Shang Zewen seemed to be enjoying himself and immediately began to count with his eyes closed.
At this moment, Jiang Li forced herself to calm down.
Only then did she notice that, perhaps due to a sprain when she was transferred here after being knocked out, she couldn't put any weight on her left ankle.
Every step she took was like walking on the tip of a knife. The pain made her gasp, but she dared not make a sound.
She struggled to move her body and picked up the knife Shang Zewen had dropped on the ground. She clutched it tightly in her hand as a self - defense weapon.
Jiang Li had keenly noticed just now that Shang Zewen was so obsessed with her that he had forgotten about this knife.
Lust had clouded his mind, and this was his biggest oversight.
Given the physical differences between men and women and her current situation, there was no way she could use this knife to kill Shang Zewen. But she thought it could at least be used for self - defense.
Moreover, without a sharp weapon, Shang Zewen posed less of a threat, and she could ensure her safety to the maximum extent.
Then, she immediately focused all her attention on the phone ten meters away from her.
It was the alarm on that phone that had woken her up just now. She had set it for half an hour ago.
All she had to do now was walk over, pick it up, and send a distress message to Xiao Yanzhi. She was convinced that he would come to her rescue immediately.
Jiang Li slowly lifted her foot, making as little sound as possible when it touched the ground, trying not to let Shang Zewen figure out her location by the sound.
She looked back at Shang Zewen. He was actually following the rules of the game and still had his back turned to her. He had already counted to thirty - five.
"Are you hiding well?" he asked impatiently halfway through counting.
"Not yet," Jiang Li replied and continued to move forward. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she summoned up her last bit of strength to reach for the phone in the corner.
The moment her fingers touched the phone's casing, her fingers trembled with excitement. She almost instantly lit up the screen.
There was only one bar of signal.
There were countless missed calls. When she saw the call log from Xiao Yanzhi, her eyes instantly welled up with tears.
She so badly wanted to call him.
But Jiang Li knew very well that if she made a call for help, Shang Zewen would stop the whole hunting game, and all the time she had managed to gain in the early stage would be wasted.
It would take time for Xiao Yanzhi to get here, and she couldn't tip off the enemy.
Jiang Li took a deep breath. Her burned hand couldn't bend her fingers, so she had to rest the phone on her right wrist and use her left hand to type two words in Xiao Yanzhi's chat box:
Save me.
When she pressed the send button and saw the chat box with those two words spinning, her heart tightened. She stared at the constantly rotating circle, silently praying that the message would be sent successfully.
The signal was still weak, but finally it was sent. She let out a sigh of relief, turned off the phone screen again, and put it back in place.
Now all she had to do was find a way to keep Shang Zewen occupied.
"What are you doing?"
Shang Zewen's voice suddenly came from behind her. He was so close that his breath fell on her neck.
It was hot and burning.
Jiang Li's mind went blank.
All the muscles in her body were extremely stiff. She slowly turned around and saw Shang Zewen's face.
He raised his eyebrows and casually stared into her eyes. In his hand was the lighter from before. The weak flame was flickering, illuminating her panicked face.
He picked up Jiang Li's phone and calmly withdrew the two words she had just managed to send.
"Baby, no outside help is allowed. You've broken the rules."
Jiang Li felt completely hopeless, and all the color drained from her face.
...
Xiao Yanzhi immediately made the most rational decision. He bought a plane ticket and rushed to the airport.
Originally, at six o'clock, Jiang Li should have arrived in Beicheng. But now, at six o'clock, it was Xiao Yanzhi who was back in Huacheng.
"Mr. Xiao, we've already informed the police in Huacheng to start the search. We're checking the surveillance at the highway exits one by one," Xue An reported with his head down, not daring to look at his boss's face.
Since Jiang Li's disappearance, Xiao Yanzhi had been in a foul mood, like a block of ice.
His voice was filled with anger, and his face was gloomy. "Got it."
Sitting in the car on the way to the Huacheng Police Station, Xiao Yanzhi rubbed his temples irritably. His temples were throbbing.
Xue An said, "Mr. Xiao, should we ask Mr. Sheng for help? After all, he's been here for a long time, and his connections and sources of information are wider than ours..."
Xiao Yanzhi pondered for a moment.
...
Sheng Shuocheng had just finished his work and came to Cheng Yingchun's place. He had originally planned to have dinner with Jiang Li and the old lady, but he came up empty - handed.
From his conversation with Cheng Yingchun, he learned that Jiang Li had left early today to return to Beicheng.
Just then, Xiao Yanzhi's call came in.
After hanging up the phone with Xiao Yanzhi, Sheng Shuocheng's eyes darkened. He first told his subordinates to start looking for Jiang Li immediately, and then he turned around and sat back on the living - room sofa.
"Mom, I have a question for you," Sheng Shuocheng sat down and said in his usual amiable tone. "After you saw Jiang Li off, did she call you back?"
Cheng Yingchun didn't know what had happened yet. Reminded by him, she slapped her forehead. "Look at my memory. I was just thinking about calling that girl."
She hunched over to pick up the phone on the table. "This child. I told her so many times to call me to let me know she was safe, but she still forgot."
Before Sheng Shuocheng could stop her, the old lady happily dialed the number and put the phone to her ear, waiting for the call to connect.
...
In the sewer.
A bucket of cold water was poured down from above, mercilessly drenching Jiang Li. She woke up because of the bitter taste of rust in her mouth.
The moment she opened her eyes, every part of her body was screaming in pain, not just her sprained ankle but also her burned palm.
Shang Zewen had beaten her.
After he found out that she had secretly tried to use the phone to call for help, he sneered and withdrew the message in front of her. Then he went crazy and slapped her across the face.
He didn't stop. He slapped her more than a dozen times. Blood oozed from the corner of her mouth, her vision started to turn red, and she gradually fell into darkness. Her head was spinning.
The moment she raised the knife in her hand, he grabbed her wrist tightly. The pain made her let go, and the knife fell to the ground.
"Do you think you're smart?" Shang Zewen smiled and held her face in his hands. "Baby, if it weren't for your face, I wouldn't even have bothered to play the rope - burning game with you at the beginning."
She couldn't see anything, but she could hear the man's voice beside her ear filled with a triumphant smile. "You know, from the moment I threw away the knife, you've been in my trap, baby."
With her vision gone, her other senses became extremely sensitive. Jiang Li felt the man's sticky fingertips touch her neck and slowly move down, trying to take off her clothes.
"From now on, the game is just beginning."