Chapter 227: Chapter 220: The Snowball with a Fragrance
“Yuxin, Yuxin…”
She didn’t know how much time had passed, someone seemed to be calling her name.
The dark fog before her eyes was completely torn and disappeared.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, but the light before her was still somewhat dim.
“Yuxin, Yuxin, wake up…”
Someone seemed to bump into her and that jolt fully woke her up.
She opened her eyes and the dense fog broke away revealing the face of Xu Miaomiao, grey and covered in dust.
“Oh… Yuxin, you finally woke up…” She couldn’t hold back the tears any more and buried her head on Tang Yuxin’s shoulder. Her sobbing was occasionally interrupted by the cries of other girls around them.
Tang Yuxin looked around to see girls scattered here and there, sitting or lying, or huddling in corners. All of them were whimpering weakly. Some were stupefied, staring blankly ahead, their eyes devoid of any focus.
Tang Yuxin sat up. Her hands had been tied behind her. She tried to loosen the rope, but it was tied too tightly. She couldn’t break free. Xu Miaomiao was similarly bound.
Xu Miaomiao, struggling to hold back her sobs, told Tang Yuxin how she ended up here. She was in the restroom when someone covered her face. She remembered smelling something unpleasant before she passed out. When she woke up, she found herself here, surrounded by girls of the same age.
Even as naive as she was, Xu Miaomiao understood that she had been abducted. She had heard terrible stories about this. Girls would be sold off to destitute areas to birth children. They would be locked up in dark rooms, beaten, yelled at, starved and forced to keep having babies.
Just the thought of this caused the hairs on her body to stand on end.
She didn’t want this. She didn’t want to become a baby-making machine. She didn’t want to be beaten or kept in a dark, small room. She yearned for her mother, her father.
“Don’t cry,” Tang Yuxin’s hand, tied behind her back, lightly touched Xu Miaomiao’s fingers.
“Conserve your strength, we’ll escape.”
Her voice was low but determined. She had to believe they would escape. They had to.
Xu Miaomiao sniffled, holding back her sorrow and fear, but not her tears. She sat there crying pitifully.
That night, they were cramped in a small space, surrounded by various odors, almost all nauseating. That night, they ate nothing.
When dawn broke, the door creaked open. Tang Yuxin’s heart pounded. She opened her eyes but immediately shut them. She moved herself and Xu Miaomiao to the most secluded corner.
“The goods this time are not bad,” A sleazy man laughed, “I see a few gems. One in particular caught my attention, white as snow and smelling sweet. She’ll fetch a high price.”
“Which one? Let me see.”
Another man rubbed his hands in anticipation. He was eager to see this beautiful, fragrant girl. He had seen those as white as snow, but a fragrant one was new.
Tang Yuxin clenched her fists. She was relieved her fragrance was faint due to the filthy air in the room.
“Let me find her,” The man began searching, but after several rounds, he sounded disappointed, “It’s too dark to see clearly.”
The other man sniffed the air, “I don’t smell anything either. I think you must have made a mistake. Snow with fragrance, what could that be? Violet?”
“Enough,” A third man walked in, “Why all the nonsense? Keep an eye on the goods. We’re moving out soon. The money is ours only when we get it. These girls are only trouble until then. If the police find us, we’re all done for.”
“Got it, Boss.”
The two henchmen obediently replied.
“Boss, what about them? Are we feeding them?”
One of the men pointed at the huddled, frightened girls. All of them were pretty and young, around fifteen or sixteen. These were the ones that would fetch a good price. These naive girls with no worldly experience were easier to handle.
“Starve them for a couple of days,” The boss said, giving the girls a cold glance.
“When they are weak with hunger and cannot speak, how will they escape?”
They had been in this business for a long time and never had a mishap.
The knot in Tang Yuxin’s heart relaxed slightly. It was her they had been looking for – the snow smelling sweet. She dreaded them finding her. Her lips, pale now, were pursed in anxiety.
From what she knew now, there were three men, all ruthless. There might be others. It seemed they would starve the girls for a few days, implying they would stay here for a while.
It was a relief. Her biggest fear was them tying the girls onto separate vehicles to be sold off. Even if she found a chance to act, how could they find their way back from the middle of nowhere?
“Miaomiao…” Tang Yuxin said Xu Miaomiao’s name.
“Mmm?” Xu Miaomiao’s eyes were swollen from crying, her voice was hoarse. Tang Yuxin worried she would die of dehydration if she kept crying.
“Turn around,” Tang Yuxin told Xu Miaomiao.
Xu Miaomiao complied. Tang Yuxin looked at her bound hands then bent down to bite the knot. She hoped it was not tied too tight.
After some time, her mouth was sore, her teeth ached, but thankfully the knot had slightly loosened.
When Xu Miaomiao felt her hands free, the rope had already fallen to the ground.
“Yuxin, you’re bleeding from your mouth.”
Xu Miaomiao was ready to break into tears again at the sight of the blood on the corner of Tang Yuxin’s mouth.
“It’s nothing,” Tang Yuxin handed Xu Miaomiao her back, “Help me untie this.”
Xu Miaomiao hurriedly began untying the rope. The rope was too tight and her fingers struggled to loosen it.