Judge of Souls - Chapter 88

In the locked room, Tian Guang stood by the door crack, desperately peering outside, trying to see what the villagers intended to do.

Everyone wanted to crowd around Jiang Feng, but Jiang Feng disliked this feeling of being surrounded and held up his hand in front of him, signaling them to step back.

Ji Ruxi asked, “Taoist Master Jiang, so when will your fellow Taoist arrive?”

Tian Guang turned his head back with a serious expression. “I think now it’s no longer a question of whether we’ll encounter ghosts or not. These villagers look… very sinister. When they saw us return…they were sharpening knives.”

Ji Ruxi shivered.

The investor had been sitting to one side from beginning to end, keeping his head down without saying a word.

Jiang Feng said to him, “You can tell us now what you came here to do. If you still don’t speak, we have no idea how things will develop. The strangeness of this village – I think you should know what’s causing it. How many times have you come to Shanyuan Village?”

The investor put down the bag in his hands, took out a laptop from inside, turned it on, and turned the screen toward the group. His voice carried indescribable weariness. “My daughter went missing here.”

On the screen was a girl with delicate features, carrying a hiking backpack, with a background that looked very much like somewhere outside Shanyuan Village.

The investor touched the screen with his finger and said, “When she graduated from university, she came here traveling with others, and suddenly lost contact. I used every method to search for her, but she vanished like she’d evaporated from the world, completely disappeared.”

“Like the professor and the others, she went missing?” Ji Ruxi swallowed and said agitatedly, “Then you should have said so earlier!”

After speaking, she remembered and sat back down sheepishly, “Oh wait, even if you had told us, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

The show’s theme was exploring a ghost village, and they had even hired a Taoist priest. People had said it countless times, but they only thought about ratings, explosive content, and pay. They even thought Jiang Feng was just a delusional young man.

“No, no.” The investor shook his head. “She wasn’t taken away by ghosts. I actually didn’t expect there would really be ghosts here… She was captured by these people!”

Kong Su: “What?”

Ji Ruxi thought of the people outside sharpening knives and gasped sharply, saying in horror, “So your daughter… was eaten by them?”

Everyone: “……”

Kong Su said in defeat, “Is your imagination too wild, or is your IQ in arrears?”

“Just tell us what’s happening now!” Ji Ruxi slapped her leg. “I’m too kind-hearted and can’t bear to imagine the darkness behind it all. You should just tell us directly.”

Mr. Yu had been searching for his daughter for three years. He was an overseas Chinese with no connections in the country. Although he had money, he had no channels, and in this era, he couldn’t accomplish anything.

Initially, Miss Yu had decided to take a road trip after graduating from university, together with several classmates. The chosen destination wasn’t originally Shanyuan Village, but the main city of D Province. The last scenic spot they selected happened to be not far from Shanyuan Village.

Mr. Yu had only told her to have fun and hadn’t stopped her. He had always believed that the domestic situation was very safe.

That day, the five classmates’ travel plan was about to end, and they were preparing to go home. At that time, D Province was affected by a typhoon, with continuous heavy rain. The mountain road ahead was blocked by fallen logs and scattered rocks washed down by the rainwater.

The only road back was thus blocked, and they needed to wait for the transportation department to clear the road surface before they could leave.

At that time, they still felt fortunate that at least they hadn’t encountered landslides while driving through the night. As long as safety was ensured, waiting a while was no big deal.

However, there were problems with a long stretch of road ahead, requiring a large workload. In addition, this area usually didn’t have much foot traffic, and this typhoon’s impact was too widespread. The city center needed more urgent rescue, so the project here was temporarily delayed. The construction workers said they needed several more days and suggested they return to D Province’s city center to wait for the rain to stop.

The group didn’t want to sleep on the streets, nor did they want to go back. They accidentally discovered Shanyuan Village on the map, found it interesting, and decided to come here to stay for one night.

This photo was what she had taken and sent to Mr. Yu.

At that time, the two were still in contact, but after Miss Yu entered the mountains, the signal was cut off. Mr. Yu had originally thought it was because the mountain signal was poor, but unexpectedly, after two or three days, he still couldn’t contact his daughter, and only then did he realize something was wrong.

All five students from the road trip – three women and two men – had disappeared.

Mr. Yu immediately reported to the police and flew back from abroad to personally investigate this matter. However, after the local police filed the case, they searched the mountain several times, found no trace of the group, and put the matter aside.

Mr. Yu had also followed the team in several searches. Because it had been raining those days, pedestrian tracks had all been washed away, making it very difficult to find clues.

Mr. Yu then suspected there was a problem with Shanyuan Village. He went to the police station several times to urge them to solve the case, but finally discovered it was useless. The police here didn’t really care about matters, and conversely, they had very good relationships with the villagers of Shanyuan Village. They called the villagers over, roughly recorded their statements once, then used those statements to brush him off, telling him that without concrete evidence, the police couldn’t conduct deeper investigations. Moreover, it wasn’t even certain whether the missing people had disappeared in the mountain forest, and perhaps it had nothing to do with Shanyuan Village at all. Since all the villagers said they hadn’t seen the victims, it was very likely true. It couldn’t be that the entire village was lying together, could it?

Mr. Yu argued reasonably, saying they should at least investigate the village once – five people couldn’t just vanish into thin air. But the local police believed that since the five people weren’t carrying any valuable items at the time, and the most valuable thing was actually their car, which had been found intact, it didn’t fit the pattern of murder for money. They might have gone somewhere else and encountered an accident, or fallen off a cliff or something similar. The police would continue searching and asked him to go back and wait for news.

The investor covered his face in anguish. “I was almost driven to madness with anger. I used all my rationality to restrain myself from smashing that police station. But I couldn’t go crazy there – I still had to find my daughter, at any cost! She might still be suffering somewhere unknown. What use was all the money I’d earned? I would gladly pay hundreds of millions for my daughter’s life, but they killed her for just tens of thousands? My God! I would rather they had kidnapped her!”

Hearing him speak this way, Jiang Feng could tell his tone was very certain, and frowned. “Why are you so sure it was the people of Shanyuan Village who did it? Didn’t the police say there was no evidence? I think you might be too heartbroken and therefore biased.”

The investor exhaled, his eyes glistening with tears. “I hired a private detective to help me investigate this matter.”

The private detective’s opinion was the same as the investor’s – he found the residents of Shanyuan Village very suspicious.

Since the five people had said they were going to Shanyuan Village, the villagers very likely had seen them, after all, in this entire mountain forest, Shanyuan Village was the only village.

With too little known information, he tried to extract information from the villagers, but these people were extremely guarded, refusing to reveal any information, showing obvious hostility toward outsiders.

When outsiders were present, the village atmosphere was quite gloomy. Villagers rarely engaged in outdoor activities, keeping doors and windows tightly shut, uniformly excluding outsiders.

This behavior deepened the detective’s suspicions by another layer.

Where did this hostility come from? Was it wariness or guilt?

Additionally, the way the village maintained its operations was also very strange to him. It was completely different from generally developing villages.

The detective felt he might have encountered the legendary human trafficking village. Out of justice, he began to lurk in the shadows, observing this place long-term.

Two months later, a group of young people entered the village from the main road and received a warm welcome from the villagers. He guessed these people were original residents of the village.

Because the private detective couldn’t stay in the village, he could only observe from afar, so he was unable to know most of what happened in the village. He only saw that two days later, a group of people came back down from the mountain.

The detective drove to follow them but accidentally lost them. He only knew they had gone all the way to E Province.

The detective reported the matter to Mr. Yu, and relying on his connections built over many years, he inquired around E Province’s underground related markets. He asked many people engaged in fringe industries and actually heard some rumors about Shanyuan Village.

The investor said, “Yes! It’s a human trafficking village! Now they’ve become much more restrained, starting to transfer their market elsewhere to eliminate suspicion of themselves. Even if you search, you won’t find anything now!”

“This remote village has low productivity and has always been poor. In the earliest times, villagers bought wives from other places to bear offspring. Later, as the economy developed and technology advanced, the new generation of young people wanted to go out and make their way in the world. When they reached big cities and saw the bright lights and witnessed some dark industries, some people got bad ideas. They forced their wives to entertain clients and began the prostitution business…” The investor pressed his lips together and continued, “This kind of ill-gotten money was easy to earn and effortless. Their appetite grew bigger and bigger until, under someone’s leadership, they began the human trafficking trade.”

“When they first started, they brought people back to hide in the village, which was dangerous and easy to get caught. Later, they found connections and these people came up with new ideas. Human trafficking had high risks and low returns, so they began doing business related to organ trading. Later, they somehow connected with certain people and started doing surrogacy business too.” The investor’s voice choked up. “Men would be sold as cheap labor, and beautiful women would be sold to Thailand, India, the Netherlands – places where surrogacy and prostitution are legal. All involuntary acts would be made voluntary, made legal. They have no passports, can’t speak the language, have special people watching them, and simply can’t escape. Even if they do escape, in those foreign legal red-light districts, even the police are regular clients who would help employers catch escaped women and bring them back. In places like that, there is no hope…”

“Especially surrogacy… wealthy people also like to find highly educated, beautiful Oriental women. Many are trafficked there. I’ve been there, investigated, searched many places, but found nothing. I don’t know where my daughter went – now only they know!”

Ji Ruxi said quietly, “Call… the police?”

“There’s no evidence, just no evidence!” The investor roared at them, his face flushed red with agitation. “I know all the truth but I just have no evidence! What can I do? Who can I turn to?”

He said, “I know the country is making efforts, but they need too much time to destroy one den, and I can’t wait that long – my daughter can’t wait either! She might no longer be in the country, might even no longer be alive. Who will save her? Huh?”

Jiang Feng: “So you brought us here, actually hoping to use the opportunity to find evidence of this village’s human trafficking?”

The investor nodded heavily. “Yes! I’ve deployed drones nearby, planted listening devices and surveillance equipment. I don’t believe they haven’t left any traces! I want to broadcast it live in front of everyone!”

That’s why he had hired popular celebrities and had everyone keep their phones on for continuous livestreaming, including while sleeping. This way, overall there wouldn’t be much danger, as they wouldn’t dare make moves easily.

The investor half-cried, half-laughed. “But I didn’t expect this place would actually be haunted. Ha, I never thought there would really be ghosts in this world? But if there are ghosts, why are those people outside still alive? Why weren’t they the ones who disappeared? Are even the dead unfair? Why!”

His expression was obviously wrong, he couldn’t catch his breath, his eyes rolled back, and he looked like he was about to faint. The surgeon wasn’t there now, so Kong Su quickly brought over a cup of water for him, helping him calm down and drink it while patting his back to help him breathe.

Jiang Feng said, “Calm down first. If this place is haunted and if there really is human trafficking here, then there must be a connection between the two. Missing is much better than death – perhaps they’re still alive.”

The investor suddenly looked up at him.

Now the live comments truly went crazy.

“Holy sh*t, is this real or fake?”

“Feels very real.”

“Publicity stunt? Show gimmick? Can’t understand.”

“Damn, do live shows nowadays need this kind of explosive content to survive?!”

“Now that it’s been livestreamed, haven’t they alerted the enemy?”

“Ahhh what can we do? Besides calling 110, what else can we do?!”

“By the way, reminder – wiretapped content still can’t be used as evidence…”

“Early morning… so riveting!”

“Damn, don’t forget they’re still in the thieves’ den – is it really okay to say this out loud?”

The investor was about to approach Jiang Feng when rhythmic knocking sounded outside.

Tian Guang shuddered, and everyone fell silent, frozen in place.

A woman’s voice called out energetically, “It’s me! Huang Yu! Little rabbits, open the door quickly!”

Jiang Feng reassured everyone and went to open the door.

Huang Yu hadn’t been seen for a long time. She walked in carrying a stick on her back. Climbing the mountain had made her sweat all over, her short sleeves were soaked, and the hair on her forehead was matted in strands.

Jiang Feng asked, “Did you come alone?”

Huang Yu: “Yes!”

Jiang Feng: “Then can you take us out?”

“I don’t know – it’s all foggy outside, you can’t see anything from a distance. I felt my way here. It’s better to wait until the weather clears before going out. But it doesn’t matter, the police will be here soon anyway, so everything will be fine then.” Huang Yu raised her phone. “By the way, your show’s effect is really good to watch. Old Ye said the authorities are monitoring the stream simultaneously. With things having escalated this much, he told everyone to wait peacefully for the police station’s special service. They’ll try to add an egg for you when the time comes.”

Jiang Feng: “……”

Huang Yu gestured to everyone to turn off the livestream first, then closed the door with her foot and walked in.

Not to mention that accusing the village of human trafficking without evidence constituted slander, just the supernatural ghostly incidents that had appeared, considering the sensation and impact they would cause in society, they would have to take responsibility for the show being a scripted prank.

Everyone complied, turning off their phones and computers, then looked at her waiting for instructions.

Huang Yu: “Everyone sit properly. Is everyone okay?”

Ji Ruxi asked, “Why haven’t the police come yet? You got here faster than them?”

“They can’t get in – they’re already blocking the area outside. Just like when you tried to leave, no matter what they do, they keep going in circles and just can’t enter. I used a talisman to guide me here first, leaving them to wait for the next batch of Taoist priests.” Huang Yu said, “In my entire life! This is the first time I’ve encountered such a massive supernatural incident. Amazing, babies!”