The old woman who was supporting Yu Yao took advantage of the chaos and brought Yu Yao with her as she ducked into the forest.
She felt that the girl she was supporting was extraordinarily light to hold up. Thinking that these city girls liked to go on diets, she did not suspect anything.
She shone her flashlight, walking through the forest as if it were level ground, muttering all the while.
“Young lady, do not blame me. If you must blame someone, blame your own bad luck. Who told you to happen to be taken a fancy to by the village chief!”
“A few years ago, the village chief’s son went to the city to work and injured his leg. No woman took a fancy to him. The village chief has had bitterness in his heart all these years…”
“The village is poor, and no one is willing to marry into it. My family’s Zhuzi is still counting on the village chief to help him get a wife in the future…”
For a time, only the rustling sound of feet stepping on branches and leaves could be heard in the surroundings.
After walking for about half an hour, the old woman finally stopped her steps under a towering tree.
She placed Yu Yao under the tree, stood up, and walked to a place behind the tree leaves that was buried by dead branches and rotten leaves, painstakingly scraping away the branches and leaves on the ground.
On the ground was an old stone slab door.
The old woman strained to pull up the stone slab. Straightening her back, she was just about to turn around to bring Yu Yao over when a pain struck the back of her neck…
Yu Yao had learned basic combat skills in class, but this was also her first time applying them.
Seeing the old woman fall down limply, she let out a sigh of relief, only to realize that her hands were shaking terribly.
She took a deep breath, dragged the old woman to one side, picked up the old woman’s flashlight, and screwed up her courage to go down into the pitch-black opening of the hole.
The inside of the cave was completely dim, the ground was damp, and the air was foul-smelling and hard to breathe.
The underground had already been hollowed out into an extremely large space, containing seven or eight empty rooms.
Being hidden in such a deep underground, no wonder the police could not find them during their searches before!
The doors of several rooms had been reinforced with thick pieces of wood, and an extremely large door bolt was inserted on top of them. A hole for delivering food was opened in the middle of the doors.
Yu Yao took a deep breath, held the flashlight close to a hole, and looked for a good while before she discovered a blackish woman whose facial features could not be distinguished crouching in the corner of the wall.
The woman had nothing on her body and was skin and bones. Seeing the light shine in, she only trembled and shrank back into the corner.
The next few rooms all presented similar situations.
She had envisioned the possible circumstances of the missing women, but when everything was laid out before her eyes, Yu Yao clenched her teeth deathly hard to suppress the endless fury that suddenly rose up in her heart…
A pack of beasts!
“You can come now!”
Yu Yao’s heart was trembling. Enduring her tears, she contacted the police: “I have found several women who are locked up!”
“When you come over, please bring a few sets of clothes…”
With trembling hands, she opened the door bolts on the doors one by one.
The sound of “clack” was incomparably clear in the silent space.
No one made a move.
The women only shrank deeper into the corners of the walls, as if they wanted to hide their entire bodies so as not to be seen by outsiders, avoiding the abuse and cruelty that was about to happen…
“I, I am here to save you!”
Her heart was heavy, as if it were stuffed with a heavy stone. Yu Yao felt incomparably glad about her decision to beat them at their own game; otherwise, who knew how long these pitiful women would have to be locked underground…
She blinked her eyes, restraining the urge to shed tears. Not looking at the victims who had suffered to the limit of their suffering, she only pointed the flashlight at herself: “Look, I am not a person from the village.”
She softened her voice: “My name is Yu Yao, and I am a member of a public welfare organization.”
“I am here to save you, and the police are also on their way here…”
In the midst of the entire darkness, she was the only bright ray of light.
Her voice was extremely gentle, carrying a power that seemed capable of soothing people’s hearts…
It was not known how much time passed; it seemed like a single instant, yet it also felt as if a very long time had passed. Finally, a weak, rustling movement came from the corner.
All the light was on Yu Yao’s side. Yu Yao could not see their expressions clearly, so she could only continue saying the words she could say…
“Rest assured, after saving you out today, our organization will not sit idly by and ignore you in the future. If you do not want to stay in this local area anymore, we can also provide job positions for you in other places…”
“There are many warm-hearted friends who are willing to help you, to train you in skills, and to let you possess a skill to make a living.”
“Do not be afraid. The ones who did wrong have never been you. As long as you want to live well in the future, you will certainly be able to live well…”
The rims of her eyes were hot. She racked her brains thinking of ways to comfort these pitiful women, but a subtle sound came from behind her.
The sound of a “whoosh” of wind came.
She tilted her head instinctively, avoiding a tree trunk that came swinging over, but her face was scraped with a gash by the rough tree bark!
“Dead woman! You actually want to bring disaster upon our village…”
Yu Yao shone the flashlight over. A man in his thirties with a lame leg was standing behind her, turning his head away because of the sudden strong light while cursing and swearing.
This person was the village chief’s son.
He had peeked at Yu Yao inside the room and had long since lusted after this beautiful city girl.
Seeing that the auntie in the village had successfully taken Yu Yao away, he could not wait to follow her over, but he did not expect that the auntie would be knocked unconscious and that Yu Yao would sneak inside, wanting to let everyone go!
In his heart, Yu Yao had long since become his possession. He adhered to the tradition in the village: if a woman was disobedient, she had to be beaten. Subconsciously, he wanted to hit Yu Yao.
But Yu Yao was prepared long ago. After escaping one strike from the man, Yu Yao immediately used the flashlight to illuminate the man’s eyes, and right after that, she took out the chili water that she had carried secretly…
Before the man could recover his senses from the strong light, he only felt a burning hot liquid sprayed on his face, and his nasal cavity and eyes all pained to high heaven…
He immediately began to cry out loudly in pain, scrambling in a flurry as he wanted to catch Yu Yao.
But his eyes could not see clearly, and Yu Yao’s figure was agile, so he could not touch Yu Yao at all.
It was just that the man’s physical strength was there after all, and he blocked the opening of the cave without moving away, so Yu Yao and the others could not go out for a time either.
The effectiveness of the chili water was limited. If they did not subdue him now, the situation could very likely reverse later!
Yu Yao bit her teeth and quickly used the flashlight to illuminate all around for a moment, only to discover that those women had run out of the small rooms at some unknown time and had gathered together…
“Is there a weapon?” She looked toward the women.
The women did not dare to meet her gaze, but someone, trembling, pulled out a thick and long bolt from a door and handed it to Yu Yao with a lowered head.
Yu Yao took the bolt, bit her teeth, and rushed forward!
With the first strike, she hit the man’s wrist forcefully, knocking away the tree branch he held in his hand!
With the second strike, remembering the man’s lustful designs on her, she showed no mercy and greeted the man’s most fragile area!
The man erupted into a burst of miserable shriek that was even worse than before, curling up on the ground in pain…
With the third strike…
Yu Yao did not strike the third blow.
The women behind her walked forward at some unknown time, all holding the bolts from the doors.
These tools that had once imprisoned them had now turned into the weapons in their hands, swinging one by one toward the former perpetrator…
They shed tears and roared, their expressions strange, both crying and laughing.
They took the mistreatment, confinement, painful and hopeless struggles, and self-numbing numbness from these years spent in the dark of day…
Blow after blow, they continuously swung them toward one of the instigators who had caused them to fall into the abyss.
It turned out that these people who had once dominated their life and death were not that terrifying.
Before long, the sound of footsteps came from above.
Several sets of brand-new clothes were thrown down.
Only at this time did Yu Yao stop these pitiful women and let them put on the clothes.
Not until she signaled that it was fine to come down did the police walk down from the opening of the hole.
The women were a bit triggered. In order to appease their emotions, Yu Yao did not slowly climb out until the women had all gone up to the ground.
The open ground above was already packed full of people at this time.
The police were inquiring about the women’s names and experiences. Some people had not spoken for a long time and their throats were hoarse; some people’s minds were chaotic, and it took a long time for them to utter a single word…
But no matter what, they would all break away from the mire of the past, and along with the return of their names, walk toward a brand-new self.
Yu Yao wanted to laugh a little, and also wanted to cry a little.
Unexpectedly, a person rushed out from an angle and hugged her while trembling…
“Yu Yao! You are truly disobedient!”
She heard Zhao Chuji’s voice, which sounded as if she were clenching her teeth.
Warm tears dropped down one by one, falling upon her neck.
Looking at the young girl in front of her who had cried into a tearful mess, Yu Yao was at a loss as to what to do, freezing on the spot, no longer having a single bit of the awe-inspiring majesty of beating someone up in the underground cave from the previous moment…
Oh no, caught red-handed on the scene by the beautiful, strict manager, what should I do?