Chapter 5

Lu Heng's eyes lit up, and he sprinted over. The woman carrying the child out seemed to sense something. She instinctively glanced back, and when she saw Lu Heng, her pupils constricted. She immediately turned and ran.

The dense crowd stood between them. Seeing the woman carrying the child getting farther and farther away, Lu Heng shouted anxiously, "Catch the child trafficker!" Before the people around them could react, the woman suddenly ran even faster.

Lu Heng forcefully shoved aside the people blocking his path and chased the woman out of the station. Without the crowd in the way, he caught up to her in just a few strides. Just as he reached out to grab the back of her collar, a powerful force suddenly slammed into him from the side.

Lu Heng staggered several steps before steadying himself. Before he could see who had hit him, the man opposite him, speaking with an out-of-town accent, falsely accused him first. "Why are you, a kid, always following my wife? What are you trying to do?"

Lu Heng froze at those words, and the Chinese people who loved a spectacle instinctively gathered around.

Lu Heng immediately pointed at the woman. "That woman is a child trafficker!"

"What child trafficker? That's my wife." As the man spoke, several more men darted out from the crowd. Some were burly locals who looked like thugs, while others spoke with heavy rural accents. They all claimed to be relatives of the couple, saying the husband and wife had brought their child to visit family and were not child traffickers at all.

With so many people speaking so confidently and sincerely, the onlookers who did not know the truth immediately believed them.

Lu Heng knew this was bad. Pointing at the child in the woman's arms, he said, "She is a child trafficker. The child she's holding is from the village next to ours—I've seen him before. If you don't believe me, call the police. Who has a phone? Call 110—"

Before Lu Heng could finish, a man wearing a gold chain around his neck, who claimed to be the trafficker's younger brother, suddenly roared and cut him off. Pointing at Lu Heng, he said, "Are you done yet, kid? That's my sister, and that's my brother-in-law. They brought their child to visit relatives, and they're taking the train home today. The train's about to be delayed. I'm telling you, stop making trouble here. Keep it up and I'll beat the shit out of you, believe me?"

While the man was talking, the woman holding the child tried to leave again. In desperation, Lu Heng stepped forward and grabbed her shoulder. "If she's really afraid of missing the train, why has she been carrying the child toward the exit of the train station?"

"Isn't that obvious? You're a grown guy chasing after a woman carrying a child. Who wouldn't be scared? We thought you were some kind of psycho!"

The group of men cursed as they shielded the woman carrying the child and another man while they left.

The crowd watching from the side saw how meek and honest the woman carrying the child looked, then saw the men cursing so righteously. They all felt that they did not seem to be lying. Afraid that Lu Heng, a child, would suffer, they also urged him not to make trouble.

In the chaos, the woman slipped into the crowd with the child in her arms. Afraid of letting them get away, Lu Heng gritted his teeth and punched one of the men in the nose, shouting, "Someone's being attacked! Call the police!"

The traffickers had not expected Lu Heng, a child, to dare strike first. The man who had been hit immediately flew into a rage. He pulled a switchblade from his pocket and stabbed at Lu Heng's stomach. Lu Heng reacted quickly, grabbing the trafficker's wrist and twisting it outward. The switchblade fell to the ground with a clang. Lu Heng kicked the trafficker behind the knee, and with a cry of pain, the trafficker was forced to his knees with his arm twisted behind his back.

Neither the onlooking passengers nor the traffickers had expected Lu Heng's movements to be so clean and decisive. For a moment, they were all stunned.

Drenched in sweat, Lu Heng was both shocked and furious. He roared at the crowd, "Call the police!"

Psychology said that ordinary people tended to follow the crowd and obey authority. At Lu Heng's shout, after he had revealed his fighting skills, someone in the crowd immediately took out a phone to call the police.

The trafficking ring had not expected Lu Heng, a child, to be so difficult to deal with. Seeing that he had truly persuaded the surrounding spectators to take out their phones and call the police, they were driven into a desperate frenzy. One after another, they pulled switchblades and even homemade firearms from their pockets, waving them at the crowd with savage expressions and hoarse voices. "Let's see who the fuck dares call the police!"

Everyone jumped in fright, and even the helpful people who had been dialing 110 froze.

"You little bastard, who the fuck told you to stick your nose into this?" Seeing that his group had successfully intimidated the surrounding people, the leader immediately threatened Lu Heng. "Let him go, or I'll blow your head off!"

To back up their leader's words, the trafficker holding the homemade gun aimed its barrel at Lu Heng.

Lu Heng had never imagined that he would face such a dangerous situation right after being reborn. With the gun aimed at him, his head buzzed. His body instantly tensed like a drawn bowstring, every hair quietly standing on end, his heart pounding so hard it seemed ready to leap out of his throat.

Lu Heng silently clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking. His center of gravity slowly lowered. Hidden beneath his baggy pants, his knees bent slightly, and his legs gradually gathered strength. His gaze remained fixed on the homemade gun in the trafficker's hand. He looked like a little leopard cub with its fur standing on end.

More and more onlookers gathered around. When the production crew followed the crowd over, they saw Lu Heng facing off against seven or eight men armed with weapons.

Even the director was startled. He immediately pushed through the crowd and stepped forward. "What's going on?"

The cameraman hid in the back and promptly switched on the camera.

Someone suddenly shouted, "The police are here?"

The traffickers instinctively turned toward the voice. At that very instant, Lu Heng, who had been poised to strike, suddenly sprang forward and knocked the homemade gun from the trafficker's hand. Before anyone could react, he grabbed the trafficker's arm with one hand and hooked the man's leg with the other. Bracing his shoulder beneath the man's armpit, he hoisted him onto his shoulder and flung him into the group of traffickers. The unprepared seven or eight traffickers were immediately knocked senseless.

Lu Heng picked up the homemade gun from the ground and pointed it at the traffickers sprawled all over the floor. He panted heavily, his chest heaving violently, sweat streaming down his forehead.

No one had expected the thin, quiet young boy to be so ferocious when he erupted. Cheers suddenly broke out from the crowd. The onlookers spontaneously applauded Lu Heng, and some even gave him a thumbs-up. Uniformed railway police squeezed through the crowd. When they saw the gun in Lu Heng's hand and the traffickers' miserable state, they too were startled. "What happened here?"