Chapter 22: Torture for a Confession? No, I'm Giving You a Jailbreak Gift Pack!
Lu Family Manor, underground wine cellar.
The air was filled with the mellow aroma of aged red wine and a musty, damp smell.
The temperature here was a constant sixteen degrees year-round, but at this moment, it felt as cold as an ice cellar.
Ye Chen was tied up tightly to a solid wood chair, a tattered rag stuffed in his mouth, his eyes staring in terror at the heavy iron door.
He heard footsteps—the crisp sound of leather shoes on stone steps. Each step felt like it was treading on his heart.
"Clang!"
The iron door was kicked open, hitting the wall with a dull echo.
Lu Shixuan walked in swaggeringly, carrying a riding crop he had swiped from the stables.
No one followed behind him; he had even driven away the bodyguards on the grounds that "the scene would be too bloody and not suitable for children."
Ye Chen struggled violently, the chair scraping against the floor with a piercing screech.
Lu Shixuan walked up to Ye Chen and looked down at the wretched "true young master," a sinister smile appearing on his face.
"Mmm-mmm-mmm!" Ye Chen shook his head desperately, his eyes full of pleas for mercy.
"What are you whining for? This Young Master hasn't even started yet!" Lu Shixuan tapped Ye Chen's face with the handle of the riding crop, his tone eerie. "Ye Chen, you've got some nerve, hiring an assassin to kill someone? And it's the Second Sister? Don't you know that in this family, touching the sisters is a Capital offense?"
He was complaining wildly in his head while talking tough.
Can you stop shaking?
I'm embarrassed for you!
Hurry up and find a way to run!
This is just ordinary hemp rope. Didn't you learn the Bone Shrinking Technique on the mountain?
Why aren't you using it?
And this door—I deliberately didn't lock it when I came in. You can open it with just a hard shove.
I sent the two bodyguards outside to buy late-night snacks, and I used hacking techniques to block the surveillance in the back garden for five minutes.
This is a god-given opportunity to escape!
If you still get caught after this, I'll want to write you to death on behalf of the author!
Lu Hongyi, Lu Zhirou, and Lu Qingwan, hiding in the surveillance room, were staring intently at the screen.
The three of them looked at each other, seeing deep shock in one another's eyes.
So... A Xuan sent away the bodyguards, blocked the surveillance, and even deliberately left the door unlocked, all to give Ye Chen a way out?
He's talking about a Capital offense, but in his heart, he's teaching Ye Chen how to escape?
"He's still too soft-hearted." Lu Qingwan sighed, her fingertips gently stroking her coffee cup. "After all, they share half the same blood. A Xuan can't bring himself to do it."
"No, Big Sister, you're wrong." Lu Hongyi's eyes were sharp—it was the intuition of a criminal investigation captain. "A Xuan just mentioned the 'Bone Shrinking Technique.' We've checked Ye Chen's background; he did practice it on the mountain. A Xuan is testing him, and also... setting a trap."
"A trap?"
"Only by letting the tiger back to the mountain can we draw out the hunter behind him." Lu Hongyi pointed at the screen. "Ye Chen is backed by the Dark Web. If we don't let him run, that organization will cut its losses to survive. Only by letting him escape will he, in his terror, take the initiative to contact his superior for help. A Xuan is using Ye Chen as bait!"
Inside the wine cellar.
Lu Shixuan had no idea he had been "deified" once again.
Looking at Ye Chen, who was just shaking like a dead fish, he felt a surge of anger.
This trash!
Why hasn't he used the Bone Shrinking Technique yet?
Did he forget the formula?
Fine, if you're going to help someone, do it thoroughly.
Lu Shixuan snorted coldly and suddenly raised the riding crop in his hand.
"Since you won't confess, don't blame This Young Master for being ruthless! Today, I'll whip you to death, you ungrateful wolf!"
"Crack!"
The whip descended with the sound of a sharp wind.
Ye Chen closed his eyes in fear, his muscles tensing as he prepared for the intense pain.
However.
The expected pain did not come.
There was only a soft "rip" sound.
The hemp rope that had been tied securely was actually... precisely sliced halfway through by the tip of the whip!
Ye Chen was stunned.
Lu Shixuan was also stunned.
Holy shit?
Is the precision of my 'God-level Combat Technique' really this high?
I originally wanted to pretend to miss and whip the rope apart, but the control of the force was perfect—only the rope broke, and I didn't even scratch his clothes!
No, I have to act the part.
Lu Shixuan immediately put on a frustrated look and slammed the whip onto the ground.
"Damn it! What kind of crappy whip is this? Why can't I aim right?"
He bent down, pulled a glinting dagger from his boot, and approached Ye Chen menacingly.
"If the whip doesn't work, then I'll use a knife! Ye Chen, This Young Master is going to cut off your fingers one by one!"
He grabbed Ye Chen's hand, gesturing with the blade near the rope. He looked like he was finding a place to cut, but in reality, he was looking for the weakest point of the knot.
Quick!
While I'm this close to you, even if you just headbutt me and knock me away, then break free of the rope and run!
I've brought the knife right in front of you; grab it and take me hostage!
You can escape by taking me hostage too!
Are you even a man?
Resist!
Where's your protagonist halo?
Looking at the blade so close at hand, Ye Chen had long since been scared out of his wits.
But he had practiced martial arts after all, and driven by survival instinct, he finally noticed the looseness of the rope.
Could it be... Lu Shixuan messed up?
No, how could he possibly mess up?
A flash of insight hit Ye Chen.
It was humiliation!
Lu Shixuan was toying with him like a cat with a mouse!
Deliberately giving him a bit of hope, only to make him despair later!
"Lu Shixuan, you'll die a horrible death!"
Ye Chen suddenly erupted with brute force and snapped the weakened hemp rope.
He didn't go for the knife or take Lu Shixuan hostage. Instead, like a startled rabbit, he kicked Lu Shixuan away and scrambled toward the slightly ajar iron door.
"Bang!"
Ye Chen burst through the door and disappeared into the end of the dark corridor.
Lu Shixuan was kicked so hard he landed on his butt, but instead of being angry, he let out a long sigh of relief.
Phew... he finally ran.
That kick had some power behind it; looks like he's not a total waste.
Run, run, hurry back to your Dark Web and find some more powerful assassins.
Next time, remember to find the kind that doesn't use knockout drugs but goes straight for knives and guns, otherwise my 'Crisis Perception' won't even trigger.
Sigh, just to let this scourge go, I had to pretend to be kicked down. My butt is about to split into eight pieces.
System, this plot point of 'failing to torture for a confession and being counter-attacked' should deduct quite a few points, right?
Lu Shixuan rubbed his butt as he stood up, brushed the dust off himself, and shouted toward the empty doorway: "Someone! There's a jailbreak! That grandson Ye Chen injured This Young Master and ran! Someone come quickly!"
The acting was exaggerated, and the voice was loud.
In the surveillance room.
Lu Hongyi watched her brother's "clumsy" performance on the screen, a cold smile curling at the corners of her mouth.
"As expected, he did it on purpose. If that knife were really meant to cut fingers, Ye Chen's hand would have been ruined long ago. He precisely severed the core of the rope."
"A Xuan even went so far as to take that kick just to make Ye Chen believe he escaped on his own merit." Lu Zhirou looked at the screen with heartache. "That kick to the lower abdomen must have hurt a lot."
Lu Qingwan stood up, smoothed her skirt, and regained her queen-like cold arrogance.
"Since A Xuan has already set the stage, let's not let his painstaking efforts go to waste."
"Hongyi, notify the SWAT Team to follow Ye Chen. Remember, only tail him, do not arrest him. I want to see exactly where he flees and who he meets."
"Understood." Lu Hongyi picked up the walkie-talkie. "Falcon Team, pay attention. The target has left the cage. Initiate full-spectrum tracking."
In the wine cellar.
Ding!
Detected that the host has completed the act of 'letting a mortal enemy go.'
Although the host's subjective intention was to 'nurture a tiger to invite calamity,' the actual effect was 'luring the enemy deep' and successfully initiating a suppression plan against the Dark Web.
System Determination: The host possesses an extremely high strategic vision and did not hesitate to suffer physical pain (being kicked) for the sake of the big picture.
Reward: 10 million in cash.
Reward: God-level Tracking Technique (Passive: Anyone the host lets go will be displayed as a red dot on the host's mental map, no matter where they flee to).
villain points: -1000.
Lu Shixuan looked at that red negative number, his vision went dark, and he nearly fainted for real.
"What a disaster!"
"I really just wanted to be an insider who lets the prisoner go!"
...Late at night, western suburbs of the Capital.
Ye Chen fled wretchedly into an abandoned, unfinished building.
There was no signal and no surveillance here; it was his last safe house.
He leaned against the wall, panting heavily, a venomous light flickering in his eyes.
"Lu Shixuan... you just wait."
"You think you've won? No, the good show has only just begun."
He pried a miniature satellite phone out of his shoe sole and dialed a number.
"Hello, it's me. The plan failed, but I haven't lost yet."
"I'm going to use 'that person'."
"Yes, the Sixth Young Lady of the Lu family who is studying abroad... Lu Anran."
"She's a computer genius and a madwoman who is extremely starved for love. As long as I use her a little, she will become the sharpest knife stabbing into the heart of the Lu family."
Ye Chen hung up the phone and looked at the pitch-black night outside the window, a cruel smile appearing on his face.
"Lu Shixuan, you'll regret not killing me tonight."
Meanwhile, in a dormitory of a certain Ivy League university thousands of miles away.
A young girl wearing a black-and-white checkered JK skirt and huge headphones was sitting cross-legged in the middle of five monitors.
Green code flowed like a waterfall on the screens.
She had a lollipop in her mouth, her fingers tapping rapidly on the keyboard.
"Beep—"
An encrypted message popped up.
"An Ran, I am Brother Ye Chen. Something has happened at home; that fake young master is going to kill us all..." The girl crunched the lollipop, a hint of gloom and fanaticism inconsistent with her age flashing in her eyes.
"fake young master? Lu Shixuan?"
She looked at the image captured on the screen from just hacking into the Lu family's surveillance system—the young man in a leopard-print shirt protecting his sister in a bar.
"He seems... to be much more interesting than what Brother Ye Chen said."
The girl pressed the Enter key, and the screen displayed a flight ticket order to the Capital.
"The game has begun."