After a day and a night on the train, the space to move around was so limited that even going to the toilet was inconvenient.
"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Huo Haocheng was holding a book, but his attention was fixed on Ruan Ruan.
"I need to use the restroom, but there are people outside."
Huo Haocheng put down his book, squatted down to put Ruan Ruan's shoes on, and then led her through the long crowd. At this time, when you take the train, you can find all sorts of things: chickens, ducks, and geese underfoot, large baskets in the aisle, and people lying under the seats.
"Go quickly, I'll wait for you outside." After Ruan Ruan went inside, Huo Haocheng stood outside the door, looking left and right.
The toilet smelled terrible at that moment; after only a short while inside, Ruan Ruan felt like she had become smelly too.
"Hurry, hurry, ugh...it stinks...I can't stand it!" Ruan Ruan immediately pushed Huo Haocheng forward after they came out, wanting to leave first before speaking.
"Are you feeling better now?" After walking two meters, Huo Haocheng stopped, turned around to check on Ruan Ruan, and was relieved to see that she looked alright.
"Smell me, do I smell bad?" Ruan Ruan raised her arm and held it out for Huo Haocheng to smell.
"Sister, sister, I want to smell it too, I want to smell it too!" Just as Huo Haocheng was about to say something, a child about one meter tall ran over, hugged Ruan Ruan's leg, and shouted.
Let go
What did you call me?
Huo Haocheng and Ruan Ruan spoke at the same time, but Huo Haocheng deliberately lifted the child up while speaking. Ruan Ruan only held one of the child's hands.
"What are you doing? What are you doing? Let go of my son!" A woman stood up from her seat and reached out to hug the child.
"Keep an eye on your child," Huo Haocheng said irritably to the woman as she let go of the baby.
"What's wrong with my son hugging her? What can a child of only a few years old do to her? Who knows what she does for a living, dressed all fancy," the woman said indignantly after putting the child down.
Upon hearing the woman's words, some men with ill intentions began to sized up Ruan Ruan.
"Hey, young man, you're quite the ladies' man!" a man suddenly said rudely to Huo Haocheng, looking at Ruan Ruan with disrespect.
Only then did Ruan Ruan notice that the man and woman were surrounded by young women. Looking around, she saw people from all walks of life, busy with their work. The women all had their heads down; despite the noise, not a single one of them looked up. Ruan Ruan found this very strange.
"System, can you find information about these two people?"
"Sorry, host, we don't know their names and cannot find them."
"I've heard that some people lure teenage to twenty-year-old girls abroad to live a good life, only to have them all sold to the Golden Triangle and turned into breeding machines. Is that true?"
"Host, in the 1990s, anti-drug police raided a drug den and rescued many women. According to them, the women there were either tricked or sold into the den."
"Then, take a look at those girls sitting there, is there something wrong with them?"
"Host, they're all asleep."
"With such a commotion, they can't possibly still be asleep. You stay here for now and keep an eye on them."
Just as Ruan Ruan was communicating with the system, Huo Haocheng had already dislocated the man's jaw.
"Uh..." The man couldn't believe that Huo Haocheng would make a move in full view of everyone.
"What are you doing? What are you doing? Everyone, go back to your seats. If you keep making noise, we'll all be arrested." At this moment, the train police arrived.
"What are you doing? Go back now!" The train police officer looked at Huo Haocheng. He recognized Huo Haocheng; he had met him before at the Beijing Public Security Bureau. He hadn't expected him to have such a trick up his sleeve. At this moment, he couldn't very well greet them, so he could only tell them to go back first.
"There won't be a next time." After Huo Haocheng put the man's chin back in place, he pulled Ruan Ruan back to his own car.
Perhaps startled by Huo Haocheng's actions, they walked past in complete silence.
Back in the carriage, Ruan Ruan immediately closed the door and pulled Huo Haocheng and Gu Jinghe aside to tell them her findings and thoughts.
"Are you sure?" Gu Jinghe looked at Ruan Ruan incredulously. He had heard from the police that girls frequently went missing without a trace. Now, after hearing Ruan Ruan's thoughts, he felt it was very likely, but if that were the case, then...
After hearing Ruan Ruan's conjecture, Huo Haocheng quickly recalled the expressions of the people present when the incident occurred.
"So, that child deliberately lunged at you just now, is that right?"
“He’s not a child, he’s an adult with dwarfism,” Ruan Ruan told Huo Haocheng with certainty. “I just took his pulse; it’s the pulse of an adult.”
"You can even take a pulse?" Gu Jinghe asked in surprise, and even Huo Haocheng looked at her.
"Didn't I tell you? I studied under an old Chinese medicine doctor for a while," Ruan Ruan said, staring intently at Huo Haocheng.
"Did you say that?" Huo Haocheng recalled the letters Ruan Ruan had written to him over the years, and he was certain she hadn't. "You didn't say that."
"Really? Maybe you learned too much at the time and forgot this," Ruan Ruan said calmly.
"Let's not dwell on this. It's not too late to know now anyway. I think when that dwarf pounced on me, he was trying to take me with him. He was probably going to do something to me, but you reacted too quickly and lifted me up before he could do anything."
Ruan Ruan guessed correctly; the dwarf was hiding a needle with a drug on it that would cause temporary amnesia. One injection would leave the person drowsy for two hours, then they would wake up and forget everything.
Their plan was to first give Ruan Ruan an acupuncture treatment, then, timing it perfectly, send Huo Haocheng and the other man away before Ruan Ruan woke up, and then take her away and hide her. They had noticed Ruan Ruan when she got into the car, but since she had been followed by someone the whole time, it wasn't convenient to make a move. That's why they took the risk when they were fooling around.
“This matter is too big. They might be watching us now. We can’t go out right now. I’ll find the train police officer when I go to buy food tonight.” Huo Haocheng had just recognized the train police officer as being from the Beijing Public Security Bureau, so it would be more convenient for him to find him.
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