Jiang Hao rubbed his eyes, briefly wondering whether he was seeing things.
How could a living person disappear into thin air?
Could she be a ghost?
A moment later, Meng Yao suddenly reappeared.
Startled, Jiang Hao fell backward onto the floor.
“G-Ghost! Ahhh!”
His terrified scream alerted the man guarding outside the door. The man stormed in irritably, cursing as he entered.
“What are you screaming for? Shut—”
Before he could finish the word, a scorching iron rod struck him directly on the head.
The pain sent him collapsing to the ground, unable to make a sound.
Meng Yao repeatedly struck his legs with all her strength.
“This is for abducting children!”
“This is for selling women!”
“You disgusting piece of trash! Pah! You deserve it!”
She hit him dozens of times without stopping until his entire body was covered in blood and he fainted from the pain.
Jiang Hao was completely stunned by the scene before him.
However, this was not the time to comfort him or explain anything.
Meng Yao said calmly, “Stay close to me if you want to go home.”
Although Jiang Hao was terrified, his trembling legs instinctively followed Meng Yao.
The woman in front of him looked frighteningly brutal, but that was still better than being sold by those human traffickers.
At least she would not hurt him.
Meng Yao took the keys from the trafficker’s body and headed toward the staircase.
At that moment, several of the traffickers were resting in the first-floor hall after drinking. Slightly intoxicated, they leaned back in their chairs with their eyes closed.
They had no idea that the prisoners from the basement had already escaped.
Meng Yao raised the scorching iron rod and attacked the nearest trafficker.
To avoid alerting the others, she struck him directly on the head.
She did not care whether the blow killed him.
Human traffickers deserved to die. If he happened to lose his life, then he could only blame his terrible luck and doomed fate.
The man’s head split open. He muttered a low curse, twitched slightly, and stopped moving.
There were two others nearby, and one of them was the scar-faced man.
The sight of him immediately enraged Meng Yao.
Despicable, shameless, vulgar, and filthy—none of those words were enough to describe him.
She swung the iron rod fiercely between his legs.
“Ahhh!”
For a man, that kind of pain was said to be even worse than childbirth.
The scar-faced man woke from his sleep in agony. Before he could even see who had attacked him, he collapsed to the floor, drenched in cold sweat and unable to open his eyes from the pain.
Meng Yao quickly moved toward the final man.
She waited calmly until he clearly saw her, then gave him a wicked smile and swung the rod into his neck.
The man instantly lost consciousness.
He was truly fortunate.
He had not even had time to feel the pain.
Meanwhile, the leader—the man in the shirt—was on the third floor assaulting a newly abducted woman.
Suddenly, he turned his head sharply after sensing that something was wrong.
He immediately abandoned the disheveled victim and hurried downstairs while putting on his clothes, holding a gun cautiously in his hand.
Standing at the second-floor landing, he looked downstairs vigilantly.
When he saw his subordinates lying on the ground as though they had died miserably, he cursed inwardly.
Damn it. Did a rival gang come looking for trouble?
He carefully walked downstairs with his gun raised, ready to fight at any moment as he scanned his surroundings.
Judging from the horrific injuries on his men and how silently they had been eliminated, he assumed that many enemies must have invaded.
They were probably hiding in the shadows, preparing to surround him.
Since he was alone, escaping was the safest choice.
He quickly moved toward the front entrance, only to discover that the door had been locked from the inside and would not open.
Terrified, he suddenly turned around and saw Meng Yao appear out of nowhere.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
“Were you the one who injured all my men?”
Meng Yao raised an eyebrow and smiled.
“Correct. Do you want a reward?”
The man became furious from embarrassment.
“From the moment you entered this place, I knew you weren’t an ordinary woman.
“I’ve never seen an abducted woman remain so calm when facing us.”
From the instant he saw Meng Yao, he had felt uneasy.
Sure enough, something had gone wrong.
Those idiots had abducted her without investigating her background first.
Damn them.
Seeing how nervous the man looked, Meng Yao laughed mockingly.
“So even people like you know how to be afraid?
“What a joke!”
The man stopped wasting words.
He raised the gun and fired directly at her.
The next second, he witnessed a scene he would never forget.
When the bullet came within ten centimeters of Meng Yao, it suddenly changed direction and struck the white wall behind her.
How could anyone possibly avoid a bullet moving straight toward them?
His voice trembled.
“Y-You… Who exactly are you?”
Meng Yao no longer held back.
“I’m your great-aunt!”
Without hesitation, she swung the iron rod at him.
“Ahhh!”
A miserable scream echoed above the Western-style building, frightening several black crows into flight.
…
At the public security bureau, Yu Mei’s eyes were swollen red from crying.
She had not slept all night and leaned weakly against Jiang Jun’s chest.
Her voice had become hoarse.
“It’s all my fault. I should have gone to pick him up. How could I let him return home alone?
“If something really happened to Haohao, I wouldn’t be able to keep living. Boohoo…”
After losing his child overnight, Jiang Jun appeared to have aged several years.
His once energetic face looked far more worn and haggard.
He weakly asked the colleagues who had just returned, “How is it? Is there any news?”
Feng Rongguang, who had led the search team, could not bear to meet his desperate gaze.
He lowered his head guiltily.
“I’m sorry.”
An entire day had passed since they discovered that the child was missing.
In a disappearance case, the longer the delay, the slimmer the hope became.
Especially in an era without surveillance cameras, once someone disappeared, the chance of finding them again was almost nonexistent.
Seeing how devastated Jiang Jun looked, Feng Rongguang comforted him.
“Don’t worry. Everyone in the bureau who isn’t handling an urgent case has temporarily put aside their work to help search today.
“We’ll also ask the public to help.
“As long as the traffickers haven’t left the city, we’ll definitely find him.”
Jiang Jun had no energy to argue.
The incident had already happened, so they could only do everything possible to solve it.
As long as the child was still alive and had not been harmed, there was still hope.
At that moment, Jiang Jun silently prayed that his son had been taken by human traffickers.
At least then, he might still survive.
If he had encountered a deranged murderer who killed people for pleasure, the situation would be far worse.
The solemn hall was filled with despair.
“We found him! We found him!”
Fan Tong, a new officer who had recently reported for duty, rushed inside while gasping for breath.
“Cap-Cap-Captain…”
Feng Rongguang asked anxiously, “Captain what?
“Hurry and tell us! Did you find him?”
Unable to speak properly, Fan Tong nodded repeatedly.
They had found him!
Yu Mei immediately stopped crying and rushed toward him.
“What did you say? Haohao—my Haohao has been found?”
Following the direction of Fan Tong’s finger, Jiang Jun looked toward the tractor that had just entered the bureau’s courtyard.
A familiar small figure was sitting on it.
Forgetting all dignity, Jiang Jun ran forward with tears in his eyes and lifted his son into his arms.
Overwhelmed with relief, he hugged Jiang Hao tightly and choked on his words.
“Thank goodness. You’re back.
“My son has come home.”
The others also shed tears of joy.
Meng Yao was delighted as well.
She had never expected that the child she rescued would turn out to be the son of Jiang Jun, the man who had helped save her.
Covered in blood, she climbed down from the tractor and dusted herself off.
“Captain Jiang, hello.”
Only then did Jiang Jun notice her.
When he realized that she had returned together with his son, his eyes filled with confusion.
“This… Why are you here?”
Fan Tong hurriedly stepped forward and explained.
“Captain, this young woman was the one who rescued Haohao.”
Jiang Hao looked up from Yu Mei’s arms.
“Mom, it’s a good thing I met this sister. Without her, I would never have seen you and Dad again.”
“What?!”