The next day.
At dawn, the henchmen drove us out of the basement. The girls were still locked inside, told they'd be released once they "came to their senses." I couldn't forget their eyes, filled with despair and fear. Here, even death was not an option. You either survived in misery or met a horrific end.
After being brought outside, we were taken to a field larger than a football field. We were there to witness the henchmen punishing disobedient captives.
"This is what happens when you try to escape! Enjoy the art I've created!" shouted Liu Shiyi through a megaphone, standing on the steps in the center of the field. His voice sent shivers down the spines of those around me.
I looked in the direction he pointed. On the ground lay thirty or forty naked men, arranged in a circle and tied together like beads on a string. The "centipede head" was a gaunt woman. They were configured like the human centipede from that grotesque movie. The head's mouth was free, but her anus was sewn to the next person's mouth, and so on. The people in the back received less nutritious waste, leading to severe health issues. They were stuck in this horrific cycle until they all starved to death.
Their mouths and anuses were still bleeding, indicating the recent nature of the operation. They trembled in fear, knowing what lay ahead. This punishment was a fate worse than death.
"Feed her," Liu Shiyi ordered, and a henchman approached with a large bowl of easily digestible foods like pumpkin and cabbage. Sometimes, they mixed in laxatives to speed up the process.
Watching this gruesome and inhumane scene filled me with rage. After torturing the "human centipede," Liu Shiyi moved on to punish those who failed to meet their quotas. Electric shocks were routine, beatings common, and slapping each other was absurd. Men and women knelt face to face, slapping each other until the henchmen were satisfied. Usually, the women ended up with swollen faces and bleeding lips.
If slapping wasn't enough, they were forced to do push-ups, squats, sit-ups, and frog jumps. These exercises, under the guise of "fitness training," were another form of punishment. Exhausted, malnourished, and injured, how could anyone handle such intense exercise? They were forced to do hundreds, and refusal meant a whipping or electric shocks. Crying, they had no choice but to comply.
After the punishments, Liu Shiyi enthusiastically shouted through his megaphone, "What's our motto?"
"To succeed, go crazy! Charge forward without hesitation! If you don't work hard, you sleep on the floor! Daily beatings and hunger! Push harder, hit your targets, and enjoy luxury! Charge, charge, charge!"
"Charge, charge, charge!" the crowd echoed.
I couldn't bring myself to shout this ridiculous motto. After the chant, we lined up for breakfast. The lower-tier captives were given a stale bun and a bowl of pig-slop soup. Holding this unappetizing breakfast, you had to thank the henchmen, or they'd add something extra to your food—spit if you were lucky, or a handful of ashes, which you had to eat. The worst was when they added dog urine.
With so many people around, I discreetly poured out the slop, smelling the bun that reeked of mold. I couldn't eat it and planned to throw it away later.
"Xiao Pingzi, come with me to the supervisor's office," Wrench called out as I was about to discard the bun.
"Oh, okay!" Startled, I put the bun in my pocket and thanked him, "Wrench, thank you for yesterday. Without you, I wouldn't have made it."
Spraying Yunnan Baiyao, eating pain relief pills, and applying safflower oil had healed my wounds significantly. The swelling in my arms had subsided, and I looked less frightening. The black thug's punch was deadly. If I hadn't used my master's secret move, I'd be dead.
"Take these, eat them quickly. Don't tell anyone," Wrench handed me two eggs with a warm smile, like a kind older brother.
"Thank you…brother." For a moment, I thought of my brother, who always smiled and treated me well. But I might never see him again.
"Let's go," Wrench said, heading to the office building.
Wiping my tears, I quickly ate the warm eggs, almost choking, and thought of Sister Chunyan. I didn't know why Wrench was so kind to me, but I trusted him. Just like Sister Chunyan, who never deceived me, though I couldn't bring her home. She must be scared alone in the forest.
"Why are you dawdling? Hurry up, or the supervisor will be angry," Wrench reminded me, seeing me daydreaming at the stairs.
Sniffing, I followed him upstairs. The buildings in KK Park were a mix of six-story structures, four-story ones, and jarring prefab houses between them. Behind some prefab houses were dilapidated wooden shacks, reportedly for punishing captives.
Soon, we reached the fifth floor and entered Liu Shiyi's office. It was a spacious, luxurious room, similar to a top executive's office back home, but this was a den for a murderer.
I had no idea what awaited me, but I was determined to survive. Wrench was my lifeline.
"Here's the contract. Sign it, and you can start working. Be good, and I'll take care of you," Liu Shiyi said, turning in his chair, smiling with his face heavily powdered.
The powder flaked as he smiled, revealing his true, sinister nature.