Chapter 3: The Sudden Downpour

Night, it must be night.

He Shanyue woke up with a dull, throbbing ache in her head. She wasn't entirely sure of the time—her eyes were covered by a coarse black cloth, leaving her in a pitch-black void, and she could only judge the time by the chirping of cicadas in her ears.

Her hands were tied tightly behind her back with rough, damp hemp rope; struggling was useless.

He Shanyue quickly pinched the flesh of her waist, using so much force that her blunt nails dug through the thin hemp into her skin. The pain cleared her mind.

There was someone nearby.

He Shanyue held her breath. In the quiet of the night, besides the faint sound of cart wheels crushing twigs, there was the rustling of fabric and the sound of steady breathing.

There were people nearby, and quite a few of them.

They must have fallen into a deep sleep, just as she had.

"Mother—" He Shanyue called out softly.

No one responded.

He Shanyue’s heart tightened slowly and sharply.

"Shuiguang, Shuiguang—" He Shanyue raised her voice slightly.

"Sister, I... I’m here."

The call received a barely audible response.

The response came from not far away.

He Shanyue let out a long, slow breath.

The breathing sounds beside her began to grow heavier.

Someone was about to wake up.

He Shanyue lowered her voice. "Shuiguang, don't speak again." She immediately held her breath.

A moment later, screams and cries erupted one after another.

"Where is this!"

"Let me go!"

"Wuwuwu!"

"Mother! Mother! I want my mother!"

The voices were muffled inside the carriage, tangled together.

He Shanyue lowered her head slightly, straining her ears to distinguish them. There were women, children, and adolescent boys.

Adolescent boys?

A flicker of doubt arose in He Shanyue’s heart.

The last voice was: "Yue-niang! Shuiguang! Yue-niang! Shuiguang!—"

Mother was here too.

He Shanyue’s confusion grew from three parts to five. Could these not be human traffickers? Traffickers always preferred young, tender girls. Adolescent boys, having memories and strength, were generally not to their taste, let alone a woman like her mother, who was stooped and past her prime.

If not traffickers, then what were they?

He Shanyue felt a surge of panic. Traffickers were manageable; they didn't want lives, only profit. If she planned carefully, she had an eighty percent chance of escaping with her sister.

But if they weren't traffickers, what did these people want? What were they after?

The path ahead was vast and obscured, like white fog pressing against her face, breaking her out in a cold sweat.

The crying inside the carriage continued unabated.

He Shanyue counted silently in her heart.

About an hour later, the carriage stopped. "Whoosh—" The curtain was pulled back, and people were dragged out. The crying suddenly grew sharper and louder. A long arm grabbed He Shanyue and yanked her down. She stumbled, and the black cloth covering her eyes was ripped away!

He Shanyue suppressed the urge to blink after being in the dark for so long, forced her eyes wide, and scanned her surroundings.

Deep forest.

They were in the deep mountains.

Trees were everywhere, as far as the eye could see.

The forest, which should have been pitch black, was now brightly lit—every tree was hung with several oil lanterns covered in red silk. The brilliant, fiery red light made the towering, cloud-piercing forest look both absurd and clear.

A large clearing had been hacked out between the trees.

In the clearing, there were many large, abruptly cut tree stumps, and dozens of haystacks were piled up around them.

The haystacks formed a platform half a person’s height. On top of the platform, something was piled into a small hill, tightly covered by bright red silk.

The silk was embroidered with paintings of noble ladies—vivid, richly dressed, and elegant. Some were picking lotus flowers, some sat gracefully in corridors, others rode horses and played polo. These were poses of opulence He Shanyue had never seen before; she couldn't even name the material of that massive piece of silk.

In the face of such staggering wealth, not a single poor person dared to cry out.

He Shanyue’s gaze swept over the cowering heads of the people.

There were many of them, thirty or forty.

There were two sets of cart tracks on the ground; these people had been transported in two batches.

He Shanyue lowered her eyes slightly, her lashes shielding her gaze.

He Shuiguang had sharp eyes and spotted her sister not far away. Her mouth puckered, and she was about to run over, but she saw her sister give her an imperceptible squint.

He Shuiguang immediately stopped, her expression quickly flattening, and she looked timidly in another direction.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Likewise, in a situation where the danger was unknown, it was best not to reveal their relationship first.

Although He Shuiguang didn't understand why, her sister always had her reasons.

Qiu Er-niang, on the other hand, looked panicked, standing on tiptoe and searching all around with all her courage.

Before Qiu Er-niang could speak, a hollow, booming voice descended from above.

—"Everyone, everyone!"

The crowd jolted.

Immediately, countless torches flared up with a "whoosh," moving from far to near. The flames leaped high, as if to ignite the dark horizon.

It became even brighter.

"Congratulations to you all, congratulations!"

He Shanyue accurately located the copper horns protruding every three feet along the edge of the clearing.

The voice came from there.

"Congratulations on arriving at Fushou Mountain and gaining the chance to win ten thousand taels of silver!"

Two men in black darted out from the darkness and pulled away the silk covering the haystack platform, revealing a small mountain of... silver ingots?

Densely packed white silver was piled up in layers, like a ladder to the heavens.

The crowd had never seen so much money!

They had never even seen silver so large, so round, and so smooth!

Some had never even seen silver at all!

In an instant, their cowering turned into focus, and their timidity turned into greed!

He Shanyue’s gaze didn't linger on the mountain of silver for even a second. Instead, she quickly glanced toward the southeast, not far behind her, and then, hiding behind the crowd, she began to move slowly and quietly toward her mother and sister.

"Two hours! With Fushou Mountain as the boundary, the last living person remaining will have the chance to take all this silver!"

Living person?

What did that mean?

The crowd looked at each other in dismay.

"The opportunity is fleeting! We promise not to search you, not to restrain you, and not to interfere!

No matter what method you use, whether you take action or kill, as long as you are the last person alive after two hours, you can lie comfortably on this silver and sleep! You will have endless wealth and treasures!"

The voice grew increasingly high-pitched.

The high-pitched voice was seductive.

The eyes of the people gathered below the platform slowly began to show madness.

Countless men in black continued to dart out from the darkness, roughly untying the ropes behind the people and forcing them into coarse hemp vests marked with numbers.

He Shanyue looked down at the "15" on her chest, saw "27" on her sister, and "4" on her mother.

The numbering was random.

The voice came again, a man’s voice, shrill and excited: "The time for slaughter has arrived! Little pigs, run!"

The crowd stood frozen, no one moving.

A whistling arrow pierced the air and buried itself directly into the chest of one of the people.

"Start!" The voice shrieked.

The crowd woke as if from a dream, scattering in panic!

He Shanyue grabbed her sister’s arm with one hand and her mother’s with the other, dragging them backward at full speed: "Run with me!"