Elder brother's garrison

Page 2635

"What happened to you in this human trafficking base?" Xiaobai asked Miao Yan.

"..." Miao Yan's breath hitched, then she nodded silently.

"Was it here that you got your injuries?"

"Yes……"

Did Aunt Mei make this?

"..." Miao Yan looked up at Xiao Bai with some surprise, seemingly wondering why Xiao Bai could say that name. But after a while, she nodded, then shook her head, "Not entirely..."

“It seems the situation is quite complicated.” Xiaobai said to Miao Yan, “People infected by the deep-sea aura are very difficult to save. Aunt Mei sent you out of the human trafficking base to Shenzhen for treatment, probably because of some special reason. She really wants you to live, but if she really wants you to live, she can’t let you be infected with the deep-sea aura all over your body.”

“…” Miao Yan lowered her head and fiddled with her fingers.

“So… I guess the fact that you were infected by the deep-sea aura is most likely related to Aunt Mei, but it shouldn’t be Aunt Mei who directly did it,” Xiaobai said to Miao Yan.

"..." Miao Yan's expression wavered.

Just as Xiaobai was about to speak again, suddenly, there was a knock on the door of the dormitory where she and Miao Yan were.

dong dong dong.

The crisp knock brought complete silence to the room.

Xiaobai and Miaoyan looked towards the door.

"...Is it the dormitory manager?" Miao Yan asked tentatively.

"No." Xiaobai shook her head. "The dorm supervisor doesn't knock on doors, and besides, this room isn't locked."

Xiaobai got up, walked to the door, gently placed her hand on the doorknob, and opened the door.

The door creaked open.

The shadows fell into the room, covering and enveloping Little White inside.

Xiao Bai looked up at the kind-looking old lady standing outside the door, and the tall women standing on either side of her, filling her entire body.

...This is Aunt Mei.

"My dear girl, we meet again." Aunt Mei said kindly to Xiaobai.

“…Hello.” Xiao Bai looked at Aunt Mei, her gaze drifting to the tall women around her.

The tall women around Aunt Mei all had numb, dull eyes, filled with a deathly stillness. Beside them was the tall man from before.

At this point, the tall man's cheeks and ears were wrapped in bandages, but the remaining facial features did not affect his cold expression.

"Aunt Mei isn't welcome in?" Aunt Mei asked Xiao Bai.

"..." Xiaobai silently stepped back and made way.

Aunt Mei walked into the dormitory with a smile.

The moment Miao Yan saw Aunt Mei in the dormitory, her face turned pale, her legs trembled with nervousness, and she quickly got out of bed and retreated to the edge, her face covered in sweat from fear.

But Meryl Streep remained as before, seemingly ignoring her completely.

Aunt Mei came to the bedside, saw the unopened ointment, then turned around and looked at Little White in front of the door.

"Sigh, I just heard that you made a mistake in the cafeteria and got dragged in and beaten up by the new dorm manager," Aunt Mei said. "I was thinking of bringing you some better ointment, but now it seems I don't need it."

“…Thank you, Aunt Mei.” Xiao Bai lowered her eyes.

“You weren’t hurt at all.” Aunt Mei slowly walked up to Xiaobai, looked down at him with a smile on her face, “The newly appointed dormitory manager didn’t punish you at all.”

"That's right." Xiaobai nodded.

“…Good girl, explain yourself?” Aunt Mei smiled.

"Because I saved his life," Xiaobai replied honestly. "He's repaying a debt of gratitude."

"Oh? When?"

“Just as I came in, you asked me to decide whether he should be punished or not,” Xiaobai replied. “I let him go, so he let me go too.”

"..."

Aunt Mei didn't speak, but just looked at Xiaobai, as if confirming Xiaobai's expression.

Xiao Bai, of course, met Aunt Mei's gaze directly, her eyes fixed on her like a clear, bottomless pool.

Aunt Mei smiled.

Aunt May laughed from the bottom of her heart. The wrinkles on her face gathered together, and she no longer looked kind and gentle. Instead, she grinned and snarled like a wild beast.

"Hahaha, oh dear..." Aunt Mei laughed a few times, her face relaxing and returning to its kind and gentle state. "Little girl, little girl, I've discovered that I'm starting to like you. You're just the kind of child I like."

Aunt Mei turned around and looked at the tall man outside the door.

"Gao Le, tell me, if this child hadn't let that dormitory supervisor off the hook, what would have happened to her delicate skin in just half an hour?"

"..." The tall man didn't speak, but just silently lowered his head.

Aunt Mei turned around and looked at Xiaobai with admiration.

"That's wonderful. I haven't seen a girl like you in so many years." Aunt Mei stretched out her hand and waved it in front of Xiaobai's eyes. "These eyes are so beautiful. The last person with such beautiful eyes was that boy Gao Le."

"...?" Xiaobai looked towards the door.

The tall man outside the door had eyes that were as still as a deep well, dark and unfathomable, like a lifeless pool.

Just as Xiaobai was looking at the tall man, Aunt Mei's hand was already on Xiaobai's face, her thumb gently pressing against Xiaobai's eyeball through her eyelid.

"My dear girl, but do you know what? Aunt Mei doesn't like overly clever children," Aunt Mei said softly to Xiaobai. "Especially domesticated children; they're too smart and hard to manage."

"..." Xiaobai closed one eye and looked at Aunt Mei with the other.

Aunt Mei didn't give a thumbs-up. She simply withdrew her finger and gently touched Xiaobai's cheek, giving her a deep look before sighing, "My dear girl, it would be so much better if you were a little uglier. What a pity..."

Aunt Mei turned and left the room, her sigh fading away like a flame that had been extinguished.

Gao Le, standing outside the door, quietly watched Xiao Bai inside. He reached out and closed the door, which creaked shut as silence returned to the room.

There were sounds of distant footsteps outside the door.

Xiaobai stood still, wiped her face and then her eyelids, before turning around to look at Miao Yan standing in the corner of the room.

Miao Yan slowly slid down the wall and sat weakly on the ground, panting heavily.

Xiao Bai walked over to Miao Yan and helped her up.

"Are you alright?" Xiaobai asked.

"..." Miao Yan seemed unwilling to answer the question. She simply shook her head, but looking at Xiao Bai, her gaze was filled with confusion, "...You...you're not afraid of her?"

"Aunt Mei?"

"……Yes."

"Not afraid."

Why aren't you afraid?

"I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid at all." Xiao Bai shook her head, then smiled at Miao Yan, "You should know who I really am, right?"

"..."

Miao Yan's gaze softened, as if she had given up on struggling, and she suddenly collapsed into Xiao Bai's arms.

“...I...I stole Aunt Mei’s things.”

Miao Yan whispered in Xiao Bai's ear in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz.

"Hidden in a place only I know..."

Chapter 3701 Opportunity to Go Out

Miao Yan's voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz, but it still reached Xiao Bai's ears clearly when it was close to his.

"……Eh?"

Xiaobai's eyes widened instinctively as she looked at Miao Yan.

"...You stole Aunt May's things?"

“…Hmm.” Miao Yan nodded slightly, her expression somber.

"What is it?" Xiaobai asked again.

“It’s… a phone card,” Miao Yan said softly.

"Phone card?"

“Aunt Mei is the village chief of this village, and everyone in this village is doing bad things for her… Besides those at the school, there are other factories, and other people living in the village are also responsible for purchasing supplies and helping to transport children, etc…” Miao Yan explained to Xiao Bai. She then whispered, “But… contacting sellers and some shady brokers has always been handled by Aunt Mei herself. She doesn’t allow anyone else to touch this…”

“Establishing sovereignty… well…” Xiaobai nodded as she listened to Miao Yan’s words.

“She has a phone card with a lot of intermediaries and sellers she can contact. It’s said to be the network of contacts that Aunt Mei built up over her whole life…” Miao Yan added.

"I see, it's such an important thing." Xiaobai nodded, pinching her chin as she looked at Miao Yan, her eyes gradually filled with admiration. "Impressive! This must be something more important to Aunt Mei than her lifeblood. Something that should be kept in a safe and carefully guarded would actually end up in your hands."

“…Hmm…” Miao Yan lowered her head, looking dejected, clutching the hem of her clothes with both hands.

Xiao Bai's praise for Miao Yan was heartfelt. She could tell that Miao Yan wasn't lying, which made her even more surprised that Miao Yan, as a trafficked little girl, could steal such a treasure from the Black Wowo leader.

That's a bit too dreamy, sister.

But Miao Yan didn't seem to feel any pride at all from being praised by Xiao Bai.

"So, is this why Aunt Mei has been ignoring you ever since we came back?" Xiao Bai then asked Miao Yan.

“Hmm…she wants her phone card back. She doesn’t want me to die. If I die, no one will tell her where the phone card is.” Miao Yan nodded, then added, “But she can’t let anyone else in the village know that her phone card is lost and in the hands of someone like me…because of this, she can’t even look at me, because that phone card is not only a connection in this village, but also crucial evidence of human trafficking in this village…”

"I understand." Xiaobai nodded.

After saying these words to Xiaobai, Miao Yan breathed a sigh of relief and her expression relaxed.

Perhaps she hasn't met someone she can trust in a very, very long time.

Xiao Bai gently rubbed Miao Yan's head and smiled warmly at her.

"Ms. Miao Yan, you did a great job. In this kind of environment, you were able to deal with criminals and do this. It is a remarkable achievement."

"..." Miao Yan's eyes reddened, her lips trembled, and she subconsciously pouted, but then calmed down. By the end, her voice was even so soft and incoherent, "I...I didn't actually do anything...It all...happened to me inexplicably...Aunt Mei won't let me go...She will definitely take the phone card back from me...She must have a plan, it's only a matter of time...She's not doing anything to me, she's just waiting for me to hand the phone card back voluntarily, so that she might let me die more easily...I can't give it to her...I want to give it to her...I can't give it to her..."

As Miao Yan finished speaking, she even began to ramble and contradict herself.

"..." Xiaobai looked at Miao Yan, who seemed to want to cry but dared not, and sighed softly before reaching out to hug her.

Miao Yan was exhausted in many ways.

For a girl her age and with her experiences, what she is going through is indeed exhausting, both physically and mentally.

Xiao Bai released a small amount of the Admiral's Network to soothe Miao Yan's emotions.

Miao Yan's emotions were filled with a series of negative feelings, such as restlessness, unease, fear, and sorrow. These emotions were tangled up like a mess in her already exhausted and emaciated body. This kind of quiet despair was the type that Xiao Bai was not good at comforting. Xiao Bai's online admiral spent half an hour and could only barely stabilize Miao Yan's emotions from the brink of collapse.

Xiao Bai and Miao Yan sat on the bed. Miao Yan raised her arm to wipe her eyes and sniffed repeatedly.

Just as Xiaobai was about to organize her thoughts to comfort Miao Yan, she suddenly heard a gurgling sound coming from Miao Yan's stomach.

Xiao Bai closed his mouth and looked at Miao Yan's stomach.

Miao Yan lowered her head, clutching her stomach, her face ashen.

“It’s very common here…they don’t let us eat our fill…” Miao Yan said softly.

"Oh...yes..."

Xiaobai nodded. She recalled the food in the cafeteria today: just a spoonful of rice porridge, all overcooked and bloated. How could that possibly fill her stomach?

Moreover, Miao Yan and other children had to endure endless and repetitive physical labor every day, which eventually drained their bodies and minds.

Thinking of this, Xiao Bai suddenly smiled at Miao Yan.

Xiao Bai thought for a moment, then reached into her clothes, opened her ship equipment space, and took out a small cream-filled cookie.

"Hungry? Here, have some."

Under Miao Yan's shocked gaze, Xiao Bai placed the sandwich cookie in Miao Yan's hand.

"This...this is a cookie? How did you bring it in?" Miao Yan looked at her hand in shock, her mouth slightly agape as she looked at Xiaobai.

"You know, I'm pretty familiar with the dorm manager here," Xiaobai said with an air of seriousness.

"Aunt Mei, she'll be very angry if she finds out."