Wendy held on tightly, but her eyes were shut, and she was sleeping soundly and peacefully, looking so pitiful that it tugged at the heart.
"Mmm..."
Ch'en heard a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz from below.
"Don't... leave... me."
"So warm."
"I want milk."
Ch'en pretended not to hear that last sentence. It was simply too bizarre. Even if a child dreamed of a mother she had not seen in a long time, she would not say something so speechless.
In the end, Wendy loosened her grip, and Ch'en finally had a chance to catch her breath.
Of course, she could not kill her. From beginning to end, the other girl had been fully capable of killing her, yet she had never acted on it. There had not been the slightest hint of killing intent in her movements, either. Ch'en decided she should return kindness for kindness—at the very least, she could not kill her now.
She had to get to the bottom of this.
The little girl was quite strong, but Ch'en had her ways.
She pulled out a heavy-duty spring rope used for explosive strength training from beneath the bed. After tugging on it a little and confirming that it could restrain a rampaging rhinoceros, she began.
Using a method for tying up prisoners, she bound Wendy's limbs to the four bedposts.
Wendy was positioned face-down. Her emerald wings were somewhat troublesome, but who was Ch'en? The criminals she had handled had long since numbered in the thousands.
The wings were tied together and secured against her back.
This was not inspired by prisoner restraints, but by a common technique used when selling chickens at the market. Tying the wings together side by side effectively prevented struggling.
After finishing all that, Ch'en found that Wendy was