Chapter 18: First Encounter, No Good Impressions

Those people heard Yu Zihan’s words. As they listened closely to the sounds outside, they began to feel a sense of panic rising in their hearts.

“Run,” a small, slender man whispered.

Hearing the man’s voice, the group orderly rushed toward the backyard, their speed comparable to that of fleeing rabbits.

“Catch them! We can’t let them get away; we need to take revenge!” Yu Zihan shouted loudly. She knew these people were at the end of their ropes, but she wanted the girls to vent their anger and experience the taste of being beaten.

Upon hearing Yu Zihan’s shout, the girls felt as if they had been injected with adrenaline. They revived and raised their weapons, chasing after the men.

This time, the girls put in all their effort. The men were on the verge of being caught; they couldn’t let them escape. Each girl used her unique skills to block the fleeing men.

The panicked men, desperate to escape, had no intention of fighting back, so they were restrained by this group of girls.

Gu Jingxuan, leading the team into the courtyard, heard Yu Zihan’s sharp cry.

He quickly scanned the surroundings and, seeing that the girls were not in danger, he chose not to rush his team into the fight.

What he did not realize was that this very decision caused Yu Zihan to feel dissatisfied with him, affecting his long and arduous journey to win her back.

A group of girls wielded various tools — hoes, shovels, hammers — chasing after a crowd of frantically fleeing men.

Several men had already climbed up the wall, only to be met by a girl behind them, swinging a hammer and smashing it onto their feet. The man let out a scream and fell from the wall.

Gu Jingxuan observed among the crowd a girl with two small braids who was jumping up and down energetically. She was nimble and used a stick to poke at those who had climbed up the wall, her strength so substantial it could have dislodged them.

Gu Jingxuan’s eyes widened at the sight.

The other officers were thinking, “Could it be that the person who reported the case was lying? This scene doesn’t look like the girls are being persecuted at all.”

After successfully knocking a trafficker to the ground, Yu Zihan turned around to find a group of men watching her and the girls fight.

Her temper flared immediately. After desperately calling for help, the people they waited for ended up doing nothing but standing there watching.

She angrily shouted, “You’re here to catch traffickers, and you’re just standing there watching the show?”

Exhausted, her tone was inevitably unfriendly, the once-clear voice now laced with obvious anger.

Gu Jingxuan heard her voice and twitched his mouth slightly. “Aren’t you going to catch the people?” His cold voice echoed in the courtyard, and it was as if the officers woke from a dream. They began to take action against those still thinking of escaping.

In no time, all the men were caught. The yard was filled with cries of “Ah! Oh!”

After putting silver bracelets on the captured men, the girls did not let them off easily. They hadn’t forgotten that these were monsters in human skin, engaging in bestial acts.

The longstanding resentment couldn’t be easily erased.

Under Yu Zihan’s lead, they specifically targeted these men’s groins, regardless of what kind of weapon they held, just aiming for those vulnerable spots.

Gu Jingxuan and his teammates watched the scene, turning a blind eye. They could see from the girls that they had suffered dearly. In their eyes, those men deserved to be punished, and it was only natural for the girls to vent their frustrations.

However, what did the two neatly dressed girls mean? They didn’t look like they had been violated, yet their attacks were fiercer than anyone else’s.

Especially that beautiful girl, her movements were clean and decisive. Watching her actions made the men involuntarily tighten their thighs.

“Just looking at it hurts,” they thought, imagining it would hurt even more.

“Stop it!” Gu Jingxuan felt that if he didn’t intervene, those people would be finished on the spot. Regardless, there was still a process to follow, and it wouldn’t be good if someone died at this time.

The girls were forced to stop their actions by Gu Jingxuan’s command. They didn’t understand why they couldn’t bring themselves to like such a handsome man.

Perhaps it was because they had just entered the door and had not immediately captured those traffickers, instead choosing to watch the show.

So they had no good feelings toward the person in front of them.

Especially Yu Zihan, who had disliked this man from the start. He hadn’t actively pursued the traffickers when he entered; instead, he brazenly chose to watch the show, observing them fight while he seemed to enjoy it. She suspected that such a person had slipped into the police force due to improper connections.

“Hmph, a government official who doesn’t serve the people might as well go home and grow sweet potatoes. What a waste of this skin,” she muttered softly, glancing up to see that he wasn’t even wearing a uniform.

She didn’t realize that her words had reached Gu Jingxuan’s ears.

Gu Jingxuan thought to himself about how he had provoked this little firecracker and wondered why she had such a poor impression of him.

He didn’t have time to dwell on this; he needed to deal with the mess in front of him.

He was not a local police officer but the captain of a special forces unit stationed in the capital.

This time, they had received orders to support areas where traffickers were rampant. Unexpectedly, he had just arrived when this operation began. He calmly arranged the next steps in the face of the emergency.

“You’re all victims, right? Come back with us to the station to give a statement,” he said in a businesslike manner to the girls in front of him.

At this point, the outside was already crowded with people, and the crowd buzzed with discussions upon seeing the girls.

“Whose daughters are these? How pitiful, going through such a thing; how can they live with their heads held high afterward?”

“I say, their families are really unfortunate to have such a person; the whole family is looked down upon.”

“Really, look at them; how can they still have the face to live? If it were me, I’d just end it all.”

The girls knew they would face negative comments after coming out. However, they hadn’t expected to be greeted with such malicious remarks right away.

Hearing the crowd’s discussions, Yu Zihan thought to herself that these people didn’t realize their careless words were like knives, cutting into the wounds of the victims.

Moreover, such irresponsible speech could very well lead a decent person to lose their life. A kind word can warm three winters, while harsh words can chill a person in June.

She couldn’t let these already wounded people suffer more harm. While she couldn’t stop those people’s mouths, she wanted to give her sisters some encouragement.

She spoke to the despondent girls, “The mouths are on others; we can’t control them. But we must respect ourselves. Was it our choice for such things to happen?

Now that the worst has happened, the only thing we can do is to have unwavering faith. We must live better than anyone else.

Right now, we can be hurt by these rumors simply because we are too weak. When we become strong enough, those people will only have the chance to look up to us, and they won’t dare to talk about us casually again.”

Yu Zihan comforted the girls. She had no other ability at the moment, so she could only encourage them. She didn’t want them to step out of the wolf’s den only to fall into the tiger’s lair of gossip.

The girls listened to Yu Zihan’s words and looked at her with grateful eyes. Nearby, Zhou Mengrui gazed at her good friend with immense admiration.

After this incident, Zhou Mengrui realized how brave and loyal Yu Zihan was. She knew that Yu Zihan had the ability to escape when she saw her being captured, but she had bravely rushed into the tiger’s den to save her. This bond of friendship was something she would never forget.

Following behind them, Gu Jingxuan was struck by Yu Zihan’s words.

This girl could actually say such things; she was indeed extraordinary. Most girls would be scared out of their wits in such situations, and even the bold ones would be too discouraged by the gossip to lift their heads.

Yet she could articulate such unique sentiments; this girl was truly remarkable.