The numbness quickly turned into a burning pain, and I couldn't help but let out a muffled groan.
My hands, which had been resting on the glass cover, clenched together tightly on their own.
The burning sensation grew stronger and stronger.
I shut my eyes tightly, gritted my teeth hard, but still couldn't stop the groans escaping from my throat.
My nails dug almost into my palms.
Just as I was about to scream out in agony, the burning sensation suddenly stopped.
It took a long while before I finally opened my eyes, trembling, and looked at the people in front of me.
The three of them were standing beside a machine, all jotting down some data.
After a brief exchange between them, the old man pressed the remote in my direction again.
My heart clenched, and my body was instantly engulfed in numbness once more—only for it to turn into searing pain in the very next moment.
This time it was even more intense than before, as if I were engulfed in a sea of fire.
The pain consumed my entire body, and the only sound I could make was a wretched scream.
This time it went on for so long that I nearly lost consciousness before the unbearable torment gradually faded.
I collapsed weakly against the glass cover.
I wanted to squat down, but there was no space—it was too cramped.
Forcing my eyes open with difficulty, I saw the three of them still recording data at the console with expressionless faces.
Just as the old man was about to press the remote again, the middle-aged woman beside him stopped him.
I couldn't hear what she said, but from the old man's mouth I caught the words: "Waste of time."
Then, the three of them turned back to discuss the data on the console.
Not long after, the old man glanced at me and pressed the remote again.
At that moment, I truly wished I were dead.
That damn old man was determined to torment me to death today!
Another round of excruciating pain surged through me.
I bit my lips until they bled just to keep from passing out.
After watching the monitor for a while, the three of them all showed looks of disappointment.
The old man gave me a couple of looks, then gestured to the two guards by the cylindrical chamber to open the automatic glass door.
The chamber I was in opened as well, and my body went limp, immediately tumbling out through the opening.
Oddly enough, the impact of hitting the floor cleared some of the fog from my mind.
I heard the old man tell the two guards: "Tell Dr. Bruno this woman's condition is unclear. Bring her in for testing once a day. Most likely she's useless trash. Tomorrow morning, test that little brat instead."
Hearing this, my heart sank.
They were going to bring Xiao Hu in tomorrow?
Thinking about the unbearable burning I had just endured inside that chamber… were they planning to put Xiao Hu through the same torture?
And I—I'd have to come back for this 'examination' every single day?
Which really meant being tortured like this every day?
What kind of twisted examination was this?!
The two men answered and dragged me up, one on each side.
My skin, still burning from the ordeal, screamed with pain the moment they touched me, twisting my face in agony.
As they half-dragged, half-pulled me toward the exit, I collapsed again.
Their impatience was clear—one of them even kicked me viciously in the stomach and spat, "Useless trash!"
Although my skin didn't look much different from usual, after enduring that burning it felt like it was riddled with needles.
Every light touch drove them deeper into my body.
Having fallen and then been kicked, I couldn't make a sound beyond sharp gasps of pain.
When they finally dumped me back into the glass room, I lay motionless on the ground just like the others before me—partly because of the pain, partly because I simply had no strength left at all.
Xiao Hu screamed and tried to come to me the moment I came back, but when he touched me and heard my sharp gasp, he immediately pulled his hand back, pouty and hurt.
"Sister, what's wrong?" he asked.
I watched the two men walk away and forced myself to answer Xiao Hu.
"I'm okay, just tired. Rest a bit and don't touch me for now, okay?"
He obediently nodded, sat against the wall on the other side, and stared at me with that innocent, worried look.
It warmed me.
I slipped the small folding scissors I'd hidden into my pocket.
When I fell outside earlier, I'd landed beside a small desk and the scissors had fallen to the floor.
While those two men were kicking me, I'd somehow snatched the scissors into my hand.
No matter what, I told myself, I couldn't let them take Xiao Hu tomorrow.
He was too small to endure what they did, and who knew whether those perverse "exams" were just a pretext for torture.
If they tried to take him again, I'd fight with everything I had.
Lying there with my face pressed into my pocket, I must have dozed off.
When I woke up groggy, I saw Xiao Hu curled up in a tiny ball beside me—probably afraid to touch me after I'd told him not to, so he'd slept next to me instead.
I tried to move and found the stinging on my skin had eased some.
I pushed myself up, picked him up, and felt how cold his little hands were.
I unzipped my jacket and wrapped him in it, then rested my head against the glass and began to survey the room with a sidelong glance.
Only three people in white coats were in the hall now, leaning with their heads and dozing.
The door was about ten meters straight ahead of the glass room, but many pieces of equipment blocked the path.
I scanned between the machines for a quick escape route.
If I could just get across that stretch, the door would be easy—no keypad, just a twist of the handle.
The big unknown was what waited outside.
If I could manage it, I wanted to try to get Shen Feng and the others out too—I hoped they hadn't suffered as I had.
Just then the door of the room I'd been taken to last night swung open.
The two mask-clad figures came out like ghosts.
Seeing those gas masks, I had the instant urge to stab the scissors into their faces.
As they drew closer, my heart began racing.
Thinking back to last night, my blood ran cold.
To say I wasn't afraid would be a lie—the pain had been worse than a hundred roller-coaster drops.
Luckily they weren't after Xiao Hu and me this time, but the two men who'd been taken yesterday.
The moment those two were dragged out, they began to thrash wildly, their faces contorted with terror.
They shook their heads and fought to break free, but after spending hours in that room yesterday they were nearly limp—no matter how hard they struggled it was useless.
The two masked men hauled them back into that same locked room like reapers taking their prey.
After all the commotion, Xiao Hu woke up too.
He stared blankly through the glass for a long while.
I held him tight, one hand pressed against the pocket holding the scissors.
We both kept our eyes fixed on that door.
All the while, I kept whispering to him: "Don't be afraid. There's nothing to be scared of. Sister can handle them."
After a while, I couldn't even tell whether I was comforting him or myself.
A long, long time later, those two people were finally carried back out of that room.
Unlike before, when they'd been dumped motionless onto the floor of the glass chamber, this time they were both convulsing non-stop.
The three people from inside the room came out as well, and the others in white coats gathered around the glass chamber.
Everyone just stared, stunned, at the two convulsing figures thrashing about inside, their mouths foaming heavily... exactly the same as those who had died before.
Finally, when the two stopped moving, the old man shook his head and said something into the walkie-talkie pinned to his chest.
Before long, a few members of the T-squad came in.
They opened the glass chamber and, without blinking, each drove a blade into the heads of the two, then carried their corpses out.
The moment I saw them foaming at the mouth, I covered Xiao Hu's eyes—terrified the scene would remind him of how Brother Qian had died.
After the T-squad left, the old man and the other two returned to the room, while the rest went back to their places in the hall.
Xiao Hu and I huddled inside the glass chamber, hearts pounding, afraid that at any moment someone would come out of that room and take us away.
In my panic, I managed to endure until lunchtime.
But just as the food was handed to us, the door of that room opened again.
Immediately, those two familiar figures stepped out.
My heart clenched.
I quickly set Xiao Hu down beside me, shoved a piece of bread into his hand, and told him to sit and eat while I slipped my hand into my pocket and gripped the scissors tight...
This was the only chance to escape.
Sure enough, this time their target was us—since we were the only two left in the D-zone's glass chambers.
Just like before, they came over and opened the door.
One of them bent down and barked at Xiao Hu:
"Brat, come here."
Xiao Hu paused, bread still in hand, and looked up at him, confused.
That man clearly had no patience.
When Xiao Hu didn't respond, he cursed under his breath and reached his hand inside to grab him.
At that instant, I clutched the scissors in my pocket, seized the opportunity, and the moment he leaned his head in—I whipped out the scissors and drove them straight at him!
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