Chapter 170 Jinjiang Debut
"Of course not!" Xia Mang shouted, "How could he not find out that there is a living person hiding on a small boat? You would probably be discovered as soon as you got on the boat. If you really followed him to the sea, you would be in great danger!"
Jiang Xiaoping said quickly, "I know, I just said a possible plan. I'm not stupid, how could I really go? Even if I can really hide from Wang Erlai and successfully land on the island, the guards there are very strict. How can a girl like me beat them? Not to mention bringing my brother out."
Bai Mian pointed out the crux of the matter: "Do you think Wang Leilei can be trusted?"
Jiang Xiaoping's eyes rolled. "Master, are you saying that he and his father teamed up to deceive me? That's unlikely. Wang Erlai has already kicked me out of his house, so why would he arrange for his son to deceive me? And the boy's eyes are very pure, he doesn't look like he's lying. He's only six years old, how could he make up so many lies?"
"Also, I went to the village to ask around, and this little boy is indeed Wang Erlai's biological son. Wang Erlai's wife died after giving birth to the child. Wang Erlai never came home, and the child was raised by his nanny. He has a very good personality and has not been infected with his father's bad temper."
Xia Mang fell into deep thought: "That is to say, this child may not be as bad as his father. He may tell you these things out of good intentions, but what exactly does his story mean? I don't believe there is such a mermaid kingdom in the world!"
Jiang Xiaoping sighed, "I think so too. The story the child told may not be true, but he must have seen something. He often plays with his father's phone, and maybe he saw the video of my brother and others being abused on his father's phone. The day I went to see Wang Erlai, I cried and begged for mercy at his home. The little boy was in his bedroom at the time. He probably heard my crying and felt sympathy, so he followed me out after I left."
"But he is Wang Erlai's son after all. He didn't dare to tell the truth directly for fear of offending his father. So he told me this story in a fairy tale style, trying to convey some information to me, but I didn't understand it. I thought about it over and over again but couldn't figure it out. What is a mermaid? Where is the kingdom of mermaids? This thing is even harder to guess than math."
"After that day, I didn't dare to call the police, nor did I dare to look for Wang Erlai again, so I had no choice but to come to Master Bai. This case involves mermaids, which can be considered a metaphysical event. Perhaps Master Bai can help me?"
As she spoke, Jiang Xiaoping looked at Bai Mian expectantly. Bai Mian gently held her hand and felt her pulse. After a while, Bai Mian slowly let go of her hand. Jiang Xiaoping politely remained quiet, waiting for Bai Mian to speak.
"You guessed right, the mermaid mentioned by Wang Erlai and Wang Leilei is just a metaphor." Bai Mian said the first sentence.
Jiang Xiaoping asked excitedly: "What exactly does mermaid mean?"
"People from country Y." Bai Mian said.
"Y country?"
Several girls repeated Bai Mian's words in unison. Xia Mang suddenly realized, Lu Xue shook her head in regret, and Jiang Xiaoping was on edge.
Country Y is a small, underdeveloped country, famous for fraud. It is home to many fugitives and fraud parks. The news media often broadcast news about Country Y, and almost everyone in the country has heard of it.
Xia Mang nodded thoughtfully: "No wonder they want to tell this mermaid story, it fits the characteristics of the people of Country Y. They are on the other side of the ocean and need to take a boat to get there, so what Wang Erlai said about smuggling is true. They really smuggled into Country Y, and then those young and middle-aged people were locked up in the park of Country Y and suffered abuse every day..."
Considering Jiang Xiaoping's feelings, Xia Mang did not say anything more, but Jiang Xiaoping was already extremely nervous: "Really? Master, you didn't miscalculate, did you? Everyone knows that Country Y is a fraud country, and my brother is not a fool, why would he go there for no reason!"
"Obviously you don't know your brother well," Bai Mian showed the screenshots of the previous chats. "He was fooled by these crudely made AI-generated photos, which shows that he is not only uneducated, but also doesn't understand the Internet at all. People like him are actually very easy to be deceived."
"My brother, my silly brother, he must have gone to such a far place just to make money," Jiang Xiaoping imagined what happened. "That damn Wang Erlai tricked him into being a sailor at sea, promising him that he would make a fortune, so my stubborn brother followed him. That place is simply hell, and he must have suffered a lot of torture there..."
Xia Mang couldn't help but say, "That's not right. The country's propaganda is so strong now, and everyone knows about Country Y's deeds. Anyone who still wants to go to Country Y to make a fortune must have bad intentions! Don't think I'm being harsh. Wang Erlai is a scumbag, but your brother may not be innocent either."
"No, this is not his fault," she defended her brother. "He has a low level of education and can only work as an assembly line worker in society, doing repetitive work every day and seeing no future. He must be very desperate, so he believed Wang Erlai's lies. He just wanted to change his life. What did he do wrong?"
"Oh, really?" Bai Mian raised his eyebrows. "If you think about the story they told you again, maybe you will change your mind."
"The story of Wang Erlai and his son is like this: your brother wanted to catch a mermaid and bring it home, but ended up being eaten by the mermaid."
"If we apply this to reality, it means that your brother originally wanted to capture a person from Country Y and bring him home, but he was taken hostage by the person from Country Y."
"My brother wants to take a Y countryman back home?" Jiang Xiaoping was amazed. "How is this possible? How dare he do that in broad daylight?! We live in a society ruled by law. If he hides a Y countryman in his home, aren't you afraid of being discovered?"
Bai Mian gently touched the little rabbit in front of him: "What if he has a marriage certificate? In this case, it would be logical for the Y countryman to live in his house."
Jiang Xiaoping finally understood: "My brother wants to marry someone from Country Y? He, he wants to marry a wife from Country Y? Wait... I remember now, he seemed to have complained to me. He said he didn't have anything he wanted, and the girls on the street didn't want to talk to him. If he continued like this, he would probably be single for the rest of his life. I didn't take it seriously at the time, thinking he was just complaining normally, but I didn't expect him to be so crazy..."
Jiang Xiaoping hurried back to look through the screenshots on her phone, and then looking at the chat history between Wang Erlai and her brother, everything made sense. They used "mermaid" to refer to the beauties from Country Y because they were afraid of being discovered by the Internet police. Wang Erlai must have lied to her brother and said that there were many single beauties in Country Y who were eagerly waiting to get married. The brainless brother believed it and got on board Wang Erlai's pirate ship.
"No wonder he insisted on seeing the photo of the mermaid. It turns out he was choosing a concubine for himself! He is really ugly but has beautiful dreams. No one wants him in his own country. Does he think he will become popular if he changes to another country?" Xia Mang laughed mercilessly.
Lu Xue also sighed: "These AI beauties he pursues are just like the mermaid hiding in the mist. They are just illusions after all."
Bai Mian added: "The mermaid legend originated in the West. Western sailors often had to experience long-term sea drifting. In the early days, people did not have mobile phones and lacked entertainment. They were easily mentally deprived at sea, especially men who had nowhere to vent their sexual desires. So they put their imagination on marine creatures and created mermaids, which are both beautiful and can be used to vent their sexual desires. They also blamed some maritime accidents on mermaids, making the image of mermaids evil and terrifying. Wang Erlai's use of mermaid as a nickname is very appropriate."
"The innocent women from Country Y were stigmatized by them, labeled with all kinds of ugly labels, and used as a gimmick to trick people into joining their scheme. If those women from Country Y knew that they were described like this by Wang Erlai, I'm afraid everyone would want to spit at him."
Lu Xue also agreed: "I heard that Western sailors would bring various animals on board to satisfy their sexual desires, and the most common of them were sheep. Therefore, Western demons are usually in the form of goats. In order to justify their behavior, they throw all the dirty water on the sheep. Tsk tsk tsk, men, they don't even let animals go."
Xia Mang rolled her eyes. "Now that you mention it, Wang Erlai really understands the psychology of these low-class men. After all, he used to be a rural bastard. Men like Jiang Qingyun, who are thirty and still have nothing, can't find a girlfriend through normal channels, so they can only resort to crooked ways. Plus, rural people generally have an obsession with passing on their family line. As long as Wang Erlai throws him an olive branch, he will definitely take it."
"But I suddenly thought of a question. Since Wang Erlai wanted to use beautiful women to lure Jiang Qingyun to go out to sea, why did he use AI pictures? This is too fake! There are a lot of beautiful women pictures on the Internet. He can just use online pictures! Using such fake AI pictures, aren't you afraid that Wang Erlai will see through his scam?"
Bai Mian replied: "This is a method for him to screen his target population. If Jiang Qingyun recognized those AI images, it means that he has a certain anti-fraud awareness and is not so easy to deceive. On the other hand, only if Jiang Qingyun believed this low-end scam, Wang Erlai would dare to take him out to sea. In addition, Jiang Qingyun's family has broken up, and he is alone. If he disappears, no one will find out, so he is the best target for Wang Erlai."
Everyone was talking, and Jiang Xiaoping found the voices very irritating. She said angrily, "Enough. You are belittling my brother to nothing. Did he want to be like this? Our parents died early, and he didn't have any help from them. He didn't do well in China. He just wanted to go abroad to make friends. What did he do wrong?"
"Just because he has an unfortunate life is not a reason for him to bully the weak," Bai Mian said coldly. "As we all know, Country Y is economically backward and human trafficking is very common in society. Your brother didn't go to Country Y to make friends. He wanted to buy a wife."
"Over the years, your brother has worked outside and saved tens of thousands of yuan. After drinking one day, he told Wang Erlai about his savings. Wang Erlai heard about it and started to target your brother. Not only did he want to swallow up your brother's savings, he also wanted to sell your brother as a commodity. So he used the idea of buying a wife to lure your brother, and he took the bait right away."
Xia Mang touched his chin, "I see. No wonder they said they wanted to 'catch' a mermaid. This doesn't look like normal friendship. If it's human trafficking, then the term makes sense. They also know that the country is under strict control now. If they dare to buy a wife in the country, they will probably be arrested soon. So they set their sights on the people of Country Y. They are really a group of cunning and despicable men!"
Lu Xue sneered: "Humph, he treated the women of Country Y as commodities, hoping to go to Country Y to select concubines, but he didn't expect that he would be detained by the people of Country Y and become a commodity in the hands of the people of Country Y. It's really the cycle of fate, retribution is inevitable!"
"My brother, he, he... he wants to traffic women?" Jiang Xiaoping's face turned pale and blue. Although she wanted to defend her brother, she was speechless at the moment. After all, she was also a woman and knew the seriousness of the matter. She often cursed those human traffickers who trafficked women on the Internet, but she didn't expect that her own brother was such a person.
"Is this true? Is there some misunderstanding?" Jiang Xiaoping still held out a glimmer of hope. "Master, did you miscalculate? My brother is usually a very nice person. He is honest and simple, and often helps other people. People in the village praise him for his ability. He works seriously on the assembly line and never makes any mistakes. He treats me very well. He doesn't earn much from working, but he often gives me living expenses. He also tells me to be careful. I really can't imagine that such a person would abduct and traffic people..."
Jiang Xiaoping choked up as she spoke. Bai Mian said calmly, "People are complicated. He may be very nice to you, but that doesn't mean he is a good person. Wrong is wrong. This is the path he chose, and it is the result he deserves."
Jiang Xiaoping cried for a while, and finally accepted the reality: "Yes, he went to a foreign country to buy women, which is illegal. No matter what his reasons are, it is illegal. I am also a woman, and I can't make excuses for him. He committed a crime and should be punished. But I hope he can return to China to accept the punishment. I promise that as long as I can take him back to China, I will immediately send him to surrender! Master, do you have any way to get him back to China?"
Jiang Xiaoping took Bai Mian's hand and begged. Bai Mian sighed and said tactfully:
"All the clues are in that photo."
Jiang Xiaoping was already panicking. She took out the photo that Wang Leilei had given her and looked at it over and over again, but still didn't understand what Bai Mian meant. "Master, this is just an ordinary photo. What can you see? Can you find out my brother's address through this photo? But I really can't see the clues you mentioned! This photo only shows my brother lying on the bed in white clothes. What else is there?"
Bai Mian reminded her in a different way: "The little boy said that he found this photo at home. Think carefully, under what circumstances would people from Country Y take this photo?"
Jiang Xiaoping guessed randomly, "Could it be that my brother behaved well in there, and this is a reward from the people there? Or maybe my brother paid money and asked the people there to take a photo for him? No, that doesn't make sense. He's already locked up, what's the point of taking a photo? Wait, I get it, he hid clues in the photo, there must be some clues that I haven't seen! Master, just tell me directly!"
"After entering the park, the people inside don't have the leisure to take pictures for people," Bai Mian gracefully pushed the teacup on the table with his fingers, "They usually take pictures to register and record the increase or decrease of people."
"What does the reduction in personnel mean?" Jiang Xiaoping's voice became hoarse and almost inaudible. She had a bad feeling in her heart, but she tried hard to convince herself not to believe it.
Xia Mang answered quickly: "That means death! There is no return from that kind of place. How many people can walk out alive?"
"It turns out that this is a posthumous photo." Lu Xue concluded mercilessly.
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