Fan Sheng and Fan Siyuan followed the bearded man into a secluded alley.
Before entering the courtyard, the bearded man glanced warily in their direction. Fortunately, Fan Sheng pulled his son away in time to hide, narrowly avoiding the man's gaze.
Fan Sheng could tell from the way the man with the thick beard walked that he was definitely a trained fighter.
After everyone went inside, he whispered, "Yuan'er, you wait here. Father will go check the yard."
"Dad...you must be careful," Fan Siyuan said, looking at his father with concern.
For a fleeting moment, he wanted to stop Fan Sheng from going. What if they encountered danger? Was it worth taking this risk for a complete stranger?
But then I thought of my younger sister, who was about the same age as that little girl. If it were my sister who was in trouble right now, how much she would wish for a kind person to save her.
"Don't worry, Yuan'er, your father won't act rashly," Fan Sheng reassured his son, knowing what he was thinking.
If he hadn't encountered this kind of thing, he would have let it go, but if he had, he absolutely couldn't have just stood by and done nothing.
Fan Sheng nimbly climbed the courtyard wall, and seeing that no one was in the courtyard, he quietly slipped inside.
The sound of men talking could be heard from inside the house:
"This batch is pretty good. She looks like a girl from a wealthy family; she should fetch a good price. Where did you get her, Ma Zi?"
"Hehe, others are offering themselves up; those wealthy families have plenty of dirty secrets to tell."
"Pah, those rich people may look respectable, but they can be incredibly ruthless in private."
"Why bother with all that? It's none of our business anyway. We should leave when Lao He comes back."
"Once this batch of goods is sold, how about we go to a brothel and have some fun, brothers?"
"Haha, we have to go! It's been so long since I've seen Miss Ying'er."
"Beard, aren't you afraid of dying in that little slut's bed one day...?"
......
Fan Sheng could already tell from their conversation that they were a group of human traffickers.
He glanced at the room not far away that was locked with a padlock; the abducted child must be locked inside.
Fan Siyuan waited anxiously outside, biting his fingers incessantly. Just as he was about to think something had happened to his father, Fan Sheng finally returned.
“Yuan’er, I have confirmed that those people are human traffickers. Go and report to the authorities right now. I will stay here to prevent them from moving the people along the way.”
Fan Siyuan pursed his lips nervously, but finally nodded: "Okay, Dad, if there is any danger, remember not to be reckless. If you need to run away, then run away."
"Don't worry, don't you believe in my abilities?" Fan Sheng patted his son's head.
Not long after Fan Siyuan left, Fan Sheng saw a tall, thin man driving a carriage.
After the man got off the carriage, he went into the courtyard. A short while later, several men came out, each carrying a wooden box.
Fan Sheng glanced at the wooden box and realized something was wrong; these people were about to leave.
Seeing that everyone had boarded the carriage, Fan Sheng gritted his teeth and finally decided to rush out and block the carriage.
"Wait a moment".
The skinny man rushing to catch the carriage saw Fan Sheng suddenly appear and looked surprised and uncertain: "What are you doing? Get out of the way!"
Fan Sheng gave a simple, honest smile: "Brother, I have something I want to ask you. Do you know if there's a family named Ma around here?"
"What surnamed Ma? Never heard of him. Get lost!" the bearded man scolded impatiently.
"If I don't know, I don't know. I was just asking for directions. Your attitude is terrible," Fan Sheng frowned unhappily, looking like he was ready to argue with them to the end.
The bearded man immediately tried to attack Fan Sheng, but Old He stopped him. Old He looked at Fan Sheng with a smile and said, "Young man, we really have something urgent to attend to. Would you mind making way for us?"
“Of course you can move aside, I didn’t block you on purpose, but he has to apologize to me,” Fan Sheng said, pointing to the fierce-looking man with the thick beard.
An impatience flashed in Lao He's eyes, but they knew it wasn't the right time to escalate the situation, so they tried to suppress their anger.
"Bearded man, apologize to this young man."
Having received a gesturing look from Lao He, the bearded man impatiently apologized to Fan Sheng.
Fan Sheng still refused to give way, clinging to the man's beard. The two went back and forth like this for a few rounds until Old He finally realized that something was wrong with the man in front of him.
Old He gestured to his three brothers beside him, and the next second they all attacked Fan Sheng.
Fortunately, Fan Sheng had been on guard the other party. Upon seeing this, he turned tail and ran away, shouting as he ran, "Help! Someone's going to kill me!"
This action instantly enraged Lao He, who then launched a fierce attack on Fan Sheng at lightning speed.
Fan Sheng hadn't expected his opponent to be so fast. It was too late to dodge, so he could only take the blow head-on.
The next second, both of them were thrown several meters away at the same time, and a trace of blood spilled from the corner of Fan Sheng's mouth.
Old He coughed twice and said dismissively, "Heh, I didn't expect this kid to have some skills. Pockmarked Beard, don't hold back."
Fan Sheng clutched his chest, watching the four people opposite him warily. He couldn't defeat one person alone, let alone four of them together.
Son, if you don't come soon, your old man will be beaten to death.
Heaven seemed to have heard Fan Sheng's prayers. Footsteps echoed from the alley entrance, followed by a dozen or so constables rushing towards them.
Fan Sheng's eyes lit up, and he shouted to the constables, "Sirs, those people are human traffickers, arrest them quickly!"
Old He and his men didn't even bother with the carriage; they turned around and tried to escape.
"Dad, how are you?" Fan Siyuan ran over breathlessly and saw that there were still bloodstains on the corner of Fan Sheng's mouth that hadn't been wiped clean. His eyes immediately turned red.
Fan Sheng smiled nonchalantly: "Father is fine, thanks to Yuan'er who arrived in time."
Fan Siyuan smiled faintly, feeling glad that he had brought the person over in time.
As soon as he arrived at the yamen, he encountered about a dozen constables rushing out. He mustered his courage and stopped one of them, but the man impatiently pushed him aside and warned him not to interfere with official business.
Seeing this, Fan Siyuan could only loudly proclaim that he had discovered a group of human traffickers, and that he had seen a three- or four-year-old girl being abducted. Upon hearing this, the group of constables immediately stopped and asked him urgently where the human traffickers were.
Then he led the group of constables this way.
Seeing that the constables were busy arresting people, Fan Sheng led Fan Siyuan to the carriage and opened all the wooden boxes. Sure enough, they found three children sleeping inside.
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