QTIMP -Chapter 209 Character Persona – Fool (Part 5)

The cold wind felt like needles stabbing into their skin.

Looking at Si Qiu wrapped in a bathrobe ahead, their eyes grew even more vicious.

They were on a relatively large fishing-boat-type vessel. Not far away, a cruise ship was anchored.

Its lights were blazing bright, and the people standing on it were no longer thugs, but fully armed men equipped with weapons.

The two ships bobbed up and down on the dark, gloomy sea. They were secured with cables, and bumpers hung along the rails to prevent collisions. A gangway had already been set up between them.

Everyone who had been in the lower hold was now standing on the deck, clearly about to board the cruise ship.

“Alright, alright, everyone line up now and go over to the other ship via the gangway!”

A man in a tank top shouted on deck through a broken loudspeaker. The crowd trembled as they lined up. Anyone who moved too slowly was kicked.

After these few days of torment, none of them dared to protest anymore. They shivered as they moved toward the cruise ship.

Si Qiu and the other person were arranged at the very back because Seventh Brother was standing nearby. Song Xiaxia was trembling and didn’t dare show any dissatisfaction.

Even when smoke from his cigarette drifted over and choked her, she only covered her mouth and coughed softly.

“Boss, this batch of goods has been delivered. Brothers can enjoy themselves for a while again.”

Hu Laoqi laughed loudly as well. “You don’t understand, that’s just the small part.”

He turned back and glanced at Si Qiu and the other. “These two are the real big prize. Follow me, and you’ll all rise to success in the future—all thanks to them.”

Beneath her bathrobe, Si Qiu’s legs were numb from the cold. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably, and her mind felt dull and sluggish. She had no energy to pay attention to what they were saying.

A thin man ran over. “Seventh Brother, everyone has already gone over.”

Hu Laoqi flicked away the butt of his cigar. “Let’s go. You two, follow me.”

Two men immediately came forward, grabbing Si Qiu and Song Xiaxia by the arms, and forced them onto the gangway.

Hu Laoqi walked in front, while the two of them were held in the middle behind him. When they had walked about one-third of the way across, a sudden wave struck. The wind also grew stronger.

The ship rocked violently, and the gangway swayed with it. Si Qiu and Song Xiaxia couldn’t adjust at all—their bodies slipped, nearly falling into the sea.

Fortunately, the two men were still holding their arms tightly. At first, they did so to prevent any tricks; now it was to keep them from falling in.

After finally stabilizing, they tried to hurry across. But another wave hit.

The person who had just taken two steps forward was slammed onto the gangway by the wave.

Water poured over them, blurring vision, deafening ears, making breathing difficult. Si Qiu tried to reach out and grab something—anything.

But just as she was pulled up, Song Xiaxia bumped into her. She and the man holding her were both knocked off the gangway and fell into the sea.

At the moment she fell, the man’s grip loosened.

Si Qiu only heard a few exclamations before she plunged from the high deck into the sea. Pain and numbness vanished instantly.

Before losing consciousness, she barely managed to place a water-repelling bead in her mouth, and then knew nothing else.

As for where this bead came from—it seemed to be something she had obtained in the cultivation world. Items like this low-grade water-repelling bead were apparently not rare there at all.

So after the system reward, she played with it for a while and then tossed it back into the system space.

This “water-avoiding bead” could not completely block water. Holding it in the mouth only allowed her to extract oxygen from the water, preventing her from drowning due to lack of breath.

She didn’t know where the waves had pushed her, but on this less-than-20-meter boarding platform, Song Xiaxia and the man restraining her staggered their way to the other side.

However, just as the two steadied themselves, Song Xiaxia’s face was struck hard by a slap from Hu Laoqi.

“Damn it, you bitch! How dare you ruin my business!”

Earlier, when the wave hit and then receded, as he stood back up, he instinctively looked back at Si Qiu—and just happened to see Song Xiaxia knocking her out.

Song Xiaxia was slapped down onto the deck. A tooth flew out of her mouth. Immediately after, she was kicked again and sent flying several meters away.

Her internal organs felt like they were burning in pain. She clenched her teeth tightly, thinking that as long as Si Qiu died, it would all be worth it.

Hu Laoqi was about to step forward again when the man in front of him grabbed him.

“Seventh Brother, stop! That one’s already gone. If this one also dies, it’ll be hard to explain.”

Hu Laoqi wiped seawater off his face.

“Damn it. You better pray you get chosen, or I’ll have you skinned alive myself.”

Song Xiaxia didn’t know if she was shivering from the cold or from fear—she trembled uncontrollably, keeping her head lowered the entire time. Even when she was dragged up, she still didn’t dare lift her head.

She hadn’t expected her action to be seen. If it had been anyone else, she could have explained it away as losing her balance—but not Hu Laoqi.

That man was vicious and cruel, unreasonable, and would never care about any explanation.

She was taken into a room, where two men cut open her clothes, rinsed her with water, and began a thorough inspection.

And in the room she was in, across a transparent glass wall, there was another equally pale room—where a brutal surgery was taking place.

A man who had just been brought from that ship was stripped naked, injected with a muscle relaxant, placed on an operating table, cut open, and had his organs removed and packed into a human organ transport container.

During the entire operation, the man’s face was turned toward the glass.

That expression of pain and terror once again awakened memories from her past life—memories that had been tightly sealed away.

This was naked intimidation. She was truly frightened into shock, so much so that she couldn’t even feel regret anymore.

She underwent another, more detailed examination in a numb state.

Finally, a bath towel was thrown at her. She stiffly pressed it against herself. Under the cold urging of the others, she stood barefoot on the ground.

She followed orders mechanically, like a puppet.

Then she was taken to a slightly more luxurious room.

Song Xiaxia knew that among this group of men and women chosen for their good looks, they would undergo several days of “training,” then be transported by helicopter to an even more luxurious cruise ship.

There, wealthy elites and powerful businessmen would select from them. The lucky ones would become kept playthings. The unlucky ones would become food—or organ carriers.

And she would meet the person who would pull her out of this prison.

She only needed to endure a little longer. In this life, she would tightly grasp that person’s heart.

She wanted all of these people dead.

On the other side, Hu Laoqi, still unwilling to give up, sent people to try retrieving the body. But if it were a clear and calm daytime, it might have been possible—at night like this, with violent waves and strong winds, how could anything be recovered?

All that was seen was a fleeting flash of Si Qiu’s white bathrobe disappearing into the sea.