A whiteboard stood by the window, covered with a cloth. There was also a marker pen beside it.
There was a potted green plant in each of the four corners, and nothing seemed amiss. There was a surveillance camera installed on the ceiling above, which meant that from the moment she arrived here, every move of hers had been under the other person's surveillance.
Yan Xia quietly touched the spring knife hidden in her sleeve. Once anything went wrong, she could immediately pull out the knife and the blade would spring out for self - defense.
She waited for a while in boredom, but still no one came. She paced around the room and unconsciously walked up to the whiteboard near the window. She vaguely noticed that there were words on it.
Looking around and seeing no one, she reached out and removed the cloth covering the whiteboard. When she saw the content on it, she was instantly stunned.
There was a relationship chain involving more than a dozen or twenty people. In the middle of this complex relationship chain were her name and that of another woman named Xia Yingzhi. Each name had a corresponding photo.
The relationship between her and Fang Jiangyi, as well as Lu Qianzhou, was marked with the word "balance". There was even Cheng Hua's name on it. Cheng Hua was marked as her father, and his relationship with Xia Yingzhi was marked as "atonement".
Since the person had invited her here but left this whiteboard and the relationship network on it, it meant that the other person wanted her to see these things and had deliberately left it behind.
Yan Xia had a premonition that all the names on this list were the people involved in the current incident's relationship network. If she could figure out the connections among them, she should be able to find out what she had always wanted to know.
She took out her phone and took pictures of all the names and the relationship network on the whiteboard. Only then did she realize that her phone had no signal at all. There must be a signal jammer installed here.
Feeling that the place was too quiet, so quiet that it was a bit terrifying, she hesitated for a moment and finally decided to leave first.
Before she reached the door, she heard a loud bang. The door seemed to have been pushed from the outside and was immediately locked.
Yan Xia rushed over to open the door, but it was locked from the outside and she couldn't open it.
Not knowing what the other person was up to, she felt a bit unsure. She immediately returned to her original position and shouted at the surveillance camera on the ceiling.
"I've come as you asked. You haven't fulfilled your promise yet. When are you going to tell me what I want to know?"
The phone rang suddenly. Yan Xia was stunned for a moment. She didn't expect that her phone could still receive a call from the other person even though the signal was blocked.
She answered the call and warily looked around.
"I'm here. When are you coming? What on earth do you want? I haven't violated our agreement, but I've also made sufficient preparations. If I don't leave here safely after an hour, someone will come looking for me."
The person said, "You're very punctual. I didn't expect you to really dare to come. It seems that you really want to know."
"When are you going to arrive?" Yan Xia was a bit impatient.
The other person said, "It's not that easy to hear the truth from me. Before that, let's play a game of choosing one out of two. Only when you make a choice that satisfies me will I tell you the truth."
The wall on the side of the room suddenly descended, and a TV appeared in the in - built wall. The screen flashed a few times, and a live - like picture appeared.
The camera shook a few times, and a woman with her hands tied with tape and her mouth covered was thrown on the ground. Yan Xia saw the background in the picture. There were high - rise buildings behind them, and they seemed to be on the rooftop of a building.
When her eyes fell on the woman sitting on the ground, constantly shaking her head in panic and retreating, Yan Xia was suddenly stunned.
Because the woman in the picture was Jiang Yue!
A few thugs were taking off their clothes and approaching her maliciously. Jiang Yue was so frightened that her face turned pale. She kept shaking her head and shrinking back.
"Do you know who Jiang Yue is? How dare you touch her? Haven't you thought about the consequences?" Yan Xia stared closely at the picture on the TV, flustered and uneasy. This uneasiness was because she couldn't predict what uncontrollable things would happen the next second.
The person on the other end kept inciting her.
"Don't you want revenge? It was this woman who, together with Yuan Qiuping, harmed your daughter. It was their joint effort that had your daughter kidnapped and raped by several men old enough to be her father. Don't you hate her and loathe her? Now there's an opportunity for her to go through what your daughter went through. Shouldn't you finish her off and clap your hands in glee?"
Yan Xia's heart trembled violently.
She knew that things might not be that simple and there must be other hidden reasons, but she never expected that the people behind it would be Yuan Qiuping and Jiang Yue.
Wasn't Jiang Yue always so self - important? How could she collude with Yuan Qiuping to do such a thing?
Uncontrollably, the picture of Lan Mengfan lying on the hospital bed, saying that she didn't want to die, with one eye still swollen and her whole body covered in injuries, flashed before her eyes.
In her angriest moments, she had wanted to kill those bastards who had hurt her with her own hands!
But this was wrong. Using violence to fight violence only proved that she was the same as those people. Besides cowardly abusing lynching, she could do nothing else. If she really did this, she would be no different from the perpetrators.
Yan Xia clenched her fists and tried to control herself as she said, "Stop. I don't need you to help me like this. Since you've already told me, I'll find the police to collect evidence and hold them accountable, but you have no right to abuse lynching."
"Looking for the police to collect evidence? You trust those corrupt officials. It's really ridiculous." The person was very disdainful of her words. "Do you know what kind of person Jiang Yue is and how many things she has done to hurt you? Once you let her go, with her family background and status, do you think you can do anything to her? Cowardly fool! I really overestimated you!"
He showed no intention of making those people stop.
In the picture, Jiang Yue was cornered. Those people reached out to tear off her clothes and pants. The sound of clothes being torn filled the air as they gradually violated her body.
In a panic, she tore off the tape on her mouth and screamed hysterically, her panicked cries piercing the night sky.
"Help, help me... No..."
Perhaps due to excessive shock, her whole body went limp and she couldn't even struggle. Those people were wearing hoods. Taking advantage of their hidden faces, they greedily groped her body, smelled her fragrance, and tried to force themselves on her.
No matter how much she cried for help, begged, threatened, or tried to bribe them, they refused to listen.
"Why? Who sent you? How much did he pay you? I can give you ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times more. As long as you let me go, I won't hold you accountable for anything..." Jiang Yue cried until she was out of breath.
The person holding the camera for the live - broadcast sneered and said sarcastically,
"You're scared now. When you used the same method to harm an eight - year - old little girl, why didn't you think about whether she was scared?"