Chapter 262

The scene behind the door was truly shocking, no wonder Xia Xue screamed out loud!

A girl drenched in blood was tightly bound to a filthy wooden plank (it was hard to tell if it was even a bed, but we’ll call it a bed anyway).

The girl let out a piercing, agonized scream; only then did Xia Xue notice a muscular man, bare-chested and wearing a white mask, standing beside the wooden bed, stabbing a tool repeatedly into the girl’s pale inner thigh.

Several cameras were positioned at different angles around the girl, suggesting there were plenty of spectators on the other end.

The masked man seemed to be tattooing some pattern onto the girl’s leg.

Mao Wei smirked: “Heh! This one’s good! You picked her yourself! Come on—do you want to take the place of the one lying down or the one standing?”

Xia Xue’s mind went blank; seeing herself about to fall into danger, she quietly prepared to fight to the death. But Mao Wei stared at her intently, his voice icy: “What? Scared? Choose quickly!”

“S-standin’!” Xia Xue stammered, startled by Mao Wei.

“Heh! You’ve got good taste… but…” Mao Wei scanned her up and down, his throat bobbing involuntarily as his gaze lingered on her chest and hips: “I think you’d be better off lying down.”

A deafening buzz filled Xia Xue’s head; she’d expected he wouldn’t let her go easily, but she hadn’t expected such raw, brutal directness. Now she regretted her recklessness—if he forced her, the consequences… were too horrific to imagine.

Seeing her fear, Mao Wei pressed closer: “Come on! You chose this yourself. But don’t worry—not everyone ends up like this. Just follow my orders, and I’ll give you a comfortable job. Heh!”

By the end, his lecherous intent could no longer be hidden—he looked like a starving wolf ready to devour the fat lamb right before him.

Seeing the situation spiral out of control, Xia Xue braced herself to fight to the death. She’d decided: even if she died, she’d never let this beast defile her purity.

Seeing her silence, Mao Wei assumed she was cowed. Gazing at her full chest, his lust surged—he reached out to grab her waist.

Xia Xue instinctively stepped back, only to feel the cold metal of a camera stand press against the small of her back.

No escape left. Her right hand slid silently toward the ceramic blade hidden in her jeans’ waistband. Mao Wei’s fingertips were half an inch from her collar; his heavy body odor flooded her senses.

“Wait!” she suddenly raised her voice, tilting her neck back to expose its vulnerable curve: “Didn’t you say there’d be a comfortable job?”

Her sweet voice trembled just enough; her left hand quietly unbuttoned the second button on her chest—the micro-camera needed a wider angle.

Mao Wei’s hand froze mid-air. The predator who loved to toy with his prey grinned slightly, his gaze tracing downward from her deliberately exposed collarbone.

In the instant he was distracted, Xia Xue drove her knee upward into his groin and simultaneously slashed the blade across his throat.

“Shit! You bitch!” Mao Wei staggered back, a crimson line bursting open on his neck.

He snatched the iron clamp beside the bed and hurled it at Xia Xue. She dodged, and the clamp smashed into the camera tripod, sending sparks flying that illuminated a glinting object on the masked man’s waist—a copper plaque engraved with a blood-red rose.

Xia Xue’s pupils contracted. This “Rose Ji” was no ordinary organization—but was this their main base?

“This is your criminal hideout!” she shouted loudly, her eyes flicking to the still-operating cameras. She knew her scene was being broadcast live.

As she retreated to the other side of the wooden bed, the bound girl’s sobs were right beside her ear. Yet the masked man who had been tattooing the girl’s leg remained silent, watching her and Mao Wei’s fight with cold indifference.

Mao Wei wiped the blood from his neck, pulled a serrated dagger from his lower back, and snarled, his smile gone: “I was gonna make this easy for you… heh!”

In the instant the blade flashed down, Xia Xue grabbed the camera’s power cord and whipped it at his wrist.

The black rubber sheath wrapped around copper wires snapped taut in midair, tightly coiling around the dagger. The 220V current sent Mao Wei howling like a beast.

Instantly, the air filled with the stench of burning flesh.

Xia Xue seized the chance to cut the ropes binding the girl, scooped her up, and shoved her toward the door: “Run right! The third vent has—”

Before she could finish, a searing, tearing pain erupted across her back.

The masked man, who had been watching silently, had slipped behind her—now a bloodied awl was being pulled from her shoulder blade.

The smell of blood triggered her police academy training instincts.

Xia Xue rolled forward with her momentum, slamming her injured right shoulder into the iron bed frame. The rusted leg snapped with a crack, and the entire bed tilted downward, pinning the masked man beneath it. Gasping, she snatched up the fallen awl—only to notice tiny engraved numbers on it: B-17.

“Sister, be careful!” the rescued girl screamed suddenly.

Xia Xue whipped her head around—Mao Wei’s snarling face was right before her.

His serrated dagger was already piercing her chest.

At the last second, she remembered Luo Fei’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Her body slid like a serpent along the blade into his embrace, wrapping her legs around his neck and arching backward.

A sharp crack of dislocated bone echoed in the chamber. Xia Xue held the cross-arm choke, watching Mao Wei’s bloodshot eyes slowly lose focus.

Suddenly, a crackling static burst from the masked man’s communicator: “Police in Zone B! Evacuate all Yaoji immediately!” Hearing this, the masked man abandoned Xia Xue and sprinted in the opposite direction. She wondered: Was he going to ram the wall? Suicide? Or did he have some wall-passing technique?

But what followed left her stunned—the seemingly solid wall shattered as the masked man crashed through it, revealing soundproofing foam and wooden framing behind.

Yaoji? Xia Xue’s heart jolted—was that the girl’s codename? Were there more girls like her here? Seeing the masked man flee, she didn’t bother to chase.

Suddenly, three short knocks followed by one long one rang through the ventilation duct above—this was the prearranged signal with Luo Fei.

She quickly yanked Mao Wei’s belt and tied his ankles, but as she touched his nape, she saw a blood-red rose tattooed there—beneath it, a blue number: 17.

“What does this mean? Codename? Or something else?” Xia Xue thought, speaking into her earpiece: “Boss, I’m exposed…”