nucmednet Chapter 225 Encountering a Human Trafficker 3
Chapter 225 Encountering a Human Trafficker 3
The young master was missing, and they, the servants, were more or less responsible. Now, Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan not only brought the young master back to them, but also brought the culprit to them. At least they don't have to worry about losing their lives.
Several people suggested inviting Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou to the county government as well. Firstly, they were witnesses, and secondly, they were the biggest contributors to the rescue of these children, and the county magistrate would definitely thank them greatly.
Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou did not refuse. As the three boys had woken up, Bai Jingzhou simply had someone use sacks and baskets as hoods and put them on the heads of the traffickers to prevent them from being recognized by their accomplices after entering the city.
"This is a good idea!" The servants of the Peng family felt that this was very satisfying, so except for the one who was holding their little son, the others all rushed to put hoods on the human traffickers.
Everyone took the six children and a group of human traffickers to the county government office. Upon receiving the news, County Magistrate Peng calmed down and immediately ordered his servants to call a doctor and prepare hot water, ginger soup and food.
After confirming that the children were only frightened and caught a cold and would be fine after proper rest, and that they had no other injuries, County Magistrate Peng breathed a sigh of relief and handed the children over to the care of the servants. After thanking Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan, he rushed to the front yamen and, together with other officials and his own criminal lawyer, conducted an emergency interrogation of the human traffickers.
Those human traffickers knew that they had hit a wall this time. They did not dare to further anger County Magistrate Peng and others, so they quickly confessed obediently.
County Magistrate Peng asked people to write down the location of the stronghold and the names, appearances, and numbers of the accomplices they had confessed, and then immediately sent out yamen runners to capture those who had escaped the net.
Due to the shortage of manpower, County Magistrate Peng specially invited Gu Wenxuan and his group to provide external assistance to the yamen.
After a flurry of activity, all the human traffickers were brought back to the government office. County Magistrate Peng then had the time and mood to ask Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou why they had entered the city.
He asked Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou, "The world is in such a mess right now, do you have something to do when you venture into the city?"
Bai Jingzhou did not hide it from him, "Your Excellency, we are here to inquire about something."
He briefly recounted what Gu Yongwen had done yesterday, "...Everyone is short of money and is reluctant to spend their hard-earned money to curry favor with him. He was very angry and threatened to target us after entering the government office. We were really worried, so we thought of brazenly looking for acquaintances in the government office to get information."
The more Magistrate Peng listened, the more his brows furrowed. He said, "The government office is indeed short of staff recently, and we did recruit a few new clerks to help out. But this Gu Yongwen..." How come he has no impression of him at all?
The lawyer came over and whispered, "Master, this man was recommended by the county magistrate. I heard that their two families are interested in getting married."
County Magistrate Peng thought for a moment, "Is it for his youngest son?"
He also knew that there were some issues with the county magistrate's youngest son, so when the lawyer mentioned it briefly, he guessed that this must be a shady deal in the name of marriage.
Sure enough, the master nodded and said "yes".
County Magistrate Peng frowned. It was not a good idea for him to intervene in this matter right now because Gu Yongwen only went to Baijia Village to make some nonsense speeches and did not really do anything to them.
Unless Gu Yongwen really abuses his power for personal gain after he comes in and he gets solid evidence of his crime, he can expel Gu Yongwen from the yamen.
Bai Jingzhou was also very clear about this. Before County Magistrate Peng could speak, Bai Jingzhou said, "We don't intend to do anything to him. We are just worried that he will really make things difficult for everyone in terms of taxes, corvée labor, and military service in the future."
Upon hearing this, County Magistrate Peng immediately said, "I will have someone keep a close eye on him. If he really dares to abuse his power for personal gain, I will not let him off."
Bai Jingzhou wanted to hear this from County Magistrate Peng. He smiled and bowed, "I'm sorry for your trouble. I'm very grateful."
County Magistrate Peng patted him on the shoulder and said, "First you saved Xu An, and now you saved my two little ones. If anyone wants to thank you, it should be me who thanks you."
After some polite exchanges, County Magistrate Peng suggested that it was getting late and it might not be safe for Bai Jingzhou and his men to return to the village, so they should stay overnight at the county government office.
Bai Jing smiled and refused, "We have a house in the county town, so you don't have to bother making any extra arrangements."
County Magistrate Peng did not force them and ordered his attendant to bring generous gifts to thank them for saving his young son and daughter.
After the group left the county government, Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou did not hire a car to go back, but walked slowly on the street with others. They wanted to observe what the county town was like now.
The results of the observations were the same as the news reported back to Baijia Village. All basic materials related to people's livelihood in the county are now rising in price, including grain, firewood, salt, cloth, medicinal materials... They asked along the way, and nothing was still at the original price.
Looking around, not only were there many people in ragged clothes and with miserable faces on the streets, but most of them were walking in a hurry and looking alert.
Gu Wenxuan and her friends randomly found a restaurant that smelled delicious and was relatively clean to have dinner. The first thing the waiter did was not to ask them what they wanted to eat, but to tell them that the prices of everything in their restaurant had increased.
The young man was very polite and explained to the customer quickly, "We have no choice. If we don't raise the price, our store will lose money."
Gu Wenxuan nodded to show her understanding. After all, everything is getting more expensive now, and the restaurant owner also has to consider whether he can recover the costs.
She and Bai Jingzhou carefully ordered four dishes, and then asked the waiter to serve them a large pot of dumpling soup and fifty steamed buns made of 30 grams of flour.
The five of them ate up all the steamed buns and dumpling soup with the two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes.
The other customers in the store didn't expect them to be such big eaters. They all stared at them as if they were a strange species.
The Fang brothers felt a little uncomfortable, but Gu Wenxuan remained calm.
What's wrong with her being able to eat? Is she chewing someone else's rice? She bought it with her own money, and the money she spent was also earned by herself, so why can't she just eat as much as she wants?
Bai Jingzhou loved Gu Wenxuan's stable inner self. He looked relaxed and his eyes were gentle, and he and Gu Wenxuan maintained a highly consistent and self-righteous attitude.
The Fang brothers were infected by his and Gu Wenxuan's emotions and gradually relaxed.
After Bai Jingzhou paid the bill, he and his group swaggered out of the restaurant under the scorching gazes of the diners behind them.
It was already getting dark at this time. Gu Wenxuan and the others did not plan to stay outside any longer. Bai Jingzhou roughly identified the direction and planned to take everyone back to the house where they had lived before.