"Get away from my phone!" the man yells, sweat dripping from his forehead continuously. He was sweating profusely even after the fan was on.
"You will talk" Shi Lian orders, coming near him, "Act smooth."
"Fuck off! I won't do anything!" the man barks, his face etched with fury. Even after knowing what happens, he raised his voice again.
"You seem to don't like your fingers" Xu Duan comes from his other side and pressed the sharp edge of the knife on the skin of his ring finger.
The man grits his teeth, letting out infuriating bellows, and struggles to break free.
Xu Duan, without any emotional thinking, cut off his ring finger at one go. Blood starts dripping from that wounded area like anything. With that he warns, "You yell, your finger's gone again."
The man cannot help yelping. It sure is hurting no doubt and Shi Lian can see him crying. She feels bad for him. Even though what he did was not acceptable, but as a human, she feels disgusted seeing the bloody scene.
She turns to face Xu Duan, "You shouldn't have done that."
His face has no emotion. "It was necessary. Don't feel sad for him, if you are."
The phone has stopped ringing a minute ago. Shi Lian needs to hear why her uncle is calling him. "Take the call or not?" she implores the man, her voice firm and she tries her best to ignore his finger.
He is not in the state to say anything but he knows if she nothing, something worse will happen. "I will," he says through his teeth. Sweat and tears are all over his face.
Shi Lian dials the number back and in an instant, her uncle picks up. She hurriedly presses the phone on the man's ear. He has put the phone on speaker so that she can also hear him.
"Hello?" the man speaks, his voice unstable. He takes a deep breath to control his voice but the pain is too much for him.
"What took you so long dammit?" her uncle snaps.
The creepy man tries his best to keep his voice neutral. "I was busy. Why did you call?"
Mo Zheng Yi sighs deeply and says, "When are you leaving?"
So he knows about his departure. The man must have told him that he sensed someone stalking him. The man glances at Shi Lian, his eyes teary yet filled with rage. She mouths him, "I need to talk to you." He says the exact same thing on the phone, "I need to talk to you, in person."
Her uncle questions, "For what?"
Shi Lian tells him what to say and he does what he is told to. "About Shi Lian."
Just as she has expected, her uncle exclaims, "what about her?"
"That's why you need to come" the man grits out, his pain making him unable to speak.
"Why are you whimpering?" Mo Zheng Yo questions, making Shi Lian nervous because if her uncle gets even a bit suspicious, he will know.
"I-I am not" he declines, "Meet me now."
"Fine" With that Shi Lian taps on the end icon and puts the phone on the table just a distance beside her.
"Do you have any antiseptic in your house? " Shi Lian asks the man. She can't bear him to see like this. He has lost a large amount of blood and it is still dripping. The rope through which his hands are tied is soaked red and the floor is red.
"Kitchen" he speaks, closing his eyes snd biting his lips to stop himself from tearing up.
She eyes Xu Duan. "I'll get the med, you keep an eye on him."
"Helping out your enemy isn't a saint's work," Duan says, trying to give her advice but Shi Lian has already made her mind.
She goes down to where the kitchen and finds the medkit. The house is too shabby and too unhygienic. She can see spider webs and dust all around the house as it has never been cleaned.
She opens the drawer of the kitchen one by one, finding the kit. She finds the kit and goes back to the room.
As she reaches the room door, her phone starts to ring. She glances at the screen finding Zichen's name on it. She pauses, debating whether to pick his call at the moment or not. She has ignored his call many times and if she does not picks up, he will think she is in some kind of danger.
But she cannot take the call. He will guess, judging her voice, that she isn't in a work environment.
She decides to text him instead.
I AM BUSY. SORRY. CALL YOU LATER.OKAY?
She turns off her phone and continues walking inside.
Taking the required material from the kit, she starts to do some surgery on his finger. The man does not says anything throughout the process which she is glad.
After she is done bandaging, she gets up from his behind and keeps the things back to his place again.
She turns to face and asks pointing to Duan, "When did you sense him?"
The man speaks without being forced to. "Yesterday when I was returning from the pub, I confirmed he is eyeing me. I have seen him a few times but never actually thought that way."
"And you informed my uncle?"
He nods. "He then suggested I flee from this country."
Sounds so much like her uncle. She guesses he already started digging out who is the stalker and it will not be too soon, that he will know about her plan.
She called him here to confront to face to face. The plan sounds rash but she needs to take some action. She cannot just sit here and see her uncle making her life miserable.
"What will you do after that sly fox comes?" Xu Duan asks, sitting on the bed nonchalantly.
That's what she is planning. She does not know if her plan is will work or not. She needs to grab evidence if she wants to disclose her uncle's ugly face to her parents.
"Let him come and see him like this," she says, gesturing to the man, "We will keep ourselves hidden. I will try to record him when he will admit that he is the one who kidnapped me. He will manipulate him saying it."
The man scowls, "I won't! So what you did my bandage, he is the one who cashed me."
Duan gives her a knowing look. Yes, no matter how good you do to others, they don't appreciate it.
She sighs, "I'll give you 10 million dollars. If you do as I said, the money is yours."
The man takes a moment to think. The offer is tempting but he is not sure whether to trust her or not. She is after all the niece of Zheng Yi. They share the same blood.
Before he can reply, they all hear Zheng Yi's voice from downstairs. "Lao! Where are you?"
She grabs Duan by his arm and the both of them go to hide inside the bathroom. She comes back again and puts on the phone's recording and place it near where the man sits, down the chair.
"Do what I said and get your requested money" she warns him before going back inside the bathroom.
She has no idea whether the man will utter what she wants or not but that's the risk she is going to take. She hurriedly closes the bathroom door, just leaving a one-inch gap so that she can hear what they will discuss.
"Lao? Fuck, what's wrong with your house?" he complains, his voice audible. He is near. Shi Lian can hear her heartbeat. This has to be the craziest shit she has done.
His voice gets louder and louder and she can sense he is near to this room. "Lao—" her uncle pauses and hurries inside the room seeing the man in rough condition.
Shi Lian gestures to Duan mouthing that her uncle is here. He nods, getting cautious.
"How did this happened? Who did this to you?" she hears her uncle exclaim. He must be very shocked to see him in that condition.
The man does not open his mouth and stays still. Her uncle keeps on asking as well cursing but the man does not reply. She gets hope that he is on her side now.
When her uncle reaches to open the rope, the man stops him, "Don't!"
Mo Zheng Yi scowls, "What is wrong with you? Tell me who did this. "
The man glares at him, "It's all because of you! Because of you, my life's in danger!"
Zheng Yi narrows his eyes at him and rises to his feet. "Shi Lian? Did that little bitch did this?" he implored, his voice thundering.
"It doesn't matter who did this but they did this only because of you!" he goes on accusing him. More likely to instigate him to make him say the truth from his mouth.