Those killer bugs and snakes might as well have been rushing in to rescue her.
Do people with luck that good really exist?
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, and one talent the world did not know. That was his life-saving trump card, his secret art, one of his greatest secrets to date.
So Su Mali's terrifying luck did not trouble Lin Yi. In this plan, he never meant to harm her. For him, she was a trigger and a piece on the board.
Force brings failure, clinging brings loss. With someone like Su Mali, you avoid the edge and keep a respectful distance.
"So this is a troubling situation," Lin Yi sighed. What he wanted was to see what secrets hid in the woman who had killed Shangguan Jun when pressed like this. He had not expected that without even touching Su Mali, the problem would solve itself.
This time Jing Shu showed nothing unusual at all, like a passerby who came to carry soy sauce and left without a ripple.
Shangguan Jun, like him, thought in careful spirals. His specialty was ambush and treachery. No one gambles with a life. Yet under such circumstances, Shangguan Jun 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. 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. Explosives or grenades had been used. He had sounded out Grandma Jing. The old lady had not wanted to speak, but in front of Lin Yi there was little he could not learn.
There had been an explosion that day. She had heard the blast. The car flipped. 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 was no mystic force in this world. Everything had a mechanism, just as his own ability did.
So what was it?
"A pity. I saw nothing this time and wasted a fine opportunity," Lin Yi said, glancing at the clock. A slow smile climbed his lips. "Forget it. The real show is about to begin. 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. 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. He checked the footage again. The smile froze by degrees.
"Something is off. Jing Shu is too calm, as if everything is under control. Hm? Now that is 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 two of them climbed free of the pillars. At last, they had their freedom back.
"So what then? What does Lin Yi want?" Jing Shu thought. "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 would not 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. Bruises blotted her skin in red and purple, 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. Scrapes all over her had already scabbed. This was the first time since rebirth she had been this wretched.
Before leaving, she gave the dead Fei Zhuzai two sharp kicks. While the Rubik's Cube Space had been upgrading, he had kicked her and tried to paw her. Of course, she wasn't only vented her anger. She also took the chance, as her foot landed, to sweep a few of the bugs on the floor into the space.
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 is 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, and dragged Jing Shu forward.
At the door, Jing Shu stopped. Two routes lay ahead. The first led straight up to the surface. The second was the underground passage.
As expected, Su Mali wanted to run topside.
Jing Shu pointed downward. "We take the lower path."
After the upgrade, she felt stronger than ever, as if her Rubik's Cube Space had traded a bird gun for a cannon. This was a qualitative leap.
If the space had not 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 were too many variables. If a squad trained rifles on her, she would have no answer at all.
"But Wang Chuang died down there. It is dangerous," Su Mali said, pitiable.
"I suspect this passage runs straight to Qian Duoduo's home," Jing Shu said, narrowing her eyes.