Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Enslavement
Her hand went to the collar around her neck. Song Jianguo’s eyes were filled with shock and terror, and she was too preoccupied to even care about Zhang Wenda manically stroking her ear.
But in the next second, she shot Zhang Wenda a murderous glare and, like a wild animal, lunged right for him. "I’m going to kill you!!"
However, Zhang Wenda uttered a single, soft command: "Lie down." Song Jianguo immediately and obediently dropped to the ground, looking up at him with an expression of humiliation and indignant fury.
Zhang Wenda walked over, smiling as he gently patted her cheek with one hand. "Just a little heads-up," he said. "You’re completely finished. Now, come over and massage my back. Pound it lightly, gently."
Though she resisted with every fiber of her being, Song Jianguo’s body moved on its own, beyond her control.
As he enjoyed her service, watching the look on her face—a look that said she wanted to kill him but was forced to obey his every command—Zhang Wenda felt a deep sense of satisfaction. He hadn’t felt this good since he’d arrived.
Zhang Wenda heard Song Jianguo’s voice by his ear, a curse spoken through clenched teeth. "You just wait! One day I’ll break free from your control! One day! And when I do, I’ll torture you to death!"
"Oh? Tell me, how exactly will you torture me?"
"I’ll make you stand there, and I’ll start by slapping you! I’m going to take your head—"
"Slap yourself. Hard."
SLAP! A crisp slapping sound echoed through the Youth Palace.
Song Jianguo was stunned. She stood frozen in place, clutching her face.
"And then? Go on, I’m listening."
Song Jianguo bit down hard on her lip, her body trembling with rage, but she didn’t dare speak again.
’Actually, I’m not even mad,’ Zhang Wenda thought. ’I just feel like this girl is a bit of an idiot. She knows I can control her right now, so why is she still threatening me? Isn’t she just asking for a beating?’
’Then again, considering her age, it makes sense,’ Zhang Wenda mused. ’That’s right, she’s not that old. She’s completely incapable of thinking rationally.’
’But it’s precisely because she’s so young that I need to be harsh. If she’s this malicious already, what will she be like when she grows up? I have to teach her a proper lesson.’
Looking around the increasingly confined environment of the Youth Palace, Zhang Wenda knew this wasn’t the right place. He led Song Jianguo toward the model airplane room.
About ten minutes later, in a basement just outside the Youth Palace, a large clowder of cats was pacing about anxiously when they suddenly saw a curtain on the wall get pushed aside. Their master emerged from behind it, carrying that boy on her back like a horse.
"I’m a very reasonable person. I treat people the way they treat me. Do you understand your next task?" Zhang Wenda said, pinching Song Jianguo’s ear.
"I have to earn 10 yuan for you," Song Jianguo said, practically grinding her teeth.
"Mm, not too stupid then. Get to it," Zhang Wenda said with a yawn.
"Now? It’s the middle of the night!"
"Hahaha, what about it? You didn’t actually think you’d get to sleep, did you?" Zhang Wenda retorted with feigned surprise.
"Only those who don’t contribute to society get to sleep. Now hurry up and go make money."
"But I’m not like you. I’m a man of principles. How about this: whenever you’ve earned that 10 yuan is when you can go to sleep. How does that sound?"
"I don’t know how to get money," Song Jianguo said, stubbornly turning her head to the side.
"Comrade Kitty, you need to show some initiative. How can you just dump everything on your boss? What did I hire you for, then?" Zhang Wenda said in an earnest-sounding tone, then promptly closed his eyes and pretended to fall asleep.
Of course, he was only pretending. He could never fall asleep on his enemy’s back. This was a test.
"You...!" Song Jianguo started to say, disgusted, but she stopped herself. She didn’t want another slap.
She called all the cats over and asked each one for ideas on how to make money.
Half an hour later, when Zhang Wenda cracked his eyes open a sliver, he saw Song Jianguo and her cats in a small alley, catching rats.
"What do you think you’re doing? Is this your way of calling me a rat?"
Facing Zhang Wenda’s inquiry, Song Jianguo gave a stiff reply. "There’s a bounty for pest control."
After saying that, she tore the head off a rat with her bare hands.
"Not bad, not bad. Keep up the good work." Zhang Wenda went back to feigning sleep.
An all-nighter was nothing for him, but it was a different story for Song Jianguo, especially since she had to carry Zhang Wenda on her back the entire time.
By the time the sky began to lighten at dawn, Song Jianguo was so exhausted her face was pale and her legs were trembling. But even so, she didn’t utter a single word of pleading.
They had moved to a new spot by now. Zhang Wenda glanced at the spoils of their labor beside them and saw a small mountain of rat heads. "Go, buy me breakfast. I’m hungry."
Sipping freshly made soy milk, eating sizzling fried dough sticks, and watching Song Jianguo toiling away for him—Zhang Wenda was in heaven.
Just then, however, Zhang Wenda saw Song Jianguo squatting on the ground, her back hitching with silent sobs.
As soon as he walked over, Song Jianguo scrambled to her feet and pretended nothing was wrong, but he still saw the tears in the corners of her eyes.
Zhang Wenda said in a weighty, earnest tone, "Jianguo, you’re still not working hard enough. You have time to cry? Why don’t you use that time to make money?! Are you trying to slack off?"
"If you slack off, when will I ever get to drive a Bentley? No, wait, I misspoke. When will I ever get to use my Superpower?"
"I wasn’t crying!"
Song Jianguo raised the spear in her hand and viciously stabbed it into a nearby rat hole, as if venting all the frustration she felt toward Zhang Wenda on the rats.
Zhang Wenda sat back down and continued to watch her work. It wasn’t just rats, either. Song Jianguo’s cats would occasionally leap up to catch sparrows, and now a pile of sparrow heads was accumulating as well.
The surrounding cats were spreading out farther and farther, but Zhang Wenda couldn’t care less. He only needed to keep an eye on Song Jianguo, the leader of the pack.
Just as Zhang Wenda was continuing his surveillance, he saw Little Fatty run over, panting for breath.
"Haozi! There you are! You scared me to death. I was wondering where you’d gone."
Zhang Wenda was a little surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"I came looking for you! I couldn’t find you at all last night, so I came to look again as soon as I woke up."
Then he looked over at Song Jianguo in the distance. "Why is that feral kid here? She didn’t do anything to you, did she?"
"It’s fine. I won," Zhang Wenda said, sipping his soy milk as he briefly explained what had happened.
After hearing the story, Fatty said excitedly, "So does that mean she has to do whatever you tell her to do?"
"Yup."
Pan Dongzi clenched his fist. "Awesome! We’ll never have to do our own homework again! We can just make her do it all."
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