"Is that so? I think you're the ones who should surrender."
Gongyang Xin smiled.
"Hm?"
Just as Liu Zheng sensed something was wrong, illusions sprang up before his eyes.
He seemed to have turned into a straw doll nailed to the ground, while Gongyang Xin stood before him, clutching an embroidered shoe and glaring at him.
The girl's eyes were bloodshot, her face twisted into something terrifying, like a resentful woman whose younger sister had stolen their parents' affection in childhood, whose best friend had taken away the man she loved in youth, and whose beloved son had married her best friend's daughter in old age and never cared for her again.
"I'll beat your little straw head until tumors grow in your brain!"
"I'll beat your little straw face until white ringworm covers it!"
"I'll beat your little straw hands until you're destitute with nowhere to go!"
"I'll beat your little straw feet until all three meals are medicine!"
Gongyang Xin viciously cursed him as she mercilessly slapped every part of Liu Zheng's body with the embroidered shoe.
And with each of her movements, Liu Zheng felt—
Well, he felt absolutely nothing.
Liu Zheng looked at Gongyang Xin with an odd expression, as though he were watching some attention-seeker who insisted on putting on a performance during military training.
"Say."
He suddenly spoke, startling Gongyang Xin into looking up in astonishment.
"You've been chanting all that over there, but aside from hurting my ears, it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Why don't you just take that slipper and fight me to the death?"
Liu Zheng teased.
"How is that possible?"
Gongyang Xin looked utterly incredulous.
"In Metropolis, nothing is impossible."
He tried to stand, only to find that he still could not move.
"I see. You're merely holding