Chapter 99 Kidnapping
When Xie Shouzheng woke up, he was still in the sack. Everything in front of him was dark, and there was still a pungent smell at the tip of his nose.
Then, before he could react, he suddenly flew into the air and fell heavily, rolling around before stopping - his forehead hurt from the fall.
He struggled hard, and with a "crack" the sack split open. What appeared before his eyes was a rusty iron door that had just been locked.
Someone outside the door shouted, "Behave yourself! Anyone who dares to make a noise will have his tongue cut out first!"
Xie Shouzheng's nostrils flared and he smelled a messy smell.
When he turned around, he saw dozens of people, both men and women, imprisoned in a huge cell.
Most of those people were still in a coma, and a small number had just woken up and were confused about the situation. They were talking in low voices:
"Where is this place? Why are we locked up?"
"I remember that I was eating in the canteen, but I don't remember anything after that."
"Yeah, me too!"
Xie Shouzheng suddenly thought of something and hurried over to ask, "Is the food shed you're talking about the place on Mingguang Street where Master Miao provided food to the poor?"
The few sober people all nodded.
Xie Shouzheng slowly turned his head towards the door: "So, you were also captured by them?"
The next moment, he suddenly rushed to the iron gate and shouted, "You, come here!"
There was a guard at the door with a blood-red whip on his waist. He glanced back when he heard the sound, but didn't move.
Xie Shouzheng's eyes fell on the Bloodthorn Whip, "You actually stole my weapon!"
The guard sneered and said, "Here, you are all slaves. Slaves are not qualified to own weapons. This thing belongs to me. But -"
He pulled the whip from his waist and said, "I can let you taste it."
As he spoke, he swung the whip, about to hit Xie Shouzheng in the face, but the whip suddenly froze in mid-air, motionless.
The guard noticed something strange and wanted to retract the whip, but no matter how hard he pulled, the whip seemed to be nailed in the air and could not be pulled back.
Xie Shouzheng said coldly, "My weapon is also for you bastards? Blood Thorn Whip, recall!"
The next moment, the whip flipped in the air like a snake, then flew into the iron gate with a whoosh and returned to Xie Shouzheng's hand.
The guard was startled by this and opened his mouth to shout.
“Swoosh!”
The blood thorn whip flew out instantly and wrapped tightly around his neck, making him unable to utter a single syllable.
Xie Shouzheng dragged the man to the door and said, "I'm going to ask you questions, and you have to tell the truth. If you dare to call out to anyone, or tell me anything untrue, I'll strangle you!"
After some intimidation, he loosened his whip to allow the other person to speak.
"Where is this place?"
"Jade, jade mine."
"But the mine near Jade Town?"
"yes."
"Why did you bring us here?"
"Mining and labor."
"It's enough to be a laboring man, why arrest women?"
"Women...are useful too."
"How many people were arrested today?"
"I don't know the details. I'm just a small fry."
"Who are the others captured today? Where are they being held?"
"There's another cell across the street."
…
Lin Qingyue, Dongfang Qi, and Hong Yao are currently in the cell opposite.
Earlier, Lin Qingyue and Dongfang Qi had observed the area near the food shed and felt that there was something strange about it.
Hong Yao was even more convinced that it was impossible for someone like Miao Dong to do anything good unless there were greater interests behind it.
So after separating from Xie Shouzheng, the three of them changed into worn-out coarse linen clothes, then followed the queue and went inside to eat smoothly.
The food shed was a temporary building set up along the street, next to two shops selling rice.
When the poor people were eating heartily, a few waiters would come over and ask if there was enough food, and then ask some simple questions.
For example: "Where is home? Do you have any relatives? How is your health?"
Lin Qingyue observed that anyone who answered: no relatives, or whose family members were not in the local area, would be invited to the rice shop after dinner, claiming that they would be given some more food to take back.
Then, never to return.
So, when asked by the other party, Lin Qingyue and the other three claimed that they were just passing through, had no relatives at home, and were preparing to go to other places to live with relatives.
Sure enough, the three of them were invited to the rice shop next door one after another.
Once they entered, they were greeted with incense, beatings with sticks, etc.
In order to find out what was going on, the three of them pretended to be unconscious and did not resist.
Then, after many twists and turns, he was sent back to Yushi Town.
Originally, there were more than 20 people imprisoned in this cell with them, but not long after they entered, those people were taken away one after another.
At this moment, there were only three of them in the cell, discussing something.
Xie Shouzheng knocked down the guard at the door with one punch, took out the key, opened the door and rushed in.
"Young Master! Young Lady! Hongyao!"
When they saw Xie Shouzheng, Lin Qingyue and the other three were also surprised.
Dongfang Qi said, "Xiao Hui, you're very efficient this time! I thought you'd have to wait at least a day to find us."
Lin Qingyue asked: "So how did you find us?"
Xie Shouzheng became very angry when this was mentioned, so he told the story of how he reported the case and was arrested as a suspect.
"It wasn't until I got here that I realized, what's this about arresting the suspect? That's just an excuse!"
Dongfang Qi's face darkened completely. He originally thought that Miao Dong, as the chief envoy, must be involved in the matter here.
But after listening to Xie Shouzheng's words, I realized that all the officials in Donglin Prefecture were probably involved!
Most of Qi's mineral industry was state-owned, and part was in the hands of aristocratic families.
The mine in Yushi Town belongs to the Li family and has been mined for nearly twenty years.
Initially, the mine's output was modest, but four or five years ago, it doubled. Thanks to this jade mine, the Li family became the wealthiest of the major families.
At this moment, Dongfang Qi probably knew how they doubled their production.
If it were ordinary labor employment, there would naturally be many restrictions, such as the working hours could not exceed 5 hours. In addition, the labor fee was also a considerable expense.
But if you directly use illegally abducted people and then exploit them to death, you can not only increase production but also save all labor costs.
Xie Shouzheng continued, "I just got some information from that guard. Besides capturing laborers, they also abuse women! But how they abuse them? The guard is too low-ranking to know."
Lin Qingyue held her chin and smiled: "Isn't it easy to find out?"
Dongfang Qi asked her, "What do you want to do?"
Lin Qingyue said, "Let's wait and see. I want to see how many dirty secrets are hidden in this!"
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