120: Chapter 120 The Imprisoned Girl

After driving for about ten minutes, the car arrived at No. 89 Xinglong Street again.

Brother Qiang parked the car in the backyard.

There was an open space enclosed by corrugated iron, where the black motorcycle and several broken bicycles were parked.

Brother Qiang led Cao Kun into the house through the back door.

The back door was very hidden, tucked away behind a pile of clutter; one wouldn't even notice it without looking closely.

The first floor was very ordinary, looking like a cheap rental room.

The furniture was simple: a broken sofa, a folding table, and a few plastic stools.

A few yellowed posters of Hong Kong stars from the nineties were pasted on the wall, already faded.

Beer bottles, instant noodle cups, and a few takeout bags were piled on the floor.

There was a sour smell in the air.

"Sit," Brother Qiang pointed to the sofa. "Want something to drink? A beer?"

"No thanks," Cao Kun said.

Brother Qiang didn't insist. He took a bottle of beer from the fridge himself, bit off the cap with his teeth, and took a large gulp.

Then he walked to the corner, where there was an old wardrobe.

He pushed the wardrobe aside, and behind it was actually a hidden door.

The door was very low; an adult had to bend over to enter.

The door panel was painted the same color as the wall. When closed, it blended in perfectly and was completely unnoticeable.

"It's in the Basement," Brother Qiang said, opening the door to reveal a staircase leading down. "Follow me."

The stairs were very steep and made of wood, letting out a "creak-creak" sound as if they might collapse at any moment.

A dim light bulb hung on the wall; it was only five watts and emitted a faint yellow light.

The light swayed, and the shadows swayed with it, like ghosts dancing.

The further down they went, the stronger the smell became.

The smell of damp mold, the stench of excrement, the smell of blood, and a suffocating aura of despair.

It was an atmosphere formed by long-term imprisonment and abuse, like a viscous swamp enveloping everyone who entered.

Cao Kun forced himself to keep his breathing steady.

The Basement was larger than it looked from the outside, about forty or fifty square meters, with a very low ceiling; tall people had to lower their heads to walk.

The entire space was divided into four small cubicles by rusty iron bars, with one or two girls locked in each cubicle.

Cao Kun took a quick look, and his heart wrenched violently.

There were six girls in total.

The youngest looked only eighteen or nineteen, still a child.

The oldest was no more than twenty-five. They were huddled on filthy mattresses.

They couldn't even be called mattresses; they were just a few pieces of blackened foam padding covered with rags.

Most were disheveled; some wore only underwear, and some were wrapped in dirty blankets.

Everyone had injuries on their bodies.

Bruises, swelling, whip marks, and burns.

A short-haired girl's arm was covered in cigarette burns, like dense insect holes.

A long-haired girl had a dark strangulation mark on her neck, like an ugly centipede.

Another girl had bruises on her face, her left eye so swollen she couldn't open it.

In the innermost cubicle, Cao Kun saw Xiao Li.

She was leaning against the wall with fresh injuries on her face.

Her left eye was swollen like a walnut, and the corner of her mouth was split with dried blood. When she saw Cao Kun, a flash of surprise crossed her eyes before she returned to normal.

Cao Kun's gaze continued to move and saw another girl.

She sat next to Xiao Li, also with bruises on her face and a split lip, but her eyes were exceptionally bright, like poisoned daggers, staring intently at Cao Kun.

There was a near-manic hatred in that look.

It wasn't hatred for Cao Kun, but for this world, for all men.

"Take your pick," Brother Qiang lit a cigarette and exhaled a puff of smoke. "Whichever one you like, take her to the room over there." He pointed to a small door in the corner of the Basement.

It was a small room partitioned off with wooden boards, with a filthy curtain hanging over the door.

Cao Kun forced himself to stay calm.

He walked to the bars and looked at them one by one.

The first cubicle had two girls, the short-haired one and the long-haired one.

The short-haired girl instinctively shrank back as he approached, hugging her arms to hide the burns.

The long-haired girl kept her head down, motionless like a statue.

The second cubicle had only one girl, thin as a bamboo pole, her ribs clearly visible.

She held her knees, trembling incessantly, muttering: "Mom... save me... Mom..." Her voice was very soft, but it was exceptionally clear in the silence of the Basement.

Her eyes were vacant; her mind seemed to have broken.

The third cubicle held Xiao Li and the girl with the fierce gaze.

Cao Kun pointed at Xiao Li and looked at Brother Qiang: "I'll take her."

"Good taste," Brother Qiang grinned, revealing yellow teeth.

He pulled out a ring of keys, which had a large bunch of keys and a black electric baton about the length of an adult's forearm.

He unlocked the cubicle door, the iron door making a piercing "creak."

"Xiao Li, get out!" Brother Qiang roared. "Serve this boss well, or you know the consequences!"

Xiao Li stood up tremblingly.

Her legs were shaking, and she could barely stand. As she walked out of the cubicle, Brother Qiang gave her a shove: "To the room! Don't dawdle!"

Xiao Li stumbled and walked toward the small room.

Cao Kun followed behind her.

The curtain was lifted; the inside was even smaller, less than five square meters.

There was only a filthy bed.

An iron frame bed with a thin mattress; the sheets were so dirty their original color was unrecognizable.

A broken bedside table held half a roll of toilet paper.

Yellowed newspapers were pasted on the walls, peeling off in some places to reveal the moldy concrete wall behind.

The air was filled with a smell of mold and blood, as well as the scent of photinia.

The curtain fell with a "snap," cutting off the view from outside.

Xiao Li immediately grabbed Cao Kun's arm, her voice extremely low and tearful: "Why did you come? Are you crazy? Leave quickly! It's dangerous here! They have knives, electric batons... there might be more people upstairs..."

"I'm here to save you all," Cao Kun said.

Xiao Li was stunned, tears instantly welling up: "Save... save us? Who... who are you?"

"That's not important," Cao Kun said. "The man outside, Brother Qiang? Is he the leader here?"

Xiao Li nodded vigorously, tears falling: "Not just him! There are two accomplices: one is A Biao, bald with a scar on his face. Another is Mouse, thin and small."

"They take turns guarding. Brother Qiang is the boss... they beat people, use electric batons on us... if we don't listen, they don't give us food... they also..."

She couldn't go on, her body starting to shake.

"What else?" Cao Kun pressed.

"They also... they also rape us," Xiao Li's voice was almost inaudible. "The three of them... taking turns... sometimes all together..."

Cao Kun clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms and leaving deep marks.

"How were you all caught?"

Xiao Li's tears fell even harder.

She pulled up her sleeve, revealing scars on her arm.

"I was tricked into coming..." she said, crying.

"Two months ago, I saw a job advertisement online for a high-paying nanny, room and board included, five thousand a month."

"I made contact, and they told me to come to Zhongzhou for an interview. The one who interviewed me was Brother Qiang..."

"He said he'd take me to see the working environment, but he tricked me into coming here and locked me up... The next day, he started forcing me to take customers... if I didn't listen, he'd beat me, whip me with a belt, burn me with cigarettes... starvation, electric shocks..."

"What about the other girls?"

"They were all tricked or kidnapped..." Xiao Li wiped her tears, but more and more kept coming.

...