"Ahh!!!! Noooo!!! Please, stop it!!! Ahhhh!!!! Nnnnmmmpffhhhh!!!" a woman's piercing scream filled their ears. The high pitched screams sounded like a child's sharp screech aiming right at their ear drums. Except, each time this woman cried out, it felt like somebody was stabbing a hole into their ears. Nana covered her ears and hugged her knees while Ya Nuo looked for the pause button to stop the video from continuing. After a few minutes into the video, the woman's mouth was stuffed with a towel and the punishment continued until both feet were covered by thumb tacks and eventually brutally removed.
Even though Ya Nuo thought that she had already prepared herself for the worst, she never saw a live crime scene before so she was just as traumatized as Nana. The petrifying cries were mind wrecking to the point where Ya Nuo and Nana stayed in their positions for a while before one of them moved closer to the other.
Nana was the first to stand up and walk towards Ya Nuo while stuttering, "Y..Ya Nuo… just now.. W..was it.."
Ya Nuo looked at her with a frightened expression and nodded, "T..that was what we saw…"
In the corner of Nana's eyes, she saw the bloody feet on the screen with more than 20 thumbtacks stuffed inside of it. It was gruesome and horrifying. After seeing it, Nana ran out of the room and started vomiting and crying.
Ya Nuo gathered herself together and patted Nana's back, "Gu Wing was the one who stabbed those tacks into her bare feet. That woman might have died already… unless Gu Wing saved her. If my guess is correct, then these tapes are all the punishments that Gu Wing prepared for the person who is imprisoned here. Also, the person might still be alive or else Gu Wing wouldn't spend her time here. We need to get to that woman before it's too late and rescue her!"
Nana nodded, "Let's turn off the television first and think of a way to open that door."
Ya Nuo: "Yeah, let's get this inhumane scene out of our sight before continuing. I can't believe someone could finish watching this tape. We couldn't even stand the first 5 minutes…"
After turning off the television, they found masks in the medical kit and used it to cover their nose and mouth before continuing their investigation. There was another passcode on the door, but this time, they entered the same passcode 5-1-1-8 and the door unlocked. They bravely pulled the door open and walked inside of it.
After many years of imprisonment, the woman who was chained finally saw some new faces. She excitedly opened her mouth, but what came out were vowels and not words. She can only speak like an insane crow trying to ask humans for directions. Ya Nuo and Nana were startled by the unexpected greeting from a living person. Even though the woman was filled with soil, has mud like skin, and had her tongue cut out, Ya Nuo approached her calmly with the medical kit in her hands.
Ya Nuo saw the deep scar inside her mouth and knew that her tongue was cut off forcefully. She also recognized the tiny scars on her feet, which means that she was the one in the video tape. Her hands clenched tightly on the medical kit as she knelt down and asked, "I could tell that you can't speak so you can nod and shake your head for the following questions, do you understand?"
The woman nodded in response.
Ya Nuo couldn't recognize her face because it was filthy and the information she read about Hen Qing's mother was more than 15 years old so she can't straightforwardly ask her if she was Hen Qing's mother. Ya Nuo decided to ask false questions between real ones related to Hen Qing's mother to confirm her identity.
Ya Nuo: "Were you a maid in this house?"
The woman nodded.
Ya Nuo: "You were a maid of the current wife of Yang Qiu Rei?"
The woman shook her head.
Ya Nuo: "Did you break Yang Qiu Rei or Master Yang's favorite antique that's why you are chained here?"
The woman shook her head.
Ya Nuo: "Do you have a husband and a daughter?"
The woman nodded.
Ya Nuo: "Does your husband work for Yang Qiu Rei?"
The woman nodded.
Ya Nuo: "Is your surname the same as Shen Mu Yen?"
The woman shook her head.
Ya Nuo: "What about your husband's surname?"
The woman shook her head again.
Ya Nuo: "Then same question as before, but change the surname to Hen Ru Yi?"
The woman nodded delightfully.
Ya Nuo: "Were you the maid of the first wife, Chen Ying Ying?"
The woman nodded.
Ya Nuo maintained her emotionless expression, "Are you Hen Qing's mother?"
The woman hesitatingly nodded probably because it's been so long since somebody mentioned her daughter's name in front of her.
Ya Nuo handed her some sanitary wipes and told her to wipe herself as much as she can while she looked for tools to break off the chain attached her ankles. Nana also took cottons and soaked alcohol on it to clean the woman's wounds. Ya Nuo came back with a chain breaker and started snapping the chains. After releasing her ankle from the chains and wiping most of her body with the wipes, Ya Nuo saw a lot of water bottles and used them to rinse the rest of the woman's body. The ragged clothes were too filthy so if she wore those, she will definitely be discovered the moment she gets out.
Ya Nuo: "We need to bring her back upstairs and look for a blanket or something."
Nana: "But you might get caught again."
Ya Nuo: "There's no other way out from this room. Only way out is going out from where we came from. If there was another exit, then Gu Wing would've made it clean for herself in case of emergencies. If we get caught, then I'll figure out a way to escape. I'll draw you a map so if anything happens to me, follow the map and leave."
Nana: "Nuo, but.."
Ya Nuo: "No buts, let's go." They helped the woman up and slowly walked out of the chamber and back to the spiral staircase.