readease Chapter 1224: Only Virgins Can Be Sold for a Better Price
Chapter 1224: Only Virgins Can Be Sold for a Better Price
In the sealed carriage, Aurora Coldwell fell into another brief coma. The stench inside was unbearable, with no water and no food. Her head felt like it was burning into a muddled haze, only the little girl beside her kept running her sticky little hand back and forth over Aurora’s forehead, as if trying to comfort her through touch.
She actually wasn’t afraid of death. After all, she had gone through it once already. Looking back over these short twenty-something years, all she felt was regret—her temperament had been too mild, never fighting, never scrambling, so she’d never known the hardships of the world, never understood how vicious people could be. That was how she’d ended up like this. If she were given another chance, she definitely wouldn’t let herself be oppressed by a stepmother and bullied by a younger sister again.
After a brief stop, the vehicle restarted and headed deeper into the dense forest.
By the time Griffith Squire reached the border line, the sky had already darkened.
"Boss, we’re already closing in on the border line. Both sides are completely sealed off. We’ll definitely find them tonight. You haven’t eaten all day. I had the guys cook you a bowl of instant noodles." Cornelius Turner brought over a steaming bowl of instant noodles, speaking with some concern.
Griffith pressed his brow, his head throbbing a little, and said coolly, "You eat it. I don’t have an appetite."
Ever since he’d learned how serious Aurora’s condition was, Griffith had been tormented inside. How could a girl who’d been pampered since childhood endure this kind of suffering? He had forced that old couple to confess what they had given her—top-grade Hallucinogens from the black market, with a third of them being toxic. Aurora had allergies, and she’d been taking them for several days in a row. Her body must have reacted violently, which was why she had fallen this severely ill.
"Has the military doctor arrived? How many Helicopters did the Southwest Military Zone dispatch?" Griffith asked, his expression slightly frosty.
"The military doctor’s here. They sent out five Helicopters to search this entire area." As Cornelius spoke, he couldn’t help clicking his tongue. The Southwest Military Zone was really going all out this time. Their original cooperation had been done under the table, and even normal Military District missions couldn’t easily mobilize five Helicopters. Could it be that the Imperial City was intentionally lending a hand?
Cornelius was quite familiar with the Military District’s internal workings. The Southwest Military Zone was the Shaw Family’s darling in the Imperial City. Any little stir might not necessarily be reported to the Central Military Region, but it would definitely be reported to the Shaw Family.
Griffith surely understood this very well too. This time, they owed the Shaw Family a favor.
Seeing that Griffith wasn’t eating, Cornelius shoved the instant noodles into a subordinate’s hands and went off to gnaw on rock-hard compressed biscuits himself. With the person still missing, how were they qualified to eat hot food?
Not long after the five Helicopters took off, intel started coming in. Following the coordinates, Griffith led his men under the cover of dusk. Along the border line they had already wiped out four or five groups of various sizes—smugglers, drug traffickers, fugitives—but still hadn’t found the person he was looking for.
A trace of ferocity flashed between Griffith’s brows. If they still couldn’t find her, he’d bring a damn tank and roll this godforsaken mountain forest flat.
"Boss, it’s a supply truck." Cornelius peered through binoculars at the supply truck lumbering along ahead, his spirits lifting. Vehicles disguised as supply trucks usually carried hidden human cargo. Maybe they’d finally found their target.
"Mm." Griffith’s expression was indifferent. He responded lazily, then made a hand signal for them to wrap it up quickly.
After slipping into a coma again, Aurora was woken by the little girl’s touch.
"Don’t sleep. They’re going to hand out water and bread later. If you’re asleep, you won’t get anything again." The little girl’s face was already filthy; her original features were no longer visible. She reached out to shake Aurora awake and whispered.
Outside, the sky was pitch-dark, and it was mealtime again. The food and water these people gave them were extremely scarce. It was partly to sap their strength and reduce the chance of escape, and partly because supplies were limited. They only gave enough food and water each day to keep them from starving to death.
Aurora had been unconscious for a full day and night and had missed the last food distribution. In truth, she was already so hungry she felt nothing.
"You’re short on water. If you don’t drink soon, you’ll die." The little girl looked at her cracked lips and spoke with grave seriousness.
Aurora let out a faint smile. Even if she drank, she was still going to die. Her body had reached a critical point. She hadn’t eaten properly for a whole week, had been running a high fever the entire time, had allergies, and had spent a day and a night in this hot, humid, suffocating space.
Everything of value on her had been taken by that old couple, except for the Jade Marrow little rabbit she’d worn since childhood, which she had hidden and thus managed to keep.
Aurora tugged lightly on the little girl’s clothes and flicked her eyes toward her own underwear. The girl was very quick on the uptake. She wiped her filthy hands on her clothes, then reached over to undo Aurora’s buttons and fished out a small jade rabbit. She was instantly startled, and when she saw Aurora’s skin, pale and smooth like jade, she quickly buttoned her clothes back up, swallowed hard, and said, "Good thing you got sick."
The way those men looked at this pretty Miss was disgusting. Children from poor families matured early; the little girl could more or less guess their filthy intentions and thought they’d only spared Aurora because she was ill.
In truth, those men were just waiting for the highest bidder. Only untouched virgins could fetch the best prices.
"In the future, go find a man named Griffith Squire and show him the little rabbit." She forced the words out in broken phrases, repeating Griffith Squire’s name over and over. Her gaze dimmed—it was like a final message before death.
She’d been missing for days; Griffith would definitely come looking for her.
The little girl nodded and said, "Don’t talk anymore. Save your strength to eat."
Before the words were fully out, the truck suddenly jolted to a stop. Outside came the coarse curses of a man: "Goddammit, who the hell did this? The road’s blocked!"
Then came muffled grunts and screams, but in less than a minute, everything outside fell silent.
"Boss, we kept one alive. The rest are all wiped out." The sniper reported.
Once they’d confirmed they weren’t dealing with friendly forces, the rest could only be criminals. These people resisted with guns, so Griffith’s men showed no mercy—everyone was eliminated but one.
"Go open the truck." Griffith ordered in a low, heavy voice. He stepped forward first, opened the rear compartment of one of the supply trucks, and saw it was packed with goods. His expression chilled even more as he went to look for a hidden compartment.
Cornelius opened the other truck’s compartment. The moment the door swung open, a wave of foul air hit him. Inside, around a dozen or two women and children were crammed into the narrow space, all staring at him in terror.
Cornelius’s eyes lit up.
"Get down one by one. We’re not criminals—we’re with the military. We’re here to take you home." Cornelius lowered his voice as he spoke, then lifted the child closest to the door down from the truck. For a moment the compartment filled with crying, but these people had been cowed and enslaved for so long that none of them dared move.
"Damn." Cornelius had no choice but to haul them down one by one. When he grabbed a little girl, pain shot through the web between his thumb and forefinger—she’d bitten him.