Jiang Can silently followed behind her, bypassing the main hotel building and arriving at the entrance to the underground parking lot.
The surrounding area is dark and quiet, with very few people passing by. Even if someone wants to go to the underground parking lot, they will only take the hotel's internal elevator and will not go through the trouble of taking this route.
Jiang Can slowed her pace, a question lingering in her mind.
"What are you doing?" Jiang Yao urged from the front. "Hurry up! My car is parked down there."
"Do you think you can find it if you go down there like this?"
"Do you think I wouldn't know where my car is parked? What, you expect me to drive up here to pick you up?" Jiang Yao sneered. "Jiang Can, if I drive up to the hotel entrance to pick you up in a big way, everyone will see the awful way you're dressed today! Do you want to make our family lose face?"
Jiang Can pursed her lips and said no more.
The road leading to the underground parking lot is a dark and secluded path, like a black hole, with no end in sight.
Jiang Yao practically jogged ahead, while Jiang Can struggled to keep up. Jiang Yao meandered through the darkness, losing track of where she was. There were no lights, and she couldn't see the path beneath her feet.
Jiang Can felt a little uneasy. There was always a musty and damp smell in this area, which made her even more restless.
"Sister..." she uttered, her voice echoing around her, "Where is this?"
After a long while, Jiang Yao's sharp and vicious laughter echoed from the darkness.
"This is where you should be!"
Jiang Can's heart suddenly clenched, and a chill instantly crept up his spine and spread throughout his body!
Before she could react, she was pushed away by a force.
She screamed and fell heavily onto the uneven cement ground, her knees aching from the impact!
Then came the sound of the door slamming shut.
Jiang Can's mind went blank. He struggled to his feet and rushed over, but through the iron gate, he heard Jiang Yao coldly laugh:
"My dear sister, you don't need to attend the banquet tonight! I'll tell Dad that you didn't want to come at all!"
"Jiang Yao!" Jiang Can pounded on the door. "Where am I? Let me out!"
"Such a nice place, you can enjoy it for a while." Jiang Yao snorted, turned and left, leaving only the sound of her high heels walking away on the ground.
Jiang Can slumped to the ground next to the door.
The ground was cold, the walls were bare and gray, and the air smelled strongly of mildew, making one want to vomit.
If it weren't for the tiny sliver of light peeking through the crack in the door, this place would be pitch black, like the darkness of hell.
Jiang Can hugged her knees, trying her best to calm herself down. Her hands trembled as she reached for her phone, but there was no signal at all, as if she were cut off from the world.
She felt completely cold, staring blankly at her phone screen, and finally, unable to hold back her tears, she shed them.
...
Jiang Yao returned along the same route, where someone was waiting to meet her.
"Young Miss, the items are ready. Shall we send them over now?"
Jiang Yao curled her lips smugly, looking at the cage in the man's hand, from which came squeaking sounds.
"You wait here, we'll put them in later! This is our special program, how can we go in so quickly? Heh, let that little slut enjoy the pleasures of the dark first, and then we'll send these little cuties in... to liven things up for her!"
"Yes." The man lifted the brim of his hat, revealing an equally sinister smile.
As Jiang Yao walked along the path, she finally understood what it felt like to have a happy occasion.
Torture Jiang Can, lock her up, let her go back covered in disgusting viruses and infect Gu Mang... This is her greatest joy!
Even if it means death, this little bitch shouldn't die too easily!
Jiang Yao straightened her chest and held her head high, her mouth almost twisted to the sky, and quickened her pace toward the banquet hall.
However, she was unaware that someone under the large banyan tree in the distance had seen everything she had done.
...
Jiang Can huddled in the corner, trembling.
The room wasn't large, but the occasional peeling paint and the dripping sound of water from the pipes were particularly clear in the darkness and silence.
This environment reminded Jiang Can of her school days, when Jiang Yao always bullied her, spreading rumors throughout the school that she was an illegitimate child. She even conspired with others to trick her into an abandoned classroom after school one day and locked her there for a day and a night.
Jiang Can had experienced the despair of being unable to call for help from heaven or earth at that time.
From then on, she developed an extreme fear of dark and enclosed environments. Even during the period after she married Gu Mang and they slept separately, she didn't dare to close the bedroom door too tightly.
And now...
She thought of Gu Mang, and how he must be anxiously searching for her right now, while she couldn't contact him. A wave of sadness washed over her.
Just then, a few soft squeaking sounds came from the doorway.
Jiang Can paused, then listened intently. The sound was getting closer and closer, as if it were just behind a door.
Like a rat...
She suddenly felt nauseous and a little scared. The sound was very chaotic, so it seemed there was more than one.
After a while, Jiang Can mustered up her courage and went to the basement door, peeking out through the crack in the door.
Just then, she saw a large rat staring at her with a pair of scarlet eyes!
"Ah—" Jiang Can screamed, startled, her hair standing on end, her back pressed against the wall.
Hearing the noise, the rats outside started banging on the door, and the big rat tried to squeeze in through the crack.
Jiang Can hugged herself tightly, covering her mouth to stop herself from crying out loud, but she couldn't control her tears at all.
"Gu Mang, Gu Mang..." she called his name in despair.
In the past, whenever she was in trouble, he would always be there to hold her, giving her a great sense of security.
But now, apart from these four dark walls, there's nothing there.
Jiang Can bit her hand hard, tears streaming down her face.
She saw the rats' bare paws and tails squeaking into the crack in the door, making a nauseating squeaking sound, and she could almost smell their foul stench.
She could also imagine the consequences of contracting the plague.
Jiang Can kept retreating, but there was a wall behind her, and she had nowhere left to retreat to.
"Don't come any closer..." she screamed in a trembling voice, "Don't come any closer!"
Just then, she heard hurried footsteps at the door, followed by several muffled thuds. The mice squeaked and struggled, and the claws and tails that were peeking out from under the door quickly retracted.
Jiang Can was startled and stood there stunned for a few seconds.
Soon the cries stopped, and the world seemed to fall into a vacuum, eerily quiet.
She was trembling uncontrollably as she slowly moved toward the door.
"Who...who's outside?"
Suddenly, the sound of a lock being pried open rang out!
"Who is it?!"
"Don't be afraid," came a response from outside. "I'll get you out of here right now!"
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