Do you believe it? Would Buddha believe it?
The afternoon sunlight was thin, perhaps blocked by the mountains, but they always managed to cross them.
Chen Sizhe walked straight up to Wen Dai. His face, with his hair slicked back, was filled with anxiety, and his tense facial muscles gave him a stern expression.
His gaze swept quickly over Wen Dai, he first pursed his lips, then glanced briefly at the girls behind her before returning his attention to Wen Dai, his tone revealing displeasure:
"I can't believe you came up with the idea of getting yourself into this mess. Have you ever considered that they might search you or even assault you? It's a low-probability gamble where you're like a lamb entering a tiger's den. Don't you understand the saying, 'Retreat without defeat, advance without gain'?"
However, Wen Dai, unperturbed, hugged Xuanxuan tighter in her arms, shrugged, and retorted eloquently:
"High risk, high reward, right? Look, I brought them out with me, didn't I? If I had just stayed put and kept hiding, those human traffickers would have known to hide their abducted victims. Then they would have told the investigators that they had no evidence, and the investigators would have searched but found no one. I wouldn't let all that hard work go to waste."
"Besides, it just so happened that the old lady discovered it, so we just went with the flow. Also, are you sure they would assault me with this appearance?" Wen Dai pointed to her face, convinced of her reasoning.
The cloudy yellow foundation had mostly worn off her face, revealing a fair complexion. She looked like a classmate who had contracted roundworms in childhood. In her peach blossom eyes, which met Chen Sizhe's gaze, her dark pupils shone with determination.
After staring at her for a while, a laugh broke the silence. Chen Sizhe put his hands in his pockets, raised his chin and looked down at her, raising an eyebrow with a playful expression: "You're right. Your appearance does indeed have the power to make people hesitate."
The phrase "望而却步" (to hesitate to take a step forward) was not only emphasized but also deliberately dragged out, exuding a cunning and sly air.
"..." Wen Dai choked up and wanted to counterattack, but she had destroyed her own foothold for a counterattack earlier. She awkwardly freed one hand to touch her face and muttered, "Am I really that ugly?"
Xuanxuan, who was hugging her neck, whispered, "Not ugly, pretty."
The soft, childlike voice made her heart flutter. Wen Dai turned her eyes and met the crystal-like pupils of the person in her arms.
Glancing at the person in front of him, before Chen Sizhe could say anything, a mixture of rapid "beep-beep" and long "whoo-whoo" sirens came rushing in.
The two cars that were speeding towards them came to an abrupt stop after passing them. The car in front got stuck on the uphill road, while the car behind stopped to the left of Chen Sizhe's car.
The passenger door of the car in front opened, and Cai Qi, dressed in uniform, got out of the car. She jogged to Wen Dai's side, ignoring Chen Sizhe and focusing her attention on the girls behind Wen Dai.
The girls, who had been feeling anxious, were relieved when they saw Cai Qi in her uniform and the two cars on the road. Several of them, who had been holding back their emotions for a long time, covered their mouths and cried on the spot, sobbing, "We're saved! We're finally saved! We can finally go home!"
“Yes, you can go home now, not just you.” Cai Qi’s gaze swept over the girls’ faces as she looked at their disheveled clothes.
Few of the girls were unharmed; their once beautiful faces were now bruised and battered from the blows of the human traffickers.
She clenched her fists, took a deep breath to calm herself, and said firmly, "We will definitely bring those who have hurt you to justice."
"You guys get in the car now, I'll have the detective take you back, okay? But we need to rescue the others now, and we need a few people to act as witnesses. Who among you..."
Before the question could be finished, several voices answered in unison.
"I stayed!"
It was Wen Weiwei and Xiaohui who spoke.
With swollen, bluish-purple bumps on her cheeks and around her eyes, Wen Weiwei turned her head and exchanged a glance with Xiaohui, who was thin but had a straight back.
Nestled in Wen Dai's arms, Xuanxuan tightened her arms around Wen Dai's neck. She turned her slightly dirty face to look at Cai Qi, her voice tinged with innocence: "I want to stay too."
Noticing the little one in Wen Dai's arms, Cai Qi's brows furrowed even more as she glanced at the bump on Wen Dai's forehead. Wen Dai heard Cai Qi mutter a curse: "You can do this to such a small child? You're worse than an animal."
But when Cai Qi turned her face toward Xuanxuan, she forced a friendly smile and said, "Okay."
Xuanxuan was carried back by Xiaohui, and the two sat in the back seat of the police car, while another police car took on the responsibility of taking the rest of the girls back.
Meanwhile, because it was impossible to predict how many victims were still being held in the village, Cai Lin specifically asked her colleague to call nearby police officers to send a vehicle.
Even though the existence of a protective umbrella was an undeniable fact, and even though there were people in the local township government office who colluded with human traffickers, they could not refuse Cai Lin and others' demands.
This is a request, not a demand. If the township government doesn't provide vehicle subsidies, it's not impossible that all the important figures in the township could be arrested.
Wen Weiwei and Wen Dai got into Chen Sizhe's Cullinan.
It must be said that Cui Lin raised her very well. Before getting into the car, Wen Weiwei even asked Chen Sizhe for a car cleaning cloth. She put the cleaning cloth on the seat before sitting down.
Seeing Wen Dai turn around and look at her from the passenger seat, she smiled shyly and said, "My pants were very dirty when I came down from the mountain. I'll make this uncle's car dirty."
Wen Dai, who had crawled in and plopped down in the passenger seat, fell into a deathly silence.
She slowly turned her head back, and halfway there, her eyes met for a moment with Chen Sizhe, who had just started the engine and was looking over.
That amused look made Wen Dai swallow nervously. She awkwardly chuckled, "Oh dear, we've been working together for so long, really. I just sat down in a moment of panic..."
Seeing that he was still looking at her with that amused, half-smiling face, Wen Dai bit her lower lip and said in a defiant tone, "Fine, I'm just rude. I'll transfer the car wash money to you now."
She reached into her floral blouse, bending over as she laboriously pulled out her phone.
Seeing her comical appearance, Chen Sizhe chuckled and started driving seriously. The upward movement of the car caused the people inside to lean back involuntarily. At the same time, his deep voice rang out: "Alright, let's skip the car wash. I'm not going to be so stingy with my business partner."
Wen Dai, who was struggling to retrieve her phone, tried to pull her hand away when she heard this. She was about to praise him for being generous when he added, "After all, you brought me some fun."
I see, she's become a laughing stock.
"Chen Sizhe, are you sick? If all else fails, can we at least fix your mouth?"
"..."
Returning to the village entrance, unlike before, it was now bright daylight, though dusk was approaching.
But this time, the lead vehicle was the investigator's car, and even Wen Dai, who was sitting in the Cullinan, felt like she was being promoted to a higher position. It was time to show off her power.
Standing by the roadside, smoking, the short, fat man stared blankly at the car that drove in from the gate. He dazedly raised his hand to take the cigarette out of his mouth, stubbed it out, and then mechanically stomped on it several times.
The tall, thin man who came out of the house behind him picked his teeth with his tongue, his gaze sweeping over the car with a fierce look, his lips pursed and his skin bulging upwards.
He staggered a few steps to the cement road, raised an arm to pull the short, fat man forward with him.
The male detective in charge of driving was the first to open the car door and get out. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, he adjusted the gun tucked into his waistband.
Following closely behind him, Chae Rim also got out of the passenger seat, her uniform and prominent badge catching the eye.
"Officer, what brings you all here so suddenly? Has something really bad happened here?" The tall, thin man smiled with narrowed eyes, leaning forward and tilting his head, his joking manner making one want to punch him.
The male investigator walked around to Cai Lin's side, raised his chin, and said coldly, "Don't play dumb. Your village has been involved in human trafficking for many years, hasn't it? We don't know who gave you the audacity, but whoever it is, neither you nor he can escape. Are you going to release those people yourselves, or are we going to do it?"
The tall, thin man licked his teeth, his eyes darting to the corner of his eye. He glanced at something several times, his toes tapping the ground repeatedly. When he turned back, his eyes sparkled as he met theirs, but the smile on his face remained, and his forehead tilted to one side.
"Officer, I don't understand what you're saying. I don't even know why you're here. I don't know who told you that we're involved in human trafficking here. How could that be? Those traffickers live in impoverished mountain areas, and we're not poor here. Lizhou, how could we possibly do such a thing? Wouldn't that be breaking the law right under the nose of the King of Heaven?"
Wen Dai, who jumped out of the car, came over and interjected, "Isn't it said that the most dangerous place is the safest place? Who knows? After all, although the risk of being caught in Lizhou is high, if you can find a powerful, rich, and influential protector, then it's really a case of money rolling in."
The tall, thin man and the short, stout man instinctively turned their gazes toward the newcomer.
Her hair, which had been tied up, had become quite disheveled, with stray strands falling out of her headscarf. The highly saturated colors of the headscarf and the floral blouse made her deathly yellow face, which looked as if she had contracted roundworms, appear even more eerie.
But her appearance was extremely familiar to them.
The short, stout man subtly nudged the tall, thin man's right side with his elbow twice, his eyes flashing with anxiety.
Isn't this the woman they've been searching high and low for? Now she's mixed up with the detectives, how are we supposed to catch her? Even a brainless person should know that all the "new goods" have probably escaped.
After getting a clear look at Wen Dai's appearance, the tall, thin man could barely keep his smile going; any further explanation he could offer now would be untenable.
So, without the woman in the red suit's knowledge, the tall, thin man and the short, fat man exchanged glances and sold her off without hesitation.
"Officer, the net of justice is indeed vast and its meshes are wide, yet nothing escapes it. Since you all know the truth, I won't hide anything from you."
The tall, thin man removed his arm from the short, stout man's shoulder, straightened up, and solemnly bowed in apology: "I'm sorry, we did commit human trafficking, but we were forced into it. The mastermind is actually Pi Juan, she'll be here soon."
The short, stout man chimed in at the opportune moment: "Yes, we're all forced into it. This village has been involved in human trafficking for decades, but we're not the main force behind it. We can't stop even if we want to. We have elderly parents and young children to support, and we all live in the same village. If we quit, not only will we be ruined, but our families will also be implicated!"
He was selling himself with a pitiful and sorrowful act, and halfway through his speech he would bring his hand to his eyes as if wiping away tears, making it hard to tell if it was real or not.
There were a few more bangs as the car doors opened and closed. The closest one was Xiaohui, who got out of the car. Her face was expressionless, like a wooden carving, a piece of wood that could turn blue and purple and bleed.
Xuanxuan was being held in her hand. The seven-year-old girl only had some flesh on her cheeks, but her forehead was also covered with unexplained swellings.
Wen Weiwei, who strode over, stopped beside Wen Dai, while Chen Sizhe, who walked slowly and then paused on Wen Dai's other side, stood there as well.
"You guys are shameless," Xiaohui said calmly.
She stared at the two men standing side by side in front of her with her mocking eyes.
"Girls who are about the same age as your daughters are being humiliated in your genitals, and even the little children born to your daughters are being humiliated in the same way. You don't like it? If you don't like it, then you'll have to take your punches like I did, like us."
She pointed to herself, and then the hand with the extended index finger moved from Xuanxuan to Wen Weiwei.
"Gender becomes meaningless in the face of you scum and dogs. I'm so curious, so incomprehensible. Do you even have brains? Can you think of anything other than sex?"
Xiaohui answered her own question, nodding as she said, "Oh, there are other things too. You also want money, and you also want power."
A sinister gaze was fixed on Xiaohui. The tall, thin man's face seemed to be twitching, and after a few spasms, he smiled, revealing his yellow teeth.
"What are you saying, little girl? Have you mistaken me for someone else? We never do these kinds of things..."
Xiaohui abruptly interrupted him, unconsciously tightening her grip on Xuanxuan's hand, and stepped closer to the man who vehemently denied everything. Her voice grew hoarse as she spoke:
"Do you dare to swear? Do you dare to swear to God that you didn't do it? Swear it! If you say you did it, may you suffer a fate worse than death. If you say you did it, may your whole family experience this kind of suffering. If you say you did it, may you experience the experiences of all those who were abducted countless times. Swear it!"
"While burning incense and praying to Buddha and performing the rituals of the gods, they also trafficked people and destroyed other people's families..." Xiaohui's eyes gradually reddened, as if what was about to flow was not tears but blood.
Her other hand was clenched into a tight fist, her whole body trembling uncontrollably. "You force the abducted people to burn incense and pray to Buddha, kneeling before Buddha and saying, 'We did it all voluntarily, they did nothing wrong.' Do you believe that? Will Buddha believe that?"
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