Chapter 172 Who's Family with You

She went to look for the two children, and of course, there was another reason for choosing the mountain path: how could one be on guard against thieves day in and day out? The people sent by old Mrs. Song were undoubtedly hiding in the mountains, and tonight presented another prime opportunity. In the dead of night, it was the easiest time to handle such matters.

Sure enough, those people caught the scent of blood and came over.

However... looking at the figures on the ground, Lin Jingyue realized there were still fish that had slipped through the net.

For instance, the other man Lu Yunji had mentioned was likely the buyer from deep within the mountains.

Yet the men who had just approached her had tried to kill her outright, presumably abandoning their original plan to sell her deep into the mountains. Consequently, that man had probably met a grim fate.

Running these thoughts through her mind took only a fraction of a second. Lin Jingyue looked at Lu Yunji and asked, "Have you considered..."

The next moment, a gunshot rang out.

She looked deeply at Lu Yunji; as expected, he was ruthless as well.

Lu Yunji fired two shots directly into the fatal pressure points of the man at his feet. Ensuring the person had stopped breathing, he looked up at Lin Jingyue. "Is this choice acceptable?"

Under the moonlight, his eyes were exceptionally deep and dark.

Well, now they were even. Both of them had killed someone; what more was there to say?

Lin Jingyue gave him a long, profound look. "Acceptable."

Both sides put away their weapons. Lin Jingyue collected all three firearms. "The spoils of war will be divided by head count. Don't say I'm bullying you."

"..." Lu Yunji truly felt at a loss for words.

Yet he did not argue.

Watching Lin Jingyue search the corpses, the two of them left the place behind, completely ignoring the bodies.

Before long, they would become food in the bellies of wild beasts.

"Big Ash, help me find the two children." When the smell of blood faded from the air, Lin Jingyue took two notebooks out of her pocket and placed them before Big Ash.

Carrying homework notebooks around with her?

Lu Yunji wore a subtle expression. "It's a wolf, not..."

The next instant, he swallowed his own words as he watched the gray wolf sniff the scent on the notebooks, indicate a direction with its head, and set off with Lin Jingyue following closely behind.

Indeed, they were heading away from the mountain.

Lu Yunji rubbed his nose and followed them.

Big Ash moved with great speed, guiding them as they wove through the forest. An hour later, they descended the mountain.

Few people walked this path, and sure enough, there were signs of disturbed, chaotic footsteps.

How did the traffickers know there was a path here? Lin Jingyue frowned.

Following the trail, the two of them eventually discovered that they had entered the town!

Dawn was approaching rapidly, which meant the production brigade's search party hadn't caught up yet.

"Go contact your people," Lin Jingyue instructed Lu Yunji unceremoniously.

"I agree to your terms."

Lu Yunji smiled. "Very well."

With Lin Jingyue looking after him, he imagined the old man would remain safe.

That made him all the more dedicated.

In the county town, Lin Jingyue pondered who could help, deciding to head straight to the black market to find Tian Yang, along with Li Tongchui and Sun Jiabao.

The moment she pushed open the door, her eyebrows arched high.

"Lu Yunji, what a coincidence." Tian Yang actually turned out to be one of Lu Yunji's men; this world was truly damn small.

This man's reach was truly extensive.

She did not know that Tian Yang had only been taken under Lu Yunji's wing after Old Man Lu's arrival—though perhaps that wasn't entirely accurate. Tian Yang originally answered to someone from the city, and that person happened to be like a brother to Lu Yunji, the two of them maintaining a cooperative relationship.

Thus, when Old Man Lu arrived, that person directly had Lu Yunji liaise with Tian Yang.

However, Lin Jingyue narrowed her eyes slightly. If she remembered correctly, this fellow Tian Yang had a bit of a connection with her Jiang Xun. So just whose person was he, really?

"Turns out we're all family." Lu Yunji chuckled softly.

His remark earned him a glance from Tian Yang, while Li Tongchui and Sun Jiabao immediately grew vigilant.

"Who's family with you? Educated Youth Lin is Brother Jiang's object." Sun Jiabao, a blind admirer of Jiang Xun, could not hold back and blurted out directly.

Li Tongchui nodded his head like a bobblehead. "Right, right, right! Educated Youth Lin and Brother Jiang are a match made in heaven, the ultimate pairing, celestial match! You are definitely not family."

"Pfft." Lin Jingyue could not help but laugh out loud.

Lu Yunji glanced at them, his eyelids half-drooped. Brother Jiang? Who was that?

Lin Jingyue had a romantic partner?

"Let's set that aside for now and find the kids first. Since everyone knows each other, I won't stand on ceremony. Tian Yang, please lend me a few brothers. We'll head to the bus station to check first—the first bus is about to leave. Tongchui, the two of you go look for the brigade members and then search the town. Lu Yunji, could you please ask around for information with Tian Yang..."

Coupled with the police comrades, they should be able to retrieve the children.

With everything arranged, Lin Jingyue took the three men borrowed from Tian Yang and headed to the station.

Li Tongchui and Sun Jiabao quickly sprang into action as well.

Meanwhile, in a dilapidated courtyard elsewhere, Niuniu and Tiedan, who had been unconscious all night, slowly blinked awake.

The two children dazedly looked around. There were about a dozen other children roughly their age, both boys and girls.

Fear and anxiety filled everyone's eyes. Some children wanted to cry, but having clearly been terrorized previously, they covered their mouths with their little hands and wept in silence.

Niuniu's eyes welled with tears as well. Remembering the fierce, menacing adults from the night before, she and Tiedan huddled tightly together. "Tiedan, where... where are we?"

Tiedan was terrified too, but thinking of Lin Jingyue's usual advice that a real man must protect the girls around him, he steadied himself slightly. "I—I don't know either."

They must have run into human traffickers.

After a long while, the two little ones calmed down somewhat. Niuniu snapped back to reality and, remembering Sister Lin's words, wanted to cry again.

She still missed her parents, grandfather, and grandmother, wuwuwu...

The little girl tried her hardest to remain calm. "Tiedan, we have to find a way to escape, or we'll be sold off to some faraway place."

Sister Lin had said that some children would have their legs broken or tongues cut off and be thrown onto the streets to beg.

They could not become like that; it was too terrifying.

Tiedan shuddered. "Yeah, yeah. I'll go see if there's anyone outside."

He was so scared too.

The two children whispered among themselves. Some of the other children were still sleeping, while others wept in fear as everyone sat huddled together.

Tiedan scrambled across the ground to the window and slowly pulled himself up.

Fortunately, because he usually ate well, he had grown tall enough to reach the windowsill.

The paper pasting the window was already torn. Peering out through the ragged hole, despair washed over him.

"Niuniu, there are two people outside." He crawled back; with two big men out there, escape was completely impossible.

While he was looking, Niuniu peeked through the back window herself. "There's one person in the back, too."

Both of them instantly lost all their spirit. It seemed escaping was out of the question.

"Sister Lin said that as long as we don't give up, there will always be a chance. These people captured us, so they must be taking us somewhere else. We'll find an opportunity on the road." A flicker of fear crossed Niuniu's small face, but she spoke with a forced calmness.

"We need to conserve our energy so we can run faster when the time comes."

*(Li Tongchui and Sun Jiabao: Brother Jiang isn't here, so we will guard his territory in his stead!)*