Chapter 57: Escaping Again

[Oh damn, coming out of nowhere like that! Are you guys in this gang the type who love camping in the bushes in video games?!]
[Sister Sang! You even managed to lead them out for a bit under these circumstances! Although you didn't actually escape, I salute you!]
[Maybe it's just my confidence in Sister Sang, but I feel like if these guys don't finish her off right now, they're going to be in huge trouble later!]

Ye Sangsang, who was reading the live stream discussion, slowly opened her eyes and figured she was probably going to have to restart.
After escaping once, these people were bound to find a way to finish them off.
What surprised her, however, was that when she woke up again, she was simply bound, and tied together with Chen Yu.
They were strapped to the sofa, back-to-back, and Chen Yu was unconscious as well.
It seemed she wasn't the only one who had been knocked out.
Her first reaction was confusion. Following standard criminal logic, they should have killed the two of them immediately.
Why keep them alive until the third day?

She observed her surroundings. Her fear was minimal, so she wasn't trembling with terror; she merely put on a look of fright for others to see.
Soon, she spotted the person who had beaned her with the blunt object.
He looked to be about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, standing around 178 centimeters tall, with harsh, tough-guy features. He wore a short-sleeved shirt and casual black pants, and his gaze was extremely sinister.
The moment their eyes met, Ye Sangsang pretended to be scared and lowered her head.
As far as Ye Sangsang was concerned, he was indeed vicious, ambushing her out of nowhere with a heavy blow to the head. Combined with her previous injuries, any movement now made the back of her head pulse with throbbing pain that radiated to the front.
Ye Sangsang didn't curse her luck. If there was a fourth person, so be it.
When you have too many lice, you stop itching; when you have too many debts, you stop worrying.
If worse came to worst, she would just restart. She didn't have any obsessive-compulsive need to clear the game in a single run.
Giving up was out of the question, though. Even through an infinite loop, she would find a way out, time and time again. If all else failed, she would just slaughter them one by one until she had her fill of revenge.

While Ye Sangsang kept her head down and pondered, the men standing near the dining table began to speak.
"If I hadn't returned a bit late while running errands, they would have gotten away!" The gloomy man scanned the other three, a chilling murderous intent deep within his eyes.
Lin Deqiang placed his right hand on a nearby chair, lowered his head, and surprisingly admitted fault: "It was our oversight. We thought these two couldn't possibly escape anymore, but we didn't expect them to still be so restless."
The other two also expressed their negligence.
"I hope there won't next time," he said bluntly.
Although the three older men were reprimanded in such an unceremonious tone, they felt displeased rather than genuinely angered by being scolded by someone younger.
However, Zhao Hong, also known as Third Brother Zhao, rolled his eyes, managing to conceal the defiance hidden in his gaze.

Ye Sangsang remained silent, playing the quiet quail as she awaited their next move.
The newcomer was the youngest member of the gang, yet he held the most authority. After speaking, he waved toward the dining table and said, "Come on, eat."
Ye Sangsang felt a trace of doubt. Were they truly just amusing themselves at their victims' expense?
If she remembered correctly, this was a robbery-homicide case. Why hadn't they searched for money, nor demanded to know where the cash was hidden?
Were they waiting for all four members to gather?

Numerous thoughts flashed through her mind. At that moment, Chen Yu stirred behind her. Ye Sangsang could feel his body tense up briefly before relaxing upon realizing his wife was right behind him.
Realizing his wife was directly at his back, he stopped moving and whispered, "I'm sorry, it's all my fault..." Having lost too much blood and terrified at the sight of the newcomer, he had been too frightened to speak before being knocked out.
The unspoken implication was that he had dragged his wife down. They might have actually escaped had he not been there, only to be dragged back because of him.

"Don't take it to heart, it's fine," she whispered back. She didn't blame anyone; in that situation, an extra person or one fewer made no difference at all.
Neither of them spoke after that. Chen Yu's emotions were clearly laced with despair, and he kept his head down in silent misery.
Ye Sangsang remained entirely calm. Even if this were reality, if she were to die, then so be it.
It wasn't pessimism; she simply lacked emotional fluctuation. The pain, despair, and terror of death were all just emotions, after all.
The most intense emotional fluctuation she had ever experienced was probably when her mother died.
Unfortunately, that feeling had been fleeting, too fast to grasp.
Do normal people really have such rich and colorful emotions?
This was the thing she was most curious about in life; she always felt like a lot of people were just acting.

Watching the man who had struck her walk over, Ye Sangsang gathered her composure and raised her head, looking at him with fear.
"You've got quite the nerve. If it weren't for me, you really would have squared off against them." He lowered his gaze to look at Ye Sangsang, his eyes filled with a morbid appreciation and scrutiny.
Ye Sangsang looked up, glaring at them with feigned anger, and forced out the words, "Why are you doing this? If you're going to kill us, just do it. Why torture us in all these different ways?"
"You guys have had it too good, and I can't stand it. I just feel like the two of you can't be separated, even if I torture you." The man's eyes widened at her words, staring intently at her. His black pupils and the large expanse of exposed whites locked onto Ye Sangsang.
The composure Ye Sangsang was forcing herself to maintain crumbled, and tears spilled down her face.
The man laughed, his eyes full of contempt. Forget being trapped here; even if they had run out of the residential compound, he could have dragged them back anyway.

At that moment, Chen Yu spoke up, pleading in a tone of utmost sorrow, "Let her go! Whatever money you want, we'll give you all of it. I'll even take out loans if I have to, just please let her go."
"Hahaha, you two really love each other," the man stood up and laughed wildly, full of mockery.
Lin Deqiang, whom Ye Sangsang had earlier identified as the leader, walked over and said, "Qiu Fu, make them cough up the money. Get as much as you can, and if that's not enough, make the couple borrow it!"
"I know, stop nagging," the young man called Qiu Fu glanced at him, signaling him to talk less.
At the mention of money, the rest of the group gathered around.
Qiu Fu whispered something into the ear of the man who had just spoken, and the other nodded in understanding.
Shortly after, Ye Sangsang and Chen Yu were untied, and Chen Yu was led into the master bedroom by Lin Deqiang and Zhao Hong.

"Come on, tell us how much money you have," Qiu Fu interrogated Ye Sangsang.
Ye Sangsang didn't hide anything, spilling out everything she knew.
Qiu Fu raised an eyebrow. "Pretty detailed."
He stood up, holding a knife blade and tossing it lightly in his palm.
"As long as you cough up enough money, we can spare you. But you have to cooperate, understand? This escape attempt happened because trust hadn't been built between us yet, but since you're being generous with the money, we'll let it slide." He paused. "If there's a next time, whichever one of you suggests running or runs first, I'll kill the other."
"You two are so devoted, surely you wouldn't want the other to die. The one who survives will live with guilt for the rest of their lives!"

Hearing those words, Ye Sangsang's eyes flickered. Could it be that instead of both spouses surviving briefly, only one of them would survive?
Although the case files stated that both husband and wife died, they didn't specify that they died on the spot. Perhaps someone was rescued, surviving for a while after emergency treatment at the hospital.
Combined with the perpetrator's remarks about their deep affection, if only one died, was it done deliberately to tear them apart and plunge the survivor into extreme agony?
Such a sick sense of humor...

She lowered her head again, her voice raspy and choked with sobs as she said, "Don't kill him, I'll be a good girl and obey."
"Good," the man watched Ye Sangsang.
After a while, Chen Yu was led out of the room. The men cross-referenced the information they had extracted and realized neither of them had lied.

Although online payments were already becoming common by 2012, plenty of people still used cash, especially in this somewhat remote small county. ATMs were far more numerous than they would be two decades later, visible on almost every street and alley.
There had to be an ATM nearby; since they had gotten the information, they would definitely have to go out and withdraw cash.
Ye Sangsang figured that since the gang viewed her as a troublemaker, they probably wouldn't take her along.
Her guess was right. Chen Yu was soon brought before Ye Sangsang, and Qiu Fu pinched his face, forcing him to look at Ye Sangsang's face and the marks on her body.
"Take a good look, inch by inch. Lin Deqiang will go with you to withdraw the money, and Zhao Hong will drive. If I receive any word that either of you is pulling any tricks, I'll kill her." He leaned in close to Chen Yu's ear, whispering the threat.
Even Ye Sangsang had to admit the tactic was effective; clear terror surfaced on Chen Yu's face.
They made him change out of his blood-stained clothes, grabbed the bank cards, and set off.

Only Qiu Fu and Old Wang No. 2 remained in the apartment, and the two sat back down to eat.
As Old Wang No. 2 walked past the canvas bag Qiu Fu had brought in and left in the corner of the living room, he accidentally tripped over it, producing a faint sound of clinking metal.
*Clink.*
The sound was crisp, yet very quiet.
Had Ye Sangsang not been closely watching the two men, she would never have heard it.
Having been temporarily blind before, she mentally retraced the sound: it was the ring of solid iron, not a blade.
Their weapons had all been quite conventional—things like twenty-centimeter-long knives with minimal wear, resembling kitchen utensils, or a claw hammer with a gleaming stainless-steel finish and a brand-new look. These were items readily available on the open market.
Which also meant they had been prepared temporarily...

The crime scene must have been reconstructed based on the survivors' accounts, police investigations, and recorded video and photographic evidence.
Could it be that this was a gang of itinerant criminals who had fled to this small city, and these were brand-new weapons they had prepared?
Why had they targeted this couple? Was it truly just because of their mutual devotion and Shen Lingling's good looks?
Might there have been another motive?
Or was this merely a transit stop where they acquired... something.
Robbery yielded money.
The couple had bought their apartment with a mortgage, and the renovation had cost a pretty penny; they only had fifty thousand yuan in their account, left over from both sets of parents—not even the couple's own savings.
While pulling off a major crime like this for fifty thousand yuan was entirely possible, she had a lingering feeling their purpose went beyond that.

Ye Sangsang kept her head down, silently mulling it over.
Unfortunately, the current amount of information was far too scarce for her to draw any further conclusions.
Her top priority remained staying alive and escaping.
To be honest, this was the first time she had encountered such ruthless adversaries.
In her previous encounter with fugitive bandits, she had been in the shadows while they were in the light, allowing her to eliminate them at a certain cost.
This situation was entirely different. They were confronting each other head-on, the enemy outnumbered her two to one, and she was in a wounded, disabled state.

As time ticked by, Ye Sangsang felt the effects of the painkillers wearing off. Her forehead was slick with sweat, and a fever brought on by her worsening injuries and potential infection caused her to slip into a semi-conscious fever dream.
"She's running a fever. Really can't take much punishment," a voice muttered after a shadow flickered under the lamplight.