In a dark, cold underground dungeon, a man spat out a mouthful of blood along with one of his teeth. He grunted and glared at Zhi Hei with a confused expression, "why did you bring me here?! You must have captured the wrong person!"
"No, we didn't mistaken you for anyone," Zhi Hei stretched his fingers as he loosened the brass knuckles he wore. His previous fist made a print on his skin, but that did not stop him from interrogating Li Teng.
Soon, guards dragged an unconscious man across the cell gate to give Li Teng a good look at who was joining him.
"Brother in law?! You! Who are you?! Don't you know who we are? If it is money, we can give you any amounts you request! Release us or you'll receive nothing." Li Teng threatened while gritting his teeth.
"If I rejected to do business with Tian Corps, why would you think that I am after your dirty money? Perhaps you should take a good look at who I am first before spitting out nonsense." Zhi Hei replaced the brass knuckle with another one that came with spikes on it.
"Then what do you want from us??" Li Teng subconsciously paced backwards until his back felt the hardness of the brick wall behind him.
"A scum like you has nothing precious enough for me to take, but I do want to take your life." Zhi Hei coldly responded as he approached his target slowly and steadily. Each step he took sounded like the grim reaper's arrival.
Shen Qi maintained his composure with a straight face while Li Teng widened his eyes in a horrific manner. He shook his head left and right as his arms crossed to block off any incoming attacks. He chanted, "You've got the wrong person! I haven't done anything to offend you!"
"Oh? So, who was the one who persuaded the man named Yang Ku Ze to hire an assassin from the underground market?"
Li Teng mumbled and gasped as the questions became clearer to him, "me."
"Good. So, who suggested to Mr. Yang that it would be a great idea to kill Shi family's young miss, Shi Xue? Hmmm?" Zhi Hei's fierce glare alone was enough to shake up Li Teng's confidence. With his voice as a stimulation, Li Teng did not dare to lie.
He continued answering the questions as his shoulder weighed his body downwards, "me."
"Very well. You've never met her before, yet you gave such a stupid advice to an idiotic man with brain cells small enough that it's nonexistent. So speak, why did you give him that idea?" Zhi Hei walked to the table that Shen Qi had previously set up with various knives and sharp blades on it.
He picked up the sharpest blade available and wiped it slowly with a cloth to intensify the atmosphere in the cell. Watching the steadiness of his fingers as it swept the cloth on the blade and wiped it sparkling clean forced words out of Li Teng's throat.
"I..I.. was searching for something that she might have in hand." He muttered as his feet pushed his body backwards against the icy, solid wall.
"What were you looking for?" Zhi Hei spun the blade in his hand as if it was a kid's toy. From how quick and calm he looked when playing with that blade, Li Teng knew that he was in deep trouble this time.
"A..A chip. It's not just me either. Eventually, someone would find out that she might hold the chip that they want and do the same as I did. Besides, all I did was say a few words. The main culprit who listed that job in the underground market was Yang Ku Ze. Why don't you look for him instead? He paid the assassin, not me."
His voice trembled as he stuttered while trying to argue his perspective of the situation. Zhi Hei tapped his index finger onto the surface of the blade impatiently, "Did you think that any of them would get out of this freely? You were killing an innocent citizen because of your greed by persuading another person to make the move for you. How are your hands clean from blood? It's just as dirty as the assassin's hands."
"But I... I.."
"You what? If you wanted an item that never belonged to you in the first place, then you could have had many legal ways in dealing with it. At the end, you decided to conduct in a murder scheme because of your ignorance and rapacity for a chip. And shall I remind you that the chip might not even be in her possession?"
"If I told you this secret, you would desire for this chip as well! Why act as if you are all that mighty? You're just the same as me and everyone else who are looking for the chip! Once you know what's in that chip, you will not be standing here, but running off to find that girl!"
"Only dogs like you could whine such bitter sounds from lacking repentance. I don't care if you're looking for a chip or a piece of bubblegum from her, but I can guarantee that you'll receive nothing at the end. I'm not a bit interested in the chip that you're after. Rather, I am more fascinated by how many times a human could handle blade cuts with flesh eating parasites."
He snapped his fingers, and Shen Qi brought a bucket of contaminated water. "What.. are you planning to do to me?" Li Teng shivered when his eyes met his merciless gaze.
"Since I've beaten you enough that my hands became tired. I'll give you some more cuts and then treat those wounds with contaminated water . Like I had mentioned, flesh eating parasites. Let's start with leaving cuts to your ankles, wrist and then your face. Don't worry, it'll definitely hurt less than what you've done to Shi Xue."
Two guards entered the cell and pinned him down as he shouted, "Why are you doing all this?!! Just because of some girl?!"
"She's not just some girl. She is going to be my wife, the future mistress of Huang family. By the way, the spikes could be used like this as well." At this moment, Li Teng realized his fatal mistake. As Zhi Hei disabled his ankle and wrist followed by leaving fresh light cuts to specific areas of his body, Shen Qi covered those wounds with infected water.
Tian Guo Min was awakened by his shrieks and ear piercing screams. Startled consciously, he looked around to find himself trapped behind bars and witnessed Li Teng being tortured. Witnessing the bloody scene unfolds, he squinted in disturbance and hissed when he heard Li Teng's screams.
In the middle of screaming, he spat out information about the chip thinking that it would benefit his current situation. Zhi Hei paused and handed the sharp blade to another guard who was standing at the corner of the cell.
"Oh? It's great to know how informative the chips are and how essential it is to greedy pigs like you. But this information could be easily figured out after some in depth research. Now that I've done my part with you, my guards will finish you off and send you back to the Li family as a warning."
Zhi Hei left a small pause between his words and said, "By the way, thanks for snitching the other people who are looking for the chip. Now I know who to be cautious of."
Shen Qi passed a sanitizing wipe to him and whispered, "Chen Mu said that Miss. Shi Xue is showing signs of wak-"
Before he could finish his sentence, the man had already run out of the cell and up the staircase. As soon as he heard Shi Xue's name, all rationality flew out of the window. Once again, Shen Qi witnessed his boss' crazy side.
He thought inwardly, 'Boss, your level of shamelessness has reached a whole new level for calling Miss. Shi Xue your future wife. Since when was she even your girlfriend? Jumping steps like that tsk tsk tsk...but then again...this is probably why I made zero progress....should I get more shameless too with Hui Yan?'
His mouth slipped and he mumbled, "Ah! I should go visit Hui Yan soon. Next vacation destination! Overseas, here I come~ Ahem..." After he had realized that there were still guards and their captured targets in the same cell. he cleared his throat and said, "Finish him. Leave Tian Guo Min alone for now."