Chapter 90: Satan's Woman (1)

She knelt on the wet, slippery floor, her long legs bound at the ankles in chains. Nothing but a thin nightgown draped her curvy body, giving faint glimpses of what lay beneath, as if deliberately meant to invite sin.

Women with figures like that usually had average faces, but the one in front of me was easily a nine out of ten even without makeup.

Our eyes met, her expression a complicated mix of emotions.

There was surprise and joy, but also embarrassment and unease—as if letting me see her in such a wretched state were the ultimate humiliation.

"Jiang Fei?" My reaction was far simpler than hers. "Don't panic. I'm here to save you."

Whether I could actually save her in the end or not, I needed to claim the moral high ground first and make it look like I had landed in this deathtrap purely for her sake.

I wasn't doing it to move her, only to give myself a plausible excuse for being in a place like this.

"You came... for me?" Jiang Fei asked, one word at a time. A storm of emotion was already surging through her. Just when she thought she had sunk into the deepest despair, things had taken an unexpected turn and brought her the most beautiful surprise.

Though she was moved, she refused to let it show on her face. "Did my dad pay you a lot of money? My sister-in-law told me you run an Adult Shop on the surface, but actually take all kinds of commissions."

She had grown up with a silver spoon in her mouth, bossing everyone around, and was long used to talking down to people. Even with her reduced to this state, that awful personality wasn't going to change overnight.

"Jiang Fei, a personality like yours is actually really popular, you know?" I smiled as I looked at this fallen phoenix. The proud daughter of the Jiang family's chairman, the prized jewel of Jiangjin Real Estate, was now kneeling on the cold, hard, filthy floor like a demoness stripped of her magic, left entirely at the mercy of others.

"Save the sarcasm. I know perfectly well what my personality is like!" Jiang Fei kept up her stubborn front, though she felt indescribably awful inside. 'What am I doing? He went through untold hardships and risked his life just to save me, yet I can't even say thank you. Will he be angry? Am I really such a terrible woman in his eyes?'

"I'm not being sarcastic. To a criminal who loves torture and thrives on psychological gratification, your tough, overbearing personality is a rare prize. Combine that with your gorgeous face, and I think you're probably the most perfect toy he could ask for." I didn't move any closer to Jiang Fei. Instead, I sat down on the other side of the drainage ditch. My palm had been sliced open, and rust and filthy water had gotten into the wound.

I used both hands to squeeze the wound open, trying to force the blood out, but without much success.

"You're hurt?" Worry flickered in Jiang Fei's eyes. It was a completely natural, unguarded reaction—one she didn't even notice herself. "C-come here."

Jiang Fei motioned me over, looking a little embarrassed. Chained as she was, her range of movement was limited. I was still wondering what she was doing when the woman grabbed the hem of her expensive nightgown with both hands and, with a sharp rip, tore off a strip of cloth.

She covered her flat, trim stomach with one hand and waved the cloth toward me with the other. "Bandage it up."

Jiang Fei meant well; I could see that much.

I stood and walked toward her, but the moment I stepped over the ditch, she let out a shriek. It startled me so badly that I immediately dropped into a crouch, holding my breath to listen for any movement in the hallway outside.

After a long moment with no sound of footsteps, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. I frowned and looked at Jiang Fei. "What on earth are you doing?"

"You..." She bit her lip and turned her face away. "Where are your pants?"

Only when she mentioned it did I realize how awkward the situation was. My outstretched hand hung in midair—going closer felt wrong, but so did staying put.

"Hang on to the cloth for now. There's rust in the wound, so I can't bandage it yet." Putting on a straight face, I sat back down where I'd been.

My pants were still in the plastic bag. I needed to check the other rooms soon, so I was in no rush to put them back on.

I hadn't thought much of it at first, but once Jiang Fei pointed it out, I couldn't help feeling a chilly draft.

"Alright, sorry about my attitude just now. I'm going to ask you a few questions, and I need you to answer honestly." Jiang Fei's face was flushed. I had no idea what kind of wild thoughts the Red Cord of Marriage might be putting into her head, so I got straight to the point.

"Okay, ask away."

"When you were kidnapped, did you get a clear look at their face, or notice any distinguishing features? Appearance, clothes—the more detail you can give me, the better." I got my hopes up, but Jiang Fei's answer poured cold water right over them.

"I don't know anything. I was at home, and then I felt terribly sleepy. By the time I opened my eyes again, I was already here."

"So you were at home and just suddenly lost consciousness, right?" I stroked my chin in confusion. "Did you drink anything or take sleeping pills before you blacked out?"

Jiang Fei shook her head. "No, I didn't do anything."

When she first went missing, Officer Chen had dragged me to the initial crime scene, and I'd looked it over myself. The doors and windows had been completely intact, with no signs of forced entry. Chen Jianguo had also said that Jiang Fei left on her own, without being coerced or held hostage.

"Ruling out someone you know, have you ever sleepwalked before?"

"Never. I just had some trouble sleeping that night and didn't fall asleep until very late." She stole a glance at me. The very reason for her insomnia was sitting not far away, and poorly timed as it was, her heart was still racing.

"That's strange." Jiang Fei had no reason to lie, unless she had staged this whole farce herself. Unwilling to let it go, I pressed on. "Did anything unusual happen before you started feeling sleepy? Don't rush to answer—think it through carefully and don't leave out a single detail."

Jiang Fei cupped her face in her hands. Honestly, the woman looked remarkably pretty when she was deep in thought. "I couldn't sleep that night, so I got up and opened the window. I wanted to catch some of the night breeze to clear my head. Oh, right—I think I heard Princess let out a yelp. I was half-asleep at the time, though, so I'm not sure if it really happened."

"Dobermans are a prized breed—docile and obedient around their owners, but fierce and fearless toward strangers." I fell into deep thought. The night Jiang Fei disappeared, I had happened to be at the hospital tracking the black magician, and he had vanished heading south as well.

'There were desiccated animal carcasses all the way south, and Jiang Fei's villa is in the south too. Could her dog have been killed by the black magician? Jiang Fei's symptoms are just like the trance Jiang Shihan was in right before she died—both of them seemed to have had their minds controlled, acting against their will as if they were sleepwalking.' It was a pity I hadn't seen the Doberman's body, or I could have confirmed the kidnapper's identity right then.

'The black magician fled south. Jiang Fei's villa is in the south. Director Li's late-night phone call mentioned Henshan Psychiatric Hospital, which is also in the south. What's the connection between the three?'

The ropes that had bound my hands were uneven in length, tied in the Tiger Bite used to restrain psychiatric patients, and the blade work that had severed those fingers was highly professional. Everything seemed to be pointing toward the same answer.

I slowly pieced everything together. What looked like random, unconnected people and places actually seemed to be linked by an invisible thread.

"You've been locked up here for a full day and night. They haven't done anything to you, have they?" I looked Jiang Fei over, though I could pretty much guess the answer. If they had laid a hand on her, she wouldn't be acting like this right now.

"No. I was already chained up when I woke, and I haven't seen anyone else since. If you hadn't come, I wouldn't even know how long I'd been in here." Jiang Fei shifted into a more comfortable position, leaning to one side as she half-sat on the floor.

"Have they brought you any food or water? Or did you hear them talking to each other?"

"They brought food twice—tossed it in through that little slot at the bottom of the door—but I didn't eat it." By the standards of the Jiang family's young miss, whatever they'd given her was probably worse than what her dog ate.

Jiang Fei pulled two steamed buns out from her clothes. I brought them to my nose and took a sniff—just perfectly ordinary food.

"As for sounds, aside from the screams, I think I heard a woman crying. It sounded terribly sad, and really eerie. I don't know how to describe it—you can listen for yourself in a bit."

"Crying?" The little boy in the next room had heard something similar. There had to be a woman locked up in one of the rooms further down.

"Put the buns away, and try not to eat them. Be careful—they might have been injected with drugs." I stepped over the drainage ditch and looked at Jiang Fei.

Her calves were bruised black and blue from the chains, the skin rubbed raw in several places.

I crouched down and gently lifted her leg. "Does it hurt?"

Jiang Fei bit her lower lip and nodded.