“Hmm…”
Zhong Li thought that the masked man’s emotional state was at its weakest, but she hadn't expected his physical reaction to be so swift.
She had just reached his back, and before the pliers in her hand could swing, the masked man had already grabbed her by the throat.
“How did you get free?” The masked man retreated from the woman beneath him, then turned to fix his gaze on Zhong Li.
This was the closest Zhong Li had ever been to him.
She looked at the round mask with only two eyeholes. The darkness within made it impossible to see, but she could feel a killing intent emanating from there, slowly enveloping her entire body.
“Hmm?” Receiving no answer, the masked man tilted his head in confusion, inadvertently tightening his grip.
Zhong Li’s face turned red from the pressure on her throat, her breaths more out than in. She knew that if she didn’t resist, death would be her fate.
She dug her thumb into the masked man’s tiger’s mouth, attempting to break his thumb. However, his strength was astonishingly great, and her counter-grappling technique had no effect on him.
As Zhong Li’s eyes began to roll back, she used her last ounce of strength to pull out the scalpel hidden at her waist and throw it at the masked man’s chest.
With a “thump.”
The sturdy scalpel embedded itself in the masked man’s chest. In pain, he loosened his grip on Zhong Li’s neck.
Zhong Li slid to the ground, coughing uncontrollably.
The masked man gritted his teeth, forcefully pulled the scalpel from his chest, and threw it to the ground. His enraged eyes, like those of a vicious wolf, stared at Zhong Li.
“You little bitch, I… I’ll dig out your insides and eat them with wine,” the masked man growled, lunging at Zhong Li.
Zhong Li twisted her waist and rolled to the side, seizing the opportunity to kick the masked man in the groin, who hadn’t even managed to pull up his pants.
The masked man hadn’t anticipated her reaction to be so swift. After being kicked, he froze as if paralyzed, unable to move further.
In the blink of an eye, Zhong Li seized this moment, picked up the scalpel from the ground, and with the fastest possible speed, sliced across the masked man’s neck.
Foul-smelling blood sprayed onto her clothes. The masked man collapsed heavily onto the ground, his mask falling off in the process. A face with contorted eyes, thick lips, and a full beard appeared before her.
This person was truly uglier than anything she could have imagined.
With this thought flashing through her mind, Zhong Li skirted around the masked man and went to check on the woman who had been violated on the ground.
Fortunately, the woman was still breathing. Zhong Li took a revitalizing pill from her懷中 and fed it to her, then took off Zi’er’s purple garment and covered the woman with it.
Estimating that it would take some time for the woman to fully regain consciousness, and with it being nighttime, the masked man’s presence in this secret chamber suggested that the cult members would not be coming anytime soon. Zhong Li therefore made a temporary decision to thoroughly investigate everything in the room.
As she had expected, the bottles and jars on the wall contained human organs. However, some of them were empty, and based on the smell and traces, they had contained things before. So, where had the organs from these empty jars gone?
As Zhong Li pondered this, she went to the masked man, pried open his mouth for observation, and then picked up the candelabra to return to the area where he had been hiding.
This was the masked man’s living quarters. On a small square table, there was a jar of wine and a bowl of meat.
She picked up the meat and examined it closely, confirming it wasn’t human flesh or organs. This only deepened her confusion. If the masked man didn’t have a habit of eating people, and his earlier words were just meant to scare her, then where had the organs gone?
“Hmm…”
A woman’s soft murmur from within the secret chamber interrupted her thoughts.
Zhong Li went to the woman’s side, helped her sit up halfway, and asked, “Are you awake?”
At first, the woman was a bit dazed, but upon seeing the ugly man lying on the ground, her body began to tremble uncontrollably.
“It’s alright, don’t be scared. He’s already dead.” The woman was stunned for a moment, then, mustering her courage, tentatively poked the masked man with her finger.
Only after she confirmed that the masked man was truly dead could she no longer control her emotions and began to sob uncontrollably.
Zhong Li was not good at comforting people; at least, she considered herself clumsy in this regard. She could only hold the woman tightly and remain silent.
After a long while, when the woman had cried herself weak and her voice had become hoarse, she slowly stabilized her emotions, looked at Zhong Li, and said, “You…”
Zhong Li curled her lips. “Judicial Inspection Office’s Assistant Censor, here to secretly investigate the case of the Rain County Goddess Cult.”
The woman blinked her eyes, thinking she had misheard. It wasn’t until her peripheral vision caught the small wooden token on Zhong Li’s waist that her expression fell, and she let out another cry of pain.
Zhong Li glanced towards the exit, calculating the time, and said to the woman, “We can’t cry anymore. We need to leave.”
After speaking, she helped the woman up and prepared to return the way they came.
“No!” The woman grabbed her arm and said, “The outside is full of Goddess Cult members. Even if an official is resourceful, they can’t fight a hundred men alone. Go this way.”
As she spoke, she pulled Zhong Li around the wall with the bottles and jars and into another passage.
“What’s your name?” Zhong Li asked as she followed her.
The woman replied, “My name is Qiao’er.”
“Qiao’er, how long have you been here?” Zhong Li asked again. Her nerves were now slightly relaxed, and her claustrophobia was starting to spread wildly. To alleviate it, she could only keep talking to Qiao’er.
“An official must be the sacrifice this month. Qiao’er was last month’s,” Qiao’er said.
“Then what about the people before you?” Zhong Li asked.
Qiao’er’s running motion stopped, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
Seeing her reaction, Zhong Li already knew the answer.
She sighed, trying to ease the woman’s emotions. “Don’t worry. Once the Goddess Cult case is resolved, and after the Heavenly Flower Powder has cured the corpse poison and swelling of the Rain County villagers, and everyone has returned to normal, your parents will surely be waiting for you at home.”
“My parents?” Qiao’er murmured, slowly lowering her head.
Seeing her emotional distress, Zhong Li stepped forward and asked, “What? What about your parents?”
Qiao’er took a deep breath and shook her head. “No. I’ve long since considered myself parentless. If they truly loved me, they wouldn’t have abandoned me alone.”
Zhong Li looked at Qiao’er, whose eyes were starting to redden, and remembered Zi’er, whom she had saved earlier. She sighed, “I’m not very good at comforting people, but I believe that even if everyone abandons you, you shouldn’t degrade yourself because of it. If you bite down and persist through the darkness, there will always be sunshine.”
“Is that so?” Qiao’er looked at Zhong Li, seeing that beneath her cold and frosty exterior, there was a gentle heart. She couldn’t help but ask.
“Yes,” Zhong Li thought for a moment. “Like me.”
“How so?” Qiao’er asked again.
“I saved you. Among so many dead women, you alone, in a world that was all darkness, waited for rescue. Can this be understood as even in a bitter life, heaven occasionally bestows its favor?” Zhong Li considered this and felt that this description was a form of comfort.
Qiao’er smiled after hearing this, pulled Zhong Li’s hand, and said, “Yes, so we need to leave here quickly.”
The two of them wound their way through the mountain. Before Zhong Li had entered, she thought it wasn’t large, but after following Qiao’er for a long time, she realized it was terrifyingly vast.
They ran for quite a while, and both felt their calves go numb from exhaustion. Zhong Li finally found a safe and quiet place to rest.
“I have a question for you,” Zhong Li said, sitting on a rock, breathing heavily. Fortunately, it wasn’t hot inside the mountain; otherwise, she was sure she would have suffered heatstroke in this season.
“Please, ask away, Official.”
“What were those bottles and jars in the secret chamber for? I saw many of them were empty. What did the Goddess Cult members do with these human organs?” Zhong Li asked.
Qiao’er hadn’t expected her to ask such a question. She was silent for a long moment before softly uttering two words: “Cultivating蛊 (gu).”