Chapter 8 The Dark Web

The little girl suddenly called out "little brother" and she seemed quite familiar with him, so Yang Ning asked with curiosity, "Do you know me?"

"Yes..." The little girl nodded excitedly, "I know you. I know you. Xiaodie once told me about you, and she said... She said you are her only relative. Little brother, how did you get here? "

Yang Ning put a finger to his mouth, motioning them not to make too much noise. When he saw that all the girls nodded their approval cleverly, Yang Ning got closer to them and asked, "Why are you all kept here?"

The girls looked at each other, and the elder girl said, "My... My name is Xiu'er. We... We are all deceived to come here."

"Deceived?" Yang Ning was shocked.

"My parents and I fled to this city to take refuge a few months ago. A guy found us and told my parents that if I could be a maid, he would provide meals and accommodation for me and I could even get two pennies a month." Xiu’er explained in whispers, "We could not survive without money, so we didn't refuse his offer. The man first took me to another yard. When we arrived, there were already several girls like me and we had waited for two or three days. One night, we were called to get in a carriage and then we came here. I hadn't been out since then and my parents didn't know I was here."

"I see." Yang Ning frowned and asked, "Do you know why they brought you here?"

The girls shook their heads blankly, and Xiu’er said, "After we got here, a person began to teach us Chinese folk-art forms. We are not allowed to do other things or ask any questions. If we practice well, they will treat us better. But if our performance is poor, we can’t eat and will be whipped...” Speaking of this, the rims of her eyes became pink and her voice was even lower, “I heard that some people were...were beaten to death because they failed to practice well."

"In this way, Xiaodie also practiced singing and dancing with you?" Yang Ning frowned and asked in a low voice.

Xiu’er nodded and said, "Xiaodie came earlier than us. When we came here, their group had already practiced very well." After a pause, her voice was lower, "I heard that the girl who danced best could be assigned to the kitchen to work at night. "

"The kitchen?"

"Yes, Madam Hua sometimes wants to eat at night, so two people will be left in the kitchen to serve at any time." Xiu’er said, "Xiaodie dances well, so sometimes she can go to the kitchen."

Yang Ning was relieved at this moment, thinking that the reason why Xiaodie could slip out of the house was that she probably took the opportunity of working in the kitchen. But it was quite risky anyway.

"Xiaodie is also in the kitchen tonight?"

Xiu’er shook her head, "In the past, even if they were in the kitchen at night, we could still see them during the day. But this time, I haven't seen them for many days, maybe...maybe they have already gone."

"Gone?" Yang Ning frowned, "You mean they are not in this mansion anymore? Well, who are ‘they’ you just talked about?"

Xiu’er thought for a while, and then whispered, "I heard them talk about it before. There have been many people in this mansion. A new group of girls will come when the last group of girls leave. Once they have finished the study of singing and dancing, they will be sent away from here and no one can find them again. Xiaodie... Xiaodie and other girls in her group came earlier, and they have been learning singing and dancing for a long time, and I haven't seen them for days, so...so I guess they may have been sent away. "

After hearing these words, Yang Ning’s heart was sunk and his eyes looked cold.

He pondered a while and then asked softly, "How many people are there now?"

Xiu’er immediately replied, "There are more than twenty people, but today...!" Looking at the girls on the side, "Today four more girls are sent here, so there should be more than thirty girls."

Yang Ning nodded slightly, thinking that the number was closed to the number that Madam Hua said before. He lowered his voice and said, "If you leave here, can you find your father and mother?"

"Leave here?" The eyes of Xiu’er were full of joy. "You...you mean we can leave here?" The other girls also looked joyful and excited. At this time, they were no longer afraid of Yang Ning. Instead, they regarded him as a savior sent by the God, so they couldn't help but huddle around him.

Yang Ning said in an undertone, "If you want to leave here, you must first figure out how many hired thugs there are in this house. Are you clear about this?"

The girls looked at each other, then Xiu’er said, "I have seen four or five different people, and they are all ferocious and vicious. And I know that there are two guys guarding the main entrance of the mansion day and night, and they...they have swords."

Yang Ning thought about it for a moment before handing the keys to Xiu'er, and said softly, "These are the keys to the rooms. You can let the girls make preparations first and be sure not to make a noise. Don't act rashly before I come back and wait for me to take you away."

"Well... How do you take us out of the mansion?" Xiu’er said with worry, "There are people guarding the gate and they have swords in hand. We can't get out."

Yang Ning assumed that they didn’t know that there was a hole at the root of the wall of the back garden, but he didn’t tell them about it at once. After the girl took the key, he quickly got out. He first seized a sword from table in the yard and picked up a wine bag in passing, and then immediately ran to Xing at the root of the wall. Seeing that he was still in a coma, he poured the wine on his face.

Aroused by the drink, Xing woke up presently with great pain in the back of the head. When he opened his eyes, a masked person appeared in front of him, and just as he was about to shout, there was a chilly feeling around his throat along with a cold voice, "Answer what I ask you, or I will cut your throat in a second."

After the words, the man gestured to cut his throat with the blade of the sword as a threat. Xing shivered all over, murmuring "hum-hum".

As a precaution, Yang Ning specially tore a piece of burlap to cover half of his face, and he held the sword against Xing's neck, asking, "Why are so many girls imprisoned here?"

When Xing was about to open his mouth, Yang Ning repeated, "I shall remind you that if you make any mistake, I’ll cut your throat right away."

Xing answered, "It's not... It’s not my fault. It was... It was Constable Xiao... Constable Xiao did it. I... I worked just to make a living. I... I am just an assistant constable under Constable Xiao..."

Yang Ning was stunned, asking in a cold voice, "So the other men in black in the mansion are all assistant constables?"

Xing answered, "We are all assistant constables of the government office, following...following the orders of Constable Xiao. Including me, there are six assistant constables in the mansion all together."

Yang Ning gasped in shock.

He originally thought that these men in black were just hired thugs and that the assistant constables involved were only Xiao Yishui and his subordinate and familiar Assistant Constable Feng. But now he knew that the real identities of these hired thugs in the mansion were all the assistant constables of the government office.

Assistant constables were supposed to maintain the order of the jurisdiction and safeguard the people there. But who could know that these people were doing such dirty business underhandedly.

"Are these girls all deceived to come here by you?"

With the chilly sword against his throat and scared by Yang Ning's icy stare, Xing was obviously more honest, "Constable Xiao specially arrange people to find such little girls among the refugees who are under fifteen years old and pretty. As long as they have got eyes on a girl, they will deceive...deceive her on the pretext of employing maid. They will first bring the girls to other places for a few days, and then...then transfer them here without being detected..."

"And then?"

"Then... Then they turn the girls over to Madam Hua to teach them folk arts. "Xing continued, "When they have learned some skills, they can...can be sent out."

"Sent out?" What Yang Ning wanted to know most was where Xiaodie was now. "Where?"

Xing said, "I... I don't know... Ah, don't...don't beat me. I will tell you everything..." After hesitating for a while, he said bitterly, "I only know... I only know that when the time comes, Senior Feng... Well, Assistant Constable Feng in the government office, will use a carriage to take them away. As far as I know, they... they will be sent to the capital!"

"The capital?" Yang Ning froze for a moment, frowning, "You mean that Assistant Constable Feng will personally send them to the capital?"

Xing answered with grievance, "Senior Feng... As long as Senior Feng sends the girls out of the city, there will be people coming to aid. And then...then they will send them to the capital. That’s all I know. I really don’t know other things. Xiao...Xiao Yishui is so considerate and careful that he will never let us know too much. And even the things about the capital were all told by Senior Feng when he got drunk."

Considering his attitude, Yang Ning thought that he didn’t tell a lie, so he continued to ask, "How many people did you send to the capital? When did you start to do this dirty business?"

"It has been... It has been two years." Xing didn't dare to move. "Since the Battle of Huaishui River broke out, many refugees left their homes. At the beginning, the people who passed through here to the south were all rich and noble with gold, silver, pearls and other treasures. At that time, Xiao Yishui began to hire beggars to keep eyes on the rich merchants and noblemen and steal their money, he got a lot of gold and silver. Later, the rich who passed by here became fewer and fewer because they were heading the south, but more and more poor refugees gathered in the city, so Xiao Yishui began to cook up schemes on those refugees."

"You mean these girls?"

Xing said, "Yes, he came up with it. Since two years ago, more than two hundred people had been sent to this mansion, and most of them were later sent away."

"Since you are an assistant constable, you should protect people in this city. Why do you collude with him and do such evil things with intolerable injustice?" Yang Ning was horrified by his words, his eyes was cold and his voice indifferent.

Xing said, "All of us became assistant constables because of him. Since the day when we became assistant constables, we have been forced to take sides with him. If I defied his order, I might lose my life, to say nothing of supporting my family. Xiao Yishui is cruel and evil. On the surface he...he is just a head constable, but he keeps good relationship with both lawmen and gangsters. The reason why several groups of bandits still exist in the Huize County is that they are on good terms with Xiao. They even become sworn brothers..."

"This is the family of officials and bandits." Yang Ning sneered, knowing that Xiao Yishui not only had a backer in the capital, but also spread a dreadful dark web in the territory of Huize County.