Chapter 35
The two returned to the RV. Fang Xiaoyu, growing impatient, tapped a wrench in her palm. The eldest princess wagged her tail, her feet resting on the spray gun nozzle.
She pointed at Wang Le: "Hurry up and wash the car."
Then he said to Li Ren, "Go and bring over thirty barrels of oil."
Wang Le smiled and took the spray gun head that the eldest princess had brought him.
Li Ren cheerfully pushed the large handcart from the repair shop away. When he returned, drenched in sweat and pushing a cart full of oil, the car was only half-washed, just enough to clean the belly of the car where the oil was stored.
Wang Le suggested that they move the car together after he finished washing it, but Li Ren refused outright: "It's no big deal. You take your time washing it. I can move it by myself. It won't take much effort."
As he spoke, he bent down and began to fill the truck with oil bucket by bucket, working hard until his back ached but he didn't complain.
Wang Le raised an eyebrow and stepped back, giving up his chance to shine.
While moving things, Li Ren noticed that Lei's girlfriend's gaze kept falling on him, and as time went on, the frequency of her gaze increased, and the gaze even became somewhat burning. He couldn't help but feel secretly pleased.
This was the right move; deliberately putting on a show of effort, especially emphasizing the muscle definition, did have some effect. Isn't it more appealing than a pretty boy?
When only one or two buckets were left, Li Ren, who had been working hard all day, inevitably became a little complacent. Just then, he suddenly felt a whooshing sound from behind.
Fang Xiaoyu seized the opportunity and silently attacked from behind, using the force of a wrench to strike the back of his neck—a move she had learned from Yue Yue, ensuring the force and angle were professional enough.
Li Ren sensed something amiss and tried to dodge, but because he was bent over and his body had become sluggish from the repetitive labor, he couldn't dodge in time. His face was filled with shock and anger when his vision went black and he collapsed to the ground, unaware of what had happened.
Before falling to the ground, his forehead hit the cart, and it turned bruised instantly.
The eldest princess, whose leash had been removed at some point, was eager to try it out, as if she would pounce on anyone who moved and take a bite.
Wang Le was momentarily stunned by her swift and unannounced actions, but the next second he quickly stepped forward, pinned her to the ground, and pressed her firmly down: "Should we get rid of her?"
Fang Xiaoyu was taken aback by his words, then found some tape and threw it to him: "Tie them up first, I'll go check their room."
Without saying a word, Wang Le began to bind the other person's hands and feet, making sure that the other person would not be able to break free when they woke up.
Fang Xiaoyu took two steps, then stopped abruptly: "Don't you think there's something wrong?"
Wang Le was skillfully tying the person up without turning around: "If you don't make a move, I'll try to see the lover he's talking about when we eat later, and then we'll see how things go."
Fang Xiaoyu raised an eyebrow: "If I guessed wrong, I'll just apologize."
Wang Le chuckled: "If an apology is needed, I'll do it."
Fang Xiaoyu waved her hand and walked away, saying, "I won't argue with you."
While listening to the conversation, she couldn't suppress her anger.
He deliberately steered the conversation toward his wife, who hadn't shown up yet, and deliberately portrayed her as a crazy and unapproachable person.
Using other people's sad stories as a topic to gain their sympathy, ha! And you call yourself a lover? You're heartless and ungrateful, treating everyone else like fools.
Li Ren was only unconscious for five minutes. When he woke up, he was stunned at first and then realized his predicament and was shocked: "Brother Lei, what are you going to do?"
"You're awake." Wang Le rested his chin on his hand, looking into the distance without even glancing at the person on the ground. "I'm the one who knocked you out. Remember my name is Wang Le. Just think of me as having too much free time. If you're okay, I'll leave you a knife before I leave so you can untie it yourself."
Li Ren tried to break free: "Stop joking! That location, your girlfriend did it, right? What are you trying to do? You know what you're doing is illegal! Let me go!"
He twisted and turned on the ground for a long time, not knowing how the other party had tied him up, and he couldn't muster any strength. Only then did he begin to panic, unable to figure out where he had given himself away. His eyes darted around and he changed to pleading: "If you want the car, just drive it away. Take whatever you want from here. Just please don't disturb my lover. I'll do whatever you ask."
Wang Le was impressed by the other party's shamelessness: "Why do you make it sound like we're the villains?"
He knew that Fang Xiaoyu had been gone for a while but hadn't returned yet, so she must have really discovered something. Now only he could answer her questions.
However, he had no interest in explaining. He stretched and said, "Just stay quiet and we'll talk about everything when they get back."
When Li Ren saw that Wang Le was no longer paying attention to him, and looked around but couldn't find the woman who had knocked him unconscious, alarm bells went off. He used all his strength, his face turning red, and moved from one end to the other, but he still couldn't tear off the tape on his back.
"Brother, brother." Sensing that the woman had discovered the truth in the room while he was unconscious, and although he couldn't guess what the two of them would do, he knew that what they had done was shameful. Li Ren's eyelids twitched wildly, and before anyone else arrived, he began to plead again, "We're all men, let me go, and we'll pretend that nothing happened, okay?"
Wang Le rested his chin on his hand and looked towards the rest area. After hearing this, he turned his eyes and glanced down: "Oh, what do you mean?"
Li Ren swallowed hard: "It's just, it's about men, you know what I mean."
Wang Le scoffed coldly and rolled his eyes back: "I don't understand."
Li Ren gritted his teeth, filled with both hatred and anxiety: "Let me go, and you can do whatever you want with that woman."
Seeing that the other party didn't respond, he quickly tried to persuade them.
"Your girlfriend is so spoiled and arrogant, are you really planning to be bossed around and be a lapdog for the rest of your life?"
"The money here is just a pile of waste paper; she has lost her advantage."
"Also, there are no police or laws here, so you can completely get rid of those shackles you're wearing."
"Cheng Yuan, that woman in the room, she'll obey anyone and let them do whatever they want as long as she's beaten. She's also prettier than your girlfriend. I'll teach you how to train them later, so you can have her on both sides..."
Li Ren spoke in a low voice, his expression becoming increasingly lewd.
Wang Le glanced at him with disgust, wanting to teach him a lesson, but then thought it would dirty his feet, so he moved away. When he turned back, his eyes lit up: "You're back."
Li Ren was startled. He shut his mouth and looked up, and sure enough, he saw the woman slowly walking towards him with a familiar figure. His face darkened, and he shifted left and right, trying to hide himself, wishing no one could see him.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. Cheng Yuan saw him as soon as she came out, her eyes looking as if she wanted to torture him to death a thousand times.
Wang Le wanted to step forward to help, but seeing that the two men's faces were as black as the bottom of a pot, he wisely stepped aside.
Cheng Yuan gently pushed Fang Xiaoyu aside, stepped forward, and kicked Li Ren in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
"Ah—" Li Ren gasped, not expecting her to have such strength. Seeing the next kick coming, he quickly dodged, saying, "Yuanyuan, Yuanyuan, calm down!"
Cheng Yuan ignored him, kicking, punching, scratching, and biting, venting the hatred that had been building up for months.
Finally, finally, the day she's been waiting for has come!
Li Ren had half his ear bitten off, and he rolled on the ground screaming in agony: "Ah, help! Murder!"
Fang Xiaoyu watched for a while, then borrowed a belt from Wang Le and handed it over.
Cheng Yuan turned her head to wipe the blood from her mouth and took the belt.
Accompanied by the sound of whipping, Li Ren's screams rose and fell.
He glanced at the two people watching the show out of the corner of his eye, gritting his teeth, but the intense pain that followed quickly made him forget everything else.
"Yuanyuan, have mercy on me, I just... ah—"
Cheng Yuan felt nauseous at the sound of his voice, and she gripped him harder, trying to interrupt him.
But the other person was determined to annoy her, insisting on finishing what they were saying and transmitting every single word to her ears.
"I just... ah, I couldn't control myself... ah, I love you too much... no, ah, I didn't mean to hurt you... ah, you."
Unable to control yourself? Too much love? Not intentionally hurting anyone?
She gagged twice and uttered her first words: "Shut up! Scum! Beast! You don't deserve to call me by my name."
Then the whipping became even more forceful, and the air echoed with a whooshing sound.
Li Ren was hit in the chest, and his heart felt like it was going to be shattered; he was hit in the fingers, and his fingers felt like they were going to break; he was hit in the mouth, and not only was his mouth swollen and bleeding, but it also looked like he had lost half a tooth.
No, this won't do, you'll die.
He tried to shrink back, but with his hands and feet bound behind his back, he had nowhere to hide. He could only roll and crawl on the ground trying to escape, while pleading and begging for mercy: "I, ah, I just, ah help, I just, afraid, afraid that you will leave me."
No sooner had he finished speaking than his toe was slapped hard, cracking his nail, and tears and snot bubbles instantly appeared.
Cheng Yuan suffered severe injuries and could not keep up after fighting for a while. She was holding her waist and panting heavily.
After the excruciating pain subsided, Li Ren regained his senses and his mind raced. Sniffling and slurring his words, he changed his tune: "Let's not talk about this, let's not talk about this. You, you've always been the goddess of our department. I had a crush on you before, yes, it's true, and, and we used to have a very good relationship."
"Do you remember? I used to buy you breakfast all the time, always the most expensive ones, and I did it for half a year. I... I was just out of my mind. I just... I just wanted to be with you for the sake of our years of working together. Please, please forgive me."
"Heh, hehe, haha, hahahaha—"
Before Cheng Yuan could catch her breath, these words brought tears to her eyes.
She didn't wipe away her tears, but instead gripped the belt even tighter and began a new round of retaliation.
Take a picture and say something.
"Colleagues?!"
"I'm just going that way, so I'll give you a ride!"
"Not a single penny will be taken!"
"You dare mention breakfast?!"
"Did I say no to sending it?! No to sending it!"
"I'll pay you back for breakfast right now!"
"You've ruined my life. I haven't been able to save much in six months, and I've even lost all my previous savings!"
"Do you think it's easy for me to save up this money?! Do you think it's easy?!"
"When are you going to use your brain? Are your ears just for decoration?"
"Months of humiliation and imprisonment, is this your repayment?"
"They still have a good relationship?!"
"You still want me to be your accomplice!"
"Full of lies and excuses!"
"brute!"
"Damn it!!"
Li Ren was shocked, angry, and terrified; his fig leaf had been torn away.
He didn't think he had done anything wrong; he was just in pain all over from being beaten, and no one was helping him. All he could do was beg for mercy and cry.
Unfortunately, no matter how pitiful he acted, he didn't receive a single bit of sympathy. Occasionally, he would try to hide behind Fang Xiaoyu or Wang Le, but would be startled by the eldest princess's barking and would roll away to another spot.
When Cheng Yuan stopped for the second time, he was already soaked in sweat and urine.
Seeing that things were almost over, Fang Xiaoyu helped Cheng Yuan into the car to rest, closed the car door, and asked softly, "What are you planning to do next?"
Cheng Yuan felt a small sense of relief and her emotions calmed down a bit.
Upon hearing the question, a strange expression appeared on her face, a mixture of a smile and a cry.
what to do?
A cold voice echoed in my mind, saying without hesitation: Kill him!
She wanted to kill him; she dreamed of it.
He even kept recalling the day he first fell into a coma, the scene of him throwing corpses down below.
“The view up there is beautiful,” he said. “Yuanyuan, I suddenly feel so relaxed.”
A voice inside her said that she also wanted to experience this kind of ease and wanted to know what it felt like.
One day in her dream, she got her wish and saw herself climbing the stone steps, while the face of the corpse that had been thrown down turned over—it was him.
Waking up in terror and facing the hellish reality again, she thought how liberating it would be to throw him off this mountain.
Is she crazy, or has she already been crazy for a long time?
Is this moment, this very instant, real, or just her illusion, her imagination?
She looked at Fang Xiaoyu as if she were a lifeline: "If it were you, what would you do?"
Her eyes held vulnerability, bewilderment, madness, and hatred... She struggled between good and evil, as if a gentle push would send her plummeting into an abyss, yet a small flame still burned defiantly.
Fang Xiaoyu thought for a few minutes, and finally said truthfully, "I don't know."
She has never been good with words and has to rack her brains to express even seven or eight tenths of her thoughts.
"Those who have experienced it know that the gap between assumptions and actual experience is far deeper than imagined. Some alarming ideas suddenly become reasonable when applied to oneself."
"I can't advise someone on how they should do something based on their personal preferences. Nor can I make choices for you, because if the same thing happened to me one day, I might not be able to handle it as well as you."
"All I can share is my past mental journey and the choices I made. If you find it useful, listen; if not, forget it."
“There is no order, no justice, no organizations or institutions that speak out for the vulnerable. Everything that was once taken for granted needs to be reshaped overnight.”
"Once I knew this, I set a red line for myself while ensuring my safety."
“I told myself that one day I would return to that place with civilization, order, justice, and fairness. There, people are waiting for me, hoping for me, and even trying to find me to go back. This thought is like a rope, pulling me back and telling me not to get lost.”
"I've been thankful more than once that they're not here, that they don't have to make choices, that they don't have to go through tests of humanity."
"Then I also think, what if they come and things get really bad here? What can I do?"
"At that moment, a voice in my heart said, 'Then let's do what we can.' Maybe it's just a small thing, but as long as it can change things for the better, even if it's just a little bit, little by little, it will add up and make the future a little better."
Wang Le thought Li Ren was too noisy, so as soon as they got in the car, he covered his mouth and ears and leaned against the front of the car to listen quietly to their conversation.
Upon hearing this, her gaze softened slightly.
How similar! Former companions, equally naive, and equally committed to action.
The quiet conversation inside the car continued.
When Cheng Yuan heard about the care package, her eyebrows twitched.
Her heart trembled slightly when she heard the pattern of the road's changes.
After Fang Xiaoyu finished speaking, she wiped away the water droplets, covered her chest, and broke the silence: "I also have a rope here."
"What kept me going was the world on the other side of the rope and my parents."
"When I was forced to become a ghost, I thought, there must never be another me."
"Resist, fail, resist again, fail again. Day after day I endured, but I could never see any hope. I gradually began to doubt the point of such persistence."
Fang Xiaoyu recalled the scene in the room and couldn't help but feel a lump in her throat. She really was... the strongest person she had ever met.
Cheng Yuan stared into the void and continued speaking.
"If it weren't for my parents, I probably wouldn't have made it this far."
"I told myself that I must go back alive and I must not let them, the elderly, bury their children."
"But sometimes I think, what's the point of persevering? I can't go back... They hoped I would find a suitable person to marry and live a peaceful and ordinary life like them and the ordinary people around me. But now... can I still go back?"
Fang Xiaoyu handed over a box of tissues.
"Of course we can go back! There will definitely be a day when we can go back!"
"And another thing, being an ordinary person isn't just about living the same life. Take me for example, am I not ordinary? I stood out from billions of people to come here, but I didn't suddenly gain superpowers. I still get hungry, thirsty, and sleepy. I'm as ordinary as can be. You're the same. You didn't suddenly have three heads and six arms, right?"
"For ordinary families, life is sometimes bitter at first and then sweet, sometimes sweet at first and then bitter. There's an old saying, 'After hardship comes happiness,' and I can guarantee that sweetness will follow!"
"As for marriage and having children, let nature take its course."
"If I meet someone I like, I'll start a relationship. If I don't, I can still be happy on my own."
"If I like children in the future, I can go back and have IVF or adopt. There are many options, and I don't necessarily need to have a partner."
"Your parents are just afraid that you will be lonely in the future, but as long as you are happy, they will definitely support you."
Cheng Yuan was led to the distant future by her words, as if her soul had returned home and she heard her parents say to her, "Yes, as long as you are happy, anything is fine. As long as you come home safely, everything is fine."
She was stunned for a long time, then finally exhaled softly: "You're right."
The eldest princess looked at Fang Xiaoyu, then at Cheng Yuan, raised one paw, pressed it against Cheng Yuan's knee, and wagged her tail with concern.
Cheng Yuan lowered her head, placed her hand on its head, and revealed a beautiful smile: "So soft, so warm."
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