Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The task of meeting with the buyer was originally assigned to "High Cheekbones." None of the traffickers looked like decent people, but picking the best of the worst, High Cheekbones did appear slightly "less threatening" compared to the fierce-looking Baldie and Scarface.

Baldie naturally assumed it would be High Cheekbones again this time. He was already plotting how to escape with the remaining kids once they left, planning to relocate and continue living well elsewhere. To his surprise, Shen Banyue casually pointed at him, designating him to lead the way and make the contact.

As for Scarface and High Cheekbones, Shen Banyue found some more hemp rope and, using the skills honed from tying up zombies, expertly bound them again, ensuring they had absolutely no chance of escaping.

Watching from the side, Baldie's mouth twitched. For a moment, he couldn't decide who was worse off—himself, forced to lead the way, or his trussed-up companions.

The trafficker (Baldie) couldn't understand it. This little girl had been timid and trembling before. How had she suddenly undergone such a drastic change in temperament and gained immense strength?

And how, at such a young age, was she so skilled and efficient at tying people up?

He even began to suspect they had fallen victim to a pig-butchering scam—a financial fraud where someone pretended to sell a child to swindle money.

Ignoring Baldie, whose face kept shifting between pale and livid, Shen Banyue walked around the small courtyard before heading to the room where the children were held to bring Xiao Dizi out.

The other children watched them with longing eyes. Shen Banyue casually instructed, "Wait here quietly. Someone will come to rescue you." Without waiting for their reaction, she locked the door again.

The padlock felt heavy in her hand, but such locks weren't actually hard to pick. Concerned for the children's safety, Shen Banyue wiped her thumb across the keyhole.

A faint, almost imperceptible glimmer flashed at the bottom of the padlock. Inside the keyhole, invisible to anyone, the metal subtly deformed: the locking bolt twisted, the lock core jammed. No key could ever open this lock again.

Xiao Dizi, completely unaware, looked at the locked door, then at Shen Banyue, and said softly, "The brothers are being good, Xiao Dizi is good too."

Shen Banyue patted the little girl's messy head and picked her up, holding her with one arm. "That's right, you be good. Sister will take you down the mountain."

The original host had suffered from long-term malnutrition, with thin arms and legs. Xiao Dizi, however, was one of the rare chubby babies of this era. Holding her, Shen Banyue looked even more top-heavy and unsteady.

But her steps were remarkably firm, as if she were carrying not a child nearly her own weight, but a wisp of cotton.

Although Baldie wasn't trussed up like a zongzi, Shen Banyue had also tied him to a pillar earlier and only now untied him.

Outside the courtyard gate was a well-trodden mountain path. It branched off into several trails: some leading downhill, some deeper into the villages in the mountains, and others leading to deadly traps.

Suddenly, Baldie felt hopeful again.

Hemp rope wasn't easy to untie; otherwise, they would have freed themselves last night. So, staying in the courtyard didn't necessarily offer a chance to escape.

Compared to being tied up, leading the way outside clearly offered a better opportunity to run.

Over the next hour or so, he led Shen Banyue and Xiao Dizi near hidden hunter's traps three times. Yet, each time, Shen Banyue stopped precisely two steps away from the trap, casually kicked a stone, and exposed the trap's camouflage.

Another four times, Baldie tried to lose Shen Banyue using the branching paths and cover of vegetation. But despite her short legs and carrying a child, Shen Banyue effortlessly ran ahead of him each time, turned around, and kicked him to the ground.

After repeated failures, Baldie led Shen Banyue to a fourth trap.

"You seem to like traps so much. Should I kick you down into this one?"

Shen Banyue looked up at Baldie. Despite the upward angle, her gaze felt like she was looking down at an insignificant insect. This thin, small child possessed an immovable, imposing aura.

If not for the vigorous "Destroy the Four Olds" campaign of recent years, the trafficker might have suspected he was seeing a ghost.

How was this possible?

This was the largest, deepest, and most hidden trap on this mountain. The first three traps were for catching game for a meal; strictly speaking, they might have had some flaws. But this trap was designed "just in case" for dealing with people, and naturally, it was disguised to the utmost.

Yet it was useless. The little girl had spotted it at a glance.

Baldie looked at the now-exposed trap.

The bottom of the huge pit was densely planted with sharpened bamboo stakes, each meticulously sharpened. Not just a person, even a thick-skinned wild boar falling in would be turned into a pincushion.

A chill shot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Baldie suddenly realized with stark clarity: it was almost impossible for him to kill this little girl, but for her to kill him would be very simple.

Don't think a child wouldn't dare. Traffickers understood better than anyone that the willingness to commit evil had nothing to do with age.

The little girl's eyes made it clear she wasn't joking.

The villainous trafficker collapsed to the ground, fear making his whole body tremble. His voice shook as he wept, wishing he could kowtow to Shen Banyue. "No, don't! You can't do that! Without me, you won't find your way out... No, I mean, I won't dare anymore, I really won't dare!"

Shen Banyue watched him silently until the trafficker began swearing oaths, vowing that if he tried any more tricks, his guts would rot and he'd be fed to wild dogs after death. Only then did she nod, release her hand from covering Xiao Dizi's eyes, and turn to leave.

For such a selfish and malicious person, a poisonous oath sworn upon oneself held a shred of credibility.

Of course, mainly, Shen Banyue could see he was genuinely terrified. As he himself said, he probably wouldn't dare play any more tricks.

Sure enough, for the rest of the journey, Baldie was extremely obedient. He no longer dared to take detours or zigzag. Whatever Shen Banyue asked, he answered truthfully and in detail, even volunteering extra information, fearing to upset this little mistress.

"This mountain forest? It belongs to the Yunling Commune. The area behind belongs to the Mingxing Commune. Both are quite far from the villages, so usually no one comes this way. A small band of bandits used to hide in these mountains, but they were wiped out over a decade ago. People are still afraid and don't venture too deep."

"The courtyard? It belonged to an old hunter. His wife and children were killed by the bandits, and he died a few years ago. Old Hu, the one with the high cheekbones, is his cousin's son. He took over the place. It's hidden in the mountains; even if kids cry loudly, no one would know. Walking east for over an hour leads to the commune government. There's a provincial highway there that goes to Jiangcheng."

...

Remote deep mountains, yet not far from a provincial highway connecting to the industrial hub of Jiangcheng. For the traffickers, it was indeed an ideal base, offering both offensive and defensive advantages.

Moreover, most buyers for women and children were also in the mountains.

In Yunling Commune, Mingxing Commune, and Qishan Commune on the other side of Yunling, among those rolling mountains, there were many families dirt-poor yet willing to spend a lifetime's savings to buy a wife or a son.

—

The sense of a drab era wasn't obvious in the deep mountains, but upon reaching the commune, it hit you head-on.

The roads were yellow dirt paths paved with gravel. The houses were low, grey-brick structures, some even made of mud bricks. Among the people walking the streets, not a single one wore bright clothes; the palette was almost exclusively black, gray, dark blue, and indigo.

However, perhaps not yet corrupted by smartphones and cutthroat success philosophies, people's eyes were exceptionally bright, their smiles particularly radiant. Their mental state could put to shame the modern world's living dead and the despairing, lost survivors of the apocalypse.

Shen Banyue and the others entered a state-run restaurant by the roadside.

Today happened to be market day in Yunling Commune. Thrifty Jiangcheng residents would come in groups to the rural market, procuring unticketed mountain mushrooms, wild goods, and daily necessities from the commune members. Consequently, the state-run restaurant was filled with unfamiliar faces.

Whether it was the buyers, who were scheming with dangerous partners and inevitably worried about their own lives and property, or the traffickers, who needed to hide their tracks to avoid capture, both sides required a meeting location advantageous to themselves. Presumably, after mutual compromise, they had settled on this time and place.

Shen Banyue's group took a seat by the window, from which they could see an old-fashioned bus with "Serve the People" painted on its side wobble to a stop by the roadside. The door opened, disgorging a crowd of passengers far exceeding its official capacity.

These passengers wore clothes in similar color schemes to the commune residents, but with far fewer patches. After dispersing in small groups, some headed straight into the state-run restaurant.

"The meat buns at this state-run restaurant are substantial; the filling is twice as much as in the city. I always come here on an empty stomach for breakfast on market days."

Truly thrifty Jiangcheng people.

No wonder the restaurant was still almost full even though breakfast hours were long past.

Baldie also went to buy buns, returning with a full enamel basin. Shen Banyue noticed Xiao Dizi secretly swallowing her saliva several times.

The little one was well-behaved, not crying or making a fuss, just staring longingly at the buns.

But they couldn't dig in just yet. After all, they were supposed to be pitiful little victims of human trafficking. How could a cruel-hearted trafficker possibly be so kind as to give "merchandise" meat buns? If they were seen eating and drinking contentedly, living a cozy little life, how could they possibly attract the sympathy and attention of kind-hearted people—their future adoptive parents, Shen Guoqiang and Lin Xiaohui?

Though she didn't know exactly who they were, Shen Banyue knew they should be among these diners.

"Is this seat taken?" A woman with slanted eyes and graying hair planted herself in the seat opposite Shen Banyue and Xiao Dizi. After a conspicuously furtive glance around, she lowered her voice and asked, "You're Old Jiang's nephew from Xiashan Village?"

Bald glanced at Shen Banyue and nodded.

The woman didn't notice Bald's glance. She stared at Xiao Dizi, who looked as delicate as a porcelain doll, for a while, a satisfied expression flickering across her face. But her words were different: "Such a tiny little girl. Too expensive. Take off another twenty?"

Bald was dumbfounded. *What does she think this is, a farmers' market?*

"Take it or leave it," Bald shot back gruffly, his brow furrowed.

"Hey, how can you talk like that? Old Jiang said you were easygoing and reasonable..." The woman turned her head and met Bald's menacing glare. The rest of her words died in her throat. That Old Jiang was a liar. If this was "easygoing," then she was the merciful Guanyin Bodhisattva herself.

The woman's eyes darted, and her tone instantly softened. "Brother, Old Jiang and I go back decades. We're practically old acquaintances by association. How about this—you throw in this older girl for me too." She gestured with her chin toward Shen Banyue. "One kid to raise, two kids to raise—it's all the same. I'll do a good deed and take them both."

The woman's mental abacus was clacking away. A girl this big could already wash clothes, cook, and earn work points. Just feed her a little, raise her for a few years, and she could be exchanged for a hefty bride price. Take her back and say she was found abandoned—people would even praise her for her kindness.

She wanted both the bargain and the good reputation, unwilling to let any benefit slip away.

Bald almost laughed in her face. *The nerve of this woman.*

He shot another glance at Shen Banyue, then suddenly stood and slapped the woman—*crack!*