Chapter 9

The moment I finished speaking, Lu Mingshen’s expression changed.

He strode over, grabbed Li Qing by the collar, and started dragging him outside.

I was taken aback. “What are you doing?”

Lu Mingshen’s face didn’t flicker. “We’re out of fish to use as bait. We’ll use him instead.”

“Tsk, this is a law-governed society.”

I gave Li Qing a look. “The law won’t let a single beast like you off the hook.”

Li Qing’s face went white. “You’re not going to say anything, right? My family’s very powerful, you’ve heard of us, haven’t you? My dad’s cleaned up so many things for me. He’s definitely looking for someone to come save me right now.”

I tossed the cassava to him like I was feeding a dog and stopped paying attention to him.

Instead, I turned to Yu Wei, who was curled up on the other side.

She had just watched me question Li Qing from start to finish. At this point she wasn’t even calling out that she was hungry anymore.

I picked up a crab. “Want some?”

“No, I’m not eating…”

I shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

After I, Lu Mingshen, and Fang Cheng’an barely filled our stomachs, we each went to sleep.

Soon, it was noon on the third day in the wild.

Today I caught a fish that weighed about two jin, plus quite a few wild persimmons.

After we’d eaten our fill, I followed the procedure and went to question Yu Wei. She couldn’t hold out any longer and started crying, saying she wanted to eat.

I nodded. “I only have one question.”

I stared at her, the warmth in my eyes cooling.

“Three months ago, was it you who killed the calico cat I was raising?”

Yu Wei’s whole body went rigid. She glanced at Li Qing, as if comforted by him, then lifted her chin and said, “So what if it was? That beast came into my dressing room on its own. I stuck my hand out and it actually thought I was going to feed it. It came right over and rubbed its head against me.”

As she talked, she got more and more worked up.

“I touched its neck. It was so soft, like if I just used a bit of strength, I could snap it.”

Her breathing turned rapid. “I slowly tightened my fingers and watched it struggle in my hands. That kind of pleasure is something no number of awards could ever give me.”

I looked at her coldly. “So all those stray cats that disappeared near the company were ones you had people catch for you to torture to death?”

Yu Wei came back to her senses. “How did you know…”

I threw a fish to her in disgust.

Yu Wei looked over at Lu Mingshen and Fang Cheng’an. The disgust on their faces wasn’t concealed in the slightest.

Yu Wei seemed to be provoked, screaming angrily, “What’s with those looks! You think I’m disgusting? You definitely have some shameful hobbies too, don’t you… We’re the same kind of people, so what right do you have to think I’m disgusting?”

Lu Mingshen ignored her and turned around to help me check the tools for catching pheasants tomorrow.

Fang Cheng’an hesitated for a long time before saying, “I have a cat too. Every time I get home from work, my cat runs over to greet me. No matter how tired I am, when it rubs its head against me, I feel like the world is a beautiful place, like I can try a bit harder tomorrow.”

He paused. “I’m not the same kind of person as you.”

Then he added, “And you really are pretty disgusting.”