Chapter 19: CH 19

Inside the club, people were dressed in all sorts of seductive clothing and danced to the rhythm in one unified mass. The music throbbed and was blasted so loud my eardrums hurt, and the laser beams swept across the room in erratic, dizzying movements.

This was already the third nightclub we hit up in one evening, if we still couldn’t bump into Luo Zheng Yun and lure him out, then I wouldn’t be able to stand my surroundings anymore, and we’d have to call it quits for now.

“Feng Ge, can I really lure out the sick pervert like this?” Shen Xiao Shi adjusted the thick rimmed glasses sitting on his features, seemingly unused to it.

I looked at the white T-shirt and flannel combination he wore and thought back to Mo QIu’s usual attire, “You can, you definitely will, have some confidence in yourself.” I helped him adjust the micro camera hidden in his clothes, “Don’t panic, Monkey Ge is able to see everything from a distance, if anything goes awry we’ll be there straight away.”

Shen Xiao Shi replied with a crooked smile, “En, make sure to come quickly when the sick pervert is on the brink of death from receiving all of my punches.”

After rotating through three different nightclubs and drinking three cups of orange juice, my bladder was slightly full. I told Shen Xiao Shi to continue staying where he was and left to go to the bathroom.

As I was in the bathroom, my phone in my pocket vibrated for a second, it was from Yi Da Zhuang who sat in the car outside keeping an eye on the situation. Luo Zheng Yun had finally arrived.

I wiped my hands clean and rushed to leave the bathroom. The nightclub had two levels in total, and it was hard figuring out where he was through the dim lighting.

I squeezed through the pulsating masses on the dancefloor and headed back to our lounge to tell Shen Xiao Shi that Luo Zheng Yun had arrived.

Shen Xiao Shi immediately straightened his back, his expression seeming particularly nervous, and his posture also appearing especially unnatural.

I furrowed my brows, “You need to calm down.”

Shen Xiao Shi whispered back, “I suddenly need to use the bathroom…”

I closed my eyes and told him to go and return quickly.

After Shen Xiao Shi left, I rested both arms on the back of the lounge and leaned back, tilting my head against the soft surface, when I suddenly made eye contact with a gaze directed at me from the second floor.

Those eyes were sinister, cold, and seemed to stick to me, like a venomous snake poised to strike. Except, in the exact moment our gazes met, those features formed a warm smile instead.

He was simply faking it, so I returned the favour and without breaking eye contact, returned a fake smile.

In the end, it was he who looked away first. A while later, a towering foreigner wearing a suit appeared in front of the lounge and passed a note to me.

“Luo Zheng Yun, Mr Luo wanted to give this to you.” He pointed at the note and then pointed at me, then without waiting for me to say anything in response, he turned around and left to return to the second floor.

I unfolded the note and saw that on it were a few simple words; a time, and a place.

1am, backdoor.

I brought out my phone to take a look at the time, there were still five minutes until it was 1AM. Could he take any longer?

I waited for two more minutes and there was still no trace of Shen Xiao Shi. I had no idea if he fell into the toilet or something.

I continued cursing him inwardly, and immediately fired a text to Yi Da Zhuang letting him know that the plan had changed and I was now going to carry it out. I then ended it by asking him to wish me good luck.

The backdoor led to an alleyway and there was a black Rolls-Royce parked there, as well as a huge, well built man standing beside it.

Due to the distance and the backlit lighting, I wasn’t able to confirm that the towering figure was the foreigner who had passed me the note until I was close enough to him.

The phone in my pocket continued to vibrate, it could’ve been an incoming call from Yi Da Zhuang but I ignored it as I quietly slipped a hand into my pocket to decline it.

Once I approached the front of the car, the foreigner stopped me and motioned that he wanted to do a body search.

“You’re going to do a body search?” My brows creased as I feigned that I was unhappy with the situation, “You were the ones who passed the note to me, I wasn’t the one who initiated this whole thing, don’t be mistaken.”

He did not acquiesce, “For the safety of Mr Luo, we must do a body search.”

I hesitated whether I should dip out at this moment or if I should continue pushing for it, when the window directly adjacent to me lowered slightly so a gap could be seen, and from it came a warm and elegant voice.

“It’s fine, let him come in.”

The bodyguard, having heard so, moved aside and opened the door for me.

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“I noticed you very early on.” There was a separator between the front seats and the seats at the back, sectioning the two parts of the car and creating a private space in the back. Luo Zheng Yun took out a bottle of whiskey from the storage box in the car and waved it around as he asked me, “Want some?”

There was no way I was going to drink anything he gave me, so I shook my head and replied, “I’m allergic to alcohol.”

Luo Zheng Yun softly muttered “Ah” in response, “Then it’s a real pity.”

If it wasn’t for Mo Qiu revealing what had happened to him, then no one would ever have reason to suspect and equate the person currently sitting in front of me to a rapist. This man was all dressed up and proper, talked in a charming way, and had a career that many admired and were jealous about.

Perhaps it was because things were like so, that he became so unrestrained without any fear of repercussion or karma for all his wrongdoings.

“How should I refer to you?” Luo Zheng Yun asked.

“Lu Feng.”

“Is it the Feng from the phrase ‘Feng Yu Jiao Jia?’”

“It’s the Feng from Feng Ye.”

“What a cute name.” His curiosity towards me seemed boundless, “You look very young, are you still studying?”

I pretended that I had no idea he was flirting with me, “No, I started working already. I’m an appraiser at a friends business.”

He appeared slightly shocked, “An appraiser? What do you specialise in appraising?”

“Anything. Luxury items, antiques, all sorts of rare and unordinary things, my main task is to see whether or not they’re worth anything.”

He put down the whiskey glass, the ice cubes clinking softly against the surface of the glass.

“Then give me an appraisal, how much do you think I am worth?” He shifted towards me as he leaned forward, the tone of his voice suggestive.

I stared at his lips, as if I was seduced by him.

“Priceless.”

He startled at my words, then smiled as he moved back, as if he was in a great mood.

“You’re not even going to ask where I’m about to take you?”

I returned a smile, leaning back into the seat and carelessly gave him a reply, “You’re such a big movie star, it’s not like you’re going to abduct me and sell me off.”

His elbow was propped against the armrest as he leaned his chin against his hand, his voice becoming an octave deeper, “You don’t know that for sure.”

Obviously, he wasn’t going to sell me off, but he wasn’t going to bring me to a great place either.

The car continued driving for a long while, after passing a grandeur gate we traversed further passing through a dense forest. After clearing it, what appeared in front of my eyes was an especially decadent and ostentatious building, evidently inspired by European architecture.

There were no signs but there were bodyguards. We went into an underground garage and entered a private lift to reach the desired level. This probably was the private, exclusive nightclub that Mo Qiu had mentioned previously.

Luo Zheng Yun’s bodyguard did not follow us upstairs, and apart from the corridor being completely devoid of noise and having not another person in sight, this place was reminiscent of any other luxury hotel.

“Take a seat anywhere.” Luo Zheng Yun swiped the room card with practised ease, and the view which was revealed in front of me was a penthouse that was unnecessarily large. A bar, a pool table, a private theatre, and an enormous spa which faced the floor to ceiling windows, this place would still have abundant free room left over even if ten or so more people were called in.

“Below us is a casino, and above us there is an infinity pool. If later on you’re interested, perhaps we can go and enjoy ourselves there.” As the words ‘later on’ left his mouth, he looked at me and intentionally slid off his jacket at the same time.

My stomach churned in disgust at his words, so I appeared to be distracted, curiously examining our surroundings as I asked, “How soundproof is this place?”

He thought about it for a second, “Very good, good to the point that… even if you scream and moan to your heart’s desires no one would ever hear you.”

Fuck, this damned psychopath.

I maintained a sizable distance with him, “Then you… go take a bath first?”

I could also take this opportunity to find a place to plant the phone.

Luo Zheng Yun looked at me, without moving, “Is this your first time?”

My brows furrowed in response as I reflexively denied it, “Of course not.”

“That’s good, otherwise I’ll have to take it slow.” He closed the distance between us, almost pressing himself against me, his fingertips like grasshoppers lightly tapping on the back of my hand, then it slid into the pockets of my pants.

“What are you doing?” Cold sweat broke out on my skin in response as his move startled me and I immediately clasped onto his hand. However, he was just reaching for my phone in my pocket, as he slowly retrieved it and pulled it out.

“What am I doing?” He seemed to be thrown off by my reaction, but still patiently explained, “I hope that during the whole process our phones can be locked away in the safe, okay? Please understand that I also have my concerns.”

Now that we were here, if I shook my head and declined him at this point then everything that happened before would have gone to waste.

I pretended to hesitate, then nodded my head in the end, “Okay.”

Luo Zheng Yun deliberately put both our phones into the safe with me watching, but obstructed my view when he was inputting the password.

He really was a thousand year old sly fox, it was getting outrageous how cunning he was.

Although… I didn’t lose to him in that regard.

He blew me a kiss, then headed into the bathroom to wash up. I heard the sound of water hitting the tiles and let out a cold chuckle as I slipped out the other phone that I had kept on me from the inner pocket of my jacket.

Shen Xiao Shi didn’t bring his phone with him to the bathroom, I thought that it might come in handy, so I took it along with me.

I found a hidden angle that was facing the bed and propped the phone against it as I hit the record button.

“You didn’t think that I would have two phones did you, damned psychopath.”

I took off my jacket and stretched, preparing for the sequence of events that would come afterwards.

The sound of the ready stream of water lessened, there was around two minutes or so when there wasn’t any noise coming out from inside. I gradually edged closer to the door, pressing my ear against it.

“Ah!” The yell echoed straight into my eardrums, then a heavy thud followed, it sounded like someone’s body had collided against a surface.

I furrowed my brows, pressing a hand to the door, “Mr Luo?”

A series of groans were emitted from inside.

“Can you come in to help me up?” Luo Zheng Yun’s voice was laced with pain, “I think… I twisted my ankle.”

I mouthed “nuisance”, then pushed down on the door handle and opened the door to enter the bathroom.

Luo Zheng Yun seemed to not have turned on the bathroom fans, as the steam filled up the room, creating a fog so dense that even when I breathed in I felt slightly suffocated by it.

I looked towards where his voice came from, but didn’t see any shadow of him.

Without any reason, my heart skipped a beat, and I got the sense that something was amiss. I was about to head back out when in my peripheral vision I saw a blur of a shadow leaping out vigorously from behind the door. I didn’t even have time to react and call for help when someone had their hand clamped onto my neck, then in the next instant a sharp pain was felt to the side of it, as if someone had stabbed me with a needle.

In the mirror blurred by condensation, I could make out Luo Zheng Yun’s excited and twisted features, and in an instant all the hairs on my back rose up as I fought back and striked at his chest with my elbow.

Luo Zheng Yun let out a grunt, a syringe falling from his hands as he stumbled and retreated out the door.

I clasped onto my neck, my feet trembling from beneath me, and at the same time heat coursed my body, like I was parched for something.

Mo Qiu didn’t bring up this type of move….

“I noticed you early on.” Luo Zheng Yun wore a bathrobe, his hair still dripping with water as he gently rubbed the spot on his chest which I had just struck as he started laughing maniacally, “Your eyes look like those of a wolf’s, it’s untameable.”

I concentrated to keep my consciousness intact as I asked, “What did you give me?”

He used his index finger and thumb to depict a small dosage, “A little bit of something that will liven you up more, it will make you very nicely obedient.”

Although just then I had hit him and interrupted him injecting the full dosage, but the drug seemed to especially potent as the part that was coursing through my body seemed to already be taking action. The effect was already interfering with my senses, as I began panting.

Before I fully lost my consciousness, I had to leave here.

I needed to first remove him as a factor, so I grabbed a glass cup on the basin and threw it at him. Startled, he hurriedly ducked to one side and dodged, only to see my foot swinging at him as I aimed a kick forcefully at his abdomen.

He managed to dodge it again, but still he felt my feet scrape at his skin.

I didn’t bother to acknowledge him any longer as I sprinted, wobbling towards the door. He followed suit and caught up to me from behind as he forcefully grabbed at my hair, dragging me to the bed.

“Looks like you have a lot of fight in you.” A flash of anger showed in his eyes, as he slammed a fist down into my stomach.

Overwhelmed by the pain, I curled up into a fetal position, however because of the pain I seemed to have more of a grip on my consciousness.

“Let go of me…. Help me…” I relaxed despite the reaction in my lower body, like I had given up on resisting him, as I incessantly pleaded weakly in response.

“I said before, this is a place where you can scream as much as you want.” Luo Zheng Yun was unmoved by me, as he slowly removed his bathrobe. “I just love seeing people like you, people who think that you’re worth something, I love your fear and disbelief when you find out who I really am. It’s too interesting, when you cry, it’s honestly so interesting. It’s simply exhilarating.”

His hand pressed against my neck, his nail scraping where the needle had punctured my skin earlier, as if he was intent on scraping off a layer of my flesh.

“Are you going to kill me?” I tilted my head with the last of my strength, my voice trembling.

“If you’re obedient, then I won’t.” Luo Zheng Yun leaned down, his lower half evidently aroused. He appeared like a venomous snake that had tightly wrapped around its prey and was now ready to devour and savour the delicious meal to come, “But I can’t guarantee that as once I get excited, I might toy with you until you die.”

In that instant I stopped trembling, as I stared at him coldly, “Then if I hit you, it should be considered as self defense?”

My words had just left my mouth and a perplexed, startled emotion had just appeared on his features as I wrapped my hand around the hotel landline phone placed beside the bed as I smashed it towards him, aiming for his temple. I used all the force in my body as I didn’t hold back at all, hitting him there until blood trickled down from his forehead as he was completely knocked out.

“You can go fuck yourself!”

I discarded the broken landline to one side as I jumped off the bed and grabbed the phone I had hidden in the television drawers as I dashed outside.

Those few hits to Luo Zheng Yun was already me expending energy beyond what I had. With each following step I took I felt increasingly like I was drifting, as if every step was on a soft bed of cotton.

The thick carpet beneath my feet seemed to have sucked away all noise, as I wandered down the corridors like a headless fly. I wanted to press down on my phone to call someone, but no matter what I pressed I saw double of everything.

“Is… Is anyone here?” It didn’t matter who appeared, I just wanted someone, anyone to come.

I rounded a corner, and just when I suspected that this place was absent of a third person existing, I crashed head first into a solid body that was walking this way. The phone I gripped in my hand fell to the carpet, as I lost my balance and almost fell to the ground as well.

I reflexively held on to that person’s elbow, and smelled a faint scent of leather and sandalwood.

Sheng Min Ou also used this type of cologne…

The familiar scent eased my impatience as my body continued to slip downwards, and against my will my eyelids started drooping.

“Take… take me away….”

The other person had an arm around my waist, and whilst propping me up, they bent over to retrieve the phone that I had dropped on the floor.

In the last few seconds of my consciousness, I seemed to hear my own voice echoing beside myself.

“Let go of me…. Help me…”

Unlike my usual tone of voice, it was a desperate plea, filled with terror.

Author’s notes: are you ready?

Jiraiya (translator): screaming.