Chapter 43: Cruel

Night fell.

All around was dead silence.

Under the deep blue sky, the landscape lights in the garden glowed in reds and greens, flickering between brightness and shadow, casting an air of eerie and sinister gloom over the luxury.

Jamie and Little P, having just finished their shift, were hiding in the basement lounge, smoking the "trendy" herb of late.

In other words, marijuana.

Leaning back in their chairs with blissful expressions, their eyes were half-closed, their focus scattered and hazy.

Suddenly, a soft knock came from outside the door.

Neither of them heard it, or perhaps they did, but simply couldn't be bothered to respond.

The knocking quickly stopped.

Yet, a few seconds later, the door clicked open.

A figure slipped in from the outside, agile and swift.

At that moment, Jamie suddenly turned his head and glanced toward the door.

After a second of blank, somewhat dazed hesitation, he chuckled and said, "Sompar, want a hit?"

As the words fell, the person at the door also smiled and replied, "Sure!"

Hearing this, Jamie leaned forward to grab a small metal box resting on the coffee table in front of him. But before his hand could reach the box, he lost his balance, pitched forward, and crashed heavily onto the floor.

Meanwhile, Little P, sitting nearby, suddenly burst into loud laughter.

Yet the laughter died down almost as quickly as it started, his gaze drifting back to some empty point in the upper space. After a moment, he began to murmur softly to himself, though it was impossible to tell what he was saying.

The person at the door stood still for two seconds, the smile fading from his face, and then strode toward the two men.

The unique, pungent odor of the marijuana made him somewhat uncomfortable, imbuing his subsequent actions with a hint of roughness. Stepping up beside Jamie, the intruder bent down, dragged Jamie up by his collar, and wrapped both hands directly around his head. With a sharp twist and a crisp, muffled click, Jamie, who had just been about to struggle, instantly stiffened. His hands then dropped limply, and he went completely still.

Nearby, Little P remained lost in the euphoric haze of his high, completely oblivious to the commotion beside him.

Having dealt with Jamie, Zhong Da bypassed him, walked up behind Little P, and repeated the exact same maneuver.

In less than a minute, both men were lifeless.

Having finished them off, Zhong Da returned to the door and pulled it open.

Soon, Zhong Yuan walked in.

As soon as he entered, he frowned. The air in the room was foul, smelling like a mixture of burning odor and body sweat. Moreover, since the lounge was located in the basement with no windows and the door closed, the stench had nowhere to escape, lingering heavily in the room and becoming utterly suffocating.

This was not the first time Zhong Yuan had encountered this particular smell in Ai City recently.

"They were smoking marijuana," Zhong Da said as he picked up the small metal box from the coffee table, glanced inside, and handed it to Zhong Yuan.

Zhong Yuan did not take it; with a frown, he gave it a brief glance and told Zhong Da to put it back.

"Neither of these two was conscious, so I didn't leave any alive," Zhong Da added.

Zhong Yuan nodded, then swept his gaze around the room before telling Zhong Da to help shove the two bodies into a nearby cabinet. Once that was done, Zhong Yuan and Zhong Da left the lounge one after the other to continue searching for their target.

Meanwhile, in the second-floor bedroom of the villa, Ai Kun, covered in Sanskrit tattoos and wrapped in a bathhouse robe, walked out of the bathroom. Not far away, on a white carpet, a woman knelt with her upper body stripped bare and her hands bound tightly behind her back, her forehead pressed against the floor. Hearing the approaching footsteps, her entire body began to tremble, her teeth even chattering audibly.

"What are you shaking for?" Ai Kun stopped in front of her, looking down with narrowed eyes at her scar-covered back. "Lift your head!"

The woman dared not look up; she could only shake her head.

Amidst her muffled sobs came a desperate plea for mercy: "Brother Kun, please let me go..."

Hearing this, Ai Kun’s expression darkened instantly. He lashed out, kicking her hard in the shoulder and sending her flying backward to crash heavily onto the floor.

The fall exposed the woman's front side entirely.

Red cords were intricately and skillfully wrapped around her body, squeezing her already ample curves into an even more prominent display.

Perhaps stimulated by her emotions, or perhaps due to the violent impact of the fall, fluids were already seeping from the peaks, trickling slowly down.

Catching sight of this, a flash of malice crossed Ai Kun's eyes. Slowly pacing over to the woman, he placed his foot squarely on her voluptuous chest and ground down mercilessly.

Amidst the woman's cries of pain and whimpers, he spoke coldly: "You need to remember, if I hadn't pulled you out of there, you would already be in Mang City today, defiled by who knows how many men! So, I am your benefactor! If you behave and serve me well, when I'm in a good mood, I might just let you go back. Your child must still be very young, right?"

With those words, the room fell dead silent!

Ai Kun smiled silently, lifted his foot, turned, and walked over to the bed to sit down.

The woman on the floor remained rigid for a moment before struggling to roll herself over into a kneeling position. Keeping her head lowered, she crawled on her knees toward Ai Kun. Sitting there, Ai Kun watched the woman with a gaze that was cold and cruel, yet laced with an unspeakable, hidden pleasure—as if the woman before him was not a living human being, but merely a toy, a plaything he cared nothing for and could tear apart at will!

Over an hour later, Ai Kun stepped down from the bed looking fully satisfied, stark naked as he walked into the bathroom.

Before long, the sound of running water echoed through the room.

At that moment, the lock on the bedroom door suddenly turned on its own. After twisting twice, the door swung open silently.

The bedroom was brightly lit.

Upon entering, anyone would immediately be able to see a figure lying on the bed through the crystal screen in the middle, though blurry and discernible only as a human outline.

The faint sound of water drifted from the bathroom.

Zhong Yuan gestured to Zhong Da, signaling him to move forward, while he himself entered through the adjacent dressing room to head toward the bathroom.

Zhong Da nodded.

Stepping around the screen, the scene that met his eyes made him widen them in shock. The very next second, he slammed his eyes shut and whipped his body around.

The person on the bed was most likely dead.

Completely naked, legs sPREAd wide, upper body bound in red cords, and hands tied behind her back. Her flesh was virtually unblemished nowhere, covered entirely in whip marks and deep tooth marks embedded in the skin. Her chest, in particular, was a bloody mess. Stained bloodspots, even soaked into the black sheets, were instantly recognizable at a glance.

Zhong Da had seen plenty of dead bodies, and he had seen people tortured beyond recognition. Not long ago, he had even slashed