"Spare me... I was wrong... I really was."
Qiu Ping thrashed helplessly like a dead dog caught by the scruff.
All the way there, he had tried to leave a trail, hoping the police would follow it and find him.
But Zhou Kai paid no attention. He simply dragged him along.
The silence itself became a form of torture, more suffocating than any vicious curse.
Qiu Ping's heart pounded wildly. He had a feeling that what awaited him would be far worse than a simple death.
At last, near a secluded exit in Camping Park, Zhou Kai let go.
He stopped, turned around, and rolled his neck. His bones cracked, and he looked utterly relaxed.
He hardly seemed like an executioner in a hurry to dispose of a body.
"To repay you," Zhou Kai said calmly, almost with a laugh, "for giving me such a good workout, I've decided to take you somewhere nice."
Before the words had left his mouth, he struck like lightning, clamping a hand around Qiu Ping's throat and lifting him effortlessly into the air.
Qiu Ping's feet left the ground. His limbs twitched feebly, and all he could manage was a hoarse, wheezing sound.
"I only wanted to be an ordinary office worker nobody paid attention to. That's all."
Zhou Kai tilted his head back, gazing at the night sky, its fragments divided by the branches. He seemed to be speaking to the moon, or perhaps to himself.
"But why... does someone always have to come and bother me?"
He drew in a lungful of the cold night air. When he exhaled, only bone-deep chill remained.
"But I suppose that's fine."
"I'll drag everyone who threatens my peaceful life into the Nightmare."
"Without exception."
"I don't want to know your name, but you'll be..."
"The