Chapter 80: Why Are You Using Provocation Now?

That’s a brutal name… Yu Dazhang felt his heart quicken.

Things that were once uncertain now seemed confirmed.

No wonder Zhang Sen was so nervous—anyone hearing that name would be shaken.

“Who gave it that name?” Yu Dazhang wanted to confirm again.

“I don’t know,” Zhang Sen looked equally helpless:

“An aunt told me—many years ago, a group of people in town clashed with those on the mountain.”

“After that, people began secretly referring to the village on the mountain.”

It’s probably not fake… Yu Dazhang quickly formed a judgment in his mind.

The older men had mentioned the fight before.

But they never named the village—looks like I came back too early; they probably haven’t gotten to that yet.

This is the advantage of splitting up to gather information.

First, you can uncover different details.

Second, when you get the same information from multiple sources, it increases credibility.

Now Yu Dazhang was certain: the two missing officers must have gathered similar information before deciding to go up the mountain.

Undoubtedly, Shuishouyingzi Village was their final destination.

All clues now pointed to that village.

At this stage of the investigation, Yu Dazhang hesitated.

The best course now was to report the situation, but they had no direct evidence.

So far, they only had clues.

And clues are fundamentally different from evidence.

There was another option.

Like the two missing officers, go up the mountain to find evidence.

It was a good idea—but Yu Dazhang dared only think it in his mind.

It wasn’t that he was cowardly; there were already precedents. To risk going up the mountain again was tantamount to suicide.

At this point, someone might be wondering:

It’s 2014—could something this absurd still exist?

Like a den of dragons and tigers.

It exists, and there are many such places.

Check online yourself—many films and TV shows are based on real events.

I won’t list them.

Yu Dazhang had previously learned the origin of Shuishouyingzi from the older men.

He’d also deduced some key insights from it.

People who spend their lives sailing have certain traits.

One: they’ve been to many countries.

Though they didn’t live long-term in those places, their exposure was far greater than ordinary people’s.

Precisely because of that exposure, if they turned to criminal schemes, they might do things others couldn’t imagine.

Two: this job directly affects marriage.

Humans are emotional creatures.

Though distance can create beauty, and short separations renew affection, prolonged absence doesn’t work.

The wife at home grows lonely or falls prey to outside temptations.

The husband, stuck on a ship for years, can’t endure it either—he’s easily tempted when docking in foreign ports.

One partner cheating is bad enough; mutual cheating? How could life go on?

This made it harder and harder for lifelong sailors to find partners.

Combining these two points, Yu Dazhang reached his own conclusion.

A group of people who spent their lives drifting at sea now settled in a remote mountain village.

If they stopped sailing, what was their income source?

They must have found a new way to make money.

Why choose the mountain?

Far from the emperor’s reach.

Their money-making scheme was almost certainly illegal. In modern terms: the more remote the area, the weaker the legal awareness.

Is that really true?

Even if legal awareness is weak, can’t they still tell right from wrong?

So Yu Dazhang reached his final conclusion in his mind: the people on the mountain had planned this for a long time.

“Senior Zhang, report the situation to the branch team.”

There was no other choice now.

Yu Dazhang believed the branch leadership, once informed, would make the right judgment.

Since they were a team, he naturally needed to inform Zhang Sen before reporting.

“Not investigating further?” Zhang Sen stared at him.

He looked like he still wanted to keep digging.

“We’ve checked everything we could,” Yu Dazhang sighed:

“You saw it too—all clues point to Shuishouyingzi Village, but that place isn’t something we can go into. Let the team handle the rest.”

Please… you… collect 6…9…books…!

It was clear he was just as helpless.

He also understood what Zhang Sen was thinking: he wanted to find direct evidence himself and rescue the missing officers as soon as possible.

Put plainly, Zhang Sen wanted to save his own master.

Personal emotion was at play here.

If the two missing officers were just ordinary colleagues, he wouldn’t have risked himself.

Strictly speaking, Zhang Sen shouldn’t even have been assigned to this case.

“Why can’t we go?” Zhang Sen fixed his gaze on Yu Dazhang:

“We’ve got two people and two guns—why should we fear them?”

The two missing officers thought the same thing… Yu Dazhang didn’t want to crush him, so he soothed:

“I know you’re desperate, but don’t rush—this kind of thinking will mess things up. Don’t fall for lone-hero nonsense.”

“Don’t give me that crap,” Zhang Sen snapped, pointing at him:

“Are you scared?!”

Yu Dazhang truly wanted to punch him in the face.

They were colleagues, got along well—why resort to goading?

“Fine, fine, I’m scared, I’m scared, alright?” He forced down his anger, speaking as calmly as he could:

“Senior Zhang, some mountain villages are paradises—but others are… hells on earth.”

To ordinary people, trafficking falls into two categories:

1, trafficking women for marriage.

2, trafficking children for lineage.

In reality, these are just the surface.

The truth is far more complex, darker, and crueler.

Globally, about three hundred thousand people are trafficked to Europe each year.

Women forced into prostitution, men forced into labor.

“Labor” is a euphemism—it’s slavery.

Why are women the primary victims of trafficking?

Because they’re expensive and easier to control.

A young woman can bring a trafficker at least 100,000 yuan per month.

They’re forced to serve clients daily, living in hell.

Reality is brutally harsh—in many places we never see, unspeakable crimes occur.

Yu Dazhang had once pondered a question:

Why had the police never uncovered it?

“Far from the emperor’s reach” was a major factor—but not enough.

The most important factor was the market.

If they sold the victims across the country, they’d have been discovered long ago.

Hundreds of trafficking cases are solved annually within China.

If even one or two victims connected to this village were rescued, the place would be exposed.

The probability was extremely high.

But if they smuggled people overseas, the outcome was entirely different.

For the country, this person was as if he had vanished from the face of the earth.

(End of Chapter)