“What are you afraid of? This is your maternal family’s courtyard. When your mother’s family had an accident, she was the only one who survived. I was working as a errand boy at a restaurant in the city when I met your mother by chance. Later, I brought your mother back to our village. Now, if anyone comes knocking, your mother can just reveal her identity and no one will gossip.”
"How come my maternal family is all dead except for my mother?"
“When the war broke out, your maternal grandparents only had your mother as their daughter. Your maternal grandmother passed away when your mother was around ten years old, and your maternal grandfather followed her a few years later. So, your mother was left all alone in the family.”
"Oh, I see!"
"Alright, go help your wife, I'm going back to the house to check on your mother."
As the man finished speaking, footsteps sounded from the neighboring yard, but soon disappeared.
Song Lan stood quietly against the wall for a while, then quietly climbed to the top of the wall. Seeing that there was no one in the neighboring yard, she had no more worries and easily climbed over the wall.
There were voices inside the house, but Song Lan ignored them and tiptoed to the outside of the makeshift kitchen on the side of the yard.
"Can you manage on your own?"
"Um."
"Then hurry up and get the food ready. I'm going to take a nap. I'm exhausted from going out with you today!"
As the young man walked out of the kitchen, Song Lan immediately delivered a chop to the back of his neck. Then, she pulled him aside and quickly bound him tightly with his coat and belt. At the same time, she used her mind to take out a rag from her spatial storage, crumpled it into a ball, and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Who...who are you?"
A woman named Xinghua was cooking corn porridge when she suddenly heard footsteps approaching. She pretended to look away but immediately showed a panicked expression.
Song Lan remained silent, her eyes icy. She stepped forward and knocked the other person unconscious. Then, she took out a rope from her spatial storage and tied the other person's hands behind their back, gagged her to prevent her from waking up and making a sound that would cause trouble.
"Niu Dan, what are you doing? Why are you making such a loud noise?"
The sound of a middle-aged man's honest voice came from inside the house. The sound he made was deliberately created by Song Lan to lure the middle-aged man out of the house.
Song Lan naturally didn't answer. When she still didn't see the man come out, she made a noise again.
"You brat! Can't you just behave for a second?!"
The middle-aged man came out of the house cursing, only to find that there was no one in the yard. He was puzzled and wanted to go to the kitchen to see what was going on, but after taking only a few steps, he suddenly fainted.
"Master!"
Sensing something was wrong, the middle-aged woman in the room called out to the middle-aged man, but received no response. She got off the kang (a heated brick bed) and went out of the room, only to find the middle-aged man lying motionless on the ground. She was so frightened that she almost cried out.
Song Lan was standing right behind the other person when she knocked him unconscious with a single chop to the neck.
Minutes later, the middle-aged woman and her family of four were all gagged, their hands were tied behind their backs, and they lay sprawled on the kitchen floor like dead dogs.
Song Lan closed the kitchen door and went inside to search. After a while, she finally found something in a cellar.
"Waaah..."
The cellar entrance was opened, and almost instantly, a sobbing sound could be heard.
Then, as the light shone into the cellar, Song Lan climbed down the wooden ladder to the bottom and saw two girls, about the same age as Qin Yaxin, with their hands and feet bound and their mouths stuffed with rags, staring at her and crying incessantly.
The air around them was foul. Beside the two girls lay three children, the oldest of whom was about five or six years old, the youngest no more than two years old, and the other about three or four years old.
"I'm going to untie you now, so please don't make a sound."
Upon hearing Song Lan's words, the two girls nodded emphatically while shedding tears.
"There are about six kidnappers. I have already subdued four of them, and they won't be able to harm you now. As for the other two, they haven't returned yet."
After a brief pause, Song Lan continued, "Stop crying. Listen to me, each of you pick up one child and let's leave the cellar first."
Picking up the eldest child, Song Lan looked at the two girls who weren't much younger than her: "Hurry up, or the kidnappers outside will come back and trap us all back in the cellar."
Both girls were quite pretty; one was taller and the other shorter. Judging from their clothes, they probably came from well-off families.
Actually, they were classmates and good friends. Two days ago, they went to the park together. However, they were drugged while trying to lead someone around. When they woke up, they found their hands and feet were bound, their mouths were gagged, and they were in a dark, damp and moldy place.
Realizing they had been kidnapped, the two girls were so panicked and frightened that they were almost in despair.
They didn't know how long they had been locked in the cellar, only that they had only eaten twice and drunk water once, and that was when two women in the kidnappers forced food and water into their mouths.
They ate half a dark yellow cornbread each time and drank cold water with a strange taste.
They thought they would never see their family again, but then... a pleasant surprise came their way!
The two girls hugged each other and cried for a while. Then they wiped away their tears and, as Song Lan instructed, each picked up a child and followed behind Song Lan as they climbed the wooden ladder up to the cellar.
"Here, one for each of you. It won't do any harm to your health."
As soon as they came out of the cellar, Song Lan handed each of the two girls a pill.
Without hesitation, the two girls took the pills from her hand and put them into their mouths.
"Do you dare to go to the nearest police station to report this?"
Song Lan asked.
The two girls shuddered and shook their heads in unison. They dared not leave the courtyard; they were afraid... afraid of encountering kidnappers returning from outside.
"Afraid of encountering kidnappers returning from outside?"
Although Song Lan was asking a question, the expressions of the two girls were enough to tell her the answer. Their eyes were filled with fear and they nodded vigorously at her.
"Okay, I understand."
As she spoke, Song Lan took the pulse of each of the three children who were still unconscious. She found that two of the children were still unconscious because the sleeping pills hadn't worn off. The little boy, who looked to be about three or four years old, had been given a sleeping pill. Song Lan could understand this; the kidnappers were worried that the children would cry if they woke up.
After all, the three children's hands and feet were not tied, and their mouths were not gagged.
If they start crying and making a fuss, they might give themselves away!
Considering that the three children were not in immediate danger, Song Lan did not do anything extra. She pondered how to report the case and hand the kidnappers over to the police.
Suddenly, her ears twitched.
"Take the child and hide inside; the kidnappers outside are back!"
Song Lan carried the child in her arms into the house first, followed closely by two young girls carrying the child.
"You guys stay here and keep quiet. I'll go and subdue them, then we can leave this place."
After placing the child in her arms onto the kang (a heated brick bed), Song Lan gave the two girls a few words of advice before quickly leaving the room.
"We didn't even get a single item when we went out. What use are you?"
"It was my first time doing that kind of thing, and I was a little nervous and didn't dare to make a move. What's the use of blaming me? Besides, you didn't get any goods either!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
