Huang Linlin looked down and saw the little girl on the train, her face bright and innocent.
"Mom, hold on tight!"
Before Huang Linlin could react, a man in his early thirties approached, a large hand clasping her shoulder.
Huang Linlin's heart tightened. She turned to see a swarthy, thick-lipped, burly man grinning at her with a mouthful of yellow teeth.
The man wore a simple, honest demeanor, but the strength in his grip grew as he pulled Huang Linlin closer to him.
Before Huang Linlin could scream for help, the man's loud voice boomed, "Wife, the three of us should hold on tight and not get separated by the crowd."
Then, with a fierce glint in his eyes, he whispered a threat, "If you scream, I'll stab you to death."
Huang Linlin felt a sharp pain in her waist. The man held a dagger in his other hand, pressing it against her lower back.
Huang Linlin became visibly panicked. She tried to break free, but found it impossible. She dared not scream, fearing that the traffickers would anger her and kill her.
This was her first such experience, and Huang Linlin was terrified, her eyes filled with panic and fear.
In just a moment, Huang Linlin had been carried several meters away by the two men, one large and one small.
Lin Ruo hadn't expected the traffickers to persist. She reached forward to grab Huang Linlin, but the woman from the train grabbed her arm.
"Sister Ruo, why are you leaving so hastily? You made me chase you for so long."
"Oh my!" the woman exclaimed. "Sister Ruo, you're sweating profusely. Let me wipe it for you."
Holding a dusty handkerchief, she reached out and wiped Lin Ruo's forehead, a smile on her face as she flicked the handkerchief twice.
At this moment, Han Yao and Zhou Shi followed the crowd out of the station. Zhou Shi spotted Lin Ruo with a sharp eye.
"Brother Han, look ahead! That's that amazing girl."
Han Yao followed the direction of Zhou Shi's finger and saw a woman affectionately holding the girl's arm.
Han Yao didn't think much of it at first, but after taking two steps, he immediately sensed something was amiss. He remembered the girl had boarded the train alone, without a companion. The sight of her letting someone wipe her sweat with a handkerchief was clearly wrong.
In this situation…
Han Yao's deep eyes suddenly sharpened, and he scrambled forward. "Comrade…" He had barely opened his mouth when Lin Ruo reached out.
Seeing the sweat-stained handkerchief coming towards him, Lin Ruo's eyes instantly sharpened. With lightning speed, she grabbed the woman's hand holding it, and with her other hand, she slashed at her neck. She tugged at the woman's arm to prevent her from falling to the ground and alerting the man in front.
Then she ripped the metal kettle from her clothes and hurled it at the back of the man's neck.
The kettle whizzed through the air, tracing a perfect parabola and striking the man squarely on the back of his neck.
With a thud, the kettle fell to the ground.
Clang—the sound of a dagger dropping to the ground.
The man holding Huang Linlin collapsed, and Lin Ruo also let go and threw the woman to the ground.
Lin Ruo's series of movements were as smooth as flowing water, so fast that people could hardly believe what had just happened.
Han Yao was once again shocked by Lin Ruo's agility and decisiveness, his eyes full of admiration and praise.
The army is in need of such talents.
Zhou Shi on the side was even more exaggerated. He stared with his eyes wide open, his mouth so agape that an egg could fit inside.
"Wow, she's a master of flying pots! With such powerful accuracy and strength, she'd definitely hit the bull's-eye every time on the shooting range."
The army is in need of such talents.
Zhou Shi on the side was even more exaggerated. He stared with his eyes wide open, and his mouth was so agape that an egg could fit inside.
"Wow, she's a master of flying pots! With such powerful accuracy and strength, she'd definitely hit the bull's-eye every time on the shooting range."
---
"Ahhh, Brother Han, I'm jealous of this girl's man again. I don't know which lucky bastard has such a sharp eye."
"What a pity!" Zhou Shi said with a regretful expression. "It would be great if this girl wasn't married. I must be shameless enough to pursue her."
Han Yao slapped Zhou Shi on the shoulder. "It is illegal to destroy military marriages. It's important to conduct ourselves properly."
After saying this, Han Yao strode forward, followed closely by Zhou Shi. Han Yao quickly pulled out the man's belt and tied his hands behind his back.
Zhou Shi tied up the woman with his own belt.
This sudden change made the anxious crowd, who had been eager to leave the station, stop in their tracks.
---
Zhou Shi slapped the little girl on the back and said, "Behave yourself. You're so young, and yet you follow adults to cheat and deceive people. I'll send you to a farm for reformation."
The next step was to send her to the police station at the railway station.
Huang Linlin regained her spirit after realizing she was safe. Once the fear subsided, she could no longer control herself and hugged Lin Ruo, bursting into tears.
"Wuwuwu… Lulu, I was almost taken away by human traffickers… wuwuwu… Lulu, thank you for saving me."
Huang Linlin was so frightened she didn't dare to think about what might have happened if Lin Ruo hadn't taken action.
---
They were panicked and wanted to know what was going on.
Lin Ruo ignored the people around her and strode toward Huang Linlin. When the girl saw that the situation was not right, she let go of Huang Linlin's hand and ran away.
"Hurry up and catch that little girl. She's a human trafficker. The three of them are in the same group. Don't let her get away."
Lin Ruo shouted, and Zhou Shi chased after her. How could a girl with short legs outrun the tall man with long legs?
The girl had not run more than two meters when Zhou Shi grabbed her by the collar and lifted her up.
"Let me go, soldier uncle! I'm not a bad person!"
The little girl's hands and legs flailed wildly, kicking indiscriminately, hitting Zhou Shi several times.
Zhou Shi slapped the little girl lightly on the back and said, "Behave yourself. You're so young, yet you're already helping adults deceive people. I'll hand you over for reform."
---
She would have been sold to the mountains and abused by an old man, or even several men. She would never see her loving parents again.
She would have been shackled for her entire life, living in a dark and damp woodshed or a filthy pigsty, eating foul food, beaten and scolded every day, forced to endless labor, and compelled to give birth to one child after another…
When Huang Linlin thought about how she had almost fallen into such a dark and miserable life, she cried out of breath.
"Don't cry. Aren't you afraid that I might also be a human trafficker? What if what I told you before was a lie? Wouldn't you be out of the wolf's den and into the tiger's den again?"
"Woo woo… Lulu, you are not…"
---
Perhaps because her nose was blocked from crying, a bubble of snot came out of Huang Linlin's nose.
What was even more embarrassing was that she saw Han Yao walking towards them.
Huang Linlin quickly covered her nose with her hand and sniffled hard at the same time.
It was so embarrassing! She was so ashamed that she felt her mother would crawl out of the coffin just to scold her for being useless.
Huang Linlin lowered her head, her face red. At that moment, she just wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground. That was her beloved Brother Han.
He shouldn't have seen it, right?
For the sake of her dignified and quiet image, Huang Linlin immediately stopped crying and greeted others in a crying voice, "Brother Han! Hic…"
He was just hiccuping because the brakes had been applied too suddenly.
Lin Ruo followed Huang Linlin's gaze and saw that it was the tall, pale-faced soldier she had met on the train. She hadn't expected Huang Linlin to know him.
Thinking it was a coincidence, Lin Ruo nodded gently at the man.