Chapter 210: Scum
“Tha…thank you…”
Hearing her words again, still with slurred speech as if it was very difficult, Su Ning’s heart startled and she quickly picked up the kerosene lamp placed by the bed and shone it on her face.
The dim yellow light illuminated her face in a warm orange hue, making it hard to see her exact complexion clearly, but the dry, peeling dead skin on her lips was crystal clear.
Could it be that she hadn’t drunk water for too long, her throat was parched and speaking hurt, so that’s why it was like this?
There was always a faint feeling that it wasn’t just such a simple reason, Su Ning softly apologized, lifted her other hand and carefully pried open her mouth.
This time, unlike when feeding medicine earlier, her mouth wasn’t pitch black; with the light, she immediately noticed that her tongue was shortened by a section.
This… what’s going on?!
Looking at it, it didn’t seem like a congenital defect, so it could only be that scum Wei Junjie who did it.
So there really are born beasts who can be this cruel!
Feeling the fingertips of the person pinching her face trembling uncontrollably, Wu Meng thought she had scared her and tried hard to turn her head away to free herself from her hand, “Sor… sorry…”
This sentence made warmth well up in Su Ning’s eyes, quickly gathering tears, and her heart surged with intense soreness: whose daughter was this, whose wife, or child’s mom.
How heartbroken and sad they would be if they saw her.
Even in this current situation, upon seeing someone, she wasn’t eager to seek help or lament her sorrows, but instead worried about frightening others.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, sister, what’s your name, where are you from, how long have you been captured? Do you still remember?”
“Wu… Wu Meng, Tao City… no, don’t know… how long…”
When she went missing, the peach blossoms in Tao City were blooming all over the mountains, and after being captured, the days were endless and sunless, so how could she know the exact time.
She only knew it had been a very, very long time, every day endless and without end.
Wait, why is this young comrade here? Could she also have been captured by that beast?
But she didn’t have injury marks on her body, didn’t seem to have gone through the training that beast mentioned, did she accidentally stumble in?
“You… you hurry and go… report… to the police… save us!”
“Sister Wu Meng, don’t be afraid, Wei Junjie hasn’t come back yet, before he returns we will definitely take you out together.”
“Xiao Huan… save… save her…”
Xiao Huan?
Hearing this, how could Su Ning not understand, there was another victim named Xiao Huan, she quickly stood up and shone the kerosene lamp all around the room.
But the small room had no extra furniture or places to hide a person.
Could she be in another room?
Not daring nor willing to think towards the worst possibility, she turned to look at the person who had subconsciously been trembling ever since regaining consciousness.
Her speaking volume unconsciously lowered again and again, afraid of scaring her.
“Sister Wu Meng, wait here for me, I’ll go to the other room to see if I can find the Xiao Huan you mentioned.”
“Okay… eight years old… Xiao Huan…”
An eight-year-old little girl?
Her fingers clenched tightly, nails digging painfully into the soft flesh of her palm, she took a deep breath and said nothing more, quickly left this room and headed to the one next door.
Zhang Ze was holding a kerosene lamp, quickly rummaging through boxes and cabinets searching for something, and only snapped back when he heard footsteps.
On the ground, the opened cabinet was piled full of various small clothes, small vests, even underwear.
And the only upright cabinet’s drawers were full of various leather paper bags, while the bottom layer had a camera and several rolls of film.
At the innermost wall of the room was a long table, on the table were tools for developing film, and several thin hemp ropes stretched across the wall, hanging small black and white photos.
As for the content on the photos…
“Ning Ning, don’t look!”
Silently nodding, Su Ning turned her back to the wall, having only glanced once she had no courage for a second look.
Deep in Zhang Ze’s eyes burned towering rage, he silently tore down all the photos and stuffed them into the remaining leather paper bags, then piled them together with all the document bags from the drawer.
“Brother Zhang, there’s also an eight-year-old little girl…”
The hand about to pick up a stack of leather paper bags paused abruptly, Zhang Ze opened his mouth but for a long while couldn’t utter a single word.
Click~
In the quiet space, only the crisp sound of knuckles gripped too tightly.
“Ning Ning…”
It seemed like a long time had passed, or perhaps only a few seconds, before Zhang Ze’s voice finally sounded, low and carrying an indescribable hoarse dryness, “We need to hurry, it’s time to go.”
She suddenly looked up at him, his eyes filled with glaring disbelief, staring at him stubbornly and unyieldingly.
Until she saw his heavy nod, her heart felt like it was grabbed and squeezed painfully.
She didn’t ask how he knew, where he got the conclusion from.
Because Su Ning knew well, even after leaving the military, he still put the safety of the masses first, and wouldn’t abandon if there was the slightest possibility, since he said so it could only mean—
They were indeed too late, that little girl…
“Let’s go.”
Right now, the only thing she could do, wanted to do, was send that scum to hell!
The two quickly turned back to the room where Wu Meng was.
Seeing a man unexpectedly following right behind her, Wu Meng instinctively feared, her body curled up even more tightly and her trembling amplitude involuntarily quickened.
“Sister Wu Meng, don’t be scared, this is my brother, he’s a retired officer.”
Retired, officer…
Ordinary people have a mysterious trust and sense of safety towards military green from the bottom of their hearts.
Thinking of her younger brother who had also been enlisted for many years…
She hadn’t cried under all kinds of torment, nor when the sudden light of salvation appeared and she was about to escape the sea of suffering, but at this moment tears couldn’t be held back.
This was someone like her younger brother, just like the belief she had always held onto in her heart finally got a response.
He came.
He finally came.
Turning away to wipe the tears that fell almost at the same time as hers, Su Ning nodded to Zhang Ze as a signal and took the things from his arms.
At this moment, it was as if he understood the silently weeping woman’s heart, Zhang Ze, lips pressed tight, stepped forward silently and saluted, as if saying: sorry, I came late.
After lowering his hand, he used his strong arms along with the quilt to carefully pick her up, striding steadily out of this hell on earth.
……
Exiting the tunnel secret room, Zhang Ze brought the two to a relatively hidden and safe open space.
“Ning Ning, you two wait here first, I’ll be right back.”
Looking at his tense face, jaw clenched making facial muscles rigid, hand directly drawing that dagger, his whole body exuding a chilling murderous aura.
Guessing something, Su Ning bit her lower lip and nodded, only saying “Okay.”
“Su… Su… he’s going… to find Xiao Huan… right?”
“Sister Wu Meng, Xiao Huan she…”
Lowering her eyes, the words at the tip of her tongue couldn’t be spoken out, she only carefully held that hand full of injury marks.
Wu Meng nodded woodenly in ignorance, thinking of that little girl, those pretty round eyes like a fawn’s, from brimming with bright sunshine to desolate dead stillness like an old person’s…
Better to have gone, better… to have gone!
No need to see this filthy place even one more time, even after rescue no need to bear the strange gazes around.
Wait until she personally sees that person’s end, then see the dearest person one last time.
‘Xiao Huan, Sister Meng will come accompany you.’
In that carefree place, accompany you to laugh freely, play to your heart’s content…
“Sister Wu Meng?”
Sharply catching the fleeting strangeness in her eyes, Su Ning couldn’t help but feel anxious, trying hard to find a way to reignite her desire to live.
“Sister Wu Meng, who else is in your family? I can help you contact them.”
Family?
Man gone, child gone, besides the blind-eyed mom at home, only a younger brother far away enlisted who didn’t know when he’d return.
Wu Meng tugged at the corner of her mouth: didn’t know if that beast kept his word, no resistance then he wouldn’t touch mom, even gave rations to survive.
“No… don’t… my mom… eyes not, good.”
“Younger, younger brother… won’t come back.”
Mom with bad eyes, younger brother who won’t return, surname Wu…
Brows slightly furrowed, Su Ning seemed to think of something, could the person who single-handedly took down that beast Wei Junjie years later be Sister Wu Meng’s younger brother?
“Sister Wu Meng, is your younger brother called Wu Han? The Wu Han who enlisted outside?”
“You… Su Su, know… my brother?”
Shaking her head then nodding, Su Ning couldn’t deceive the person before her who had suffered so much, even with a well-intentioned lie, “He’s very capable!”
A smile gradually spread and bloomed in her eyes, like brilliant spring flowers all over the mountains.
