"I saw that girl go in."
"That's the one surnamed Quan's private room. Should we go in or not?"
An Xiaoni heard the people chasing her shouting not far away.
Her eyes were filled with fear and despair, and her chest rose and fell even more violently.
Standing unsteadily, when her gaze landed on the man on the sofa once again, she felt as though he were watching her like a spectator at a play.
Her eyes swept around frantically, searching for any possible escape route.
This was just a private room; where could she possibly hide? Was she supposed to hide inside the toilet bowl?
She couldn't care about that anymore.
Throwing caution to the wind, An Xiaoni lunged toward Quan Ying in a few strides, practically throwing herself at him.
The man watched her rush toward him, throwing herself right at his feet.
Strangely, he didn't dodge.
The bodyguards standing beside him were extremely surprised.
An Xiaoni's hands were trembling so violently that even the action of grabbing his trouser leg looked incredibly flustered.
With a sob in her voice, she begged, "Please, save me! If they catch me, I'll really die. I'll be your beast of burden, okay?"
The man raised an eyebrow slightly, a flash of amusement crossing his eyes. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as his temperatureless voice fell:
"Do you think I'm short of beasts of burden?"
His voice was utterly cold, without a single ripple of emotion. To him, she was no different from a stranger on the street—she practically was just a passerby.
An Xiaoni pitifully glanced to his left and right.
Women were seated on both sides, every single one of them with a smoking-hot figure.
"Are you short of women, then?"
As the girl said this, tears somehow began to stream uncontrollably down her cheeks.
Even to herself, asking this question felt ridiculous.
"What do you think?" the man retorted.
Judging by the setup, it was obvious he wasn't.
How could a man who looked this good ever lack women? Weren't the ones sitting beside her all better than her? She was asking a question she already knew the answer to, just asking for humiliation.
"Brother Zu, that wench ran inside."
She seemed to hear shouts coming from outside.
"Please save me, okay? I'll do anything—wash clothes, cook, mop the floor, clean your house. I promise I'll wipe it cleaner than your face."
"I'll be your maid and wait on you. Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do. If you tell me to go east, I won't go west; if you tell me to go south, I definitely won't go north. I'll listen to you. Whatever you want me to do, I agree to it."
An Xiaoni cried as she spoke, rambling incoherently. She didn't even know why she was saying these things or what kind of nonsense was coming out of her mouth.
A faint, ambiguous smile played on the man's lips. Leaning forward slightly with a certain sense of oppression, he met her big, watery eyes, his voice low and slightly husky:
"Will you do anything I ask? That's what it sounded like to me. Hm?"
Hearing this, the girl's lips trembled uncontrollably. Biting her lower lip with her pearly teeth, her eyes were filled with struggle, as if a war was raging inside her.
After a mere two seconds, as if she had finally made up her mind, she nodded fiercely, her movement carrying a hint of finality.
Her hair whipped wildly through the air with the violent nod, fear and desperation intertwining on her face.
As soon as those words left her mouth, the bodyguards beside him looked unsteady on their feet, utterly shocked and terrified.
This was the first time they had ever seen him speak so much to a girl or ask so many questions.
Usually, he would just quietly watch the dancing without saying much at all.
Had his wires crossed today?
Realizing he shouldn't be thinking of his boss this way, a bodyguard tightened his throat and cleared it quietly.
With a bodyguard's keen intuition, he sensed that the dozens of people who had arrived at the corridor entrance were hurriedly preparing to storm in.
"I don't even know you, why should I help you? And you don't have anything that makes me desire to do something to you either."
"If I rescued every total stranger who came begging me, wouldn't I have way too much time on my hands? If I did that, when would I ever have time to watch beauties dance?"
An Xiaoni's hands instantly released his trouser leg and grabbed upward at his arm:
"I'll dance for you! I'll dance for you every day! Whichever style of dance you like, that's the one I'll dance, okay? Please, save me, I'm begging you!"
The bodyguard stared at An Xiaoni's two hands tightly gripping Quan Ying's arm.
If anyone else had grabbed his arm like that, those hands would probably be broken by now.
Knowing that the girl bore no malice and posed no threat, the bodyguard remained silent, standing completely still and watching.
The man laughed out loud, "What kind of dance are you going to do? Baby shark?"
An Xiaoni felt ten thousand points of critical damage to her heart.
Indeed, she couldn't dance. Saying she would dance for him was a lie; she just wanted him to save her.
In her current situation, besides him, no one else could save her.
Despair washed over her once again.
The hands gripping Quan Ying's arm loosened slightly.
The man felt it—those slender hands were ice-cold.
At that moment, Quan Ying added:
"Put aside the urge to save others, and respect the fate of others. Move aside, you're blocking my view of the dancing, stop annoying me!"
No matter how he phrased it, the man simply refused to help her or save her.
This once again surprised the bodyguard.
Just what was wrong with his boss? He had originally thought this girl might be a little special, but hearing him talk like this made him realize he had probably overthought it.
"You're just afraid that you're alone while they have a lot of people, that you can't beat them, that you're afraid of getting beaten to a pulp." An Xiaoni forcefully wiped away her tears with her arm.
The man rarely had to hold back his laughter, but this time he genuinely couldn't help it. Someone actually thought he couldn't win a fight and was afraid of getting beaten to a pulp.
A whole vanload of them wouldn't even be enough to die here.
As An Xiaoni raised her hand, he caught sight of the scars on her arm—clearly restraint marks, pinch marks, and patches of bruises.
The girl pitifully wiped her tears. Her fair face was red and swollen, with deep fingerprints pressed into her flesh, which were still clearly visible under the ambiguous lighting of the private room.
She had been beaten.
For the first time in all his years of living, a trace of compassion stirred within him.
"Bang!!!"
A loud crash shook the entire private room, and the sturdy door was kicked open with brute force.
The door panel slammed heavily against the wall with a dull thud, startling the dancing beauties into stopping in their tracks.
Gu Yanzu entered with a murderous look, his head loosely wrapped in two layers of gauze, the veins on his temples bulging.
He agitatedly yanked at the tie around his collar as if he couldn't catch his breath, quickly loosening it to get some air.
He was filled with a bellyful of rage tonight, and this stifled anger was impossible to swallow down.
At that moment, followed by dozens of men, he aggressively stormed into the private room.
Every single one of these men wore a fierce expression, instantly packing the private room to the brim as a tense, hair-trigger atmosphere swept across the room.
Gu Yanzu saw An Xiaoni kneeling on the floor, clearly begging the man surnamed Quan to save her.
He walked right up to grab An Xiaoni, saying, "My pet ran wild and ended up over here with you. I need to take her back."
"I'm not his pet! He wants to kill me! Please, save me!" In her desperation, An Xiaoni tightly hugged Quan Ying's waist.