"I'll take you home."
Sienna Johnson's heart skipped a beat. If she was still hoping to run into a good person just moments ago, she now faced the cruel reality.
This man offered to take her home, but he didn't even ask where she lived?!
"Come on, I'll drive you home!"
"..."
"Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you," the man coaxed, extending a hand to her. The man's hands were very hairy, leading Sienna Johnson to wonder if he was from the Middle East. How else could he have so much body hair?
"Well... thank you then." Sienna Johnson extended her hand, placing her small hand in the man's palm. As she stepped forward, her eyes, which were previously pitiable and helpless, suddenly flashed with ruthless determination. Her knife was drawn and aimed at the man's chest.
The man, taken aback, just managed to avoid the strike. Sienna Johnson was slapped hard by him, falling to the ground. Her ears rang incessantly, blocking out all sound. Then, the dagger she had used to attack fell to the ground, trapped under the man's foot.
The man, Charlie Parker, squatted down, gripped her chin, and grinned coldly. "I kindly offered to take you home, and you tried to kill me?"
Sienna Johnson responded, "You didn't even ask me where I live. Don't tell me you forgot to ask." I'm not a fool!
Charlie Parker was taken aback, then started laughing. "They say pretty women don't have brains. You seem to be an exception."
"Being beautiful is inherently dangerous for a woman. If she isn't a little smarter, is she supposed to count the money for her own captors after being sold?"
It's just like a rose. Roses are beautiful, and everyone wants to pick one. If it weren't for their thorns, which occasionally prick the hands of careless pickers and make them cautious, roses would have probably all been plucked by now.
"What do you want to do with me?" Sienna Johnson did not want to die without knowing why.
"You are very beautiful. So, a lot of people will want you."
Although Sienna Johnson tried to remain calm, she was now panicking. "You want to sell me!"
"Rest assured, I will find you a good buyer and let you enjoy endless riches!" The man patted her face, his smile vanishing. Then he gave a ferocious warning, "You're a smart woman; you should know what you should and shouldn't do! No woman who has fallen into my, Charlie Parker's, hands has ever escaped. So, put away your little tricks! If you annoy me, I'll have no choice but to cruelly break this beautiful flower of yours."
Sienna Johnson was disheartened. Suddenly, the thought of jumping into the sea—to either drown or be eaten by a shark—flashed through her mind.
"This dagger is a good thing."
Charlie Parker picked up the dagger from the ground and tested its sharpness. He plucked a strand of Sienna Johnson's hair, blew on it gently, and as the hair drifted over the blade's edge, it instantly split in two. Indeed, it was a sharp blade.
No man dislikes knives and guns. Charlie Parker took the dagger for himself.
Sienna Johnson was on Charlie Parker's speedboat. He seemed to think she posed no threat, as he didn't even bother to tie her up. All Charlie Parker said was, "There are many sharks in this sea. Every year, they eat a few people."
So, he was worried she might jump into the sea!
Sienna Johnson, however, refused to jump into the sea. As long as there was a glimmer of hope, she would fight for it! This was the survival philosophy she had learned from a young age; otherwise, she would have died countless times already.
"I'm really lucky! I came out to watch the sunrise and do some fishing, and I ran into a stunning beauty!" Charlie Parker looked particularly smug.
Sienna Johnson's expression remained unchanged as she looked at the damaged speedboat they had left behind. Her heart pounded with anxiety; earlier, while Charlie Parker wasn't paying attention, she had used the blood from her cut hand to write several things on that boat: the two characters forming the name 'Changping', the Chinese word for 'Help!', and also 'Help me!' in English.
Who could rescue me?
...
When the Sixth Master and his men came chasing, they spotted the drifting boat from afar. Thinking that he would soon catch that despicable woman, the Sixth Master felt both excited and angry. Once I find her, the first thing I'll do is beat her soundly.
"Go faster!" the Sixth Master urged.
"Yes!"
Soon, their boat reached the other. But the small speedboat was empty; there wasn't a trace of Sienna Johnson. The Sixth Master jumped onto the abandoned speedboat and looked around. It wasn't large, offering no place for her to hide.
"Where is she?" Xavier Young asked, perplexed.
"Could it be that she saw us coming and jumped into the sea?" Aaron Faber said emotionlessly. He then added, without any change in expression, "There are many sharks in this sea. If she jumped in, she'd be dead. Not very smart of her."
"Sixth Master, look, there are words on the deck!" Walter Klein was the first to see the blood-written words, partially covered by a hat. "Help?... Is Mai in danger?"
Everyone stared at the bloody writing. When the Sixth Master saw it, his expression darkened. She's injured? Wasn't she supposed to be very smart? How could she be in danger when she managed to bewitch me and over 15 of my men?
"What are those two characters next to it?" Walter Klein asked.
Xavier Young, remembering Mai was Raelnian, said, "Could it be Raelnian script? Is Mai trying to tell us something?"
Since this incident, everyone had stopped calling Mai 'Sister-in-law'. The Sixth Master had always been ruthless; he either didn't act, or if he did, he would eradicate the problem completely. After what Mai had done, he wouldn't spare her.
They all looked at Aaron Faber, the most educated among them with a PhD. "Aaron, do you recognize what this says?"
Before Aaron Faber could speak, the Sixth Master said, "It's 'Changping'!"
"What's 'Changping'?" one of the men asked.
"I don't know either," the Sixth Master admitted. He recognized the two Han characters that formed the name, but he couldn't guess what Sienna Johnson meant by it.
"What script is this?" Aaron Faber asked, pointing to the name.
"Chinese characters," the Sixth Master replied.
"Ah." The Sixth Master was of Chinese descent from Abyanabad, so it wasn't strange for him to know Chinese.
"Sixth Master, now that we've lost her, should we continue the pursuit or not?" Xavier Young asked. Seeing the Sixth Master didn't respond, he continued, "Mai seems to be in danger. If we go rescue her, wouldn't that be exactly what she wants? Let's just stay out of her affairs and let her fend for herself."
The Sixth Master scoffed. "That woman is as cunning as a fox! How do you know this isn't her trick? Writing these words to deliberately confuse us, making us misunderstand so we give up the pursuit!" With a swift leap, the Sixth Master jumped onto their own speedboat.
"Really? Were we tricked by that woman again?" Xavier Young, being a bit slow-witted, still couldn't quite grasp the convoluted situation.
"Aaron, what do you think?"
Aaron Faber replied without looking up, "We need to see her if she's alive, and her body if she's dead. What kind of man is the Sixth Master? After being humiliated like this, he's bound to want his revenge!"