Following Song Yueying’s suggestion, Captain Hong instructed the police officers to thoroughly search the entire courtyard once again.
As night was about to fall, they still had not found the kidnapped person. Captain Hong and the officers gradually began to lose patience.
Captain Hong scratched his short-cropped hair in frustration, looking irritated. He asked Song Yueying, “Comrade Song, are you certain the person is really hidden in this courtyard?”
“The captain has a point. We’ve searched twice very carefully, almost to the point of digging three feet into the ground. We haven’t seen a single trace of anyone. Is it possible the person isn’t even in this courtyard?”
“They say a cunning rabbit has three burrows, but these traffickers are even more cunning than rabbits, they’ve got more than three hiding places.”
“We’ve made such a commotion here. If the person was hidden nearby, they’ve probably already been moved away by now.”
The police officers spoke one after another, all of them turning their eyes toward Song Yueying, waiting for her answer.
Looking at the expectant faces of Captain Hong and the officers, Song Yueying felt speechless. The trafficker named Xiao Wu had such obvious reactions, yet they had completely ignored them.
If they insisted on searching blindly their own way, it would be strange if they could find anything at all.
Song Yueying nodded silently.
One officer asked, “Comrade Song, could you tell us what makes you so certain the person is in this courtyard?”
“He said it,” Song Yueying replied, pointing at Xiao Wu.
As soon as she said this, everyone’s gaze, except Song Yueying’s, landed on Xiao Wu.
“You’re talking nonsense! You’re framing an innocent person!” Xiao Wu erupted angrily. “I didn’t say anything at all! Stop trying to pin the charge of human trafficking on me!”
“You’re such a young liar, your mentality must be seriously wrong. You should be sent to labor reform!”
“I am a worker at the cotton spinning factory. I work diligently and make contributions to the country. Yet you insist on calling me a human trafficker and even brought the police to search my home, you clearly have bad intentions.”
“You are sowing discord between me and the police comrades. You are a vile element. Police comrades, hurry and arrest her for interrogation. Don’t let her escape.”
It was obvious at a glance that Xiao Wu was trying to mask his inner panic with anger. Song Yueying said nothing, only watching him with a calm expression as he raged helplessly.
Seeing that Song Yueying did not take the bait, Xiao Wu became even more anxious.
This woman had silently followed Xu Daniu all the way here, and even confidently claimed the person was in the courtyard, she clearly had some ability.
Could she have really seen through the secrets of this place?
No, impossible. Absolutely impossible. He must be overthinking it. She was so young, there was no way she could see through anything here.
Even the police hadn’t noticed anything, so she definitely couldn’t either.
Thinking this through, Xiao Wu steadied himself, and his tone regained confidence. “I’m just a cotton factory worker. I’m not the human trafficker you’re talking about.”
“I work conscientiously and contribute to the country…”
Captain Hong impatiently kicked Xiao Wu and shouted sternly, “Shut up.”
Song Yueying looked up at the sky. Too much time had been wasted, she definitely wouldn’t make it home today.
Sigh.
Even if she couldn’t go home, she had to finish this quickly.
Song Yueying walked to the door of a room and turned back, saying, “Captain Hong, send two or three comrades to move the things inside out.”
Hearing this, Xiao Wu’s expression changed drastically. He said urgently, “That’s just a wood storage room. There’s nothing inside except firewood.”
“Is that so?” Song Yueying looked at him with a half-smile.
Xiao Wu instantly realized he had misspoken and exposed himself.
Seeing Xiao Wu’s panicked reaction, Captain Hong immediately understood everything.
With a sharp order, the police officers sprang into action again. The firewood inside the room was thrown out, and soon excited shouts rang out from within.
“We found them! They’re really here, we found them!”
“These beasts actually hid people underground. No wonder we couldn’t find them!”
Some rejoiced, while others despaired.
Hearing the cheers and curses from inside the room, Xiao Wu and Xu Daniu felt utterly hopeless. It was over, completely over for them.
Thinking of the person who had exposed them, both of them glared viciously at Song Yueying, wishing they could tear her apart and drink her blood.
Screams and cries soon rose one after another from inside the room, and the victims were quickly brought out.
There were five young women, roughly between fifteen and twenty years old, and six children, both boys and girls, all under ten.
A total of eleven people. Each of them was pale and emaciated, their steps unsteady. Once in the courtyard, they all knelt before Captain Hong and the police officers, crying and thanking them.
The officers quickly helped them up, and Captain Hong arranged for them to be sent to the hospital.
Since there weren’t many officers present, Song Yueying was pulled in to help and went with several police officers to escort the victims to the hospital.
After returning to the hospital again, Song Yueying looked out at the pitch-black night sky with a blank expression.
The police officers still had to take care of the eleven victims, and she didn’t want to add to their burden. After some thought, she decided to make do for the night in Qi Yanjue’s hospital room.
Arriving at the door of the ward, before she even had a chance to knock…
A nurse squeezed past her, pushed open the ward door, and shouted inside, “Doctor Zhao, are you in there?”
“What is it?” Doctor Zhao’s voice came from inside the room.
The nurse said, “Doctor Zhao, an emergency.”
A moment later, Doctor Zhao appeared in front of them. Seeing Song Yueying standing behind the nurse, he asked in surprise, “Didn’t you already leave?”
“I did leave. As you can see, I’m back again,” Song Yueying replied somewhat irritably. She was already in a bad mood, and Zhao had just brought up what she least wanted to hear.
Her first day after transmigrating had been anything but ordinary.
Encirclement and attack, being rescued, casually saving someone else, helping foreigners, encountering human traffickers, and then rescuing more people. She had experienced more in a single day than she had in an entire year before.
Doctor Zhao twitched the corner of his mouth. He couldn’t argue with that.
“What emergency did you just mention?” Doctor Zhao asked the nurse.
The nurse replied, “A few police officers just brought eleven women and children to the emergency department. They said they were kidnapped by human traffickers and had just been rescued.”
“The doctor on duty is overwhelmed, and remembered you hadn’t gone back to the dorm yet, so he asked me to come and get you to help.”
“Got it.” Doctor Zhao turned back toward the ward and said, “I’ll go take a look.”
“Mm.” A faint response came from inside.
After Doctor Zhao and the nurse left, Song Yueying finally stepped into the ward and walked straight toward the hospital bed. Since she planned to make do in the room for the night, she felt she should at least tell Qi Yanjue.
“You can sit up now. Doctor Zhao didn’t scold you,” she said, the words coming out almost instinctively.
Qi Yanjue, who was leaning against the head of the bed, looked up at her and asked calmly, “Why did you come back?”
For some reason, he felt that Song Yueying’s return after leaving must mean something had happened.
“It got dark, and I couldn’t go home. I’m staying in your ward for the night,” Song Yueying said. Afraid he might refuse, she quickly added, “Don’t worry, I’ll leave as soon as it’s light tomorrow morning.”