The shrill alarm of the mountain base went off, signalling an infiltration.
"What's happening, Gege?!" The young girl had two hands on either side of her head, covering her ears in an attempt to ease the sounds of the sirens.
"Someone broke in! You know where the secret entrance is, GO!" The young girl nodded and left without a second to spare.
Once the young girl left, Samuel rushed out to find Yaorui. By the time he entered her room, the infiltrators had already made it to the second level.
He harshly grabbed Yaorui and threw her into a secret compartment behind the fireplace.
Samuel gripped her chin and tilted her head towards his, "You listen to me, alright? Don't make a sound and do not come out from here,"
He returned the fireplace to its original place and activated the security measures before he hid as well.
. . . . . . . .
Inside the small metal compartment, Yaorui was whimpering in a back corner curled up in a fetal position.
Samuel's touch made her skin feel as if she were burning alive. Her skin itched and pulsated as if it would come off her body. She wanted to scratch at it, but the first time she did it, she was beaten and scolded by Samuel for doing so.
She kept recalling the day when Samuel had screamed at her that LiLi was dead. Later on, she found out that it was in a plane crash in the middle of the ocean, his body was never found, along with all the other passengers.
The room she was thrown in wasn't as big or extravagant as the one on the other side, but it was just as safe as the other. Despite its large living quarters, she chose to curl up in a small dusty corner.
'LiLi, I'm sorry. I let myself be taken away,'
Yaorui couldn't help but think if she met her LiLi in the afterlife, would he still love her? Probably not, but it was worth a thought.
'LiLi, maybe we'll be reunited soon, if not, please watch over me,' Soon after, Li Yaorui passed out, whether she lived or not wasn't known.
____________________
For a mountain base, it was oddly empty. Over the last two hours of fighting, Hu Angli had not come across a single human being. Instead, he was fighting a computer system and robots.
Could he even call it fighting?
Most of the time was spent avoiding lasers and a few hundred deadly booby traps. It was more of an extreme obstacle course than a fight to rescue a fair maiden.
Two hours into the obstacle course, they had made it to the fourth floor and judging by the increased security, this was where Yaorui was kept hostage.
Their tactic was to choose the most dangerous path, and so far, so good.
He wasn't heavily injured, but he couldn't say the same for some of his troops.
Their injured troops were sent back outside to be treated. Hopefully, the traps and robots didn't reboot themselves, that wouldn't be good.
The moment Hu Angli and his teammates turned the corner, they were hit with deadly choking gas. He called for his team to turn around and instructed them to cover their face and take a deep breath. With that, he led the team down the gas-filled hall.
He followed the winding halls, and with the help of his teammates, pushed open a pair of large steel doors. The moment they all entered, the steel doors slammed shut behind them. Twenty-five meters ahead were two cedar doors. In between them and the doors was a bottomless pit.
The walls were smooth as a baby's bottom and had nothing to grip on.
Hu Angli was positive that on the other side of the cedar doors was where Yaorui was being kept captive.
There was a 5-millimetre thick tightwire, it was their only hope of getting across to the wooden doors.
"I can do it," His head turned towards Zhang Wenshi who stood next to him. "This is easy stuff, I'll just get across and disable the security system,"
"You better not fall off, I don't know what I'm gonna do if Long Ao finds out you're missing,"
"I'll be fine,"
He hesitated for a bit, "...alright, be careful,"
Wenshi smiled and lined herself up with the impossibly thin tightwire. She placed her right foot onto the tightwire and eased her weight onto the wire.
Everybody at the scene sucked in a breath unconsciously.
It was simply too nervewracking to watch the girl walking across the tightwire, yet they couldn't seem to tear their eyes away from the stunt devil.
"Do you think she'll make it across?"
"I don't know,"
"Shut up! Let the woman focus!"
One wrong step and Wenshi would fall to her doom, and this was a fact that Zhang Wenshi knew very well.
Now six steps in, Wenshi prepared to take her seventh step. Little did they know, this would be a turning point for everyone there.
To everyone's horror, Wenshi's foot just barely missed the wire, and she went tumbling down.
All at once, they screamed, as they watched Wenshi fall, this was then followed by a thump, a load, "Sh*t," and lastly, a round of laughter coming from the supposedly, bottomless pit.
"T-team l-leader?" Everybody was stupefied.
"It was just an optical illusion,"
Without another word, Hu Angli rushed forward and jammed into the cedar doors with his shoulders.
Immediately, he was met with the sight of one hundred soldiers crammed inside the room, all armed. At the back of the room, Hu Angli could make out the large princess bed a small figure lying peacefully on the bed.
"Xiao Rui...I'm coming for you!"
"Don't bother," Wenshi came up beside him.
"What do you mean?"
"Any normal person would wake up after hearing the doors slam open,"
"But she's a deep sleeper,"
"Not to mention the fact that she isn't sleeping in a fetal position, if she were held captive, then she should be in a fetal position," There wasn't anything about the statement that he could reject, Yaorui preferred to make her own choices, being held captive with no freedom would take a toll on her mental state most definitely.
"That means she was probably hidden somewhere,"
"But first, let's join the others on the battlefield,"
He took a glance at the chaotic battlefield, "That's is a terrific idea," In a moments glance both became serious and split up.
Not even an hour later, they all stood heavily injured in victory.
The short woman that impersonated his Xiao Rui was on her knees, begging for mercy and release. He placed a gleaming dagger beneath her throat and asked her, "Where is Xiao Rui?"
She glanced at something over his shoulder and squeaked out an answer, "I-I don't know,"
"Is that so?" He signalled for some of his not as injured men to search the wall behind him. "If you don't answer me, I'll have no choice but to throw you into the fireplace behind me,"
Her face paled, "No, please! I have a husband, and I'm one month pregnant!"
"Then tell me, where is, XIAO RUI!"
"S-she's-ACK-!"
"That woman was going to die sooner or later anyway," Across from Angli stood Samuel with a gun in hand.
He raised his own gun and aimed for Samuel's heart, "Where is she?"
"So it turns out that Rui'er's precious LiLi was alive all along," Samuel smirked, completely ignoring his question.
"Where is she?"
"Hey! Do you wanna know a fun fact? Your dear Xiao Rui-,"
"Don't call her that!"
"-thinks you're dead," He laughed maniacally.
"YOU BASTARD!" His fingers pushed at the trigger, sending a bullet ripping through the air straight at the other man's heart.
"Young Master, we found something,"
He turned around to see the fireplace being moved to reveal an opening to another bedroom.
Not a second later was holding a curled up girl in his arms with tears brimming his eyes.
"Xiao Rui, LiLi's here, LiLi's not dead, see," He grabbed her hand and placed it over his erratic heart.
But the moment he looked into her eyes and saw the dull, lifeless eyes, he knew that she had trapped herself inside of her own body. But as heaven would have it, she looked up at him with a spark of recognition and hopefulness.
"LiLi," her voice was dry, and it sounded painful to speak, yet her voice was brimming with un-profound happiness.
"I'm here, I'm right here Xiao Rui,"
"LiLi, forgive me," Her voice this time did not contain the same love and tenderness it did just before, this time it was filled with regret and guilt.
"What did he do to you? Tell me, I'll help you get revenge," his answer was silence, "Xiao Rui? Xiao Rui! XIAO RUI!" With every last bit of his energy, he dashed outside and into the distance. His troops followed closely behind.
Nobody noticed the missing body.