「That night.」
Following the trail of the rope, a search party scoured the area and soon located Silly’s house.
Silly was startled awake, only to find that his wife was gone!
He was frantic. When he opened the door, he saw a group of people in the yard.
Ethan Ellsworth took out a photo of Chloe Marshall. "Have you seen her?"
Silly was about to say sothing when Silly’s Mom smacked him on the back of the head. "You silly boy, go back to sleep. Don’t scare our distinguished guests."
After speaking, she smiled at Ethan Ellsworth. "My son... his mind isn’t quite right. He’s ntally challenged, and I was afraid he’d frighten you. As for the woman in the photo, I’ve never seen her. No one’s co through here for miles and miles. It’s just our family of three, living here year-round."
Ethan Ellsworth’s gaze darkened. "If you see her, please call this number to inform . I’ll reward you handsoly."
He pulled out a business card and handed it to her.
Silly’s Mom took it and nodded.
She watched them leave, the full weight of the situation not yet sinking in.
Silly’s Dad quickly whispered to her, "We need to let her go. Now."
Silly’s Mom turned and scolded him. "Let her go now? That’s just walking right into a trap! Didn’t you see them? Those people aren’t ordinary folks. I knew it this morning—that Chloe Marshall isn’t so common girl. Didn’t you see the handcuffs on her wrists and the chains on her ankles? She’s clearly an escaped convict! Are you trying to get yourself killed, sending her out there now? Besides, she’s already consummated the marriage with our son. It’s even more impossible now! Let’s go check on them."
Silly’s Mom turned and walked toward her son’s shed. She pushed open the door, lit a candle, and saw her son sitting there alone. The bed was empty.
Silly’s Mom’s pupils contracted. She asked urgently, "Son, where’s your wife?"
"I don’t know! My wife is gone! Mom, my wife is gone!" He actually started to cry.
Furious and frantic, Silly’s Mom stomped her foot. "What are you standing around for? She’s got chains on her feet; she can’t have gotten far. The three of us will go look for her together."
And so, the whole family set out.
They began searching for Chloe Marshall.
Because their living conditions were so poor, they were always reluctant to use the batteries they bought for their flashlight. This ti, however, it ca in handy.
They split up and went three different ways.
They didn’t dare to shout, fearing they would attract the attention of the n from earlier. They could only search slowly with their flashlights.
Silly had set traps in the surrounding area, so he naturally knew to walk around them as he shone his light.
But then he saw that the marker for one of his concealed traps was broken, revealing a large hole.
He moved closer, shone the flashlight down, and saw Chloe Marshall sitting at the bottom, still crying. There were bloodstains on her leg.
Chloe Marshall looked up, squinting into the blinding light, and t his incredibly pure eyes.
They were the kind of eyes that seed to belong only to the purest person in the world.
He turned and walked away, only to return a mont later.
He tied a rope to a nearby tree and deftly climbed down.
Without a word, he got her onto his back. "Wrap your arms around my neck."
He struggled up the wall of the pit, his feet pushing off the sides. He didn’t put her down, just untied the rope and carried her all the way ho.
Silly’s parents hadn’t returned yet. He placed her on the bed and brought over a basin of warm water.
He began to clean the dried, clotted blood from her leg.
His expression was incredibly serious. Chloe Marshall bit her lip and held still.
’He doesn’t seem silly at all right now.’
His focused expression and the way he pursed his lips still had a touch of boyishness.
He applied so kind of herb he’d gotten from who-knows-where, and the intense pain made Chloe Marshall’s tears flow even faster. Her vulnerability was on full display.
He tied it in place with a strip of cloth, then finally carried the bloody water outside to dump it.
Just then, the exhausted Silly’s Dad and Mom returned.
Silly’s Mom went straight inside.
Seeing Chloe’s considerable injuries, she snorted. "Let tell you sothing. Don’t even think about getting out of here. Never mind that you can’t get those things off your hands and feet—even if you could, you’d never make it out of this place on your own. So just save the trouble. Since you’ve already consummated the marriage with my son, you’ll stay here quietly. I’ll feed you, you won’t have to work, what’s there to be unhappy about? This whole area is full of traps. If you run again and fall into one and get eaten by whatever animal is in there, don’t bla for not warning you!"
Chloe Marshall remained silent.
She stared at the restraints on her wrists and ankles.
’Escaping is easier said than done. I was too naive. To even try, I have to get these things off first.’
Seeing her silence, Silly’s Mom said to her son, "If you don’t watch her carefully and she runs away again, you won’t have a wife anymore. Got it?"
Silly nodded, a flicker of determination in his eyes.
The door closed again. He spoke. "Wife, don’t run away anymore. I’ll be good to you. I’ll make sure you have enough to eat and that you’re happy every day."
Chloe Marshall slowly turned onto her side, facing the inside of the bed. She closed her eyes and said no more.
He lay down on the outer edge of the bed, blew out the candle, and went back to sleep.
*
For the next few days, Chloe Marshall had no chance to escape. When they went out during the day, they tied her to a tree, only untying her when they returned. This went on for several days, as they were no longer giving her any chance to run.
In contrast to the quiet here, the search and rescue team was under imnse pressure every day as they continued their search.
On the ninth day of Chloe Marshall’s disappearance, it was the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month.
On this day, there was finally a new developnt in the case of Ethan Ellsworth’s missing assistant, which had captivated netizens across the country.
An unidentified helicopter was detected in the airspace over Harrowin.
Upon investigation, it was discovered that several mbers of the Valiant Club were on board.
Everyone believed Chloe Marshall had to be on it. This heinous incident caught the attention of Fravia’s top leadership, who imdiately dispatched units to track the helicopter.
Everyone was waiting for the good news of the hostage’s rescue.
However, during the pursuit, the helicopter kept heading out toward the open sea.
Everyone had a bad feeling about this.
As was widely known, Fravian law permitted martial arts dojos to recruit disciples into sects. Herman Hawthorne’s was one of the more public ones in the country, though his personal life had previously been kept private, his simplest public identity being that of a university professor.
The Valiant Club was different. It was considered a hoodlum sect, but it was still allowed to exist.
The sect’s rules were strict; committing heinous acts was punishable by execution. Because of this, even if these mbers returned, they would not escape responsibility for their cris.
Watching the Valiant Club mbers’ helicopter fly toward the sea, so ventured a bold guess: they were planning to take everyone down with them.
Even if they were caught, they would go to prison. And after prison, they would still face death from the sect.
The police seed to have anticipated their move and hastily dispatched aircraft to intercept them from the opposite direction.
So dia outlets were tracking the event with a live broadcast.
Just as they were being pincered from the front and back, the helicopter, in a fit of madness, ramd into the intercepting aircraft over the sea.
Its tail was hit. Both aircraft imdiately began to fall from the sky. Just before the helicopter hit the water’s surface, it suddenly exploded, sending a massive wave surging high into the air.
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