Torture

“So that means the survivor camp is hiding in the industrial zone?”

“What do you mean hiding? They’ve occupied the entire industrial zone. According to their theory, the whole of Liyfeng County is their territory. We’re the ones hiding.”

“For me, they’re just hiding in the industrial zone.”

Ren Anhua didn’t keep using those teaching videos to torment Tang Yunxuan. She lay on his bed, fiddling with a set of M&G rulers he owned. The feel of them gave her a rare sense of nostalgia. Back in high school, she’d dealt with these things every day, but once she started working, she rarely even touched a pen anymore.

A straight ruler spun nimbly between her fingers, occasionally twirling into little flourishes. Becoming a powered person had greatly improved her control over her body. Abilities weren’t just about granting one special power—in her experience, being a powered person was more like a higher-level evolution of humanity. The evolution showed in many ways: organ function, physical strength, tissue resilience, and bodily control.

A powered person’s body underwent a comprehensive upgrade across all aspects. So even though Ren Anhua had never practiced pen-spinning tricks, she could still play countless patterns with that flat ruler. Of course, the most obvious upgrade was still the energy flow enhancement.

But although an ability could strengthen every aspect of the body, the boost had its limits. Take her for example—her body had grown much stronger thanks to her ability, but even so, she couldn’t defeat someone like Chen Yi.

Yet if Ren Anhua used the energy flow enhancement—a skill only powered people could wield—it was different. The strength it granted had nothing to do with raw physique. Even her current body could hold immense power, with the durability to handle it.

She had almost fully adapted to Xiao Shan’s healing ability now. Purely in terms of physical fitness after energy flow enhancement, she had already surpassed her former third-tier self. Still, healing wasn’t an offensive ability. Measured on the fourth tier, it lacked the explosive edge of her old high-temperature ability.

Even so, the strength of the fourth tier was enough to let her tear down that counterfeit “survivor camp” with ease. As long as there wasn’t another fourth-tier inside, the place posed no real threat to her.

So calling them “hiding” wasn’t a problem at all, not in Ren Anhua’s eyes.

The only reason she stayed here gathering information was to make sure she didn’t miss a single person in that camp.

For someone to use her name to commit crimes like this—it reminded Ren Anhua of those punks who once treated her like a gang boss and joined her group. They loved to pull stunts like this. She knew the pattern so well that a few possible culprits came to mind.

But she wasn’t sure it was really them. She couldn’t even remember most of their names. To her, such people had been nothing more than ashes waiting to be burned—hardly worth remembering. But with so many incidents, some fish had slipped through the net. She couldn’t catch and burn every single one. If those punks reacted fast and fled Pingding County, never to return, then she had no way to deal with them.

This survivor camp with its “boss Ren Anhua” fit that pattern perfectly. Draw a line from Pingding County to the city, then extend it, and you’d hit Liyfeng County. Rugged mountains, long roads, and a dangerous city in between—setting up there under her name, they truly had nothing to fear from her pursuit.

If not for her own accident that drove her here, that bunch of scum might’ve enjoyed themselves for quite some time.

So the pink-haired girl lay on the bed, idly toying with the ruler while casually collecting bits of information about the “camp” from Tang Yunxuan. Her posture was natural and lazy, asking whatever came to mind. Tang Yunxuan, the host, instead sat stiffly upright in his chair. Her presence in his room left him feeling extremely uneasy.

Those stocking-wrapped legs swayed in front of him, the loose hem of her sweatshirt lifting now and then, delivering a tormenting allure to the adolescent boy. Yet because of the dim light, each glance revealed only shadows, leaving him unable to see anything clearly, gnawing at his heart.

What troubled him even more was that this unbelievably cute person was supposed to be a boy. That made it harder for him to express the reactions a girl might have triggered. Tang Yunxuan insisted he was straight, that he must never have stray thoughts about another male. But this self-proclaimed Ren Xiaoan completely overturned his understanding of the word “male.”

The sweatshirt clung to her body under its own weight, tracing graceful curves that made him question her true s*x. Yet his memory of what he’d seen in the bathroom lingered without room for doubt. He felt his inner boundaries blurring.

“Xiaoan, are you really a guy?” In the middle of their discussion about the survivor camp, Tang Yunxuan suddenly blurted this out.

“Of course I’m a guy.” Ren Anhua felt a stab of irritation at such a question. After everything she’d gone through, this kid still doubted her? Did he not realize what it had cost her? She’d been struggling to stand upright using anti-gravity fields just to manage peeing, and he still doubted her?

“But why do you wear clothes like that?”

“What’s wrong with these clothes? Isn’t this a men’s sweatshirt?” Ren Anhua had thought this piece she’d taken from Lu Shanshui was her clearest proof of being male. She hadn’t expected it to be his first reason for doubt.

Looking at her matter-of-fact expression, Tang Yunxuan wanted badly to say, “Men’s sweatshirts don’t usually come with shoulder-baring short skirts inside.” But he held back—there was something more important he had to ask.

“And those socks. Don’t tell me those are men’s thigh-highs. And I can’t see an Adam’s apple on you. Honestly, I’m starting to think you’re lying. I still don’t know how you even stood to pee in the bathroom.” The more he thought, the more suspicious he grew. Deep down, he desperately hoped this pink-haired one was a girl—because he really didn’t want to admit he might be bending.

“That’s… because I like them. They’re comfortable, alright?” Ren Anhua didn’t lie there—she did like the stockings, and they were comfortable.

Of course, the real reason was that her legs were too sensitive now. Without the tentacle stockings, it might cause big problems. But since she couldn’t take them off anyway, she wore them guiltlessly.

“As for the Adam’s apple, that’s just the result of those perverted powered people’s experiments. They only made me look like a girl. In reality, I’m a guy. I’m really twenty-five years old.” The best lies were ones mixed with truth, and Ren Anhua finally had a reasonable explanation for her identity.

“But why would they…”

“Don’t ask. The answer’s just: they’re perverts. Anyway, I’m a guy. That’s all you need to know.” She cut off his string of questions.

Faced with such stubborn reasoning, Tang Yunxuan was left speechless. Yet the dangerous allure she radiated still made him restless. If she was a guy, then why lie lazily on his bed like that? Didn’t she know what kind of impact that had on a teenage boy’s mind?

He stood up, went to the bed, and hauled the lazy bundle of pink hair upright. He sat her on the edge of the bed, pushed her legs together, and placed her hands properly at her sides.

“If you’re a guy, then sit properly like one. Don’t sprawl on my bed anymore. I can’t take it. For the sake of my straight orientation, I beg you, ancestor, just sit up straight.” Finally, unable to endure it, Tang Yunxuan spoke his true feelings.

Confronted with such honesty, Ren Anhua was left a little embarrassed.

Luckily, Chen Yi’s voice arrived to break the awkwardness. A series of knocks echoed at the door.

“Dinner’s ready. Tang Yunxuan, if you come late, there’ll be nothing left. And Xiaoan, you’re in there too, right? Come out with him. Shimu’s waiting for you outside.”

The high school boy reacted like he’d been granted freedom. Even before Chen Yi finished, he had already rushed to open the door.

“Let’s go, let’s go, dinner time.”

Ren Anhua wasn’t sure if he was really that hungry or just eager to escape her. Either way, she followed. After all, food was essential, and she had handed in resources too.