Shen Xingmian didn't see those people, so she wasn't too upset. Besides, she was already somewhat prepared, so even if she had seen them, it wouldn't have affected her too much.
Shen Yunting is usually a very strong person, but he probably lost his composure after being in the dark for a while.
If she went back outside in the howling wind, her bad mood would probably be blown away by the cold wind very quickly.
They descended a further distance, and they were already quite far from the ground. No, it wasn't flat land above, but mountains, so they were even farther away.
Shen Xingmian also felt a little depressed, but it was still within a tolerable range.
Only then did she understand why her mother was behaving so strangely; while she was engrossed in her busy work, her mother was quietly facing this situation.
She really worked hard.
She didn't tell them to go back first, because she knew that they would never abandon her at a time like this.
Since that's the case, we might as well act quickly, find out the situation inside, come up with a plan, and then we can start taking action.
Shen Xingmian quickened his pace, listening to the increasingly loud digging sounds and estimating the distance.
They were very close, but the digging noise was too loud, and they couldn't hear anyone talking.
She quickly turned off the nightlight, because torchlight had appeared not far away, and a guard with a whip was standing closest to them, his back to them, glaring menacingly.
Judging from this, he wasn't preventing people from getting in from the outside, but rather preventing the people inside from escaping.
Shen Xingmian saw that the whip was covered in dark marks, which were not very clear, but she guessed they were blood.
He guessed that someone must have run away and been caught, or that he had punished someone for not working hard enough as a warning to others.
In either case, it's quite excessive.
Modern miners earn high wages and enjoy good benefits; if an accident occurs, their families can receive substantial compensation.
When she was a child, several uncles in the village worked in the mining area. They had a strong sense of collective honor and never took leave, receiving perfect attendance every month.
It's completely different from here.
Although the work was tiring, in those days, it was a great skill and worthy of praise to be able to support a whole family through one person's hard work.
But were these people inside really there voluntarily?
Being a bit far away, Shen Xingmian couldn't see what was happening inside, so she gestured to the two people behind her to send them back to the space.
She slipped past the guards, took several steps in the shadows, sneaked inside, found a suitable spot, and began to observe the situation.
The first thing to look at were the laborers. Although they weren't exactly emaciated, they weren't in much better shape either, clearly suffering from malnutrition.
Many people's backs were hunched from exhaustion, yet they still had to keep digging at the ore, as if they had truly become a kind of "consumable".
Those in high positions treat these "ants" in their eyes with utter disdain, not only failing to pay them enough wages, but also neglecting to provide them with enough for food.
If they weren't starving and exhausted, we'd probably make them work non-stop, eating only the wind and dew.
They only want to extract the greatest value with the lowest possible cost.
In modern times, when machines replace manual labor, they still need to be refueled and regularly maintained. But here, the miners are gone, and no one will feel sorry for their lives. They might even be considered useless, unable to persevere and create more value.
In modern times, we still need to talk about law, but here, it's more about power.
As long as one has enough power, many things can be done without anyone daring to interfere or being able to control them.
Shen Xingmian looked around and found that these people were all in similar condition: very thin, very tired, and very weak, but they were all forcing themselves to continue working and dared not stop at all.
Guards patrolled with whips, looking left and right with menacing eyes, as if they would lash out at anyone who was slow to act.
Just as Shen Xingmian was pondering where to begin, a series of cursing sounds came from nearby—
"Damn it, you little brat, I'll teach you to be lazy and shirk your duties! You're tired of living, aren't you?"
Shen Xingmian looked closely and saw that the person who had been hit was a thin young man who had no strength to resist. The whip had struck him hard, knocking him to the ground.
The boy struggled to get up, but after several attempts, he still couldn't get up.
A middle-aged man staggered forward and rushed over, kneeling at the guard's feet, pleading in a hoarse voice, "Sir, sir! Spare us! Spare us! This is our only child, please don't hit him anymore! We really haven't been slacking off, we've been working the whole time!"
He cried bitterly, pleading desperately, but the man with the whip showed no sign of stopping. The tip of the whip jabbed the middle-aged man's face with great force, while he cursed with disgust:
"Get out of my way! If you don't, I'll beat you up too! Damn it, I hate it when people try to act all all lovey-dovey in front of their parents!"
"Since you love your son so much, then why don't you die in his place? Hahaha!"
After saying that, the guard stretched his arms, gave a sinister smile, and lashed the ground with his whip, kicking up a cloud of dust, as if to intimidate and deter.
The father flinched, but did not move away.
Finally, seeing that pleading was useless, he could only throw himself on the child, trying to shield him from the deadly whip with his body, and prepared to die.
From the moment they were captured and brought here, they hoped every day that someone would rescue them, but they waited in a daze for a very long time, repeating the same heavy labor every day, yet they never saw a glimmer of hope.
He thought, why not just die? Compared to enduring this hell on earth, death seems like a kind of relief.
He closed his eyes tightly, silently waiting for the whip to fall...
The expected pain did not come; instead, there was a thud of a heavy object falling behind me, followed by a collective gasp from those around me.
He suppressed his fear and looked back, only to see the man who had been wielding the whip just moments before now lying behind him, his head almost hitting his heel.
He didn't know what had happened, and could only hold his child tightly in fear, trying with all his might to drag him to a corner so as not to offend the guards.
Shen Xingmian was furious. She knew the situation in the mine wouldn't be good, but she didn't expect it to be this serious.
Those guards were pushing their power to the extreme, indulging in the pleasure of controlling the lives and deaths of others in this extreme environment.
With just a simple weapon like a whip, he could become the master of all the laborers.
Even though Shen Xingmian was angry, she didn't act recklessly. She had already observed the distribution of the guards nearby and released her parents, intending to take care of them all.
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