Chapter 9: Being Discovered

Hearing her voice, the two little girls inside asked in disbelief, "Is it you?"

"Yes. Someone set fire to the inner courtyard, and the instructors are in there fighting the fire. If you want to run, hurry up."

The warnings from the human traffickers and instructors were indeed heavy for them, but the thought of escaping the fire pit spread as wildly as weeds in early spring.

In the end, they hadn't yet suffered enough; if they could escape, they wanted to escape.

At this moment, the two of them cared nothing for sentiment; the truth squeezed through the small door.

"The main gate is that way."

It was the middle of the night, and a sparse drizzle was falling; even silhouettes were blurry, let alone fingers.

The two girls failed to catch the slight wave of Ding Xuewei's hand, but fortunately, they both knew which direction they had entered from. As soon as Ding Xuewei finished speaking, the two of them bolted toward the main gate.

"Don't leave me behind~ Don't leave me behind~"

Admiring their speed, Ding Xuewei turned her head at the sound.

A weak, pleading cry entered her ears again.

"Please, take me with you, take me with you~"

Ding Xuewei, who still didn't realize that the standard for entry here was starvation, turned back.

"Are you injured?" she asked the girl who looked like she had stumbled out of a door.

The girl grabbed Ding Xuewei's ankle as she instinctively stepped back, saying with a weak, trembling voice, "Hungry."

To teach people a lesson, besides beating them, one starved them. Ding Xuewei wasn't surprised that they were too hungry to have any strength.

She looked back toward the inner courtyard; the light in that position had not diminished, but rather increased.

Estimating that no one would come out for a while, she tugged at the ankle: "Slowly crawl toward the main gate first. I'll go to the kitchen to find something for you to eat."

As Ding Xuewei pulled at her ankle, the girl, who lacked the strength even to stand, suddenly erupted with the primordial strength of someone grasping a life-saving straw. Ding Xuewei actually failed to pull her foot away. When she said she would go find food, the girl slightly loosened her grip, but she had no intention of letting go.

"You're not lying to me?" the girl questioned.

Ding Xuewei: "......"

Regarding this behavior of being unable to trust human nature, she didn't think anything was wrong with it, but to naively demand a promise at such a critical moment was somewhat unlikable.

"So what if I lie to you? It's not like I'm anyone to you!"

"You~"

The girl seemed to find it unbelievable, and the hand that was originally propping her up on the ground also reached for Ding Xuewei's ankle.

The reason she had been caught earlier was entirely due to her own inattention; the reason she hadn't broken free was simply because she just wanted to pull her foot back, not because she had used any technique.

In the girl's mind, how could she possibly be caught again, and how could she let herself be caught?

Lifting her foot, Ding Xuewei broke free with a twist and a pull.

"Take me away, please, take me away~"

The girl began to cry hysterically, though because of her hunger, her voice was not loud.

"I'm going to the kitchen to find something. If you want to leave, head for the gate."

All the grain that could be found in the kitchen was already in her space, and there was nothing in there that could immediately satisfy hunger; she was only using it as an excuse.

Rounding the screen wall, Ding Xuewei entered her space.

Without thinking much, she glanced at the sleeping Pandi, scooped up some rice, and pinched five large rice balls, wrapping them in her hem.

Who knew when the people fighting the fire inside would remember her? Not daring to delay any longer, Ding Xuewei wrapped the steaming rice balls and hurried out of the space.

But in the time it took to just pinch some rice balls, outsiders had already appeared in the courtyard. At this moment, the girl was weakly exposing her.

She was trying to find a way to save her, yet the girl had sold her out in an instant; saying she could accept it was impossible.

With a furrowed brow, Ding Xuewei pricked up her ears to listen to the movement, planning to hide back in her space as soon as someone rushed over. To her surprise, she didn't hear footsteps, but rather the sound of a conversation.

"What should we do?" a dull male voice asked.

After a gap of ten or so seconds, a raspy voice said, "We're just here to fight the fire."

"Then should we tell them?" the previous voice asked again.

This time, there was a longer silence.

Just as Ding Xuewei was inwardly grumbling that human nature wasn't quite that wretched, the voice that disappointed her rang out: "Let's tell them."

What the neighbors were doing was something few neighbors wouldn't know. And when they knew exactly what the people in this courtyard did, yet the people in this courtyard still lived here—one could easily imagine what kind of people lived in this vicinity!

She shouldn't have held any expectations for them.

The footsteps of the two men quickly faded into the distance. Ding Xuewei quickly rounded the screen wall.

After handing a rice ball to the girl, she headed toward the main gate without looking back.

Having food, and having just sold her out, the girl didn't scream or beg this time, allowing Ding Xuewei to run quickly out of the courtyard.

By this time, the two who had entered with the sisters had already disappeared to some unknown place. The two who were locked in with the girl inside were leaning against the wall, struggling to move forward.

"Here."

After stuffing a ball of rice into each of them, Ding Xuewei whispered, "The people inside will be here soon."

They weren't clear on what the girl had done, but they were the ones who had encountered the two who went in later.

Once they were seen, it was only a matter of time before they were caught.

Suddenly, both lost their courage; they didn't even dare to open their mouths for the steaming rice.

Under the weight of resentment and fear, the taller girl leading the way said, "You run, quickly! We can't leave!"

Doing a good deed, after all, wasn't in vain.

After thinking for a second, Ding Xuewei told them to squat down.

Though the girls found it strange, they obediently squatted.

Having never "eaten pork but only seen pigs run" (an inexperienced person), Ding Xuewei swung a hand-chop toward the back of the tall girl's neck. The tall girl immediately let out a muffled groan and looked up.

"You?"

Ding Xuewei: "......"

The girls had completely not expected that being told to squat was so they could be hit; their emotions were momentarily complicated.

Ding Xuewei also hadn't expected the gap between reality and movies to be this large.

"Someone can take you away, but you have to faint first."

The two: "......"

The words sounded absurd, but there was also a sliver of hope.

A sliver of hope that if they were chased back, they wouldn't be beaten.

They had been forced out by others and knew nothing.

"Xiao Cui, do you trust Sister Chun Tao?" the tall girl turned back to ask.

The already desperate little girl froze.

"If you trust Sister Chun Tao, do as I do," the tall girl said.

Ding Xuewei truly hadn't intended to have them bang their heads to get knocked out; she had only said that to indicate she was powerless to help further.

Thus, when the two girls slammed their heads against the wall one after another, she couldn't even react in time.

"If I catch them, I'll chop off their legs!"

An angry voice drifted out from the main courtyard. Ding Xuewei couldn't care less about anything else; she grabbed the two and sent them into her space.

By the time she came out, the crowd had already reached the gate.

Having bolted away, Ding Xuewei felt a bit of regret; she should have prepared an electric scooter!

"Stop!"

"Still running? See if I don't chop those legs of yours off!"

Some people have small legs and short stature; others are tall with long legs.

Even with the courage she had mustered during her middle school entrance exams, Ding Xuewei couldn't pull much distance from the people chasing her. What was even more heart-wrenching was that while her mind was urgent, her feet were not; due to a lack of coordination, she simply tripped and fell face-first.

(End of Chapter)