The place they were headed for was an oasis with a water source in the desert.
The SUV slowly drove into a village-like settlement enclosed by crude earthen walls... Although they had been hijacked by these bandits, they had not been blindfolded.
Thus, through the car window, Boss Luo still saw something of the life in this crude village—most of its inhabitants were women and children.
At the entrance stood two armed guards. As for their clothing—most of the people here dressed alike, in loose garments with white cloth wrapped around their heads.
The man who called himself Aliyah barely spoke to anyone along the way. After introducing himself, he easily fell straight asleep—apparently, he had not slept for two days and two nights in order to escape this time, and was utterly exhausted.
That was right. In order to escape this time—which meant that Aliyah had actually fallen into these people's hands long ago. He had successfully escaped once, only to be captured again.
The SUV eventually stopped, and Aliyah was immediately kicked awake. He cursed under his breath before being taken, along with Boss Luo and Claudia, to a place resembling a dungeon.
Oddly enough, the bandits seemed to remember the need for secrecy only along this stretch of road—they did not blindfold the three of them until they arrived.
"Stop thinking about escaping. Next time, we bring you back, it'll be your corpse!" After throwing out that warning, the bandits locked the dungeon door... Through the only small window in the dungeon's iron door, they tossed in a waterskin and several dry cakes resembling naan, then left at once.
Aliyah was clearly used to this kind of treatment. He immediately picked up the waterskin from the ground and began drinking and wolfing down the food—while Claudia was