Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 11

Breaking the Cage

Escape 11

Legal Hunting

A devil. This woman was surely a devil.

            

When Zou Yunfei saw Xin Lan’s smile, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He felt a wave of sheer terror.

He would die. He was really going to die.

Zou Yunfei couldn’t help but shrink back, a hint of cowering fear showing in his posture.

            

It wasn’t that he wanted to chicken out; he was naturally stubborn and hated to lose. But the pain wracking his body warned him that if he took another beating, his end would be absolutely wretched.

How could this be? How could Xin Lan be this powerful?

Clearly, not long ago, she had been just a girl who did nothing but weep and wail.

            

Xin Lan pressed the chair against Zou Yunfei’s head, contemplating where she could strike next without accidentally killing him.

The sound of slicing air came from behind. Without a second thought, Xin Lan swung the chair backward while twisting her body, dodging the attack from behind.

“Not bad. Pulling a sneak attack?”

            

Xin Lan turned sideways and saw Chu Lu holding a chair.

Chu Lu lowered the chair and swallowed hard.

He had a strong premonition that he was about to receive a brutal beating.

            

Zou Yunfei’s eyes darkened. He had originally hoped Chu Lu would knock Xin Lan unconscious so they could do whatever they wanted with her. He hadn’t expected her to be so alert, dodging before Chu Lu’s blow could even come close.

Xin Lan was right in the middle of a thrilling rush from the fight. Now that someone had delivered himself to her doorstep, she was naturally delighted.

She tossed aside the chair in her hands, worried she might take things too far if she kept using it.

            

She advanced step by step, and Chu Lu retreated step by step.

“Don’t… Jie… Can I call you Jie? Let’s talk things over nicely.”

Chu Lu forced a smile that looked worse than crying, looking utterly weary of life.

            

He couldn’t even beat Zou Yunfei, so how could he possibly match Xin Lan? When he thought of the psychopathic way she had just beaten someone half to death while smiling, he felt like weeping but had no tears.

If Heaven could give him another chance, he would absolutely never have picked up that chair.

Xin Lan threw a punch, her ponytail whipping through the air.

            

Chu Lu couldn’t parry her. He retreated repeatedly until his back hit something, causing him to stumble.

Xin Lan seized the opportunity to kick his shin. While Chu Lu was recoiling in pain, she aimed a kick at his vulnerable spots. Unable to dodge in time, Chu Lu simply braced himself and lunged forward to meet it.

His fist grazed past Xin Lan’s cheek. She caught it as it went by and twisted it viciously.

            

Chu Lu let out a miserable shriek and fell to his knees, his right arm hanging limp.

“It’s not broken. Stop screaming so loud.”

Xin Lan was slightly startled by Chu Lu’s screech, and her lips twitched.

            

She didn’t need to get her hands dirty; these people would die sooner or later anyway.

True, some of them weren’t utterly heinous, but from the moment they were pulled into this game, misfortune had already descended upon them.

Xin Lan turned around and looked at Zou Yunfei, who was sitting on the floor in absolute silence. Zhou Zhou had long since been terrified by her brutality; how could he possibly dare to interfere? He nervously shuffled aside to give her room.

            

“If this is just about teammates, I admit I can’t beat you. Can you leave now?”

Zou Yunfei was deeply unwilling to accept this, but he was powerless.

The hard reality was that Xin Lan had pinned him down and thrashed him. He was completely defenseless. If this continued, he might actually lose his life.

            

If Xin Lan wanted Shen Shuiyan, she could just take her. It wasn’t as if their team couldn’t be changed again in the future.

If Xin Lan didn’t kill him here today, she’d better prepare for his vengeance.

This was the first time in his life Zou Yunfei had ever been so miserable. To suffer this kind of humiliation at the hands of someone he used to look down on was an absolute disgrace.

            

But a great man knows when to bend and when to stand tall¹. Admitting defeat for now wouldn’t hurt.

How could Xin Lan not see through his reluctance? She gave a cold sneer.

“Who said I was leaving? I beat you up earlier to prove that I could, and to prove that you’re a piece of trash. Since you just admitted defeat, does that mean you agree?”

            

“Xin Lan, don’t push it!”

“Me, pushing it? That’s hilarious. Are you saying I’m not even allowed to state the obvious truth?”

Xin Lan mocked him, feeling an unparalleled sense of satisfaction.

            

Back when she was a villain, she had mocked countless protagonists. Although her ultimate end hadn’t been great, trash-talking them had always been incredibly satisfying.

Now that she was the protagonist, she could trash-talk and survive until the very end. She could watch these people struggle, only to die anyway. It was absolutely brilliant.

She was starting to like being the protagonist.

            

“Zou Yunfei, look at you. You can’t even beat a woman.”

Looking at her scumbag ex-boyfriend’s bruised, livid face, Xin Lan laughed even more joyfully.

“Our accounts aren’t fully settled yet. What we just resolved was the matter of changing teammates. The debt you owe me from before still hasn’t been repaid. I’ll let you off for today. Looking at you, you can’t even stand up anyway. If I accidentally beat you to death, there won’t be any fun left to have later.”

            

Xin Lan clapped her hands together and dusted off her clothes.

Xin Lan still hadn’t fully vented the anger of the original host, whose feelings had been toyed with and whose death had been met with cold indifference.

The next time she vented her anger, it wouldn’t be as simple as a mere beating. She’d be taking his clue fragments as well.

            

Watching Xin Lan walk away with an easy, unbothered grace, Zou Yunfei clenched his fists in a silent, trembling rage.

After exiting the boys’ dormitory, Xin Lan spotted Shen Shuiyan standing under a tree not far away.

Perhaps because of the freezing weather, Shen Shuiyan wore a black scarf wrapped around her neck, which made her pale skin look even fairer.

            

“Why are you here?”

Xin Lan was rather surprised. Shen Shuiyan was clearly waiting for her, yet Xin Lan hadn’t told her she was going to the boys’ dormitory tonight.

“I saw you walking in this direction, so I figured you were looking for someone.”

            

Shen Shuiyan let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Xin Lan was unharmed. She was surprised that Xin Lan had managed to walk out of the boys’ dormitory completely unscathed, but on second thought, Xin Lan didn’t seem like the type to act recklessly out of blind overconfidence.

Although Shen Shuiyan found it hard to believe that Xin Lan could overpower Zou Yunfei, she had a sneaking suspicion that it was actually true.

“You’re my teammate now.”

            

“Actually, I could have just talked to him myself. There was no need for you to go to all this trouble.”

Shen Shuiyan had hesitated at first. Although she liked Xin Lan, she hadn’t fully decided to take her side. She had actually thought about having Xin Lan join her and Zou Yunfei’s team, but given Xin Lan’s personality, she knew she’d never agree to that.

“Even if you’d spoken to him, he’d still have come looking for trouble with me sooner or later. It’s better to settle it quickly. Besides, the grudge between us goes far deeper than just this.”

            

To Xin Lan, whether she beat him up sooner or later, he was getting thrashed either way. Might as well do it early so she could beat him up more times—it was a better deal.

“Let’s go. Let’s head back.”

“Are we just going back to the dormitory?”

            

Shen Shuiyan had assumed Xin Lan would want to visit the teaching building again.

“Yeah, we’re going back.”

Having worked up a sweat from all her physical exertion tonight, she just wanted to get back quickly and take a shower.

            

Shen Shuiyan nodded. She had only come to see how Xin Lan was doing; as long as she was fine, that was all that mattered.

Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan walked along the narrow path toward the girls’ dormitory. But after walking for two minutes, Xin Lan stopped in her tracks. Shen Shuiyan stopped beside her as well.

“Something’s wrong.”

            

Xin Lan looked around.

“We’ve been walking for two minutes. I made calculations when I came here; we shouldn’t still be in this spot,” Shen Shuiyan said in a low voice.

“I suspect we might have run into the same situation as last time.”

            

Xin Lan remembered that yesterday, when she had walked into the off-limits area, the road had also been infinitely stretched like this when she tried to return.

Zero Nine: “Host, it’s indeed as you think. The spatial dimensions have been stretched again, and abnormal spatial fluctuations have been detected. In a little while, you’ll probably enter an alternate dimension.”

“But we clearly didn’t do anything this time, and this is a permitted area. Why would this happen? Could it be because girls aren’t allowed to wander around the boys’ dormitory?”

            

If that were the case, the rules were truly psychotic. This hadn’t been stated explicitly anywhere.

“I don’t know. Let’s keep walking and see. If it really is what you said, then we definitely can’t turn back. We can only go and see what lies at the end of the road.”

Xin Lan said. Shen Shuiyan nodded; they had no other choice.

            

The cobblestone path was shrouded in thick fog on both sides.

After walking for a few minutes, Xin Lan looked back, only to find that the path behind them had also vanished into the mist, obscured and impossible to see.

“There’s light ahead.”

            

Shen Shuiyan looked forward, but there was no joy in her voice.

Humans are naturally drawn to light. In pitch darkness or in a situation like this, simply seeing a light would make anyone happy. But Shen Shuiyan really couldn’t bring herself to be happy. That light wasn’t like the one from the dormitory building. Under such bizarre circumstances, who knew what the destination would be?

The two of them pressed forward toward the glow, eventually stepping through a gateway of light.

            

Just as the two of them had expected, behind the gateway of light was by no means a good place.

It was an ordinary, dilapidated classroom. Only two lights were lit, and some broken desks and chairs were piled in the corner.

Xin Lan looked back; the light source from moments ago had completely vanished.

            

When Xin Lan entered, three people were already seated inside the classroom, staring coldly at her and Shen Shuiyan beside her.

“The spots are full. Can the game start now?”

The speaker was a youth dressed in a school uniform. Xin Lan glanced at him and noted that his uniform was from a different school than hers.

            

“What game? We’re not quite sure what’s going on. Could you explain?”

Shen Shuiyan exchanged a look with Xin Lan and asked the youth who had spoken.

Beautiful women always had privileges, especially with two beauties in front of him; the youth’s expression softened considerably.

            

“I assume you two were also dragged into this bizarre, four-hundred-person game,” the youth paused, continuing only after seeing Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan nod. “The three of us are too, though we weren’t in the same location.”

“Those who make mistakes have to play an extra game here. If you find a way out, you can return to the original game.”

“Made a mistake? Like what?”

            

“Damaging school property, sleeping in class, things like that.”

As the youth spoke, his expression was dark. The other two people in the room had equally complicated, grim looks on their faces.

Xin Lan thought of the chair that hadn’t broken when it hit her, but broke when she smashed it over Zou Yunfei. She gave Shen Shuiyan an apologetic look.

            

Shen Shuiyan looked a bit bewildered.

“When I was beating up Zou Yunfei just now, the chair broke.”

Shen Shuiyan swallowed hard; that was a lot of information to take in.

            

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The author has something to say:

Because my hand slipped that day, I’m replacing the chapter and updating early today!

I’m on the list today, so I need to put on a good show! Feel free to speak your mind 【frantic hinting】

            

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