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Chapter 536: Chapter 536: Encounter Danger 7
"Bro, are we doing this or not?"
After waiting for a long time without anyone speaking up, Niu Wa lost his patience. He just wanted to know if they were going to go through with it or not. It would save him the agony of suspense.
Mangzi turned to their leader, "Bro, I’m with you."
Er Lvzi also chimed in, "Bro, if you say we do it, we do it."
Their leader squinted his eyes in thought for a while before saying, "If we do this, it’s not going to be the small fumbles we’ve been used to. If we succeed, the good days are ahead. But if we fail, we might be looking at the barrel of a gun. You all sure about this? Are you really listening to me?"
"I’m with you." Mangzi spoke with decided conviction, "Bro, without you, I’d still be struggling for food and warm clothes. I trust you. And if we fail, I’ll just accept my fate."
Er Lvzi and Niu Wa nodded in agreement. They evidently were thinking along the same lines.
The four of them grew up together in the same village, all having a hard life. After their leader went away a few years and came back, he leased two mountains and led them to plant trees there.
Initially, they planted trees earnestly. However, dissatisfied, they started robbing passers-by. Discovering they could get away with it without any repercussions, they grew bolder to the point they accidentally killed someone once. While the three of them were scared out of their wits, their leader, on the other hand, remained calm and buried the body on the mountain, using it as fertilizer.
Even after such an incident, nobody discovered what happened, which led them to be even bolder.
Later, they found the woman who is now their leader’s partner. He kept her on the mountain to cook for them. They envied their leader for having both a wife at the foot of the mountain and a woman on the mountain. Each of them dreamed of becoming like him.
Unfortunately, those opportunities were far and few in-between. They had brought a mute woman back a while ago, which caused some friction among them. Eventually, the leader decided to give her to Mangzi.
One night when they came back from work, they encountered a car on the road. They rarely saw cars in the countryside, so they thought it was a big business opportunity. Surprisingly, however, a woman as beautiful as a fairy was inside the vehicle.
Niu Wa thought it was his turn this time and that at the very least he could take the fat woman home, making a decent life finally possible. Born with a defect, Niu Wa’s ear constantly oozed a foul-smelling pus, which made no woman willing to marry him.
To his disappointment, their leader analysed the situation and concluded that having a wife was not a possibility. But he also acknowledged the truth that as long as they had money, it wouldn’t be hard to find women.
Seeing the three of them resolute to follow his decision, their leader squinted his eyes and said, "We leave this matter in the hand of fate. If no one comes looking for them before dark today, it would mean that luck is on our side. Then, we start planning to extract money. If someone comes looking, we can just play good Samaritans and ask for a finder’s fee."
Upon hearing their leader say this, the others had no objections. In fact, they felt momentarily relieved.
The leader turned to Niu Wa, "You go and keep an eye on the foot of the mountain. If no one notices their disappearance and comes looking here before dark, we’ll find a way to move the car."
Niu Wa, who’d wanted to go down to the mountain to have a look at the car worth hundreds of thousands, immediately agreed and rushed out without hesitating.
The others also returned to their huts for rest.
Mangzi went straight to the hut where the mute woman was kept. She was tied up and looked emaciated, but her facial features were fairly attractive, although her skin was somewhat dark.
As Mangzi walked in, the mute woman shrank back in terror, trembling at the foot of the bed.
Mangzi glanced at her and immediately stripped off his outer clothing, which scared the mute woman even more. Mangzi snorted coldly, scoffing,
"You think I still have interest in you? In my eyes, you’re no better than a pile of shit. Once I have money, what kind of beautiful woman won’t I be able to find? You might as well be used as a fertilizer on the mountain!"
Having said that, he went straight to bed to sleep, his mind filled with the image of Tong Yao.
In his two dozen or so years of life, this was the first time he saw such a stunning beauty. The legendary fairy, Chang’e, probably wasn’t any more beautiful.
Even the beauties in movies weren’t as pretty as Tong Yao.
He wondered what kind of environment could produce such a beauty.
Seeing Mangzi lying on the bed not touching her, the mute woman didn’t feel relieved. Instead, she became more afraid, remembering his chilling words about using her as fertilizer...
Were they going to kill her?
At this thought, terror filled her eyes.
*
Elsewhere, after Tong Yaohui and Wen Yun had reached the Breeding Farm, they called home but got no answer. Assuming that Tong Yao wasn’t home, they didn’t think much of it.
In the morning, the couple called Tong Yao again after several attempts, during which they learned that Tong Yao and Cheng Feng had travelled there. 𝔫𝖔𝔳𝔭𝔲𝔟.𝖈𝔬𝔪
Having rained hard the previous day, if the two really came, they would definitely have gotten stuck midway due to the rain. Without another word, Tong Yaohui took Jian Jun and Liu Sanwa to search for Tong Yao. Even though there was a heavy downpour the previous night, it was sunny now. However, the roads were still muddy due to the rain.
It took the three of them more than two hours following the route to arrive at Cheng Feng’s parking spot. Seeing the empty car, Tong Yaohui looked worried. After failing to locate them nearby, he sent Liu Sanwa back to the Breeding Farm to call the police while he stayed to continue the search with Jian Jun.
Caught in the rain, their car stuck, logic dictated that Tong Yao would have stayed in the car waiting for the rain to stop. Then, she should have sought them out at the Breeding Farm in the morning light. She wouldn’t have wandered around aimlessly.
There weren’t any villages nearby. The nearest place was the Breeding Farm. Not finding Tong Yao and Cheng Feng at either location, the situation was clearly abnormal.
After failing to find them in their search, Jian Jun also started having misgivings. Worried, he said, "Uncle Tong, where could Sister Yaoyao have gone if not into the car?"
Tong Yaohui shook his head solemnly, "I don’t know. Let’s look again in the vicinity. Yaoyao won’t wander around aimlessly. Something must have happened."
Jian Jun nodded, searched the vicinity again, and then found a narrow path with footprints. He called Tong Yaohui over excitedly, saying, "Uncle Tong, come over here real quick! There’s a small path here with footprints."
Upon hearing this, Tong Yaohui rushed over, observed the disordered footprints on the path, his face became increasingly serious, furrowing his brows.
There were many footprints, clearly not belonging to two people. Pregnant Tong Yao and Cheng Feng couldn’t have taken this path and the car couldn’t accommodate that many people. It seemed they might have been taken away by someone.
He had heard of some disturbances around here in recent past, and didn’t take it seriously at that point. Very few people passed through here and anyone thinking to rob people here was more likely to starve to death waiting. But now that his daughter was missing, Tong Yaohui was filled with regret. He should have warned his daughter.
