Soon, they were brought to an open concrete clearing.
Scattered across the clearing stood a dozen or so thick wooden stakes.
Several girls, close to them in age, were already tied to the stakes in twos and threes.
Their hands were bound behind their backs with coarse hemp rope, tightly lashed to the weathered wooden posts.
Their wrists were chafed raw and deeply indented, some places even broken through the skin, seeping thin threads of blood.
Their clothes were tattered and disheveled, their cheeks flushed red and burning under the scorching sun.
Sweat mingled with tears at their temples, streaming continuously down their faces, soaking their hair and collars.
No one dared to look up, and no one had the strength to resist.
Every face was deathly pale, lips cracked and parched.
Their bodies were so weak they could barely lift their eyelids, like stagnant water, slumped limply against the stakes, utterly lifeless.
Before Nie Zhenzhen and Xiang Wan could even process the scene before them,
two guards approached, each holding a length of coarse hemp rope.
Their towering figures cast shadows over the girls’ frail, slender frames.
No matter how desperately the two struggled and fought back, against such an absolute disparity in strength, they could only surrender in the end.
Soon, like the other girls, they were firmly bound to the wooden stakes, unable to move.
The blazing sun mercilessly scorched the tropical earth, and blinding white light poured down, stinging Nie Zhenzhen’s eyes so she couldn’t open them.
Heat, panic, and helplessness clung tightly around them.
They could only stand stiffly against the stakes, exposed to the scorching sun, with no room even to dodge.
Time ticked by, minute after minute.
Now and then, a girl would faint from severe dehydration.
When Nie Zhenzhen saw the girl on the neighboring stake collapse, her innate kindness compelled her to call out.
“Hey! Someone’s passed out over here! Come check on her!”
A guard strode over, and without a word, raised his hand and lashed Nie Zhenzhen viciously with his whip.
The pain made the girl cry out, “Ah!”—a sharp, involuntary scream as she sucked in a cold breath.
“What’s all the noise? Not satisfied with one lash?”
The guard glared fiercely at Nie Zhenzhen and threatened in a harsh voice.
He raised the black short whip in the air again, making a show of intimidating her.
“Zhenzhen, stop talking!”
“Big brother, we know we’ve done wrong, please show mercy!”
Xiang Wan, standing nearby, couldn’t help but plead when she saw her best friend take a lash.
Nie Zhenzhen was so frightened she instantly lost her composure, her eyes wide and round from sheer terror and pain.
Her breathing unconsciously became rapid, and she dared not say another word.
After a long while, a guard from the distance carried over a large bucket of ice water and dumped it directly over the head of the girl who had fainted on the stake.
The unconscious girl shuddered violently from the cold. She slowly opened her eyes and came to.
Before she could even catch her breath, the whip came down like rain, one strike after another in rapid succession.
Each lash carried a sharp whistling sound, and red welts instantly burst across her skin. A searing, burning pain spread through her flesh, each blow heavier than the last.
The girl on the stake had no way to dodge, and could only let out one miserable scream after another.
But soon, her voice grew hoarse, fragile, barely audible…
Only then did the guard stop his whip.
“New piglets get three days of exposure to the sun—that’s the rule of the compound, and a necessary process.”
“Even if the sky falls, you damn well endure it!”
“Unless you’re dead! Only the dead can’t feel pain!”
The guard extended his whip, sweeping his gaze over the girls bound to the stakes, and warned sternly,
“If any of you think you can get lucky and pull tricks on me,”
“then ask my whip here if it’ll allow it!”
The area fell into dead silence. Occasionally a girl’s sob could be heard, but it quickly stopped.
A few more hours passed.
Nie Zhenzhen’s fair, delicate face was sunburned red and darkening, her lips cracked and peeling.
Fine beads of sweat formed at her temples, streaming down her delicate chin and neck without pause.
Her clothes were soaked through with sweat, sticking to her skin. Her entire back felt hot and stifling, heat waves wrapping around her body.
She began to feel dizzy, her vision darkening in waves, her whole body going weak.
“Zhenzhen, wake up, wake up!”
“Don’t you dare pass out!”
Xiang Wan, whose constitution was slightly stronger, noticed Nie Zhenzhen’s head drooping low, as if she might collapse at any moment. She called out to her in a small voice, her tone frantic with worry.
“Do you think we can make it through these three days?”
Hearing Xiang Wan’s call, Nie Zhenzhen slowly turned her head toward her, her voice laced with helplessness and despair.
“Will they give us food and water during these three days?”
“Otherwise, I won’t even last one day…”
“I… I don’t know either…”
“But no matter what, we have to find a way to survive. We have to make it back alive…”
Xiang Wan didn’t know how to comfort Nie Zhenzhen, so she could only keep encouraging her to hold on.
“I’m sorry, Zhenzhen. It’s all my fault. I dragged you into this…”
“I shouldn’t have trusted that link online and brought you to this godforsaken place…”
Xiang Wan could not hide the intense guilt churning inside her. Tears poured down like a breached riverbank, her voice fractured and incoherent.
“Alright… saying anything now won’t change anything.”
“We need to find a way to survive first—only then do we have a chance to escape.”
“You’re a tough girl. Crying and sniveling like this makes me look down on you.”
“Save the apologies for when we get home!”
Nie Zhenzhen tried to comfort Xiang Wan, not forgetting to tease her.
“Shut up!”
“Do you think I tied you up here so you could chat?”
“Are your skins itching for a lashing!”
The patrolling guard barked harshly, raising the leather whip in his hand and pointing it at the two girls, his eyes sharp and his face twisted with menace.
The girls were so frightened they instantly clamped their mouths shut, closing their eyes and trying to conserve their strength.
No one knew how much time had passed before the setting sun slowly sank below the horizon.
The scorching heat of the day gradually receded, and the evening breeze drifted in with a hint of coolness.
The clothes clinging to their skin were gently lifted by the wind, carrying away the burning warmth from the girls’ skin.
The taut, aching flesh slowly began to relax.
Their muddled, dizzy minds gradually cleared in the successive gusts of evening breeze.
Nie Zhenzhen finally let out a breath of relief from the scorching sun’s torment.
But the water and food she had hoped for never came.
As the night deepened, the disappointment in the girls’ hearts grew stronger and stronger, until it became utter despair…
The day’s ordeal had already left the two girls utterly exhausted.
Their emotions had been like a roller coaster, plunging and soaring.
From the full anticipation and excitement when they first landed, to the terror and torment of falling into this den of demons.
It all felt as unreal as a dream, yet it was happening to them, vividly and truly.
Soon, they completely lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep…
The surroundings were so silent that only the chirping of summer cicadas remained.
Several beams of searchlight swept across the pitch-black night, crisscrossing and patrolling back and forth.
The blinding white glare pressed down, suffocating.
The entire compound was firmly locked within the cold grip of surveillance.