Chapter 12: Abduction

Though it was dark, Wuxue did her best to make out her surroundings. She could just about see the shapes around her. Shisan was beside her, and there seemed to be other people in the cargo compartment, though they were all quiet.

But since Shisan could talk to her freely, the others probably weren’t Skok’s people.

“Where are we?” Wuxue asked Shisan.

“I don’t know,” Shisan said.

“How did I get here?”

“I don’t know. I woke up today and found they’d thrown you in.”

“Where are we going?” Wuxue asked.

“I don’t know.”

Wuxue was at a loss. “Then what do you know?”

“I… Um… I don’t know.”

Wuxue knew she couldn’t rely on Shisan. But she remembered Skok was heading to Ironhammer Castle. They were probably going in that direction. Faint light filtered through a crack overhead, so it was daytime now. At a normal speed, the trip from Iron Furnace Town to Ironhammer Castle would take at least two days. The door to Wuxue’s room had been opened at nine the previous evening, so she’d been unconscious for at least eight hours.

She just didn’t know whether it was morning or afternoon.

“Did the vehicle stop on the way?” Wuxue asked. Shisan had to know that much.

“It did,” Shisan said. “It’s been driving for ages since then.”

“How long, exactly? Or about how many hours?” Wuxue kept asking. Skok couldn’t drive without stopping to rest. Even if he had accomplices, they’d still need to stop and eat. If the first stop had been for lunch, then the second one would tell Wuxue whether it was already nighttime. With that, she could roughly figure out when she might have a chance to escape.

“I… don’t know.”

“…”

Wuxue gave up on getting anywhere with Shisan and tried to stand, hoping to get a better look around. That was when she realized her feet were shackled, too.

“Don’t bother struggling,” Shisan said. “Besides us, there are four other girls in here. They’re all tied up, too.”

Skok was an experienced trafficker who made his living at it. He’d know a thing or two about keeping people from running away. Since he’d dared to capture Wuxue, he must have prepared for every eventuality. That thought actually calmed her down. Skok wanted her to work for him. He wouldn’t get much out of selling her off.

Wuxue decided to change tactics. There was no need to rush into an escape attempt.

“Shisan, didn’t I let you go? How did Skok catch you?” Wuxue was curious. Surely Shisan hadn’t been sold without knowing how it happened.

Shisan sighed in complaint. “Because I’m an idiot. I was driving a tractor and crashed into that bearded guy.”

“And then?” Wuxue pressed, eager to find out just how much of an idiot Shisan was.

“Then he told me to pay him. But he was backing out when he hit me, so I definitely wasn’t going to pay. And…” Shisan muttered, “I only had the 200,000 orbs you gave me. How could I give those to him? I was going to drive away, but another tall guy said I didn’t have to pay so soon. Then he asked where I lived, how many people were in my family, and stuff like that.”

Wuxue had finally learned something useful: Skok wasn’t alone.

“And then? You didn’t just tell them everything, did you?” Wuxue looked toward Shisan.

Sure enough, Shisan went on. “I told them everything. I said I was a poor, lonely scavenger with no family. They felt really sorry for me, so they invited me to dinner.”

“…” Wuxue could already tell how Shisan had been tricked. If she was stupid, she’d just set a new record. Wuxue could hardly believe it. When Shisan had asked her for money, she’d had every angle covered. But the moment she’d been offered a meal, she’d been foolish enough to get kidnapped.

Just as Wuxue was about to make fun of her, the vehicle lurched and came to a stop. Shisan lost her balance and tumbled over. Wuxue stayed right where she was, paying close attention to everything around her. The footsteps and voices outside drew closer, followed by the sound of a lock opening.

Wuxue let her eyelids droop. A burst of light poured in when the door opened. She’d been locked up too long; her eyes couldn’t handle the glare.

“Good afternoon, Su,” Skok said with a smile.

He climbed into the cargo compartment and came over to Wuxue. The light behind him was so bright that she could only make out his shape.

“Doesn’t feel like a good afternoon to me,” Wuxue said, turning her face away.

“Ha!” Skok laughed. “You’re still as calm as ever, Su.”

“What, should I be screaming for help?” Wuxue replied, her voice dry. Even as a prisoner, she sounded confident.

“You two know each other?” Shisan suddenly appeared between them, looking from one to the other.

“Of course we do, beautiful. Miss Su is an honored guest of mine,” Skok said, reaching to touch Shisan’s face. She dodged him.

Shisan put on a smile and turned to Skok. “Since you know each other, we can talk this out. Wuxue and I are friends, too. Be a good sport and let me go.”

“Shisan, you and Skok really are made for each other,” Wuxue said with a sneer. “Neither of you has any shame.”

“I think she’d suit me, too,” Skok said, lifting Shisan off the floor. “Too bad she’s an idiot. Still, she’s pretty. I can get a good price for her.”

“Then how much are you planning to sell me for?” Wuxue asked directly. She wanted to know what Skok intended to do with her.

“Work for me, and this girl is yours.” Skok patted Shisan’s cheek. “Otherwise, you’ll be in a bikini, displayed with a price tag in a shop window in Ironhammer Castle.”

Wuxue didn’t understand why Skok had decided she was into women, or why he was so determined to hand Shisan over to her. She also couldn’t figure out what made him so set on recruiting her.

But Wuxue had no other choice. Skok wasn’t much of a name in the business, but he knew how to satisfy the odd demands of the upper classes. Plenty of powerful people had his back.

“Do I have any other choice?” Wuxue pretended to agree. “Let me go first. And I don’t want the scavenger.”

“No,” Skok said with a smile. “You have to take her.”

By the time Wuxue learned what Skok really wanted from her, it was too late. A device had been forcibly implanted at the base of her neck and Shisan’s, something capable of destroying the nerves in their brains. As long as Skok was within a kilometer, he could kill them whenever he wanted.

Skok didn’t take them to Ironhammer Castle, either. He made a detour to a small city called Grindstone City and dumped Wuxue and Shisan in an alley across from a club called Night Lily Garden. As the name suggested, men weren’t allowed inside.

The place catered exclusively to women, but it looked no less luxurious than any club Wuxue had visited. That didn’t mean there were no men around. Four or five male guards patrolled the entrance, as if they knew dangerous people might show up.

“Do we really have to go in?” Shisan asked.

She’d been cleaned up from head to toe and looked like a completely different person. Her mop of hair had been washed and washed, then finally styled. Her features were already beautiful, and a little makeup gave her a bold, almost masculine look. Her brows and eyes seemed sharp and strong.

Her clothes were a somewhat masculine formal suit. Since Shisan was almost half a head taller than Wuxue, she looked even more imposing.

Even Wuxue had to admit she looked pretty cool.

And Wuxue didn’t look bad, either. Skok had apparently robbed a clothing store, because he’d handed her an expensive black gown. Its single slit ran from the top of her thigh all the way to her ankle. Worse, the slit was on the right, so she had to strap her gun to her left thigh.

“If we don’t go in, do we want to die?” Wuxue linked arms with Shisan. “Come on. Smile!”

They walked toward the club with stiff smiles on their faces…

Skok’s purpose had been simple. Men couldn’t enter this club, and he needed Wuxue to kill someone inside. This woman was worth far more than the girls he trafficked. She was the Countess’s mistress, as well as the club’s headliner.

The Count had discovered the affair and was furious, but powerless to do anything. The Countess’s family had considerable influence in the Jinye Kingdom. So he’d asked Skok to use his connections to have the woman killed.

Skok faced two problems. First, he couldn’t even get into the club. Second, although he was a bounty hunter, he wasn’t much good at assassination. Wuxue was different. Assassination was her specialty. Her most impressive achievement had been sneaking into the provincial government office to kill an official. Taking care of one woman would be nothing for her.

So Shisan became Wuxue’s date, and the two of them entered the club together. According to Skok’s instructions, they had two days to get close to their target and eliminate her. If they hadn’t come out by the end of the second day, Skok would use the devices implanted in their necks to kill them.

But the biggest question was: how were they going to escape?