Fake Mask

"Just because you have shown me this does not mean that you are correct," the man told Peng Mingzhu. "What if you have tampered with this to make me believe you? What if this does not actually tell me anything but lies? I cannot believe you so easily like this."

"You don't need to," Peng Mingzhu replied as she took back the DNA tester. "We'll be heading back to the estate to prove to you that she is a fake. Oh, wait. Apologies, I meant, a liar."

"You know that both of them are bad connotations, right?" the man asked with a pissed face.

"Doesn't matter," Peng Mingzhu responded back with a careless tone. "Let's head to the estate now."

"Okay," Wei Kangnuan listened to her and in a quick moment the group landed at his estate though the man was still in chains due to this prisoner instatement.

While the group continued walking into the room where Kang Huian was thrown at, the man started sweating for some reason.

He was unknown to the reason why he was breaking out in cold sweat, but he did not have a good feeling. It was as though his body knew that he was about to face something bad, something he did not want to see in the least or at all.

"This is where I had my men place Kang Huian after we left to rest yesterday," Wei Kangnuan informed the group, but mostly for Peng Mingzhu since he really did not care for the prisoner.

"Let's enter then," Peng Mingzhu announced before instantly opening the door to enter the room.

At just the moment that Peng Mingzhu entered the room, Kang Huian had already loosened her tied up hands. Unfortunately, her loosened hands were once again tied up tightly by Peng Mingzhu, this time, so tight that she could not move her hands at all, but not so tight that no blood could flow.

"An An," the man softly called out.

"Guang," Kang Huian called out in return with tears in her eyes. "Dear, they've tied me up. I don't know why. I don't know what I've done wrong."

When the man heard the teary voice of Kang Huian, he really wanted to untie her. However, at this moment, he did not have the power to do as he wanted when he himself was currently tied up.

Despite seeing the heartwarming scene of the man and Kang Huian crying together, Peng Mingzhu did not care and stared down at her face without a mouth cover because she already managed to pull it off long ago when her hands were loose.

"What are you doing?" Kang Huian asked, a hint of fear apparent in her voice.

Turning to the man, Peng Mingzhu said, "I'll be pouring something on her. Don't freak out if she cries out in pain. It's not my fault that I've decided to use something painful instead of painless. After all, someone like her is undeserving of kindness."

"What do you plan to do?" the man asked with a frown.

Peng Mingzhu did not answer, but instead lightly smiled as she stared at the man before she got something out from her sleeve.

"What is that?" the man questioned with wide eyes when he saw Peng Mingzhu take out a big pail of unknown liquid from her sleeves.

The man was too shocked to even ask anything else. Not only did Peng Mingzhu take out something that did not fit in her sleeves, she also took out an unknown substance that had a strong acidic smell, something that was similar to lemon.

"Citric acid," Peng Mingzhu briefly answered as she stared at the strong red color of the acid.

Originally, the citric acid was not red, but after putting in a mixture of universal indicators, the color became red to indicate its pH level.

"Acid?!" the man shouted in shock. "You plan to throw acid on a human?!"

Sighing, Peng Mingzhu assured, "You don't have to worry. This is absolutely harmless. It's only lemon juice."

"Then, why the heck is it so red?!" the man continued to speak in a loud voice, almost a shout from his surprise.

"We added another liquid so that we could easily tell how acidic the citric acid was," Peng Mingzhu explained with a patient voice.

But then…

Her voice was patient, but her actions were not.

Peng Mingzhu threw the pail full of citric acid at Kang Huian.

Normally, citric acid would not harm a human. After all, it was just lemon juice. However, to people who were wearing fake skin masks, the acid would roughly peel off the mask and cause harm to the wearer.

There were multiple reasons and one of the biggest reasons was that in order to attach the fake skin mask onto the human face, the wearer had to use adhesive. Without one, the mask would slip off due to sweat or water and in the case that the mask was not wet before fitting onto the human face, there would be harsh lines appearing due to the edges of the fake skin mask itself.

Another reason was that depending on the adhesive used, there were different cons and pros. There were some adhesives that were repellant to citric acid, but there were also some that were not repellant to citric acid.

It was unfortunate for Kang Huian that her adhesive was weak against citric acid...and that Peng Mingzhu was merely playing a joke by using citric acid.

Yes…

She was playing a joke because she originally intended to use a special water that was made from a combination of water and glue remover. Of course, the water she intended to use was not harmful against human skin and this water was only made because Peng Mingzhu and her team of scientists just happened to get something stuck on their faces once upon a time.

Not only that, Peng Mingzhu actually thought that the mask adhesive that Kang Huian used was resistant to citric acid because according to one of the books in Verbatim Bookstore, the most commonly used adhesive to attach fake skin masks was wood resin from a specific type of tree that immensely dense in nearby forests.

Who would have thought that Kang Huian would use her own homemade recipe for adhesives…

In a loud piercing scream, Kang Huian screamed out painfully, "Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!! Aaaahhh! Hurts! HURTS! Dear! Help! Help!"

Her face was in so much pain that she was rolling around the room in pain, smashing against wooden tables, chairs, and bookshelves. The violence she committed in order to get rid of the pain on her face generated more pain for herself as she bled from crashing into the wooden furniture.

At the same time, the more she moved, the more her mask naturally peeled away. Peng Mingzhu did not think that this would happen, but when she saw the mask peeling at the edges, she no longer entertained the thought of the man peeling off the mask, instead only insisting him to stand still while his "wife" rolls in pain.

And even though the man wanted to cry at being unable to help his wife, he could do nothing. His hands were still in chains - chained with weights to hold him down.

"Dear, please...I-I beg of you...Help...Help me…" even whilst rolling in pain, Kang Huian continued to beg the man with her bawling.

"Miss Wu," the man turned to Peng Mingzhu. "Please...stop...this…"

So weakened from the painful screams of his wife, the man could no longer stand by and just watch; even if he had to hurt himself in order to save Kang Huian, he was willing to do so.

"Are you sure?" Peng Mingzhu asked.

"Yes," the man answered in a shaky voice.

"Are you really sure?" Peng Mingzhu asked once again.

"I am sure. So please...stop," the man answered, assured of his decision.

Not wanting to touch the bloody body of Kang Huian, Peng Mingzhu grabbed a hold of the rope that was used to make sure that Kang Huian would be unable to run away from the room and pulled harshly.

In just a second, a whimpering Kang Huian with a bloody face that had peels all over was kneeling in front of the man.

"Dear…" Kang Huian weakly called out, blood dripping everywhere.

Shocked at the mass amount of skin falling off from her face, the man also kneeled and caressed her face. However, when he did so, he received the shock of his life.

Peng Mingzhu had thrown clean cold water on him and Kang Huian, washing away a little bit of the blood on the face of Kang Huian.

However, it would have been better if Peng Mingzhu did not throw the cold water…

Because at this moment, the man felt that cold water was being thrown at him in both literal and non-literal sense.

The face that was currently in front him...who was it?