Ding Jingman unexpectedly propped herself up: “Do you like Gong Shi?”
Yu Yi quickly shook her head: “No, no, it’s just that Colonel Gong…”
Ding Jingman finally felt relieved and smiled: “Silly girl, what’s wrong with liking someone? But Gong Shi is not a good person. I don’t like him.”
Don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying he’s bad, just that I always feel I don’t know what he’s thinking. But if you really like him, I’ll find an opportunity… How about this, I’ll ask him about his thoughts towards you?”
Yu Yi hurriedly said: “Madam, please don’t ask. If you think he’s not good, then… just forget it.”
“Oh, what does it matter whether I think he’s good or not? What matters is what you think.” Now Ding Jingman’s matchmaking enthusiasm erupted. She no longer felt her waist aching and sat up, pulling Yu Yi to ask this and that about her relationship with Gong Shi, whether he had shown any signs of liking her…
—
Tu Feibai finished his phone call and went out with Gong Shi.
Gong Shi drove the car, with Tu Feibai sitting in the back seat. Looking at Gong Shi in front, he lit a cigarette and took a few puffs, then suddenly asked: “Did you touch her?”
Gong Shi laughed: “Commander, if you’ve set your eyes on a woman, how would I dare touch her? Just now A Ju couldn’t reach the soup pot, so she asked me to help.”
Tu Feibai extinguished the cigarette butt and flicked it out the window: “Good!”
Gong Shi subtly moved the corner of his mouth, then fell silent and focused on driving.
—
Tu Feibai had told Ding Jingman he would return after midnight and told her not to wait up. Since Ding Jingman had just recovered from illness and was easily fatigued, she went to bed early.
Yu Yi returned to her room, waited a while, and estimated that Ding Jingman was asleep. She quietly went downstairs and entered the study. In the moonlight, a thin layer of dust on the bookshelves appeared silver-white, with only a small dust-free area in a dark color, making it easy to find the mechanism. She reached in, gripped the handle, and pulled forcefully.
The bookshelf on the other side moved outward with a low, grinding sound. Perhaps due to frequent use or having been oiled, the movement was very quiet and wouldn’t be heard outside the study. This was why Yu Yi dared to explore here late at night.
The bookshelf stopped moving. Yu Yi used a hairpin to unlock the hidden door and pushed it open, discovering the door was much thicker than a normal wooden door, about twice the thickness.
Inside was a small, dark room. Yu Yi opened the client on her arm’s inner side and selected the flashlight mode to carefully examine the room. Although small, the room was comfortably furnished with a desk, a leather chair, and a metal filing cabinet. Yu Yi noticed a small door at the other end of the room.
She opened the filing cabinet and scanned all the letters and documents. She had scanned documents outside the study yesterday afternoon and reviewed them privately at night, finding nothing useful – just ordinary correspondence.
It seemed Tu Feibai’s important confidential documents were kept in this hidden room.
After scanning the documents, Yu Yi approached the small door, wondering if there was another secret room behind it. The door was unlocked. Yu Yi pulled it open.
Inside was a long underground staircase, dark and deep. The moment she opened the door, she smelled a strange odor. It was foul – a mix of blood, feces, and an indescribable sour, rotten smell.
Yu Yi felt slightly nauseous. She raised her arm and shone the light. The staircase wasn’t too long, with a platform at the top. The stairs turned right at the platform, leading to an unseen destination.
She stood at the top of the stairs, hesitant to enter. Then she heard low, suppressed whimpering sounds, like helpless and frightened young animals trapped in a cage.
Yu Yi turned the flashlight to bright, holding her breath and stepping down the stairs, her heart racing. As she turned at the platform, the whimpering became clearer, and the stench grew stronger.
Then she saw that beneath the stairs was a prison cell.
And those imprisoned were not animals. They were children.
Yu Yi went cold all over, slowly approaching them. Their hair was disheveled, naked, bodies covered in blood and filth. They were chained to iron rings on the wall with finger-thick iron chains.
The three or four children heard her footsteps and fearfully huddled together, trembling and whimpering.
Yu Yi tried to speak but found her throat too dry to make a sound: “You…”
Hearing her voice, the oldest child looked up at her. Yu Yi gasped and took a step back.
He wore an iron cage mask! Between the black iron bars, only one eye stared at her. Where the other eye should have been was just a dark, empty space.
Yu Yi couldn’t bear to look and ran back up the stairs, stopping only when she reached the hidden room above. She gasped for breath.
She couldn’t rescue them, at least not now. If she freed them, Tu Feibai would immediately suspect something. Having just arrived at this mansion, she would be the first suspect, and she hadn’t yet found Tu Feibai’s weakness. Her mission would fail!
Yu Yi repeatedly told herself that she had no choice; her mission this time was to eliminate the warlord force of Tu Feibai, not Tu Feibai himself. Once she found Tu Feibai’s weakness or leverage, she would rescue these children at the first opportunity.
However, she couldn’t move her steps. She couldn’t walk to the secret room’s door and pull the mechanism, pretending she had seen nothing and returning to the second floor. She couldn’t do it.
It was just a mission failure, nothing serious.
Yu Yi turned and ran down the stairs, opening the iron chains binding their hands and feet: “Can you walk by yourselves?”
Chapter 24 Warlords of the Republic of China (6)
There were four children in total.
The one-eyed child’s iron cage mask was not locked but welded shut. Yu Yi couldn’t remove it and could only rescue them first and find a way to remove it later.
One child was severely injured and couldn’t even stand. Yu Yi found a thin blanket in the secret room and carefully wrapped him, holding him horizontally. The sour, rotten smell from his body made her heart ache.
Two other children could walk. Yu Yi told them to stay close to her. The one-eyed child was tall, walking with a limp but trying hard to keep up with her pace.
Yu Yi carefully restored the secret room to its original state. Peeking out of the study, she saw the living room was quiet and empty. She carried the severely injured child out of the study first, signaling the other three to follow quickly, then locked the study door behind them.
The front door and courtyard gate were guarded. Yu Yi led them out through the back door, picking up a few pieces of clothing from the laundry room for them to wear. They walked along the back wall of the house to the side courtyard wall, which was unguarded. Yu Yi climbed the wall first and saw a small alley outside, empty in the deep night.
Seeing the one-eyed child was only injured in the legs and tall, she helped him climb the wall first, letting him straddle the top. Then she passed the severely injured child to him to hold.
She then carried the other two children over the wall, with the slightly older girl taking the severely injured child from the one-eyed child.
She reached out to the one-eyed child, indicating she would help him down. He shook his head, struggling with the iron cage mask. He pointed to the other side of the wall, wanting Yu Yi to carry out the last child before he would come down.
At that moment, Yu Yi’s eyes welled up. She nodded, carried out the last child, and then reached out her arms to the one-eyed child on the wall.
