“Satis…satisfied my foot! Get lost!”
Having recovered, Xia Mengxi stood up from the ground, showing no courtesy to Lin Xue’er whatsoever as she walked straight to the kitchen door and shut the hinged window panel.
But merely closing the panel was useless, since the person at the door was still there.
“Xiao Xi, do you really think you can hide in there forever? If you come out now, I might still let bygones be bygones and perform the surgery painlessly. But if I have to catch you myself, you’ll have to keep your eyes wide open and clearly experience the agony of losing your freedom!”
“And do you think you can actually catch me? Hmph! Lin Xue’er, why don’t you go to bed early? In your dreams, anything can happen!”
Flipping the bird at the door, Xia Mengxi stopped paying attention to the person outside.
Since she’d been discovered and was already in the kitchen, she might as well start preparing hot water and searching for tools.
“But seriously, how does she keep finding me… And from what she said, she’d already located me several times before but wasn’t serious about it. Tsk… Also, if she knows I’m here, does that mean she’s aware I’ve been using the ventilation ducts? Damn it!”
Xia Mengxi couldn’t fathom how Lin Xue’er kept tracking her so easily.
While dealing with the underground prison’s iron door was important, solving the mystery of Lin Xue’er’s tracking ability was equally crucial.
Worse still, Lin Xue’er must have figured out her ventilation duct movements, meaning she’d need another way out of the cafeteria.
So while boiling water, Xia Mengxi racked her brains trying to solve these two additional problems.
After much deliberation, one problem remained completely baffling, while the other had potential solutions she hesitated to employ.
“Looks like I’ll have to break through head-on…”
In a straightforward knife fight, her instincts told her she stood no chance against Lin Xue’er.
But if she used other methods-like projectile attacks with pots and pans or dumping boiling water on her opponent-it might work.
However, she feared this could push Lin Xue’er beyond redemption or even prove fatal.
She wanted neither outcome.
The former would permanently destroy any chance of resolving Lin Xue’er’s emotional baggage and winning her over.
The latter was unthinkable-despite Lin Xue’er’s murderous intent, Xia Mengxi, as an ordinary person still moved by Lin Xue’er’s past kindness, couldn’t bring herself to take extreme defensive measures.
“If only Lin Xue’er had been consistently cruel lately, and if I hadn’t been smart enough to see through her intentions, maybe I could have steeled myself to act… Sigh.”
Xia Mengxi sighed helplessly.
Having solutions but lacking the nerve to use them only complicated matters, yet she had no regrets.
This was who she was, and she didn’t want to change.
“Well, heaven never seals off all exits. There’s always hope until the very end. For now, I’ll focus on achievable goals.”
After rummaging through the kitchen, Xia Mengxi found an insulated container and poured the boiling water into it.
Then, she was quite fortunate to find a toolbox in a corner and retrieved a flathead screwdriver and a pair of tweezers to extract the half- broken key stuck in the lock.
“Oh right, almost forgot about this damn thing.”
After gathering the tools needed to open the iron door of the underground prison, Xia Mengxi’s attention happened to shift to the collar around her neck.
Thanks to the toolbox, she didn’t need to painstakingly grind away at the leather collar with a knife.
Instead, she could simply use pliers to snap the lock on the collar.
“Huff… huff! My palms are numb, but I finally managed to break this lock.”
Tossing the broken lock aside carelessly, Xia Mengxi rubbed the sore spots on her palms before finally removing the collar.
Even though she had grown accustomed to wearing it, the moment the collar came off, she felt an immediate sense of relief, and even her mood lightened.
“Freedom! Haha…”
Xia Mengxi chuckled as she tossed the removed collar aside just like the broken lock, then sat on the floor, leaning against a nearby cabinet to rest for a while.
“Now… what should I do next…”
She pondered for a moment, deciding to sift through her memories related to Lin Xue’er, hoping to find some clues.
Perhaps certain details could help her overcome the current predicament.
However, after recalling for a while, she realized that alone wasn’t enough.
“Hmm… this direction isn’t wrong, but it feels like something’s missing… Ah! Reverse reasoning!”
Suddenly remembering the origin of her three-step counterattack plan, Xia Mengxi’s eyes lit up.
She then began reverse-analyzing the two problems she had faced earlier.
The highest priority was figuring out why Lin Xue’er could always find her.
Was it coincidence, or inevitability?
Hmm…the answer definitely wasn’t what Lin Xue’er had claimed-something about locating her through friendship.
That was ridiculous.
Wait, locating…?
“If Lin Xue’er was tracking me through something on my person, then it’s no surprise she could always find me.”
She recalled an action she had seen Lin Xue’er perform not long ago in the ventilation shaft-Lin Xue’er had stood directly beneath her, glanced at her phone shortly after, then wandered around the cafeteria before leaving.
That seemingly ordinary and innocent action, combined with her current speculation, suddenly seemed suspicious.
“Exactly! It must be this! To disguise this behavior, Lin Xue’er even pretended to wander around the cafeteria as a cover.”
Well then, time for a search!
Xia Mengxi removed all her clothes and shoes-except for the necklace around her neck—and placed them on the table, meticulously inspecting each item.
Yet no matter how thoroughly she checked, she couldn’t find any strange metal objects.
“Could it be…”
A terrifying guess crossed her mind, and she instinctively touched her slightly grimy body.
However, she didn’t recall ever feeling anything unusual, so she dismissed the idea of a tracker being embedded in her flesh with a shake of her head.
“Probably not. In that case… there’s only one possibility left.”
As she spoke, her gaze fell on an object lying on the floor not far away-the collar she had discarded just minutes earlier.
“Nine times out of ten, it’s this thing.”
Since all the clothing had been checked, the remaining item was most likely the one.
Sure enough, when Xia Mengxi felt around and found no bumps, then used a knife to open the hidden layer, a small metal disc appeared before her eyes inside the slit leather collar.