"Okay, come with me." The little boy wiped away his tears and then stumbled and ran forward.
Phil Gray followed closely behind, then glanced back at Frank, who was smiling at him, before disappearing into the shadows and following them.
After navigating a winding, overgrown path, he came to a few scattered huts made of palm leaves and wood. In the middle of them was an open space with a circular altar and several people dressed in burlap talking there.
Several women were sitting on the ground, picking up seeds of some plant.
"That's the village chief!" The little boy hid behind Phil Gray, his little hands tightly gripping the hem of his clothes.
The direction he was pointing to was that of an old man with dark skin, gray hair, and a metal collar around his neck inlaid with crystals that refracted various colors in the sunlight.
He was surrounded by two or three women, each holding a baby, whose crying seemed to annoy the old man.
This village doesn't look very big, but there are quite a lot of people.
Phil Gray stepped forward, grabbed the village chief, and put his hands behind his back. There was no need to be polite to people like this who trafficked people.
People around him looked at him in horror, and the women holding babies backed away and screamed.
“Take me to Jonas Plantation,” he said coldly.
"Hey, who are you?" the village chief asked in the local dialect, his face showing anger. "Let me go! Guards! Seize this outsider!"
The women looked at each other, but dared not come forward to help.
"Don't you feel ashamed to sell your own villagers for money?" Phil Gray questioned.
"What's it to you! Humph, Harvey, was it you who brought this guy? We should have sold you to the plantation back then!" The village chief struggled, his eyes looking at the little boy as if he wanted to devour him.
"Don't scare the child!"
Phil Gray kicked his leg, and the village chief cried out in pain again.
Just then, a dozen or so villagers carrying farm tools rushed over from not far away. They were stunned when they saw the village chief's appearance.
"Help me! Help me!"
The village chief winked at them.
However, none of the villagers made a move. Only one villager, who looked rather sleazy, tried to ambush them from behind, but was kicked by the invisible Frank and fell flat on his face.
"What the hell!" he cried out as he scrambled to his feet and rushed into the jungle without looking back.
The village chief, looking at the hesitant villagers, angrily shouted, "What are you doing? Are you just going to let this outsider bully me?"
"Hmph, this old man must have sold quite a few of your family members to the plantation, right?" Phil Gray smirked as he swept his gaze over the villagers, whose eyes were filled with fear and hatred.
One of the women, holding a baby, finally broke down in tears, crying out, "Yes, he sold my fiancé to the Jonas Plantation and forced me to marry him."
The other women nodded and began to sob.
Goodness, an old man has married so many wives.
Phil Gray was speechless. He looked at the villagers and said, "You still let someone like that be the village chief? Are you his accomplices?"
The villagers shook their heads, their faces filled with resentment, but they didn't know what they were afraid of and dared not answer.
Another villager, who seemed more honest, spoke hesitantly, "We admire your courage and appreciate your help, but we don't want to implicate you. You should run away quickly. If the plantation's slave owners find out, they will torture you. Harvey, come here."
He reached out his hand to the little boy.
“Uncle Malz—” Harvey ran over and tightly grasped the honest man’s large hand.
They looked at Phil Gray with sincerity, but their expressions carried the weariness and numbness of someone who had been oppressed for so long.
The village chief said smugly, "What good will it do you to kill me? Jonas Plantation will send a new village chief. When he comes, he will be young and strong, and who knows how many more people he will harm."
“You know you’re a menace, aren’t you afraid of divine punishment?” Phil Gray kicked him to the ground.
"I'm not afraid. I don't believe in gods. I'm not a believer, so gods can't control me!" The village chief got up and tried to run away.
“Take me to Jonas Plantation. I’m saying this one last time, or I’ll skin you alive and throw you into the sea. I won’t let you die so easily.” Phil Gray threw a blade, shaving off a patch of hair from the village chief’s head.
The coldness of the blade brushing against his scalp froze the stubborn village chief in fear. "I...I'll take you there!"
“The plantation workers are vicious and cunning, you must be careful!” the woman who spoke first said worriedly, as the baby in her arms began to cry again, the cries growing louder and louder.
Phil Gray sighed, finding it hard to imagine their future. But looking at the limping, aged figure walking ahead, he knew he couldn't let the guy come back alive.
"Hurry up!"
Phil Gray coldly rebuked him.
The village chief shuddered and quickened his pace.
“Around this hillside, at the foot of the mountain is Jonas Plantation,” the village chief said breathlessly, so exhausted he was almost rolling his eyes back.
Phil Gray looked down the mountain and could vaguely see a large expanse of lush greenery, with an iron fence enclosing a huge estate where various crops were grown, and some black dots moving around, which must be the people working inside.
"Will all the products from this plantation be sold to the Western Continent?"
"I have no idea about that. Anyway, they've made a lot of money and keep expanding, which requires a lot of labor." The village chief shook his head, pretending not to know anything.
"How many plantations are there on Malu Island? Do you know which gangs are selling counterfeit tobacco to the western mainland?"
“There are many plantations on Malu Island. The large ones include Jonas Plantation, Adren Plantation, and the plantation of the God of Food Cult. As for the gangs that sell fake tobacco…” The village chief’s eyes flickered, “To be honest, many small gangs use the island’s name to go out and sell fake tobacco. But I heard that the second son of the Jonas Plantation owner was dissatisfied with the choice of the next owner and had been secretly selling fake tobacco to make money. He just came back a few days ago and seems to have made a lot of money.”
Phil Gray narrowed his eyes. A few days ago, around the same time, it seemed like he was a suspect.
"Go ahead and go find them, just let me go. I promise I'll never traffic people to plantations again," the village chief pleaded, kneeling down.
Phil Gray laughed, "Do you think I'd believe you? You'll go back and do even worse. You'll pay for what you've done."
He threw a flying blade, severing the village chief's throat. The village chief's eyes were filled with resentment.
His fate was sealed long after he made those choices.
Phil Gray headed down the hill; he needed to investigate the plantation first.
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