I Got Rich in Period Fiction-Chapter 573 - 567: Land Beyond the Law

After putting down the phone, Brother Sun’s hands were trembling. He quickly contacted the relevant personnel, took the lead, and drove several Jeeps and a big truck toward Shuiwa Village, as Qiao Qingyu had indicated.

Xichuan was some distance from Shuiwa Village; it would take the Jeeps more than three hours, no matter how fast they drove.

Lu Ye rushed to the jurisdiction of Shuiwa Village. The remaining people were either ignorant or possibly knew everything but refused to tell.

Their eyes were darting around suspiciously.

Lu Ye, anxious and with no time for detailed questioning, couldn’t make any arrests without evidence, nor did he have the authority.

But there were no lawless lands left. Even a small village was under someone’s watch. Did they really think they were the mountain king?

There was a Village Chief above Shuiwa Village, and above the Village Chief, there was a line manager.

Some places had already disbanded the militia, but the armed department was still there.

The villagers who could work had healthy bodies, running up and down the slopes like rabbits, and more than an hour had already passed back and forth.

Without hesitation, Lu Ye and a few people from the Village Chief and the armed department borrowed several three-wheeled motorcycles and sped towards Shuiwa Village.

Qiao Qingyu’s eyebrows remained furrowed.

It would have been better not to know, but now that she did know, how could she not worry?

At that moment, Sun Xiuyuan did not expect that her first investigative trip to a village would yield such significant results, and at the same time, she was furiously outraged.

This Shuiwa Village really acted as if it was beyond the law, with 80% of the wives in the village bought. Some had become grandmothers, while others were mothers-in-law.

But many had been bought in recent years, with one having been lied to by human traffickers from abroad during the Spring Festival.

The human trafficker sold her to a bachelor at the head of the village for 500 yuan.

yuan! It was a profitless trade. The girl was tormented so badly she was nearly out of her senses.

Ordinarily, these things were not for them to discover, but because they were now organizing the cultivation of red sage, all the young and strong laborers of the village had gone out to work, leaving only the elderly, women, and children in the village.

After entering the village without a specific purpose, they casually knocked on a household’s door.

Not having managed to open the main gate, they heard sobbing sounds from the courtyard, and when the work group’s young men kicked the door open, they discovered a woman tied up in the woodshed.

It was no longer just about human trafficking; this was a crime!

The village was small, with a little over a hundred households.

The group of five began a house-to-house investigation to collect evidence.

Halfway through, a large group of young and middle-aged men poured into the village entrance.

They approached Sun Xiuyuan and her two companions with fury and quickly surrounded them.

Sun Xiuyuan regretted it.

The other two young girls in the work group turned pale with fear.

Even if these men did nothing, their menacing appearance was frightening, especially their menacing gaze.

The two young men also faced such a situation for the first time.

Even if they could fight ten men each, they could only knock down twenty, while the sea of people numbered nearly a hundred.

By their side, several women who had been rescued had already been dragged back by their current men, some simply beaten and kicked before Sun Xiuyuan, cursing, "Trying to run? I spent 300 yuan to buy you. Alive, you’re mine; dead, you’d still be my ghost..."

A few men, emboldened by the man who led the beating of the woman, also raised their fists, relenting only when the women pleaded, crying that they would not run away, that they would not go back anymore.

One woman stayed silent throughout, her eyes bruised and face swollen. After the man stopped beating her, she struggled to stand up and said in a hoarse voice, "Zhao Cheng, let them go. This has nothing to do with them."

The man called Zhao Cheng shoved the woman away, cursing, "Wait until tonight, I’ll deal with you..."

The woman fell to the ground in despair.

Sun Xiuyuan, trapped in the crowd, trembled all over, her teeth chattering.

It was hard to tell if she was angry or scared.

Tears streamed down her face.

Such a scene was a first for her and her work group.

Before when they entered villages, they had security officers and the Village Chief accompanying them. After a round of investigation and finding nothing, they would leave.

If it weren’t for the cultivation of red sage, such a village would still remain undiscovered.

Sun Xiuyuan was the group leader, and she clenched her fists tightly, her voice trembling as she spoke, "Where is the Village Chief of Shuiwa Village?"

The man who had led the beating, Zhao Cheng, came forward.

He brazenly looked Sun Xiuyuan over, "Our Village Chief is ill, went to see a doctor out of town."

"You’re doing wrong," she said.

"Where’s the wrong? It’s natural for a man to beat his wife. There’s no law that says a man can’t beat his wife, is there?"

"Here, many women were bought by you, and you still abuse and mistreat them. That’s even a greater crime."

Sun Xiuyuan mustered the courage to shout loudly.

The girls next to her were petrified, tugging at Sun Xiuyuan’s clothes, their voices trembling, "Stop talking. Let’s leave quickly... leave here quick."

Zhao Cheng swept his stern gaze over the five people.

He asked the two standing next to him, "Are you sure? It’s just the five of them, no other companions?"

"We’re sure. Nobody followed but, on the way back, some rangers and people from other villages saw us."

Zhao Cheng thought for a moment. "No matter."

The villagers were united as one family, with almost the same ancestor.

Thus, when things like this happened, they united against outsiders.

To continue hiding the village’s secrets, these five could not be allowed to leave.

A few men pulled others aside to talk.

Meanwhile, Sun Xiuyuan and her group were encircled by people, some holding sticks, some wielding kitchen knives. The five dared not move.

Sun Xiuyuan’s mind was blank, while Li Qing and Lin Feng had also never witnessed such a scene.

They say a single tiger can’t withstand a pack of wolves; escaping from here was difficult, so they could only hope these villagers would be rational and let them go.

Li Qing tried to keep his voice gentle as he spoke to a villager nearest to him, "Uncle, we’re just here to count the village population. Since you say there’s no problem... we’ll just leave now."

Lin Feng suppressed his anger and echoed Li Qing, attempting to convince the villagers they were harmless and they should be wary of their status.

After all, this not a time of war but of law; it was an era of rule by law.