In the blink of an eye, Commandery Princess Baoqing’s head lolled to the side as she lost consciousness.
The young woman caught her and carried her into the woodshed. Returning to the courtyard, the woman sat back down as if nothing had happened.
Having grasped the situation, Jiang Li silently dropped down by the woodshed’s rear window. Through the gap, she spotted Commandery Princess Baoqing lying on the floor. Besides the Commandery Princess, five other girls—around twelve or thirteen years old—were also inside, their eyes tightly shut. It was clear they had been drugged.
Jiang Li clenched her fists. With a meaningful glance, she signaled one of the guards to deliver a message to the Princess Mansion while she stayed behind to keep watch. The guard would need time to make the round trip. She planned to use this window of opportunity to capture the masterminds behind the abduction.
Continuing her silent observation, Jiang Li waited for about fifteen minutes before two men entered the woodshed. Their gazes swept over the faces of the six girls, and they nodded in satisfaction.
The young woman followed them inside and asked proudly, "Sir, how is this batch of goods?"
"Not bad at all," the older of the two men replied. "Send the two prettiest ones to the brothels in Jiangnan. Sell the other four somewhere farther away."
"Don’t worry. We’re well-versed in this business; there won’t be any mistakes."
Watching carefully from the rear window, Jiang Li felt that the silent man looked somewhat familiar, as if she had seen him somewhere before. Regardless, their presence here, combined with the young woman addressing them as her employers and their authority over the girls’ fates, proved they were the ones pulling the strings.
Jiang Li exchanged a glance with her remaining guards, who then silently vaulted into the courtyard. Without breaking a sweat, the guards knocked out the young woman and the two men, tossing them into one of the rooms.
Hopping the wall into the courtyard, Jiang Li sat down with a bright smile in front of the little girl, who was currently frozen in shock. "Little girl, you know it’s wrong to trick people, don’t you?"
The child opened her mouth to scream, but Jiang Li swiftly raised a hand and clamped it over her mouth. Letting out a muffled "MMPH, MMPH, MMPH," the little girl struggled, even trying to bite Jiang Li’s hand.
Having practiced Martial Arts since childhood, Jiang Li had the skills to handle a five- or six-year-old child effortlessly. "Be a good girl, and I’ll give you some pastries."
No matter how clever she was, the little girl was still only a child. At the mention of pastries, her eyes instantly lit up.
Jiang Li took out a packet of pastries, opened it, and offered it to the girl. She had previously ordered a guard to buy them, planning to use the little girl to draw out the rest of the syndicate. For these human traffickers to operate so brazenly in the Capital City, they had to have powerful backers. As a result, their lips would undoubtedly be sealed tight.
This child, however, was different. Though she cooperated with the traffickers to lure victims, she lacked their ironclad resolve. Moreover, Jiang Li had noticed pastry crumbs on the girl’s clothes earlier, guessing that she had a sweet tooth.
Sure enough, the little girl reached out with her small hands, grabbed a pastry, and stuffed it into her mouth.
"Eat slowly, don’t choke." While Jiang Li strongly disapproved of what the child had done, seeing someone so young eating with such desperation made her speak up instinctively.
Unexpectedly, tears welled up in the little girl’s eyes. "I’ve never had such delicious pastries before."
"If you listen to me," Jiang Li coaxed, "I can buy you whatever you want to eat."
These pastries were made by the Jiang family’s bakery. They were incredibly flavorful, and Jiang Li had guessed they would be a hit with a child.
The little girl looked at her with teary eyes. "Why are you buying me pastries?"
Jiang Li didn’t treat her like an ordinary child. The fact that she was helping traffickers scam people at the tender age of five or six proved she was anything but average. Therefore, Jiang Li answered honestly, "I want you to listen to my instructions so we can send all these human traffickers to prison."
"Can I eat delicious pastries every day?"
"You can, as long as every single one of them gets thrown behind bars."
The little girl tilted her head, seemingly deep in thought for a moment, before nodding. "Okay, I promise you."
Jiang Li gazed into the child’s eyes, unable to read her true intentions. After all, she was just a young kid; no matter what schemes she harbored in her heart, her eyes remained purely innocent.
The little girl pointed toward the house. "Hide yourself first. I’ll call the rest of them over."
"Alright."
Taking her words with a grain of salt, Jiang Li retreated into a room, exchanging a meaningful look with the guards hidden in the shadows.
The little girl looked at the pastry in her hand, carefully wrapped it back up in the oil paper, and tucked it into her robes. Then, her short legs carried her over to the kitchen, where she released a few pigeons from a cage behind the water vat.
"Little pigeons, go and call them all back."
The pigeons fluttered their wings and scattered in every direction.
Fifteen minutes later, seven or eight men and women in various disguises appeared in the courtyard. Seeing only the little girl, they were puzzled.
"Little Doudou, where is your mother?"
Little Doudou kept her face completely straight as she spoke earnestly. "My mother went to see the employer. She told me to entertain you ladies and gentlemen here."
Treating her like the innocent child she appeared to be, the group sensed no danger. They casually found places to sit, completely oblivious to the looming threat.
Little Doudou’s gaze swept across the courtyard as she quietly counted them. Eight people in total. Perfect, everyone was here. She then looked up at the large tree overhead. Although she couldn’t see anyone in the branches, she blinked deliberately at the foliage.
The guards stationed in the tree understood the signal. After exchanging glances with the others hiding in the shadows, they descended into the courtyard. Their landing was virtually soundless. By the time the eight traffickers realized what was happening and attempted to flee, the courtyard gates were already bolted shut.
These eight individuals were merely human traffickers. They disguised themselves in various roles on the outside and were, at best, smooth talkers. They didn’t know any Martial Arts, making them absolutely no match for the guards. In next to no time, the guards had knocked them all unconscious.
Footsteps approached from outside the courtyard gates. Gesturing for the guards to stand down, Jiang Li walked over to open the door. The guard she had sent out earlier spoke up from the other side, letting Jiang Li know that the arrivals were servants from the Princess Mansion.
Throwing the gates open, Jiang Li feigned a panicked expression. "You’re just in time! These human traffickers suddenly started fighting amongst themselves. Hurry and turn them over to the government."
The servants from the Princess Mansion had come for the Commandery Princess. Hearing that the culprits were human traffickers, they didn’t dare lower their guard in the slightest. Only after confirming that the people on the ground were genuinely unconscious did they fetch ropes to bind them.
Jiang Li pointed at the adjacent room. "There are three more people in there, all traffickers as well. If this little girl hadn’t saved me, I would have been abducted too."
Jiang Li’s lie was utterly convincing. Leaving no room for suspicion, the servants promptly sent a few people over to tie up the trio inside the room.
Only then did Jiang Li turn her attention to the two head maids leading the group. "The Commandery Princess is in the woodshed," she said softly. "There are five other girls her age inside, all of whom have been drugged."
Hearing this, the head maids immediately halted the Princess Mansion’s guards, calling only a few maids to follow them in and help. At the end of the day, the Commandery Princess was an unmarried young lady of noble status. She absolutely could not be seen by just anyone in such a disheveled state.