Reservoir Dogs chapter 61
Crazy Woman
Leaving Jiang Chengyuan’s room and returning to his own, Xiao Zhou covered himself with a blanket and slept.
When he woke up in the middle of the night, he found himself sleeping on the floor, a thick rug beneath him, surrounded by pillows. A woman in a long white dress with long hair was sitting beside him, hugging her knees and looking at him, her eyes peering through the messy black hair like a wild beast hiding in a cave.
Xiao Zhou recognized her. The walls of this room were lined with sponge, without a bed, table, chairs, or any furniture. Blankets, pillows, and quilts were piled on the floor, while bowls and cups were scattered around, all made of harmless plastic.
On closer inspection, the woman had actually cleaned up well. Although thin, she wasn’t sickly but rather had a pale fragility from a long absence of sunlight. Her face was narrow and long, and even without makeup, her delicate features were evident.
Xiao Zhou tried to prop himself up but found his limbs weak and powerless. There was a tiny needle mark on his left arm, with congealed blood at the wound, indicating he had been injected with an anesthetic.
“What do you want?” he asked, looking at the woman.
She didn’t respond directly but suddenly crawled over to him, bringing her face close to his and sniffing him. “You’ve been marked by him. His scent is so pleasant. I haven’t smelled it in a long time. It’s unbelievable. I thought he couldn’t mark anyone anymore.”
Xiao Zhou instinctively turned his face away, and her hanging hair brushed against his arm.
“Can you smell my scent?” she asked.
They were so close that the woman was almost completely pressed against Xiao Zhou, but he couldn’t detect any pheromones.
“No,” Xiao Zhou replied honestly, which seemed to agitate her. She suddenly became furious, gripping his shoulders tightly and biting into the side of his neck. Her teeth broke through the skin, drawing blood, as if she wanted to bite off a piece of flesh. “Then why do you have it?” she demanded.
Xiao Zhou cried out in pain but had no strength to resist, though his mind was clear.
She kept her teeth embedded in his skin for a long time before partially rising, her mouth smeared with blood.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead as he tried to clench his fists, but he still couldn’t control them, though his fingers moved slightly.
“What do you aim to achieve by bringing me here?” Xiao Zhou asked.
“Bringing you here will make Jiang Chengyuan come to see me,” the woman said, wiping the blood with the back of her hand as she knelt.
Actually, during their conversation, she didn’t seem that insane. Her speech and thoughts were normal, though her actions were extreme.
Xiao Zhou focused all his energy on his right hand, attempting to make a fist. This time he succeeded, feeling a sense of relief as his control gradually returned.
“You want to see him?”
She smiled eerily, “Yes, I want to see him. I’ve always wanted to see him, but he’s afraid to see me. He thinks locking me in this hellhole makes it okay? He thinks if I stay silent, no one will know about his heinous deeds? Heaven is watching. He’ll get his retribution. I want to live to see his downfall!” Her yellowing teeth ground together, making a sound like fingernails scraping a nerve.
Xiao Zhou thought, she hates him so much. “He locked you up for your own good. You’re ill and need treatment.”
“Ill?” The woman’s eyes widened. “I know, they say I’m crazy, don’t they? I’m not crazy, they are! Is this hellhole fit for a human? They won’t let me out; it’s imprisonment! It’s illegal!” Her voice grew hysterical as she suddenly stood up and pulled a long knife from under a cushion, waving it wildly as she paced the padded room.
“Five years! They’ve kept me here for five years! The air here is so foul, I feel like I’m rotting, molding. I spent a week lying here, unable to move, not even lifting a finger. I watched the ceiling press down on me, counting every crack. I could draw them with my eyes closed. It’s suffocating me. Are they treating me? They’re waiting for me to die! So they can get rid of me without blood on their hands. No, I won’t die, I won’t go mad. I’ll leave here clear-headed, appeal, sue, and make Jiang’s name infamous forever!”
She spoke faster and faster, her steps quickening. The bright knife in her hand shone, and her white dress fluttered like a butterfly’s wings. A butterfly trapped in a specimen box.
Xiao Zhou watched her and the room, which couldn’t be called crude. No prison cell could be this comfortable and clean, filled with soft blankets. A small door revealed a private bathroom, and there was even a mini-fridge in the corner. The air conditioning blew steadily, and a plastic bowl still had some dumplings left.
“Are you Lu Xi?” Xiao Zhou tried to move his legs, but his toes were still numb.
The woman stopped her frantic pacing, turning her head with a wary and confused look, “How do you know?”
“Chengyuan told me. He hasn’t forgotten you.”
She uneasily looked around, lowering her hand, “What did he say about me?”
Xiao Zhou found some words to praise her, and surprisingly, she calmed down, smiled shyly, tidied her disheveled hair, and slowly sat down. “I really miss him. I want him to come see me, but in five years, he hasn’t come once.” She became mournful and began to cry. “I didn’t expect this. He didn’t die, did he? Why won’t he see me? Does he hate me? Why did he keep me then?”
Xiao Zhou watched her cry unexpectedly and asked, “What exactly happened between you two?”
The woman, with her eyes round and dark like a doe’s, glistening with tears, moved her lips with a sorrowful and painful expression, “It was him. He approached me to get revenge on my father. I thought he genuinely liked me.”
The woman recounted that she met Jiang Chengyuan at her father’s law firm. Her father recruited Jiang Chengyuan, giving him a partner position and a team to lead. From the moment Jiang Chengyuan joined the firm, he tried every possible way to get close to her. She gradually fell into Jiang Chengyuan’s gentle trap and deeply fell in love with him. Initially, Lu Xiyuan didn’t trust Jiang Chengyuan much, but she spoke highly of him to her father, created various opportunities for him to prove himself, and eventually, Lu Xiyuan let down his guard and used his connections to support this young man.
However, Lu Xi later learned that Jiang Chengyuan had ulterior motives; he was Jiang Bin’s illegitimate son.
In the early days, before Jiang Chengyuan’s father, Jiang Bin, was promoted to dean, Lu Xiyuan once threatened Jiang Bin with the existence of Jiang Chengyuan and his mother to win a lawsuit, threatening to tell Jiang Bin’s wife about his affair. At that time, Jiang Bin’s wife was terminally ill with cancer and couldn’t withstand any shock, and Jiang Bin was in a critical period of promotion, relying entirely on his father-in-law’s approval and couldn’t afford any scandal.
Jiang Bin, left with no choice, disregarded his sister’s pleas and sentenced the person to death. Jiang Bin lost his mother early, and his family was poor. His sister dropped out of school to work and raised him, forming a close bond. Because of this incident, his sister’s family moved away and severed ties with Jiang Bin.
Jiang Bin and Lu Xiyuan became enemies because of this and transferred their anger onto Jiang Chengyuan and his mother, starting to distance themselves from Yang Suqin, avoiding her. Yang Suqin, ignored by her lover without reason, became ill from the accumulated resentment.
When Jiang Chengyuan returned from another place and learned about this, he wanted to seek justice for his mother.
By then, Jiang Bin’s wife had passed away, and Jiang Bin had smoothly become the dean of the high court, no longer needing anyone’s help. Jiang Bin set a condition for Jiang Chengyuan: if Jiang Chengyuan could help him vent his anger, he would marry Jiang Chengyuan’s mother.
Yang Suqin, bedridden, once held Jiang Chengyuan’s hand and said that her greatest wish before dying was to have a legitimate status so that she wouldn’t have any regrets in death.
Thus, Jiang Chengyuan meticulously embedded himself in Lu Xiyuan’s circle, gained their trust, dated Lu Xi, became Lu Xiyuan’s most prized successor and son-in-law. When Lu Xiyuan was completely unguarded, Jiang Chengyuan framed him with fabricated evidence, leading to his arrest and imprisonment, where he died.
Lu Xi swore to avenge her father, but to prevent her from causing trouble, Jiang Chengyuan imprisoned her here, holding her captive for five years.
When the woman reached this point, she couldn’t suppress her grief and cried bitterly.
After hearing the story, Xiao Zhou regained control over his body, but he didn’t rush to get up. He asked, “Where did you get the drug you injected into me?”
The woman was startled and said, “I stole it when they brought a doctor to see me.”
Xiao Zhou nodded, then sat up. While the woman was still in shock, he snatched the knife from her hand. They struggled, but Xiao Zhou easily overpowered her due to his physical strength and threw the knife away. The woman began to struggle madly, biting with her teeth and kicking with her legs. Xiao Zhou raised her wrists above her head, taking two kicks to the abdomen, he bent sideways to avoid them, “Calm down, I won’t do anything to you.”
The woman’s eyes were red, her hair disheveled, gritting her teeth, looking somewhat like a madwoman, “You bastard! You lied to me! You and Jiang Chengyuan are the same!”
Xiao Zhou looked down at the woman he was restraining. Her body was so thin, her hard bones pressing against him, her ribs just a row of protruding bones, her eyes bloodshot.
Suddenly, the woman stopped struggling, curled up, and said painfully, “Kill me. I don’t want to stay here any longer. I don’t have the courage to do it myself, but you can. Give me a release. Staying here is worse than death. I will truly go mad eventually.”
Xiao Zhou’s hand holding her was sweaty. He tightened his grip, then involuntarily loosened it. After hesitating for a moment, he said, “You just don’t want to stay here, right?”
The woman was stunned, then grabbed Xiao Zhou’s clothes, “What do you mean?”
Xiao Zhou completely released his hold on her and stepped back, “We will be leaving the island soon. Maybe you can come with us, but I have one condition.”
The woman looked at him.
Author’s note:
Lu wasn’t telling the truth. Don’t blame Zhou; he didn’t cause trouble this time… The island arc is almost over.