The sewer was pitch black.
Wang Jiming's voice was choked with tears, "Can we really escape?"
Gao Lang finally lost patience, "Can you shut up? In such a confined space, even a whisper is loud!"
Li Fengrui led the way. Although the four of them had their phones, they dared not turn on the lights.
The narrow, pitch-black, and foul-smelling pipe occasionally made faint noises.
Wang Jiming, terrified, felt like crying again. Li Fengrui suppressed his voice, "Don't be afraid, it's probably just rats."
As soon as he spoke, he felt as if he had inhaled a palpable stench.
After walking over twenty meters, an ascending pipe came into view.
Li Fengrui, at the front, looked back.
Qin He whispered, "We should have left the main gate by now, but we absolutely cannot go out. We need to go a bit further to be safe."
Wang Jiming's face was pale, "I think I'm about to suffocate from the stench."
In the darkness, time was uncertain. The four of them bent their backs, trudging forward through the stench.
Qin He estimated their progress by her steps, feeling they had covered over 100 meters.
Gao Lang was also finding it unbearable.
"Is this air? This would be shit if you thickened it!"
Qin He whispered, "We've gone over 100 meters, and they probably haven't thought about the phones yet. Gao Lang, quickly call the local police for help! And then immediately throw the phone in the water to destroy it!"
Gao Lang quickly dialed the emergency number.
Qin He could faintly hear the voice on the other end, but a string of English words stunned her!
They were in Sakura Country, so why would the local police speak English!
Qin He stared blankly at Gao Lang, suddenly recalling that after they landed and before reaching the villa, Shen Yicong had knocked the four of them out. When she woke up, she felt ravenously hungry, as if she hadn't eaten for days!
It seemed that during that time, Shen Yicong had indeed taken them from Sakura Country to another country!
Qin He felt a chill run down her spine.
The villa she lived in was entirely in the Sakura Country style! Even many of the maids in the villa were from Sakura Country!
If this was not Sakura Country, then the information she had previously passed to Gu Qichen was fundamentally wrong! Shen Yicong's cunning schemes sent a shiver down Qin He's spine!
This escape seemed smooth—but was it truly smooth?
"Give me the phone!" Qin He took the phone from Gao Lang. "Hello, may I ask which country's police station this is?"
A series of angry and fluent English words came from the other end, basically calling Qin He crazy for making prank calls and asking inexplicable questions.
Qin He gritted her teeth and said quickly in English, "Hello, I am a person kidnapped by a terrorist organization, and I don't know where they have taken me!"
The police officer on the other end sounded suspicious, "This is Kundian."
Kundian!
Qin He's hands trembled. The whole world knew that Kundian was in a state of civil unrest. No wonder the police officer's attitude was so poor; they had no time to deal with such matters.
Qin He gritted her teeth, "We are currently in a Japanese-style villa. There should be few Japanese-style villas in Kundian, right? Please come and rescue us. We are Chinese."
Hearing that they were Chinese, the other party became noticeably more serious.
He asked for some details. Qin He had been closely watched by Shen Yicong during her time in the villa, so she didn't have many details to share.
The other party wanted to keep the line open. Qin He explained the situation; the phone was surely being tracked, and if it remained on, she would be caught.
After her conversation with the police officer, Qin He dialed Gu Qichen's number.
After a few rings, Gu Qichen's voice came through.
"Hello."
"Gu Qichen, it's me!" Qin He said urgently, "The information I sent you before was wrong. We are not in Sakura Country! We are in Kundian!"
Gu Qichen's voice became anxious, "He'er! Where are you now?"
Qin He lowered her voice, "I've just escaped from the villa! I can't be sure of my exact location, and this phone is being tracked. I can only tell you a little for a short time before they discover me. I must destroy the phone. Gu Qichen, if I can escape, we will meet in the capital of Kundian!"
Gu Qichen's voice was deep and anxious, "He'er, wait for me. I will definitely rescue you safely."
"Okay, I'll hang up now! Time is precious!"
After hanging up, Qin He immediately asked the other three to take out their phones and throw them into the water.
The four of them continued to move forward in the darkness.
Wang Jiming, walking second, muttered softly, "She still has time to call her boyfriend at a time like this. I want to call my family too."
Gao Lang frowned, "The phone is already destroyed, what are you complaining about? If you had tried to make another call, it would have been too late!"
Wang Jiming became angry at being spoken to, "Gao Lang, I've tolerated you for too long! You just talk a big game. We don't even know if we'll get out alive, so what's wrong with me calling my family?"
Seeing that Gao Lang was about to hit someone, Qin He quickly pushed Gao Lang.
"You go in front of Wang Jiming, stop arguing."
Gao Lang, who had been behind Wang Jiming, moved to the front. Qin He felt a sense of relief.
The four of them walked for an unknown amount of time in the darkness. Qin He felt her head spinning from the stench.
Fortunately, to prevent being affected by anesthetic, the four of them still had wet towels on them. Otherwise, they might have fainted in the sewer by now.
Upon reaching another rising section, Li Fengrui turned to Qin He with a weak voice, "Miss Qin, let's go up now. We don't know where the next exit is, and I don't think I can hold on much longer."
Qin He frowned, looking into the depths of the sewer pipe. She could feel the increasing volume of water flowing in since they left the villa.
If they followed this main pipe, they might reach the sewage discharge point.
Kundian's sewage was usually discharged into rivers.
If they could escape to the river, the four of them would be truly safe!
Qin He quietly explained her guess.
"All three of you can swim. If we reach the river, your chances of being caught will be at least fifty percent lower than on land!"
Wang Jiming, behind Li Fengrui, said, "But you don't know how far the river is, and this is just your guess. Who knows if the end is a river or some smelly ditch you can't even swim in!"
Qin He pursed her lips.
She felt her guess was likely correct, but the four of them were indeed reaching their limit.
Walking hunched over in the sewer for half an hour hadn't gotten them very far.
"It's too unsafe to go up now," Qin He advised.
Wang Jiming suddenly became angry and shouted, "If we don't go up, we might rot to death here! Qin He, if you can hold on, then walk by yourself, don't drag us down!"