Chapter 5: She Is Not the Young Lady

His right arm was dislocated, hanging limply at his side.

Then, just as he released her wrist, her lower back slammed into the cold, outer control panel of the laboratory, sending a sharp jolt of pain through her.

Around them, her teammates’ faces lit up with joy.

Yet their imposing captain, whose movements were swift and decisive, showed not the slightest hint of surprise or shock in his eyes. It was as if they had long known the extent of their captain’s abilities—and had never truly feared that Shen Chaoxi would take anyone hostage.

“Watch her!” Lu Yunzhou ordered in a cold voice. There were still two minutes before all the key data would be fully uploaded.

“Yes, sir!”

Leaning weakly against the control panel, Shen Chaoxi lifted her head, her eyes brimming with hatred as she looked at the man before her. She couldn’t tell if her miscalculation had been carelessness or simply underestimating him; somehow, he had forcibly dislocated her arm.

Cold sweat trickled down her pale cheeks.

Her black hair was thoroughly disheveled.

In that moment, she looked battered and frail, powerless—a fish on the chopping block, left to their mercy.

The clock on the wall ticked on.

Her right hand dangled uselessly; the pistol had been taken from her and tossed to Qin Hu.

“I’ll deal with you when we get back!” Lu Yunzhou’s voice was icy as he snapped at Qin Hu.

“Yes, Captain…” Qin Hu knew full well what he’d done wrong and dared not utter another word.

After her outburst, the girl crouched in a corner of the laboratory, hugging her head and muttering to herself. At times her mind seemed lucid, and at others, lost. Lu Yunzhou could only assign two men to keep an eye on her. After all, she was from Country Y, and they had to take her out as well.

“Don’t be afraid—we’ll get you out of here.”

At this moment, the other members of the special forces team looked at Shen Chaoxi with complicated expressions.

None of them had anticipated that W Group would be so cruel, so mad as to conduct experiments on human lives and break a young girl’s mind to this extent.

Perhaps that was why they looked at her as if she were some irredeemable villain.

After all, she was the young heiress of W Group, complicit in these atrocities.

Her guilt was grave.

Such is the world: the girl was a victim, but she was the villain. In their eyes, even if the girl had tried to kill her in her madness, it was only what she’d brought upon herself.

Her arm had been dislocated; no one cared for her.

Suddenly, red warning lights began to flash inside the laboratory.

“Captain, something’s wrong!”

“Our data transmission has been intercepted; for some reason, it stopped at the very last second.”

“Warning!”

“Warning!”

“The laboratory will self-destruct in fifteen seconds—”

This meant they had failed—the last step to acquiring the key data remained incomplete.

Lu Yunzhou’s gaze turned frosty.

“Evacuate!” he ordered sharply.

In less than ten seconds, the entire facility would explode. If they stayed any longer, they would all die there.

Shen Chaoxi was taken with them.

“Captain! We’re surrounded—”

But just as the elevator doors opened at the top, a hail of bullets erupted, bursting like fireworks before Shen Chaoxi’s eyes—harsh and blinding.

Lu Yunzhou seized her arm, yanking her aside, both of them ducking behind a wall.

As the bullets rained down, all the team members scattered, seeking cover with the calm of seasoned soldiers.

The girl, however, was not so composed.

She screamed and was dragged behind a concrete barricade by Qin Hu.

At that moment, the fifteen-second countdown ended. Beep!

A deafening boom shook the air, a wave of heat sweeping over them. Dust showered down, leaving traces of chalky debris on their bodies.

The underground lab had exploded, and the entire building trembled.

“Don’t be afraid, it’s alright,” Qin Hu reassured the girl.

After the explosion, thick black smoke enveloped the entire building.

“It’s the W Group’s men from Sand City,” Lu Yunzhou murmured, pressing himself against the wall as he peered outside the old building.

He analyzed the situation calmly.

In the dim light, the girl leaned against the wall, her black hair scattered, her pale, delicate features composed. When her eyes met his, they shone with a cool detachment—an indifference and composure rare in young women.

“You won’t get out,” she rasped, her voice hoarse. Blood soaked the gauze at her chest, and with her right arm dislocated by the man, she was in no position for tricks.

But from her vantage point, she could see, shrouded in the gloom, a dense crowd gathering.

The entire building was surrounded by W Group reinforcements from Sand City. The twelve people he had brought, plus the two rescued teammates, made fourteen.

Outside, however, they faced the full might of Sand City.

A black gun barrel pressed against Shen Chaoxi’s forehead.

“You little wretch, say another word and I’ll blow your brains out!” Qin Hu snarled.

“If you’ve got the guts, kill me then.” Shen Chaoxi smiled coolly.

She was tough—her fearlessness had been clear from the moment she was captured.

“Qin Hu, lower your weapon,” Lu Yunzhou commanded coldly.

“Captain?” Qin Hu gritted his teeth, not understanding why, at such a critical moment, they were still keeping the W Group heiress alive.

“In my opinion, we should’ve killed her already! Someone as depraved as her deserves nothing less!”

“Her life still serves a purpose.”

Lu Yunzhou’s dark eyes fixed on Shen Chaoxi. In the dim light, his tall, lean form cast a shadow over her. His lips parted, a slight smirk at the corner of his mouth. His long arm shot out, catching Shen Chaoxi off guard.

Before she could react, he seized her wrists, twisting them behind her against the wall.

“You…” Shen Chaoxi struggled.

His jet-black hair fell across his forehead, the light outlining his tall, straight figure. He paused, saying nothing, then bound her wrists with a length of rope.

“Captain, what are you doing?” Chen Yu asked, puzzled by Lu Yunzhou’s actions.

“Perhaps we can negotiate with them.”

Standing atop the abandoned building, overlooking all of Sand City, the man cut a stark figure, his eyes cold as he stared down at the mass of gunmen below.

A black sea of people.

Outside the derelict structure, reinforcements swarmed. Lu Yunzhou turned slightly, his gaze cold and steady, his brow furrowed as he spoke.

“Put down your weapons—all of you!”

“Your heiress is in my hands!” His chilling voice rang out from the rooftop.

“The heiress?” someone below exclaimed, recognizing the figure standing on the roof.

Shen Chaoxi was shoved forward, her wrists bound, a man in black tactical gear pressing a gun to her head from behind.

Her face was pale, her dark hair disheveled, blood smeared across her skin as she was held hostage atop the building.

The wind swept past, lifting the black veil from her head like a kite with a broken string.

In an instant, the fabric fluttered skyward, dancing before drifting down.

“Keep calm…”

In the dim light, a cold, feminine voice spoke, low and clear: “She’s not the heiress.”

The speaker’s eyes lifted, glancing at the girl held hostage on the roof.

“Fire!” she ordered with a smile.

With that, hearts seemed to plummet.

At that instant, Shen Chaoxi’s brow twitched as she spotted, at the front of the crowd below, the girl from W Group—

Miyako Xia Li, the second daughter of the W Group.