Chapter 58: Night Visit to Steamed Tiger Crab
In the darkness, Zhou Yuesheng and Ning Tan looked at each other.
"Human trafficking." Ning Tan said gritting his teeth.
When he came to Huaxi Village during the day before, he didn't see any young and middle-aged women, which he thought was strange. He never thought that they were imprisoned to give birth to children for business.
He wished he could rush up and beat those people up right now.
"Find out where the others are being held first." Zhou Yuesheng asked him to calm down.
Captain Du is not here. He must have gone to the place where he is imprisoned.
This time, the two did not act separately. Instead, they groped around Captain Du's yard, looking for his traces.
The whole village was dark and extremely quiet.
Suddenly, a courtyard with candlelight came into their sight.
Zhou Yuesheng quietly climbed into the yard and heard two female voices.
"Someone saw me today."
"Who?" The girl's voice revealed a bit of nervousness, and she looked out the window.
Zhou Yuesheng saw the girl's face clearly through the gap and hid to the side.
"The boy who went up the mountain with you before."
Du Nanzhi breathed a sigh of relief: "Wu Sheng, it's okay, he won't tell Du Zijun."
"The man I went to see before came to the village several times, but he didn't seem to notice their dirty deeds."
Du Nanzhi comforted him: "It's okay, just wait a little longer. I asked about him in the town, he used to be very powerful in the army."
"But, are you really going to be okay?" Another girl turned her head away, her hair fluttering to the side.
When Zhou Yuesheng saw the scar on her face, he knew she was the woman Ning Tan had been looking for.
"We sold those flowers and plants for ten dollars last time. If things don't work out, we can hide in the valley and let them not find us." Du Nanzhi didn't know what she was thinking about and was shaking with fear.
Zhou Yuesheng made a bird-like sound and asked Ning Tan to enter the yard.
Unexpectedly, Du Nanzhi in the house grabbed a stick and ran out the door, pointing at where he was, and said, "Who? Who is there? Come out."
There was another sound of footsteps, and another girl ran out with a candle.
Zhou Yuesheng walked into the candlelight range.
"It's you." Du Nanzhi breathed a sigh of relief, but still didn't put down the stick, "How do you know this secret code?"
"Do you understand?" Zhou Yuesheng asked back.
Du Nanzhi did not answer his question directly, and continued to ask: "Are you in the same group with them?"
Ning Tan climbed over the wall and landed on the ground, making a slight sound.
Du Nanzhi and the girl looked at him.
"You, you are all in the same group. You are in the same group with them." Du Nanzhi's voice trembled and his expression collapsed.
Zhou Yuesheng said in a deep voice: "I am Yu Zhile's fiancé, we are here to help you."
"Come in." Du Nanzhi's arms were weak and the wooden stick hung at his side.
Zhou Yuesheng and Ning Tan followed them in.
There were two beds in the room, and a little girl was sleeping soundly on one of them.
Ning Tan told them what he had just seen and asked, "Do you know that Huaxi Village is engaged in human trafficking?"
"A month ago, I saw their handover scene." Du Nanzhi was trembling all over. That scene left a deep impression on her.
Ning Tan paused and asked, "Do you know where they are hiding people?"
"I only know one thing. There are more than a dozen pregnant women in the cellar of Captain Du's ancestral home." Du Nanzhi's teeth were chattering, making a creaking sound. "The neighbor's sister is in there. She is not herself anymore."
The girl held her in her arms and stroked her back again and again.
"A bunch of beasts!" Ning Tan lowered his voice and punched his thigh.
The girl didn't let Du Nanzhi speak anymore and took over the conversation: "Gao Liangyi was involved in this matter. He threatened me before. He said that if I didn't obey, he would take me to Huaxi Village and sell me."
Zhou Yuesheng pondered for a moment and said, "We will send you to a safe place."
"Where are the others?" When Du Nanzhi looked up again, her face was already in tears.
Zhou Yuesheng promised: "Everyone will be rescued within a week at the latest."
"I won't leave. I want to see them get the punishment they deserve." Du Nanzhi hated them to the core. "Take my sister and Shanshan away."
"No, I can't leave you here alone." Bai Qishan rejected her proposal.
Ning Tan said: "Tomorrow evening, under the big tree on the hillside, I will send someone to pick up your sister. I will also send someone to protect your safety later."
"Okay." Du Nanzhi agreed.
On the way back, Zhou Yuesheng and Ning Tan remained silent.
Nearing Haiyu Village, the two stopped under the same big tree again.
"Want a cigarette?" Ning Tan took out a cigarette box.
Zhou Yuesheng didn't answer: "I quit."
In the pitch darkness, the little lights flickered on and off, and then flickered on again.
"Ning Tan, this matter must be his doing. He is making money from it." Zhou Yuesheng said.
From Du Nanzhi's reaction to the code, he was sure that this matter was related to the person behind the Hornets.
But who was he? They had no idea.
"Wait for news from Haiying." Ning Tan put out his last cigarette.
The two separated, Zhou Yuesheng returned to Yu's home, and Ning Tan returned to the city.
At daybreak, Zhang Wenxin and Ge Tai walked into Yu's house together.
"Le Le, the documents are ready. Ge Tai and I will go to the commune to apply now." Zhang Wenxin said.
Ge Tai nodded and told her about the construction period of the clay pot.
"Okay, if it can be approved in the next few days, we will start setting up the stall at the next big market." Yu Zhile has almost finished preparing the work on hand.
The next big market is in ten days, and then the first batch of pickled peppers will be ready to eat.
"Great!" Zhang Wenxin was full of enthusiasm.
Ge Tai rode his bike to take her to the commune and waited to submit the application materials.
After a while, Liu Ying came back from outside and chatted with the two of them for a while.
She looked at Zhang Wenxin with admiration, mixed with a bit of kindness.
Soon, their application was approved.
"Ge Tai, when did you get to know Secretary Liu?" Zhang Wenxin was very curious and couldn't help asking on the way back to the village.
Ge Tai remembered the agreement with Grandma Zhang and answered vaguely: "I met her through an elder."
"Wow, thanks to you, otherwise I would not have passed so quickly." Zhang Wenxin was in a good mood and swung his legs.
"It's all thanks to you." Ge Tai said softly.
Zhang Wenxin asked: "What are you talking about?"
"No." Ge Tai avoided the stones and potholes on the road and rode the bike steadily.
After returning to the village, Zhang Wenxin couldn't wait to share the good news with Yu Zhile.
"This is great news." Yu Zhile echoed.
When Zhang Wenxin talked about Liu Ying's attitude towards her, she looked at Ge Tai. Things didn't seem as simple as he said.
However, she did not expose Ge Tai's lies.
"Then let's go fishing together tonight and make a delicious meal." Yu Zhile smiled with his eyes curved.
It was soon afternoon, and Zhang Wenxin went to Yu's courtyard to find her, and the two went out to catch seafood.
Yu Zhile changed the title of the live broadcast room to - Uncompleted immersive sea-hunting.
May is the time when clams are at their fattest and there are more of them, so they picked up a lot along the tide line.
Walking onto the beach, you can see a few starfish and shells here and there.
Yu Zhile suddenly found a bulge and called Zhang Wenxin to come closer to take a look.
"Traces of tiger crabs." She pointed to the raised sand and pried it up along the crack with a bamboo stick.
A crab flew out, and the surface of its shell was printed with dark spots on both sides, which looked like tiger eyes at first glance.
Yu Zhile held down the crab that was about to escape, picked it up and weighed it, saying, "About half a pound, and it's been growing for three or four years."
"The weirder it looks, the better it tastes." Zhang Wenxin recalled the snails he had eaten before and made a witty remark.
The audience in the live broadcast room left comments agreeing with her statement.
"It tastes very fresh, but there's more skin than meat." Yu Zhile put it into the bamboo basket and said with a smile, "It's in season now. If you look for traces like this, you'll definitely find one."
Hearing this, Zhang Wenxin rubbed his hands and said, "Then let's eat as much as we can today."
Then, like an arrow shot from a bow, she rushed to another part of the beach and began to look carefully for the same traces.
Yu Zhile searched slowly in the opposite direction and occasionally found a flower crab.
"Flower crabs can also be marinated raw, and they taste very good." She introduced the raw marinated method of eating them to the audience in the live broadcast room.
Due to the limited sanitary conditions at the time, she still planned to steam it.
It was a low tide today, and the tide started to rise soon.
"Friends, today's live broadcast ends here. I won't broadcast cooking tonight. I wish you all to eat and drink well." Yu Zhile said goodbye to the audience.
Then she turned around and shouted loudly for Zhang Wenxin to go home.
Zhang Wenxin ran towards her excitedly, and the bamboo basket made a rustling sound as she ran. The harvest was very rich.
Back in the courtyard, Yu Zhile poured the clams into a wooden basin to spit out the sand, preparing to wash the crabs clean.
Chen Zhao asked about the side dishes he needed and went out to pick them.
"Go call Ge Tai and the three sisters of the Zhang family, and let's have dinner together tonight." Yu Zhile suddenly spoke.
Zhang Wenxin was puzzled: "Didn't we agree to have another meeting in three days?"
"Having a meal and getting to know each other will facilitate the follow-up work," said Yu Zhile.
Zhang Wenxin didn't say anything else and went out directly.
Ge Tai came back with Zhang Wenxin, and the three Zhang sisters said they would arrive later.
Start steaming the steamer five minutes in advance and steam the crabs for more than ten minutes.
While waiting, Yu Zhile made stir-fried clams and stir-fried leeks.
"Young ginger is juicy and tastes best when chopped and mixed with aged vinegar." She taught Zhang Wenxin and Ge Tai some tips and warmed up a small pot of rice wine.
"For you." The three sisters of the Zhang family hurried over and each of them stuffed a bouquet of flowers into Yu Zhile's hand.
Yu Zhile was quite surprised and thanked him with a smile.
The three sisters were a little awkward at first, but after Zhang Wenxin talked to them for a while, they gradually became comfortable.
The moment you lift the lid of the pot, the whole yard is filled with delicious aroma, making everyone immersed in it.
The crab juice is sweet, the crab roe is delicious, and the crab meat coated with ginger vinegar sauce has a rich flavor. Everyone sighed in unison.
Yu Zhile poured a small cup of rice wine for the people in the sideline group, raised his glass, and said, "I wish our sideline group will do better and better."
The wine glasses clinked together with a slight sound, and everyone drank it all in one gulp.
"I can drink it too." Chen Zhao muttered dissatisfiedly.
Zhang Wenxin quarreled with him again.
The others looked at the two and laughed happily, and the atmosphere in the courtyard became relaxed and pleasant.
The three Zhang sisters remembered this scene for a long time.
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