Chapter 661

The girl, following Liu Zi's orders, dragged him all the way to the small partition at the very back.

This was actually a completely hidden small partition; inside, only some miscellaneous items were piled up, yet the space was quite spacious.

The girl's hands trembled slightly as she took out the key, slowly opened the door, then closed her eyes and hurriedly slapped the light switch on the wall; this place was like a huge shadow to her, so much so that although the girl had been out of this dark cage for a long time, she would sometimes still dream of this place.

A glimmer of tears sparkled in the girl's eyes, but Ning Chen could not see clearly; he was breathing so steadily that he seemed to have fallen completely asleep.

But soon, footsteps came from outside the door again; the girl went out, while Liu Zi stayed behind and tied up Ning Chen's hands and feet.

Ning Chen frowned; even in the darkness, he knew the person who had entered was Liu Zi.

And Liu Zi's knot-tying skills were indeed quite good in some aspects; even Ning Chen would find some of them interesting.

After finishing the tying, Ning Chen only heard Liu Zi let out a heavy snort, followed by the sound of the door being slammed shut loudly.

It seemed Liu Zi had left.

Ning Chen dared not slacken for a moment; although his hands and feet were bound, he could still use a clever force to stand up from the ground.

He also dared not untie the ropes on his body immediately; after all, untying is easy, but to tie them back up again would be difficult.

527. The Second Deceived Victim

After Ning Chen used a clever force to stand up from the ground, he immediately walked forward slowly; his arms and back pressed tightly against the wall, pacing while sticking to the wall, feeling for grooves or protrusions on the wall surface.

He first wanted to find the switch; if he could find the switch for the lighting equipment first, he would also be able to see clearly what was hidden here.

Ning Chen's intuition told him that this was absolutely not an ordinary storage room.

Finally, after feeling a protrusion on the wall, he pressed his shoulder against that spot; with a "click," the switch turned on.

The light on the ceiling lit up; it was very dim, not very bright, and could only make things under the light bulb clear; things in the corners were completely impossible to see clearly.

After the light turned on, Ning Chen immediately looked down under the wooden door.

There was a crack under the wooden door; if the light inside leaked out, then his pretense would be in vain.

Fortunately, since the light here was too old, the light was very dim; outside it was broad daylight, so even if one paid attention, one could not see clearly.

Ning Chen breathed a sigh of relief; his gaze first swept around this narrow place; with the help of the light, he could see some floating dust and especially suspicious black bags piled on the ground.

Besides that, he could only vaguely see several buckets piled in the corner, but because the light was too dim, he could not see them very clearly.

Ning Chen paused; he stared tightly at those buckets and noticed that those buckets should not be empty; there should be something inside them.

He chose to temporarily ignore those black bags and instead walked toward those buckets.

When Ning Chen walked to the side of the buckets, he looked down inside and immediately frowned.

The things inside that bucket appearing here were actually very abnormal, because the bucket was filled with bundled banknotes, stacked in bundles inside the bucket; the owner of the banknotes seemed to have a big heart, throwing the money inside and never coming to look, so that a thin layer of dust covered them.

Ning Chen was shocked in his heart; there were five or six buckets placed in the corner, and the contents inside every bucket were the same; this was absolutely not a small sum.

He took a deep breath, then slowly moved back to his original position, 顺势 falling to the ground, and began to think with a calm expression.

The conclusion that could be drawn at present was that Liu Zi must be conducting some illegal activities in this place; whether it was forced hostage detention or illegal transactions, it was unknown.

However, Ning Chen was more inclined to think that this place was a venue where Liu Zi stored money; otherwise, he would not bring just anyone inside.

After the light was turned off, the room fell into complete darkness; Ning Chen kept his eyes open, staring at the void before him, appearing to be in a daze.

Time passed second by second; Ning Chen decided to pretend to sleep for a while, after all, Liu Zi's movements were always strange, and no one knew when he would return.

Near dusk, the door was pushed open by someone.

Ning Chen immediately woke from his state of resting his spirit; he opened his eyes, tilted his head imperceptibly to the side, and his eyes were just able to see that door; the light outside the door was much brighter than inside, so Ning Chen saw the person coming with ease.

It was Liu Zi.

As expected.

Just before the light from outside the door fell on his face, Ning Chen quickly closed his eyes; the next second, Liu Zi walked to the switch and pressed it down at once.

Afterwards, Liu Zi walked to Ning Chen's side, looked down at him from above, seemingly checking his condition.

Ning Chen did not move; he felt a very strong sense of oppression and confirmed that at this moment Liu Zi's gaze was still fixed on his face.

He could not move; otherwise, he would be exposed.

Ning Chen kept his eyes closed, adjusted his breathing to be very steady, and his position was exactly the same as before.

But Liu Zi was suspicious by nature; he squatted down again, reached out, and pushed Ning Chen's shoulder.

Ning Chen leaned weakly to the left and exposed his bound hands.

The knots were exactly the same as before, with no change at all; it seemed Ning Chen had not shifted or struggled.

It seemed that during the time he was away, Ning Chen had slept very soundly.

Liu Zi stood up from the ground satisfied, and after going out, did not close the door.

Ning Chen kept his eyes closed; he guessed that Liu Zi would return in a while.

Sure enough, soon a dragging sound came from outside the door, sounding as if someone was being dragged and rubbed on the ground.

It was Liu Zi dragging a person lying on the ground with closed eyes.

Ning Chen did not choose to open his eyes at this moment; he heard the sound of clothing rubbing again nearby and guessed that at this time Liu Zi might be tying ropes on the person who had just been dragged in.

It seemed this should be a new person Liu Zi had caught.

Ning Chen waited patiently, waiting for Liu Zi to stand up, clap his hands, and walk out; as the sound of the door being closed came over, Ning Chen opened his eyes at the same moment.

But he merely opened his eyes.

Liu Zi had not gone far; for safety, he chose to wait ten minutes before checking the situation.

The feeling of staying in this enclosed space was truly like years passing in a day; fortunately, Ning Chen was precise with the seconds; as soon as ten minutes passed, he immediately sat up from the ground and moved to the side of the newly arrived person.

There was no light; he could only hear the faint breathing coming from the person nearby; after confirming the position, Ning Chen stood up and, familiarly, pressed the switch to turn on the light, and brightness appeared.

Only then did he see clearly that the person lying on the ground was a young boy, who looked younger than him; at this time, he was tightly closing his eyes, showing signs of being between life and death.

His breathing was steady, so Ning Chen also put his heart at ease; he guessed this should be an ordinary student who had been deceived here.

He thought for a moment and still decided that it was better not to wake him up at this time; after all, this person looked young and had little experience; if he were woken up, he might not be able to fool Liu Zi.

Ning Chen knew Liu Zi was an extremely shrewd man.

After turning off the lights, Liu Zi didn't enter until late at night; he seemed to have completely torn off the hypocritical mask on his face, letting Ning Chen see his true visage.

Because Liu Zi showed no mercy at all, after dragging Ning Chen outside, a basin of cold water was poured over his head.

Ning Chen immediately opened his eyes, a trace of timely confusion and drowsiness still in his gaze.

Liu Zi looked at him: "Awake?"

Just like everyone else brought here tied up, Ning Chen opened his eyes and asked: "Where am I now?"

Liu Zi answered calmly: "In the company. Congratulations on passing the employment test."

Ning Chen moved his hands, as if just realizing he was tied up, and said in panic: "Why are my hands and feet tied? What do you mean?"

Liu Zi ignored the content of his question, instead telling him: "I said, you have passed the employment test. Next, you should start working."

528. Tearing off the face, revealing the true visage

Ning Chen was still pretending; hearing this, he could only ask timidly: "Can you untie the ropes first?"

Liu Zi shook his head: "No. But if you complete the first task with high quality, I can consider letting you go. But if you don't cooperate—"

Having finished speaking, Liu Zi suddenly lifted his foot and kicked Ning Chen hard on the shoulder: "You might have to suffer a small lesson. Your skin is so tender, you probably can't take it, right?"

Ning Chen deliberately didn't hold back and cried out in pain. Liu Zi watched Ning Chen's reaction with satisfaction and said: "How about it? Do you want to listen to me, or continue resisting?"

Ning Chen decisively chose to obey.

Liu Zi looked at him with contempt: "Didn't expect you to be such a spineless coward... but it's fine, I just like this kind of obedient person. Here."

While speaking, he took out his mobile phone from his pocket and handed it to Ning Chen: "Call your family's number for me. Tell them you encountered a small problem while working here, and ask them to transfer fifty thousand to you."

Ning Chen's eyes widened instantly: "Isn't this kidnapping?!"

"Kidnapping?" Liu Zi seemed to laugh with pleasure. "You could say that. After they transfer the money to you, I guarantee you will eat and drink well here."

"Spit!" Ning Chen turned his head and spat on the ground. "You are here to kidnap! You even lied that I could get a high-paying job here... I was truly foolish to believe you!"

Hearing Ning Chen say this, Liu Zi raised an eyebrow: "Where do you think you are now? The place you are in is Cangbei. Cangbei is originally a trading place for all kinds of criminal forces. What's wrong with me cheating you out of tens of thousands? You don't look like someone who can't afford that amount, do you?"

Ning Chen gritted his teeth: "Then what do you think I came here for?!"

"I see," Liu Zi nodded. "But so what? Compared to your life, tens of thousands of yuan... I believe your family members should know better than you what to do, right?"

"What do you want to do?!"

"Nothing much, just earning some money for alcohol. What's the big deal? Everyone does it like this. But maybe because you are a bit naive and innocent," Liu Zi sneered as he spoke, "you really obediently followed me here. In that case, who can you blame?"

Who can you blame?

That sentence made Ning Chen's anger surge. His fist, tied behind his back, clenched tightly. Suppressing his rage, he barely held back from breaking the ropes and punched Liu Zi straight in the face.

No need to think, Liu Zi must have harmed many more people. Those people were different from Ning Chen; they could truly be deceived and coerced into paying money.