Chapter 345: Not Understanding the Sinister Nature of the Human Heart
The long-haired girl looked up, her voice thick with tears. “Are… are you the police?”
“No, but we’ve called them. They’ll be here soon,” Yang Xun said, his tone gentle yet reassuring.
Knowing they had been traumatized by men, Yang Xun didn’t dare touch them, afraid he might frighten them. He even softened his voice to a gentle whisper. “You two look so young. Why did you come here?”
At his words, the girl lowered her head and began to sob again.
“We just graduated from high school. We wanted to find part-time jobs to make some money and ease our families’ burdens. My classmate said her brother is a manager here and could introduce us to work as waitresses. The pay was supposed to be really high.
“We didn’t overthink it and just followed her here. We never expected to be locked up the moment we walked in.”
Yang Xun furrowed his brows. They had been tricked. These young girls hadn’t even stepped into the real world yet; they had no idea how sinister people could be.
“Besides you two, how many others were brought in? Where are they locked up now?” Yang Xun asked.
The long-haired girl’s lips trembled as she tried hard to recall. “There are… there are three others. They’re about our age, also tricked into coming here for work.
“One of them was taken away last night. Han and I were brought here today. I don’t know what happened to the rest.”
Yang Xun and Yue Feifei exchanged a glance, both fearing the worst. The room reeked heavily of blood, and it clearly didn’t just come from these two girls, which meant someone else had been beaten here earlier. Perhaps the girl who was taken away first had already met with foul play.
“I’m a doctor. Don’t be afraid. I’m going to check your pulses to see how you’re doing, okay?” Yang Xun’s tone was tender, his eyes sincere.
The two girls glanced up at him and nodded, extending their bruised and battered wrists. While Yue Feifei stood guard over the unconscious men on the floor with her whip, Yang Xun focused on assessing their conditions.
A moment later, Yang Xun spoke. “Don’t worry, nothing major is wrong. These are just superficial wounds. Once we get you out of here, we’ll take you to a hospital for some medicine. Apply it regularly, and it won’t even leave a scar.”
He had briefly observed their physical conditions and confirmed that they hadn’t been violated; they were still untouched. For these two girls, merely taking a beating was considered lucky. If they had been sexually assaulted, it would have cast a lifelong shadow over them.
Yang Xun fished a few candies out of his pocket and pressed them into their hands. “Have some candy first,” he said with a warm smile. “I promise I’ll get you out of here.” Turning to Yue Feifei, he added, “You hide here with them. I’m going upstairs to take a look.”
“Be careful. If they’ve already moved the others, don’t force your way in,” she warned.
Yang Xun nodded and turned to leave the private room.
His footsteps echoed clearly in the empty corridor as he maintained high alert of his surroundings. The small building didn’t look very big from the outside, but its interior was a labyrinth of twists and turns. According to the long-haired girl, the others were locked up elsewhere. However, Yang Xun couldn’t sense that many presences. A few spots that had previously held faint signs of life were now empty.
Furrowing his brow, he continued down the hallway until he finally found what appeared to be a storage room.
Nudging the door open, he could vaguely make out a figure huddled in the corner, covered by a tattered coat as if hastily discarded there. Stepping inside, Yang Xun saw a girl sitting against the wall. Her hands and feet were bound tightly, and she was curled into a ball like a frightened little animal.
At the sound of the door opening, her head snapped up, her eyes wide with terror.
Yang Xun crouched down, trying his best to make his voice sound soothing. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to save you. What’s your name?”
“I… I’m Lin Xiaoyue.” Her voice was so faint it seemed to take all her strength just to utter those few words. “W-where are the others? Someone came and took them away.”
“I just rescued two girls. They said there were three others locked up here. Do you know where the rest went?”
Lin Xiaoyue shook her head, tears falling silently down her cheeks. “I don’t know… I’ve had a fever since yesterday, and my head has been dizzy the whole time.”
Yang Xun didn’t press her any further. He quickly untied her ropes and pressed a hand against her forehead, confirming she was fine aside from a low-grade fever.
“Can you walk?” he asked.
“Yeah… I can walk…”
Yang Xun led her back to the original private room to regroup with Yue Feifei and the other two girls. When the long-haired girl saw Lin Xiaoyue, her eyes reddened, and she rushed forward to support her.
“Xiaoyue! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine…” Lin Xiaoyue’s voice carried the sheer exhaustion of having narrowly survived. Leaning against her companion’s shoulder, she could barely stand.
“Mister, can we still find the other girls?” Lin Xiaoyue asked tentatively, her large eyes filled with dread.
Yang Xun’s gaze quickly swept over the three of them before he made a swift judgment. “I’m sorry, but we can’t look for them right now. The men running this place will soon realize something’s wrong, and it’ll be too hard to escape if we wait.”
Although it pained her, Yue Feifei nodded in agreement. “Right. While we still have the chance, we need to leave this building. We’ll figure out a way to find the other girls who were taken away later.”
“Okay.” Though heartbroken, the three girls obediently agreed.
To prevent the men in the room from tipping anyone off, Yang Xun moved swiftly to knock them all completely unconscious. He stepped out of the private room first, scanned the surroundings, and then motioned for the four of them to follow.
They didn’t take the main entrance. With Yang Xun leading the way, they circumvented the building and headed toward a rarely used side door at the rear of the clubhouse. Based on his earlier observations, he had already figured out the layout. The clubhouse was designed to help its wealthy, second-generation patrons slip away unnoticed, meaning there were far too many exits for the staff to guard all at once. Yang Xun took full advantage of this loophole, guiding his group through the shadows and completely avoiding detection.
Fortunately, the side door was unlocked. It opened up into a narrow alley lined with several black dumpsters, the air thick with the damp, putrid stench of rotting garbage.
“Hide inside. Don’t come out until we confirm it’s safe,” Yang Xun said, pulling open the lid of one of the dumpsters and gesturing for them to climb in.
The three girls were naturally repulsed, but staying alive was the priority. They climbed into the bin without hesitation. Thankfully, they were young and exceptionally slender; fitting all three of them into a single dumpster wasn’t an issue at all.
At that moment, Yue Feifei checked her phone for a signal. “I’ve already called the police. They said they’re on their way and told us not to make any rash moves in the meantime.”
Yang Xun nodded and whispered a few final instructions to the girls inside the dumpster.
Just as he was about to step away, a flurry of hurried footsteps and muffled curses echoed from the direction of the side door. His expression darkened, and he shot Yue Feifei a warning glance.
