The place where Bai Ze was confined was an abandoned factory workshop. The Wulong Gorge area was surrounded by mountains and abundant in forestry resources. Consequently, there were many small-scale food processing factories of this kind locally, mostly operating as sole proprietorships; those that were poorly managed gradually fell into ruin and were abandoned.

Since it wasn’t within the scenic resort area and the land itself wasn’t worth much, once the valuable equipment was moved away, the factory buildings were simply left vacant. This layout, however, perfectly accommodated this roaming gang of human traffickers.

They had originally come from the South. After pulling off a successful job down south and making enough money, they had hidden in a small village beneath Wulong Gorge to lay low. Seeing that the heat had finally passed, they decided to return to their old trade.

Compared to big cities, Wulong Gorge was relatively isolated, and the local residents weren’t very vigilant. Furthermore, with a nature reserve nearby drawing a large tourist population, no one would notice a few newly arrived outsiders.

For them, it was a perfect alignment of time, place, and people. However, this time their boss had specified they do some “high-end business.” Naturally, they looked down upon the wild children from the countryside and instead set their sights on the upscale residential areas near the scenic resort.

At the very beginning, everything went smoothly. They rented a homestay and hid the five children that the boss had procured inside a cellar, merely waiting to successfully connect with the buyers on the other end before shipping the children out separately for sale.

Yet, somewhere along the line, a problem arose. The children locked in the cellar suddenly started decreasing in number.

The cellar had only one exit, and someone was stationed to guard it in shifts every single day. They only went down when delivering food, making it absolutely impossible for anyone else to enter and take the children away. Moreover, the food and drinks were laced with drugs; the children would only sleep after eating them, rendering it even more impossible for them to run away on their own.

Nevertheless, the children still disappeared, one by one, day after day.

After losing three children in a row, the boss panicked as well. Ruling out the possibility of an insider, he had other trustworthy men take the remaining children and hide them in different locations separately, communicating and reporting the situation each day only via nearby public telephones.

The child that Zhao Sheng and Li Chao were responsible for was a newly delivered one. He was a wealthy young master, fair-skinned and tender-faced. Supposedly, a wealthy businessman had already reserved him, merely waiting for the price to be negotiated before he could be sent away.

Zhao Sheng walked over, looking at Bai Ze, who was lying tied hand and foot on the floor fast asleep. He clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. “Why isn’t he awake yet? Children from rich families are just so delicate.”

“Alright, it saves trouble if he doesn’t wake up. Untie the ropes, just don’t let them bind him too tightly, lest it ruins him and affects the price later.” Li Chao untied Bai Ze’s ropes. Seeing that he still hadn’t awakened, he confidently laid the boy back down. “The boss should be coming over in a bit, right?”

“Yeah, he should be here soon. The boss said he wanted to come and keep watch personally.” Zhao Sheng rubbed his hands together, chuckling greedily as he stared at Bai Ze on the floor, his triangular eyes brimming with avarice. “Apparently, that wealthy businessman is highly satisfied and has already offered up to this figure. The boss is afraid something might go wrong tonight, so he’s coming to keep watch himself.” He reached out and gestured a number to Li Chao. Li Chao’s eyes widened, his expression flaring with heat as well. “This truly is a massive deal.”

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Three barks of a dog sounded outside the factory. The two exchanged glances, and Zhao Sheng said, “Watch him, I’ll go out and take a look.”

Hearing the iron door let out a sharp creak, Bai Ze noticed that one of the shadows cast in front of him had diminished. The man had likely gone to receive the boss.

The boss… Bai Ze calculated silently. The one arriving should be the leader of the opposing side. If that was the case, the difficulty of his escape would increase slightly.

By this time, the others at home should have already discovered that he was missing. If they acted quickly, they might be able to find their way here tonight. However, unexpected circumstances couldn’t be ruled out either…

If that were the case, he would wait until tomorrow morning at most. Before the human traffickers shipped him away, he absolutely had to break free. Otherwise, being sent elsewhere where he was completely unfamiliar with the people and places would make things even more troublesome. But if it truly came to that point… there was a very high probability that his identity would be exposed. He wondered if cleaning up the aftermath on Teacher Rong’s side would be very troublesome then.

Bai Ze lay there quietly, calculating his current plan in his head. After a moment of silence, he heard two other voices coming from outside, and the man guarding him also pushed open the door to walk out.

The iron door was closed once more, but it couldn’t block Bai Ze’s ears. He listened to the people speaking outside. Of the two newcomers, one was the man in the suit who had drugged him, while the other was… that little girl named Minmin.

Bai Ze secretly guessed their identities. The boss should be that man in the suit, but he didn’t know what kind of relationship Minmin shared with him, or why she would help a human trafficker abduct other children.

Bai Ze rubbed his eyes and sat up, deciding to wait and see how things developed first.

Zhao Sheng respectfully pushed open the door, welcoming the man in the suit inside. “Boss, he’s right inside, still hasn’t woken up…” Just as his words fell, he spotted Bai Ze, who was huddled in the corner staring quietly toward the door. He chuckled, “Oh, he just woke up.”

The man in the suit didn’t avoid his gaze either. He gave him a sinister smile, then pushed Minmin out from behind him. “You go in too.”

Pushed forward two steps by him, Minmin’s eyes filled with tears of fright, yet she didn’t dare to cry out loud. The man in the suit cast a glance at the quiet Bai Ze, then turned around with his man to exit.

With a heavy bang, the iron door slammed shut. Minmin shrugged her shoulders and sobbed softly, looking at Bai Ze with timidity. “Big brother, I want to go home…”

Remaining unperturbed, Bai Ze covertly scanned her body with his gaze. When his vision landed on her hands, it paused slightly. Looking at her wrists and fingers, which were far thicker and sturdier than those of an ordinary young child, a sudden realization dawned within his heart.

Seeing that he made no sound, Minmin carefully moved her steps closer to him, finally sitting down right next to him.

Suppressed sobs echoed in the room from time to time. Leaning against the wall, Bai Ze paid no heed to her, closing his eyes to conserve his energy.

After deploying the neighborhood security guards to search the entire residential area and still failing to find Bai Ze, Rong Sui directly called the police. Because there had been cases of missing children in the surrounding neighborhoods previously, the police officers who received the report hurried over immediately.

The neighborhood surveillance footage was retrieved, but it only showed Bai Ze appearing to have spotted someone, then running into the bushes to retrieve a balloon, after which he exited through the side door. However, the person speaking to him had deliberately chosen a blind spot of the camera; not even a sliver of their clothing was captured.

The security guards checked several main roads as well, but there was no sign of Bai Ze anywhere. They could only hypothesize, “He must have taken the side paths.”

The neighborhood’s green spaces were extensive, featuring many rockeries and landscape gardens, resulting in an abundance of small paths through the woods. Surveillance was only installed on the main roads; if one took the side paths, it was impossible to monitor them.

The police returned empty-handed, and Rong Sui followed them back to the police station to give his statement.

By the time he finished his statement and returned home, night had already fallen. The atmosphere inside the house was low. Rong Sui looked around but didn’t see Rong Fu. Rubbing his cheeks in slight disappointment, he forced out a smile to comfort them, saying, “I went to the police station to give a statement. The police already have clues, but it’s temporarily inconvenient for them to disclose them. Dad hasn’t come back from searching outside either; he probably found a lead. We are acting on two fronts, so we should be able to bring Bai Ze back very soon.”

Bi Fang was huddled into a ball on the table, letting out a listless cry. His fine feathers, which were usually kept smooth and neat, were currently in a disheveled mess, and the light-red crest on his head had even shed some feathers, looking as though he had just fought a battle with someone.

“Bai Ze will be fine.” Yin Zhuzhi crawled up along Rong Sui’s pant leg to nestle in his embrace, his tail wrapping a turn around his wrist. The moment he spoke, a light-red feather stuck to his chin fluttered slightly. “An auspicious beast is favored by the great luck of heaven and earth. Those who oppose him will only bring misfortune upon themselves. Furthermore, they are merely human; they pose no threat to Bai Ze. The reason he didn’t make a move is likely out of consideration that he doesn’t want to expose his identity.”

Even though that was said, Rong Sui still couldn’t put his mind at ease. Ultimately, they all sat in the living room, waiting for Rong Fu to bring back news.

The night grew deeper and deeper. The hazy moonlight fell through the ventilation window, casting a small patch of light upon the concrete floor. Devoid of any sleepiness, Bai Ze stared blankly at that patch of light.

Faint sounds of bird cries drifted from outside. Bai Ze’s ears twitched; he felt this sound was rather familiar.

From the beam of light projected down by the ventilation window, two feathers drifted down. The fine, black downy feathers danced slowly within the moonlight before landing on the floor. Bai Ze unconsciously looked up, right into a pair of red eyes.

A piercing bird cry rang out, causing Minmin, who was leaning next to Bai Ze, to startle awake. “What sound is that?”

Bai Ze turned his face to look at her. The expression on her face was alert and wary, yet uniquely lacked any fear. Bai Ze raised his hand and pointed at the ventilation window. “There is a bird there.”

A large bird clad in black feathers was poking its neck out to look down, its round eyes bordered by a ring of red downy feathers, which inexplicably added a touch of eeriness to its appearance.

“What bird?” Minmin looked up toward the top, yet saw that the ventilation window was pitch black—there was nothing there at all.

When Bai Ze looked again, the figure of the black bird had indeed vanished from the window. Instead, a rustling commotion echoed from right above where they were sitting.

Tick… tick…

The sound of water dripping onto the floor came from behind them. Minmin turned around alertly. A drop of liquid happened to land right on her face. She reached out to wipe it away impatiently, saying angrily, “Who is playing tricks here?! Zhang Yue!”

Bai Ze’s gaze landed on a streak of red upon her cheek. Looking further upward, he saw that the roof tiles above their heads had been pried open. A massive black bird stood at the edge, its nine bird heads competing fiercely to squeeze into the hole. In the gaps of their scrambling, a severed neck could occasionally be seen continuously dripping blood downward.

Connecting this with what the human traffickers had said earlier about losing several children previously, the identity of this black bird was self-evident.

—The Night-Flying Woman (Ya Xing You Nü).

“The Night-Flying Woman, also called the Daughter of the Heavenly Emperor, or the Star-Fisher. She flies by night and hides by day, appearing like a ghost or spirit. Clad in feathers she becomes a flying bird; shedding her feathers she becomes a woman. Having no children of her own, she delights in taking the children of humans.”

No wonder he had felt the voice sounded familiar earlier.

Bai Ze’s heart stirred slightly. As long as it was a demon, things would be easy to handle.

Minmin was still shouting loudly for someone, but this sealed room seemed to have been completely isolated. No matter how she yelled, the people outside made not a single sound.

Blood was still going tick-tock as it dripped from above. Bai Ze shifted his body, allowing a drop of blood to land precisely upon himself.

The Night-Flying Woman used her own downy feathers and blood to mark her targets. A child tainted by her feathers and blood would bound to be carried away by her that very night, no matter where they were hidden.

Seeing that both children in the room had been marked, the Night-Flying Woman let out an excited, long cry. Her nine bird heads broke through the restraints of the roof and swooped down. Her two sharp talons scooped up one child each, and she then burst through the roof, flying away.

Suddenly snatched up into mid-air, Minmin’s shouting came to a sudden halt, as if someone had abruptly throttled her neck. Her eyes widened in a horrified expression, yet she could no longer emit even a shred of sound.

_

Author’s Note:

Today’s brain teaser:

All nine heads of the Night-Flying Woman wanted Bai Ze to be their son—

So the nine heads got into a fight.

In the end, which head won?