Chapter 190 Sorry, I'm late
The dungeon was a dark and scary place.
Dark, cold, wet, dirty, sinful and depressing despair. These were the true and permanent portrayal of this place.
As Gu Xiran ran on the way, he had already imagined countless possibilities in his heart. His heart was in a mess. He was terrified and scared to the extreme. There was also faintly a desire and impulse to kill someone.
If Shu Huan was really in there and wasn't safe and sound, he had no doubt that he would immediately find the person who harmed her. In the most bloody and cruel way in the world, he would let the one hardly stay alive but also unable to die! Although this bloodthirsty impulse was strong, compared to his hope for Shu Huan being safe, it wasn't worth mentioning. As long as Shu Huan could be safe, he had nothing else to ask for!
With complicated and fierce emotions, he rushed to the entrance of the dungeon. Gu Xiran was surprised to see a bailiff with a tattered food basket in his hand. He (bailiff) paced back and forth with anxiety and hesitation, while the dungeon gate behind him was slightly open.
The order of clearing the city had been passed down a long time ago. There were actually still people in the city!
Gu Xiran was more sentimental than rational at this moment. He didn’t think deeply at all. His intuitive reaction to this bailiff was to repel. He (GXR) felt that he (bailiff) was very suspicious. He immediately stopped and shouted as he gasped, "What are you doing here?"
The bailiff was startled by his (GXR) shouting. The basket fell on the ground, and immediately a few obscure-colored steamed corn breads mixed with vegetables and grains rolled out of it. "This…this little one is here to deliver food…."
As he spoke, he chased to pick up the steamed corn breads. His outstretched hand trembled a bit and he didn’t dare to raise his head to look at Gu Xiran.
Such a flustered behavior, there was somewhat a meaning of no 300 silver liang buried here. It was naturally more suspicious. However, Gu Xiran was in no mood at the moment to waste time and attention on people who had nothing to do with Shu Huan. So, when he saw Du Qiu caught up, he took over the key to the dungeon handed to him. When he was about to go inside, he said, "This man looks suspicious. Keep watch over him!"No 300 silver liang buried here: a guilty person gives himself away by conspicuously protesting his innocence/to reveal what one intends to hide.
Du Qiu didn’t decline or accept it. He casted a sidelong glance at the bailiff and crossed his arm in front of the dungeon gate.
At this time, it was best to let Gu Xiran go in alone because no one knew what was going on there….
As soon as Gu Xiran stepped into the dungeon, he felt dark in front of him. He stood on the spot for a moment before he could vaguely identify the road ahead, but a strong, disgusting smell had already flown over.
Shu Huan, the Shu Huan who he had been looking for, could actually be locked up in a place like this?!
His heart seemed to be tightly held by an invisible hand. There was a pain that felt like it ripped him apart. What he felt even more was a heartache for the grievances that Shu Huan may had suffered. Hence, he couldn’t help but clench his fist. He felt a thin layer of sweat in his hand.
He slowly took a step forward and then took another step.
That he walked so slowly wasn’t because it was dark here but that his mood had jumped out of desperation and became extremely contradictory. He wanted to rush in immediately, find Shu Huan and tightly hold her, but he also hoped that she wouldn’t be inside at all, in such a place that wasn’t worthy of her at all and that she hadn't suffered any torture and harsh treatment that would cause his heart to ache.
No matter how long the road was, no matter how slow one walked, there would be a time when one reached the end.
When there was a glimmer of light in front of him and a faint uproar, Gu Xiran suddenly heard a scream. It startled him so much that his heart jumped, and suddenly, he was drenched in cold sweat.
Fortunately, the shrill howl was miserable and tragic, but it was from a rough male voice. He couldn’t help but quicken his pace and rushed to the light ahead of him. However, when he ran to the cell and saw the scene in front of him, his whole body froze.
There were three or four cells in front of him. Half of it was in the shadow and half of it outside the shadow.
The prisoners in the cell seemed to be rioting. They clung to the iron fence and some even wanted to squeeze their heads through the narrow fences. This, of course, was impossible. So after those prisoners' faces who were dirty and sloppy already, were pressed by the fence, it became more and more ferocious and horrific. They also continued to shout that sounded like the sounds of primitive animal nature, revealing a near abnormal madness.
There was only one direction in which their eyes were glued to and that was what caused them to be extremely excited…
The innermost cell!
Gu Xiran only felt that his blood flushed straight to his face and his heartbeat seemed to have stopped completely. He moved extremely mechanically two steps forward. He wanted to find an angle where he could see the cell but was afraid that he was already late, and couldn’t save Shu Huan.
Outside the cell, the dim oil lamp suddenly brightened and lit up the place.
Gu Xiran held his breath and saw a scene that was completely beyond his imagination and shocked him to speechlessness…
In the cell, six or seven prisoners lay on the ground and were tied tightly by a rope into a meatball. Some people’s buttocks were pressed against the other’s face, and some people’s feet almost poked into someone’s mouth. In short, everyone's limbs and bodies were twisted out of shape. They were either groaning or howling from time to time.
Where was Shu Huan?
With her back to him, leaning unscathed against the cell door, she was playing with a sharp-edged dagger in her hand. After he moved another two steps, he could see her small side profile from another angle. The corners of her mouth were slightly raised, as if containing the smile while she watched Shang Xin kicked and punched…
Right, Shang Xin…
Not sure whether this maid was provoked or not. Then he recalled her (SX) tragic experience of the past. She (SX) wasn’t the same as Shu Huan. At this moment, her hair was scattered and drenched in sweat, she was beating and kicking aimlessly and ruthlessly at that meatball (group of prisoners) as if treating these six or seven prisoners as human sandbags. From time to time, she hit a vital part. So, Gu Xiran could hear several screams that were similar to the kind of sharp howling he had just heard before he came in.
Wiping the sweat!
It wasn’t Shang Xin wiping her sweat, but Gu Xiran was wiping his sweat!
Only heaven knew how much effort and perseverance he had put in these very few steps! And when he saw this stunning scene before him, how much effort it caused him and how much perseverance he had used to not lose his voice in ecstasy.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to scream from joy, but that he didn’t want to make a sudden noise and scare Shu Huan.
Somehow, there was a tingly feeling in the nasal cavity that continued to spread upward, all the way to the eyes. This long-lost experience hadn't happened ever since he was seven years old.
Gu Xiran slightly narrowed his eyes, raised the corner of his lips, and hoarsely said, "Sorry, I'm late…"
There was a lot of noise around, it was all those crazy prisoners making an uproar and shouting.
Shu Huan saw that Shang Xin looked tired and was about to call her (SX) to rest before she continued to beat the prisoners again. However, she suddenly heard a voice that she couldn’t forget in her life, a voice that she could still recognize at once, even if it was mixed with all kinds of noise…
Gu Xiran?!
She was first stunned, then rapture rushed to her heart. But before she could turn around, a pair of hands crossed the fence and hugged tightly around her waist. Subsequently, there was a warm breath in her neck.
Gu Xiran bit her ear and said, "Let me hug you first to let me believe that I really have found you…."