Chapter 05: Rye Town

　　Jasper Lee could not run more than a few steps before he was knocked down in the wheat field.

Pascal Lee fell right off him.

"Damn, you tried to run?" The dean was no longer friendly, grabbing Jasper Lee by the neck and dragging him back.

Pascal Lee, injured from the fall, reached into the haystack and shouted, "Brother! He was also grabbed by the drivers who had arrived.

　　Jasper Lee was held by the neck by some strange men, his eyes were red and he was staring at the dean.

The dean slapped him contemptuously: "What are you looking at? Your hard times are yet to come!"

"We are Fengguang Lee's sons," said Jasper Lee. "If you're going to sell us, you'd better let someone come and rescue us."

"Fengguang Lee?" The dean laughed heartily, "You're fooling no one! The Lee group is fucking bankrupt!"

　　"And even if you really are the young master, you don't even have the money to pay for your brother's treatment, do you?" The director searched his body, took the last of his money, threw him and Pascal Lee back into the car, slammed the door behind them, and turned to leave.

There were six or seven other children in the car with a man in charge of them.

Jasper Lee lay down in the corner with his brother in his arms while Pascal Lee cried softly.

"Brother...my back hurts..."

　　Jasper Lee looked at Pascal Lee's back.

It was covered in bruises from the fall on the field. Jasper Lee frowned and brushed the grass off his back. Pascal Lee choked up and asked, "Brother, do you think we're out of money? What should we do next?"

　　Jasper Lee whispered, "Don't worry, I put some money on you too, they didn't search you.

Pascal Lee felt some banknotes on the soles of his feet and breathed a sigh of relief. "Brother, you're really smart."

Jasper Lee didn't want to say anything more, and Pascal Lee also needed to rest, so they both regained their strength.

The sky became darker and darker, and soon it started to rain heavily, with the sound of raindrops cracking on the newspaper-covered car window.

　　Pascal Lee awoke from his hazy sleep. His high fever wouldn't break, and he clutched Jasper Lee's shirt in a daze, "Where are they taking us?"

Jasper Lee didn't know either. He was sleepy and tired, but he didn't dare fall asleep.

The van drove through the wheat fields and down the highway.

Time had no unit, and the world was hurtling toward its end.

　　Finally, the vehicle slowly stopped in front of a town. The men began going door to door asking if anyone wanted a child. When someone nodded, the man opened the trunk and let them choose. If they were satisfied, they negotiated the price on the spot; if not, they closed the trunk and drove on to the next house.

　　Girls were always the quickest to sell, followed by young boys and then older ones. Pascal Lee was originally chosen and led out, but because he looked sick, the family said no and turned their attention to Jasper Lee, who was standing nearby.

The man explained that they were two brothers and asked if they wanted to buy them together.

"No way! They're not girls! I can't afford to feed two more mouths!"

　　The caravan passed through several towns in succession, and as some people bought children, others naturally sold them.

New faces and old faces alternated, but the two Lee brothers remained in the wagon.

It was late at night when the driver stopped in the town of Rye to buy food for the children.

Jasper Lee knew his chance had come, so he told his brother he had to go to the bathroom or he would wet the wagon.

　　The man cursed the sickly boy and took Jasper Lee to the bathroom. As he was closing the car door, Jasper Lee stuck half a log in the gap he had prepared earlier. The door did not close tightly, so he waited until the men were far away and then slipped out through the gap.

Behind him, the children tried to follow, but Jasper Lee pushed them back, "Don't ruin my plan. He closed the car door firmly and walked toward the brightly lit city.

　　At first, Jasper Lee just walked quietly, but gradually he walked faster and faster, and then he ran. When he arrived at the police station in town, he told the police that someone was trafficking children. The police didn't ask where, but first asked what family he belonged to. Jasper Lee said, "I was kidnapped.

The police officer said, "Just wait a minute while I make a phone call. But just then a group of people casually walked in and asked who wanted to kidnap children.

　　The policeman immediately stopped what he was doing and went with the director to have tea. Jasper Lee sat on the iron chair like a needle on a pin and remembered the way those people had looked at him. He thought to himself, "This is bad," and got up and ran out. At that time, the man in the car caught up with him.

"You son of a bitch! If someone hadn't called me, I wouldn't have known you ran away!" The man grabbed his ear, "You're heartless too, leaving your brother alone in the car and running away! I'll see if I don't break your legs when I get back! Ah! You bit me!"

Jasper Lee bit out a mouthful of blood and ran as fast as he could toward the night market. The man chased after him. But Jasper Lee was thin and agile, weaving through the crowd, while the man was too big and watched as he fled further and further away.

　　There's a problem in this city, Jasper Lee thought as he ran. Right and wrong had become blurred. The people he could trust in the mouths of his teachers and parents had all turned into angry ghosts. Jasper Lee could trust no one. Everyone looked more and more hateful in his eyes.

Jasper Lee ran to the edge of an overpass.

Some drunken men noticed him.

The men put down their wine glasses and narrowed their eyes with murderous gleams: "Where did you come from, little brat?"

　　Jasper Lee was surrounded, tall shadows looming over his pale face, like strange, mottled shadows.

He pursed his dry lips.

"Do you buy children?"

.

There was a long silence.

Only the sound of water flowing under the bridge remained.

One of the bald men suddenly laughed, "How do you know what business I'm in?"

　　"Your hands," said Jasper Lee. In our business, all our hands have the bite marks of children.

"Haha, interesting. You're so young to be doing that? You're not from around here, judging by your accent, what can you do? You can't even drive."

"I kidnap, they sell," Jasper Lee grinned. "Selling kids is easy, but kidnapping, of course, the kids know better."

　　Someone said, "The bald guy in the next village did it. He got a black baby to help with the kid, and you're that black baby?"

"Fuck you. He's as white as a ghost, what's black got to do with it? Kid, who the hell are you?"

Jasper Lee was very calm, "What black baby? What child-coddling? I kidnap children. You want to see what I can do?"

　　The bald man was doubtful: "The bald man we're talking about sells children in the next village. His family has a black baby of eight or nine years old. The kidnapped children trust him very much. After a few words of persuasion, they immediately stop thinking about running away. Some even help him kidnap other children.

"Cut the crap, watch me," Jasper Lee turned and walked away. In less than ten minutes, he brought back three milky-skinned girls.

　　Someone's face changed: "Damn, isn't that my family's spoon girl? What are you doing here? Who told you to come?"

"My brother told us to come,"

the little girl pointed at Jasper Lee beside her.

Jasper Lee waved again, and more children came running from a distance. Several people looked at each other for a moment, not knowing what to do.

　　"Not enough?" Jasper Lee turned to leave.

"Hey, hey, hey, little brother," the bald man stopped him, "don't go."

"Didn't you say it wasn't enough?" Jasper Lee didn't turn around, "I still have some."

"Okay, okay, we know you can do it! But these are all city puppets, and you can't kidnap city puppets. If you kidnap someone from the neighborhood, their wife will come after us. We only kidnap people from other places!"

　　Jasper Lee stopped: "I have a shipment of goods from out of town. It's in the woods outside of town." He looked depressed. "I broke up with the guy."

"What do you mean?" The bald man frowned. "Broke up with who? The guy who drives the car?"

"He said he wanted 70-30, when it used to be 50-50," Jasper Lee said angrily. "Don't I make any money? He's been driving for so many years, he can't do anything else. If we run into the cops, I'm the one who takes care of it, right? Now he's just going to change everything? He thinks he can get so many kids without me? He thinks I can't run this business without him? There are a lot of people who want to do business with me!

"Hey, little brother, don't get mad, don't get mad," the bald guy said. You show us."

Jasper Lee didn't immediately agree, but he held out his hand and made a five: "That's the way I want it!"

　　Jasper Lee led a group of people out of town, and on the street he met the man and the driver in the car, who were also looking for him.

Jasper Lee gritted his teeth: "That's him! And his friend! Two sons of bitches! They don't have any integrity in business!"

Baldy didn't want to get rough, but the two men came at him with steel rods, so there was no choice but to fight.

　　There was blood everywhere in the street brawl. Jasper Lee swung his fists twice, then grabbed the bottle of liquor out of Baldy's hand and smashed it down hard, leaving the rest of the crowd speechless.

"This is what happens when you betray me!"

Jasper Lee panted threateningly.

"What about those two people?" someone asked.

　　"Sell them wherever you can," the bald man sneered. Isn't there a shortage of people in the mining area?"

The bald man made a phone call, and a black car arrived. Several men dragged the gasping man into the car and drove off.

Jasper Lee watched, but not for long. His heart was hardened by constant suffering. He thought again of her, the one who used cold-bloodedness to disguise herself.

Let's go," he said, leading the way without looking back.

　　The group went to the van in the suburbs, opened the door, and saw seven or eight children. Baldy went inside to take a look, and they all seemed healthy except for one teenager who looked sickly.

"Can you drive?" Jasper Lee asked. "Ride together and deliver the goods first.

"It's too dark and the mountain road is not easy to drive on," Baldy said, negotiating. "You rest here and leave in the morning."

　　Jasper Lee disagreed: "You've just come from Beijing, and you're thinking of taking a break instead of moving on? I never should have hired this driver!"

"Don't worry, once you're here with us, you're out of jurisdiction," the bald man said, admiring his style, "you can trust our people. Is this the only car you have on this trip? It's not enough, you won't even break even on this trip, I'll get two more cars tomorrow."

　　Bald Head asked again, "What's wrong with that boy? He looks sick and no one seems to want him. Why don't we just dump him somewhere?"

Pascal Lee suddenly turned pale.

"He's sick," said Jasper Lee. "He's my prop. We can trick the kids into taking him to the hospital, and then lead him to an alley where we can take them away one by one in sacks. He's also useful. Don't burn him with cigarette butts, and he can be useful for interrogation at the highway exit."

　　Jasper Lee sold children as he zigzagged south.

Children came and went in the car, but Jasper Lee remained unharmed.

In this way, they sold children all the way to Hubei Province.

They got closer and closer to Wuhan, outside the toll station.

"Stop for inspection," said the policeman at the roadblock.

Jasper Lee pointed to the bald man and said he was selling children.

　　The car with the bald man was immediately detained. The police found that Jasper Lee was not tied up in the back of the car, but was sitting safely in the passenger seat, and asked him if he was an accomplice.

Jasper Lee said, "I was coerced. Being coerced means I did it. The police asked how many people had been kidnapped, and Jasper Lee squeezed his fingers together and said, "A little.

"How much is a little?" Cherry Adams asked.

Jasper Lee was silent for over ten seconds.

"Thirty or so," he said.