Crossing the Mountains

Chapter 35 Brother and Sister Survival
After dealing with Wu Chou, Aisha and Badan walked out of the yard.

The slaves who were abducted and picked up all dispersed. Most of them still had a place to go and the possibility of returning to their original lives, so they did not want to cause trouble. After Bataan destroyed the indentures, they fled from this dark and gloomy den.

Only the brother and sister had not left yet. The boy covered his sister's eyes and waited for them outside the door.

He witnessed the two Western Borderers torturing and killing Wu Chou, but he didn't feel scared at all. Thinking of what this trafficker was going to do to his sister, he just felt relieved.

Aisha had already noticed the two children outside the door.

He wiped the blood off the beads, looked down at them and asked, "Why don't you leave? What do you want to do? Do you want to report me to the authorities? Or do you want to extort money from me?"

The boy released his hand that was covering his sister's eyes, shook his head and said, "My name is Zhong Ming, and my sister's name is Zhong Yun. You saved us, and we want to repay you."

Zhong Yun could see it, and subconsciously glanced into the courtyard. Then, frightened, she retreated behind her brother, timidly looking at the two tall Hu men before her. Her eyes fell on the beads in Aisha's hand, and she couldn't help but be deeply attracted. She blinked, and her pupils reflected the translucent sapphire luster.

"Repay me?" Aisha sneered, immediately exposing his little intention. "You don't want to repay me, you want to take this opportunity to find a backer so that you and your sister can survive. And with just two little brats like you, you can never repay me."

"I can help you! You're looking for someone, right?" Zhong Ming was eager to prove himself. "I'm willing to do anything, as long as you give me and my sister a meal!"

"Anything?" Aisha asked. "Then I want you to sell your sister to the Tan family and help me find a maid in their family to help pass on the message. Are you willing?"

"I, I won't sell my sister out!" Zhong Ming held his sister's hand tightly.

"If you don't want to do anything when asked to, what's the point of having you?"

"My sister is still too young, she doesn't understand anything. I can go in her place and I can go into the Tan family myself..." Zhong Ming suddenly thought that if he went into the Tan family, his sister would be left alone outside with no one to take care of her, so he changed his words and said, "No, I can take my sister with me!"

"Go into the Tan family together? How?" Aisha poured cold water on him. "You finally regained your freedom, and you still want to sell yourselves into slavery again? Be clear, I don't care whether you live or die."

Now Zhong Ming hesitated.

The human trafficker wanted to sell his sister to a beast to be raped, and the Tan family might not treat them well. Once they sold themselves into slavery, their fate would no longer be in their own hands.

But if they don't become slaves, how can the brother and sister survive?

Aisha warned, "Even if you're willing to sell yourselves as slaves, why would the Tan family want little brats like you, who can't even lift anything, to come in and eat for free? That's why I said, you're of no use to me."

Zhong Ming still wanted to fight for it: "But, but I..."

Aisha interrupted him, pointed at the corpse in the yard, and said, "I'm warning you, don't even think about using this to threaten me. I can kill that trafficker, and I can also crush you to death. Get out of here."

There was really no other way, Zhong Ming took his sister's hand and left here.

After they had walked a long way, Zhongming said to his sister, "Those two barbarians are not good people either. They can't be trusted."

Zhong Yun nodded in confusion and sighed softly, "Brother, I just saw they have a beautiful necklace of beads, the kind only a princess could wear, so shiny...Are they looking for the princess?"

Zhong Ming laughed at her innocent words and said, "How can there be so many princesses? At most, she's just a daughter of a powerful family."

The two children walked in the empty darkness. "Brother, what are we going to do next?"

"It's okay, Xiaoyun. Brother will find a way to support you."
-
The next day, when Tan Huaike was looking for a new shop for his cloth workshop at Yunhexiangjie, he suddenly heard people talking about a human trafficker in the north of the city who had been killed in a horrific way.

Human teeth?
Tan Huaike asked, "What happened?"

The woman from the spice shop, who was chatting, replied, "I heard it from others. The one who died was called Wu... He was a slave trader. They say he did a lot of unscrupulous things. He had many slaves of unknown origin, especially the Hu slaves. No one knows where they got them from. He made the most money among the traffickers in the county."

Tan Huaike motioned for Pei'er beside him to take out the snacks he had just bought and gave some to the woman in the spice shop. He then continued to ask, "Then why did he die suddenly?"

"Oh, it's Fu Ji's chestnut cake." The woman thanked her and was willing to chat a little more. "How did he die? He must have done too many bad things and got his comeuppance! I heard that this trafficker's hands and feet were chopped off, and his head was also chopped off. Oh my, the yard was full of blood, it was scary."

"Who did it?"

"I don't know. The authorities are still investigating. But we're on the border, and there are all kinds of people here. The bandits are endless, and many lives have been attributed to these roving bandits, and the matter has been left unresolved. But I don't think they did it this time."

"What do you mean?" Tan Huaike asked with interest, and Pei'er was also fascinated by what he said.

"I have a cousin who lives near that trafficker's house. When the officials went to investigate, he was there to join in the fun..." The woman deliberately lowered her voice, speaking in a thrilling manner. "He heard the officials say that someone was dead in the yard, with severed hands, feet, and head. And then there was the door to the cellar open. That cellar must be where the traffickers kept their slaves. It was pitch black in there, and there were cut ropes on the ground. So it's very likely that the slaves were trying to escape and killed the trafficker."

Pei'er nodded: "Then he really got his comeuppance."

After listening to this, Tan Huaike inexplicably recalled what he had overheard outside the Guangde Pawn Shop: someone on the black market was looking for that sapphire bead necklace, and not long after, a human trafficker died...

These two things seem to be unrelated, but she always feels uneasy.

So she turned and went to Yuefu, wanting to ask Shentu Zhuo if he knew more about the inside story.

When Shen Tuzhuo saw her, he spoke in a somewhat sarcastic tone: "Isn't this my money-obsessed sister-in-law? She's always busy, how come she has time to come to me?"

Tan Huaike was in no mood to argue with him. He asked Pei'er to wait outside the screen and asked directly, "Do you know about the murder of a trafficker in the north of the city?"

Seeing that she was about to ask about this, Shen Tu Zhuo put aside his dandy look and replied, "I know. What's the matter?"

"That man was beheaded and his hands and feet were broken off?"

"He wasn't beheaded, his feet are still there, but his wrists were cut off. Tsk, what kind of rumors are spreading..." Shen Tu Zhuo said helplessly, "I heard from Chi Fanyu that someone slit his throat to death."

"Can I go and take a look at that yard? And that cellar..." asked Tan Huaike.

"What are you doing there? There's blood everywhere. It's creepy."

"I want to confirm whether I have been imprisoned there."

"You..." Shen Tu Zhuo suddenly came back to his senses, "Were you sold to the Tan family by him?"
-
　Next chapter: Cutting wrists and slitting throats is too easy for him!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)