"Don't answer!" he said fiercely, changing his tone. Jiang Jianhuan could only communicate with him with her eyes. She nodded pleadingly and obediently.
The man was somewhat reassured, and he freed one hand to take his phone out of her pocket. The caller ID on the screen showed two letters.
su
"Who is this?" He silenced the phone, his eyes calm and his expression unreadable. Jiang Jianhuan, finally able to speak, swallowed hard.
“A friend, I arranged to meet him at home tonight.”
The man stared at the screen, lost in thought, until his phone stopped vibrating and automatically disconnected. Only then did he look up again, fixing Jiang Jianhuan with a deep, unfathomable gaze.
The atmosphere was tense, the air filled with the smell of rotting fallen leaves. In the dim and quiet woods, Jiang Jianhuan was pinned to a tree trunk with his hands tied behind his back by a strange man, trapped there.
She could clearly hear her heart pounding violently in her chest, and her breathing became shallow and almost inaudible.
The person in front of me seemed to be contemplating some possibility, and as time ticked by, he appeared to be about to make a decision.
The phone in my palm vibrated again.
"Buzz—Buzz—"
A series of vibrations and a cold white light flashing on the screen illuminated their faces. Suddenly, his eyes sharpened, he hung up the phone, and dragged Jiang Jianhuan deeper into the woods.
He turned off his phone, tossed it into the distant jungle, and it disappeared with a faint sound.
Jiang Jianhuan's heart almost stopped beating.
Her mouth was covered again, and she was pulled and tugged while stumbling. At that moment, she realized the vast difference in strength between men and women.
Jiang Jianhuan sobbed, struggling desperately to back away, trying to slow him down. However, the next second, she was almost lifted into the air, her feet dragging on the ground, while the man pulled her forward unimpeded.
This area is sparsely populated, especially at night when it is quiet and the woods are almost completely dark.
The man threw her to the ground, pressed his body down on her, knelt on either side with his legs spread apart, took off her thin cardigan, twisted it into a strip, and used it to tie her mouth shut.
He started tearing off the rest of her clothes.
Jiang Jianhuan's hair stood on end, he was on the verge of suffocation, and his will to survive reached its peak at this moment.
She pushed off the ground with her legs and twisted her body desperately to avoid his slightly damp and sweaty hands.
The man's movements slowed down slightly, but his purpose remained unchanged; in fact, he increased the force of his movements, showing a sense of recklessness.
Jiang Jianhuan's T-shirt was ripped open viciously, revealing her fair and rounded shoulders, which shone brightly in the moonlight.
The person on top of him was breathing noticeably heavier and more rapidly, his eyes were even darker, and something else seemed to have appeared on his face.
Jiang Jianhuan knew this very well.
She stopped struggling, breathing heavily and silently. Her hands, bound behind her back, touched a small pebble on the ground.
It's really small; when you close your fingers, they're completely enveloped in your palm.
My skin ached a little from the sharp edges.
The man's movements became increasingly hurried, as if he had lost his mind. Just as he placed his hand on Jiang Jianhuan's waist, her wrist twitched slightly, she held her breath, and stared intently into his eyes.
At the same time, a noise came from the edge of the woods, and the light of a flashlight shone through the thick trees.
A few rays of light pierced the darkness, like some kind of signal. Jiang Jianhuan heard the person on top of her curse softly, then release her and escape into the depths of the other side of the woods.
Jiang Jianhuan opened his eyes wide in confusion, his fingers loosened slightly, and a stone rolled out.
Just as she finished tidying her clothes and stood up from the ground, a flashlight beam pierced her eyes. She shielded her eyes with her hand, and the red, swollen finger marks on her fair wrist were clearly visible.
Su Mo's pupils dilated, and her heartbeat seemed to stop abruptly.
"Are you alright?" He held her tightly in his arms, suppressing the thousand words surging in his heart, as well as the overwhelming panic, and finally asked only one simple question.
Jiang Jianhuan nodded silently, then, remembering something, suppressed a sob in his throat and spoke quickly.
"I was followed by a man and dragged here. He just ran that way—"
Su Mo came with the security guards from the community. They were behind her, and after hearing what she said, they immediately nodded and followed her.
"Give me your phone," Jiang Jianhuan whispered to him. Su Mo didn't ask any questions, he just handed it over.
Jiang Jianhuan called the police.
She recounted the entire incident, including all the details. Su Mo's hands, which were hanging by her sides, clenched unconsciously. Her heart felt heavy, her mind was buzzing, her back felt cold, and she broke out in a cold sweat.
"How did you find me?" Jiang Jianhuan asked him, looking up after hanging up the phone. Su Mo's voice was dry.
“After you hung up the phone and turned it off, I was worried, so I checked your location and found that you were in this forest area and hadn’t moved. I felt something was wrong, so I called the security guards to come out and look for you.”
"Thankfully..." Jiang Jianhuan buried her face in his shoulder, her nose stinging, and her eyes uncontrollably welling up with tears. The grievances and fear she had been suppressing finally surged out.
Her shoulders slumped, trembling, and she clutched Su Mo's clothes, sobbing softly.
"If you had come any later, I don't know what might have happened..."
The stone might hit the man in the eye, and he would give up. Or perhaps he would fail and become even more furious.
Fortunately, Su Mo arrived.
Jiang Jianhuan slept very restlessly that night, her sleep fragmented and filled with nightmares almost all night. Su Mo also stayed up all night, keeping watch by her side, the room light on all night long.
He changed his flight at the last minute and arrived two hours early, intending to surprise her, but found the house empty.