Those killer bugs and snakes might as well have been rushing in to rescue her, their segmented carapaces clattering and scales hissing as they surged forward through the gloom.
Do people with luck that good really exist? The question hung in the air of the silent room, unanswered.
Then again, what in this world is impossible? If she was heaven's favored, then he was heaven's castoff. Su Mali had luck as her shield. He had nightmares as his shadow, a dark silhouette that trailed his every step, and one talent the world didn't know. That is his life-saving trump card, his secret art, and remains one of his greatest secrets to date.
So Su Mali's terrifying luck didn't trouble Lin Yi. In this plan, he never meant to harm her. For him, she was a trigger and a piece on the board, a catalyst to set the rest of the game in motion.
Force brings failure, and clinging brings loss. With someone like Su Mali, you avoid the edge and keep a respectful distance, watching from the safety of the periphery.
"So this is a troubling situation," Lin Yi sighed, the sound of his breath soft against the quiet of the room. What he wanted was to see what secrets hid in the woman who had killed Shangguan Jun when pressed like this. He hadn't expected that without even touching her, the problem would solve itself.
This time Jing Shu showed nothing unusual at all. She stood there like a passerby who came to carry soy sauce and left without a ripple, her presence entirely unremarkable amidst the chaos.
Shangguan Jun, like him, thought in careful spirals, his mind constantly turning over every possibility. His specialty was ambush and treachery. No one gambles with a life. Yet under such circumstances, he died in the pit he dug for another. Either he was discovered early, which seemed unlikely, or the sneak attack failed.
That only deepened Lin Yi's curiosity, a cold interest sharpening his gaze. Jing Shu had to possess a lethal counterattack, a kill back in extremis. He had examined the place where Shangguan Jun died. Scorch marks marred the road, the asphalt blackened and cracked by the heat. Explosives or grenades had been used. He had sounded out Grandma Jing. The old lady hadn't wanted to speak, her lips pressed into a stubborn line, but in front of Lin Yi there was little he couldn't learn.
There had been an explosion that day. She had heard the blast, a sudden roar that shook the air. The car flipped, its wheels spinning uselessly. Repairing it had cost a fortune, and they had wasted a lot of food.
Which made it all the stranger. Did this woman truly have some mysterious power? No. There's no mystic force in this world. Everything has got a mechanism, just as his own ability does.
So what was it?
"It's a pity. I saw nothing this time and wasted a fine opportunity," Lin Yi said, glancing at the clock on the wall. A slow smile climbed his lips. "Forget it. The real show is about to begin. It's time to let you two out and have you play your parts as pieces.
But first, if we are acting, we perform the full play. You need to suffer a bit so your story convinces. Let me arrange a surprise for you on the surface."
His long fingers tapped commands, the rhythmic clicking of the keys filling the room. Compared with Shangguan Jun, he excelled at pulling strings from the dark. He liked the world's name for him: the big boss behind the curtain.
He hit return, lifted a cup of tea, and sipped, the steam rising in thin curls. He checked the footage again. The smile froze by degrees, his expression hardening.
"Something's off. Jing Shu is too calm, as if everything is under control. Hm? Now that's interesting. Don't disappoint me. If I can catch you this easily again, it will be boring."
After Su Mali got the key, she unlocked the chains binding them, the metal clinking as it fell away. The two of them climbed free of the pillars, their limbs stiff from the confinement. At last, they had their freedom back.
"So what then? What does Lin Yi want?" Jing Shu thought, her pulse steady despite the tension. "He planted bugs to watch us, as if he wanted to see us escape on purpose. Why?"
The behavior set her teeth on edge. Was Lin Yi a cat toying with mice, snatching them up, letting them go, and pouncing again for pleasure?
No. It wouldn't be so simple.
"Jing Shu, come on. We can run. Let's get out first. They took my phone and comm gear, so forget it. We will figure it out once we are outside," Su Mali said, yanking at her arm with trembling fingers. Bruises blotted her skin in red and purple, dark marks against her pale flesh, yet for the first time in her life the heiress could only think of escape.
"Still so naive. Fool. You were let go on purpose."
"All right. Let's go."
Jing Shu straightened her clothes and wiped the dried blood from her face, the rust-colored flakes falling away. Scrapes all over her had already scabbed, the skin tight and itchy. This was the first time since rebirth she had been this wretched.
Before leaving, she gave the dead Fei Zhuzai two sharp kicks, the thuds dull in the quiet space. While the Rubik's Cube Space had been upgrading, he had kicked her and tried to paw her. Of course, she wasn't only venting her anger. She also took the chance, as her foot landed, to sweep a few of the bugs on the floor into the space with a swift, subtle movement.
Yes, she planned to breed these ferocious bugs. Either as feed for snakes and leeches, or for future ambushes and corpse disposal.
She would raise them for a time and see what else they could do. She was curious how savage bugs fed on Spirit Spring would become, whether she could raise a bug army that needed no rations, thriving on corpses, and even sellable as food in a pinch.
Su Mali clasped her hand with both of hers, shaking as she stared at the bugs eating the corpses and the blood-soaked ruin around them. "Let's go. Wait. The fat man's wearing the watch I gave Wang Chuang. I have to take it back, to remember him. He saved us. And Da Mao shielded us from bullets. I will look after Er Mao and San Mao."
She overcame her fear, took the watch from the cold wrist, and dragged Jing Shu forward.
At the door, Jing Shu stopped. Two routes lay ahead, yawning like open mouths in the shadows. The first led straight up to the surface. The second was the underground passage.
As expected, Su Mali wanted to run topside toward the faint light.
Jing Shu pointed downward into the gloom. "We take the lower path."
After the upgrade, she felt stronger than ever, the energy thrumming through her limbs as if her Rubik's Cube Space had traded a bird gun for a cannon. This was a qualitative leap.
If the space hadn't been updating earlier and fogging her mind, Wang Chuang wouldn't have died. She had a dozen ways to handle a high-speed elevator. Compared with Lin Yi's deliberate herd toward the surface, the underground felt safer.
And in tight corridors she had ways to survive. Up above, there are too many variables. If a squad trained rifles on her, she'd have no answer at all.
"But Wang Chuang died down there. It's dangerous," Su Mali said, her voice sounding pitiable.
"I suspect this passage runs straight to Qian Duoduo's home," Jing Shu said, narrowing her eyes as she peered into the dark.