My Dearest General: It Has Always Been You

The atmosphere remained low until the car jolted a bit, seemingly travelling into a ragged road. No 56 slowly calmed down and fixed her make up as best as she could. 

"Get ready." The driver\'s cold tone sounded from the front. "We are arriving in ten minutes."

Lei Liqiu straightened her back. Waves? She pricked her ears up and indeed heard the clear sound of waves crashing. "Are we going to the sea?" she asked carefully.

"It seems so." Madam Lan wasn\'t willing to divulge more.

Lei Liqiu sighed and kept her mouth shut. A few minutes later, the car gradually slowed down and halted. "We have arrived." Madam Lan gathered her shoulder cape and patted Lei Liqiu\'s shoulder. "Let\'s go."

Lei Liqiu took a deep breath and climbed down the car following Madam Lan. In an instant, the scent of the sea rushed to her nose. Harsh wind blew her hair and dress. It was so cold that her breath evaporated into mist. Her nose instantly turned red as she sneezed.

Madam Lan went aside to talk to the driver, leaving the three of them behind. No 56 glanced at them back and forth with puffy eyes. "My name is Yu Li\'er. If I die today, I want someone to remember my name."

The man sighed. "What use is there to remember your name?" He raked his fingers across his hair and muttered. "…I am Mo Xin, 22 years old. I got duped by my bastard ex boyfriend who spiked my drink. When I came to, I was already here. I swear if someday I get out of here, I will kill him."

Lei Liqiu and Yu Li\'er looked at Mo Xin\'s slender figure and thin arms then burst out laughing. They didn\'t know why they laughed either, maybe it was because of the sudden camaraderie that formed between them amidst adversity.

When Lei Liqiu\'s laugh receded, she said softly. "I am Lei Liqiu, 23—no, actually my birthday was a few days ago so I am already 24 years old." She took a deep breath and said in a determined tone. "Someday…if I can get out of here, I will avenge all of you."

"What are you crowding there for?" Madam Lan shouted from afar. "Come on!"

They trailed after Madam Lan and got into an elegant building near the sea. The sign above their heads wrote Langchi Bar. There was a lounge with shelves filled with all kinds of drinks as well as wooden chairs and tables. Inside, there was nobody but a man in black suit who was already waiting for them. He wore an earpiece and a bulge was visible from his waist. Lei Liqiu hastily withdrew her gaze. Gun! The man carried a gun!

"Welcome, ladies." He smiled. "If you don\'t mind, please follow me. We have to check your body for weapons. You don\'t happen to carry any, do you?"

Lei Liqiu\'s heart skipped a beat but she forced her face to remain the same. C—Check her body?! What if…What if they told her to strip? The flashdisk inside her bra...No, she couldn\'t lose that! Her whole life line depended on it!

In the moment before she broke down in panic, Madam Lan put on a displeased face. "You want to check our bodies?" She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin arrogantly. "Where\'s Manager Si? If he wants to proceed, then you\'d better step over my corpse first!"

The bodyguard was taken aback, apparently didn\'t expect that Madam Lan would react so strongly. He gave a \'wait a minute\' gesture then talked to the walkie talkie. After confirming something, he returned to them with a wider smile. "My sincerest apologies. I have no idea that you\'re from Dreamscape Bar. We have to be very careful because today\'s trading is very important." He stepped aside and bowed slightly. "Please enter."

Madam Lan harrumphed and sashayed past the bodyguard, leaving only the faint scent of perfume on her wake. Lei Liqiu let out the breath she didn\'t know she was holding and trailed after her, Yu Li\'er and Mo Xin following behind. They walked past the dark corridor with numerous closed doors that were guarded each by two bodyguards. Faint chatter and laughter was heard from the gaps beneath the door.

Lei Liqiu thought that they would serve some guests here, even Yu Li\'er huddled with her to seek comfort. But no, Madam Lan kept on walking ahead and went through the corridor to the back of the building.

The space opened up in front of their eyes and Lei Liqiu\'s jaws dropped as she found a huge yacht docked on the shore. The environment was dark and it was almost covered by the building so no one realized that a huge yacht existed here!

"Are we going up?" Yu Li\'er asked gingerly.

"Uh-uh." Madam Lan pointed toward the stairs that led to the yacht. "Don\'t ask so many questions."

Yu Li\'er shut her mouth up and silently followed Madam Lan as the latter stride elegantly up the stairs. Lei Liqiu couldn\'t do the same. The waves were quite strong tonight and the stairs kept on swinging back and forth. She had to keep a tight grip on the handrail and on some occasions, Mo Xin even caught her when her feet slipped.

It was only a few short flights, but when Lei Liqiu stepped on the solid ground, her knees weakened so much that she had difficulty walking if not for Yu Li\'er\'s arms hooking hers. 

The interior of the yacht didn\'t lose out to a five star hotel. The lobby was luxurious with shiny ceramic tiles and marble pillars, incandescent lights pouring warm yellow glow onto the space.

"The party will not start until half an hour later." Madam Lan opened up. "In the meantime, you can prepare yourself."

Lei Liqiu felt Yu Li\'er\'s fingers clenching around her arm. It hurt a bit and managed to sober her up. 

Prepare themselves…everyone was very familiar with that sentence. Everytime they would be put on display, Madam Lan or Manager Si would tell them to prepare themselves. It meant more psychologically rather than physically. Because whatever would happen in the next moment…they had to brace themselves for it.

Yu Li\'er pulled Lei Liqiu with her toward the bathroom. It was empty and they had the whole room for themselves. Maybe because Lei Liqiu had been affected by Xu Binchen too much, she started to look around for possible spots for hidden cameras and listening bugs. Inwardly she thought that it wouldn\'t be possible though. Manager Si wouldn\'t have allowed something that could possibly be used against the bar to exist.

As she expected, there were none.

Sighing in relief, Lei Liqiu was reminded that she wasn\'t the only person here. She turned around with a nervous smile to see Yu Li\'er staring at her with scrutinizing eyes. Her heart skipped a beat and in the next second, the bad premonition came true.

"You…" The girl probed gingerly. "Lei Liqiu, are you a…spy?"

The thin, fragile string that had been holding Lei Liqiu\'s wits snapped at that moment. Countless scenes flashed before her eyes, her desperation and effort, the tears she had spent, her longing for freedom… Before she knew it, she had pressed Yu Li\'er against the wall, knocking the breath out of the woman\'s lungs. Even Lei Liqiu herself was shocked by how bone chillingly cold her voice was. "If you don\'t want to die, then you\'d better keep it for yourself."

Yu Li\'er\'s eyes widened in shock. "Hmph hmm!" She patted Lei Liqiu\'s hand that clamped down on her mouth, fear surfaced on her face.

Actually, Lei Liqiu wasn\'t as calm as she looked. Her heart was beating furiously and if Yu Li\'er was a bit more attentive, then she would have realized that her voice had a slight tremble on it, even her palms were clammy with cold sweat.

"Don\'t scream. Don\'t make any ruckus." She tried to imitate Xu Binchen in her mind when the man instilled fear. His sharp aura, even tone, terrifyingly fierce eyes. It seemed to work because Yu Li\'er nodded again and again with tears in her eyes.

She slowly let go and took a step backward, confused as to how she should proceed. What to do? Someone knew her secret. Would Yu Li\'er threaten her with it? Would she report it to Madam Lan to get the woman\'s favor?

All kinds of possibilities churned in her mind but never had she expected that Yu Li\'er would pounce on her into an embrace, crying. "I knew it! I have my own suspicions! Lei Liqiu, you…you can save us all, right?"

Lei Liqiu was dumbfounded at Yu Li\'er\'s suffocatingly tight embrace. "You…knew?"

"Of course. You\'re always snooping around for news. No one will care about other people here when they\'re too busy to save themselves. But you, instead of minding your own business, you went around and asked for our names."

Lei Liqiu froze. "So…everyone knows?"

Yu Li\'er pulled back and wiped her tears. "No, only me and Wan Biwen. Actually, Wan Biwen is very smart and observational. Sometimes, I felt strange when I hung out with her because a woman like her isn\'t so stupid and naïve to be duped into this shit. It\'s also Wan Biwen who shared her suspicion about you with me." She hastily lifted three fingers and swore. "Don\'t worry, I haven\'t told anyone at all!"

Lei Liqiu sighed in relief. Strength seeped out of her body and she had to lean against the sink to stand. "Your close friend, Wan Biwen? Can you tell me what happened to her?"

Yu Li\'er nodded readily. "Usually, Wan Biwen wouldn\'t be picked because her look was quite ordinary. I mean, she was beautiful but when displayed with rows of beautiful men and women, she looked kind of dull and dim. So, it\'s very strange for her to be picked that night. Then…after that, she never returned anymore." She hugged herself and trembled. "I suspected…those people have gotten rid of her."

Lei Liqiu clenched her fists so tight that her nails pierced into her palms. "What do you mean? The management in Dreamscape Bar, they knew that there\'s something fishy about Wan Biwen and that\'s why they got rid of her?"

"It\'s only my suspicion though." Yu Li\'er added. "Before they sent her away, she secretly sneaked into my room and told me something. I\'m not that bright and I can\'t understand it no matter how long I try. I also don\'t dare to tell anybody so I have been trying alone to crack it. But you…I got the feeling that I can tell you…"

Lei Liqiu looked into Yu Li\'er\'s solemn eyes, her breaths came out short. She recomposed herself and asked amidst thundering heartbeats . "What did she say?"

"She said…she got an idea on who was behind all of this human trafficking." Yu Li\'er leaned forward and whispered something into Lei Liqiu\'s ears and the more she listened, the wider her eyes became.

She exclaimed in shock. "What kind of riddle is that???"

.

.

.

A/N: oho, do the dead people have anything to do with the serial killer? And what connection does this human trafficking have with the serial murder? You will find out very, very soon fufufu we are slowly reaching the climax