The muzzle was still pressed firmly against her temple. This was her only bargaining chip, and also her only shield.
Time ticked by, second by second. Each second felt like suffering on scorching sand.
Mu Xi finally made up her mind.
‘I can’t wait any longer. Every extra second increases the variables.’
She suddenly exerted force and pulled open the heavy car door.
Creak—
The sound of metal scraping was particularly piercing in the silent night. The car door opened a crack. She didn’t hesitate at all. Maintaining the posture of pressing the gun against her head, she twisted sideways in an extremely awkward manner, trying to squeeze her small body into the driver’s seat.
This movement was extremely difficult, requiring great body control and balance. A single mistake could cause an accidental discharge, or give Ye Lan an opening. Her movements were very slow, every slight shift filled with vigilance.
The space inside the car was cramped and familiar, mixed with the smell of leather, dust, and a faint trace of blood.
Just as half her body was already inside the car, the moment before she lifted her other foot to step into the cabin—
“Little Xi,” Ye Lan’s voice rang out again, this time much closer, as if whispering in her ear, with a cold, undeniable penetrative force, “Did I give you permission to leave?”
The voice wasn’t loud, but it carried a suffocating pressure, instantly freezing all of Mu Xi’s movements.
Mu Xi didn’t even have time to turn around, only feeling a powerful force suddenly grab her ankle as she was about to lift it! The force was so great that she nearly lost her balance, stumbling backward.
“Let go!” Mu Xi screamed, her voice distorted with fear, carrying a crying tone. Her other hand instinctively resisted that iron-like grip, but Ye Lan’s fingers were like steel bars, unmoving.
Ye Lan’s figure had somehow appeared like a ghost outside the car door, blocking the only escape route. Her deep, phoenix-like eyes glimmered with a dangerous light in the dim lighting. Her long black hair was blown by the night wind, brushing against her pale, almost translucent cheeks.
‘How could she be this fast?!’
From the Escort Team’s armored vehicle to here, there was at least several dozen meters. And she had gotten into the car in just a few seconds! Fear instantly constricted Mu Xi’s heart.
“I told you, without my permission, you can’t go anywhere.”
Ye Lan’s voice was still steady, but it carried a pre-storm fury. She stared at Mu Xi’s pale face, terrified, seeing the hatred and despair burning in her eyes. The guilt and mad love in her heart churned and twisted, eventually transforming into an even stronger possessiveness. She believed Mu Xi responded better to force than gentleness. Only absolute control could make her submit again.
Ye Lan suddenly exerted force with her hand, trying to drag Mu Xi completely out of the car.
“Ah!” Mu Xi cried out in pain. A sharp pain came from her ankle, as if her bones were being crushed. The intense pain triggered the survival instinct buried deep in her bones.
‘I can’t be taken back! Never!’
Thinking of the two lives also struggling under Ye Lan’s shadow, a surge of power from somewhere flooded Mu Xi’s thin body. She suddenly twisted her body and viciously kicked her other foot at the arm that was grabbing her ankle! This kick used all her strength, carrying a determination to break the jade along with the stone.
Ye Lan seemed not to have expected the usually “delicate” Mu Xi to erupt with such fierce resistance. She was kicked squarely on the arm. In pain, her fingers instinctively loosened by a fraction. This was the fraction of a chance! Mu Xi seized the opportunity, quickly retracting her foot into the car, while her other hand slammed the car door shut with a bang in lightning speed!
The heavy door nearly caught Ye Lan’s fingers. Ye Lan stepped back half a step, staring at the closed door, fury rising in her phoenix-like eyes.
Inside the car, Mu Xi’s heart pounded uncontrollably, nearly bursting from her chest. She ignored the sharp pain in her ankle and the scrapes on her arm, trembling as she felt for the keyhole. The gun she had “borrowed” from the Escort Team was now carelessly tucked into her waistband, the cold metal pressed against her skin.
‘Hurry! Hurry!’
Her fingers were uncooperative from tension, and it took several tries to insert the key accurately.
Click.
The faint sound was like heavenly music at this moment.
Outside the car, Ye Lan’s cold voice rang out again, with a hint of provoked rage: “Mu Xi, open the door.”
Mu Xi turned a deaf ear, gripping the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles white from exertion. She twisted the key—the engine let out a muffled cough, then roared to life! The familiar vibration came from the seat, giving Mu Xi a fleeting sense of false security.
She stomped on the gas pedal! The tires let out a screeching sound on the gravel, the car shook violently, and it surged forward!
Ye Lan was originally trying to open the car door again, but was thrown off balance by the sudden acceleration. She reacted quickly, trying to grab the car body to steady herself, but the immense inertia still threw her off violently! Ye Lan fell hard onto the hard sand, letting out a muffled groan.
The desert’s sand was rough and cold, tearing her expensive clothes and scraping her skin. An unprecedented level of dishevelment. The prey she considered to be firmly in her grasp had escaped her control in such a violent manner, even causing her to fall to the ground. Humiliation and rage instantly swept over Ye Lan.
She pushed herself up, watching the off-road vehicle that charged into the darkness like a runaway horse, her pale cheeks slightly contorted with anger. She muttered this name under her breath, her voice full of cold murderous intent and desperate obsession: “Little Xi, you’re just short of truly angering me.”
She suddenly lifted her head, gazing at the Escort Team’s armored vehicles waiting not far away, her voice sharply rising with an undeniable command: “Everyone! Go after her!”
The night wind carried her angry command far, startling a few nocturnal animals lurking in the ruins.
The engines of three pitch-black armored vehicles simultaneously let out low roars. The heavy machine guns on the roofs glinted coldly under the starlight, and the purple emblem was faintly visible on the body of each vehicle. They were like awakened tigers, racing toward the direction of Mu Xi’s disappearance, kicking up clouds of sand as they sped away.
The night was as dark as ink, soaking every grain of sand in the desert.
Ye Lan’s figure smoothly flipped into the passenger seat of one Escort Team armored vehicle. The car door slammed shut with a bang, sealing out the wind and sand, but not the violent anger churning in her heart. Her pale fingertips slid across the control panel. The cold metal touch calmed her slightly. The embarrassment of being thrown to the sand by Mu Xi, that moment of loss of control, still burned her nerves.
“Keep close to her.” Ye Lan’s voice transmitted through the internal communicator, without a trace of warmth.
The Escort Team member in the driver’s seat nodded silently, his hands steadily controlling the steering wheel. The armored vehicle’s engine growled, cutting through the darkness at astonishing speed, chasing after the dust raised by Mu Xi’s wheels.
Mu Xi gripped the steering wheel tightly, her palms covered in cold sweat.
Waves of sharp pain from her ankle made it almost impossible to keep her foot steady on the accelerator.
She could feel the three immense presences behind her, like gnawing worms clinging to her bones, relentlessly pursuing.
This car, scavenged from the ruins and modified, seemed clumsy and fragile in front of Ye Lan’s meticulously crafted armored beasts.
The engine emitted an overburdened roar, the body of the car swaying precariously on the rough road.
Through the rearview mirror, she could see Ye Lan’s figure in the middle armored vehicle.
Even from such a distance, the aura of pursuit was still clearly distinguishable.