Chapter 119

Chapter 119: Too Horrible to Look At

Just as they were about to swing the knives, angry shouts of “Stop!” rang out from all sides. Dozens of skilled fighters leaped in from every direction. Hidden weapons flashed and struck the butchers on their wrists, and the knives clattered to the ground.

With a string of sharp clangs, the butchers were quickly subdued.

As the last thug was forced down, the other old woman who had been on lookout burst in: “Bad news, those people are comi…” She choked on the last word. Seeing her companions pinned all over the yard, she knew it was over. She turned to run, but a bodyguard following behind Yu Zhi Yi’s group kicked her back into the courtyard.

The bodyguard quipped: “A family should stay together.”

The mouthy young master grumbled at once: “Hey, aren’t you being too harsh? That old woman did not even offend you.” He headed for the gate to see what was going on outside, then froze on the spot: “What… what is this?”

Their bodyguards had pressed a line of unfamiliar men and women to the ground. The strangers struggled hard and, seeing someone approach, began to shout for help. Besides them, the large courtyard held only the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled. In truth, hardly any were old. Most were disabled. Some were missing an arm, some limped, some lacked an ear, some had lost an eye. Every one of them wore rags and was as thin as a stick. Their injuries differed, but the same dull, defeated look covered their faces.

Even as strangers burst into the yard and arrested their captors in front of them, they did not make a sound. A whole field of wooden eyes turned to the gate at the same time.

The mouthy young master was usually brave, but under so many empty stares he suddenly lost his nerve. He stepped back and his voice trembled: “They… they… what in the world is going on?”

Yu Zhi Yi also frowned at the sight of the disabled. She knew their suffering in her mind, but seeing it with her own eyes still made her chest tighten.

The girl in the blue dress could not keep her calm either. With pity and confusion she asked: “Official Yu, what is happening here?”

Yu Zhi Yi was about to answer when a pinned middle-aged man yelled: “You broke into a private home! I will sue you!”

An old woman found her voice too and shouted in anger: “You brats, do you even know who we are? Let us go now, or you will pay for it!”

Yu Zhi Yi ignored their noise and explained: “They are a child-snatching gang. They are even more heartless than the ones who kidnap and sell people. Those who get sold might have a slim chance to live. The ones held by this gang are squeezed for every last bit of value and then die in misery.”

She looked around the yard, her gaze passing over the disabled faces. Most were children. Fewer than five or six were adults.

She said: “After they kidnap children, they cripple them on purpose.”

Everyone exploded: “What?!”

Yu Zhi Yi went on: “They cut off a hand or a foot, then throw these disabled children into crowded places to beg. There are always kind people who cannot bear to see them suffer. Most will give a little. Even if only twenty or thirty people in one place give money, a child can make dozens to a hundred coins in a day.”

“In busy, wealthy places, people have money. It is common for one person to give two or three coins. If they meet a soft-hearted young lady from a rich family, she might even give a small silver ingot in one go.”

“By using these poor children, these people make piles of money.”

“But the children, treated as tools, get no proper care or treatment. Wounds that serious are hard to heal even with careful care. Without it, many die while their wounds are still healing.”

“In that early stage, when the wounds are worst, the children sent out to beg bring in even more money.”

“In a place like this, most of the children will not live to become adults.”

“So these dozens of disabled people you see here are the lucky ones who survived out of hundreds who were taken. You can imagine how much the grown ones have suffered to live to this day.”

Her voice stayed calm, but the listeners felt a storm of feelings: pity, hurt, heartbreak, and anger.

Grinding his teeth, the mouthy young master rushed at the loud middle-aged man and kicked and punched him: “Scum! Animal! You heartless monster!”

The man howled and cursed back: “Where did this little punk come from, daring to hit me! Listen up. In Gaoliang County, I, Wang Hu, am heaven! You hit me, you are dead!”

“I do not care where you came from or how much stinking money your family has. If you cross me, do not think you can leave Gaoliang County!”

As if to prove his words, a swarm of yamen constables charged in from outside, blades drawn, shouting: “Stop!”

Right after them, a man in official robes strode in with his hair bristling in anger and barked: “What bandits dare hurt people in my Gaoliang County! Arrest them all!”

The middle-aged man saw him and burst into tears and snot: “Lord, you came just in time. If you had not come, we would have been killed by these villains!”

The mouthy young master stomped on his leg and snapped: “Liar! You are the one hurting people!”

The other pinned gang members caught on and chimed in at once: “That is right. Everyone in Gaoliang County knows we are famous good people. We cannot bear to see the disabled suffer, so we take them in, feed them, clothe them, even get them treated.”

“But these people barged in without a word and hurt us. Lord, they are bandits, they are robbers. You must stand up for us!”

The yamen official roared with fresh anger: “A fine group of bandits you are, daring to commit violence in broad daylight in my Gaoliang County. Do not worry, I will give you justice. I will not let the kind hearts of Gaoliang County’s great benefactors grow cold.” Then he shouted his order: “Arrest them all!”