Misty Rain of the Old Times

Chapter 6: People are worse than animals
Chen Xuan was awakened by hunger. He subconsciously reached out to the side to feel for his cell phone, but found nothing. Something felt rough in his hand. He suddenly woke up and opened his eyes to find himself lying on a haystack. The air was filled with a damp and complex stench.

In this situation, he even forgot about the intense hunger. After a moment of daze, he realized that he had fallen into the water and turned into a completely different person from his childhood. He was rescued by a seemingly harmless old man, but it turned out that the human traffickers had tricked him... "After I fell asleep yesterday, where did that old man take me? Where is he?"

After recognizing the reality, Chen Xuan began to pay attention to himself and observe his surroundings.

The restraints on his body had been untied at some point, but he was still wearing the tattered clothes given to him by the old man. He felt a burning pain on the back of his arm. He lifted up his sleeve, which was emitting a strange smell, and saw obvious bruises.

The old man was very cruel. Chen Xuan was so angry that he gritted his teeth, but his cheeks hurt from the grit.

How could it not hurt? Yesterday, in order to prevent Chen Xuan from speaking, the old man stuffed the peach pit he brought into his mouth. I don't know when the peach pit slipped to the side of his teeth, and his cheek bulged.

He quickly endured the pain and spit out the peach pit, holding it in his hand. Fortunately, it did not slip into the esophagus or trachea and choke him to death. While moving his mouth, Chen Xuan cursed the old man's ancestors in his heart.

Chen Xuan planned to preserve the peach kernel well. After all, it was the only thing he brought with him. He even thought to himself with self-mockery that he had come to this strange world naked, and the peach kernel could be considered his companion spirit, right?

He couldn't help but laugh at the thought.

Although peach pits are useless, if I have the chance to grow a peach tree in the future, maybe I can taste the flavor of my hometown...

Then he looked around and found himself trapped in a wooden cage with an iron chain around his left ankle.

"I wasn't on the boat, so where the hell did I end up being taken to after a good night's sleep?"

Although Chen Xuan was muttering in his heart, he was not too panicked. At least his life was not in danger for the time being. But if he had the chance in the future, where would he go to settle the score with that old man?
The wooden cage was made of wood as thick as an arm and looked very sturdy. The gap was only half a palm wide, making it impossible to squeeze out.

I felt a little uncomfortable in my ear, so I subconsciously reached out to touch it. It turned out that the mud blocking my ear had dried up, so it was easily taken out. There might be some residue, but I don’t have the conditions to clean it out at the moment.

Wuuwuwu... sniff sniff sniff...

When the mud in his ear was taken out, Chen Xuan immediately heard many soft noises coming from around him, which were suppressed crying and sobbing.

A slight noise came into his ears, and Chen Xuan noticed that he was surrounded by connected wooden cages. The space was not large, and was only a little over one meter high. Even with his current body, it was difficult for him to stand upright. Each cage contained more or less half-grown children, and the crying and sobbing sounds came from them.

I guess all the children eat, drink, defecate and urinate in the cages. No wonder the air is filled with the disgusting smell of feces and urine.

This was obviously a basement, with light coming through a small skylight in the middle, only a few meters high. Chen Xuan suspected that it was a wellhead.

Observing in the dim light, there were boys and girls in each cage. The younger ones looked to be two or three years old, and the older ones looked to be only seven or eight years old. Due to insufficient light, the details could not be seen clearly. In short, most of them were disheveled, pale and thin.

At a quick glance, the total number is estimated to be over a hundred!

This place is definitely a hiding place for children. Are all the locals so brazen? With so many children missing, it would be a major case anywhere, right?
But Chen Xuan quickly changed his mind and realized that not all the children here were abducted...

Over a hundred children, which one of them was not the apple of their parents' eyes? Now they are locked in cages like dogs, surrounded by feces and urine. They don't know what they have been through, and they dare not even cry out loud!

How heartbroken would their parents and family members be if they saw what they were going through?

After all, Chen Xuan was not a real child. He looked at everything from an adult's perspective and felt a surge of sadness and anger in his heart.

He is not a cold-blooded person, and it is impossible for him to remain indifferent when seeing such a scene.

But now he himself is in prison and can't do anything, that's all.

Keep your emotions to yourself. Don't dwell on meaningless things when you're in danger. "Next, let's think about how to get out of this situation."

He thought so, but in the current situation, Chen Xuan sadly discovered that it was almost impossible to escape and gain freedom. With his weak arms and legs, he could hardly even open the chains and cage, let alone climb up to the exit that was several meters high with his bare hands. Moreover, the outside must be heavily guarded!

Besides, I had no identity, a complete illegal immigrant. Even if I were free, where could I go? In the words of that old man, I was no better than a refugee. If I were caught, my fate wouldn't necessarily be any better than it is now...

Thinking of this, Chen Xuan suddenly felt dizzy and weak.

Then his stomach started to growl and he felt an unbearable hunger. He then realized that he hadn't eaten for about a day and he was hungry and had a dry mouth.

'Not only have I turned into a five or six-year-old kid, but I'm also so hungry that I have no strength and my throat is sore...' He muttered in his heart. Although Chen Xuan was not that fragile, he felt like crying but had no tears.

bang bang bang...

Someone was knocking on a cage nearby. Chen Xuan looked in the direction of the sound and saw a boy with messy hair and a dirty face.

Facing Chen Xuan's gaze, he grinned and tried to make a fierce expression, baring his teeth and saying in a hoarse voice: "Hey, newcomer this morning, what are you holding? Is it food? If so, give it to me, otherwise I will beat you up when I get the chance."

As he said this, he shook his dirty fist.

His accent was not much different from that old man's. Chen Xuan could barely understand him. He took a look and turned his head away, ignoring him completely.

It's not that I don't want to argue with the child, it's simply that I can't bear it. The other party's tattered clothes and exposed skin are covered with scars and bruises, as if they were whipped. There are even signs of suppuration in one place. He must have been subjected to inhuman abuse.

He was just a child of seven or eight years old, and Chen Xuan really couldn't bear to look at him any longer.

I think the other children in the cages here have all been beaten and abused to varying degrees like him.

As for his pretended ferocity, it was just the biological instinct to fill his stomach. Looking at his skinny appearance, he probably hadn't eaten for a long time. Perhaps he also subconsciously wanted to declare his presence in front of the newcomers.

There were two smaller boys in the cage with the child who was talking to Chen Xuan. The three of them were squeezed into a small space. The two of them huddled at the edge, keeping their heads down and not daring to say a word.

Suddenly Chen Xuan discovered that it seemed like the 'single room' he lived in?
"I'm talking to you, can't you hear me? Aren't you afraid that I'm going to beat you up?" Chen Xuan ignored the other party, but the other party refused to give in.

Rolling his eyes secretly, Chen Xuan shook the peach pit in his hand and said weakly, "It's just a small stone. Do you want to eat it? I'm so hungry that I have no strength left. I should have eaten it earlier. Why do I need you to snatch it from me?"

The small peach pit just shook a little, and because of the insufficient light, it looked no different from a small stone if you didn't pay attention.

"Hmph," the other party snorted. Seeing that there was no food, it ignored Chen Xuan and sat in the cage in a daze. Although it still looked fierce, tears kept flowing. I don't know if it was because it missed home, was afraid, or was in pain from the injuries on its body.

What a damn sin! What did these kids do wrong to have to suffer like this?
Being separated from their flesh and blood, locked in a cage with feces and urine, unable to even fill their stomachs, and unable to receive medical treatment for their wounds, when they die, they will probably be treated like wild dogs without anyone even glancing at them, and will have to face an unknown fate. This is simply worse than animals.

When his mind was filled with thoughts, Chen Xuan found that someone touched his other arm lightly. He looked up and saw a thin arm stretched out, holding half a black pancake made of unknown material in its hand.

Following the arm, he saw a child with a runny nose looking at him timidly...

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(End of this chapter)