Ivy Mercer slowly opened her eyes. It was pitch-black all around, obviously nighttime, and she could feel someone tugging at her clothes.
What a nerve. Which bastard had the guts to take advantage of her?
The second that hand reached for her again, her body moved faster than her mind. She grabbed the filthy hand, twisted hard, and flung the man straight to the ground.
He let out a howl. "You bitch, you dare hit me? Just wait, I’ll deal with you good."
As he cursed, he scrambled up, snatched a stick from the ground, and rushed at her.
At the same time, Ivy flipped up in one smooth motion and got to her feet. By then, the man was already right in front of her.
She caught the stick in his hand, yanked with force, and tore it away from him. Then she raised it and started laying into him without a bit of mercy.
She did not hold back at all. The beating had him yelping nonstop.
At first, he was still yelling insults. "You damn woman, stop right now."
"When you’re my wife, let’s see how I deal with you then."
The moment Ivy heard that, her face went cold. He still dared to set his sights on her?
Her grip tightened, and each blow came down harder than the last.
Soon he was screaming miserably. Then she heard him cry out, "Grandma, I was wrong, I won’t dare again. Please stop hitting me. Sylvia Hartley told me to do it. She pushed me into it. Right, it’s all her fault."
"Grandma, please, I really won’t dare again. Spare me this once."
Only then did Ivy stop. She asked, "Who is Sylvia Hartley?"
"You forgot? Sylvia Hartley is one of the female educated youths at the zhiqing point."
Ivy could not make sense of the situation at all. She understood every single word he said, yet once they were put together, none of it made sense to her. What was a zhiqing? She had never heard of such a thing in the interstellar age.
Since she could not figure it out for now, she pushed it aside. Sooner or later, she would get to the bottom of it.
Only then did she notice the heat raging through her body. She had been drugged.
Damn it. They had actually used that kind of filthy aphrodisiac on her. She was a dignified fellow of the Interstellar Research Institute, and now she had been treated like this.
Right now, she still hadn’t sorted out what was going on, so she decided to let the person on the ground off for the moment. Sooner or later, she’d settle this score.
And Sylvia Hartley—she wouldn’t get away either.
"Keep your mouth shut. Know what you should say and what you shouldn’t. If I find out you said one word you weren’t supposed to, you know exactly what’ll happen."
"Don’t worry, miss, I won’t talk nonsense."
"Get lost."
The second that person heard it, the crying stopped on the spot. They scrambled up and bolted, terrified this she-devil might change her mind the next second.
Just then, voices drifted over from the distance. It sounded like a whole bunch of people were out looking for someone. She avoided them and headed downhill.
She was in a patch of small woods on the hillside.
By now, Ivy Mercer felt her body getting hotter and hotter. She wanted to find somewhere with no one around and just endure it, and if she could find water, even better. If she could soak in it, maybe it would cool the burning inside her.
Her legs felt heavy as iron, like they were filled with lead. Her vision was getting blurrier too, and the heat in her body kept climbing. Gritting her teeth, she kept forcing herself downhill.
Then she heard the sound of running water not far away. Her pace quickened at once, and she followed the sound.
A little later, she spotted a wide river. Ivy Mercer was just about to jump in when a man appeared from nowhere and blocked her path.
"Comrade, you mustn’t do anything foolish."
"Move."
"I’m not moving. I can’t just stand here and watch a woman comrade jump into the river."
"Move aside. I’m not trying to kill myself."
"Really?"