Chapter 85 Escape

Upon receiving news of Song Yushu's disappearance, Xue Huai'an could no longer sit still. After arranging for people to handle matters at the academy, he rushed to the prefectural city.

"The number of people reported missing in the prefectural city during this period has reached over a hundred!" Gu Cheng originally used the evidence he had to force the prefectural city prefect to send a doctor to treat the injuries of the people who were performing corvée labor and to replace the officials in charge of the corvée labor. He never expected that the missing persons case would be involved now.

"According to the families of the missing persons, the prefect had just arrested a group of human traffickers, but the trafficked people have not yet been found..."

"It's impossible that not a single one has been found, and with so many kidnappers arrested, why are more and more people going missing? This doesn't make sense. Could it be that this Prefect She is trying to gain merit..."

Gu Cheng had a headache at this moment. Seeing that Xue Huai'an's expression was not right, he could only comfort his junior brother first. After all, Boss Wei had been missing for three days. If he couldn't find him soon, his junior brother would probably turn the whole city upside down. He was even afraid that his junior brother would overwork himself and die before he could find him.

Song Yushu was imprisoned for three days, and all he ate each day was water and steamed buns. He couldn't get enough to eat, let alone escape.

"Hurry up! Everyone, come out!"

Song Yushu, who was still asleep, heard a sharp shout and guessed that they were about to be sent away. Song Yushu's heart skipped a beat, and she felt that the situation was getting worse.

"What are you dawdling for? Hurry up and get on the carriage!" The trafficker shoved her over when he saw that she hadn't boarded the carriage yet.

"This carriage is too big, let's get another one!" Song Yushu was pushed into another carriage.

"Waaah!"

Song Yushu was initially depressed because the human traffickers had moved to a different location, but after noticing the people in the carriage, he finally felt a little relieved. At least Xiong Erni was alright. He never expected that the two of them would be put into the same carriage by mistake.

She rolled over and leaned against Xiong Erni, unnoticed by the other women in the carriage.

After a long time, the carriage still hadn't stopped. Song Yushu felt increasingly uneasy. When entering the prefectural city, there would be officials checking people. Surely they would ask questions about several carriages going out so late at night, unless the officials knew who was in the carriages. Song Yushu had completely lost hope in the officials of the prefectural city. They were all snakes and rats, and there wasn't a single normal one among them.

"Take a break first. You watch over them while I go get some food."

Song Yushu woke up groggily and heard the trafficker's words. She had finally gotten her chance.

Xiong Erni was woken up by her and found that they were still in the carriage, which made her feel dejected.

Song Yushu moved the rope in her hand, and it had loosened a lot. This was the result of her and Xiong Erni's hard work all night.

There were eight human traffickers outside, in four carriages, but they were all carrying knives, so they couldn't be careless.

Song Yushu and Xiong Erni had a tacit understanding. They waited quietly for a while, and when they didn't hear any noise, they leaned closer to the carriage curtain and looked out. Outside was a forest.

The human traffickers outside were roasting meat over a fire, while only one or two were checking each carriage by lifting the curtain.

"Boss, is it really necessary to be so strict? We've come all this way, hurry up and let the brothers come over and have some meat!"

"That's right, they're all women and children, what's there to be afraid of? Running away is just a dead end anyway."

Song Yushu had originally planned to take the opportunity to escape with Xiong Erni, but upon hearing this, his heart sank. It seemed he would have to wait and see.

After the traffickers rested and regrouped, they continued their journey. Song Yushu clearly felt that the road was more rugged, and the people in the carriage were shaken so badly that one of the women couldn't help but vomit.

The others also began to vomit violently. Song Yu, the scholar, was utterly despondent, as there was no way to avoid contact with the vomit.

"vomit!"

"Damn it! Make them go wash up. We're almost there. How can we raise the price if they're this filthy?" The voice of the human traffickers cursing came from outside.

Song Yushu finally crawled out of the filthy carriage and was led to the river by the traffickers.

The river was very deep, and Song Yushu and the others were driven to a place that was waist-deep to wash off the filth on their bodies.

"Hurry up and wash your clothes clean! Don't try anything funny!" The traffickers had no intention of untying them; they just left them soaking in the river.

Seeing that the river was now full of captured women and children, Song Yushu roughly counted more than thirty. Perhaps realizing that they were in the water and tied with ropes, they had no way to escape, he left only two traffickers on the bank to watch over them.

"Can you swim?" When Song Yushu saw the human trafficker staring at him, he turned around and asked Xiong Erni in a low voice. Xiong Erni nodded gently.

At this moment, seeing that Song Yushu had turned his back, the traffickers shifted their attention to the other people.

"Walk!"

After untying the rope, Song Yushu saw that the traffickers weren't looking this way and immediately pulled Xiong Erni towards the deep water.

The river water was icy cold, but Song Yushu dared not stop for a moment. After confirming that Xiong Erni was still behind him, he began to swim to the other side with all his might.

"Damn it! Are you blind? You could see someone and let them get away! You idiot!"

Curses and shouts came from behind, followed by a thud. Song Yushu knew that the human traffickers had caught up with them and they absolutely could not be caught.

Just as Song Yushu was about to reach the other side and was about to climb ashore, his foot was grabbed and pulled down.

"Gurgle..."

"Bang!"

"Ouch!" Song Yushu choked on several mouthfuls of river water before climbing out. The trafficker who had been holding her feet had his head smashed by Xiong Erni with a stone, and a patch of blood-red water floated in the river.

Xiong Erni picked up another rock and threw it at the human trafficker who was about to show his face. The human trafficker, who was about to swim over, did not dare to come any closer and was caught in a dilemma.

Song Yushu was relieved that only three of the human traffickers could swim at this time. Two of them had already been knocked unconscious by Xiong Erni and were floating in the water, their fate unknown. The third one was still soaking in the river and didn't dare to come up.

"Let's go!" Seeing that the human trafficker's face was pale from the cold and he turned to swim back, Song Yushu quickly left with Xiong Erni.

The two women were cold and hungry, but they dared not stop. If the human traffickers managed to cross the river, they would have no chance to shake them off. They could only run forward as fast as they could while they still had time.

As darkness fell, they were still in a forest, and had no choice but to find a place to rest.

Without fire, and with their clothes soaking wet, Song Yushu was shivering. Fortunately, they had found a fairly secluded cave.

Before it got completely dark, the two gathered some firewood.

"Speed ​​up!" Song Yushu secured the wood and had Xiong Erni rub it with the stick as hard as she could. This was their third attempt. It was completely dark, and if they couldn't start a fire, the two of them would probably freeze all night.

"It's done!" Song Yushu didn't dare to slack off at all. He poured the tinder into the pile of dry pine needles, and sparks quickly rose.