Chapter 225: The Hunt Begins
As Ning Xiyue spoke, a young comrade behind Comrade Li was busily taking notes.
She not only described the entire process of discovering the traffickers but also explained the key points she had written on her paper so that they could clearly understand what she meant.
“Comrade Xiyue, come with me,” said Comrade Li seriously, folding the paper carefully. “It’s not safe here. I’ll take you somewhere secure — we might need your help later.”
“Okay.”
Ning Xiyue had been crouching there for a long time; her legs were numb. Supported by her second brother, she stood up, stretched her legs a bit, and followed Comrade Li.
He led them to a perfect location — a small courtyard opposite the alley entrance. The residents had already been moved to safety, and the place was now filled entirely with armed personnel from the county’s military department.
Ning Xiyue entered through the back door. Once inside, she realized that not only did the front gate face the alley entrance, but the right-side wall of the courtyard also angled toward it — a perfect observation point.
A comrade stood by the gate, peering through the crack to keep watch on the traffickers’ den across the street. From here, any movement at the entrance of the opposite alley could be seen instantly.
Comrade Li didn’t lead them to the gate; instead, he took her and Ning Qingyuan to the right-side wall. After feeling around a bit, he suddenly moved a loose brick aside, revealing a narrow slit in the wall.
He gestured for Ning Xiyue to look through it — and through that tiny gap, she had a clear view of the other side.
Although she could already observe everything through her “shared vision,” watching alongside the comrades in real life gave her a very different feeling.
Remembering that one of the traffickers could make drugs, Ning Xiyue grew worried — what if they turned desperate and used poison?
She quietly asked, “Comrade Li, do you have any of the special sedatives and antidotes from above?”
She meant the ones she had submitted earlier. As her liaison, Comrade Li’s team should have received a supply — she just didn’t know if they’d brought any this time.
“We applied for them,” he nodded. Since she was one of their own, he didn’t hide anything.
“Good,” said Ning Xiyue. “Those traffickers have knockout drugs — we don’t know how strong they are. To be safe, I suggest everyone take the antidote in advance.”
They had medicine — better to use it wisely. She peered through the slit toward the alley, a mischievous grin curling on her lips.
“And one more thing,” she added. “Since those traffickers like to drug the children before taking them, we can do the same — knock them out instead. It’ll make things much easier and keep the hostages safer. Once they’re out cold, we can catch them without a fight.”
With such scum, there was no need to play fair. Sending comrades in for close combat would be too dangerous — sometimes, a bit of ‘crooked strategy’ could yield unexpected results.
If it hadn’t been for the risk of spoiling the operation or missing the bigger network, she would’ve already stormed in with knockout powder and a brick the moment she saw everything through her shared vision.
Comrade Li’s eyes lit up at her suggestion — as if a door to a new world had opened. A great plan was forming in his mind.
“Comrade Xiyue, thank you for your advice. Keep watch here; I have to step away for a bit,” he said, shaking her hand firmly before turning to leave.
As the person in charge, he had absolute command authority — and he needed to make her idea operational.
“Wait,” Ning Xiyue whispered, pulling him back. “Here, take this — it’s an enhanced knockout powder. Strong and fast-acting.”
She handed him a large paper packet from her bag.
This wasn’t the ordinary stuff — it was the 98% grade knockout powder. One whiff and a person would be out in a second — faster than a tranquilized bear, leaving no chance to resist.
“Excellent. Thank you, Comrade Xiyue.”
Comrade Li hurried away toward the backyard to coordinate the deployment.
Ning Xiyue turned back, eyes gleaming with anticipation, and stood beside her brother, both of them watching every movement through the wall.
She multitasked — keeping one eye on the alley outside the slit and the other on the mental “shared vision” of what was happening inside the traffickers’ den.
Inside, the traffickers were eating lunch. Even Old Mao from the basement stone chamber had come up to join. There were five of them total — all familiar faces, no newcomers.
That meant the house currently held only those five traffickers.
Seeing them eating heartily, unlikely to flee soon, Ning Xiyue decided to use the downtime to claim her daily “sign-in reward.”
“System, sign in.”
“Sign-in successful. Reward obtained: Stack of Truth-Telling Talismans. Each talisman compels the target to answer any question truthfully. Note: works only on evildoers.”
“Perfect! System, you get a thumbs-up from me!”
Ning Xiyue’s eyes lit up in delight as she looked at the new items in her inventory.
These came just in time — as if tailor-made for this mission. With them, no trafficker would be able to lie.
This time, she was going to make them spill everything they knew — all for Comrade Li and the team to track down and destroy the entire network behind them.
“Sis, someone’s coming,” Ning Qingyuan whispered, nudging her arm.
Ning Xiyue leaned closer to the slit — sure enough, a man appeared at the alley entrance. His face was plain, so ordinary it would blend into a crowd — completely unremarkable.
Just from his appearance, nothing seemed off.
Probably an important contact, she thought. He might know more.
The man walked casually to the door and knocked — a rhythmic pattern: one long, two short, one long.
Damn, they even had personalized codes? These traffickers were cunning indeed.
Inside, Lao San raised his chin toward Hong Gu, who was eating. “Brother Snake’s here. Go open the door.”
He could tell who it was just from the code — did each person have their own secret knock? How cautious.
But no matter how careful they were, they couldn’t escape her system’s “black technology.” The more of them that came, the better — none of them were leaving alive.
Brother Snake’s arrival clearly excited the five inside. They added bowls and chopsticks; Lao San even reached for wine, but the cautious Brother Snake waved him off and sat down to eat.
Just as they were enjoying themselves, the scene shifted — before any of them could react, all six collapsed, unconscious.
Ha! Was that Comrade Li’s move? So quick and clean — they never saw it coming.
Ning Xiyue’s heart raced with excitement.
The hunt had begun.
The next moment, through her shared vision, she saw comrades scaling walls from the back and sides, opening the door for Comrade Li’s team, who charged in from the front gate and shut it behind them.
Her brother’s voice, barely contained with excitement but kept to a whisper, reached her ears:
“Ah, sis — look! Comrade Li and the others are moving in — their wall-scaling is so fast!”
“I see it,” she replied softly.
She saw and heard everything.
Comrade Li’s team searched the house, finding many sets of children’s clothes in various sizes — as well as several guns and packets of knockout drugs.
But no children.
Exactly as she’d expected. The cellar beneath the kitchen would take more time to uncover.
Though there were no children in sight, that only confirmed the suspicion — this was definitely the traffickers’ den.
Comrade Li looked at the bound traffickers and pulled out an antidote, feeding it to Hong Gu first.
Her eyelids twitched but she didn’t wake.
Ning Xiyue patted her pocket where she kept her enhanced antidote. Time for her to step in.
The knockout powder she’d given was a high-dose version, and only her stronger antidote could counter it. The standard-issue version the military had wouldn’t work.
She had planned it this way — so she’d have an excuse to go in later and help dig out deeper information herself.
Comrade Li soon realized the same thing and quickly figured out what had happened.
He needed to stay and oversee the operation, so he sent a comrade to fetch her — without saying much, since the matter was classified.
When Ning Xiyue heard the messenger approaching, she remained calm, pretending to know nothing, still crouched beside her brother watching through the cracks.
The courtyard had comrades stationed at both front and back gates — guarding them and monitoring the surroundings.
When one of them spotted his colleague arriving, he swiftly opened a narrow gap in the back door to let the comrade in — the one sent to bring Ning Xiyue.
