Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Yu Qiubai was quite familiar with surveillance around the area as well as the layout of the Fifths’ estate like the back of his hand.
Shen Xi followed behind Yu Qiubai as they climbed over the wall into the residence. Her dismal and murderous intent only grew stronger.
Yu Qiubai kept a distance from her, as though the dreary air around her would crush him if he got too close. He did not have the guts to ask about her intention to come here either.
Shen Xi looked up and inquired, “Do you know if there’s a basement in the house?”
Although she looked scary, Yu Qiubai told her all that he knew, “The basement goes on. There’s a cellar for wine and food. The Fifth family’s personal work studio and human specimen lab are underground too.”
The wealthy tended to have a basement built underground for various purposes.
“It’s to hold people captive.” Shen Xi abruptly curled her lips into a ruthless smile, unable to hide the chilling appetite for blood.
With clenched fists, she scanned the bleak and gray building, tempted to pulverize everything in sight.
Turning grim-faced after a quick daze, he nodded. “Come with me.”
He had snuck into the Fifths’ residence more than once but did not come across anything useful. Yu Qiubai was dying to find out about one particular bunker. It was a small and stuffy room, much like an interrogation room. However, it was a room meant for torture with instruments of torture present.
Yu Qiubai had been there once at night. He could not shake the eerie feeling creeping under his skin. No ordinary people would want to experience that the second time.
Following Shen Xi’s question, Yu Qiubai suddenly saw the light. An utmost ridiculous – yet the most sensible – answer entered his mind.
Li Yuan!
That was the reason she was behaving as such and wanting to enter the basement. Li Yuan was locked in that basement.
The darkness befell.
Shrouded in darkness, the Fifths’ estate appeared gruesome and spooky. The weather and fallen snow may have heightened the scare levels.
Yu Qiubai had braced himself to go with her but was stopped at the door. He could only watch as Shen Xi ventured there alone.
It had been a while since anyone had been in the basement. The door lock was broken and sat rusted on the floor.
Pausing at the doorway, Shen Xi took a deep breath before slowly pushing open the heavy metal door.
The musty, damp, and foul smell came on full force inside, but she seemed unaffected as she moved along.
The switch was to the left of the door. The light was still functioning. The cool white light was like a pair of wicked eyes as it shone over the apparatus amid the dark, bringing out malice like no other.
There was a small metal cage by the wall she was facing. The property of the metal with no rust was one to ponder.
Beside the cage were four thick metal chains with cuffs at the top end. With the cuffs smaller and thinner than the chains, it was plain to see that it was used to tie down children.
There were bloodstains on the cage, cuffs, chains, and floor that had changed color over time.
The variety of torture devices on the walls, table, floor, and stand were not spared of the ominous stains either.
The arm-width whip by her feet was soaked in blood, looking more like rust with its orange-brown color.
Shen Xi had no idea how she came. With heavy footsteps, she felt like she was walking as her footsteps were heavy. She felt as though she was walking on the edge of the knife as her heart bled for him.
This was the place.
Li Yuan was held captive by the lunatic here. This was where he spent his childhood.
She could not imagine the pain and suffering he went through at such a young age. How did he survive?
Shen Xi could see the tiny figure cowering and lying in the cage in blood lifelessly.
It finally struck her why his eyes bore such chilling bloodthirst and animosity when Shen Xi first met him.
That was a fire of a person who went through the depths of hell and back, capable of burning everything in its path.
Yu Qiubai’s mother said that his father was the head of the Fifth household and he was a mad and inhumane animal.
The man controlled and manipulated everything, and anyone who stood in his path would face his deadly wrath.
His wife and son were no exception.
Although the Fifth family feared him to the core, no one dared to tell on him. Anyone who tried to was all dead. Everybody was living in the man’s despotic shadow.
The Fifth family new they were safe so long as they did as they were told, met his demands, and took his side without angering him.
Yet for some reason, the man was a rotten beast hiding under the skin of a dapper gentleman and prince charming of every lady’s dreams.
He always had one clear goal in mind – the Li family. Hence, he wooed the only darling princess of the Li family and stole her heart. The man swept the girl off of her feet and made her more than willing to marry him. She thought she had found love and happiness.
Alas, it was all an illusion.
He treated her like a princess more than ever after they got married. Together with her, he came up with a name for their child, decorated the nursery, told stories to their unborn child, and looked forward to the baby when she carried his child.
Yet, he did not visit her on the day the baby was born. The man she loved did not stay by her side as she struggled in pain in the labor room.
The baby was born. It was a boy. They had a name ready for him – Yanchen the Fifth. She was happy for his arrival, despite feeling weary after labor.
However, she did not see the joy of a father in his eyes, neither concern nor love. He merely gave her and the child in her arm a cold look with disdain, disgust, contempt like they were trash.
At the time, she had no clue the nightmare of all the pain, suffering, grief, and despair in life had just begun.
The man ordered for her child to be taken away in spite of her resistance and cries. He became a stranger to her as she could no longer find a hint of familiarity in his eyes. It was as though the love and tenderness in the past were all in her head..
