Chapter 59

The brothel was located in Ansheng Lane, and the gate was wide open. It was evening, the time to welcome guests from all directions, and Zhou Li and Tang Jing naturally blended in with the guests.

There was constant laughter and the lights were bright. Someone came to the door and greeted them, "Do you two know any flower girls? Or do you need a recommendation?"

It was Zhou Li’s first time here and he didn’t know the ins and outs.

Brothels divide their guests into different classes. The top-class guests have lovers here all year round and have their own private rooms. The middle-class guests rarely come, but when they come for one night they are there to spend their money. Finally, there are the lowest-class guests who can only sit in the lobby to feast their eyes, have a few drinks, and listen to some songs. But if they order a brothel girl, it's a different story, as it means they have some money and can ask the brothel girl to do their bidding.

To put it bluntly, the hustle and bustle is all for profit.

Tang Jing knew the ins and outs of this, but since they had come to gather information, he said, "Let's have a drink."

"There are two guests in the lobby!" The person welcoming the guests said in a loud voice.

Zhou Li followed Tang Jing. Tang Jing chose a table at the back. The tables in the front were already full of people. Many people asked Hua Niang to accompany them. Hua Niang was urging them to drink. The two of them were laughing, cursing and flirting. Zhou Li couldn't stand it and looked away.

Tang Jing acted like a veteran and ordered a pot of wine and a plate of peanuts. Zhou Li raised his eyebrows when he saw the slight contempt in the waiter's eyes.

Tang Jing scanned the entire room and said to Zhou Li in a low voice, "Look at the table in front."

Zhou Li couldn't help but twist her face. Tang Jing's breath sprayed on her ears, and Zhou Li's ears were sensitive and red. Her ears were itchy, so she pinched her earlobe and looked in the direction Tang Jing was looking. It was a foreigner.

The front table, close to the stage, was occupied by foreigners.

There was a flower girl sitting on each person's lap, and they were toasting each other, with a black-haired yellow man in the middle.

Can't hear what they are saying.

Zhou Li couldn't help but frown, feeling strange again. How could foreigners enter the city so openly?

The wine is coming.

Tang Jing picked up the wine jug and asked, "Master, can you drink?"

Zhou Li nodded, Tang Jing poured two cups, and then someone else came on stage. Zhou Li picked up a peanut and put it in his mouth, listening to the little tune on the stage. He felt that although this place was a bit messy, the people performing on stage were really good.

Tang Jing drank two cups of wine in silence, then said to Zhou Li, "I'll go take a look. You sit here and don't move."

Zhou Li waved her hand to show that she understood.

Tang Jing left the table and no one noticed.

Zhou Li listened to the tune while shaking his head, but in fact he was keeping his eyes and ears open.

Tang Jing came back after the little song on the stage was finished. Someone walked over to him. It was not the time to talk, so Tang Jing raised the wine cup and waved it towards Zhou Li. Just as the wine cup was about to his lips, there was suddenly a commotion behind him.

"There's a fire! Someone come and help!!!"

A pungent smoke drifted over. Tang Jing twitched the corners of his lips, raised his head to drink the wine in the glass, pulled Zhou Li's wrist and walked out.

The people who were originally sitting in the lobby were running out in panic. Tang Jing did not explain, but simply said, "Follow me."

She seemed to have a purpose. She grabbed Zhou Li's wrist and walked in the opposite direction of the people who were running out. She turned left and right and entered the backyard of the brothel. At this time, because the front yard was flooded, the defense of the backyard was lax, allowing Tang Jing to easily take Zhou Li in.

She seemed to have found the way just now. Standing behind a rockery, Tang Jing looked at the yard in front and said to Zhou Li, "There are a lot of children locked up in there."

Zhou Li peeked out from behind her and saw that the front yard was flooded, but the guards at the door did not relax.

"Why do they steal so many children?"

Tang Jing shook his head, "The child who was taken away today should be in there."

"Then what should we do?" Zhou Li asked.

Tang Jing's lips curled up, "Let's go open the door."

Zhou Li: “Ah?”

After Tang Jing finished speaking, he walked towards the gate of the courtyard. Zhou Li was startled and hurriedly followed him a step behind.

Her heart was pounding. It's not that she had never killed people before. She had killed many bandits on the road, but she had never thought that saving people would be so open and aboveboard. Zhou Li followed Tang Jing reluctantly.

"Who is it?" A loud shout came from the door.

Tang Jing said calmly, "The one who wants to kill you."

Then she kicked out directly, hitting the other person's lower body with three vicious blows. The other person had no time to react and was kicked down. Then Tang Jing stepped on his neck and broke it. At this time, the other person at the door reacted and ran over. Tang Jing sneered and pulled out the dagger at her waist. With a flying knife, she killed the other person directly. After that, Tang Jing retracted her foot and said to Zhou Li, "Go open the door, they should be ready."

Zhou Li was stunned, lowered his head to look at the two corpses on the ground. Tang Jing walked over, pulled out his dagger, wiped the blood off the corpses, and put it back on his waist.

Zhou Li opened the door. It was not locked but bolted with a wooden bolt. Five little boys of different heights were standing behind the door. The oldest one looked to be only a little over ten years old. He was holding the hand of a child who was only about four or five years old and reached up to his chest.

These children looked very calm, but they looked at Zhou Li with wide eyes and some vigilance. Zhou Li said, "I'm here to save you, come with me!" These children did not move until Tang Jing came over, then they quietly left the yard.

It's very strange that I can't feel the liveliness of children from these children.

There was only one child in the middle who looked more like a child, and that was the one being led by the oldest boy. Tang Jing picked him up to make it easier for the other children to run away. As soon as the child was in Tang Jing's arms, he couldn't help sobbing, tears streaming down his face, but he still tried his best to remain quiet.

Tang Jing killed the people at the back door earlier. Before leaving, Tang Jing set a fire in the backyard and then led everyone to move quickly.

Since I had nowhere to go at the moment, I went to the place where Zhou Li was staying. I was worried that someone would see me if I went through the front door, so I went through the back door.

In the afternoon, Xiaoyuan saw the child being taken away, but Zhou Li didn't see it. Tang Jing knew who it was. It was the one who cried until he fell asleep in her arms. This child's home was in the city, so it was easy to send him away. Zhou Li was asking for the addresses of the other children one by one.

Two of the children were orphans, and two others couldn't tell where their home was.

They all vaguely agreed that the oldest boy was the leader. Seeing that his questioning was unclear, Zhou Li said to Tang Jing, "Why don't we send them to the government? They should have their population files."

"No!" cried the oldest boy, biting his lower lip. "You can take us out of the city and we can walk on our own!"

Zhou Li frowned: "You are too young and without parents. It is very dangerous."

The boy said, "I was originally a beggar, and I can continue to beg!"

"Then do you want to continue begging with your friends?" Zhou Li asked seriously.

The boy looked at his companions standing behind him and said through gritted teeth, "The government officials are all bad people. Why don't I take them with me to beg for food?"

Tang Jing put the sleeping little boy on the bed in the room, walked over and shook his head at Zhou Li, then said to the boy, "Don't say angry words."

The little boy puffed his lips but didn't refute.

Tang Jing let them play aside, grabbed Zhou Li's hand and pulled him under the eaves. He looked at the children and said to Zhou Li, "Was the person stolen by someone from the City Lord's Mansion?"

Zhou Li: ???

Zhou Li: "Why do they steal children?"

Tang Jing pursed his lips, and a hint of chilliness revealed at the corners of his lips.

"The old prince's birthday is coming soon. They are picking out some chubby, fair-skinned children, training them up, and sending them over."

Zhou Li's chest heaved, his eyes widened, and it took him a long time to utter two words: "Beast!"

Tang Jing narrowed his eyes slightly, then looked at Zhou Li in the moonlight and said, "Do you think he is a good person? He is nothing but a fraud."

Zhou Li suffocated.

The old prince was a well-known philanthropist. He had stopped the northern government from shooting the poor many times. He also treated civilians with an educative attitude and presided over the Westernization movement. He was an old man with relatively modern ideas.

This time, the Ranger Hall also wanted to contact this old man and see if he could change the atmosphere in the Northern Court. The people below only cater to the emperor's wishes. I didn't expect that he would be such a person in private...

Zhou Li took a deep breath, the shock in her heart made her feel nauseous.

The oldest of those children was only ten years old, and he didn't even let young children go. How could we trust his character?

Tang Jing knew much more than Zhou Li, but they had different positions, so there was a lot of information she could not reveal. In the future, she would have to use Zhou Li's identity to infiltrate the enemy, and it would be best if she could influence Zhou Li to work for them.

She looked over with a gloomy look and said, "Don't worry about these children. My people will come and take them away."

Zhou Li still couldn't help it, she covered her stomach and retched twice, she waved her hand and said, "I know."

Zhou Li looked dazed. Tang Jing raised his hand and patted her back twice.

Zhou Li covered his mouth, feeling guilty.

She was clueless, so she said she'd take the children to the authorities. If she really sent them there, wouldn't that be like escaping from a tiger's lair and falling into a wolf's den? They were all birds of a feather.

She turned around and looked at the group of children standing obediently in the yard. She couldn't bear it and said, "Let them rest first. It's late."

Tang Jing nodded.

Xiaoyuan took care of the child who was sent into the room. Zhou Li gave up her bed. Several children slept in a row, but there was no place for her. Zhou Li watched everyone lie down and planned to lie on the table for the night. She sent Tang Jing out. Tang Jing glanced at the room and said to Zhou Li, "Why don't you stay in my room for the night?"

Zhou Li shook his head, "It's okay."

Tang Jing said, "We'll still be relying on you to get into the City Lord's Mansion tomorrow, so get some rest today."

Zhou Li raised an eyebrow, suddenly remembering something, and asked, "Do you know what's going on with the foreigners who appeared in the city?"

Tang Jing paused for a moment at the question. She hadn't expected Zhou Li to be so perceptive. She whispered, "The foreigners are making a deal with the city lord."

Zhou Li frowned. "Are they doing business? Didn't the Northern Government designate trading cities?"

Tang Jing's expression was grim. She said, "The city lord sold Rui County to foreigners in exchange for guns, ammunition, and rare treasures."

Zhou Li took a breath of cold air.

Isn't this tantamount to treason? It would be better to have Zhang Mei call us! Shoot all these traitors and pedophiles to death!

Zhou Li's head was throbbing with pain.

The information she received that night was about to burst her head.

Zhou Lisheng waved his hand helplessly and said, "I think I need to have a good talk with the hall about this."

Is the pedantic Northern government really worth saving? Perhaps it's rotten to the core; it's better to establish a new government.

Tang Jing smiled for the first time that night, "Welcome to the Ranger Hall to cooperate with us."