The Secret Base

"Welcome to our secret base. This place is so well hidden that even the administrators don't know that this place exists." Fan Ruyi dragged Mei Qingyang by hand and proudly showed her the room. The room was actually a hidden cave in the library building. They had to trigger a particular mechanism with certain books in the last shelf in the basement of the library to open up this place. It was all very detective like fancy stuff which was very fascinating to Qingyang. These are the things she had only read in novels. Even her foster father was unable to provide any facility like this.

"Damn, this is so cool!!" After hearing some sweet nothings from Fan Ruyi about being part of the group, Mei Qingyang had relaxed a lot. She still had her guard up and was observing everything very carefully. She still had to be suspicious of this girl's motives. She was the only one out of the group who cozied up with her almost instantly, without even properly meeting her. Others were probably still evaluating her. Even her own foster cousin, Su Lang, was wary of her, especially since she scandalized her that one time.

They were also trying to find out her source of communication with outside people. It was unfortunate that she could not talk directly to her dad, thanks to that boss of hers Yu Rong.

She looked around the place. It was further beneath the basement, thus did not have any windows. However, it was very well lit by lights and was equipped with modern modular kitchen and everything. There were around six bedrooms with their own bathrooms each.

Fan Ruyi proudly pronounced, "The library building was built from donation by my family. So, we sneaked in this space in the architecture of this building unbeknownst to anyone else in the school. The builders were also replaced by our own men; thus it was easy to get this one. We all need a breather space all the time, just to get away from the hustle bustle of our lives."

Mei Qingyang agreed. She could not fathom herself being in their shoes.

"So, why would you bring me here, at your secret place, so nonchalantly?", Qingyang finally asked the pressing question in everyone's mind.

Fan Ruyi as well as people behind the two girls froze. Yeah, why would Fan Ruyi take such a big decision so suddenly? She scratched her head in embarrassment.

"Well, as I explained to you earlier, I have been a lone girl in this group since forever. I could really have one more girl, so that I can have girly talks with her.", she spoke in a low voice. "And I really liked you to be honest, for some reason, I sense a familiarity from you. So…."

"So, basically, any girl would have been good, as long as you liked them?", before Fan Ruyi could finish her sentence, Mei Qingyang interrupted her.

Listening to her accusation, Fan Ruyi became dumbfounded for a few seconds. Then she gave her a very mysterious smile and brushed her sentence off. "Come on, if we keep talking like this, who will tend to your wounds? Let's go to this room, it is not being used by anyone. Guys, you need to standby because I'm gonna take a look at her body and see what is going on.", she once again took Qingyang's hand in hers and dragged her to the corner most room. The guys behind became red from embarrassment after hearing Fan Ruyi's description. This… This unruly girl spewed just any non-sense.

The empty room where Fan Ruyi took Mei Qingyang was very basic. It had a big bed with white sheets in the middle of the room. No decorations on the wall. There was a big bathroom with a jacuzzi inside. She was really astonished at how lavish even their secret base was.

"Let me take a look.", Fan Ruyi sat her down on the white sofa nearby.

"Ugh, Ms. Fan, this will get dirty." Qingyang was reluctant to stain such a pristine cloth without even a speck of dust.

"Oh, come on Qingyang, can you stop with formalities? Can't you call me Ruyi like the boys? And don't worry about dirtying it. We can always replace it.", she forcefully sat her down once again and fetched a medicine box from nearby drawer. She then unbuttoned Qingyang's shirt to take a look at her bruises.

"Oh God! You have so many bruises!!" Fan Ruyi cried. She alarmed the boys outside who rushed into the room, without realizing that Fan Ruyi had forbidden them from coming in.

"What happened?" Su Lang worriedly asked.

The view before them shook them up. A petite Mei Qingyang was sitting on the grand sofa with only a tank top and shorts on. With meat at all the right places, she looked so seductive right now. But more flabbergasting was her body covered in black and purple bruises, some even bleeding. Even more surprising was her skin below her neck covered with marks.

"Are…. are these burn marks?"