"No!!! Please don't do this!!! They're still alive, don't burn them. I beg you. They're innocent and unknown to anything that you want, so please stop hurting them!!" Loud shrieks of a girl echoed in the gloomy, obscure, chilly and eerie place where she was held by a group of convicts as she continued to cry her heart out.

The walls of that place were all covered with iron nets and a handful weapons with only one door to enter and exit and one skylight to avoid suffocation in that damp place. No particular things around that could help her understand where exactly was this warehouse looking space was located except for a pungent smell that seemed to be reaching from outside or the pipes above, on the ceilings of the room.

Helplessness, failure, terror, anxiety, hatred, and anger could clearly be felt in her voice as oceans of tears were gushing down her soft, smooth and slightly fluffy cheeks, as they reflected back the light being focused on her face which blurred her vision tremendously. She was eye-witnessing the death of her loved ones, her parents, siblings and close family, tied up in a chair, unable to move, while live streaming of such a cruel and inhuman incident was being shown to her on a laptop placed on a table in front of her.

There was boundless of emotions and hatred erupting from the bound girl's heart but all she could do was swallow it along with her ceaselessly coming tears. She was tortured earlier but the pain she was feeling at that very moment surpassed any other she ever felt.

Slits, slashes and scratches were over their bodies. As the felons continued to hit them, blood glided down their each and every wound originating a mere of blood all over the place. The floor and walls of the house turned red with all types of textures around. The unending sufferings of the night was making it appears darker than ever.

Screams, howls and groaning of those dying people was being imprinted on the girl's heart and soul. Her mind went completely blank, her body numb, and her heartbeat utterly fast.

"Aunt! No don't hurt her. Uncle! No, please stop." Without pause, she was screaming. But the pain too was ceaseless.

While she was all shattered physically, mentally and emotionally, those bastards were laughing out loud. Their leader creepily gazed at her with anger and anxiety and asked,

"So Ms Xi Jingfei, only being a bystander to witness the end of your Xi family, feels unfair doesn't it? So you better tell us what we want. Will you now voice out where exactly have you hidden that Hard Drive given by that bastard army officer. Maybe by doing so, you'll be able to save some of your surviving family members or you will only have yourself to blame to see them in such a ghastly condition."

Her father yelped in an utterly painful yet unreserved and determined voice,

"It no longer matters whether you give in to them or not, the Xi family is bound to doom today. So my beloved daughter, do your duty as the Administrative Chief of City U, pay respect to the nation as a citizen and do not utter a word to these bastards or else there will be endless 'Xi families' who will have to pay the price with their blood. My child, it's your time to show if you love your country K or not, if you respect my teachings or not. No matter what they are asking you to do, don't do it!! "

A heavy metal rod hit the man as he lied flat on the floor, blood drifted out behind of his head and spilt all over the place. Xi Jingfei screamed but to no avail.

Soon after followed the whole family in similar ways of dying. Her mother, brother, uncle, aunt, no one could survive. Cruelty won over yet again, but the silenced house was narrating a story. Only if the right person would come to listen, it would tell him how ruthlessly a blissful clan was annihilated.

"Why should I be the one paying the price? How it all had turned to this? What's the point of my life now?" Bulk of questions arose in her heart while all she felt was a faint pain in her heart. Tears blurred her vision. Everything went black as she fainted. Her heart had turned upside down, her soul all shattered and her brain stopped working. She had lost her everything.

A week ago,

Administrative Chief's Office, City U, Country K,

"Alas! There's nothing l could do for this water supply project because it's not approvable according to the constitution of the country. A large number of people will be badly affected if I give my consent to this, which I'm definitely not going to do."

Administrative Chief Xi Jingfei was discussing some important project with one of the key industrialists of the city, but wasn't satisfied with the proposal.

"Maybe we can both help each other..."

The businessman was ready to use any kind of underhand techniques to get the approval.

Xi Jingfei: "I see where you're getting at, Mr Zhao. But Sir, please don't defy the position I'm sitting in. As an Administrative Chief, it's my duty to abide the law and not surrender to any kinds of malpractices. It's not my first day in the office. I've been transferred many times thanks to people like you. But as long as I'm here, I'm definitely not going to give my approval. Please go back and if possible, make amends to the proposal according to the law, I will definitely give a green signal then."

Xi Jingfei had always been clear, concise and aphoristic. She knew her jurisdictions and also the extremities within which she had to work. After all, it had been three years since she worked in Administrative Office in different cities and various positions, and recently got promoted as Administrative Chief in City U.

......

After finishing all her meetings for the day with the authorities and officers of various departments of the government, Jingfei finally took a deep breath. At the very moment her phone rang. Soon as she pulled out her phone, her eyes sparkled and a tender and gentle smile curved through her face as she looked at the number flickering through the screen.

It was her fiancé, Lu Cheng, an accountant in a multinational company.

Though they both met on a blind date set by their parents, but in the end it was them who chose each other. Talking to him in an extremely calm yet intense voice as she had always done, Xi Jingfei set in her car, provided by the government, followed by a bodyguard, and leaned in her seat to relax after a long day.

As she got home, she excused herself from the call as she was dead tired and slept on the sofa itself with no care of the world what so ever.

..........

It was midnight, when a deafening sound was heard outside the house. Her watchman quickly got alert and looked around. He could feel something was off but couldn't tell. Her bodyguard had left after dropping her back home.

Someone trespassed the house fencing and came directly to her doorstep. By now Xi Jingfei had already woken up and looked for something to hit with in case someone sneaks in. She was all alert and was about to hit the person knocking her door with the wiper (she couldn't find anything else or maybe she watched too many dramas so she thought the thing was reliable), but as soon as she opened it, she couldn't bring herself to hit him anymore.

“Who’s the freak, knocking my door in the dead of the night? Waking up the sleeping tigress, wanna die?” Though she was a little fearful inside but had always been a brave heart, hence welcomed her visitor with a loud roar.

She was expecting her watchman and not anyone else. But to her shock, it wasn’t anyone she could expect in the wildest of her dreams.

In front of her was a pale faced man, blood dripping down his injured body who couldn't even stand upright but with the help of the wall. His trembling eyes were red, a sweaty face, marks of ropes all over his hands and shaky legs, all together were enough to tell that he had been held and drugged. The sight of the person was shabby but pitiable. Jingfei stood still holding the wiper, couldn't differentiate if it was her dream or reality, after all, it was in the dead of the night she saw a 'ghost', a shabby and injured one at that.

She was in a daze but quickly recovered as the man forced his way in without any explanation. Though she had a mixed feeling regarding the situation and her mind was alerting her to scream and call for the watchman, but her heart asked otherwise. Not dropping her “weapon”, and surrendering to her heart, she followed the man in.

He was panting and was in pain but a bright smile flashed across his sweaty face as he looked at Xi Jingfei with hopeful shining eyes, while she was puzzled by the sudden appearance of the man. It was their first meeting but this man already looked cozy around her while she didn't know what to say anymore.

The man was on clock so without wasting another minute he quickly handed over a Hard Drive to her, leaving some stains of his blood on her hand.

Questioning him about who he was and what was it all about, Xi Jingfei looked with curious but a little frightened expression while there still was a tinge of confidence and tenderness in her eyes.

The man then took off his shoes and turned its dirty sole upside down in a particular fashion for a few times before the sole split into half bringing out his identity card. It was amusing for Xi Jingfei to witness such an amazing way of hiding one’s ID. His id card stated he was a Colonel in Special Military Cell of the nation.

Special Military Cell dealt with underground operations of the army and only the best of the soldiers could qualify for it. No one was allowed anywhere near its headquarters without proper identification. And he was a Colonel at that which showed his superiority in the forces.

"He must have been the best among the best to be able to achieve this post. His built is quite firm just like those in dramas, but he looks more mature or rather fed up. Should I bring first aid kit or listen to him first? Ah, why am I a novice? I have never been in this kind of situation.” Xi Jingfei spaced out for a second.

Not knowing what the girl was thinking, the 40 something official only uttered a few sentences:

"I'm handing over Country K's fate to you. You must protect this Hard Drive somehow, anyhow. Humming Pearl will come to retrieve it from you.

When that time comes, ask:

'Up for a Pool?'

And the answer should be:

'Let them worry while we play hooky'

Looking at the curious girl, the Colonel continued,

"You must give it to that person. I am repeating it again keep this hard drive safe at all costs or else the whole country will witness a blood bath." The colonel was firm and clear as he said with some lingering fear in his shaking voice.

As the man was about to leave, Xi Jingfei curiously asked him why he had to turn to her and how could he trust her with something so important.

" Because, I don't know if you remember but back in City A, two years ago, it was you who stepped right on the road, disregarding your safety, without even batting an eye when someone threw stone at you, just to bring an end to the riots. I was there that time and saw your courage and bravery showing that you truly liked to serve the nation with all your capacity. Moreover, right now I'm in a tight spot, not knowing anyone else in this city more suitable to pull this job neither do I have time to look for one."

Even before Jingfei could reply or bring a first-aid kit for the needy, the man had already flown away nowhere to be found. The only thing that made her believe it was all a reality and not some weird dream of her's, was the Hard Drive in her hand with some traces of blood on it.

It all happened too suddenly that Xi Jingfei couldn't even digest the whole scenario as she recalled it again and again in mind.