Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Xu Nuo agilely bandaged Ning Ning up. After Ning Ning looked at her for a while, he then quietly put on the clothes she prepared for him—gray casual wear which smelled like new clothes. The gray casual wear was a very comfortable fit for Ning Ning.
The medicines, which composition was unknown, felt cool to the touch. Like ice meeting fire, the fiery wounds did not seem to sting after application of the medicine and instead felt extremely comfortable. With exotic flora and fauna not uncommon to the island, children who were injured in the course of their grueling training would require medicine that was on par with their training.
But, why did she suddenly release him?
As the young kid pondered hard about the question, he could not help but ask Xu Nuo,” Why did you release me?”
“Because I was in a good mood!” Xu Nuo answered cleanly as she flicked her sleeves, creating an attention-drawing red streak. The young kid looked on at the domineering girl who sounded arrogant and proud.
A good mood? House rules, including organizations like those she was in, would have been extremely strict to the point she could not bend the rules in any way she wanted. Besides, her ice-cold demeanor which ended up either a stare or whip was never quite an indicator of good mood, no?
Knowing that he was puzzled, Xu Nuo immediately asked him, “How are you related to Second Brother Mo?”
“Second Brother Mo?” Ning Ning was somewhat perplexed before he understood. She must be referring to Mo Jue, as she had mentioned on that day that she could not be bothered about his fate had Second Brother Mo not brought him over. “Not related,” he said.
While the young kid remembered a thing or two, his memories were almost wiped from the knockout drops. Since he was a kid, he was naturally not as capable as his auntie and Eleven. Since Mo Ye and Mo Jue were not as guarded against him, they did not inject him with additional substances.
He remembered the bumpiness on the seas and Mo Jue wiping the sweat off his auntie. He knew that it was Mo Ye and Mo Jue who brought them away. It was afraid that the Mo brothers were able to sneakily evade the infrared warning around his mansion and bring them away.
Xu Nuo looked at him in the eye before she turned away and walked out. The young kid quickly caught up. The island was mysterious and sinister, and he was not afraid of Xu Nuo being mean as she was his only means of protecting him on the island.
As the sun blazed down on them, he secretly tried to figure out their location through the weather and sea breeze. From the mansion to the beach, countless monitors blinked and armed guards watched from a tower in the distance.
With tight security, escaping the island became even more difficult.
As he did not know whether the island had communication equipment, he could hear and make out whirring sounds during his time in the dungeon to know that there were helicopters arriving on the island daily. The only way off the island, it seemed, was to hijack a helicopter.
Damn it, he did not know how to fly one.
He then recalled a saying—a scholar is one who does not put what he’s learned into practice. That made sense.
Xu Nuo led the young kid to the seaside. Save white camellias that blossomed, they did not encounter anybody else on their way there. As the young kid racked his brain, an island full of white camellias did not leave any impression on him.
There were several lounging umbrellas and beach chairs on the beach. As Xu Nuo sat down, the young kid also helped himself and sat down on the other side. Given that Xu Nuo was brought up in such an environment, she was indeed very meticulous.
Perhaps only talking here would prevent them from being eavesdropped.
“Hey, stone, why did Second Brother Mo bring you here?” Xu Nuo asked.
Yesterday, Mo Jue made a deliberate trip to the island to check on him. As Xu Nuo truthfully reported, Mo Jue did not overreact and did not even go into the dungeon to check on things. He merely left the instruction to keep him intact.
He then left in a hurry.
Xu Nuo quietly pondered for a moment. Was he supposed to recover from his injuries or remain untouched?
Even if nuclear war broke out and billions died, Mo Jue would seem unaffected by it. Him making a special trip to ensure she kept him intact left Xu Nuo extremely surprised.
It was bordering on outlandish talk.
She hence had him washed up and medicated. That was Second Brother Mo’s instructions.
“Isn’t your master Louis?” The young kid coldly smiled.
“Does the answer matter?” Xu Nuo raised her brows and broke into a colder smile.
The young kid, not expecting her response, was slightly stunned.
As Xu Nuo had no intention to add more to her answer, her gaze sank. “I’m asking something. Answer.”
While she had been a little cocky, the young kid elegantly smiled. “Maybe your Second Brother Mo wants to be my uncle-in-law. He might want to please me.”
“What a joke.” Xu Nuo coldly harrumphed in disbelief. “Dear stone, please do not test my patience. I can heal you, but I can also cripple you.”
She paused between each word and sounded especially vicious.
“How could a girl like you have such a dark mind? I was saying the truth.” The young kid could not help but smile as he pondered about how far Mo Jue was from them. Since he wasn’t far, then…
Auntie and Eleven were not too far away then.
He boldly guessed that there was more than an island in the vicinity, or that they were scattered around the area. With Xu Nuo leaving no breadcrumbs, he clearly understood and analyzed the environment down to the last detail.
Where was his mommy then? He was most worried about his mommy.
“Don’t entertain your stupid ideas. If I am not leading you around, you would be shot up before you even reached the beach.” Xu Nuo seemed cold despite the warm sea breeze lapping on her.
As the wind blew, the waves picked up.
Ning Ning knew she was speaking the truth.
“Xu Nuo, have you ever thought of leaving?” The young kid suddenly turned his head around as he smiled and earnestly asked.
How fake!
As he wanted to use her, Xu Nuo coldly sniggered. Dear stone, Second Brother Mo said that you are a genius. Are you treating everybody else as fools? Could you even differentiate sincerity from those that are fake?
“No,” Xu Nuo replied forcefully.
Ning Ning slightly frowned as he stared at her. Her reply was too quick, too absolute. She was clearly lying. He clearly did not believe that she would have any feelings of attachment for this island.
“Someday, Mo Jue will leave this place too,” Ning Ning said. “Are you going to stay here until your death?”
“Stone, please do not try to believe in the things you cannot even believe in. If you do, you will pay a very steep price.” Xu Nuo, seeming to imply something else, could not even tell how genuine she was.
She would hazard a fifty-fifty gamble that he would be properly messed up.
Given how smart the young kid was, he immediately stood up and stared at her fiercely when he sensed something was amiss. “What do you mean?”
Xu Nuo, who was no coward, smiled as she enjoyed his slightly reddened face. “What are you panicking about? I didn’t even say anything.”
Yes, she had not said anything, yet she did say something. It was like a premonition.
What kind of trap did Mo Ye and Mo Jue lay?
“Sit down,” Xu Nuo calmly said as she looked at him. On the beach, a platoon of armed men walked by. Looking extremely angry, Ning Ning asked, “Xu Nuo, where are Mo Ye and Mo Jue now?”
He had lost all semblance of control and absolutely panicked.
In extreme rage, he cooled down and sat down. Xu Nuo coldly looked at him and mocked, “You sure overestimate yourself. Do you have what it takes to go against the Mo brothers? While you are unable to take care of yourself, are you even able to take care of others?”
Had Second Brother Mo not instructed to keep him safe, why would she have to bother with him? There was also another meaning to ‘keeping him safe’—that was, keeping him under watch and not allowing him to leave the island.
Although she did not understand, a quick investigation revealed why she had to guard against him. He was the unassuming future leader of the First Terrorist Organization.
Had her master known his identity, Xu Nuo wagered that he would become the wolves’ dinner.
The young kid’s gaze grew cold. “Xu Nuo, have you ever cared for anyone before?”
“Since nobody cares about me, why should I care about people in return?” Xu Nuo mockingly replied in return as she toyed with the fire-red rose in her hands. She was in a slight daze.
In that instant, Ning Ning regretted asking her such a question.
He might be an extremely vicious person who cared for nobody else, but Xu Nuo… was still a lonely girl who must have endured quite some hardship. Poking her where it hurts was not something a man would do.
As they went speechless, the surroundings fell into a still.
A moment later, Xu Nuo said, “Stone, if you behave yourself, I will keep you safe from humiliation. If you do not know your place and try to escape, do not blame me for going down hard on you. This island has more than enough ways to break you, and whipping you was clearly the easiest way out.”
“Did you just threaten me?” The young kid coldly smiled. As the young kid had a rebellious streak in him, challenges brought out the competitive side in him. He did not believe that he would be unable to contact the outside world.
“So what if I did threaten you?” Xu Nuo coldly responded. “Stone, know your limits or pay the price for foolishness. From today onwards, I will be watching you 24/7.”
As the young kid’s face turned, Xu Nuo stood up as though nothing had happened. He suddenly grabbed her, and as she had nowhere to duck, their fingers locked. While her fingers were slightly calloused, his was smooth.
Xu Nuo, slightly displeased, wanted to break free of it. Ning Ning held on for his dear life. “Help me.”
This was his first time pleading somebody for help.
As Xu Nuo slightly frowned, she ingeniously flexed her wrist and broke free from the grip. “Fat hope!” she coldly said.
As Cheng Anya suffered under the virus that acted once every two days, the pain almost overwhelmed her to the point of breaking down. She felt her strength drained from her. A fever sent her into a coma when the effects of the virus were full-blown. With her immunity destroyed by the virus, her body was in very bad shape.
There were moments she seemed to see Hades beckoning for her.
She would probably die in less than a month.
While death was not terrifying, it was loving too deeply and having too many regrets that made her unwilling to just go. Enduring each wave of the infection through sheer resilience, Cheng Anya straddled between living and dying.
Louis, having appreciated how scorned she was, injected her with an experimental agent. As the needle cut into her blood vessel, Cheng Anya felt a coldness from it that traveled all the way to her heart. It was even more unbearable than before, and she felt that her heart was being pierced by a needle.
She did not know what she was jabbed with and could not resist it. Her body ached to the point she was sapped of strength in those few days. After being injected with the experimental agent, she felt much better and the pain disappeared.
She knew that this was not an antidote, but his means of controlling her.
Like consuming drugs, the addiction kicking in warranted a fresh round of drugs. Wash, rinse, and repeat. She knew that her death was the only way to end this.
Feeling great grief in her heart, Cheng Anya wanted to fight back relentlessly by opening up the doctor’s biohazard suit and touching his skin. She wanted them to all die.
However, Cheng Anya was not a vicious person. As these doctors looked at her in fear, Cheng Anya noticed the sadness in their eyes. As they had no second option, she did not have to kill unnecessarily. A Zhang Bo was more than enough for her to feel guilty for the rest of her life.
She did not want her hands to be, out of rage, tainted with blood.
As she was in much better spirits this day, Louis dragged her to the monitoring room on the second floor and showed her footage that would break her.
It was Zhang Bo isolated in a sealed room as he painfully curled his body and cried for dear life. The child’s voice had become hoarse and diffused through his throat. His body was full of self-harm marks that were caused by extreme pain.
As the virus took its effect, his tender face became terribly pale. Seeming to be in a state of madness, he knocked his head against the wall and blood splattered against it.
She heard the sound of bone crashing against the wall.
Each sound impacted her heart.
Cheng Anya staggered and held onto the study table for dear life lest she faint. As she endured the cruel image, her eyes were wide open, pupils darkened, and her knuckles showed themselves.
“You like this?” Louis gently asked as he sweetly wiped the sweat off Miss Cheng’s face like a lover would.
As she trembled even more, she almost could not stand. While she wanted to escape, he pressed her shoulders down and tugged her chin so that her eyes were still on the image. Even if she closed her eyes, she could hear Zhang Bo’s hoarse and tender screams of pain.
Scourging her!
There was a devil in Cheng Anya’s heart, a devil that called her out on her guilt. As she was a mother, she knew how other mothers would feel. As she put herself in their shoes, what if the child in the video was her darling child…
Zhang Bo was infected and in pain because of her. It was her negligence that caused this tragedy.
Louis, if you are out to make me cry, you have done it.
She was about to go mad!
“The antidote. Louis, give him the f***ing antidote and I will promise you anything!” Cheng Anya heard her paled voice and could not bear to see anything else.
As Louis gently smiled, he hooked Cheng Anya by the waist. “You promise everything? Cheng Anya, are you telling the truth?” His gaze was green as the devil.
“Yes!” Cheng Anya said plainly as she opened her eyes. Even though he was around the corner, she was still calm. “I promise you everything.” She repeated.
“Including sex with me?” Louis ran his slender and long fingers across her face as he smiled even more happily. “Without regrets?”
All her anguish welled up at the tip of the tongue and burned. Cheng Anya had repressed herself too much that fresh blood surged up and coated her throat. She hung on for dear life. Her humiliation in exchange for a child’s life was never too much.
Besides, it was her that landed Zhang Bo in this predicament!
“Yes!” Cheng Anya closed her eyes and banished her soul into the darkest part of her heart.
Louis’ deep, magnetic, and gleeful laugh rang next to her heard. “Oh, dear, look at how you have relented. Anya, haven’t you always stuck to your guns?
She remained silent. Her principles and the life of a child could not be compared.
Hence, she did not want it.
Whatever Louis wanted would always happen. How could she be so naive to think that she would be safe if she did not sexually arouse him?
“Come, Anya, get on your knees and beg me. Beg me to f*** you.” Louis sounded gentle.
As she felt an immense shame, blood surged up from her throat and reddened her pale lips.
She backed away and closed her eyes.
Her legs went soft and she knelt down…