Was I abducted and sold?

Shen Yangge immediately put away his little schemes and eagerly followed behind, recording the day's events.

Time passed bit by bit. Half a month later, Shen Yangge was abducted on his way home from the palace.

With his face covered and a strip of cloth stuffed into his mouth, he was utterly bewildered. Who the hell had the nerve to abduct an official right outside the palace gates?

The carriage jolted along, taking him somewhere unknown. All Shen Yangge could tell was that he had left the noisy streets behind and arrived in some desolate place.

Then someone lifted the carriage curtain and dragged him out.

A coarse voice reached his ears:

"Why don't we just finish this brat off here? What's the point of taking him any farther? If that man finds out, we'll be in even more danger!"

Another voice beside him argued, "We can't do that. That man said he'd give us seven hundred taels as long as we brought him there safely!"

"With that money, would we ever have to do this kind of work again?!"

"That's true, but I still feel uneasy. We've abducted one of the Crown Prince's favorites, after all. If he orders a citywide manhunt, won't we be..."

Before he could finish, another voice continued shouting without a trace of fear. "A citywide manhunt for one minor official? Aren't you giving the Crown Prince too much credit?"

He snorted. "I'd believe it of someone else, maybe, but the Crown Prince... I don't buy it."

"He changes his subordinates as often as he changes his clothes."

"And killing people is as routine to him as eating dinner."

The abducted Shen Yangge: "..."

System 615: [Host, do you have any way to escape?]

Wasn't that supposed to be his question?

System 615: [Sorry, Host. All 615 knows is how to court death. 615 doesn't know a single thing about staying alive (^-^).]

Shen Yangge really wanted to ask, If all you know is how to court death, why am I still alive and well?

615 fell silent and promptly went offline!

This damn system...

Shen Yangge was speechless, but this was a crisis. He didn't have time to dwell on it.

Getting out of danger came first.

When he felt mud beneath his feet, Shen Yangge became certain he was no longer inside the capital.

How had they evaded the soldiers guarding the city gates and taken him out without anyone noticing?

Since these two men weren't going to kill him anyway, Shen Yangge carefully prepared his words. The moment he could speak, he would ask whether they could give him half of those hundreds of taels. He had contributed, after all.

Faced with a host whose thought process was this bizarre, the system chose silence.

Once the two men pushed him into a damp place filled with crying children, Shen Yangge realized with a start that he had been trafficked!

He had thought these people were abducting him to exchange him for silver and then flee.

After all that, they were just planning to sell him.

"Waaah... I want my mother."

"Waaah, I want my wet nurse..."

The children's cries shook heaven and earth. If sound could cause earthquakes, not an inch of land within a hundred miles would have remained intact.

Shen Yangge wanted to cry for his mother too, but he was the oldest of all these children. He felt he ought to preserve at least a little dignity.

System 615: ...

"Cry, cry, cry! That's all you know how to do! If you cry your voices hoarse, you won't fetch a good price. Shut your damn mouths! If you keep crying, I'll rip your tongues out!"

At those words, every child instantly fell silent.

"Tch. Bunch of little brats."

The man spat, then slammed the door shut with a bang.

The door blocked out the light. The children sniffled quietly, and several looked at this abducted "big child" and timidly asked, "Big brother, were you abducted to be sold too?"

Shen Yangge worked his mouth around the cloth stuffed inside it. He wanted to answer, but he simply couldn't.

Several small hands touched his face, and young voices sounded beside his ears. "Big brother, we'll pull the cloth out for you!"

Murmuring timidly, the children tugged at the strip of cloth stuffed into his mouth.

It took considerable effort and a good while before they finally pulled it out.

"Big brother, you can talk now!"

Shen Yangge moved his aching jaw and asked, "Were all of you abducted?"

"That's what Xiao Run said, so yes."

Shen Yangge was just wondering who Xiao Run, the apparent leader of these children, was when a man's terrified shout came from outside:

"Fuck! How did they find this place? Isn't it supposed to be hard to discover?!"

"Liu Zi, hurry! Get everyone into the underground tunnel!"

The wooden door was shoved open, and two burly men strode inside, each grabbing several children. The children were weak. Though their hands were free, they were still no match for these two adults.

As they were hauled into the underground tunnel, they cried for their mothers, occasionally calling out for their big brother too.

Shen Yangge could do nothing, because the other abductor was dragging him along as well.

His backside bounced over small stones, and the pain turned his face green.

This body had always been delicate, and the jolting left his eyes brimming with tears.

He desperately wanted to curse these fucking traffickers out, but he was afraid of breaking character, so he could only grit his teeth and endure it.

Judging by the original owner's experience of being kidnapped, Shen Yangge should already have passed out from fright by now, rather than keeping his eyes open and shedding uncontrollable tears of pain.

Not long after everyone entered the underground tunnel, a dozen or twenty black-clad men poured into the damp room and searched for clues.

Once they found a lead, they hurried back without delay to report to their master.

When the first report arrived, the Crown Prince was drinking tea in the Eastern Palace. He sat perfectly upright, his expression somewhat languid, though it did nothing to diminish his noble bearing.

Yet anyone who looked around him would have been shocked.

All around him lay various tribute gifts and rare treasures smashed to pieces, along with famous landscape paintings and prized original works.

The shadow guard said, "Master, we've located them, but they're currently in an underground tunnel. Your subordinate suspects it leads somewhere even more secluded. To find Scribe Shen, we must send men into the tunnel as well."

This mission was far from simple. The lucky ones might survive; the unlucky ones would die to the tunnel's various traps.

"Send them."

"Yes!"

The Crown Prince hurled his teacup hard against the floor, sending shards flying. Every one of his actions betrayed anxiety and unease, yet his face remained utterly composed and fearless.

It was as though whatever turn the situation took had nothing to do with him.

But anyone who examined his fingers closely would have noticed three of them pressing against the edge of the table with such force that they nearly punched a hole through it.

The palace maids and servants who came in to clean did not dare breathe loudly. They quietly swept the floor, and one who accidentally made too much noise nearly fainted from fright.

The Crown Prince toyed with his thumb ring. As though something had occurred to him, his tightly pressed lips curved into a "cruel" smile.