The Trafficked College Student 05

The person who hit her seemed unsatisfied and was about to strike again when someone stopped him.

"Enough already. We still need her to take care of us," another old man said, his face showing a hint of fear. "Have you forgotten Old Fang's words?"

Fang Zhiyi had left this unconscious girl here, telling them not to abuse her but to let her care for them in their old age. These elderly folks had been treated and then sent back because they were too old and disabled to be held accountable. Instead, the authorities had rounded up the able-bodied young men from the village.

Bai Xue felt as if the sky had collapsed, but she was powerless. To prevent her from escaping, they had shackled her with heavy chains. Wherever she went, an elderly man with intact legs would follow, tied to her by the same rope.

"No, this isn’t how it should be!" Bai Xue jolted awake from her dream. In it, she had been with the handsome and young Fang Xiaojun, persuading him to turn away from his wicked ways and rescue the village girls. Those girls had been endlessly grateful to her, and in the end, Fang Xiaojun had taken the money and fled abroad with her, living a loving life together. But now—

She lifted her hands, staring at the unremovable chains even in sleep, tears streaming down her cheeks.

On the other side of a screen, Mei Lanju watched with satisfaction. "Screw your 'turning away from wickedness.' Pah! A villain does evil his whole life, runs off with dirty money, and suddenly he's redeemed? And let’s not forget—he even betrayed his own men."

Her gaze shifted to the side, where a mining tunnel at the foot of a mountain came into view. The people she and Fang Zhiyi had tricked out of Kaoshan Village were there, driven by whips to labor in darkness. Earlier, she had sent Fang Xiaojun there too.

Fang Xiaojun was utterly bewildered. First, he was beaten by the enforcers. Then, at the entrance of the tunnel, he saw the grimy, hate-filled eyes of the others fixed on him.

"Damn you! It was your Fang family that tricked us!" someone shouted.

"Son of a bitch!" A scrawny man leaped forward.

Mei Lanju explained, "This one was hard to fool, so I just kidnapped him outright."

"Who is he?"

"That driver—the one who tricked Shen Ni."

A brawl broke out. Fang Xiaojun took several hits and would have died if the overseers hadn’t intervened. As it was, his leg was likely broken.

"By the way," Mei Lanju teased Fang Zhiyi, "aren’t you curious about your eldest son?"

Fang Zhiyi simply stared down the mountain, emotionless. "No need. I’m sure you handled it well." With that, he stood and bid Mei Lanju farewell.

"See you around," Mei Lanju waved, though both knew the chances were slim. In so many worlds, who could say whom they’d meet next?

Fang Zhiyi turned to his system, annoyed. "Why don’t you have the same functions as hers? Look at her—sleep charms, spatial abilities, whatever she wants. And me? Huh? What do I get?"

The system chuckled awkwardly. "Different systems. Hers is mechanical... mine’s biological. Different functions."

"Then what can you actually do?"

"I can remind you of things."

"So you’re just an alarm clock?"

Fang Zhiyi turned himself in, causing quite a stir. After confessing and being imprisoned, he nodded to the system.

"Understood. Host disengaging!"

The original host returned to his body—only to find himself in prison garb, surrounded by vicious cellmates. He was stunned.

"Hey, old man! What’d you do?"

"Huh? I—I don’t know."

"Playing dumb? Beat him!"

"No, no—ahhh!!!"

After six months in prison, he was told his son had come to visit.

Seeing his eldest, Fang Dagang, on the other side of the glass, the man was overjoyed. He still had no clue what had happened to him. "Dagang, Dagang, get me out of here!"

Fang Dagang looked disgusted. He pointed to the muscular woman behind him. "Dad, I came to tell you I got married. Saved up for a house too."

The man was baffled.

Fang Dagang hesitated, glancing at his wife. The woman glared, and he shrank back. "Also, Mom asked me to tell you—she filed for divorce."

"What?! That bitch! How dare she!" The man raged, but his son was already being dragged away by the ear, meek as a quail. He couldn’t understand any of it.

Floating midair with the system, Fang Zhiyi was asked, "Host, reluctant to leave?"

He shook his head. "Just wanted to see what this task-taker would do. Learn something."

Back in Kaoshan Village, Bai Xue had aged terribly. Forced to care for the disabled elderly—washing them, emptying bedpans—she withered away until years later, when a visitor noticed something amiss and called the police. She was rescued, but the remaining elders lived in misery, cursing the Fang family daily.

As for Fang Xiaojun, his untreated leg injury left him crippled. The overseers sold him to an organ-harvesting ring, terrifying him out of his wits.

Just as a kidney was being removed, police stormed in, busting the ring and saving him—only to realize he was the wanted trafficker kingpin. They tossed him into prison with his father.

The two could only stare at each other in their shared cell.

Mei Lanju, meanwhile, shone brightest. She reinvented herself as the head of a women’s mutual aid society, founded a charity for women and children, and a year later, won a seat in parliament.

Five years on, her bill passed—classifying human trafficking as a severe crime, with buyers and sellers punished equally.

"Not bad," Fang Zhiyi scratched his head. He hadn’t expected that.

When Mei Lanju began campaigning to criminalize domestic violence, the most enthusiastic supporter was Fang Dagang. Since marrying, he’d been beaten daily by his wife, who was close with Mei Lanju. Over time, he’d been reformed into a meek, cowering figure.

Hearing his mother’s new cause, Fang Dagang even volunteered to rally support for her.

Fang Zhiyi laughed. "Well, at least this idiot’s salvageable." Noticing his system had taken humanoid form, he asked, "What’s the next world?"

The system hesitated. "Uh... spoilers?"

"Fine. Let’s go."