The Gusu Mistake - Chapter 37

In a secluded and elegant inn room, Jiang Yuan sat on the edge of the bed with a somber expression. It wasn’t until a subordinate pushed open the door that his mood changed. “Young Master, a letter from Elder Ting has arrived!”

Jiang Yuan took the letter, crumpled it up after reading, and muttered, “It’s all my fault, he’ll only blame me!”

“Young Master…?” The subordinate saw that Jiang Yuan, already in a bad mood, was even more agitated after reading the letter. He wanted to ask what was in it but was too apprehensive.

Jiang Yuan suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with gloom as he stared at his subordinate. “How many men do I have left from the ones I brought?”

The subordinate replied, “Twenty-four people!”

“Twenty-four people!” Jiang Yuan covered his face with his hand. “How can I deal with those two women, Jiang Yilan and her companion, with just this many?”

“This…” The subordinate hesitated, “Young Master… I think…”

“You think what?” Jiang Yuan asked.

The subordinate said, “I think we don’t necessarily have to be the ones to take the lead in this. The news from the Wu family might not be reliable!”

“How could I not know that?” Jiang Yuan said, frustrated and helpless. “Grandpa insisted I come on this trip, what choice did I have?”

“But…” the subordinate said with a worried tone, “Jiang Yilan is with that woman from the Han family, they are not easy to deal with!”

Jiang Yuan lowered his eyes. “If only we could separate them!”

“Separate them…” The subordinate’s eyes suddenly lit up. “That might not be impossible!”

Jiang Yuan looked at his subordinate. “You have a plan?”

“Just a humble idea!” the subordinate said, “I have a thought!”

Jiang Yuan said, “Let’s hear it!”

The subordinate bowed and said, “Yes, it’s just…”

“This is so boring!” At a street stall, Jiang Yilan poked at a bun with her chopsticks. “It’s just really, really boring!”

“Try this!” Yuan Ruo put some small dishes into Jiang Yilan’s bowl. “You won’t be so bored when you’re full!”

“When you’re full with nothing to do, you’ll be even more bored!” Jiang Yilan rested her chin on her hand, listlessly eating her food. “We’ve been hanging around here for four or five days, why hasn’t anything happened yet?”

“You can’t always catch a fish on the first try,” Yuan Ruo shook her head helplessly. “You need to have patience!”

“My patience is running out!” Jiang Yilan picked up a bun and took a bite. “They’re not going to show up, are they?”

Yuan Ruo couldn’t say for sure, so she didn’t answer. Just as she was picking up a dish, a boy of about fifteen or sixteen suddenly knelt down by her feet:

“Save me, miss, save me!”

Yuan Ruo put down her chopsticks and instinctively helped the boy up. “Little brother, you want me to save you? What happened?”

The boy started crying. “There are human traffickers, they’re chasing me and want to chop off my hands and feet!”

Yuan Ruo frowned. “That’s outrageous, it’s simply…”

“Yuan Ruo!” Jiang Yilan suddenly spoke up, interrupting Yuan Ruo. “This…”

Jiang Yilan wanted to say something, but Yuan Ruo cut her off with a smiling look and gently asked the boy, “Where are the human traffickers who are chasing you?”

“Over there!” The boy pointed in a direction.

Yuan Ruo looked in the direction the boy was pointing. “There’s no one there!”

The boy shrunk back. “They’re hiding over there!”

“I see!” Yuan Ruo said. “Then take us to take a look!”

“Okay!” The boy agreed without hesitation, leading the way without any of the fear he had just shown toward the human traffickers.

Jiang Yilan got up and walked over to Yuan Ruo. “Yuan Ruo, he…”

“I know!” Yuan Ruo gave Jiang Yilan a reassuring smile. “It’s full of holes, I’m not so blind that I can’t see that!”

Hearing Yuan Ruo say this, Jiang Yilan immediately understood what she meant and stopped talking, following along calmly and waiting to see what would happen.

The boy led them to an abandoned house where there were indeed a few people inside. One of the men saw them and yelled as he came over, “You little brat, you took so long to come back, where did you…?” The man’s words, upon seeing Jiang Yilan and Yuan Ruo’s faces, turned from anger to a vulgar smirk. “Oh, you brought back two fine catches for me!”

“Sisters, I’m sorry!” The boy’s expression suddenly changed, and he quickly ran to close the door. At the same time, the hidden mechanisms in the old house were activated. Although crude, they were enough to require some effort from Jiang Yilan and Yuan Ruo.

“Yilan!” While dodging the mechanisms, Yuan Ruo didn’t forget to check on Jiang Yilan, and after confirming she was fine and handling it with ease, she began to think of a way to break free.

To catch the thief, you must first catch the king. This was Yuan Ruo’s first thought when she saw the man in the corner who was the human trafficker. Without hesitation, she leaped over and instantly held her sword to his neck.

“You, you, you…” The man hadn’t expected Yuan Ruo to get to him and was too scared to speak.

Yuan Ruo stared at him coldly. “Turn it off!”

The man didn’t dare to hesitate, turning off the mechanisms and then kneeling before Yuan Ruo. “Lady hero, spare my life, I am an ignorant fool!”

“So you’re this afraid of dying!” Jiang Yilan, now free from the trap, asked in a cold voice. “Did you ever think that those innocent people you harmed were also afraid?”

“I, I, I…” The man was speechless, with nothing to say.

“It would be too easy to just let you die!” Jiang Yilan slapped the man across the face, causing his body to sway. Just as he was covering his face, not daring to speak, he suddenly felt a tingling, painful itch spread from his nose all the way to his brain, becoming more and more intense. He couldn’t stop scratching and started rolling on the ground, wailing in agony.

After seeing the man’s fate, Jiang Yilan turned her gaze to the boy, which made the boy’s legs turn to jelly and he leaned against the wall. “Si… sisters… I didn’t want to, forgive me!”

“You didn’t want to?” Jiang Yilan sneered. “You didn’t want to, but you still closed the door?”

The boy started to cry and knelt down. “I really had no choice. If I didn’t bring people back, that beast would have defiled my little sister!”

“Brother!” Just as the boy finished speaking, a girl of about eleven or twelve ran over and hugged him.

Yuan Ruo frowned. “Is this your sister?”

The boy nodded. “Yes!”

Yuan Ruo asked again, “Why did the two of you end up here?”

“It’s because I was naughty!” The little girl sobbed. “I snuck out, and my brother was caught by the human trafficker along with me while he was looking for me!”

Yuan Ruo looked at the remaining people. “Are they also a part of this?”

“Mhm!” The boy said. “He forced us to beg for money and bring people back, otherwise he would beat us to death, and he also did things to my sister…”

Jiang Yilan wasn’t convinced. “He’s just one person, how can he control so many of you?”

“It’s not just him!” The boy said. “It’s just that today he’s the only one here. There are several others who went out to bring people back!”

Jiang Yilan asked, “When do they come back?”

The boy replied, “They usually come back after dark. If the harvest is good, we might get some food. If not, we’ll all get a beating!”

“No matter what, you won’t get a beating today!” Jiang Yilan was filled with righteous indignation and couldn’t stand the existence of such a heinous crime.

“Sister, are you going to…?” the boy asked tearfully.

“Go and wait!” Jiang Yilan kicked the man, who was now barely alive, away. “We’ll wait here together for the rest of them to return!”

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