The person holding Ayun’s neck was Ouyang Meihua.
She dragged Ayun into the room opposite and gently closed the door. Ah Hao, in the other room, paused for a moment. Hearing no unusual sounds, he continued chatting with Lin Duoer.
Ouyang Meihua pushed Ayun down onto the sofa and asked, "What kind of establishment are you working for?"
Ayun, suddenly attacked, turned pale and trembled with fright.
Hearing the question from a woman, she breathed a sigh of relief. "KTV."
"What's KTV?"
"It's a karaoke bar."
A karaoke bar? It sounded like no good place. Ouyang Meihua tightened her grip.
"What exactly do you do?"
Ayun tugged at the arm choking her. "It's… it's a place where guests pay to sing."
Pay to sing? Were they that bored with their money? Singing loudly in the mountains was so much cheaper!
"What's your monthly salary?"
"It varies. Some only earn one or two thousand, some can earn several thousand to ten thousand, and some even tens of thousands, depending on the waitress's ability."
Ouyang Meihua frowned. "What kind of abilities does a waitress need?"
Ayun remained silent.
Ouyang Meihua increased the pressure.
Ayun was about to pass out, but she didn't beg for mercy.
Ouyang Meihua loosened her grip slightly, allowing Ayun to breathe, and took out her phone to text Tian Jing.
Seeing Ouyang Meihua's phone, Ayun's eyes flickered. "What are you doing at the KTV?"
Ouyang Meihua sent the text with one hand and looked up at Ayun. "I'm here to investigate something. If you cooperate, you'll suffer less. If you don't..."
Before Ouyang Meihua could finish her threat, Ayun said, "My agent has compromising photos of me. If you can help me get them back and take me away from here, I'll tell you anything you want to know."
Ouyang Meihua frowned. "What are compromising photos?"
Ayun paused. Had she misjudged?
"Speak!" Ouyang Meihua's fingers tightened again.
Ayun suddenly had a guess. "You know martial arts?"
"Did you just realize that?"
Ayun's face showed surprise. "I didn't expect martial arts to still exist in this society. Compromising photos are pictures of me naked, or being violated by men."
Ouyang Meihua's gaze sharpened. "Then what will happen to the girl who just came in?"
Ayun closed her eyes, refusing to answer again.
Just as Ouyang Meihua was about to employ some minor torture, the door was gently opened and then closed.
A palm suddenly covered Ayun's nose and mouth. She opened her eyes in shock and saw a beautiful woman approaching them.
The beautiful woman sat beside her, and the woman who was choking and covering her mouth relayed what she had said to the beautiful woman.
The beautiful woman waved her hand, and the hands covering Ayun's nose, mouth, and neck were removed.
The beautiful woman asked her softly, "Girl, do you want to leave this place?"
Ayun nodded involuntarily.
The beautiful woman continued, "Tell me everything about this place, and I will save you and all the other girls from this hell."
Ayun was skeptical. "Not only do we have compromising photos, but we are also monitored in the dormitory after work, and bodyguards escort us when we take outside jobs."
"If Ah Hao, who was on duty with me, wasn't busy coaxing another girl, I wouldn't have been able to interact with an outsider alone."
The beautiful woman said, "Then why aren't you seizing this opportunity to ask for help?"
Ayun shook her head. "Ah Hao is a black belt in Taekwondo. You two are planning to save that girl, right? You should leave quickly. The girl who came in won't be able to escape."
The beautiful woman asked again, "What time do the girls here gather?"
Ayun glanced at the calm beautiful woman. "The peak is usually around midnight. Sometimes there are outside jobs, so it's hard for everyone to gather."
"Can you get the address of the girls who are going on outside jobs tonight?"
"No, I..."
Before Ayun could finish, she heard a man calling her name.
Ayun got up in a panic. "I'm going out. You hide and find an opportunity to sneak away. That girl can't leave."
She tidied her clothes as she walked and opened the door to leave.
Tian Jing and Ouyang Meihua exchanged a glance and peeked out through the crack in the door.
They saw a man and the girl from earlier carrying the unconscious Lin Duoer out of the room opposite.
Ouyang Meihua made a move to intervene but was held back by Tian Jing.
If Lin Duoer wasn't taught a lesson, she would still have a naive mindset about the outside world. Tian Jing didn't have time to protect her constantly, as she wasn't related to her.
Soon after, the girl hurried back and opened the door to their room. Seeing no one inside, she breathed a sigh of relief and was about to leave. As she turned, her body was instantly ensnared by several vines.
Tian Jing and Ouyang Meihua emerged from the darkness. "Where did you take that girl?"
Ayun looked down at her vine-bound body, then suddenly looked up, staring at Tian Jing with surprise and joy. "You… you both know martial arts?"
Tian Jing nodded. "If I say I can save you, I can save you, as long as you do as I say."
Ayun nodded vigorously. "Okay! Please tell me."
Ouyang Meihua thought, "If I had known, I would have used a rope and my internal energy to bind this girl. Then she would have believed I was powerful."
...
Lin Duoer forcefully opened her heavy eyelids, stared blankly for a long time, then abruptly sat up.
As she moved, the blanket slid off, revealing her bare upper body.
"Ah!" Lin Duoer looked down and immediately screamed, instinctively pulling the blanket to cover her chest.
"Shut up!"
A fierce roar entered Lin Duoer's ears.
Lin Duoer looked towards the sound and saw a ferocious, muscular man with a scar staring at her.
She was terrified and shrank back, clutching the blanket.
Seeing that Lin Duoer had stopped screaming, the scarred muscular man sat quietly by the wall.
Silence fell in the room.
Listening to her thundering heartbeat, Lin Duoer shed tears of regret.
At this moment, if she still didn't understand what had happened, she would be truly incorrigible.
She wished she could kill herself. Before leaving home, Captain Tian had warned her to be careful and not to trust others easily.
She hadn't taken it to heart at all. Under the sweet talk of her agent, Ah Hao, she had let down her guard and drunk that water.
Now, whether she had been harmed or not, she didn't know, and she didn't want to know. All she wanted was to know if she could still leave this place.
This scarred muscular man was clearly guarding her, preventing her from leaving.
Captain Tian should have realized she hadn't returned, right? Captain Tian would come to save her, wouldn't she?
Just like when she was harassed by that man who was obsessed with her voice, Captain Tian not only saved her but also let her work at the nursery to protect her, and even resolved the man's subsequent harassment.
How could she have been so foolish as to forget her own insignificance?
Was it simply the stimulus of Yu Ziyu's status?
At this moment, she could no longer deceive herself.
The arrogance born from inferiority had made her believe that her desire to enter the Li family was merely to find a shelter, just to make a deal with Li Weihao.
When Captain Tian regretted it and asked her if she had feelings for Li Weihao, she still couldn't let go of her pathetic pride and denied it.
She had denied it for two years. If this incident hadn't happened, would she have denied it forever, deceiving herself forever?
Now, she understood her heart, but it was too late. In this life, she had no more chances.
The door was pushed open, and Ah Hao walked in. Seeing Lin Duoer awake, he walked to the bedside with a smile. "You're awake?"