Hypnotist

Inside an unfinished housing development in Songjiang City.

A human traffickers' hideout.

Li Douyu had already figured out what was going on here.

Although the development was pitch-black, the occasional cries of children and the men's shouts and curses had told Li Douyu the truth!

All the abducted children were here!

Meanwhile, Wen Xuanjing and Nanmen Yingyun, who had been tied up and brought inside, were beginning to regret their plan.

They had thought they could hook a big fish. They hadn't expected one big enough to rip the hook right out.

How was this a traffickers' hideout? It was practically a massive armed criminal organization. Seven or eight dump trucks sat across the grounds, blocking every major access route through the abandoned development. The entire place was dark, all its streetlights destroyed.

Some of the traffickers had formed patrol teams armed with Compound Crossbows, covering all the key positions in the development.

Farther away, cars arrived from time to time. A rough count put their numbers at several dozen, at least.

"This has to be the biggest trafficking hideout we've ever had around here."

Nanmen Yingyun stared at the children missing arms or legs, some even missing their eyes, her own eyes wide with fury.

If Wen Xuanjing hadn't been holding her back with all his strength, she probably would have charged out to fight those animals already.

"No, something's wrong. They don't look like traffickers. Look, what kind of trafficking ring has an armed force? They even have guns! There has to be some other organization behind them," Wen Xuanjing reasoned.

The two of them could clearly see:

The children were divided into two groups. One group still looked relatively lively and wore newer clothes; most of the crying came from them. The other group looked vacant. They neither cried nor made a fuss, simply crouching or sitting on the ground without saying a word.

Clearly, the first group consisted mainly of recently abducted children.

"I think we're in trouble," Wen Xuanjing said, observing the trained patrol teams and their finely made Compound Crossbows. Some even carried guns at their waists.

"The intel was wrong. Don't let the police rush in. There are at least several dozen armed men in this abandoned development. Songjiang City's police force alone might not be able to take them. They have dump trucks and can easily break out."

With her video feed running, Li Douyu spoke quietly to the Emergency Operations Command Center on the other end of the call.

"There are four buildings in the unfinished development. There's a small light on the second floor of each one, with at least several hundred children spread around those four lights."

Li Douyu narrowed her eyes, switched her phone to fifty-times zoom, and counted carefully.

"Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty... There are so many of them, and they have weapons. I can't make out exactly what they are, but I think they have guns."

"Should I get a little closer?" Li Douyu asked.

Panicked warnings came from the other end of the call, telling her not to go anywhere and to stay on the water tower until help arrived.

"All right, hurry up, then. I think they're getting ready to head north. They're stuffing some of the children into vehicles." Lying on the water tower, Li Douyu watched the distant lights with concern.

As the people in the operations room urgently mobilized police forces across the city, trying to surround the traffickers' hideout, the girl on the video call kept everyone on edge.

A young woman from out of town, alone at midnight on a water tower less than a kilometer from a trafficking hideout-everyone's nerves were stretched taut.

Please, please don't let them find her. Everyone shared the same thought.

But the bad news came anyway.

Just as the girl in the video held up her phone to livestream the area beyond the water tower, she suddenly gave a muffled grunt, and her phone went dark.

The large screen went black with it.

Everyone in the conference room jolted. Several female officers burst into tears on the spot.

Li Fei shot to his feet. "I'll take a squad over first and see if we can get her out."

"Li Fei, come back!" the chief barked, slamming his hand on the table.

The young officer paused, took off his police cap, and gently set it on the table. Then he pushed open the door and left.

"Don't talk. We need to get out of here." A tall man tried to cover Li Douyu's mouth, switching off her phone as quickly as he could.

Li Douyu drove her elbow backward, slamming it into the man's chest.

"Fuck." The man took the heavy blow and fell onto the water tower with a muffled grunt.

"Goddammit, the company never gets its intel right. Why didn't your file mention you knew martial arts?"

Li Douyu pulled out a stun baton and lunged at him, thrusting its crackling tip toward his temple.

"No, wait, Li Douyu! This is a misunderstanding!"

The man rolled away. Alarmed by the woman's ruthless expression, he abandoned any attempt to hide his abilities, bringing his hands together and sweeping them open and closed toward Li Douyu.

"Calm Mind Law, bind the body, turn the heart's lock, open my inner harmony. At year's end, stir the five senses; through yin and yang, command the six powers. The mind's decree stands firm as a mountain-freeze!"

Li Douyu seemed completely unaffected. Her stun baton missed, so she simply gripped it and jabbed at him again like a homing missile.

The man let out a loud, "Holy shit!"

"Wait, Li Douyu! I-I'm the fucking Hypnosis Expert Zhang Youzhi hired!"

The stun baton stopped a mere centimeter from his skull. Feeling the electricity crackle against his scalp, the Hypnotist swallowed.

Li Douyu held the stun baton in both hands, keeping it right against the crown of his head. Her voice trembled slightly.

"W-what did you just say?"

The Hypnotist felt a headache coming on. He stole a glance at Li Douyu, then, unwilling to give up, discreetly pointed at her and whispered, "The mind's decree stands firm as a mountain-freeze!"

Li Douyu remained unaffected.

The Hypnotist sucked in a breath and promptly came clean. "I'm the Hypnotist Mr. Zhang Youzhi hired. My assignment was to infiltrate that development, but right now, I need to get you somewhere safe first."

"Where's Zhang Youzhi?! Where is he?!" Li Douyu's voice was still trembling, as though she would drive the baton into him the moment he delivered any bad news.

"Mr. Zhang Youzhi has already dep... departed from this place. I-I don't know where he is, either."

The Hypnotist cautiously raised his head, only to discover that the girl before him was already streaming tears. The stun baton in her hands had long since switched off.

"Miss Li Douyu?" The Hypnotist stared in panic at the girl, who looked as though her soul had been ripped out.

"Hey, hey, stop crying! We need to get out of here right now. Those animals have signal trackers. They probably started heading this way the moment you called the police."

The Hypnotist waved a hand in front of her eyes.

The girl didn't respond.

"Zhang Youzhi is still waiting for you!" Left with no choice, the Hypnotist invoked Zhang Youzhi's name.

It finally worked. The girl came back to her senses at last. She wiped away her tears and jumped straight down from the three-meter-high water tower.

The move left the Hypnotist dumbfounded. He quickly climbed down the ladder after her.

But they had already alerted the enemy.

Several men carrying machetes drove over, then got out and rushed toward the water tower. Seeing there was nowhere to hide, the Hypnotist stepped in front of Li Douyu and took his stance.

"Kill the man and bring the woman back. Hurry," one of them ordered. Then five burly men charged.

"I'll handle this. You run. The client's safety comes first." The Hypnotist pointed at the road behind him, then charged straight at the five men.

"Mars Veils the Bright Moon, Bodhi Obscures the Luminous Platform. Seeing these words is seeing me-bind!" the Hypnotist shouted.

"I'm your uncle!"

"I'm your dad!"

"I'm your second uncle!"

"I'm your great-uncle!"

"I'm your Uncle Wang!"

After a burst of chaos, the five men stood frozen with their machetes clutched in their arms, looking at one another, then at the Hypnotist.

"Dad/Uncle/Second Uncle/Great-Uncle/Uncle Wang, what are you doing here?"

The Hypnotist affectionately patted his son's head. "Your dad came to see you, of course! Ah, my nephews, my grandnephew-you've all grown so much, too."

Four of the men sheepishly rubbed their heads. The man who had called him Uncle Wang stood off to the side, looking forlorn.

The Hypnotist hugged this neighbor's child as well. "You've grown up, too. You haven't let your uncle down. Back in the day, I used to tell your mom this kid would take after me. He'd amount to something!"

The man he hugged dropped his machete on the ground and looked at the Hypnotist with heartfelt emotion. Flustered, he could only say, "Oh, right, Uncle Wang, you haven't eaten yet, have you? Let me take you out for a meal."

"Ah, good, good. You've all made something of yourselves." The Hypnotist clapped his hands and laughed, patting the men on their backs with an encouraging air.

Then the six of them walked off together in perfect harmony.

Before leaving, he made an OK sign behind his back for Li Douyu, signaling her to get out of there quickly.