"You know Niece Qingyan?" The girl's eyes widened upon hearing Kanna's words.
"Niece?" Kanna recalled that Leizi didn't look that old, and she hadn't expected her seniority in the family to be so low. However, thinking about how she had once seen elders call a child in open-crotch pants a "senior," she realized that in a familial succession system like Yan, such generational differences were normal.
"Wait, no, I heard she went abroad on a secret mission. You speak Shangshu dialect so fluently, how could you possibly know her!" The little girl suddenly looked at Kanna with vigilance.
"Hehe, to tell you the truth, I'm the foreigner you were talking about!" Kanna said with her hands on her hips, looking triumphant.
Upon hearing Kanna's words, the girl who called herself Lin Yuxia looked disbelieving.
After all, she had seen many foreigners, but most of them, aside from the Common language, spoke Yan Mandarin quite haltingly. Someone like Kanna, who could speak fluent Shangshu dialect at such a young age, probably wouldn't even be suspected if dropped into the middle of Shangshu.
Just as they were talking, they suddenly heard footsteps outside.
At this moment, Lin Yuxia's face turned pale. Although she had confidence in her father, if they moved her around too many times, it would likely be troublesome to find her.
"Don't worry. Judging by the footsteps, it should be other children who were tricked. Come stand over here with me." Kanna took Lin Yuxia's hand and stood behind the gate, in a spot that wasn't easily noticeable, and whispered to her.
Sure enough, the gate was opened soon after, and several more children were pushed inside.
After the gate was closed again, Kanna grabbed one of the newly arrived children who looked the most composed and tall, and asked, "When you got out of the car, did you see clearly how many vehicles were in the yard?"
The child was sad about being taken away from his parents, but before he could cry, Kanna's shout silenced him.
He frowned, thought for a long time, and then said, "Three."
Kanna nodded; it matched her own findings. At this point, these people should all be here. Just as she was preparing to act, her personal terminal suddenly vibrated.
Amidst the surprised gazes of the group of children, Kanna lifted the watch on her wrist and pressed it, and a small projection appeared in the pitch-black room.
The person appearing in the projection was none other than one of the "scourges of the Lungmen power struggle," the "Char Siu Cat" Swire.
"Kanna, are you okay!" Swire asked hurriedly once she realized the communication was connected.
"Do you think these human traffickers could really catch me?" Kanna said speechlessly.
"Uh, I was asking if those human traffickers are okay!" Swire was even more speechless.
"They're fine for now. Where are you?" Kanna shrugged. Judging by Swire's tone, it seemed she wouldn't need to take action herself after all.
"We're already at the door. People from the Lungmen Guard Department are also on their way and will be here in ten minutes at most. Just protect those children; leave the outside to us." Hearing that Kanna hadn't taken action yet, Swire breathed a sigh of relief.
"No problem, but you need to hurry. If they try to rush in here, in such a small space, I won't be able to control my strength while trying to protect these children." Kanna braced the iron gate with one hand and used the camera on her personal terminal to scan the room with the other.
That one look made Swire, on the outside, feel her scalp tingle. There were nearly a dozen children packed into the small room. She had originally thought it was just a few petty thieves, but looking at this, it was actually a large human trafficking ring.
After cutting the connection, Swire hurriedly called the Lungmen Guard Department again to summon more reinforcements.
However, it was clear that the other party had connections within the authorities; the Lungmen Guard Department's grand mobilization soon reached their ears.
Upon receiving the news, they cursed and walked toward the room where the children were being held, intending to transfer these brats to another safe house.
Meanwhile, after Kanna hung up, she looked into the room, a smile appearing on the corner of her mouth.
"You, you, you know someone from the Lungmen Guard Department?" Although Lin Yuxia hadn't been in Lungmen for long, and Swire hadn't been serving in Lungmen during this time, she didn't know that the person in the video was Swire, a Senior Superintendent of the Lungmen Guard Department. However, even if she didn't recognize the person, she recognized the uniform—especially the epaulets on the shoulders, which indicated that the woman, who looked as young and beautiful as a wealthy young lady, was actually a high-ranking official of the Lungmen Guard Department.
"Big guy, come here!" Kanna didn't answer the question, but waved over the big kid she had questioned earlier.
The child, though somewhat puzzled, walked over.
"You just stand here. Remember, no matter who it is, no matter what they want to do, don't let them through. Do you hear me clearly?" Kanna said loudly on purpose.
The big guy hadn't reacted yet, but Lin Yuxia caught the hidden meaning in Kanna's words. "Are you saying there are still people from the traffickers in here?"
"Of course. It's very troublesome for these adults to manage so many children; after all, adults often don't understand how children think. So the simplest way is to plant one of their own among the children and make him the leader.
Children have poor judgment. If the leader chooses to be weak, the others won't choose to continue resisting but will instead kneel along with the leader. This way, the adults don't have to worry much about managing the children; the captured children will proactively submit under the leader's guidance.
It's a very simple psychological trap, which is especially effective for children who already have a poor sense of right and wrong."
One of the children inside had a face as dark as charcoal. Just before Kanna and her group entered, he had finally managed to become the boss among this group. According to the plan, he only needed to hold the title of leader of the first batch of children, and he would easily be able to subdue the second and third batches.
Unexpectedly, Kanna didn't play by the rules at all and stood out from the other children from the very beginning.
In the end, before he could finish establishing contact with the newly arrived children, the third batch had already arrived.
Of course, if given one night, based on past experience, he would have been confident in subduing all the children in the room. Unfortunately, at this very moment, Kanna's words caused everyone to subconsciously become wary of the people around them.
And those children from the first batch who had just been subdued were now looking at him with vigilance.
In this way, the path the adults had arranged for him had failed.
Those adults would mercilessly abandon anyone who failed their mission. He was too old to be bought by any decent family as a stepson. The only paths left for him were to be sold into a martial arts hall or a large household as a servant, or to be sold into a black coal mine until he died.
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