It seems that the villain is targeting me.

As a system, Number Four's perception ability is actually much better than that of a cat, so it naturally heard what Lu Zhiqing said in the phone.

Its hands, which were originally clinging to the bird's clothes, immediately loosened and it resolutely wanted to jump down.

Xiao Niao reached out and grabbed No. 4 by the scruff of the neck, pulled the cat in front of him, and mouthed: What's going on?

Number Four tucked his tail pitifully.

The cat's mouth is not good at forming mouth shapes, so it can only whisper: "No."

On the other end of the phone, Lu Zhiqing continued, "...By the way, do you need me to give you Aunt Gu's phone number?"

[I want it, I want it,] the system poked the bird fiercely, [It never hurts to get it.]

"Okay, thank you then..."

Lu Zhiqing seemed to be very concerned about this matter and was actively thinking of various solutions - this should not just be to repay Xiaoniao's favor.

As a young girl who is still in school, Lu Zhiqing still has some kindness in her heart.

She naturally disliked and hated human traffickers, and could easily empathize with parents who had lost their children - she understood those parents who were extremely anxious and ignored everything, just praying that their children were safe.

Deep down in Lu Zhiqing's heart, she might have a hint of secret envy.

The two chatted about the relevant details for a while, and finally Xiaoniao thanked Lu Zhiqing, which ended the long call.

With a soft 'ding' sound, Xiao Niao hung up the phone.

Her brows furrowed unconsciously. "How could this matter be connected to the Son of Fortune... could it be such a coincidence?"

[Based on data and experience,] the system preaches, [when something is out of the ordinary, there must be something wrong.]

Number Four answered directly: "There is indeed a connection."

Cat number four had been put down by now - it was too heavy for the bird to lift - and the fat cat stood on the small platform of the public telephone booth and shook its droopy head vigorously.

Xiao Niao's eyebrows jumped when he heard Number Four's words: "You mean, Gu Tianjiao's mother..."

Number Four said, "It's either his mother or Gu Tianjiao himself."

"This part isn't described in detail in the main storyline, but after Gu Tianjiao grew up, he had a capable subordinate by his side," Number Four explained. "This person is from Taoyuan."

The cat's tail was wagging, and it was obviously quite focused.

"This subordinate was actually originally a subordinate of Gu Tianjiao's mother. Later, the two of them had different ideas, so he was kicked out."

Number Four said seriously, "In short, he was only conquered by Gu Tianjiao later."

Xiao Niao was completely confused by this long paragraph: "I don't understand. What does this have to do with his mother?"

Number Four put it simply: "It was this subordinate who later killed his mother."

Xiao Niao: “…”

Damn, I'm so filial.

Chapter 42 Arjun tries to escape

Zheng Qiong felt that she would probably die here today.

To be honest, when she was picked from the cage, she was basically in despair.

Her first reaction was of course to escape, but Arjun had not eaten or drunk anything for a long time. She was hungry, dizzy, and every muscle was aching. It was impossible for her to escape without external help.

Not to mention having to get past the human traffickers who were staring at them from the side.

She dragged her legs, which were numb from squatting for too long, and moved with difficulty. Several girls with pale and numb faces walked in front of her, and younger children were being held by hands or in arms.

Zheng Qiong, like everyone else, lowered his head and silently observed the surrounding environment out of the corner of his eye.

This seemed to be an abandoned factory. In the dim light, she could clearly see slogans painted in red on the cement walls.

However, most of the slogans had been scratched off, and the lighting was extremely limited, so it was impossible to make out what was written on them.

She guessed that she might be inside an old factory.

The reason why Zheng Qiong made such a guess was that when he was walking, he would occasionally step on some tiny nuts, and in the darkness on both sides, he could vaguely see the outlines of mechanical equipment.

As he passed by a piece of equipment, Arjun quietly wiped it with his thumb.

She lowered her head and looked: there was only a thin layer of dust, and the equipment had not been thrown here long.

Is it an old factory that has just been abandoned?

...Or maybe there's still a part of it that's functioning.

Arjun wiped off the dust on his hands with his index finger and silently memorized all the information in his mind.

At first, she tried to remember the route she had taken, but soon she realized that it was a completely useless effort.

They were led around in circles without knowing

No matter how far you walk, if you slow down a little or raise your head, you will be scolded.

Zheng Qiong struggled to remember: turn left, turn right repeatedly, go straight at three forks in the road, then go up a flight of stairs... and then she arrived at the exit.

It turned out that they had been imprisoned underground before.

Someone opened a door, but no light shone on the abducted girls. It was already dark, and the light she had seen in the cage was just an artificial incandescent lamp.

It was a moonless night.

An unmarked blue truck was parked quietly by the roadside. Two men stood beside the open trunk, holding black hoods and nylon cable ties.

Zheng Qiong felt as if she had swallowed a hard stone. Her stomach felt cold and heavy, dropping down, pulling her soul into the darkness.

It's over, she thought.

Arjun knew that once he got into this car, it would be sold all over the country and even around the world, and he would probably never be found again in his lifetime.

The hood was roughly put on her head, and a pair of big hands pushed her from behind. Zheng Qiong was staggered into the carriage in the darkness.

Her shoulder seemed to hit the iron sheet and Arjun almost fell down. She hurriedly stabilized herself.

A girl sitting next to her was shaking uncontrollably with fear - Arjun was not much better than this girl. She leaned against the wall of the carriage and struggled to support herself so as not to fall to the ground.

More people were brought into the carriage. Arjun silently pressed himself against the wall of the carriage, trying to leave some space for himself to move.

Even so, she didn't know what the point of doing this was.

Are they going to be sold out?

Is this the end of everything?

Zheng Qiong was thinking randomly, and her wrist kept twisting subconsciously, and was rubbed red by the transparent cable tie.

She had heard before that there would be a revolving lantern before a person died, and all the bad things they had done in their life would flash before their eyes like flickering lanterns.

But no matter how Zheng Qiong recalled, all she could think of was her childhood filled with poverty and gloom.

Those scenes were like old photos that were overexposed, with a strange paleness.

She suddenly recalled a tree on the back hill of her hometown, a thin and slender cypress tree, under which curled up a lonely grave.

She clearly remembered that her sister was buried in that grave.

Arjun is not the eldest child in the family. Before her, her parents had a daughter, who is her sister.

My elder sister has been good at studying since she was young, and she is as good as a little kid.

Her elder sister was admitted to the district high school with exceptionally good grades, but her parents always believed that "girls belong to other families, what's the point of studying so much?" and almost dragged her sister to school and forced her to drop out.

Arjun was still young at that time, but she had already begun to understand things. She followed her sister ignorantly and watched her cry every night.

In fact, her family was not unable to afford it at that time, because her sister had excellent academic performance and the county high school waived most of the tuition.

But the parents refused to give in and they firmly disagreed to let their eldest daughter continue her studies.

So on the night that registration for the county high school ended, Aqiong's sister drank a bottle of pesticide.

Ah Qiong still remembers how his father ran to the hospital crying and carrying his unconscious sister on his back, and how his mother collapsed on the ground, unable to move...

She still remembered the black and red vomit on the floor that was as thick as mud. The blood had seeped deeply into the texture of the floor tiles and could not be completely wiped away no matter how much water was used to wash it.

My sister passed away halfway on the journey that day. Aqiong is almost forgetting what her sister looked like now. She only remembers that her voice was always exceptionally gentle when she spoke.

Her sister died young, so according to local customs, she could not even be buried in the ancestral tomb, but was hastily buried in a lonely grave in the wild.

Not long after that, they moved from their hometown to He County and settled there.

When Zheng Qiong grew up, she didn't like studying and was a complete opposite of her sister. Her grades had been poor since the third grade of elementary school, and she dropped out of school before finishing junior high school.

She had to repeat a grade because of transferring schools, and that's how she met Chen Xiaoya.

The little girl gets up early and goes to bed late every day to study. She is a loner and doesn't interact with her classmates. There is always a stubborn persistence in her dark eyes, just like her elder sister who died young in the mountains.

Arjun always couldn't help wanting to lend her a helping hand, just like her older sister had protected her when she was young and taught her to recognize words in the textbook by the dim candlelight.

It’s a pity that I have no future and haven’t learned anything significant.

But the little girl can definitely go to farther places, Zheng Qiong thought, in fact, her sister can do it too.

But life is so unpredictable that the girl's originally long journey came to a hasty end.

And I will also follow my sister's footsteps to the end.

Aqiong is sixteen years old this year and has not had time to grow up. If he dies, he will be a lonely ghost who cannot return home.

It's even worse than her sister's. There's not even anyone to collect the body.

She tried very hard to act free and easy, but the unwilling thoughts were like floating on the water.

Like a ball on the surface, no matter how hard you press it, it will stubbornly pop out.

I don’t want to die, why do you want me to die, Aqiong thought, I haven’t done anything bad.

The sound of a truck engine starting up was heard.

I want to escape, she thought. I don't want to die in a corner where no one knows—I'd rather die outside!

Arjun would rather jump off a building, jump into the sea, or smash himself into a puddle of meat than be sold for money by those people!

Just as the girl was thinking about how to die together with this group of people, a burst of extremely hurried footsteps suddenly sounded outside the car, accompanied by a loud shout of "Stop, don't close the door!"

The person who was closing the trunk seemed to stop, and the metal chain rattled.

The human traffickers escorting the delivery truck whispered something to the visitor. They seemed to have some conflict and started arguing outside the half-closed door of the carriage.

Zheng Qiong listened nervously.

"What the hell are you doing?"

The man escorting the car cursed and said loudly that the buyer had already paid and asked him not to cause any more trouble.

"You idiot!" the newcomer seemed to be taking action. "There's a blood type in there - have you ever been well?"

The two then quarreled angrily for a few more sentences, and their speech speed became faster and faster, and they began to mix in easy-to-understand phrases such as "plague pig" and "trick your mother".

Although Ah Qiong roughly understood Cantonese, she was confused because the other party spoke too fast.

Before she could make sense of the chaotic exchange of insults, the door of the rear compartment was suddenly ripped open.

Suddenly, a panicked cry rang out in the carriage. Arjun felt that the other party was holding a flashlight and shouting "Quiet!" in Mandarin while searching.

The people around her were jostling and dodging, and Arjun tried hard to lean against the wall. After a while, the hood on her head was pulled off.

The flashlight flashed in front of her eyes.

"This is it."

The guy who was looking for someone muttered something under his breath, then pulled Arjun out of the car and pointed outside and ordered, "Go outside and get off!"

Zheng Qiong did not choose to disobey at this time. She tensed her back and got off the truck that was shaking constantly due to the engine starting.

The person who came from behind urged Aqiong to hurry up and ordered her to return to the original factory.

The man escorting the car seemed to have a particularly dark expression on his face. He stuffed all the things in his hand into the hands of another human trafficker who was also escorting the car, and then caught up with Aqiong and the others.

It was not known whether the two knew each other or were enemies, but they kept swearing and arguing all the way, and they didn't stop until they took Arjun to the new cell.

They communicated in Cantonese the whole time, but fortunately she could understand about 70% to 80% of it and convert it into Mandarin in her mind.

The man escorting the car chased after him, cursing, "You want to die, you sick pig! You took the people away, and I'll make up for the loss!"

Seeing that the people in front had no intention of stopping, the driver became even more angry.

He gnashed his teeth and roared, "You're so arrogant! If Sister Lan knew you were messing around like this, I'll see how you die!"

These words seemed to have hit the other person's lungs. The veins on the forehead of the man who took Arjun away jumped. He immediately turned around and grabbed the collar of the escort in anger.