She panted as her body braced for another hit. Her body clenched tightly in self-defense. She knew exactly what they wanted to hear and see. In a situation like this, the torturer would only hit her harder in order to see her break if she acted strong.
When the next hit came straight for her stomach again, she let out a cry of pain.
It wasn't that hard really, especially when it actually hurt. She felt something wet trickle down her stomach and knew immediately her skin had broke.
Her head dropped as she struggled to breathe properly and her vision became extremely hazy. The pain in her stomach was burning now.
She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her own blood pool down to her belly button. Simply bleeding brings back memories that she never wanted to remember. Images flashed in her mind. Finding a puddle of blood beneath her, soaking her white skirt and turning the pure satin material a crimson color. She rapidly blinked, refusing to let that memory resurface.
Without warning, someone had grabbed her hair and yanked her whole body with it. Once again, she let out another cry of pain. The sharp pain caused her to wince which hurt her more because of the stinging in her stomach.
"How disappointing. I thought you'd put up more of a fight." The leader said, sighing in boredom. When he had seen her act of serenity in such a dire situation, he thought she would be different. He thought she wouldn't submit so easily.
"It's a pity, really. If you hadn't offended him, your beautiful body would not be ruined like this." He cooed while feeling her cheeks with the back of his hand, the cold and rough leather of his gloves taunting her, sending goosebumps up her spine.
If she was foolish or stupid, she would have already spat at him and bitten his hand, but she knew better than angering him further. He talked too much, that was for sure. He had already given away the gender of the person that wanted to harm her. Now, she only needed a name.
"W…whatever…he paid you, I…I will double it." She heaved. The simple task of breathing was difficult. Every time she moved, a sharp tingle would shoot up her body, which she had no choice but to ignore.
"Hm, he said you would." The leader said while twirling the butterfly knife in his hand.
She watched his long fingers play with the dangerous blade and just then, an idea came to mind. She knew her ankles were tied together, but that didn't mean she couldn't move them. They were not bounded to the chair.
"But you see, sweetheart, wait, I can call you that right?" He asked her, chuckling at her pathetic state.
When he first laid eyes on her, he found her to be incredibly beautiful. Albeit too confident for his taste, it didn't diminish her appearance.
"Whatever you want." Zhao Lifei warily answered, her eyes scanning the men. She could easily tackle the weakest link right in front of her. But with thirty men to fight against at the same time, that would be quite hard.
"Your purse was emptied and let me tell you, there's nothing in there that could go beyond what he had paid us." He told her, lifting a hand for one of his men to bring the purse to her.
"I can…wire you more." She breathed out, staring into the empty bag.
Her wallet was nowhere in sight and she could only pray that they didn't toss it out the window of their car after taking out the handful of cash she usually carried.
There was a high possibility that they've rummaged through her purse when they were transporting her here. Her wallet and purse may already be rotting on a dirt road somewhere.
"Tsk tsk, I was hoping you'd be smarter than that." He wagged a finger in front of her face, like a father scolding his daughter.
"If I let you get more money, your precious grandfather would be after us the minute you have any bank activity. Isn't that right?" He asked her, pulling out her wallet from his pocket.
She silently cheered in her head. So he hadn't thrown it out the window! Her hopes died down when he opened the wallet to reveal the crushed button.
"What era do you think we live in? It's so easy to scan this trash with our machine and find the tracker." He scoffed, insulted that such a cheap trick was pulled on him.
Zhao Lifei had gotten her second hint. The man who hired him must have some sort of power or connection to extremely advanced technology that wasn't released to the public yet.
The tracker was of the highest technology and was something manufactured by the military. A simple scanner would not be able to detect it, no matter how advanced one's machine was. This meant the leader was lying.
"Oh and don't think we're that dumb either. This thing was long destroyed on the road." He shrugged, tossing it behind his shoulders. She jumped when he suddenly clapped his hands, the sound echoing around the warehouse, taunting and scaring her at the same time.
He laughed at her expression, amusement dancing on his face. "Now, now, don't be so frightened. What happened to that confident woman from before?" He taunted her and placed a gloved hand on her shoulder.
She stiffened under his touch, her lips turned into a scowl. "What do you want? What is your purpose for kidnapping me?" She asked him, eyeing his hand with disdain. Although he appeared calm and collected, the crazy look in his eyes had unsettled her.
All of a sudden, a hand struck her face so hard it had given her whiplash. She gasped at the stinging pain. The smack took her by complete surprise.
"Don't glare at me like that, wh*re." He hissed, offended that she had looked at him the wrong way. The laughter disappeared from his face and it turned chillingly cruel.
Her cheeks burned in pain and a bruise had begun to form. She opened and closed her mouth, attempting to loosen the jaw that had locked upon getting hit.
She winced when he roughly grabbed her jaw and painfully squeezed it which caused more agony.
"Just because I'm nice to you for one second doesn't mean you have the right to look at me with those beady little eyes of yours." He seethed and without warning, punched her stomach again.
With the force of the punch, she convulsed and bent over, as if she was going to throw up. He immediately took a step back, not wanting to get dirty because of her.
She seized this chance to suddenly surge her foot forward, driving her heels right into his shin.
"Son of a bit-"
She doesn't wait for his reaction before suddenly standing up. The chair weighed down her back, causing her to hunch forward.
"Crazy motherfuc-"
Using her entire body, she swung her back and the heavy chair slammed right into the man on her right. She heard the chair crack and when she felt a presence draw closer to her, she used her entire body weight to jam the chair right into the man. By heaven's luck, it happened to land straight at his chest.
CLUNK!
She knew the chair was close to breaking. Her eyes saw momentary hope that she was close to winning when suddenly, a bloodcurdling laughter rang throughout the air.
