Chapter 11: Shen Zhaoxi is Captured

Therefore, one must never let anger cloud their judgment, acting impulsively in a moment of rage. Such actions inevitably lead to regret.

“Captain! We’ve caught someone sneaking around, acting suspiciously,” a squad member suddenly reported, having apprehended a scruffy, scar-faced man outside the ramshackle settlement and brought him before Lu Yunzhou.

Lu Yunzhou regarded the man coolly.

“Please, don’t kill me!” The man was thoroughly intimidated; upon seeing over a dozen men clad in black tactical gear inside, radiating an intimidating aura, he dropped to his knees and pleaded for mercy.

“Speak. What are you doing here? Why were you spying on us?”

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk,” he stammered. “Actually, I’m just a runner. My boss is the local tough guy around here. Today, before dawn, an off-road vehicle arrived. I saw it was a military vehicle—not from the Eastern Nation, I think—so I informed my boss.”

“Then, my boss brought his men over. We saw someone get out of the vehicle—wearing the same outfit as you—and he dumped an unconscious girl here before leaving.”

“Where is the girl?” The man hadn’t finished before a sudden shout startled him.

He quickly raised his hands, signaling he’d cooperate and reveal everything.

“We saw the girl was quite pretty, so...”

“What did you do to her?” Chen Yu’s expression grew tense.

Lu Yunzhou’s eyes were icy as he watched him.

“Speak!” From behind, two black muzzles trained on his head, frightening him even more.

“Please, gentlemen, don’t get angry—listen to me!” he pleaded.

“The girl was dumped here, covered in blood, barely conscious, burning with fever and unable to resist when she woke up. My boss noticed her beauty and her pitiful state—after all, we haven’t had such luck in Sand City for ages.”

“Our initial plan was to take her and... well, let the brothers have some fun. But just as dawn broke, another group suddenly arrived!”

At this point, the scar-faced man’s eyes betrayed obvious fear and panic.

He lowered his gaze, clearly intimidated by those before him.

“So, nothing happened,” he admitted, his lingering regret apparent. Chen Yu wished he could shoot him right then—but finding Shen Chaoxi’s whereabouts was more urgent.

“Who were they?” Lu Yunzhou demanded.

“The W Group,” the man replied, his head bowed low, feeling unlucky to encounter two unknown factions in one day.

“We’re just scum—we didn’t dare offend them. We handed the girl over, and at dawn, they took her away. Where she went, I don’t know.”

He looked up at Lu Yunzhou with desperate, pleading eyes, sensing this cold, imposing figure was the leader. “Sir, I’ve told you everything honestly. Please, spare my life!”

His will to survive was strong.

“Dispose of him,” Lu Yunzhou ordered, expressionless, eyes cold.

“Yes, Captain!”

“Wait, you said you wouldn’t kill me—” The scar-faced man raised his hands in terror, but with a bang, someone struck him from behind, cracking his skull. He collapsed onto the filthy ground.

Men like him would only continue to bring harm if left alive.

“Captain, what do we do now?” Chen Yu asked.

“We rescue her,” Lu Yunzhou replied coldly, offering not a single unnecessary word.

Turning away, his indifferent silhouette strode out of the settlement.

With the data transmission failed in the Sand City laboratory, their only clue was Shen Chaoxi. The secrets she knew were crucial to them.

Late at night.

Inside an abandoned factory in Sand City.

The weather shifted abruptly; a torrential rainstorm descended. In the darkness outside the factory, over a dozen men clad in black guarded the entrance, blocking the door.

Inside, the atmosphere was eerie—oil drums and pipes stacked meters high, rusted rebar, and winding bloodstains stretching from the entrance deep into the building.

A blood-soaked girl was thrown onto the cold ground. Her hands were bound behind her back with rope.

Lying in a pool of blood, her face was battered, blood at the corner of her eyes. She roused several times, only to be knocked unconscious with an iron rod again and again.

The cycle repeated.

Suddenly, a basin of filthy cold water was dumped over her.

She lay on the ground, struggling to open her eyes, the dim factory lights casting shadows around her.

Through her blurry vision, a pair of luxurious high heels appeared before her.

Shen Chaoxi slowly lifted her gaze to see a girl in a purple slip dress with a black leather jacket draped over her shoulders, meticulously made up, lips curled in a smug smile, looking down at her.

There was naked mockery in her gaze—laced with laughter, sizing her up.

“Gong Xia Li...” Shen Chaoxi’s whole body ached, so much so she couldn’t even lift a finger.

She could only watch as Gong Xia Li crouched beside her, her fox-like eyes full of contempt. “It’s me.”

“Surprised, aren’t you, Gong Shenxi? Who would have thought you’d end up like this?”

Who could have imagined that the most favored heiress of the W Group chairman, the most powerful and noble lady in the company, would fall into her hands?

“No one can save you in Sand City!”

“You... you’re doing this—” Shen Chaoxi managed to move her cracked lips, blood at the corners, her lips dry and peeling, but her eyes remained chilly and threatening as she glared at Gong Xia Li.

“The old man will never forgive you.”

“Gong Shenxi!” At these words, Gong Xia Li’s gaze suddenly turned vicious.

Her crimson nails dug into Shen Chaoxi’s throat, her voice shrill.

“Do you know what I hate most? It’s your stubbornness—even facing death, you won’t yield!”

Gong Xia Li’s fierce gaze softened abruptly; she smiled. “True, in W Group, you’re the old man’s favorite. But Gong Shenxi, even if you die here in Sand City, no one will know I did this.”

“He won’t ever find out!”

“So...” Shen Chaoxi’s throat was parched, her breath barely coming. “You masterminded the Sand City experiment?”

“Hm?” Gong Xia Li squeezed her throat tighter, then cocked her head with a mocking smile, as if she’d heard something amusing.

“From the moment you entered Sand City, every step was a trap I laid for you.”

“If I’m right, you came here because of the laboratory incident, didn’t you?”

Though W Group intervened in international military affairs and monopolized much of East Continent’s economy, their public actions were always above reproach—no one could catch them out. But this time, the inhumane experiments in the Sand City lab were conducted secretly by Gong Xia Li, without authorization from above.

“If the old man finds out, what do you think he’ll do...”

Shen Chaoxi’s throat tightened, her face pale and bloodless from lack of air.

Sharp nails pressed into her neck, the force relentless.

After all, the W Group chairman was nearly seventy, eccentric and ruthless, intolerant of insubordination or actions that harmed the company’s interests. If he discovered this, the consequences would be dire.

“That’s true,” Gong Xia Li mused, raising her brows as if a thought struck her. “But as long as you die here, no one will ever know my secret.”

“Because the dead can’t speak.”

Suddenly, Gong Xia Li released her grip. The girl on the ground gasped for air, her chest convulsing with violent coughs.

On this rain-soaked night, darkness enveloped the abandoned factory. A subordinate in black handed Gong Xia Li an iron rod, which she lifted slowly.

Shen Chaoxi saw it clearly—her pupils contracted.

Gong Xia Li was about to strike her lower back, right at the tailbone.

A dreadful scream echoed through the abandoned factory, piercing the black curtain of rain.

Fresh blood gradually soaked through Shen Chaoxi’s black dress.