Chapter 310: If Reason Won

"Fine, you! While we weren't watching, you sneaked out. I think you want to die!"

"You disgraceful, shameless thing, come back with us, hurry back with us!"

Six or seven villagers, holding plows, brandishing farm tools, angrily jumped down from the tractor.

Among them, a roughly fifty‑year‑old fierce woman rushed forward, grabbed the woman's hair and gave it a hard yank.

During the ordeal, she kept pinching the woman's arm and thigh; the woman, in pain, cried and wailed, repeatedly shouting for help.

The sudden scene shocked He Zhen Tao and the others; their minds couldn't process it for a moment.

Lu Yang, quick‑eyed and swift‑handed, tore the fierce woman away, shielding the woman, and demanded angrily.

"Why are you hitting people?"

"I'm disciplining our family's daughter‑in‑law; what does it have to do with you, you stinky soldier? Get out of the way!"

"Your daughter‑in‑law?"

Lu Yang turned his head; the woman, crying, shook her head: "I'm not— I—I don't know her at all. I was …"

Before the woman could finish, the fierce woman lunged forward, desperately covering her mouth: "You whore, you still dare say you don't know me? Our family fed you, gave you drink, treated you like an ancestor!"

"Skinny as a rib, you don't even know what my son saw in you!"

"Come with me quickly, or I'll break your legs!"

"I won't go back, I won't leave, I won't go back!"

The fierce woman, snarling and clawing, tried to strike again, this time without Lu Yang intervening.

Liu Ziqiang and Sun Chen, the two hulking enforcers, simply pushed the woman away.

Although the fierce woman was broad‑shouldered and stout, accustomed to farming, she could not possibly match the strength of the two veterans.

The shove wasn't serious, but it almost made the woman squat on her butt; behind her, two men—apparently her husband and son—waved farm tools, ready to clash fiercely with Liu Ziqiang and the other.

Fortunately, the fresh recruits stepped in, restraining them from acting rashly, lest emotions flare into chaos.

The scene grew increasingly chaotic, and more and more villagers rushed over upon hearing the news to watch the spectacle.

People kept talking over each other, pointing fingers; some spoke in a thick dialect that nobody could understand.

Lu Yang and He Zhen Tao hadn't expected such a turn of events; they exchanged a glance.

As the two highest‑ranking officers in the unit, they remained calm.

He glanced at the young woman behind, her face full of terror, then at the fierce woman's and her relatives' saliva‑spitting, ugly faces.

Considering the current surroundings, certain keywords surfaced almost subconsciously in his mind.

Deep mountains, a woman, trafficking, human traffickers.

But whether it truly matches their suspicion still needed clarification.

If it's a blunder, if they've got it wrong, that would be bad.

At that moment, a motorcycle at the rear sputtered black smoke; the village party secretary had rushed over upon hearing the commotion.

"Comrade of the PLA, it's a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding."

The secretary, in his sixties, wore a dark‑blue cadre cap, dressed decently, and gave the impression of someone who knows how to handle affairs.

In fact, when Lu Yang and his group arrived yesterday, they had already met him and learned his surname was Sun.

The village secretary first shooed the villagers away, then took out a pack of cigarettes and handed two to He Zhen Tao and Lu Yang.

"Here, two leaders, have a cigarette, have a cigarette."

"No thanks."

He Zhen Tao declined decisively and asked straightaway: "Secretary Sun, please explain to us what exactly is going on?"

Secretary Sun, seeing the crowd's confused eyes, pulled He Zhen Tao and Lu Yang aside and lit a cigarette for himself, looking weary.

"Ah, you two soldier comrades may not know, this woman is no good person!"

"She pretended to be a marriage prospect, swindled several ten‑thousands of bride price money; our village families live in the mountains, living off the sky, those tens of thousands are life itself…"

"With the wedding scheduled for next month, this woman kept crying and making a ruckus, causing the whole village to be in chaos; now she only thinks of escaping, how can that be…"

Lu Yang asked: "Which one is the groom?"

Secretary Sun, holding his cigarette, pointed beside the fierce woman: "There, that's the one—handsome and good‑looking; how did he end up with such a daughter‑in‑law, truly a sin!"

Lu Yang and the other turned to look, seeing a man in his early forties, disheveled, with slanted, crooked eyebrows, looking somewhat mentally unsteady.

This thing can be called handsome and good‑looking? Clearly he's spouting nonsense with his eyes open.

Lu Yang: "Comrade, we can't just take your one‑sided story; we need to ask the girl herself."

Secretary Sun's smile stiffened briefly, but he didn't stop: "Ask away, ask away, but I must tell you beforehand that the woman talks nonsense, not a single true word. Supposedly she used to work as a masseuse girl."

"Ah, the police station comrades had previously been called in, and finally they gave her a scolding."

"Police came?"

"Exactly! As I say, a family's shame shouldn't be aired. You should leave quickly; our village committee will handle the mediation."

These words gave Lu Yang and the other a hint of doubt.

If it truly is a human‑trafficking case, why didn't the police take the person away after arriving?

But the woman's answer was completely opposite to the secretary's; in her account, she was on a job hunt when she was lured here.

"Nonsense, you're a liar, a female liar!"

"You swindled our family's money, cheated my son's affection, and now you disgrace us, you slut!"

The fierce woman's family shouted loudly, degrading the woman as a lowly worker in that line of work.

Facing villagers' pointing, cold stares, and verbal attacks, the woman's condition teetered on the brink of collapse.

She tried to speak several times, but was repeatedly cut off; finally Lu Yang shouted for everyone to shut up, giving the woman a chance to speak.

The woman, wiping her tears, stammered: "My name is… my name is Cheng Yuanyuan. I am a graduate student in law at Jiangcheng University; I graduated last year, and was introduced to intern at a law firm in Yangcheng."

"Then on the train I met an old lady who said her homestead had been seized and asked me to help her."

I think the old lady looks quite pitiful, and the law firm really needs some successful cases, so I came.

It turned out I didn't expect to run into human traffickers; they beat me, cursed me, denied me food and drink, forced me to marry their son, and even said they had already given the money to my mother...

The new recruits were full of anger; it was basically certain that this woman had been trafficked.

A law graduate student, trafficked to the mountains, just thinking about it sends chills down one's spine.

The fierce woman kept shouting, Zhang mouth open and close she was lying, then tried to come over to snatch the person.

But with so many soldiers, they're not vegetarians; they were directly blocked from three layers inside and three layers outside.

He Zhen Tao, after all, had also attended a military academy, and directly asked her: "What is your mentor's name, what is your student number, on which day of the week does your group meet, and in which month did you graduate?"

"My mentor is called xxx, student number 2006xxx, the group meets on Wednesdays, once a week; I graduated last December, and extended my graduation by half a year."

"Hmm."

He Zhen Tao nodded at Lu Yang, fully confirming the woman's graduate‑student status.

For graduate students, delayed graduation is normal; laypeople generally aren't aware of this.

Even less likely to know that those who graduate in December have a half‑year extension.

Since that's the case, they can't ignore this matter.

"You get in the vehicle first."

Lu Yang opened the van door and let the woman get in first.

Kang Changyi received the look, immediately started the vehicle, preparing to take the person to a safe area.

What follows, follow the procedures, report to the police, there's nothing more to say.

What was unexpected is that when Lu Yang and the others tried to forcibly take the woman away, the onlooking villagers, who had been somewhat rational before, all, incited by the fierce woman's family, went mad and rushed toward the van.

These people were like locusts, encircling the silver little van, preparing to flip the vehicle.

Kang Changyi was also shocked by this scene; the sight completely overturned his initial impression of this picturesque mountain village when he first arrived.

He felt his worldview and values were now fractured, and he never expected that villagers who seemed "simple and kind" yesterday would today all become accomplices of the traffickers.

The van shook violently, as if it could overturn at any moment.

The woman hiding in the vehicle covered her head, terrified to the point of mental collapse.

Kang Changyi was full of anger, yet had nowhere to release it.

The accelerator was under his foot, but the consequences of pressing it were beyond what he could bear.

Comrade Sun, as if he enjoyed the spectacle and didn't mind the trouble, squatted on a large stone beside them, a cigarette in his mouth, seeming to have long been accustomed to such scenes.

He kept waving his hand and shouting, urging the villagers to snatch the person back.

The new recruits couldn't act against the villagers; they could only try to push people away, and many ended up getting injured.

Seeing the situation spiral out of control, He Zhen Tao was frantic, his efforts to dissuade were utterly useless.

Lu Yang, watching this absurd and ridiculous scene, knew that reasoning was definitely useless.

He went to the troop‑transport vehicle behind, opened its door, and got in.

"Lu Yang, you......?"

"Grab something."

"You wouldn't...!?"

Under Cheng Jun's seat there was an 81‑caliber rifle, the only one, kept for self‑defense.

However, they were not issued live rounds, only an empty magazine of dummy rounds.

The purpose was to repel unlawful elements in special circumstances.

Lu Yang gave no further explanation, pulling the gun out from under his seat.

He swiftly loaded the bullet, pulled the bolt, pointed the barrel upward, and pulled the trigger.

Da da da......!

Deafening, it echoed through the valley!

The now‑mad villagers and the fierce woman's family instantly fell silent, staring in terror at the gun in Lu Yang's hand!

Lu Yang exhaled: As expected, when reason fails, you have to speak the truth!