Chapter 33 – Tortured
TL: Milaryn
Edit: IlkonEbi

TL Note: Bold text is spoken in Japanese.

Pa— the shinai viciously landed on Jiaming’s body. Opposite them, Shasha made a choked noise before struggling wildly on the chair.

“Haha, seems like student Jiaming has good tolerance; he didn’t even make a sound.”

Proud of himself, Cao Dongfeng propped the shinai on his shoulder. “Why is little sis Huaisha so concerned? Jiaming didn’t call out, so it obviously didn’t hurt.”

He smiled nastily before landing a succession of heavy blows on Jiaming’s body. “It doesn’t hurt! It doesn’t hurt! It’s not painful, right? I’m being quite gentle! I’m only lightly tapping you!”

As Cao Dongfeng worked himself into a frenzy, the old man on the other side was also beating the japanese girl with his shinai. The only sounds that could be heard in the room were caused by the blows of the shinai. Tsukichi Kaoru was just sitting there like an empty shell, occasionally straightening up whenever the impact from the shinai moved her from her original position. Jiaming also did not make any sounds other than gritting his teeth and bitterly holding it in.

After a while, Jiaming could feel Tsukichi Kaoru’s ice cold gaze pass over him, probably curious about how he was able to suffer in silence, and he could not help but inwardly smile wryly.

If he was really trying to hold back from reacting to the beating, then naturally he could not assume a completely impassive disposition like her. He was currently pretending to be an ordinary little boy, so he had to show that he was suffering while trying to keep it in, and gritting his teeth worked quite well.

While the two people being beaten were keeping silent, Shasha, who was tied to the chair, was struggling wildly and making muffled noises. It seemed that every hit that landed on Jiaming made her struggle harder; but unfortunately, the ropes were tied tightly. Eventually, the chair tipped over along with her and she fell onto her knees. She did not take her eyes off Jiaming as tears poured down her face, unclear whether this was due to her falling or due to her feeling distressed about Jiaming’s situation.

Hearing Shasha fall, Cao Dongfeng finally took a break. He looked at Jiaming, his eyes filled with surprise, “It seems that you really can hold it back… It must be because you normally get beaten, that’s why you’re immune to it now!”

He derided and then looked back at Shasha, “But your girlfriend is kneeling. Cousin Huaisha is begging for your forgiveness. Come, loosen that gag on her, let’s hear what she has to say.”

As his subordinate removed the rag from Shasha’s mouth, she instantly spat out, “Cao Dongfeng, you’re supposed to go through me first! If you have the balls, fight me 1-on-1!”

“1-on-1?” –Cao Dongfeng raised an eyebrow– “I think not. I don’t want to hear that at all.”

He turned back to Jiaming and started beating him again.

Spending that much effort to beat someone just for them to keep acting like a block of wood was quite boring. It was like a famous singer singing without getting applauded, or a comedian not getting any laughs from their audience. However, even though Jiaming was not making any noises, behind them, Shasha was angrily cursing him nonstop, giving him the motivation to continue beating Jiaming.

“Cao Dongfeng, you bastard…”

“You’re not a man, you’re a chicken…”

“You don’t even dare to fight 1-on-1 with a girl, if you have to beat someone, beat me…”

Eventually the angry cursing became crying and begging…

“Don’t beat him anymore…”

“I’m begging you, please stop. You’re going to beat him to death…”

“Ah—”

Jiaming could only sigh internally when he saw a normally tough Shasha all teary-eyed and crying until her voice became hoarse. If he were a regular child, then he would not have been able to suffer this beating quietly; however, Cao Dongfeng was not actually trying to beat him to death as he was not hitting any vital areas. The main question was whether he wanted to make a move in front of her or not, because he did not know how to explain it afterwards. Feeling a slight headache, he inwardly sighed again.

Jiaming had been tortured for around an hour and Shasha’s throat was already hoarse from shouting and crying. She was still tied to the chair and was slowly crawling her way towards him on her knees. The people watching this whole scene did not do anything to stop her. As Cao Dongfeng raised his shinai for another hit, with a ‘pa’, the Japanese old man reached out and grabbed his weapon, frowning as he said something. T

he Japanese translator on the side piped up, “Brother Feng, Mr. Tsukichi is saying that he can’t keep watching silently. Your torture method is not producing the most amount of pain on the target, you don’t want to prematurely maim them. To save time, he will show you how he does it.”

Cao Dongfeng’s eye lit up, and he gladly agreed, “Please let the master show the way.” He knew that the Japanese man was quite impressive, so he hurriedly moved aside. The shinai in the old Tsukichi’s hand flashed, and immediately, Jiaming felt a sharp, bone-deep pain piercing his arm.

That old man then painstakingly explained in Japanese about the amount of force used, when to stop, the flexibility of his wrist, whether it should be a heavy or light blow, while Cao Dongfeng nodded and listened raptly. Afterwards, the old man took a look at the color of the sky, then said in Japanese, “The time has come.”

He returned to Tsukichi Kaoru’s side, “The three day time limit is now over. If you still refuse to say anything, then don’t blame me for what happens now!”

When the old man had moved away, Cao Dongfeng was excited to use the knowledge he had just learned. Shasha could only quietly cry, “Please… please stop hitting him…” This, however, only spurred him on even more. After taking a couple of breaths, he deliberately turned back to face Shasha, before shouting a loud “Ah” as the shinai descended.

Pa—

The sound of this blow landing was louder than his previous hits. Jiaming’s small body shook and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, before his head drooped down. Cao Dongfeng excitedly ran up to check, “Haha, he passed out! He finally fainted…”

Stunned and feeling panicked, Shasha quietly keened, “Jiaming… Jiaming…” and tried to crawl faster towards him.

Cao Dongfeng had just ordered someone to take a bucket of water to wake Jiaming when suddenly, the old Japanese man interrupted, “Mr. Tsukichi said he wanted you to strip the Japanese girl and then…” the translator made an obscene gesture as he leered.

“Right here, where everyone can see?” Cao Dongfeng stared blankly for a moment, while his father, Cao Jinghao, who had just been observing since the beginning, also spoke up, “Mr. Tsukichi said that you can do whatever you want! Why are you still asking so many questions?!”

Cao Dongfeng rubbed his hands together. Even though he thought this was rather ridiculous, he decided to not think too much about it. That girl was extremely beautiful and not inferior to Lingjing at all. Because she was someone Mr. Tsukichi had brought, he had worked hard on getting rid of any thoughts about that girl. However, now that he had the chance, even though there was a crowd of people watching, they could be considered people he was familiar with, so it was not all that bad.

As he thought about that, he walked in front of the girl and looked at Mr. Tsukichi again. Once he got confirmation, he reached out with both hands; but just as he touched the collar of her kimono, a white light suddenly flashed in front of his eyes!

With a sharp pa—, Tsukichi Kaoru’s left hand withdrew. Cao Dongfeng was so scared that he had retreated several steps and nearly fell down in his haste to get away. In front of them, a few drops of fresh blood dripped from the wide left sleeve of Tsukichi Kaoru’s kimono. They suddenly realized that this porcelain doll of a little girl had made a move. Were it not for Mr. Tsukichi thwarting her with a hit just now, Cao Dongfeng’s neck would have been cut severely.

What weapon did she use… Mr. Tsukichi was torturing her the whole time, so she did not have any weapons on her, so… it was a fingernail?!

As he thought of this, the old Tsukichi poked him on the back with his shinai and motioned at him to move forward. The translator said on the side, “Mr. Tsukichi says not to worry, he will keep a lookout.”

“Hehe, I am grateful.”

This time, Cao Dongfeng went straight towards her and Tsukichi Kaoru tried to jump away and escape. The old man moved quickly, another “pa” sound was heard and the girl fell to the ground like a butterfly with broken wings. Her leg was revealed from under the oversized kimono and a shocking amount of welts could be seen. She still looked beautiful on the outside because she was wearing the red clothing, but the fact was that he had beaten her every day, and under the kimono, it was extremely likely her body was beaten black and blue.

Cao Dongfeng hesitated again, before continuing to reach out towards the girl. She moved, suddenly stabbing out her right hand. Cao Dongfeng quickly retreated, and another vicious swat of the shinai met her hand. This time, as the girl fell to the ground, Cao Dongfeng could see blood on her slightly trembling hand.

Deliberately looking towards the old man again, he released the breath he was holding in and then stooped down.

While this was happening, Shasha, watching the fainted Jiaming, had been slowly shuffling towards him. Her heart was clenching in pain… She had never felt like this before…

Suddenly, she saw Jiaming raise his head and then open both eyes.

She froze as she looked at Jiaming’s face, her shout stuck in her throat. His eyes were bloodshot and filled with a strong killing intent.

“Jiaming…”

She had not seen that look on him before and was so frightened, her mind went blank.

On the other side, Cao Dongfeng had pulled open Tsukichi Kaoru’s collar and revealed her body. The observing crowd let out several shocked gasps at the sight of the amount of wounds on her body. During this moment, the outer layer of the old man’s shinai suddenly shattered into pieces, and Cao Dongfeng felt a cold prick; but this time, the old man could not react as swiftly.

Cao Dongfeng was lifted up.

He was tightly grabbed by his collar from behind, and he felt the sharpness of a blade pressing onto his lower back. In front of him, the old man’s newly broken shinai had stopped right at his throat.

“Don’t move—”

“Let go!”

“Jiaming…”

During this commotion, the japanese girl, who had fallen on the ground, quietly raised her head and watched the young boy. His dagger was pressed tightly on the back of Cao Dongfeng’s waist, fresh blood slowly dripping out of the corner of his mouth as he too, had been beaten black and blue like she had been…

Then, she saw the youth smile.

“Old man… you’re not fast enough…”

—–

1 / 4  chapters of the week (next release is Monday, March 5).

Jiaming, sometimes you forget Shasha is still just a young maiden.

Also if you missed our special announcement… Ilkon and I were working on the first ebook release for Hidden Assassin 😀 Book 1 consists of prologue to chapter 40, but do know that I’ll be keeping the consistent release rate. We will get to chapter 40 eventually and you can still read this for free XD

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