Chapter 229: It’s All Over
“What are you doing? Who are you? Let me go! Why are you arresting me? I’ll go to the police station and report you…”
The young man was being dragged by several officers toward the entrance of the human traffickers’ hideout. His expression dimmed as he saw the gate. He kept struggling, pretending to be an innocent passerby while shouting loudly.
Ning Xiyue: What an actor. Judging by how he tried to run even when trapped by the mist, there’s no doubt he’s one of the traffickers.
There were plenty of talismans in her backpack. Ning Xiyue didn’t hesitate to use a Truth-Telling Talisman on him — one that forced people to answer questions honestly. With that, it would be clear whether he was innocent or not.
Her principle was simple: never let a bad person go, and never wrong a good one.
Comrade Li ordered the man’s arrest with the same mindset.
Today’s operation against the traffickers was critical. No suspicious person could be let off. The man’s behavior alone gave them enough reason to detain him.
Their armed unit never acted timidly. If they caught the wrong person, they’d apologize. But if they caught the right one — that was a win, that was justice served. Either way, they wouldn’t lose.
Once the young man was taken inside and interrogated, he too couldn’t resist the effect of the talisman — every question received a truthful answer. He clearly confessed to being part of the human trafficking ring.
Although Comrade Li found it strange that everyone arrested today was being so cooperative, he was satisfied. As long as they were catching the right people, it was good for them.
He didn’t care whether this was due to some supernatural force or the traffickers suddenly going mad. Whatever helped their mission, he welcomed it — the more of this “weird luck,” the better, so long as it led to the complete eradication of the traffickers.
In the end, the young man was tied up tightly with the same hemp rope the traffickers had used for their victims. His face was ashen, and he collapsed to his knees, murmuring in despair, “What’s going on…”
Smiling with satisfaction, Comrade Li ordered the others to make him drink a sedative potion until he fainted.
Then, Li asked Ning Xiyue for a few more enhanced antidote pills and used them to awaken the four unconscious traffickers left in the courtyard, interrogating them one by one before drugging them again.
This round of questioning focused only on key information — anything that could help the current operation.
The main questions were whether there were still traffickers on their way for a handoff, and what the next plans for the captured children were.
From the answers of the captured traffickers, they learned that no one else was expected to arrive for now, but that someone in the provincial capital was waiting for a handover.
Comrade Li immediately made new arrangements: he sent people back to headquarters to report and coordinate with comrades in the provincial capital, while keeping the current team stationed here just in case — working on both fronts simultaneously.
He also ordered the children hidden in the cellar to be transported in batches to the armed department for safety.
After issuing his orders, Comrade Li returned inside to interrogate Lao San, the last trafficker who was still conscious.
“How do you open the stone door under the cellar? What’s behind it? What’s hidden there?”
“Hmph.”
Lao San knew his situation was hopeless. He snorted coldly and turned his head away, refusing to answer — but his mouth betrayed him, speaking uncontrollably, the more he said, the more terrified he became.
“There’s a small depression on the right side of the door — press it first. Then, on the left wall beside the door, there’s a small bump — press that too, and the stone door will open.”
“Behind the stone door are women — pregnant women. One of them, a middle-aged woman, was being punished by our group. There’s also a hidden study deeper inside — that’s where I worked.”
Lao San’s eyes widened in horror as he tried to choke himself to stop speaking, but his hands were tied. His mouth didn’t obey him; instead, it spilled his deepest secrets.
“The biggest secret inside the chamber is the telegraph machine and the incoming and outgoing telegrams. There are also ledgers of our transactions, contact information for our downstream clients, and intel on some of our liaisons — including connections to foreign operatives.”
It was over. He had said everything. He was doomed.
Lao San’s face went even paler than the young man’s, filled with despair and numbness.
He was the leader of this hideout. He knew too much — and he knew the organization’s punishments for betrayal.
If his mouth kept spilling secrets like this, he was as good as dead. The organization would be destroyed, and if even one member survived, they’d make sure he died in the most horrific way imaginable.
He remembered the fate of a past traitor — that man hadn’t even succeeded in betraying them, yet had been turned into a human swine (renzhi, a mutilated living corpse).
Terrified, Lao San kept muttering: “I don’t want to be made into a human swine, no, no…”
Down in the cellar, Ning Xiyue, who was watching through her shared vision, saw his despair and mutterings without a trace of sympathy.
So the organization wasn’t just heartless — they were traitors to the nation too. Every last one of them was rotten.
Human swine, huh?
Quite fitting for traffickers and national traitors. If such monsters were to suffer that punishment, she’d fully support it — letting them die quickly would be too kind.
Comrade Li didn’t care about the “human swine” part. What mattered to him was the secret behind that stone chamber.
The contents of Lao San’s confession shocked him. His face changed — if this was true, then the situation was far more serious than they thought.
“Old Second, drug him,” Li ordered, then led his men rushing toward the cellar. He took Lao San’s revelation about the stone room very seriously.
Ning Xiyue saw Li arrive at the stone chamber less than a minute later — he moved fast.
He didn’t avoid her either. Right in front of her, he followed the instructions Lao San had given to open the stone door.
When the door creaked open, Ning Xiyue saw the women and girls inside — their expressions were exactly as she’d seen before: numb, lifeless, eyes empty of light.
The sound of the door didn’t even draw their attention. They lay there motionless, unresponsive.
Comrade Li, seeing the victims of the traffickers’ cruelty, didn’t rush in. Instead, he motioned for Ning Xiyue to join him.
Ning Xiyue nodded and stepped forward through the doorway. Looking at the women inside, she called out loudly:
“Comrades, we’ve come to take you home!”
Somehow, saying that made her feel a little embarrassed.
But it was precisely that shout that broke the silence — the women and girls lying on the beds slowly turned toward the door, eyes flickering faintly. For the first time, the dull emptiness in their gaze began to stir.
Seeing their reaction, Ning Xiyue reaffirmed firmly, “The traffickers have all been caught. They’ll get the punishment they deserve. It’s all over now.”
At those words, emotions rippled through the room — surprise, disbelief, tears of relief, doubt, and sobs muffled behind trembling hands.
But without exception, life returned to their faces.
Ning Xiyue, Comrade Li, and the others said nothing more — they stood quietly aside, letting the women release their pent-up emotions.
The pregnant middle-aged woman — once a trafficker herself, known as Sister Hua — clutched her daughter and wept bitterly. Then, wiping her tears, she quickly walked up to Ning Xiyue, gripping her arm tightly, her eyes burning with hatred for her former organization and trembling excitement.
“Are you comrades from Public Security? I have something to tell you.”
