After the little physician completed talking, the ship they had been on abruptly touched one thing.

Everybody within the cabin shook violently.

“What’s the matter? Did we hit some rocks?” Duan Yang grabbed Lin Chen’s hand and immediately modified again to the nervous little physician he was acquainted with.

“It shouldn’t be.”

The sound of the motor stopped, and the footsteps above their heads turned clearly audible, making everybody silent.

Instantly, a piercing sound of drilling rang out on the deck above their heads. In the dead of night house, the sound appeared to echo in everybody’s head, inflicting all of the stowaways to shrink again to the nook in fright. Duan Yang raised his head subconsciously as Lin Chen stated, “Shut your eyes.”

The following second, there was a loud clicking sound, adopted by the wood boards being opened. The intense mild from the sky poured down from above their heads.

The sudden mild after greater than ten midnights made Lin Chen’s eyes sting. He coated his eyes and heard somebody strolling all the way down to the cabin from the deck.

“Get up. We’re getting off the boat,” the customer shouted in a drawn-out tone.

Lin Chen’s eyes had been barely opened when he noticed somebody holding a gun and kicked the middle-aged man who had handed away. There was no response from his toes. The person reached out his hand and tried to slap the middle-aged man to see if he might wake him, however was hugged tightly by a frightened villager.

“Please, save my brother. My brother might nonetheless be saved!”

“What, he’s useless?” The gunman probed the middle-aged man’s nostril after which pressed towards the middle-aged man’s neck, then abruptly stopped. “Rattling, he’s actually useless. What dangerous luck.”

There was no different emotion in his tone besides impatience. It seemed like he was regretting that an animal had died early earlier than the sale quite than a dwelling individual.

Some individuals within the cabin started to sob softly once more. Their voices had been low, however nobody dared ask, “Why are you treating us like this?!”

At the moment, any query would appear silly because the breath of loss of life was spreading like a virus.

One other individual went down from the deck to the cabin. The individual was carrying a loose-fitting inexperienced navy uniform with shoulder insignia loosely mounted. He kicked the middle-aged man on the bottom, cursed one thing, then bent down and forcefully lifted him onto his shoulder. The center-aged man’s relative kneeled beside the physique and wailed loudly, however somebody hit him on the shoulder with the butt of a gun and informed him to shortly meet up with the remainder of the group.

Lin Chen intentionally fell behind with Duan Yang. The red-eyed, dark-skinned villager stumbled to their facet and sobbed. “My brother’s life is just too onerous. How did he find yourself in such a multitude like this?”

The salty, moist, and brilliant sea breeze slowly poured in. Lin Chen felt himself being pushed to face up and adopted the group to the deck.

Certain sufficient, the ship had already docked on the pier. He regarded round. On one facet was the lengthy shoreline. On the opposite facet was the blue clear sea with white seagulls within the sky, trying as if that they had landed on some type of costly resort island. Nevertheless, they noticed the plain dilapidated navy autos and barricades on the distant coast, in addition to the troopers lazily basking within the solar, which indicated this wasn’t the truth is a resort island. Of their neighboring nation, Xinni, there had been a gaggle of idle rebels occupying a small space of the coastal area from south to north of Xinni for greater than ten years. For numerous causes, Xinni hadn’t but been in a position to seize this space. It turned out that that they had arrived in Li Jingtian’s dwelling nation. Lin Chen regarded on the darkened reef forward and sneered.

The villager was speaking behind them. Instantly, Lin Chen stopped. “What did you simply say?”

“I… I didn’t say something?”

At the moment, Duan Yang requested, “You simply stated, that uncle simply now, his mother and father have already handed away?”

“Sure, they handed away a very long time in the past. My poor brother might be confused attributable to sickness, so he thought my uncle and aunt had been right here.”

Listening to this, Duan Yang appeared to think about one thing. He put his hand in his pocket and grabbed Lin Chen. There was some commotion on the starboard facet of the deck. The useless physique of the middle-aged man was uncovered to the solar on the deck. Two fishermen had unfold a big internet, wrapping the physique from head to toe, then casually threw it into the ocean, with one individual holding the top and the opposite the legs. Seeing this scene, Lin Chen felt a ringing in his ears. He might hardly hear the loud wailing, however the second the physique was thrown into the ocean, it left a deep impression on him.

There have been stones tied to the fishing internet that had been wrapped across the physique. Because the physique that had misplaced its soul flew into the ocean, it made a parabola after which sank straight into the water.

Everybody on the boat regarded in the direction of the place the physique was dumped, and at this second, Duan Yang took Lin Chen’s hand.

“Marketing consultant Lin, do you know that solely a easy operation is required to avoid wasting that uncle?”

His phrases had been considerably inexplicable, and what was much more inexplicable had been Duan Yang’s actions.

He regarded on the younger man, and the opposite get together gave him a bitter smile. After he stated this, Duan Yang let go of his hand and walked ahead as if nothing had occurred.

Lin Chen was terrified. There was a small and heat ring clinging to his palm, which was quietly handed over by Duan Yang simply now when he took the chance to talk to him.

Lin Chen didn’t dare take a look at it within the crowd. God knew what Duan Yang abruptly handed over. Profiting from the chance to line as much as go ashore, he and Duan Yang fell to the tip once more.

“What?”

“I don’t know. I simply discovered it in my pocket.”

“Is it yours?”

“I don’t keep in mind having it in my pocket. It was most likely stuffed into it by the useless uncle earlier than he died.”

“How do you know?”

“I remembered that when the uncle was speaking about his mother and father, he appeared to place his hand on my trousers. What do you assume this implies, Marketing consultant Lin?”

Lin Chen thought, ‘How might I probably know what this implies? Being kidnapped is dangerous sufficient, however encountering a sudden loss of life of a stowaway within the cabin and the weirdest factor was the stowaway informed a lie earlier than he died and quietly stuffed a round, spherical factor that resembled a hoop into your pocket. To make issues worse, you even gave me the factor. Why do I all the time stumble into these sorts of issues?’

“Aren’t you a psychologist? Can’t you speculate on the dying psychology of that uncle?”

Lin Chen felt that his mood wasn’t superb since Xing Conglian left. In any other case, he shouldn’t be as impatient as he was now when he heard what Duan Yang had simply stated. “I’m not a fortune teller.”

“However…”

“Consider it because the deathbed of a stowaway with delusional reminiscences who handed you his household heirloom.”

“However you clearly know that this isn’t the case. That uncle… that uncle may be very unusual.”

“Why unusual?”

“Perforation of the abdomen will not be a typical illness in ocean voyages. How might he have a sudden perforation?” Duan Yang murmured.

“Stowaways, abdomen perforation—why is it so unusual?” Lin Chen requested again.

Duan Yang frowned. He lowered his voice and put his mouth near Lin Chen’s ears. “Do you assume there are medicine in his abdomen, or he swallowed one thing onerous earlier than he left, which prompted his abdomen to perforate?”

“I don’t know. This ought to be your judgment as a physician, nevertheless it shouldn’t be medicine.”

“Why?”

“Do you assume traffickers who personal this line nonetheless have to smuggle medicine by way of human flesh?”

“You’ve already guessed it!” Duan Yang gave him a depressed look.

“An individual who nonetheless remembers to go away clues for you earlier than he dies is blended in with a bunch of stowaways. If it’s not a drug seller, then who’s he?”

“It could’t be an secret agent, proper?”

Duan Yang’s voice was so loud that Lin Chen couldn’t assist however kick his calf. The younger man staggered, and abruptly there was an odd look in his eyes. “What did he give me?”

“The dimensions is both a household heirloom or a positioning machine.” Lin Chen held the ring tightly in his hand. “That is simply hypothesis, primarily to offer you some confidence in your survival. Bear in mind to not inform anybody about this factor. Fortuitously, he secretly stuffed it into your pocket. If he had given it to you brazenly, would you’ve got shouted it out loud for the entire world to know?”

As they spoke, that they had already been taken to what regarded like an 18th– or nineteenth– century transit station for human trafficking quite than a customs workplace. The 2-story constructing by the small seaside had a couple of wood tables the place workplace staff sat with their toes up, whereas ceiling followers spun above. The room was crowded with smuggled immigrants from all instructions, together with males, ladies, and even individuals who regarded like beggars. The officers inspected every individual like they had been inspecting livestock, and cries and resistance could possibly be heard continuously. They’d tear open ladies’s garments, pinch their breasts, and haggle with the smugglers.

After a transaction was reached, the workplace employees took out a stamp and would stamp their “items”; typically it could be on the face and typically on the again of their arms, indicating possession.

Lin Chen and Duan Yang had been taken out individually and despatched to a desk within the nook. There have been python and jaguar flags on the desk, and the workplace employee was sleeping there.

The individual escorting them awoke the workplace employees and communicated in an unknown language for a very long time. Instantly, the workplace employees nodded, picked up the seal on the desk, and stamped the backs of their arms.

Duan Yang rubbed the seal that had a python and jaguar sample on his hand vigorously, solely to search out that the factor couldn’t be rubbed off. He stated to Lin Chen with a tragic face, “Marketing consultant Lin, now we have change into pork in a meat manufacturing facility.”

“Properly, it’s nonetheless the sort that handed quarantine.”

“Please cease joking.”

They had been taken out of the small constructing individually and eventually got here to a dilapidated navy airfield.

A transport helicopter with rusty wings was ready there, however the individuals sitting there weren’t the acquainted those who had been sitting within the cabin. Quite the opposite, there was a gaggle of closely armed mercenaries as an alternative. Their eyes had been sharp, they usually raised their chins to have a look at Lin Chen and the others. Clearly, they had been going to be transported to an unknown place with these mercenaries.

This confirmed two factors. First, the place they had been going was extraordinarily harmful. Second, the one that kidnapped them wished them to reach at their vacation spot as quickly as attainable, so that they selected helicopter transportation, which was rather more costly than sea transportation.

Lin Chen checked out Duan Yang’s face. He was afraid this younger physician, who had coated his mouth and nostril as a result of he was dissatisfied with the air within the cabin, didn’t know simply how horrible the scenario he was in.

He glanced on the blue sky and white clouds outdoors the window. Holding onto the relic of the middle-aged man who didn’t depart any identify for him, his gaze lastly fell on the blue stamp on the again of his hand.

……

Simply as Lin Chen was scratching his head and occupied with the that means of the python and jaguar sample on the again of his hand, Xing Conglian was stepping on a tree stump, holding his binoculars, and looking out coldly at Zaratul’s smug golden banner within the distance.

The python wrapped across the jaguar symbolize Zaratul’s personal ambition to swallow an elephant, however this wasn’t the purpose. The purpose was that every one entrances and exits across the mines had been closely guarded, and this place wasn’t just like the rumored deserted mines from way back.

Within the distance, smoke and dirt rose, and low cement factories stretched endlessly, with a few of them partially collapsed, revealing rusted cranes inside. Some intact factories appeared to have individuals coming out and in. There have been even helicopters hovering from afar that landed inside the mining space.

It was true that the abandonment of the mines was a reality, however the scale of auto entry right here inside an hour confirmed that it wasn’t precisely as said within the intelligence.

“Boss, that is… Is Zaratul engaged in a secret manufacturing facility right here?” Kang An’s uneasy voice sounded.

“Are the Gaomeng individuals actually right here? Is that this a lure, such as you stated? Why did the militants in Zaratul drive all of the Gaomeng individuals right here?” These questions belonged to Wang Chao.

“Does it seem like your boss is a fortune teller?” Xing Conglian impatiently.

“Boss Xing, the place are my individuals? Are they useless? Why can’t I see them?” The bar proprietor additionally pulled on him and requested.

“There.” Xing Conglian stretched out his hand and replied casually, pointing at a dilapidated manufacturing facility constructing within the distance.

Moda Nar snatched the binoculars and checked out them for a very long time. “It appears there are lots of troopers surrounding that manufacturing facility constructing. Why do you assume my individuals are locked there?”

“The locations we handed alongside the way in which have already indicated the route of your individuals. They had been pushed right here from east to northwest. They may inevitably encounter the long-awaited resistance of the Zaratul militants. Now that they’ve encountered resistance, your individuals will select to discover a bunker. In the event that they aren’t killed, they’ll enter the manufacturing facility to cover,” Xing Conglian answered.

“Fuck, does that imply these Zaratul bastards are besieging my individuals? I’m going to struggle them!”

After the bar proprietor completed talking, he rolled up his cuffs and rushed over.

Xing Conglian kicked the bar proprietor to the bottom. “Sir, when you stroll one other fifty meters, you may be stepping on a minefield. Are you able to go court docket loss of life by yourself and never drag laozi into it?”

The bar proprietor was so scared that he hurriedly crawled again.

“Boss, what are we going to do now? If the Gaomeng individuals are actually trapped in that manufacturing facility, what’s occurring?” Wang Chao requested.

“God is aware of. Since we’re right here, let’s go in and have a look.” Xing Conglian glanced at Kang An, who took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.