Chapter 278: Believe It or Not, I'll Kill You Right Now
Xiao Ye could tell the woman wasn't lying. "So you can't go out either, right?"
The woman nodded. "That's right. None of us here can just leave whenever we want. If we absolutely have to go out, someone will accompany us."
"But that rarely happens for most of us. Like me, for example. I've never been outside."
This was hardly a secret to the club's clientele.
It was precisely because they knew these women were uncomplicated and wouldn't cause any trouble that so many men flocked to this place.
If they were just looking to satisfy their physical needs, it was only natural to find someone obedient and docile, someone who came with no strings attached.
Someone like a college student, for example, could easily get greedy and end up causing trouble at home.
Xiao Ye hadn't expected her to have not even a shred of freedom.
'She's never seen an ID card, which most likely means she doesn't even have one!'
"So you're content to just stay here forever?"
"I'm not exactly content, but there's nothing I can do. We can't leave." The woman's voice was a bit dejected, but it quickly filled with longing again.
"But once we turn thirty, we get to leave."
"Not only that, we can also get our own ID cards and all the money we've earned over the years."
She fiddled with her fingers. "I started working when I was eighteen. This is my fourth year now. I remember every single one of my clients."
"I get a commission for every client. By the time I'm thirty, I'll have earned enough money to cover all my expenses, so I won't have to work anymore."
The woman's eyes curved as she smiled, looking very serene. "I'm already luckier than most people. I know what life is like for women on the outside."
"They have to get married, have children, and work until they're fifty or sixty before they can retire. But I won't have to work after I turn thirty."
"Trading the freedom of the first half of my life for happiness in the second half... it's not a bad deal."
Xiao Ye looked at her naive expression and sighed internally.
'It's not that simple. These women probably don't even have legal identities. How could they leave?'
'In this day and age, an undocumented person can't survive.'
'And he didn't believe for a second that the people in charge would really give them all their money.'
'Orphans, undocumented... they're practically the cheapest form of labor.'
'Just keep them fed and clothed, and you get a steady stream of income.'
'When they turn thirty, they'll either be moved to another facility or... just be killed outright!'
'Telling them this now is just a way to make them work harder, to give them a goal to strive for.'
Xiao Ye asked again, "Do you know who owns this nightclub?"
'Since they own the nightclub, and this place is a base of operations, they must be connected to Li Zhu's organization.'
"The owner of our nightclub is Her Majesty, the Bloody Queen Margaret."
Xiao Ye froze. What the hell? He thought the woman was lying to him!
The Bloody Queen?
Margaret?
Her Majesty?
The woman nodded with great seriousness. "Yes. But we all just call her Her Majesty the Queen."
"That's her full title. I heard before that Her Majesty the Queen didn't choose that name herself. It was a title given to her by others."
"Her Majesty the Queen must be incredibly powerful, otherwise why would she have a title like that?"
Xiao Ye was at a loss for words. "Alright, I get it."
"You stay in this room. I'm leaving."
"Oh... okay."
Xiao Ye walked straight out the door. The woman quickly stuffed the diamond necklace into her cleavage before following him out of the room.
The matron saw what was happening and walked over, her brow furrowed. Her tone was icy. "What's going on? You failed to satisfy the client too?"
Of course, the woman didn't dare tell the truth. "No... He... he didn't seem to be here for *that*. It was like he just needed to vent."
The matron understood. The club catered to all sorts of clients with all kinds of kinks.
Someone like Xiao Ye was hardly the strangest they'd seen.
"As long as the client isn't dissatisfied, that's fine. Alright, you can go back to the break room."
After leaving the nightclub, Xiao Ye went straight back to the villa.
He immediately gave orders to have someone investigate this "Bloody Queen Margaret" and then went upstairs.
Li Zhu had eaten and drunk her fill and was now lying on the bed.
Although her freedom had been restored, she had never once set foot outside this room.
Xiao Ye pushed the door open and entered. Li Zhu immediately looked over. Seeing it was him, her expression instantly soured. "What are you doing here?"
"And when are you going to let me out? How are the children? You have to prove the children are safe, or believe me, I'll kill you right now!"
Xiao Ye said nothing, simply tossing her a phone that couldn't connect to the outside world. It only contained a few photos.
After looking at them, Li Zhu was furious. "You're messing with me!"
"I want to see the children from the orphanage, not the girls you go to for fun!"
"These *are* the children from the orphanage."
Li Zhu didn't believe him at all. "Those kids are just children. The people you're showing me are all adults! What are you trying to do, take me for an idiot?"
Xiao Ye took out a file. "See for yourself. These are the other children from the orphanage who were adopted, besides you."
"Take a good look. What's the relationship between the women in the photos and these children?"
Li Zhu picked it up and looked through the photos one by one.
At first, she didn't see anything, but as she looked more closely, she finally noticed something was off.
A few of them looked like the children who had been adopted from the orphanage. Although the resemblance wasn't exact, their overall facial features still retained their original appearance.
"This is impossible! How could the girls who were adopted go into that line of work?!"
The women in the photos were all scantily clad; it was obvious what they did for a living.
"These photos were taken at the nightclub you mentioned. They're hostesses there, too. You know exactly what that entails."
"Impossible! They were adopted to live good lives! How could they end up in a nightclub? No way!"
Li Zhu shook her head frantically, refusing to believe it.
She herself had hidden in a nightclub before. She had even seen a few of these women and knew what they did.
But she never knew that some of them had come from the same orphanage as her.
"If you don't believe me, I can bring you more information tomorrow."
Li Zhu didn't speak, but it was clear she was beginning to be swayed.
Xiao Ye said no more and turned to leave.
「The next morning.」
He received a message: the investigation into the Bloody Queen was complete.
This was thanks to someone on the dark web who happened to have a bounty out for this information, prompting many people to collect and sell it. Otherwise, gathering it so quickly would have been nearly impossible.
Xiao Ye opened his phone and frowned as he read the information inside.
'This... seems to be a bit tricky.'