Smack!
Before Ma Changxi could react, the brick slammed into his head. He passed out on the spot without so much as a groan.
Tong Xuan immediately searched Ma Changxi's clothes, found a key, and unlocked the iron chain fastened around her ankle.
Then she picked up Ma Changxi's phone and dialed 110.
"My name is Tong Xuan. I'm a student at Jiangnan University. Two months ago, traffickers sold me to Ma Changxi, the village chief of Changxing Village in Sitong Township. I've knocked him unconscious, and I'm calling from his phone. I'm going to hide in the mountains. Please come rescue me quickly."
Tears streamed down Tong Xuan's face, but she remained remarkably calm, explaining her situation clearly to the dispatcher in concise, effective terms.
Then she found her clothes in the cupboard and hurriedly put them on. She went to the kitchen, took a bone, and tossed it to the big black dog in the courtyard before tiptoeing out through the gate and fleeing into the wooded mountains under cover of darkness.
Meanwhile, following the nearest-unit protocol, the dispatcher had already relayed the report to the Sitong Township Police Station.
When Zhou Yi and Jian Shuyue arrived at the Old Courtyard restaurant, Xiao Han, Ye Ziqing, Sima Yanan, and the secretary, Xiao Miao, were playing Fight the Landlord.
More precisely, Sima Yanan was watching the other three play. She had spent her whole life worrying about the country and its people, and barely knew how to play games like Fight the Landlord, Run Fast, Dig the Ace, Red Tens, or Golden Flower. Mahjong was about all she could manage!
Xiao Miao had just bid to be the landlord, but after discovering that the reserve cards were no good, she promptly decided to weasel out of it. She