The skinny man, his neck gripped by Qingmu, walked ahead trembling, his eyes darting around. When they reached the courtyard gate, he knocked a few times. There was no response from inside, so he knocked a few more times.
Qingmu noticed something off about the rhythm of the knocking; it must be their code. But he wasn't worried that they could cause any trouble.
After a while, someone came to open the door.
A middle-aged man with bulging, lifeless eyes appeared in the doorway, glanced warily at Qingmu, and then nodded to the thin man, gesturing for him to come in.
The skinny man ran into the yard and ran inside, shouting as he ran, "Someone's causing trouble! This kid's here to cause trouble!"
There were four or five people standing in the courtyard. Some of them took out pistols and pointed them at the door, while others were brandishing sharp daggers.
The middle-aged man with the dead fish eyes was the first to pull out a small knife and stab it into Qingmu's stomach.
The skinny man regained his courage, turned around and walked back, looking at Qingmu and saying, "Damn it, weren't you so tough just now? Do you even know where you are? How dare you cause trouble here! I'll kill you!"
He snatched the knife from Dead Fish Eyes' hand and stabbed Qingmu in the stomach again. Still not satisfied, he stabbed him several more times, shouting, "Serves you right for being arrogant! Serves you right for being cocky! I'll kill you!"
But as he was inserting it, he suddenly realized something was wrong.
Why isn't there any blood?
He glanced strangely at the knife in his hand, then at Qingmu's stomach. Then he screamed "Wow!" and tumbled backward, his head hitting something behind him with a thud, leaving him dizzy.
He opened his eyes and found himself still in the alley outside, being choked and pinned against the wall by the man with messy hair, while the dirty, crazy beggar watched from the side.
The thin man broke out in a cold sweat, staring at Aoki as if he'd seen Qingmu: "You, you... you you..."
"How many people are inside?" Qingmu asked, releasing his grip.
This time, the thin man dared not disobey and honestly replied, "Twenty or thirty."
Is Mu Ka in there too?
" Mu Ka isn't here; it was Mu Ka's subordinate Decha, who brought the child."
"Besides those Decha, who else is involved?"
They're all bosses from the nearby brothels.
What are they doing here?
"They bid on the price of young girls, and whoever bids the highest gets to take the girl away. These girls are very popular. They can be taken to Yangon or Chiang Mai and made a small fortune just by selling their virginity. After selling their virginity, they can also be sold on the seventh day after menstruation. Although not as popular as their virginity, they can still fetch a good price. After the seventh day, they can be brought back and sold in the brothel. In the first year, they will fetch a slightly higher price than other girls."
The thin man explained.
Qingmu nodded. "What else do you know?"
The man shook his head and said, "That's all. That's all I know."
Qingmu asked, "Where does Mu Ka live?"
The man said, "I was just keeping watch; I really don't know where Mu Ka lives."
"Oh, well, it seems you really don't know any more."
"Yes, yes, can I go now?"
Just as the skinny man was about to slip away, Qingmu suddenly grabbed him by the neck again and slammed him against the wall. "How many times did you stab me just now?"
The thin man turned pale with fright and pleaded desperately, "I didn't! Please let me go..." But his throat was being choked too tightly, and he stopped breathing after only half a sentence. His tongue lolled out, and his face turned as red as a pig's liver. He weakly tried to pry Qingmu's hands off with his hands, and kicked wildly at the ground with his feet.
"What you do in your dreams reflects your truest thoughts. It seems you've done quite a few things like this before, haven't you?"
As Qingmu spoke, he tightened his grip, and a crisp crack was heard as the man's Adam's apple was crushed. The man swayed back, his head lolled to the side, and his limbs stopped struggling. When Qingmu released his grip, the man slumped limply against the wall and slowly slid to the ground.
Qingmu turned and glanced at the Madman, saying, "A person like that will only harm more people if he lives."
The Madman was initially frightened and stood there blankly. Hearing Qingmu speak, he came to his senses and went up to kick the already dead, thin man.
"I'm going in to rescue the Beauty now. It's not safe inside, so you just wait for me outside." Qingmu put his hands in his pockets and shuffled towards the gate of the small courtyard.
After walking a few steps, he suddenly turned back to the Madman and said, "Keep an eye on that motorcycle for me, don't let it get stolen, I borrowed it."
The Madman nodded vigorously, then turned and went back to the street corner.
Qingmu walked to the gate of the courtyard with a clattering sound and reached out to knock.
A man with bulging, dead-fish eyes came out, opened the door, and asked, "Who are you?"
Qingmu raised his foot and kicked the man in the stomach. The man flew backward and crashed to the ground with a thud, not uttering a sound, like a dead dog.
A few people were playing cards idly in the courtyard, with pistols and daggers carelessly tossed on the table. They turned around at the sound of the noise, not knowing what was happening, and stared blankly at Qingmu at the door.
Until Qingmu trotted into the courtyard, stood lazily not far from them, and asked, "Who is Decha?"
Only then did the others realize what was happening, and they all rushed to grab the weapons from the table.
But the moment they moved, Qingmu had already pounced, grabbing the wrist of the first man who had gotten the gun. With a twist and release using a joint lock, the gun was in Aoki's hand. Then, with a quick push, the man lost his balance and knocked over his companion. The companion had just picked up a knife from the table, which stabbed Aoki in the kidney.
At the same time, Qingmu kicked another person's knee with his right foot, breaking the person's leg and causing them to fall to their knees with a crack.
The last person was a bit far from the table, and just as he touched the gun on the table, he found himself with a pistol pressed against his temple.
"Where Decha?" Qingmu noticed that the seemingly unremarkable courtyard was actually quite large, with several courtyards connected in front and behind, and many wooden buildings and bungalows on the sides. Searching room by room would be a bit troublesome.
The man bent over, afraid to move, but his hand remained on the gun on the table, unwilling to move it, trying to find an opportunity to fight back.
"Go ahead and shoot! Once the gun goes off, everyone inside will know, and you won't be able to escape," the man said.
"Yeah?"
Qingmu looked at him intently, then moved his hand away, pointed the gun at the man with the broken leg next to him, and shot him, ending his suffering. He then quickly moved back.
Cold sweat beaded on the man's forehead, but he still said defiantly, "Do you know whose territory this is? You're going to die a horrible death!"
" Mu Ka? Or Wu Suotun?" Qingmu turned his gun around again and shot the guy who had accidentally killed his companion with a knife, then been knocked to the ground by his companion and was just getting up.
Seeing that this disheveled man was truly ruthless and didn't seem to fear even Wu Suotun's name, the man finally became afraid. His body trembled slightly, and he stammered nervously, "De- Decha is... the second building on the right... no, don't kill him..."
"Okay, I understand."
Before he could finish speaking, Qingmu pulled the trigger, blowing his head off.