Qiao Qingqing’s cooperative attitude made the interrogation process go unusually smoothly.
And aside from the part about Xu Peiling looking for her—which she had fabricated—everything else she said was true, making her account far more reliable than Li Xiulian’s.
After two days of interrogation, Qiao Qingqing received notice that she would be transferred from the study class in the city to the railway station.
She felt dazed. What was supposed to come had finally arrived.
In those days, prisoners were escorted more through collective surveillance than through restraints like handcuffs.
Qiao Qingqing followed the training squad out of the study class. They were loaded into a cargo truck like freight and driven directly to a tin-roofed shed inside the train station.
Talking was forbidden on the way. They weren’t even allowed to raise their heads casually.
But from the corner of her eye, Qiao Qingqing still managed to spot Chen Liping and Qiao Fangyu. The small knot of anxiety in her heart finally eased.
The truck bed was covered with canvas, making the inside pitch-black. Taking advantage of the darkness, Qiao Qingqing quietly moved beside Chen Liping. Without speaking, she simply grabbed her mother’s hand and squeezed tightly.
Chen Liping squeezed back just as firmly.
There were four tin sheds in total. The doors were locked tight, with no windows. They had to wait inside until the farm tools had been fully loaded onto the train before departing together.
No one knew when that would be. Nobody informed them, and nobody dared ask.
Once they arrived here, the escorts changed from the training squad to armed militia, and the atmosphere became even more tense.
Just as Qiao Qingqing was about to enter the shed, a man in a bright red undershirt stopped her.
“Qiao Qingqing, wait a moment.”
She immediately halted.
“There’s something you need to identify,” he said expressionlessly. “Come with me.”
Qiao Qingqing felt he looked familiar, and since he had called her out at a time like this, she instinctively became cautious.
Thinking carefully, she was sure she had never seen him during these past few days at the study class. His skin was especially dark—so dark it almost shone. It was the kind of feature impossible to forget. She must have seen him somewhere before…
Suddenly, she remembered.
In those shattered future visions of Wu Xia, she had seen Lin Jianjun leading people into Wu Xia’s house. This man had been behind him, also wearing a red undershirt.
The two walked one after the other along a winding path until they reached a tiny dark room in the corner of the repair warehouse. Qiao Qingqing refused to go any farther.
The man in red cursed at her.
“What are you standing there for? Get in here!”
Qiao Qingqing remained rooted to the spot, vigilant.
Now that they had already been transferred out and the escorts had been replaced with armed personnel, she no longer feared Lin Jianjun.
The man in red was about to continue cursing when Lin Chaohai suddenly emerged and signaled him with a look.
The man glared at Qiao Qingqing before turning and leaving.
Qiao Qingqing also wanted to leave, but Lin Chaohai blocked her path.
As his face drew closer and closer, a wave of disgust rose in her stomach. She raised her hand, wanting to slap him, but Lin Chaohai grabbed her wrist and leaned in to kiss her.
Qiao Qingqing used all her strength to kick at him.
But the Lin Chaohai of this time was different from the out-of-shape version years later. His reflexes were fast, and he easily dodged her kick.
Still, he realized how strong Qiao Qingqing actually was, and his expression darkened.
“So now that I’m no longer useful to you, you’re turning your back on me?”
Qiao Qingqing almost laughed. Even though she had already witnessed his shamelessness many times, he still managed to lower the bar.
“Otherwise?” she shot back. “You took my family’s money, failed to accomplish anything, got reported by your own woman, and even dragged me down with you. A useless piece of trash like you—why should I treat you nicely?”
Lin Chaohai wasn’t angered. He simply stared at her.
“Once you’re sent down, there’s no way you’ll ever come back on your own. Be nicer to me, and maybe if I remember our past feelings, I’ll help pull you back someday.”
As he spoke, he reached toward her, intending to grab her and tear her clothes apart.
When dealing with women, once you stripped them naked, as long as they still cared about shame, they would become obedient.
If he didn’t take this woman today, he wouldn’t be able to swallow his resentment.
Qiao Qingqing backed away repeatedly, thinking there was something seriously wrong with his brain.
“Are you thinking with your dick? This is still the train station. There are people everywhere outside. What exactly are you trying to do?”
Lin Chaohai’s expression twisted viciously. He stopped pretending altogether.
“You were practically going to marry me anyway. Now before leaving, you couldn’t control yourself and came to sleep with me willingly. If even you aren’t afraid, why should I be?”
Qiao Qingqing was speechless.
She had no idea why this idiot was so furious, but he genuinely seemed to have lost his mind.
With his threatening words, agile body, and Lin Jianjun backing him up, an ordinary girl really would have had little chance of escaping.
A deported criminal during transport—one careless move and another charge could be pinned on her. In the end, she’d have no choice but to suffer silently.
But Qiao Qingqing wasn’t panicking.
There were plenty of things in the repair warehouse. She turned and ran, hiding behind a storage shelf.
The place was already dim, and behind the shelves it was even darker. Qiao Qingqing tightly gripped the pepper spray in her hand, carefully listening to Lin Chaohai’s footsteps.
“Stop hiding. Once you get to the farm, you’ll end up being ridden by those filthy peasants anyway. Might as well give yourself to me now, right, little bitch?”
Qiao Qingqing held her breath, refusing to be angered by his deliberate humiliation.
She stared at the shadow appearing near the edge of the shelf. The moment it suddenly closed in, she pressed the trigger exactly as she had practiced and sprayed Lin Chaohai directly.
Ordinary chili oil measures about 20,000 Scoville units.
But this synthetic oleoresin capsicum measured 4.5 million units.
The spray in Qiao Qingqing’s hand had a range of five meters. It didn’t even need to hit the eyes precisely. As long as it touched the face, the skin and mucous membranes would erupt in excruciating pain instantly.
Temporary blindness, breathing difficulty, and loss of mobility for at least fifteen minutes would follow.
In Lin Chaohai’s mind, Qiao Qingqing was already trapped. He never expected that after a strange hissing sound, before he could even react, he would suddenly go blind.
Pain.
It felt as though his face were on fire. Sweat poured from him instantly.
Even his nasal passages burned violently, leaving him suffocating.
He had never encountered anything so bizarre.
His trained body could normally withstand ordinary non-lethal injuries, but the burning pain on his face and the psychological terror completely shattered his composure.
“Qiao Qingqing, you… what did you do?! Qiao Qingqing! Get out here!”
Seeing him stumbling blindly around the warehouse clutching his eyes, Qiao Qingqing stepped forward and viciously kicked him seven or eight times in the spot that hurt most.
“All that filth in your brain and you’re still worthless. Even if someone handed you gold, you couldn’t hold onto it. Born poor and pathetic. Absolutely disgraceful.”
After venting enough, Qiao Qingqing pulled out a taser and jammed it against his forehead, shocking him repeatedly.
Let him experience what one hundred thousand volts felt like!
“AH—”
Lin Chaohai let out only a short scream before collapsing unconscious.
His heart nearly stopped. His eyes rolled back, foam spilling from his mouth.
His body convulsed violently as though seized by a terrible fit.
Only then did Qiao Qingqing put away the weapon and run outside without looking back.
Not until she saw the tin sheds again did she finally steady her breathing. Recalling which shed Chen Liping was in, she headed directly toward it.
“Where did you run off to?” A young man in uniform stopped her, disgust written all over his face. “Why did you leave the group without permission? Explain yourself clearly!”
He shoved her once. She could feel his contempt toward someone labeled a “stinking intellectual,” but his movements weren’t especially rough.
Qiao Qingqing quickly replied:
“A member of the training squad called me over just now. He said I needed to identify something. He was wearing a red undershirt—other people probably saw him too. I’m not lying. You can ask around if you don’t believe me.”
She spoke clearly and rapidly explained exactly why she had left, without hesitation or rambling.
The young man glared at her.
“Get inside. Quickly!”
Qiao Qingqing answered obediently and hurried into the tin shed.