After becoming a widow, I became the apple of a rough man's eye.

There were no windows in the warehouse. A few rusty ventilation holes high up let in a few pale rays of light, and dust particles swarmed around in the beams of light like frantic insects.

The air was filled with a musty, stale smell, mixed with the burnt odor of engine oil and cheap cigarettes.

Lin Qingqing was woken up by a basin of cold water.

Water rushed into her nostrils, choking her and causing a sharp pain in her lungs, making her cough violently. This cough pulled at the ropes binding her; the rough hemp ropes dug deep into the delicate skin of her wrists, chafing through the oily skin and causing a burning, piercing pain.

She tried to move, only to find herself tied up to a rotten wooden chair with only three legs, her body in an extremely humiliating and powerless position.

"woke up?"

A slang-sounding whistle exploded overhead.

Lin Qingqing shook her wet hair, water droplets flying off the ends, and her gaze finally focused.

There were two men standing in front of me.

One was as fat as a mountain of flesh, wearing a floral shirt with two buttons popped open by his belly, holding an empty tin bucket and looking at her with a mocking expression. The other was as thin as a bamboo pole, playing with the silver hair clip that used to belong to her, which Li Dongye had bought for her for one yuan and fifty cents.

She had just seen these two men; they were following Mu Hongying around, calling him "Young Master Mu" repeatedly, like two lapdogs wagging their tails and begging for mercy.

"Young Master Liu, this girl's skin is absolutely gorgeous." Skinny Monkey brought the hair clip to his nose and took a deep breath, revealing a lewd look of intoxication. "No wonder that country bumpkin guarded it like it was his own eyeball. If I were him, I wouldn't be able to let go either."

The fat man, known as Young Master Liu, casually tossed the iron bucket aside, and with a loud crash, it echoed through the empty warehouse.

He crouched down, extended his thick, carrot-like fingers, and tried to lift Lin Qingqing's chin.

Lin Qingqing abruptly turned her head, avoiding the hand that reeked of cigarette smoke.

She didn't scream or cry.

Those usually watery, affectionate peach blossom eyes were now fixed intently on the two people in front of them.

That look in his eyes made Liu Shao pause for a moment.

He'd been with quite a few women, and when faced with this kind of situation, they either cried their eyes out and begged for mercy, or they fainted from fright.

I've never seen anything like it. Its eyes don't look like it's looking at a person; they look like a wild beast cornered in the mountains, plotting how to tear a piece of flesh from its hunter.

"Wow, that's pretty intense." Young Master Liu withdrew his hand, rubbed his greasy face, and grinned even more disgustingly. "I like intense guys. They'll definitely be exciting in bed."

"What do you want to do?" Lin Qingqing asked.

"What are you doing?" Skinny Monkey chuckled, pulled over a dusty wooden box, sat down, and crossed his legs. "Originally, Young Master Mu wanted us brothers to 'take good care' of your sister-in-law, take some nice photos, and send them to that country bumpkin. But..."

Skinny Monkey deliberately dragged out his words, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, shook one out, and put it in his mouth.

"Smack."

A flame shot up from the lighter, illuminating his face, which was contorted with excitement.

He took a deep breath, exhaled a smoke ring, and then slowly said, "But not now."

Lin Qingqing's heart clenched suddenly.

An extremely ominous premonition crept up my spine, colder than the bucket of cold water I had just been given.

"What do you mean?" She stared at the flickering cigarette butt.

"What I mean is, your good fourth brother, that Li Dongye..."

Liu Shao leaned closer, lowered his voice, and said with a malicious glee, "Just now at the entrance of the shooting range, I got into a knife fight. Tsk tsk, you didn't see the scene, blood was everywhere, and his intestines were almost coming out."

Lin Qingqing's mind went blank.

"Impossible." She retorted almost instinctively, her nails digging into her palms. "He's skilled; none of you could hurt him."

"What good are your skills!" Skinny Monkey flicked his cigarette butt to the ground, sending sparks flying. "Two fists can't fight four hands, especially on our turf. Someone stabbed him in the back, right in the lower back. I heard he was dead before he even got to the operating room at the hospital."

"You lied to me!"

Lin Qingqing screamed and struggled violently, making the broken chair creak.

"Lying to you?" Liu Shao scoffed, pulled a blood-stained rag from his pocket, and threw it at Lin Qingqing's feet. "Does this look familiar? I just tore it off him."

It was a piece of dark blue denim, stained with dark red blood and with black oil stains along the edges.

Those are the jeans Li Dongye is wearing today.

The oil stains on it were from when the car was being repaired; they're shaped like a crooked moon.

The same.

Lin Qingqing stared intently at the strip of cloth, and the world around her seemed to collapse in that instant, turning into a black and white silent film.

All that could be heard was the piercing laughter of Liu Shao and the skinny monkey, like a mockery from hell.

died?

The man who promised to treat her to the best of everything, the man who kissed her so hard she couldn't breathe in the car, the man who told her that doing pleasurable things wasn't shameful—he just died like that.

impossible.

It is absolutely impossible.

"I don't believe it..." Lin Qingqing's lips trembled, but no tears fell.

There was only a hollow sense of bewilderment, as if all my internal organs had been hollowed out.

"Believe it or not." Liu Shao stood up, dusting off his backside. "Anyway, the person's already gone. Originally, Mu Shao said he was going to sell you to a hair salon in the south to pay off debts, but looking at you like this, I think you'd be better off with me. As long as you behave and serve me well, I'll guarantee you a life of luxury in J City, how about it?"

As he spoke, he reached out to touch Lin Qingqing's face again.

This time, Lin Qingqing did not dodge.

Her head was lowered, her long, disheveled hair obscuring most of her face, making her expression unreadable. Her shoulders shrugged slightly, emitting a suppressed, low sound.

Liu Shao, thinking she was crying, laughed smugly: "That's right, a wise person knows when to yield. What future is there in following a deadbeat..."

"hehe……"

Laughter spilled from beneath his hair, growing louder and sharper.

Liu Shao's hand froze in mid-air.

Lin Qingqing suddenly raised her head.

Not a single tear fell from that exquisitely beautiful face; instead, it bore an extremely eerie, even manic, smile.

Those peach blossom eyes were bloodshot, and the pupils were dilated, like two burning will-o'-the-wisps.

"It would be better if he were dead."

She spoke softly, her tone as gentle as a lover's whisper in his ear, "If he's dead, he won't have to suffer anymore. Since he's dead, you should all go down and join him. My fourth brother loves a good time."

Skinny Monkey was so frightened by her appearance that he dropped his cigarette and stammered, "You...you're crazy?"

"Yeah, it's insane."

Lin Qingqing laughed so hard that her chair shook.

Just as the two were stunned by her sudden madness, Lin Qingqing and her chair lurched to the side.

"Bang!"

She crashed heavily into a metal rack piled with miscellaneous items next to her.

The shelf was already unstable, and an old-fashioned kerosene lamp on it wobbled twice before crashing to the ground with a "thud".

The glass lampshade shattered on the ground, and most of the remaining kerosene inside spilled out, quickly spreading a pungent oil stain on the cement floor.

The oil stains flowed right over the cigarette butt that the skinny monkey had just thrown down, which wasn't completely extinguished yet.

But the spark was too weak; it only flickered twice at the edge of the oil stain and was about to go out.

"Damn it! This crazy woman!" Liu Shao realized what was happening and cursed as he rushed forward to kick her.

Lin Qingqing didn't care at all about the kick coming at her.

She had only one thought in her mind: burn them all. Burn them all.

Since Li Dongye is gone, those who killed him should also die.

She writhed frantically on the ground like a dying fish, using her shoulders, her head, and anything else she could find to rub against the rough cement floor, desperately trying to reach the lighter that the skinny monkey had dropped earlier.

"Stop her!" the skinny guy screamed. "That woman's going to set things on fire!"

The power that people unleash when they are in despair is astonishing.

Despite the excruciating pain of her dislocated shoulder, Lin Qingqing rolled over. Although her hands, which were tied behind her back, couldn't reach, her chin did.

She pressed her chin firmly against the flint wheel of the disposable lighter, and slammed it hard against the cement floor next to the kerosene that was about to spill.

That's using flesh and skin to rub against a hard grinding wheel.

My chin was instantly chafed and blood seeped out.

"Click".

A crisp sound.

The flint produced a few dazzling sparks, which landed precisely on the highly volatile kerosene fumes.

"boom--"

This sound was more beautiful than any of the previous sounds.

The orange-red flames, like a greedy venomous snake, soared into the air in an instant, following the oil stains on the ground, and swallowed the nearby haystack and old wooden crate in one gulp.

A wave of heat hit us.

"Ahhhh! Fire! Help!" Young Master Liu was so frightened that his face turned pale. He sat down on the ground and crawled backward on his hands and feet.

The warehouse was full of flammable materials, and the fire spread at an alarming rate. In less than three seconds, half a corner had become an inferno.

Thick smoke billowed up and quickly filled the entire space.

"Go! Go now!" Skinny Monkey didn't care about putting out the fire or Lin Qingqing; he turned and ran towards the large iron gate. "This place is all wood; it's going to collapse!"

Two spoiled brats who usually acted arrogantly were more pathetic than dogs in the face of death.

They scrambled to the door, pulled open the large iron gate, and jostled their way out.

Lin Qingqing lay on the edge of the sea of ​​fire, watching the only door to survival being opened and then slammed shut again.

"Want to die? Then go ahead and die in there, you crazy woman!"

Liu Shao's furious roar came from outside the door, followed by the sound of the lock clicking shut.

The iron gate was locked.

The warehouse instantly transformed into a giant oven.

Flames danced, licking the walls and crackling. The temperature rose sharply, and every breath felt like swallowing a mouthful of burning coals.

Lin Qingqing lay on the ground, watching the flames approaching.

She didn't believe Li Dongye wouldn't die.

Ever since that night when she ran into the Qin family with nowhere else to go, she never thought she could keep her chastity. But the Qin brothers liked her, loved her, and doted on her, so she finally mustered up the courage to live a little more like a human being.

She, Lin Qingqing, would rather die than let those disgusting bastards take liberties with her.

The thick smoke nearly choked her, and tears and snot streamed down her face.

Lin Qingqing desperately moved her body on the ground, trying to get away from the center of the fire.

Her gaze fell on a shard of glass not far away. It was a fragment that had been splattered when the kerosene lamp shattered; sharp and pointed, it looked like a small knife in the firelight.