I have to say, the business of trafficking girls is fucking lucrative!
One must realize that when Huang Li was taken away by the traffickers, Huang Baoguo and his wife only received 300 yuan.
And from the 3,000 yuan in that small crossbody bag, it wasn't hard to see that this money was likely what that old hag used to buy Huang Li, Tang Qiufang, and Cao Dandan.
In other words, for every beautiful girl the six traffickers—who had just been killed by Wang An—kidnapped, they could earn at least 700 yuan.
700 yuan; this was far more profitable than selling "black paste." The main thing was that if you were caught doing this, you wouldn't be sentenced to death; you'd just stay inside for a few years and then come out.
And after getting out, you could go right back to your old trade.
It had to be said that these bastard traffickers, if not killed outright upon capture, were absolute nightmares for many families and many people.
With these random thoughts swirling in his head, Wang An soon returned to the spot where the three of them had previously split up. Following the markers left by Huang Zhong, Wang An quickly caught up with the two who were still stealthily tracking.
Seeing Wang An catch up, Wang Li and the other were filled with surprise and joy.
It was clear that without Wang An as the soul of the group, Wang Li and Huang Zhong lacked a backbone.
Upon seeing Wang An, Wang Li immediately relaxed, though he asked with some curiosity
"Fourth Brother, you're done already?"
Wang An nodded with a smile.
"Yep, it was just a small matter, why waste much time? Hehehe..."
Immediately after, Wang An asked
"How is it? What's the situation now? Why didn't you fire?"
Wang Li scratched his head awkwardly and said
"I just couldn't find the opportunity. Just as I was about to fire earlier, two more men emerged from the woods."
Wang Li pointed ahead and added, "Fourth Brother, I'm really puzzled. Just how many people did they bring?"
Wang An shook his head. "How should I know?"
Despite his words, Wang An felt that the upcoming rescue operation would certainly not go smoothly.
Talking in low voices, the three of them continued to track.
After walking for about another twenty minutes, the woods had grown completely dark. Even the figures of the people were no longer clear; one could only see dark shadows moving. Wang An couldn't help but feel a bit anxious.
Mainly, walking in these deep mountain forests was inherently dangerous. Furthermore, with the arrival of night, aiming and firing became a major challenge. When you couldn't even see who was who, the utility of a gun was infinitely reduced.
Fortunately, after walking a bit longer, the traffickers finally arrived at a valley, which was their temporary camp.
By this time, the sky had turned completely black.
In the valley, a campfire had already been lit. Under the light of the fire, Wang An and the others saw that people were already waiting in the valley, though they didn't know exactly how many.
As for whether there were other girls like Huang Li, that remained unknown.
Under these circumstances, Wang An didn't dare act rashly. He led Wang Li and Huang Zhong to hide outside the valley.
In this region, the temperature would drop sharply as soon as the sun set. Fortunately, Wang An and Wang Li were wearing fur coats, and Huang Zhong was wearing the ragged cotton jacket Wang An had given him, so none of the three were cold. However, hiding in the bushes under these conditions was truly uncomfortable.
Within the sight of the three, the people in the valley had begun to eat. The traffickers were eating quite well; their staples were steamed buns and flatbreads, and their side dishes were things like canned meat.
Of course, they hadn't forgotten the group of girls, including Huang Li, distributing one steamed bun to each of them.
The sight of everyone eating made the three of them crave food desperately; after all, none of them had eaten yet.
Unfortunately, the dry rations Wang An and Wang Li brought were on their horses. When they started the pursuit, they thought they could rescue the people quickly and return to the horses shortly after. No one expected rescuing a few people to be this tedious.
Now, they were stuck.
Wang Li grumbled to himself
"I should have just fired earlier. In the moment I hesitated, the opportunity was gone. Sigh!"
Wang An laughed.
"What's the rush? What if you two rescued the people and then got caught by them? If you fired a few shots in the woods, it would have blown everything."
When Wang An had killed those six people earlier, the opponents didn't even know who had killed them, so the reverse was also true.
Wang Li rubbed his stomach and said
"It's just that after running for so long, I'm starving."
Without looking back, Wang An said
"Endure the hunger. Once we kill them in a bit, we'll eat some of their stuff."
To be honest, Wang An was also hungry—very hungry.
One must remember that at noon, Wang An had engaged in a series of physically exhausting battles with Sun Nian. After returning home, he came out to rescue people, which meant whatever he had eaten at noon had long since been digested.
Under the gaze of the three, the traffickers and the girls soon finished their rations, and the group sat down around the campfire.
After careful observation, besides the six girls, there were seven traffickers in total: three women and four men.
Knowing the enemy's numbers made things much easier. It was simply a matter of waiting until the opponents were drowsy from sleepiness and then killing them all to finish the job.
Humans get sleepy after eating their fill; conversely, they are more alert when hungry—though not too hungry, as extreme hunger leads to fainting.
After an unknown amount of time, one of the traffickers, who seemed to be the leader, suddenly walked over to a girl and untied the long rope binding her. He turned to the other traffickers, laughing and saying something, before roughly dragging the girl toward the darkness.
If nothing unexpected happened, this trafficker intended to commit an act of rape against the girl.
However, for Wang An, this was a perfect opportunity to strike.
Thus, Wang An turned to Wang Li and Huang Zhong and said
"You two wait here for a moment. I'm going to send him off. If I fire, Old Fifth, you just kill as many as you can."
As he spoke, Wang An slung his Type 56 assault rifle onto his back, drew his dagger, and left.
In this situation, Wang An was not worried at all about being seen. When a person looks from a bright area into a dark area, they see nothing; but when looking from a dark area into a bright one, everything is visible.
A short while later, Wang An arrived within three or four meters of the leader. However, the girl was resisting violently and pleading continuously, while the leader was beating her severely. This was not the right moment to strike.