When Qiu Ling saw Zhan Xiong rushing towards her, she panicked and fired several shots. Zhan Xiong died with his eyes wide open in front of her.

Li Ke holstered his gun and watched Qiu Ling standing there trembling. She didn't say anything; it was normal. She would stop trembling after killing a few more scumbags. She had been through the same thing.

Qiu Ling paused for a moment, then angrily kicked Zhan Xiong, who was lying dead on the ground. However, her body was still trembling, and her kicks were not very powerful.

"Letting him die so easily is too good for him. I wanted to torture him slowly! Rotten people, all of them are rotten people, I'm so angry!"

Li Ke watched Qiu Ling vent her anger by cursing and kicking while tears streamed down her face. Only after she stopped did Li Ke say, "It's all in the past. You're very strong..."

Li Ke didn't know what else to say after that one sentence; she was never good at comforting people.

Qiu Ling wiped her face and said to Li Ke, "Let's go open the manhole cover in the dungeon. That Brother Zhou is a really nice guy. I think he looks a bit like you. I wonder if he's still around."

Li Ke glanced around the hall. She was indeed no longer needed there. Seeing Qiu Ling's expectant eyes, Li Ke nodded.

Qiu Ling led Li Ke to an operating room where two men with bruised and swollen faces were tied up. Qiu Ling explained to Li Ke, "These two are the hard laborers here. The leg irons we have are all their handiwork. They were also captured. Although they didn't commit any major crimes, they are still accomplices. However, the other women thought that keeping them alive might still be useful, so they didn't kill them yet."

Qiu Ling untied them, pointed a gun at them, and told them to weld leg irons onto themselves. Then she told them to take tools to the dungeon to unlock the locks.

Li Ke had initially thought there was some difficult-to-open internal key on the dungeon lid, but when she saw the large yellow brass lock hanging there, she realized she had been overthinking it again.

She could open the lock with her own key, but Qiu Ling was already having the two men pick it. The two men first tried with pliers, but it didn't work. Then they tried with a saw, but that didn't work either. Finally, they used a simple hammer to smash the lock open.

The latch on the manhole cover was rusted, and it took some effort to push the opening open and lift the cover.

Qiu Ling called out to the well opening, "Brother Zhou, are you still alive? Zhou Heng—Brother Zhou—!"

Li Ke paused for a moment when she heard the name. She also came to the well and looked down. There seemed to be water below, and there was an iron frame that could be climbed around the well.

"What does Zhou Heng look like?" Li Ke asked Qiu Ling.

Qiu Ling sat by the well, thinking as she replied, "Tall and thin, quite fair-skinned, doesn't smile much, and once you get used to his serious look, he's kind of handsome, kind of cool."

Li Ke said "Oh," and realized that it wasn't just one person. She knew Zhou Heng, who looked like that, but he wasn't handsome or cool at all; he was all about money.

Suddenly, a thumping sound came from below. Li Ke and Qiu Ling both heard it. Li Ke said to those below, "If you're still alive, knock twice more, and we'll try to get you up."

Two thuds came from below, and Qiu Ling immediately exclaimed happily, "The person is still alive!"

She called out to those below, "Brother Zhou, are you all still alive?"

There was no response from below. Qiu Ling looked at Li Ke, who then asked, "Knock a few times to get a response if there are any people alive down there."

After a moment, a "thump" came from below.

Seeing Qiu Ling's distressed expression, Li Ke asked, "How many people are imprisoned down there in total?"

Qiu Ling: "Eight people. I don't know if anyone was locked up down there before, and I don't know who is still alive down there. Big brother, how do we rescue them? I'm afraid to go down, and I don't want you to go down either, but I don't feel comfortable letting others go down."

Li Ke took out two bundles of safety rope from his backpack, tied a slipknot, and threw it into the well. When the rope was about three meters long, he asked the person below, "Can you see the rope? If you can, knock once; if not, knock twice. If you can grab the rope and put it on, knock three times."

After waiting for three seconds, a voice came from below. Li Ke joined the two ropes together, made sure they were secure, and then lowered them down. He threw them down another three meters or so, and then heard three thuds from below. The ropes had been pulled.

Li Ke estimated the depth to be about thirty-five or thirty-six meters, but when she looked down, she could only see part of the water surface; it seemed there was space below.

Qiu Ling ordered two burly workers to come and pull the man away, telling them that if they dared to slacken their efforts, she would kick them both off as well.

Fifteen minutes later, a thin, pale man was pulled up. As soon as his face appeared above the well, Li Ke confirmed that the man was indeed Zhou Heng, whom she knew.

One of his legs was twisted and completely useless. He had been locked up down there for more than two months, but his body wasn't too dirty, and his clothes only looked damp, not very wet. I wonder if there's another world down there that allows him to stay there comfortably.

Qiu Ling's expression brightened again; the person who came up was the one she most hoped would live, which was a happy thing.

“Brother Zhou, it was this big brother who saved us. Wang Tan, Wang Hu, and Zhan Xiong are all dead. We will never be bullied again.”

Zhou Heng was still sitting on the ground with one hand covering his eyes. It was quite bright outside, and the light stung his eyes.

Qiu Ling then asked, "Brother Zhou, what about the others? Are they all beyond saving?"

There was still no response. Just when Qiu Ling thought there would be no answer, Zhou Heng suddenly shrugged and then answered slowly and coldly, "I killed them all."

After speaking, Zhou Heng fell silent again, maintaining the same posture as before.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!