Cough, cough, cough!
Gu Li was jarred back into consciousness by a sudden stream of freezing water blasting directly across her face.
"Stop it! Stop spraying me!" she shrieked, gasping as the freezing spray hit her mouth and nostrils.
However, her frantic demands yielded zero result. The unseen operator ignored her entirely, increasing the water pressure through the hose until the cold spray lashed against her bare skin like needle pricks.
"Ow...!"
Shivering violently from the icy bath, Gu Li attempted to scramble backward to evade the spray. But halfway up, her forehead collided with a hard metal bar with a loud, hollow CLANG. The sudden impact sent a sharp burst of pain through her skull, forcing her to clutch her head and crouch low.
It was only then, wiping the stinging water from her eyes, that Gu Li realized her physical reality: she was trapped inside a heavy, reinforced steel enclosure—the exact type of industrial cage used to contain dangerous, aggressive pit bulls.
"Well now... did my prestigious Miss Gu enjoy her wake-up call?"
The high-pressure hose was finally clicked off. Out from the shadowed corner of the basement walked Nan Xiang, dressed in an immaculate white designer gown, looking down at the shivering heiress locked inside the cage.
"Nan Xiang?!" Gu Li demanded, her eyes widening in shock as she recognized her former close friend who had been missing for over half a year. "Release me right this instant! Otherwise, I swear to God I will make you pay!"
Even after enduring weeks of starvation and poverty on the streets, the deeply ingrained superiority complex Gu Li held over Nan Xiang and Lin Xiao instantly reasserted itself.
"What?" Nan Xiang sneered coldly, a dark, mocking smile spreading across her lips. "Do you honestly still believe you are some high-and-mighty corporate princess? You are nothing more than a stray dog in a cage, yet you still dare to adopt that condescending tone with me?"
"What kind of delusional garbage are you spewing?!" Gu Li hissed, her eyes burning with rage. "Unlock this cage immediately, or I will ensure your life is completely destroyed!"
Seeing Nan Xiang's arrogant demeanor, the heiress's temper flared out of control. It was one thing for heartless creditors to kick her while she was down, but who the hell did Nan Xiang think she was?
'You were nothing more than a poverty-stricken painter living off my social connections! How dare a domestic dog bite her former owner?!'
"Oh? You're going to destroy my life?"
Nan Xiang's smile turned razor-sharp. She reached down to the small control unit in her hand and flipped the toggle switch.
BZZZZZZZZZT!
"I... I... AHHHHHHHHHH—!"
A high-voltage surge instantly exploded through the base of the metal cage. Gu Li jumped up in sheer agony, but because the cage's ceiling measured barely 1.2 meters in height, her head slammed violently against the top bars. She collapsed back onto her knees, only to be shocked again, jumping and crashing repeatedly like a trapped animal!
Thankfully, the internal steel mesh had been smoothed and rounded during construction; otherwise, the violent impact would have cracked her skull open on the spot.
After watching Gu Li bounce frantically inside the cage for a full, agonizing minute, Nan Xiang finally clicked the switch back to neutral with a look of supreme satisfaction.
"So... are you still planning on making me pay?"
Because the entire cage was drenched in water, the wet steel acted as a pristine electrical conductor. Once the current was activated, Gu Li had nowhere to run.
"Nan Xiang... what has gotten into you?!" Gu Li gasped, her body trembling uncontrollably as she quickly pivoted to an emotional appeal. After all, a brilliant woman understood when to bend; once she managed to trick her way out of this iron box, she would settle the score with this psycho properly. "It's me! Gu Li! Your best friend!"
"Your 'best friend'?" A chilling, bloodless laugh escaped Nan Xiang's lips.
Don't be fooled by Nan Xiang's submissive, quiet demeanor in front of Adrian Li—underneath that fragile white-lotus exterior lay a deeply vengeful nature. In the original narrative of Tiny Times, Nan Xiang was explicitly written as possessing the face of an angel and the heart of a viper. In front of the billionaire who held absolute power over her life and death, she didn't dare entertain a single thought of rebellion. But against someone lower in the food chain? Her suppressed malice exploded without limit.
To claim she was content with her current existence was a lie. Although she enjoyed a level of luxury she had never dreamed of, Nan Xiang carried a deep, festering trauma. She had personally pulled the trigger that ended Xi Cheng's life. Whenever she lay alone in the dark, she could still see his blood-soaked form coming to claim her soul.
She desperately required an outlet to project her guilt and hatred.
And now, her primary target had been delivered directly into her hands!
Nan Xiang firmly convinced herself that if Gu Li hadn't slept with Xi Cheng and destroyed her emotional stability, she would have graduated smoothly from the Academy of Fine Arts as a respected artist. Whether that rationalization was objectively true was completely irrelevant—as long as she believed it, it served as her divine justification.
"Nan Xiang, listen to me!" Gu Li pleaded, her voice trembling. "Xi Cheng drugged me that night! I was a victim—"
"Lies! Pure, hypocritical lies!" Nan Xiang screamed hysterically, her eyes widening as she slammed the high-voltage toggle back down! "Go down to hell and explain your lies to Xi Cheng yourself! Tell that dead scumbag that if he ever haunts my dreams again, I will cut his limbs off piece by piece!"
BZZZZZZZZT!
"AHHHHHH—! NAN XIANG, YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR MIND—! AHHHHHH!"
Gu Li's entire frame convulsed violently against the wet bars. An icy wave of absolute terror washed over her. Anyone would be terrified of a madman—especially when that madman held an absolute high-voltage switch over your flesh!
After shocking her for several agonizing minutes, watching Gu Li twitch on the floor of the cage like a dying fish, Nan Xiang finally flipped the power off.
"Are you dead yet?" Nan Xiang asked coldly, looking down at her. "If you're still breathing, make a sound. Otherwise, I will have the guards douse this box in gasoline and burn you to ashes!"
"I'm... I'm still alive... don't burn me..." Gu Li whimpered instantly, completely shattered by the threat. She was genuinely terrified of what this unhinged woman might do.
"I told you to bark like a dog!" Nan Xiang roared, her finger hovering over the high-voltage toggle. "Is that how a hound speaks to its owner?!"
"Woof... woof! Woof... woof woof!" Gu Li immediately barked, screaming in pure panic to prevent the electrical current from returning.
"My, my... look at our proud Miss Gu," Nan Xiang mocked smoothly, holding the remote close to her face. "She really has turned into a dog, hasn't she?"
"Nan Xiang... I was wrong... I was truly wrong in the past!" Gu Li wept, her body shivering continuously, tears streaming down her pale cheeks from the freezing water and electrical shock. "Please... forgive me for the sake of our years of friendship!"
"Friendship?" Nan Xiang raised an eyebrow, her finger tapping the switch. "Who gave you permission to call yourself my friend? You are nothing more than a hound in a cage. And what did you just call me?"
"Master Nan Xiang!" Gu Li dropped to her knees on the wet steel mesh, bowing her head. "Gu Li knows she was wrong! Please... show mercy!"
"Do dogs wear human clothing?" Nan Xiang asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"No! Master Nan Xiang is right!" Gu Li agreed frantically, her trembling hands tearing at her soaked, synthetic clothes. "A dog shouldn't wear clothes! I'll take them off right now!"
She quickly stripped off her wet garments, casting them out of the cage, leaving her pale skin entirely exposed to the cold basement air.
"Good dog," Nan Xiang smiled softly. She reached onto a nearby tray, picking up a plate containing a half-cold, leftover steak and stepping up to the iron bars. "You must be starving."
Gu Li was indeed ravenous. Seeing the piece of meat, her eyes lit up, and she instinctively reached her hand through the bars to take the plate.
FLIP!
Nan Xiang casually dumped the steak directly onto the concrete floor outside the cage, before kicking the slab of cold meat through the bottom slot into the dirt and water inside.
"Since when do dogs eat off porcelain plates?"
Gu Li stared at the steak resting in the puddle at her knees, then looked up at Nan Xiang holding the high-voltage remote.
Thinking of her total isolation, her missing phone, her collapsed family, and the terrifying electricity... tears welled in her eyes.
Lowering her head, the former heiress of the multi-billion-yuan Gu Group crawled forward on all fours, lowered her face to the wet floor, and took a bite of the meat.