Yan Tuo’s shock was no less than Nie Jiuluo’s.
He stared at Gou Ya for a good while before asking, “What happened to your eye?”
Gou Ya stammered, “I accidentally… poked it last night. Like this, my head… my head is spinning…”
With such a severe injury, the pain on his face couldn’t be faked. Yan Tuo released his grip: “How did you poke it?”
Like a weak patient, Gou Ya slowly curled back into the suitcase, mumbling incoherently, “Just an accident… my head hurts…”
Yan Tuo said, “You’re full of shit.”
After these words, the room fell silent for several seconds. Gou Ya stopped whimpering, and the faucet dripped slowly.
Yan Tuo finally spoke again: “There are no dangerous items in the hotel room. If you got hurt in here, why didn’t you make a sound? Did you go out last night?”
Gou Ya panicked: “No, no, I just wasn’t careful, it was the toothbrush, the toothbrush poked me…”
Before he could finish speaking, everything started spinning. Then, with a loud bang, his whole body crashed to the ground, seeing stars—Yan Tuo had flipped over the suitcase with one hand.
Before Nie Jiuluo could react, Yan Tuo had already stepped on Gou Ya’s back, shifting his entire body weight onto that leg. Gou Ya could barely breathe. But that wasn’t all—he drew his gun from his lower back and pressed the muzzle against Gou Ya’s skull with great force, squashing his ugly face almost flat against the ground.
“Not telling the truth—think I’m stupid? Madam Lin said if you behave, I’m here to pick someone up; if you don’t, I’m here to transport a corpse.”
Gou Ya turned into a complete coward, his voice high and thin, nearly crying: “I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you! Last night you called me useless and said that a woman near Sun Zhou’s place saw me and drew my picture for the police. I got angry and… and wanted to settle scores with her…”
Yan Tuo froze, his grip loosening slightly as he inadvertently glanced at Nie Jiuluo.
Nie Jiuluo maintained an innocent expression while cursing internally.
“I climbed out the window, don’t know exactly where, but my foot slipped, and there was a wire on the window that stabbed right into my eye socket… I was afraid you’d find out, so I didn’t say anything.”
Nie Jiuluo’s heart pounded, but she could still make quick judgments.
—These two were working together.
—Yan Tuo could control Gou Ya, but Gou Ya had his agenda, hiding things from Yan Tuo.
—Above these two, there was someone called “Madam Lin.”
The room fell silent again for several seconds. Yan Tuo removed his foot from Gou Ya’s back. Gou Ya squeezed out a long relieved sigh from his throat and scrambled back into the suitcase. The case wobbled unsteadily as he clambered in, like a small boat tossed by waves.
After a while, he finally managed to stuff himself back in and pulled the lid closed, though not completely—it remained propped open about a finger’s width.
His single eye peered warily through this gap, seeing Yan Tuo’s boots with their cold bronze-colored rivets, and in the corner by the water pipe, a woman with her hands tied behind her back, also wearing boots with clearly visible anti-slip treads.
He didn’t recognize Nie Jiuluo because he had never seen her in the light, only encountering her pencil thrust in the darkness—the pencil tip had been so sharp that in that instant, he hadn’t even felt the pain.
“Did you understand everything I just explained?”
Just explained? Gou Ya was confused for a moment before responding: “Clear. You said you’re going out for a while and want me to watch Sun Zhou and this woman.”
“Just watch them, don’t touch them.”
Gou Ya quickly agreed.
The scene was too bizarre, making Nie Jiuluo’s scalp tingle: Why weren’t either Yan Tuo or Gou Ya mentioning bandaging the wound? This was a blinded eye!
All necessary instructions had been given, but Yan Tuo still felt somewhat uneasy. He inspected the bathroom for a while, trying to identify any oversights or potential risks.
Finally, his gaze fell on Nie Jiuluo.
She was it—the biggest risk.
He grabbed a roll of wide tape, walked to Nie Jiuluo’s front, and with a sharp rip, tore off a long strip before crouching down.
Nie Jiuluo instinctively turned her head away: “I won’t scream. This hotel has no guests, and you’ve left someone to watch. I’m not that stupid.”
Yan Tuo wasn’t buying it: “Miss Nie, you’re quite eloquent. Gou Ya isn’t sharp enough to resist your sweet talk, better to seal it.”
Nie Jiuluo cursed his blindness internally: he still thought Gou Ya was trustworthy and worried about her manipulating him. He had already been fooled by Gou Ya.
But thinking it over, she held back: let evil fight evil—she was content to play deaf and dumb and watch them fight like dogs.
Instead, she made another request: “Could I eat something first?”
She hadn’t eaten lunch while visiting the temple, and being tied up prevented dinner—she’d missed two meals already. Others might lose their appetite in captivity, but not her—she needed to eat well to have the energy to deal with these villains.
Yan Tuo acted as if he hadn’t heard, directly taping her mouth shut. To prevent it from coming loose, he pressed firmly on both sides with his palms.
Nie Jiuluo had sensitive skin; when he pressed and released with such force, her face flushed pink as blood returned.
Before leaving, Yan Tuo answered her question.
He said: “You look like you can handle going hungry. Missing a few meals won’t kill you.”
Leaving the hotel, Yan Tuo opened his navigation and headed straight for Ban Ya Village.
One couldn’t let themselves be plotted against without understanding the whole story.
…
He didn’t dare drive the car into the village, parking far away and proceeding on foot, each step cautious, fearing his presence would be detected.
Passing through the small grove from earlier that day, in the moonlight, he spotted a figure approaching from the opposite direction. Yan Tuo quickly ducked into the woods.
The person remained completely unaware, continuing to walk unhurriedly in this direction. Before the person arrived, their voice drifted over first.
“The Eight-Nation Alliance has already reached the village entrance, they’ve taken all our pigs. I feel we really can’t count on the Empress Dowager anymore.”