what one would expect after striking a soft, slender woman’s face.
It was more like crashing into a steel plate with ridges, especially with his shoulder, which now throbbed with a needle-like pain.
In her previous life, Pei Liang’s martial arts had reached the pinnacle. Although she had only recovered half her inner strength at present, her control was precise down to the smallest detail. With her powerful inner force enveloping her body, calling her impervious to blades and spears would be an exaggeration—but in an ordinary hand-to-hand fight, she could stand there and let someone hit her without necessarily suffering much harm.
At last, Chu Yebai realized that perhaps the truth he had been unwilling to acknowledge ever since regaining consciousness was precisely what had led to the current situation.
It wasn’t that everyone in their organization had somehow become idiots at the same time, nor that this woman had driven them into an internal conflict through cunning manipulation, nor that they had suffered the absurdly bad luck of being captured one after another in bizarre positions.
It was simply that this woman had overwhelmed them with unquestionable force.
In order to understand what had happened, Chu Yebai had carefully examined the various traces at the scene before leaving, attempting to reconstruct the sequence of events.
But because his assumptions had failed to account for certain conditions, every one of his guesses had been ruled out.
Now, it seemed the answer was actually very simple.
There were traces of blood at several spots on the raised platform. The men responsible for controlling the entire area from the high ground had all received bandages. Judging by the amount of blood, they had been the first to come under attack.
The next to be dealt with were undoubtedly those standing nearby, whose gun hands had been disabled.
Once the threat from the high ground and the immediate vicinity had been neutralized, this woman would have gained at least a minute for herself.
As long as everyone had failed to surround her in perfect coordination and aim their guns at her within that minute, the situation would essentially have become irretrievable.
In theory, the appraiser should have realized this immediately and issued him an order.
Presumably, the appraiser had also been in no position to speak at the time. Come to think of it, among the men nearby, he was the only one who hadn’t been shot.
He hadn’t been shot, yet the threat of his attack had still been eliminated. Chu Yebai immediately realized that he had most likely been used as a human shield.
That had given her yet another layer of protection.
Those who had died, Xu the Third among them, had always been somewhat at odds with his way of thinking.
Chu Yebai never claimed to be a good person, but his style of robbery was relatively “friendly.” Unless absolutely necessary, he would not kill anyone.
Xu the Third, however, was inclined to strip his victims bare and wipe them out completely.
When confronted with a situation in which their leader was being held hostage, his first priority would never have been to preserve the leader’s life. Instead, he would have used bloody methods and whatever leverage he had on hand to seize back the advantage.
So what was the biggest bargaining chip at the scene? The more than a thousand hostages, of course.
Xu the Third wouldn’t care whether the hostages lived or died. In fact, to intimidate his opponent, he might even kill a few of them first, forcing Pei Liang into a passive position.
Perhaps the two guests lying dead on the floor had been killed by Xu the Third—but no, the amount of blood was wrong. They had probably died later, shortly before he regained consciousness.
In any case, he understood Xu the Third’s line of reasoning perfectly. But Xu the Third had been taken out by this woman before he could kill even one person. Something must have happened within the group—an internal conflict, most likely.
With that, he had essentially reconstructed the entire incident. He had seriously underestimated this woman, in every possible way.
Just as Chu Yebai was about to speak, Pei Liang turned to her sister and told her to leave.
With a smile on her face, she said to Pei Ning, “Go on out for now. It’s time for the adults-only portion.”
Pei Ning was still dazed. At those words, she shuddered and left the room with a foolish look on her face. As she went, she glanced back at Chu Yebai.
In both her lifetimes, the only man she had ever admired and looked up to was now someone she actually felt a trace of sympathy for.
How novel. The all-powerful Chu Yebai had actually fallen to the point where even a cannon-fodder character like her felt sorry for him.
The moment Pei Ning stepped outside, she heard the door being locked from within.
Pei Liang locked the door firmly, then walked over to Chu Yebai and smiled at him. “I generally don’t like resorting to violence, but it seems you aren’t nearly as reasonable as you are when you’re persuading other people.”
“That shipment of weapons is quite important to me. What happens next has nothing to do with personal grudges. Still, if I offend you, there’s no need for you to forgive me.”
Pei Ning didn’t go far. She had no idea where she was supposed to go at this point.
All she could do was pace back and forth along the corridor. The several hijackers in the captain’s room, who could see nearly the entire ship through the surveillance monitors, were just as anxious as she was.
They stared at the monitors in sorrow and indignation.
“If three people went in, then three people went in. Can’t they just finish it with one quick stab?”
“Now there’s a first half and a second half? Taking turns, too? That woman has no sense of honor—and no sense of efficiency!”
“Hmph! She just wants to make our boss suffer more. Shameless!”
The crew members in the captain’s room silently handed them a tissue.
Nearly an hour later, the door finally opened, and Pei Liang stepped out. Her clothes appeared to be intact.
Then again, the dress was easy to put on and take off. If she had wanted to torment someone, she wouldn’t even have needed to remove it, so her appearance didn’t prove much.
Seeing that Pei Ning was still waiting outside, Pei Liang ordered, “Have someone carry him out. Just throw him in with the rest of his men.”
Carry him out? What kind of brutal torture had taken place in there?
Pei Ning hurried inside, only to find Chu Yebai completely naked, with part of his body covered by a bedsheet.
The instant she saw him, Pei Ning suddenly felt as though she hadn’t been getting enough nutrition.
He was drenched in sweat, even his hair slightly damp. His breathing was ragged, and he looked as though he had just finished some strenuous exercise.
His entire body was covered in dark bruises, including quite a few in sensitive places. The scene looked both horrific and suggestive.
His wrists and ankles were swollen and reddened, marked with traces that looked as though he had been restrained. His entire body was in a wretched state, as if he had just been mercilessly brutalized by a gang of bandits.
And it wasn’t just his body. His expression was suspicious too.
There was humiliation, anger, and even a hint of existential doubt. His eyes were clearly red from crying, the corners tinged pink, and there was a suspicious trace of liquid at the corner of his mouth.
The whole—
The whole thing looked as though he’d been thoroughly used up.
Pei Ning asked nervously, “C-Can you still stand?”
It was as if Chu Yebai had only just noticed that there was someone else in the room. He glanced at Pei Ning, gave a cold laugh, and stubbornly turned over to get out of bed.
But the moment one foot touched the floor, he collapsed.
Chu Yebai cursed under his breath. He was afraid he had never been this humiliated in his entire life.
Pei Ning, however, didn’t dare laugh at him.
After all, in her eyes, Pei Liang had already reached a fully matured version of her bugged-out state. Even if she defeated Chu Yebai, it would be no different from a max-level player bullying a beginner.
The Chu Yebai of the future would become so powerful that the Pei Liang of the present couldn’t possibly compare.
Pei Ning had no thoughts of seducing Chu Yebai anymore either. This man was quite the grudge-holder.
Now that she was Pei Liang’s “younger sister,” and could more or less be considered an “accomplice,” would he let her off later?
Pei Ning didn’t dare entertain any thoughts of eliminating the problem at its roots. Even if Chu Yebai was reduced to a helpless wreck in bed, he would still have more than enough strength to kill her.
To reduce his resentment as much as possible, Pei Ning ran to Zhong An’s room, fetched a set of looser clothes, and handed them to Chu Yebai.
Chu Yebai silently put them on. By then, someone had arrived.
They were the doctors from the living room—and they had even brought a stretcher.
The people in the surveillance room burst into tears at the sight.
“Boss!!!”
Fortunately, things didn’t turn out to be quite that serious. Two doctors were enough to support him, though his gait was still awkward.
It was as if every step landed on the tip of a needle.
By now, the bandits had all been gathered and locked in one room. They were no longer merely tied up with nylon cable ties; instead, they had been restrained using more professional methods.
The bandits sat there in silence, enduring the passage of time as though each moment were a year.
After a while, they couldn’t help trying to reassure themselves.
“That woman was probably just making threats.”
“Look at her fiancé. That pretty boy’s built like a chick, and he’s still up and about. Her methods can’t be all that extreme.”
“Exactly, exactly. Our boss has seen every kind of situation. He’s the sort of man who wouldn’t make a sound even if a knife were driven into his flesh. Why would he be afraid of some woman?”
“Hey! It’s not that we brothers are being disloyal. That woman clearly has her eye on our boss’s looks. If our boss goes over there, it might turn into one night of passion. If we go, though, it’ll be pure torture.”
“We all understand. This isn’t abandoning him in his hour of need. It’s called conserving our strength.”
Just then, the door opened, and someone was pushed inside.
Who else could it be but their boss?
The men had been chattering away, ready to say something, but the moment they saw their boss, they realized that something was obviously wrong.
His exposed wrists and ankles were encircled by dark bruises. His expression was a complete mess, and he looked so weak he could barely stand. Whenever his movements tugged at his clothes, the skin revealed beneath the shifting hem was enough to make their hearts seize.
“Boss!!!!”
The men present immediately broke into wails and howls. The burliest and loudest of them burst into tears on the spot.
“Boss, what happened to you?”
“Weren’t we supposed to kidnap her for a little fun? How the hell did things get this bad? That woman’s completely out of her mind.”
Chu Yebai was already exhausted, and when that idiot’s booming voice rang out, the strength he’d mustered to sit up vanished on the spot.
He collapsed back down, looking even more pitiful than before.
Seeing this, the burly man burst into tears even harder. “I told you all to help carry him, but every last one of you pretended to be dead!”
“If even two more of you had stepped up back then, the boss wouldn’t be in this state now.”
“So what if his ass is torn up? A couple years of hemorrhoid cream and he’ll be fine. How many of us haven’t had a hole punched in us before? Why’s this time any different?”
“What a great boss we’ve got! When has he ever shortchanged us? When has he ever let us suffer a loss? Usually, every one of you smacks your chests and swears you’d take a bullet for him. So how come you all turned into a bunch of cowards this time?”
“You’ve doomed the boss~~”
The others were full of guilt and anguish as well.
“We really let our guard down.”
“We thought she was only after a little fun. She looked like such a delicate little thing—how could she possibly be as fond of tormenting people as that old hag who just died?”
“Whatever she did, that old woman’s pretty boy managed to endure it. There was no way our boss couldn’t handle the same.”
“Who could’ve known? Who could’ve known…”
The men looked at Chu Yebai with tears in their eyes. “Boss, are you… are you all right?”
Chu Yebai’s first thought was to put a bullet in every one of these idiots. But judging by the way they were carrying on, even if he killed them, they’d probably still believe he’d been thoroughly ruined.
And since he was in no condition to do anything at the moment, he could only grit his teeth and say, “I’m fine. She was only interrogating me.”
“…”
The surroundings fell silent for a moment.
“Oh! So that’s what happened.” The loudmouthed burly man, Guan Tian, let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. “So it was only an interrogation.”
“That’s good, that’s good—wait, only an interrogation? None of us here is afraid of that.”
The others quickly put on relieved expressions as well. “It’s just a little physical pain. Let her try. If I make a sound, I lose.”
“Exactly. And the boss least of all. He probably considered it a massage. He might even have thought she was being too gentle.”
“Hahahaha! Of course. Just look at those hands of hers—they’re practically boneless. She’d probably start crying before she could even hurt the boss.”
Although the sheer overconfidence of these idiots was embarrassing enough to make him blush, at least they had stopped imagining all sorts of nonsense.
Just as Chu Yebai was thinking this, a confused voice asked, “Then did the boss talk?”
Chu Yebai’s body stiffened. He was already trying to figure out how to tactfully explain to his men why he hadn’t managed to hold out this time.
Then someone smacked the questioner on the head and barked, “Idiot! Can’t you see the boss is embarrassed?”
“Just leave it at an unspoken understanding, damn it. Why are you digging into every detail?”
“Do you really want to make sure the boss can never hold his head up again?”
As he spoke, his voice took on a sobbing note once more. “The boss is already pitiful enough.”
Chu Yebai: “…”
Damn it. How had he never realized in all these years that every subordinate he recruited was an idiot?
