"We? We're just looking for a girl, brown hair, name sounded like... Joanna?" Monkey kept talking, his voice like gravel rolling down a slope. The group froze like deer in frost; then someone finally snapped and screamed.
"BANG! BANG! BANG!" In the cold, empty mountain night, gunshots cracked like thunder splintering ice. Everyone whipped around like grass in sudden wind; one masked man raised his arm and fired into the sky. "Hey! Keep it down, we're not playing house here!" he shouted, a blunt hammer to the quiet.
"Alright, where's Joanna? Or step out quick yourself. I don't want to hurt your classmates—or you." Monkey hefted his rifle like a storm cloud. The air grew heavy, a lid over boiling water. In every chest, a war beat drums—speak or stay silent? Would safety really follow words? Minutes trickled by like melting frost. "What? No one's talking?" The mask hid his face, but impatience scraped raw in his voice.
A masked man grabbed the tour guide and yanked her up like a puppet jerked by strings. "What are you doing!" Her scream shot up like a startled bird. "You get five more minutes. If no one talks, I punch a hole in her leg." His muzzle pointed at her thigh like a snake poised to strike.
"I know...!" After two or three minutes, a crisp girl's voice cut the hush like a bell. It was An Jingru; every eye swung to her like reeds to wind. "Finally, a smart one. Talk. Where is she?" His words fell like stones.
"I saw her go into her own tent earlier—right there!" An Jingru pointed at the most obvious gray-black tent, her finger trembling like a twig. "That’s more like it," he said, oil to rusty gears.
The man in black gestured, his hand slicing air like a blade. Two masked men strode to the tent and peeled it open like lifting a curtain. Bad luck—empty, a hollow shell. "Not a great joke." Monkey shrugged, a lazy wave across stagnant water. "But jokes have a price. Bring that girl over—I’ll ask her myself." His voice clamped like iron.
"Don’t touch me! You bandits!" An Jingru’s hands were seized, dragging her forward, her shoes skidding like leaves. "I really saw her go into that tent!"
"Enough!" The class monitor stood, his courage a thin flame against wind. "Don’t hurt my classmate!"
"Yo, little miss, guts aren’t bad." "Axin, interested in her?" Two masked men near the monitor chatted, voices like knives rubbing.
"Why are you looking for Joanna?" The monitor pressed, face stern as stone, but his hands shook like grass. "Not your concern. Hand her over so we can clock out early." Axin’s words were clean and sharp, a shovel to hard earth.
"What do you plan once you find her?" His question dropped like a pebble into a dark well.
"Alright, little miss, stop stalling. We’ve got the whole night to spend." His tone dragged like a chain.
By then, An Jingru had been hauled to Monkey’s side like cargo to a cliff. "Well, you’re a pretty one." Monkey tipped her chin up with his hand, a rude hook under porcelain. Her fine, clear face went paper-pale. "I really don’t know where Joanna is! I only saw her go into the tent!" Panic scrambled her words like birds scattering.
"Oh, it’s fine, babe. We’ve got all night to discuss." Monkey barely cared about Joanna; his eyes clung to An Jingru like moss to stone. He grabbed her hand and tugged toward the dark trees, a shadow pulling her into deeper shade.
"Let go of my classmate!" the monitor shouted. Axin slapped him, the crack like a snapped twig, then yanked him back. "Let me go, you thugs!" Blood beaded at the monitor’s lip, a red thread.
"Xiaoxue, looks like it’s time we stepped in." Joanna squeezed the blonde girl’s hand, her pulse fluttering like a startled sparrow. "Seems so. How long till rescue?"
"One hour twenty—sand slow as ice."
"Alright. Looks like it’s on us now." Little Loli brushed dirt from her knees, dust rising like smoke. "Let’s go. I won’t let you get hurt." Her vow pulled taut like a bowstring.
"Everyone, stop!" At last, the voice at the heart of this storm broke the chaos. Joanna and Xiao Qianxue walked out of the trees, silhouettes lit by fire like paper cutouts. "Nana! Get back! They’re here to take you!" the class monitor yelled, tossing composure aside, straining against the grip like a netted fish.
"It’s alright." Her calm was a still pond.
"Okay, Miss Joanna, let’s go—wait..." Monkey started to speak, then his gaze shifted and locked onto Xiao Qianxue beside Joanna. "Damn, a rare gem!" His stare welded to Xiaoxue; his grip on An Jingru slipped like a loosened knot.
"Since the target’s here, we’ve got about half an hour. Do what you want." The man in black stepped up, reached for Joanna like a hawk diving, and tried to move her. As he closed in, the blonde girl stepped in front of him, a small shield under a storm.
"Move aside, little girl. You don’t want to get hurt, right?"
"No. That’s a question you should ask yourself."
"Oh? Interesting. You want these big men to have a taste?" His words slithered, teasing edged with threat like a blade in velvet.
"Ya! You filthy creep!" The blonde girl screamed off-script, her sharp cry like a struck bell.
"Boss, I want this one!" Monkey ran to the side and yelled, greed spilling like oil.
"As you wish." The man in black held the job like an iron weight. He reached to seize Joanna. "Hey, let me take Joanna’s place." Little Loli didn’t waver; she planted herself in front of Joanna, eyes of gold and red fixing on the man in black like twin embers. "Even… my body."
"What? That girl’s worth that much to you?" The man in black raised his voice, shock rippling through the classmates like wind through wheat. In class, Xiao Qianxue was all frost and distance; except with Joanna and a few, she was an iceberg goddess. Now those words burned out of her like sparks.
From the angle, no one else noticed Little Loli’s eyes. Only the man in black saw the odd gleam. "Your eyes... Good. I accept." The only one without a mask gazed at the blonde girl, curiosity coiling like smoke. "I’ve never tasted a middle-schooler before."
"Alright... then let’s go somewhere no one’s around." The blonde girl smiled sugar-sweet, her smile like moonlight on water. Under the bonfire’s glow, her perfect face turned dangerously lovely. "Nana, looks like I need to act early." A whisper brushed Joanna’s ear like a breeze. Then the man in black and the blonde girl walked into the forest, shadows swallowing their footprints.
"Hey, boss! You said she was mine!" Monkey wailed, his protest trailing like a broken flute. Seeing no result, he turned with raw anger to the An Jingru trying to slip away. "Damn it, I’ll use this cheap wench first."
On the path, Little Loli had already counted the worst outcomes, her mind a chessboard under storm-light. She knew clearly what would follow if she made a move; no retreat remained. It was fine. In Xiao Qianxue’s heart—or in Wu Hao’s—this was worth everything, a lantern held firm in rain.
"Right here~~" Little Loli’s voice turned syrupy sweet, a lure like honey. She eased off her windbreaker, revealing a small collarbone like a pale crescent; her twin golden ponytails draped softly over the backs of her shoulders like silk ropes.
"Good." Whether it was self-confidence or real desire, the man in black didn’t spare Joanna a glance, his focus a hawk’s eye.
"Then let’s begin~" Little Loli leaned in, slow as a cat. Where he couldn’t see, a flash of red lit across her eyes like a blade.
"Ah!!!!!!!" A scream tore through the woods from their spot, a knife-rip echo carrying over the whole mountain.
