Chapter Nineteen: Confession
The woman's screams stopped abruptly, like a string being snapped.
Cheng Qing looked at the woman. She was curled up on the cold metal lab table, her limbs twisted at bizarre angles. Under her exposed skin, bluish-purple veins bulged like a spider web. Every muscle was spasming violently under the influence of the drug. The woman's eyes went from cloudy to completely unfocused, and the blood foam overflowing from the corner of her mouth left winding red marks on her pale cheeks...
Cheng Qing looked at her with trepidation.
The poor woman's body suddenly stiffened, then went limp like a puppet with its strings cut, with only the occasional hissing sound from her chest, like a broken bellows, proving that she had once been alive.
Even though Cheng Qing was ruthless in killing, he still couldn't help but shudder at the sight of such a gruesome death.
Sato, however, remained calm, only shaking his head and sighing, "Another useless piece of trash! Get rid of him!"
He slowly removed the latex gloves stained with pale yellow medicine, bent down to examine the woman's gradually stiffening face, his pupils behind his gold-rimmed glasses reflecting the corpse's ferocious expression, yet a smile mixed with regret and fanaticism curled at the corners of his mouth.
"What a pity," he said, pushing up his glasses with his disinfectant-smelling fingers. He turned and waved to the black-clad guards waiting outside the door. "Clean it up thoroughly; don't let the smell of blood drift into the corridor. Oh, and send her organ samples to the cryopreservation room; perhaps we can still extract some useful data."
Cheng Qing's nails dug deeply into her palms, and she only realized she was trembling when the stinging sensation came.
"You seem surprised?" Sato's voice suddenly sounded from behind. He had appeared in front of Cheng Qing without her noticing, his fingertips coolly lifting her chin. "Sakura-chan, you should be grateful you're a miracle. Out of ninety-eight test subjects, only you survived. Not only did you survive, but your cell regeneration rate is seven times that of an average person, and your wound healing time has been reduced to one-third of the original..."
He leaned close to Cheng Qing's ear and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Your body right now is practically a weapon tailor-made for war."
Cheng Qing shoved Sato away and staggered backward, only managing to regain her balance after her back hit the cold wall.
In the damp, dark dungeon, the harsh sound of chains scraping against the ground could be heard.
The cold glint of the glass syringe as Sato's assistants, wearing masks, injected the medicine into her vein;
On the gun training range, she pulled the trigger with trembling hands, but the bullet missed the bullseye, and she felt a dull pain as the instructor hit her back hard with the butt of the gun.
And the suppressed cries of the girls locked in the same cell as they were dragged out by the guards in the middle of the night;
And when he was carried back the next morning, the bruises on his body were impossible to hide...
"Shame is the most useless thing, so that you can become pawns without weaknesses." Sato said this to them at the time, and he himself was the first to put this into practice.
Before being given to Qiao Yuan, she was passed from hand to hand like an object. Those kisses reeking of alcohol and those rough caresses now feel like fine needles, pricking her internal organs with pain.
Cheng Qing forced a smile: "It is my honor to serve the Great Japanese Empire."
She had no idea how she left Sato's room.
The smell of disinfectant still lingered in her nose. Cheng Qing stumbled through the corridor, leaning against the wall, her high heels making a hurried sound on the terrazzo floor.
She didn't know where she was going; she only felt that the laboratory was like a giant stomach that could swallow her up at any moment.
The cell door creaked open slowly, and Qiao Yuan, who was sitting on a pile of straw with his back to her, slowly turned around after hearing the noise.
His hair was disheveled and plastered to his forehead, and his once impeccably dressed black robe was now stained with dirt, but his eyes remained as sharp as an eagle's.
"What are you doing here again?" His voice was hoarse, as if it had been sanded.
But Cheng Qing seemed oblivious to his mockery. She simply crouched down, hugged her knees, and whispered, "When I was little, I was kidnapped by human traffickers. They stuffed me into a bamboo basket meant for piglets and tossed me around for three days and three nights. The shards of bamboo at the bottom of the basket pierced my flesh. I dared not cry, for fear they would beat me to death..."
She paused, her fingertips unconsciously picking at the mold on the corner of the wall. "Later, I was sold to a brothel in the countryside. The madam branded my lower back with a red-hot iron, saying that this way I would never be able to escape..."
Qiao Yuan suddenly scoffed, interrupting her: "You've said these things eight times already, Cheng Qing." He stood up and moved closer to her. "The people of Jiangcheng are displaced under the Japanese occupation, and children are starving to death every day in the refugee camps of Zhabei. You're here crying to me about your old stories, don't you think it's ridiculously pretentious?"
Cheng Qing suddenly smiled bitterly and said that she herself did not realize how crazy she was. In fact, she had been competing with Lin Tang all along. She wanted to get him to prove that she was better than him and that she had been loved.
Cheng Qing was stung by his words and looked up sharply, her eyes instantly reddening.
She looked at Qiao Yuan's mocking face, then suddenly laughed softly. The laughter grew louder and louder until it turned into a near-manic sob.
"Yes, so sentimental..." She wiped away her tears, her fingertips futilely grasping at the air. "I schemed so hard to get close to you, pretended to fall in love with you, to drive a wedge between you and Lin Tang... What did you think I did it for? I just wanted to prove myself! To prove I'm better than Lin Tang! To prove I can be cherished and loved too! But in the end..." She slumped to the ground, her shoulders trembling violently. "I've almost forgotten who I am. I'm just a puppet controlled by Sato, a pathetic creature living in Lin Tang's shadow..."
Faced with her confession, Qiao Yuan's eyes were as cold as ice.
"Qiao Yuan, go! Go find Lin Jintang, consider it my repentance!"
"Repentance?" He scoffed, kicking the nearby haystack. "Cheng Qing, stop with your crocodile tears. You think I don't know what you're up to? Let me out, then have someone 'accidentally' kill me on the way? You want to do it a few more times?"
But Cheng Qing ignored his taunts and slowly got up from the ground, walking to the iron gate inside the cell door.
With a soft click, she pulled the lever that controlled the iron gate.
The heavy iron gate slid open slowly to both sides, letting in the light from the outside corridor and casting dappled shadows on the floor.
"Let's go." Her back was to Qiao Yuan, her voice calm as if she were discussing something trivial. "Get out of here."
Qiao Yuan was stunned. He looked at Cheng Qing's thin back, then at the open cell door, his eyes filled with disbelief.
The breath of freedom seeped in through the crack in the door, carrying the dusty smell of the outside world and the faint sounds of car horns.
"What exactly do you want?" His voice held a barely perceptible tension.
Cheng Qing didn't turn around, but simply waved her hand gently, as if driving away something annoying.
Qiao Yuan finally gritted his teeth, crouched down, and rushed out of the cell door.
The corridor was deserted, with only the sound of his hurried footsteps echoing in the silence. He did not turn around, nor dared to, as if some ferocious beast was chasing him from behind.
Only after bursting through the creaking back door and merging into the bustling crowd outside did he dare to catch his breath.
Qiao Yuan naturally dared not go to the armory; if it turned out to be another trap by Cheng Qing, it would truly be counterproductive.
The noise of the crowds in the streets and alleys provided him with the best cover, but it also made it even harder for him to distinguish between friend and foe.
Suddenly, a series of hurried footsteps approached from behind, and Qiao Yuan's heart tightened. He knew he had been caught up.
The moment he turned around, Qiao Yuan's eyes became unusually firm. He saw several men dressed in plain clothes, but with eyes as sharp as eagles.
"You were sent by Cheng Qing?" Qiao Yuan's voice was deep and powerful. Although he already had the answer in his heart, he still wanted to confirm it.
The leader sneered, offering no reply, but simply waved his hand, signaling the others to attack together.
Qiao Yuan was naturally prepared for death, but if he couldn't see Lin Jintang or hear Chen Nian call him "Dad" before he died, wouldn't that be a great regret?
He pulled out his gun and fought with them.
Bullets whizzed through the air, bringing with them a pungent smell of gunpowder.
Qiao Yuan nimbly weaved through the narrow streets and alleys, but he was still grazed by a few stray bullets, and blood gradually soaked through his clothes.
However, the enemy gradually swarmed in, surrounding him tightly in a small space.
Qiao Yuan's breathing gradually became heavy; he knew he had reached his limit.
Perhaps... this is the last time...
Thinking of Lin Jintang and Chen Nian, Qiao Yuan finally felt that God had been kind to him, allowing him to leave behind warmth in this world.
Just then, a burst of even more intense gunfire suddenly rang out from the side, and several pursuers fell to the ground.
Qiao Yuan felt a chill run down his spine and turned to look. He saw Cheng Qing standing not far away, holding two guns, his eyes cold as frost, his shooting incredibly accurate, as if he were a death god returning from hell.
"Stay close to me!" Cheng Qing turned and rushed off in another direction.
Qiao Yuan was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening, and despite the pain in his body, he followed.
Cheng Qing's firepower was exceptionally strong; her marksmanship was precise, and each shot took several lives. Under her leadership, Qiao Yuan miraculously broke through the encirclement. The two ran frantically until they were sure it was safe before daring to stop.
"What...what exactly do you want to do?" Qiao Yuan asked breathlessly, his gaze filled with complex emotions as he looked at Cheng Qing.
Cheng Qing did not answer immediately. She silently put away her gun, then turned to look at Qiao Yuan, her eyes flashing with an indescribable emotion.
"Perhaps... I just didn't want you to die so easily," she said softly, a hint of bitterness in her voice. "After all, you still owe me a lot of explanations."
Upon hearing this, Qiao Yuan felt a mix of emotions. He looked at Cheng Qing, the woman he had once hated and feared, but who had now saved his life, and for a moment he was at a loss for words.
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