The other party was swearing in Japanese, but what Yang Xiao heard was Chinese with a strong translated accent. A similar incident had happened in a nightmare mission nad "Painted Woman," back in the Myanmar-Thailand Black Triangle.
Through his observations and the man’s threats, Yang Xiao roughly judged the situation they were in now. Their current identities were likely a group of illegal immigrants, and the man speaking outside was the human trafficker.
"All of you shut up, the boat is about to dock. If anyone dares to speak again, I’ll cut out their tongue!" The man warned once more.
After the man left, Yang Xiao coughed twice. Not long after, Tong Han, Jiu Shan Sha Yue, and Beiyu Ye responded in their own ways. Confirming everyone was present, Yang Xiao felt relieved.
After roughly half an hour, Yang Xiao noticed the boat rocking more violently, and at the sa ti, voices and chaotic footsteps ca from the cabin.
Yang Xiao knew the boat must be close to docking; generally, as you approach the shore, the waves beco larger.
Indeed, it wasn’t long before the boat ran aground on the shore. Imdiately, the planks were dismantled, and Yang Xiao and the others were dragged out one by one like rchandise.
The night was very dark, without lights, and even the moonlight was extrely dim. Yang Xiao could barely make out two vehicles parked ashore—one was an off-road vehicle, the other a box truck—with several people standing outside.
Before Yang Xiao could see the surroundings clearly, soone rudely hooded his head with a bag. The bag was semi-transparent, but he could only faintly see the shadow of the person in front of them. They were pushed into the box truck as they held onto the shoulder of the person ahead.
"Why are there 16 people? This is more than agreed." A man standing next to the box truck questioned.
"It’s good that there aren’t fewer. Hurry up and take them away; staying here could lead to trouble!" The other man said, closing the box truck’s rear door with a "bang."
After another bumpy ride, the vehicle finally stopped. Yang Xiao and his group were brought to a basent. A bald, scar-faced savage man tossed them a large pile of clothes, dismissively ordering them to shower and imdiately put on the new clothes, as he needed to talk.
Now, Yang Xiao and the others finally had their hoods removed. It was a slightly dilapidated basent with several incandescent lamps hanging above. The walls were cracked from dampness, and there were traces of blood on the cent floor, emitting a decaying sll.
"Who are you... who are you people? How did I end up here?" The young man who had cried all the way tearfully questioned, "Is this kidnapping? My... my family will call the police!"
The bald man strode forward, raising his hand slapped the man twice, knocking him to the ground. As if that wasn’t enough, he took a baseball bat handed to him and hit the man twice more, then stepped on his head, looking fiercely at the rest, threatening: "This is our territory. You bastards who can’t pay the smuggling fees will do what I say, or else... you will die!"
"Sob... I’m Sato Shouta, my father Sato Kojiro is the president of Taiyu Office. If you release , I’ll make sure my father gives you lots and lots of money, I swear!"
But these words only resulted in more violent beating, utterly useless. The bald man seed completely unconvinced by what the man said, according to his information, the man was just a penniless stowaway.
Yang Xiao and the others were extrely disheveled, filthy all over. At the bald man’s request, n and won were separated to shower.
Shortly after, everyone returned here, very tacitly turning their backs to each other while dressing.
The large pile of clothes brought by the fierce scar-faced man consisted mostly of old clothes, of various types. Yang Xiao changed into an old tracksuit, with a deep black stain at the collar that resembled leftover blood.
Next, they stood in two lines, the fierce man with the baseball bat walked forward, stood in the middle, and began speaking. From his words, Yang Xiao and the others roughly understood the background of this task.
This place was a small Japanese city called Bimu River. Their identities were illegal immigrants hidden from the light; since they couldn’t afford to pay the traffickers, they were sold to local gang forces and ordered to work off their debts.
And the fierce man in front was a small boss of the gang forces. The tasks he had for them were simple: go work at a hot spring hotel for a week, and he would release them afterward.
This sounded unreliable to Yang Xiao. He knew there must be issues either with the hotel itself or the people inside it; apparently, this was their task.
During the subsequent ti, the bald man prepared so food and brought it up, but everyone’s mood was poor, and hardly anyone ate, except for Beiyu Ye, who ate well.
In this basent, Yang Xiao and the others gradually lost track of ti and only guessed about half a day had passed. They were hooded again and loaded onto a car. This ti, the car drove for over half an hour and then stopped. After waiting in the cabin for a long ti, the door opened, and soone knocked on the door with a baseball bat, driving them out.
When their hoods were removed, what appeared before Yang Xiao and the others was a hotel.
At this mont, dusk had fallen. The hotel, nad Yae Kashi Mountain, was 8 floors high, quite large, resembling a silent beast lurking under the lead-gray night sky.
"Rember what I said, you must have people staying on each floor, two per floor. Arrange people to take over at any floor with a service desk or security room. You’re free to move around during the day, but at night, you must return to the hotel, and arrange for soone to be on duty at the service desk and security room. The guard on the first floor patrols every two hours, send one person, and let the other stay at the service desk, in the waiting hall."
The fierce man scanned everyone’s faces, threatening: "I warn you all, don’t disobey my orders. There’s surveillance in the hotel, and if anyone dares not to comply, the consequence is death!"
Thus, Yang Xiao and the others were forced to head toward the hotel lobby. At this mont, the wind started picking up, rustling the leaves loudly. Yang Xiao noticed the hotel’s location was very remote, with no buildings or lights around, making it eerie as night fell.
But the more dreadful parts were yet to co. As Yang Xiao and the others walked into the lit lobby, they discovered it was empty.
The light at the service desk was also on, but no one was inside. Not far from there, the security room was pitch black, with its lights off.
"Is there... anyone here?" A petite girl with freckles timidly called out to the vicinity, the sa girl Yang Xiao had vomited on earlier.
Ten seconds passed, and all around remained silent. An unexplainable fear welled up in their hearts, as if tonight they were the only living souls in this hotel.
From behind ca the sound of "rattling chains" as one of the fierce man’s subordinates ran over, closed the hotel’s glass door, and locked it from outside with a chain. The person acted quickly, and after finishing, he glanced at Yang Xiao and the others through the door, then turned and ran.
Due to the haste, he stumbled when he missed the step while descending the stairs.
But the man didn’t care, staggering for a few steps and continued to run, not looking back, rushed back to the car, slamd the door, and both vehicles sped away. Their taillights quickly vanished from Yang Xiao and the others’ sight.
The fear in the man’s eyes was clearly captured by Yang Xiao; this guy was terrified, as if staying a second longer here would cause sothing frightening to happen.
"Why did they kidnap us? Where exactly is this place?" The previously beaten young man tearfully questioned.
"Where this is isn’t important; what’s important is what will happen next here." An old man with one blind eye and thinning hair looked around, his voice raspy as he spoke.
"What do you an, what will happen here?" The frightened young man widened his eyes, his voice heavy with nasal sound.
He was breathing through only one nostril, as the other was blocked by paper from bleeding due to the beating. His face and clothes still had traces of blood, and there were injuries on him.
The blind old man didn’t answer but walked forward and picked up a bronze object resembling a frog from the desktop at the service desk.
Unexpectedly, beneath it was a yellow talisman paper, filled with incomprehensible Ghost Talisman characters.
"Demon-breaking Talisman..." The blind old man paused, "It seems soone from Jiangmu Shendao Society has been here; this looks to be a complicated matter."
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