"No, I don't want to!"
A piercing and desperate cry echoed through the low, dilapidated tile-roofed house. The boy, covered in wounds, struggled desperately, but he was no match for the young man's hold.
"I will never run away again, I promise I will be obedient!"
"It's too late to listen now, you little bastard."
The man carrying the boy like a lamb was grinning savagely, his face contorted with the pleasure and undisguised triumph of a sadist.
"Gag him, he's too noisy!"
One of the boys picked at his ear and said somewhat impatiently.
"Smash his mouth open! The river god probably won't care about that anyway!"
Someone suggested this with a cruel smile. Feng Bingwen, watching from the side, showed no sign of joking; he genuinely intended to smash the crying child's mouth.
"Just gag him with something. This kid's appearance is bad enough. If we smash his mouth too, the people of White Crocodile Bay will complain."
Like tying up a half-grown pig, Feng Bingwen watched helplessly as the child, who had already suffered inhumane treatment, was brutally bound by hemp rope and gagged by these young men. Desperate tears welled up in his eyes and dripped down his cheeks, but what use were tears at this moment?
"Hey, little scholar, see that? Here, this is what happens to disobedient children!"
At this moment, a young boy shouted at Feng Bingwen. When Feng Bingwen looked over, the boy grinned, revealing a set of uneven, yellowed teeth.
"If you behave well, we'll find you a good family. You'll be much happier than you used to be. You'll eat and drink well, and you can have women whenever you want."
"Hahaha, kid, this is like a dream come true! We've found you such a good family, so don't forget to thank us!"
"That's right, remember to set up a longevity tablet and enshrine us."
The scoundrels laughed and joked without restraint, while Feng Bingwen remained silent. The scoundrels, not caring that they received no response, left with the "living creatures" they had already chosen.
When the door of the tiled house closed again, the two children who were huddled in the corner looked at Feng Bingwen with complicated expressions, and Feng Bingwen even saw envy in their eyes.
What's with those expressions?
Feng Bingwen couldn't understand what these two guys were envious of him for.
You're very lucky!
A child hesitated before speaking, his voice dry and hoarse, as if he hadn't had water in a long time.
"Lucky? You mean being caught and brought here? Then I'm really lucky."
Feng Bingwen chuckled self-deprecatingly. On his first trip away from the village, he encountered a group of wicked people who possessed evil magic, and these scoundrels even dared to snatch a child in broad daylight.
"They didn't lie to you."
"You mean you're not lying to me?"
Feng Bingwen smiled.
"They really can find you a good family."
"A golden nest or a silver nest is not as good as my original straw nest."
"Do you know who usually buys things for kids our age?"
"have no idea."
Feng Bingwen shook his head.
“Villages that need young boys and girls to be sacrificed to the gods, and those lords who want people to be buried with them.”
When the child who was talking to Feng Bingwen said those words, there was an indescribable fear in his voice.
For him, this was an inevitable outcome, it was just a matter of sooner or later.
"Human sacrifice and human burial are things that are explicitly prohibited by the government!"
Feng Bingwen suddenly had the urge to kill someone. Demand creates a market; where there is buying and selling, there will be killing.
"They have no respect for the government!"
"A bunch of scum!"
Feng Bingwen gritted his teeth, wishing he possessed the power to slay demons and gods at this moment.
He wanted to kill all these scum who treated people as commodities, and all those evil gods who dared to demand human sacrifices from mortals, if they even existed.
"I wish we were girls."
Another child suddenly uttered something astonishing, causing Feng Bingwen, who was still resentful of his current weakness, to turn around and stare at him in astonishment.
"What did you say?"
“If we were girls, we would be easily bought, no matter how old we were, as long as we could have children we could be sold.”
"you……"
Feng Bingwen was taken aback, never expecting to hear such words.
For babies, boys who haven't even remembered anything yet are highly sought after; as many as there are, they can be sold. Next are women who will eventually have children, regardless of age.
The worst are undoubtedly children like them, who already possess basic self-awareness and judgment. To families who want to continue their family line, they are ungrateful wretches who can't be raised.
"Let's find a chance to run!"
Feng Bingwen stood up and extended an invitation to the two poor children.
"There are bad people outside, we can't escape!"
One of them spoke softly, his eyes filled with longing to go home, but under the extreme violence and torment inflicted by those scumbags, he lost his courage and was filled with cowardice.
“We’ll run at night. We’re small, and it’s the height of summer with lots of vegetation. As long as we can hide…”
"But there are ghosts at night!"
Another child uttered startling words, his voice trembling, his expression filled with barely concealed fear.
"ghost?"
Feng Bingwen frowned and turned to look at the wall behind him. In this bare tile-roofed house, the yellow cloth with cinnabar runes painted on it stood out conspicuously.
"Yes, there are ghosts outside."
The child was trembling, and seeing that Feng Bingwen didn't quite believe him, he repeated himself.
"Really, I'm not lying to you."
"Even if ghosts really exist, can they be more terrifying than those people?"
Having already witnessed some strange and supernatural phenomena, and even personally experienced evil magic, Feng Bingwen did not refute, but instead asked this question.
"Those people are even more terrifying!"
This was a statement that required no hesitation or thought. To them, the idea of ghosts harming people was merely a story used by their elders to scare them. However, the beatings they suffered after being abducted here were very real.
Humans are more terrifying than ghosts!
"Then what are you waiting for? Staying here won't end well. Come with me and charge out. Maybe we can still go home!"
Feng Bingwen encouraged them, and gradually a light returned to the eyes of the two children who had been despondent.
"But how are we supposed to escape? This door only opens when they bring us food."
When do they usually deliver our meals? How many people are there when they deliver them?
"There's only one person! They'll only deliver to us twice, once at noon and once when it's almost dark!"
"That's perfect!"
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