Inside the house, 6:55p.m."This has stopped being fun any longer. I had thought that you would beg me more for each other"s lives but it seems that maybe I am not scary enough for you to take me so seriously yet. Maybe it"s time to up the ante. What do you think Jia Li?" he asked her, interrupting Tang who had been trying to utter Fu"s name enough number of times to ensure that it could be heard on the phone in Jia Li"s hands.
Fu brought out a sharp knife from his pocket and walked towards Jia Li with a delirious grin on his face.
Tang started struggling against his bonds frantically when he saw the knife. All calmness fled from his demeanour.
"What do you think you are doing, Fu? She hasn"t said or done anything to you. Why don"t you come here. We"ll see whether your knife is sharp enough or my skin tougher?" he goaded Fu.
Fu paused in his step and looked at Tang with speculation in his eyes.
"You mean you are ready to sacrifice yourself for her? Experience pain so that she doesn"t have to?" he asked Tang, with a strange glint in his eyes.
Without hesitating for a beat, Tang replied, "yes, yes…bring on everything you have."
Fu shrugged his shoulders even as Jia Li screamed a loud NO.
Tang gave a death glare to her, warning her to stay shut. She whimpered softly, desperately praying for a miracle. She would die if something happened to Tang.
Fu came and stood in front of Tang. He started slas.h.i.+ng, nicking at various places on Tang"s arms, chest. These were small cuts, but enough to bring out Jia Li"s gut wrenching sobs. Tang sat absolutely still, happy that he had managed to get the maniac away from his woman. Suddenly, Fu stopped. Tang looked up at his face and his body turned cold.
"I was simply messing with you. Right now, its Jia Li"s turn. Once you and I have enjoyed the show, I will return to you," he said with a glee.
No matter what Tang said after that, it was as if Fu had tuned him out.
"You know I dreamt of killing you so many times in the past but always resisted because I thought it would upset me. But today when I hold the knife so close to your skin, it"s actually exciting the h.e.l.l out of me. Had I known it earlier, I would have not waited for so long," he whispered in her ear.
Jia Li tried to suppress the s.h.i.+ver which ran through her but it broke out in the form of goose b.u.mps all over her body. Her mind was completely blank. She had nothing to say to him.
She knew that Tang was urging her to look at him but she just couldn"t do it. Her eyes closed out of their own violation.
He pulled her up roughly by her sweater and made her stand up. She couldn"t balance herself well because of the legs being tied. Bunching the woollen cardigan in his fist, he tore through it with the knife. Jia Li screamed in terror.
"Ha…and here you were looking all composed and in control of your emotions a second ago. I was almost impressed. You sure can keep up pretences, my love! Now, I can hear your heartbeat jumping all over the place like that of an animal who knows that it"s going to be butchered," he gloated in satisfaction.
She opened her eyes looked at him with naked horror in her eyes. But he hadn"t even started playing with her yet.
"You b******, if you have the guts, you come and fight me," Tang shouted, dragging the chair forward with his weight.
Up until this minute, he hadn"t known that he was capable of experiencing this kind of terror in his bones. His brain had stopped working and pure adrenalin was coursing through him.
Holding Jia Li in a death grip, Fu dragged her with him towards Tang. He stamped his foot hard on Tang"s chest, toppling him over. Tang"s head banged hard against the floor, jarring his entire body. He landed on his back and his tied legs were now up in the air. The chair"s wood had broken in someplace and was poking painfully in his back.
"If I hear a word out of your mouth now, I will start chopping off Jia Li"s body, piece by piece," Fu threw the line casually at Tang.
Jia Li couldn"t help it and started to cry again. Satisfied with Tang"s reaction, he turned his attention back towards her.
"C"mmon…don"t cry darling. We haven"t even started warming up yet. Should I tell you what is it that I have planned for you? The first thing that I want to do is carve the organ out of you which I hate the most. Can you guess what am I referring to here," he asked her, smacking his lips.