Just as everyone was about to turn and leave, a dirty child suddenly rushed out, letting out a beast-like growl, his eyes fixed on Lin Yinan with a hint of pleading and a touch of stubbornness.
Lin Yinan recognized him at a glance as the boy who had left alone; she hadn't expected him to still be alive.
The trafficker came up and lashed the boy with a whip, cursing, "Get out of here! Don't scare the guests!" He then turned to Lin Yinan and the others, bowing and scraping, and said with a fawning smile, "This little rascal is hard to tame. We've already cut out his tongue and are preparing to send him away. Honored guests, please take a look over there and see if there's anything suitable."
A scene flashed through Lin Yinan's mind: these two human traffickers were merchants who had left Pingcheng through a tunnel.
What a small world! They actually met here.
Lin Yinan stood behind the crowd and secretly observed the two men. They had harbored evil intentions towards her. Perhaps they were not businessmen at all, but human traffickers!
Yun Mo naturally recognized the boy as well. He frowned and said, "Since we can't tame him, let's just forget about it. Let's go back and discuss it further."
Lin Yinan didn't say a word from beginning to end, and turned to leave with the others.
She gave him a chance.
It is his own choice that things have turned out this way.
As the boy watched the crowd leave, tears of regret streamed down his face. He whimpered and his eyes were filled with despair.
Passing by a small alley, Yun Wu, with his keen sense of smell, caught a whiff of medicine emanating from it, and Lin Yinan, wearing a mask, could also faintly smell it.
"Our team just ran out of medicinal herbs, let's go see if we can buy some more," Yun Mo said.
A small pharmacy was located in the middle of the alley, its door ajar.
Looking through the half-open door, most of the cabinets in the pharmacy were empty, and someone was sorting and packing medicinal herbs, presumably the pharmacy owner.
The shopkeeper was very focused on his work; they stood at the door for quite a while, but he didn't turn around.
After a long while, he looked up, glanced at the person outside the door, and said in a deep voice, "Please go back. I'm not seeing patients today."
Yun Wu pushed open the door and went in. "Shopkeeper, I'm here to buy medicinal herbs."
Lin Yinan and the others then followed them inside.
The shopkeeper stopped packing and looked up at the group of people who had entered the store. He was looking at a bunch of unfamiliar faces, and his eyelids twitched involuntarily.
The pharmacy owner looked to be in his thirties or forties, with a kind and honest appearance, but his face was full of worry.
He said, "We don't have many medicinal herbs left in the shop. What kind do you need? Do you have a prescription?"
Yun Wu took a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper took it, squinted and examined it carefully, muttering to himself, "This small shop has all the medicinal herbs, but not in large quantities."
"Give me as much as you have." Yun Wu didn't mind; it was better than nothing.
The shopkeeper quickly gathered the medicinal herbs, wrapped them in a cloth, and handed them to Yun Wu.
Lin Yinan's mind stirred slightly; she wanted to check on the condition of the fetus in her womb. "Does the shopkeeper know how to take a pulse?"
Upon hearing that the voice belonged to a woman, the shopkeeper turned his gaze to Lin Yinan, who was dressed in black and whose head and face were completely covered. "Pulse diagnosis requires observation, auscultation, inquiry, and palpation."
Lin Yinan immediately understood what the shopkeeper meant: he wanted her to take off her headscarf.
"Anan, where do you feel unwell?" Lin Yiheng asked his sister with concern.
Yun Mo, Su Yunzhi, and the others all looked at her.
Lin Yinan frankly admitted, "I'm not feeling well."
Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper knew she was referring to a woman's ailment. "There is an inner room inside. Would you like to go in, young lady?"
"Alright, please lead the way, shopkeeper."
To be on the safe side, Yun Mo and the others followed them inside.
Behind the pharmacy is a square courtyard with a well in the middle. Around the well are wooden racks for drying herbs, which are now empty. There is a room on each of the three sides of the courtyard.
The shopkeeper led Lin Yinan to a consultation room. Yun Mo was still worried, so he and Yun Er checked it out, but they didn't find any secret rooms or passages.
After they left, Lin Yinan took off her headscarf and mask and sat down at the table.
The shopkeeper is a capable person, otherwise he wouldn't have been detained here by the city lord.
He glanced at Lin Yinan and said, "Miss, you are pregnant."
“Yes.” Lin Yinan extended her hand. “Please take my pulse, shopkeeper.”
The shopkeeper placed his hand on her wrist, closed his eyes, and began to listen attentively.
After a while, seeing his furrowed brows, Lin Yinan became uneasy. Only after the shopkeeper withdrew his hand did she cautiously ask, "Shopkeeper, how is the baby?"
"The pregnancy is stable, no medication is needed. Just pay close attention to your diet and avoid overexertion," the shopkeeper said slowly.
Lin Yinan breathed a sigh of relief. She had really been frightened by him just now, as if he had made her look like she was terminally ill.
"Thank you, shopkeeper."
The shopkeeper, unwilling to say more, waved his hand and was about to stand up and leave when Lin Yinan whispered, "Shopkeeper, have you thought about leaving here?"
The shopkeeper paused slightly, slowly turned around, and said with a helpless tone, "Miss, once we enter Luo Chu City, we won't be able to leave."
After they finished speaking, the two walked out one after the other.
Seeing the two of them come out, Lin Yiheng was about to go up and ask them questions.
Suddenly, a man rushed out of the next room, shouting and yelling, his eyes bloodshot, and lunged at Yun Mo and the others, clearly having gone mad.
The shopkeeper turned around and shouted urgently, "Quick! Hold him down!"
He pulled out the hemp rope hanging under the eaves and strode forward.
Yun Er and Yun San stepped forward and together they barely managed to hold the person down. Even so, the person's body continued to twist and struggle, and he kept roaring from deep in his throat.
Lin Yinan, who had just stepped out of the house, felt a slight tremor in her heart upon seeing this, and followed the shopkeeper forward to take a closer look.
Yun San raised his hand and struck the back of the man's neck hard. The man's eyes rolled back, and he completely lost consciousness.
Yun Er disgustedly threw him to the ground and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his hands.
No wonder Yun Er was disgusted. The man's body was covered with dense blisters, some of which had ulcerated and oozed pus. He was breathing rapidly, his cheeks were burning red, and he was still trembling slightly even in his unconscious state.
Lin Yinan had a vague sense of unease; she was all too familiar with these symptoms.
Yun Wu examined the man carefully for a while and then took his pulse, but even with his extensive knowledge, he couldn't tell what illness the man had.
"Strange, I have a fever, so why is my pulse so slow?"
The shopkeeper tied the man's hands and feet with hemp rope. "Could you please carry him into this room?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the other rooms erupted in a chorus of roars, and the door of one of the tightly closed rooms was slammed shut with a loud bang.
Everyone looked at the shopkeeper, who wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
"Are there many more people like this in the room?" Lin Yinan asked coldly.
The innkeeper's hand trembled slightly in his sleeve, and his chest felt as heavy as if a boulder was pressing down on it. He pointed to three rooms and said in a trembling voice, "There are six people living in these rooms."
Upon hearing this, Lin Yinan walked to the eaves and peered inside through the window cracks.
Half of the people inside were tied to the bed with ropes, and a very few had broken free and were walking around the room screaming.
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