Chapter 83 It seems Ah Qi is quite dissatisfied with me...
After a long while, the man finally released, panting.
Fangru stared blankly at the top of the tent, the physical pain and mental humiliation making her almost numb.
Just then, footsteps and faint inquiries came from outside the tent. It was Hadan's personal guards who had been waiting outside. They finally noticed that the tent had been quiet for too long and something was wrong, so they came over.
The man looked up alertly and glimpsed a Northern Di soldier approaching the door through a crack in the tent window.
He cursed under his breath, quickly got off Fangru, and hastily fastened his pants.
He grabbed the limp Fangru and said, "Don't speak." Then he roughly pushed her into the shadows in the corner.
He strode to the small cubicle, pulled the thick wooden stick from the other door, and threatened Hadan inside in a low voice, "Come out! Do as I say, and tell your men to get lost! If you try anything funny, you'll be the first one to die!"
Hadan walked out with a livid face. He quickly glanced at Fangru, who was huddled in the corner with disheveled clothes. A hint of shame and anger flashed in his eyes, but under the man's gleaming machete, he could only take a deep breath and walk towards the tent door.
Hadan lifted a corner of the curtain, blocking the view inside, and said to the soldiers outside in Di language, "It's alright, we're still discussing matters. You can continue to wait outside."
The soldier frowned, and through the gap in the curtain, he keenly noticed that Hadan's face was unusually pale, and there was still cold sweat on his forehead.
"Sir, are you really alright?" the soldier pressed, his gaze inadvertently falling on Hadan's hand hanging at his side, where there were obvious bruises and sprains. "What happened to your hand?"
Hadan instinctively tried to hide his hand, trying to remain calm: "It's nothing, I just bumped it."
This attempt to cover up the truth only fueled the soldiers' suspicions.
"Something's wrong! Let me in and check!" the soldier said, trying to rush inside.
Seeing this, the man hiding behind the door knew there was no way to resolve the situation peacefully, and a glint of cunning flashed in his eyes!
He leaped out from behind Hadan like a cheetah, and the moment the soldier stepped into the tent, he swiftly struck the soldier on the back of the neck with the back of the blade!
The soldier groaned and collapsed to the ground.
The man moved with lightning speed, quickly binding the unconscious soldier's hands and feet with the prepared ropes, dragging him into a small compartment, locking him up with Chen Jian'an, and skillfully searching for the soldier's dagger and money bag.
Silence returned to the tent for a moment, but the air was as tense as a fully drawn bowstring.
The man's gaze fell on Fangru in the corner again, and his lewd light rekindled. He licked his lips, clearly not satisfied with his previous release, and prepared to approach her again.
“Waaah… Waaah…” Fangru let out a desperate sob, her body trembling violently with fear.
Just at this critical moment, "Knock, knock, knock!" The tent door was knocked on again, this time by a Xia accent: "Lord Chen? Have you finished talking inside? I think I heard something just now?"
They were Chen Jian'an's men left on the perimeter to provide backup!
The man immediately raised his knife and pressed it against Hadan's back, while grabbing Chen Jian'an's collar with his other hand, giving them a fierce warning in his eyes not to make a sound.
A deathly silence fell over the tent, except for Fangru's suppressed sobs and the man's heavy breathing.
The person outside, receiving no response, grew even more suspicious and seemed to press their ear against the curtain to listen.
Just when the man thought he could get away with it again, Fangru suddenly mustered her last bit of strength and let out a heart-wrenching scream:
"We've been kidnapped! Help!!"
The scream was like a thunderclap from a clear sky, instantly shattering the tranquility of the night!
The people outside were clearly startled, followed by the sound of footsteps quickly receding into the distance and loud shouts: "Quick! Surround this place! Something's happened!"
The man's face instantly turned ferocious, and he cursed, "You bitch! You're asking for death!"
But at this moment, he no longer cared about punishing Fangru.
Soon, a noisy and hurried sound of footsteps came from outside, and the light of the torches cast shadowy shadows around the tent, clearly indicating that they had been surrounded by the rapidly approaching soldiers.
Fangru huddled in the corner, but looked at the man with a bittersweet smile.
He's finished!
However, the man's reaction was unexpected.
He did not panic; instead, a fierce determination flashed in his eyes.
He grabbed Hadan and pulled him close, pressing the machete tightly against his throat. Then, dragging Hadan back to the tent window, he abruptly ripped open the curtain and roared at the flickering firelight and the shadowy figures of soldiers outside:
"Listen up, all of you! Anyone who dares to barge in, I'll kill Lord Hadan on the spot! And I'll make your Prince Arslan's trusted advisors pay with their lives!"
His voice was hoarse yet menacing, carrying far into the quiet night.
Outside the tent, torches flickered, and soldiers gripped their weapons tightly, surrounding the tent completely. However, out of concern for Lord Hadan's safety, no one dared to cross the line.
This deathly silence lasted for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, with each breath feeling exceptionally long.
Finally, a deliberately slowed, composed voice came from outside, sounding like the leader in charge of the encirclement operation:
"Listen up, you inside!" The voice pierced through the felt, carrying a tentative reassurance, "As long as you guarantee Lord Hadan's safety and release him, we can decide not to pursue your robbery of the brewery! We can also immediately prepare fast horses and provisions for you, and we will never go back on our word or send anyone to track you down! What do you say?"
Inside the tent, the only response to the shouts from outside was an even deeper silence.
The man held Hadan hostage, his back against the sturdy tent poles, his chest heaving violently, his heavy breathing particularly jarring in the silence.
His eyes darted around rapidly, like a wild beast trapped in a snare, oscillating violently between its survival instinct and doubt.
No further action? Prepare horses and let them pass?
These promises sounded too good to be true, like a carefully crafted trap to lure him into a false sense of security.
He couldn't quite believe it, but for now it seemed to be the only way out.
After a long while, so long that the people outside were almost losing patience and calling out again, he finally took a deep breath and, facing the window, shouted back in a hoarse voice as if it had been ground by sand and gravel:
"...Let me think about it!"
Before he finished speaking, he suddenly exerted force with his arm, roughly dragging Hadan back to the center of the tent, away from the window, as if he were pulling a sack of potatoes.
His gaze swept fiercely and warily across every corner of the tent, assessing any potential threats.
Just then, a very faint but deeply hateful sob and curse drifted intermittently into his ears.
It is Fangru.
She remained curled up in that dark corner, her disheveled hair clung to her pale cheeks by tears and dust, making her appear even more vulnerable.
She bit her lower lip tightly, trying to suppress the uncontrollable sobs, but failed.
His lips moved silently, the shape of his mouth clearly cursing him, cursing him to be torn to pieces and die a horrible death.
That low yet stubborn sobbing, that gaze that still burned with resentment even in such dire straits, was like the last spark that landed on the wire of reason and patience that had been stretched to its limit in the man's mind.
"Hiss..." He let out a short, dangerous laugh, and the last trace of hesitation in his eyes was completely ignited, turning into pure violence.
He stopped weighing the options and stopped waiting.
He strode to the corner, bent down, and his rough, large hand, like an iron clamp, grabbed Fangru's slender arm without any tenderness, and abruptly pulled her up from the cold ground!
"Ah!" The sharp pain in her arm and the sudden feeling of weightlessness made Fangru let out a short scream.
Almost the instant she stood still, the cold cleaver, which seemed to still bear the marks of previous violence, was pressed against her delicate neck once again.
"Don't move!" The man's hot breath sprayed onto her ear and neck, making her stomach churn. "Be a good boy and act as my protector. I'll release you once I'm safe! If you try anything funny..."
Before he could finish speaking, the blade pressed slightly inward, and a sharp, stinging sensation immediately followed.
She froze like a puppet, all thoughts of struggling and unuttered curses frozen in her throat by the cold threat of death.
The man used Fangru's soft body as the most effective shield, half-dragging and half-carrying her, moving very carefully step by step toward the tent entrance.
He first used his toes to pry open a corner of the heavy curtain, quickly observed the situation outside, and after confirming that there were no crossbow bolts pointed at the door, he suddenly lifted the curtain wider, completely exposing himself and the trembling Fangru in front of him to the aim of countless arrows and blades.
In the flickering firelight, the soldiers could clearly see that Lord Hadan had been left inside the tent. Before leaving, the man roughly shoved him into a corner and gave him a silent warning with a fierce look. Hadan's face was ashen, but he was unharmed for the time being.
The woman, with her clothes torn and a gleaming machete across her neck, became the new hostage in the hands of the kidnappers—a hostage who seemed easier to control and more vulnerable.
For a moment, all the soldiers became even more hesitant to act rashly, their knuckles turning white as they gripped their weapons, yet no one dared to make a move.
"Where's the horse?!" the man shouted sternly.
The leading soldier frowned, staring intently at the knife held to Fangru's neck. After a moment, he reluctantly waved his hand. A subordinate immediately led a rather robust-looking warhorse, fully saddled and harnessed, from behind.
The man, holding Fangru hostage, retreated slowly and steadily towards the designated military horse.
With each step back, he cautiously surveyed his surroundings to make sure no soldiers took the opportunity to approach.
Finally stepping back to his horse, he commanded, "Get on! Sit in the front!"
Fangru was half coerced and half dragged onto the horse by him. Then, the man also nimbly flipped himself onto the horse and sat close behind her.
He still gripped the cleaver across Fangru's neck with one hand, as firmly as an iron band, while his other hand roughly pulled the reins and his legs spurred the horse's belly!
"drive!"
The horse, in pain, let out a high-pitched neigh, and suddenly reared up, charging out like an arrow. In an instant, it smashed through the fragile defensive line of torches and soldiers at the edge of the camp, leaving that brightly lit, tense place behind, and plunged headlong into the boundless, thick night.
The icy night wind lashed at my face like a whip, stinging with a chilling cold.
Fangru was forced to lean against the man's firm chest, which she felt only utter loathing. She could clearly feel the warmth emanating from his body and his rapid, powerful heartbeat.
This close contact, this forced dependence, caused her sense of humiliation to grow wildly like weeds.
The horses galloped for an unknown amount of time, with only the monotonous, heart-pounding thud of hooves hitting the ground and the endless whistling of the wind in their ears.
The expected rapid hoofbeats of pursuers did not appear. This overly smooth and desolate escape route only made people more uneasy, like the suffocating calm before a storm.
Summoning the last vestiges of courage within her, her voice trembling uncontrollably, she struggled to break the unbearable silence:
"When...when will you let me go?"
Behind her came the man's nonchalant, even slightly malicious, reply, his breath brushing against her ear: "When I want to let go, I will."
Fangru's heart felt as if it had fallen into an ice cave, sinking deeper and deeper.
She bit her already broken lower lip hard, enduring the persistent stinging pain in her neck and the discomfort throughout her body, and finally asked the question that had been lingering in her mind for so long, puzzling her:
"Who...are you?"
She could feel that the man behind her stiffened almost imperceptibly for a very brief moment.
"What do you mean?" he asked back, a hint of barely perceptible wariness in his voice.
However, Fangru did not see through the disguise as he had expected. She simply relied on her intuition and a contradictory quality about the man that seemed incongruous with his brutality, and whispered her feelings:
“You… don’t seem… like the kind of person who needs to rob breweries to make a living…”
Upon hearing this, the man's tense body seemed to relax almost imperceptibly, and then he let out a low, hoarse laugh with a hint of deliberate frivolity.
He even deliberately rubbed his chin against her shoulder before leaning close to her ear and saying in a deliberately crude tone, "I don't change my name, I'm called Ah Qi! Robbing a brewery is just a piece of cake, but..."
He paused deliberately, his tone suddenly becoming ambiguous and frivolous, tinged with nauseating intimacy, "Meeting a stunning beauty like you is the real luck of this trip! Don't you think so?"
"You...aren't you going to let me go? Where...are you taking me?"
A low, enigmatic laugh came from behind, carrying a mocking air of someone who had completely controlled their prey. "With your looks, you could probably get a lot of good horses and furs by selling yourself to the chieftains of those small tribes on the grasslands who are short of women. If you stay with me, you'll only suffer. Sell yourself to someone else, and you might live a better life."
If it were an ordinary woman, she would probably be terrified out of her wits upon hearing that she was to be sold.
However, upon hearing this, a strange light flashed in Fangru's eyes.
Sold off? As long as I don't stay by this devil's side, being sold to anyone, even to be a slave, is better than this endless humiliation and fear!
She even prayed in her heart that she would reach her destination quickly and get away from this man named Ah Qi as soon as possible.
"How much further is it to the store?"
Ah Qi seemed taken aback, not expecting her to ask so directly.
He then let out his usual low, mocking chuckle: "What? So eager to find a new master? Looks like you're not happy with me. Didn't you get your satisfaction earlier?"
Fangru ignored his teasing. Her gaze was empty as she stared into the endless darkness ahead, her tone as flat as if she were talking about someone else: "Staying by your side makes me feel disgusted every moment. Rather than this, I'd rather be sold by you."
She tilted her head slightly, her voice filled with undisguised hatred, "At least, the person who bought me might just be after my beauty, not a despicable and filthy dog like you."
"Dogs and pigs?" Ah Qi chewed on those two words, his tone unreadable. "How did I become a dog and pig? If it weren't for me, you might be in that tent being treated by other people..."
"Shut up!" Fangru interrupted him sharply, her body trembling slightly with agitation. "Those people are hypocrites, you are the real villain! I will never forget the humiliation you inflicted on me! You have committed acts of humiliation and kidnapping against me! I wish I could eat your flesh and sleep on your skin!" Her words were like icicles, sharp and cold.
Ah Qi was silent for a moment, then suddenly chuckled softly, a laugh tinged with an indescribable complexity: "Good, very good! You hate me, don't you? You can't wait to get as far away from me as possible, can you?"
His tone suddenly turned frivolous and cruel, “Fine, as you wish! There are brokers who specialize in this kind of business after you pass Black Wind Pass. Someone like you can definitely fetch a good price. Maybe you'll even catch the eye of some tribal chief and live a life of luxury, much better than living a life of hardship with me.”
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