It happened so fast. The world in front of her suddenly flipped upside down, then she felt a soft and bouncy texture below her, followed by a heavy weight on top of her.
She looked up in horror as that creepy white mask leaned down on her like he was trying to kiss her. However, he stopped just a finger from her face, filling her view with the surface of a white mask.
"S-Stop…" Li Caiyi painstakingly squeezed that word from her throat. She meant it to be more threatening, but it sounded like a mouse whimper instead.
"Are you scared of me?" The man asked the same question again.
Li Caiyi instinctively felt that he would do something worse if she kept quiet like before, so she forced herself to speak. "No. Get off me this instant."
"Really? Even when you are trembling all over like this?"
The man caressed her upper arm gently, relishing the smoothness of her skin, and making her flinch. Her fear intensified, prompting her to raise her hand to attack him with her knife, only to realize that she had already lost it at some point.
The man caught her hand by the wrist and held it down above her head. He used his weight to lock her in place. This way, she really couldn't move at all.
"Let go! Let go of me!"
"Do you want to escape? Strange, aren't you the one who asked so many questions earlier? Where did all that drive go?"
His tone was as deadpan as before, but Li Caiyi could tell he was mocking her. "You are the one who wants me here in the first place!"
"That's right. Because I was curious. I'm curious about you."
Li Caiyi stiffened even more when she heard that. "What? Do you know me before this?"
"No."
Li Caiyi waited for him to continue, but it didn't seem like he would elaborate, so she continued, "First, how about you let me go first, so we can talk?"
"I refuse."
"But it's too uncomfortable to talk like this."
She screamed and struggled with all her might. But he was so heavy like an immovable rock. Her resistance barely did anything to him.
The man patiently waited until she was drained of her energy before pinning her other hand above her head. By now, Li Caiyi was already sobbing from frustration and helplessness.
"Sshh, don't cry." The man whispered beside her ear gently, but it only made her want to sob harder.
"This is a warning. Don't poke your nose where it didn't belong, and no harm shall come your way."
Li Caiyi stopped sobbing and turned her head at him. "What do you mean by that?"
"Exactly as it sounds. I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about. The fact that you came here for me is the proof."
Li Caiyi stared at him deeply. Perhaps her eyes were playing a trick on her, but she thought she saw a beautiful pair of blue eyes behind the blank white mask. And also the fathomless darkness in it.
"Who are you? Why are you doing this?"
"I don't have an obligation to answer. But I guess I can give you another piece of warning."
"A warning?"
"Be careful with whom you are associating yourself with. You don't know when they might pose a danger to you."
Li Caiyi couldn't comprehend the meaning behind those words. By 'associating' herself with, who could he have meant? Was it Detective Tang? Or Meng Renshu?
The more she thought about it, the more she felt that this person knew something about her.
"Uhm…"
"You are not a bad catch, but I have to admit that his taste is purer than I thought."
"Ah? What are you talking—Agghh!"
Li Caiyi gasped when he suddenly choked her with one hand. She felt like her neck would break. Under his cold stare, she struggled to break free while gasping for air.
"W-why?"
"I'd like to see you cry once more. As a reward for telling you a good piece of advice, will you cry for me?"
"Y-you crazy!!"
He wanted her to cry? Then of course she wouldn't give it to him!
Not that she had any room for that, with how busy she was trying to preserve the air in her lungs. This man went from 0 to 100 so fast, she didn't see it coming.
His hold on her neck was getting tighter, and when she thought she was going to pass out, the door was suddenly kicked open.
CRASH!!
The loud crashing sound startled her and she automatically shut her eyes. At the same time, the hand on her neck disappeared, giving her room to breathe.
When she opened it again, the man with the white mask had gone. The curtain of the window fluttered from the wind, and Li Caiyi just knew that the man had escaped through it.
Then, she felt herself being pulled upwards and rammed into a wide chest. "I finally found you."
Li Caiyi was stunned. She couldn't possibly mistake that voice with another, for that voice was the one thing she urgently wanted to hear even before all this mess happened.
"Zhi?" Li Caiyi called out to him with a shaky voice. Tears welled up in her eyes again.
Dai Zhiqiang broke their embrace and cupped her face to take a better look at her. His pale face was laced with worry, and his eyes seemed hurt to see her in this state. "Caiyi, are you hurt? Did someone do something to you?"
'It's really him. He really came to save me again.'
Li Caiyi wrapped her hand around him and cried hard. All the fear, exhaustion, and confusion were released from her as she clutched him for life.
"I-I was so scared. I thought I won't be able to see you again!"
Dai Zhiqiang had never seen Li Caiyi crying like this before. She was in a daze when he found her, with disheveled hair and dress. She didn't seem to be hurt physically, but the incident must have left a scar in her mind.
He pulled her closer while whispering words of consolation to her ears. "It's fine. I'm here now. Nobody will hurt you anymore. You are safe now."
"Hnggh…sob…sob…"
Her cries were so heart-wrenching. It broke his heart to pieces. If only he arrived earlier—no, if only he answered her call and stayed by her side, something like this wouldn't have happened to her.
The more he heard her crying, the sadder and angrier he became.
A dark pool swirled in his eyes as he stared at the opened window. He remembered seeing a shadowy figure leaped from that window the moment he barged in.
He was too focused on securing Li Caiyi and letting the main culprit get away. Not that he regretted his choice, but the culprit ran too fast for him to take a glimpse of his figure. He couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman.
The only one who had seen that person was Li Caiyi. However, he couldn't bring himself to ask, as the bad memories probably traumatize her.
Dai Zhiqiang had no idea what happened to her, but he certainly wouldn't let whoever did this to her unscathed.
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