Chapter 106: Dating Show Strategy System (24)

Xie Yang went around to the east side of the courtyard and groped through a cluster of weeds to find the hidden cellar entrance.

Fortunately, it was a very old-fashioned cellar, and the lock was a common, ordinary padlock rather than a high-tech fingerprint, iris, or combination lock.

She took off the long, thin hairpin holding her bun, poked at it slightly, and then gave it a hard tug; the rusty old padlock clicked open.

The cellar was not large, and the entrance was piled with a jumble of farm tools.

Continuing inside, there was a small space of five or six square meters; against the wall was a folding single wire bed with messy bedding on it, several cardboard boxes were stacked by the bed, some biscuit and instant noodle packaging were scattered beside the boxes, and an old-fashioned toilet was in the corner—although the lid was closed, one could still smell a pungent ammonia odor.

When Xie Yang entered, the woman, whose hands and feet were bound by chains, was standing anxiously by the bed; the range she could move in was just this small area.

By the moonlight, Xie Yang finally saw the woman's face clearly.

Her palm-sized face was exquisite and beautiful, just a bit pale and bloodless, perhaps due to malnutrition or perhaps from not seeing the sun for a long time.

Xie Yang did not waste time; once she had adjusted to the darkness in the cellar, she began to help her unlock the chains.

Seeming to sense the woman's panic and urgency, Xie Yang nimbly picked the lock with her hairpin while soothing her: "Don't worry, it will be done soon."

She also asked a few questions to divert the other's anxiety:

"Did you trim the succulents outside? That's so clever! But it must have been difficult, right? How did you manage it?"

The woman took a few deep breaths and said hoarsely: "I did the splits to reach a rusty machete, used it to chisel steps into the wall, and climbed up to cut them."

Xie Yang took a moment to glance at the Earth Wall under the high window; if one didn't look closely, it was truly hard to tell, but several uneven pits had been chiseled into the wall, and by stepping on them, one could climb to the high window and use the machete to reach out and trim the succulents outside.

But a machete is not a pair of scissors after all; to trim the succulents into an SOS shape, it would be truly hard to do without some patience and perseverance.

"You're amazing! Truly amazing!"

"Yes, I'm amazing! I waited for rescue!"

The woman choked up and shed tears.

As soon as the chains on her hands were undone, she hugged Xie Yang and began to sob.

At first, the sound was suppressed, but as she cried, she seemed to find an outlet and ended up sobbing uncontrollably.

Xie Yang held her, stroking her back incessantly: "It's okay! It's okay! We'll be out in a moment!"

"Heh, you wish!"

Suddenly, a man's mocking voice came from the cellar entrance.

Following that, a beam of dim yellow light lit up the cellar.

The man switched on a flashlight and shone it straight at Xie Yang.

Xie Yang noticed that the woman holding her had stiffened instantly, and then, she heard her say a string of words in a very rapid tone:

"Go! You go quickly! I'll go hold him back, you go quickly!"

The next second, the woman pushed Xie Yang away, stumbled over to hug the man's legs, but was kicked away by him: "Didn't you want to run? Run! Go ahead and run!"

"I won't run, I won't run anymore!"

The woman cried hoarsely, and even after being kicked away, she didn't hide, instead crawling back to hug the man, turning her head to growl hoarsely at Xie Yang:

"Go! You go! Can't you understand human speech? Get out of here!"

"You're a guest here to record a show, right?"

The man licked the corner of his mouth, adjusted his baseball cap, and a pair of cold, sinister eyes beneath the brim stared at Xie Yang like a venomous snake:

"You celebrities are truly sick! There are perfectly good scenic spots, yet you insist on running to a remote town. Do you know how much effort it took me to hide her here?"

As he spoke, his tone suddenly rose, and he cursed angrily:

"And that damn village committee, wanting to hand over the houses and land left by our ancestors to the government for the sake of a little money, starting some Relic Museum; trying to find a new place has left me exhausted. But it doesn't matter—"

He sneered viciously: "If it really comes to it, I'll just kill her; it's been four years anyway, and I'm tired of playing with her. I was just thinking of having some fun with her for these last half a month, but your sudden arrival, you bunch of celebrities, has disrupted my plans. However, I heard you're only recording for two days and leaving tomorrow. I didn't want to cause extra trouble, but who told you to come here?"

Having said this, the man paused, looked Xie Yang up and down unscrupulously, and smiled wickedly and viciously: "Since you're here, stay and keep her company!"

The woman crawling at his feet was trembling all over, but her hands were still dragging the man's legs tightly, not letting him go to block Xie Yang.

Xie Yang pieced together some useful information from his words: "You're a native of this place? Your Mandarin is quite good. You've imprisoned her for four years? Was she never discovered by anyone during this time? A living person went missing for four years, and no one looked for her? How did you get away with it?"

The man chuckled: "You have a lot of questions, and you're quite bold. Are you actually not afraid of death?"

Xie Yang loosened her wrists and ankles: "Let's see if you can beat me first!"

"You're quite arrogant!" the man said with an intrigued expression, "I've suddenly changed my mind. I won't kill you yet; I'm going to lock you up just like her and..."

"Boom—"

Before the man could finish his sentence, Xie Yang threw a powerful punch, sending him staggering back a few steps until he hit the Earth Wall, causing wall dust to fall down in a flurry.

The flashlight in his hand also flew out and landed on the pile of farm tools at the cellar entrance.

The man clutched the back of his head: "You stinking bitch..."

"Boom—"

Another punch.

The man was hit until he saw stars.

"Resent the government?"

"Boom!"

"Resent the village committee?"

"Boom!"

"Resent our show crew?"

"Boom!"

"Locked her up for four years?"

"Boom!"

"Want to kill her to silence her?"

"Boom!"

"You still want to imprison me?"

"Bang!"

"Even in your wildest dreams, you couldn't imagine something so beautiful!"

Xie Yang punched the man once for every sentence she spoke.

Until the man collapsed onto the ground without any strength to parry, curling his body up, clutching his head with both hands, and muttering, "Stop... stop..."

Only then did Xie Yang shake her hand and stop; it really hurt like hell!

While the punches thrown using her full physical stat were certainly fierce and powerful, they also left her palms numb and her hands aching.

Couldn't the Main System have also tempered her skin into an indestructible body while it was at it, since it had already raised her physical stat to S-Rank?

Main System: 【...】 You have quite the imagination yourself.

Xie Yang blew on her aching fist, walked over to help the woman on the ground up, and soothed her in a gentle voice:

"It's okay, it's okay. Look, didn't I just beat him down? We're both safe now! Don't be afraid."

After helping the disheveled woman up, she slid a plain hair tie off her own wrist, used her fingers as a comb to tidy the woman's hair, and kicked the "roadblock" out of the way.

"Useless piece of trash, and you dared to covet your betters!"

"Clatter—"

The sound of something hitting the floor.

Xie Yang looked toward the cellar entrance, alert.

"S-sorry, Teacher Xie, it was my phone that dropped."

"..."

Xie Yang was truly stunned.

Why was Zhou Hanqing's cameraman here?

Looking closer, Zhou Hanqing had come too?

She saw him still panting for breath, staring at her in a daze; he had clearly witnessed the entire process of her "assault."

Xie Yang: "..."

Oh my...