r18novel Chapter 172 The Qin state certainly treated human traffickers to a lavish feast.
Chapter 172 The Qin state certainly treated human traffickers to a lavish feast.
As night deepened, Tokyo Port remained brightly lit.
Under the searchlights, the massive crane silhouettes resemble the skeleton of a giant, and the containers are stacked into a continuous steel mountain range. The entire port is like a steel behemoth that never sleeps, coiled up on the seashore, swallowing and spitting out the materialism and undercurrents of globalization.
Not far from the main port area, near a relatively secluded fjord, the waves gently lap against the reefs and rough man-made breakwaters.
Lu Mingfei and his group hid in the shadows, waiting quietly.
"Are you sure this is here?"
Lu Mingfei turned around and asked Xia Mi in a low voice.
Xia Mi was squatting nearby, holding a foxtail grass that she had picked from somewhere, teasing Erii with great interest.
Erii's eyes sparkled as she tried to catch the swaying tips of the grass with her gaze, quiet and focused.
Originally, Lu Mingfei planned to leave Erii at the Wu'an Jun Mansion and ask Ling or Xiao Lü to take care of her.
But whether out of curiosity or unease, the girl insisted on coming along, clinging tightly to Lu Mingfei's sleeve with a stubborn look in her eyes.
Lu Mingfei tried several times but failed to persuade her. Judging from her expression, she probably wouldn't let go unless he forcibly pried her hands open.
But Lu Mingfei couldn't bear to be so rough with such a well-behaved girl.
He then realized that the target of this operation was nothing more than a group of human smugglers, while his own side had a truly impressive lineup.
A female tiger at the half-step Golden Core stage, a female dragon king, a vacuum queen named Zero, and then there's himself...
Wise and capable Team Leader Lu!
It should be more than enough to protect a little girl.
Shouldn't be a problem.
There's no other way, I'll just have to bring it.
"The intelligence gave us this location, saying the ship would dock at midnight."
Xia Mi put away the foxtail grass, took out her specially made satellite phone, and the screen's dim light illuminated her delicate chin.
She quickly checked the coordinates and map. "That's right, it's this pebble beach, the abandoned little pier in front of it."
"That's good."
Lu Mingfei glanced at the time; the hands of his wristwatch silently slid toward 11:40.
"Twenty minutes left. Be careful when you make your move," his gaze lingered slightly on Gu Nan, "Try not to kill them, leave them alive, especially the leader. If you don't get any information out of them, all your efforts will be wasted."
He hesitated for a moment, then added, "In a little while... I'll do it myself."
His main concern was that Gu Nan might become accustomed to the efficient, sometimes unavoidable, style of dealing with people on the battlefield, or that she might be so disgusted with the profession of "human traffickers" that she would resort to drastic measures.
Moreover, they were a group of Japanese human traffickers, and the people they trafficked were Chinese.
Although Gu Nan cherishes life and tries to minimize casualties on the battlefield unless absolutely necessary, this is Japan after all, and the approach may need to be more refined.
The main problem is that there are no survivors, which will make subsequent interrogations difficult.
Let's hand it over to Gu Nan after the trial is over. Just judge them according to Qin's laws.
Thinking about it carefully, it seems that human traffickers in the Qin state were torn apart by chariots or cut in half at the waist.
That's fine.
But Gu Nan was incredibly perceptive.
She instantly grasped the meaning in Lu Mingfei's glance, clicked her tongue almost imperceptibly, crossed her arms, and said nothing more.
She knows what's important and what's urgent, and she can distinguish between what's important and what's not.
I just feel that Lu Mingfei sometimes doesn't trust her control at all.
You were able to control the intensity of your kicks perfectly, weren't you?
Could it be that the two of them haven't been practicing together much lately?
Time passed by minute by minute.
The darkness on the sea was thick as ink, with only the lights of the distant port casting a blurry halo on the horizon.
The salty, damp sea breeze carried a chill, ruffling the hair and hems of their clothes.
At around 11:55 a.m., a small to medium-sized fishing boat with no navigation lights and an ordinary-looking exterior emerged slowly from the dark depths of the sea like a ghost and silently sailed toward the fjord.
The engine noise was kept very low, almost drowned out by the sound of the waves.
Almost simultaneously, there was also movement on the shore.
Several dark figures emerged from a hidden corner behind the embankment, driving a dirty white van, crunching over gravel, and stopping at the edge of the beach not far from the abandoned pier.
The car lights went out, a figure got out of the car, and stood silently in the darkness, like a hyena waiting for its prey.
The boat is getting closer.
A dark figure on the shore took out a powerful flashlight and flashed it rhythmically a few times in the direction of the boat, sending out some kind of pre-arranged signal.
The fishing boat seemed to have identified itself, adjusted its course, and moved more steadily toward the pier.
The moment the bow of the boat gently touched the edge of the pier's decaying wooden stakes—
Lu Mingfei made a move.
Without making a sound or any premonition, he was like ink spilled on the ground, instantly absorbed into the earth, or as if he had become part of the shadows himself. With an illogical speed and in a silent manner, he "flowed" out from his hiding place and rushed towards the pier and the ship that had just anchored!
His speed was so fast that it was almost impossible for an ordinary person's retina to retain a continuous image; only a fleeting, blurry afterimage occasionally outlined by the faint light in the distance of the port.
However, just as he was about to step onto the pier, a seemingly ordinary sailor in the shadows on the ship suddenly turned around and shouted sharply:
"Who goes there! (Please pretend I'm writing in Japanese (づ￣ 3￣)づemmm)"
The shout was short and startled, filled with disbelief and alarm.
Almost at the same time the shout rang out, Lu Mingfei had already slipped into the crowd like a ghost.
"what--!"
"pain"
"I froze! (Ouch! I know this one!)"
A series of short exclamations, cries of pain, and muffled thuds of people falling to the ground echoed in succession, particularly clear in the silent fjord, only to be quickly swallowed up by the sound of the waves.
The shadowy figures didn't even have time to see the attackers clearly, let alone put up an effective resistance. They only felt a blur before their eyes, or a sharp pain or numbness in their vital parts, before losing consciousness and collapsing to the ground.
From the moment the first sentence was uttered to the moment it ended, less than a second had passed. On the pier and the deck at the bow of the ship, only Lu Mingfei remained standing.
The sea breeze ruffled the stray hairs on his forehead. He frowned slightly and looked in the direction where the sailor who had spoken out to warn him had fallen.
This is really something...
Lu Mingfei thought to himself.
Although he did not use his incantation, his enhanced body and exquisite fighting skills allowed him to move at speeds far exceeding those of ordinary people. His opponent was able to sense the attack the moment he was ambushed and warn him.
It seems there are indeed some experts among these smugglers.
Is it a hybrid of the Speed-type?
Or were they specially trained ninjas?
He gestured a safe direction towards where Xia Mi and the others were hiding on the shore.
Xia Mi, Gu Nan, Ling, and Erii, who was being led by Ling, finally emerged from the shadows and slowly approached the pier.
Erii stared wide-eyed at the people lying haphazardly on the ground, then looked at Lu Mingfei standing at the bow of the ship, seemingly doing nothing. Her small mouth opened slightly as she quickly scribbled and drew in her notebook.
Lu Mingfei didn't rush to check the cabin. Instead, he took out several bundles of sturdy nylon rope from his personal space and quickly tied the hands and feet of the unconscious people on the ground. He made sure to tie the sailor who had raised the alarm and the leader-like person who was supposed to be on shore more tightly. He also checked their mouths for any poison capsules or similar items.
That's how it's portrayed in movies; better safe than sorry.
After doing all this, he took a deep breath and walked toward the tightly closed cabin door.
The hatch was locked from the outside with a bolt. He gently pulled out the bolt and pushed open the heavy iron door.
A heavy, stuffy air, a mixture of sweat, mildew, sea odor, and a faint smell of rust, hit me.
The cabin was dark, with only faint sunlight filtering through the hatch and the shimmering light reflected from the sea, barely illuminating the interior.
What came into view were several figures huddled in a corner.
Their mouths were taped shut, their hands and feet were bound with rough hemp rope, and some of them had bruises and tear stains on their faces from lingering fear.
As the hatch opened and light flooded in, all those eyes turned toward them, filled with utter terror and despair.
They were tied up very professionally, in a way commonly known as "tie-and-tie," making it difficult for anyone to break free.
Lu Mingfei's gaze swept quickly across these faces, and anger rose in his heart.
But the next second, his hand reached out in a strange direction and grabbed a young child by the throat.
There was actually another person in the cabin?
But when he turned his head and saw the face of the person he was pinching, he realized...
He was slightly taken aback.
Someone he knew.
Although the lighting was dim and the other person's face showed dirt and fatigue, Lu Mingfei was all too familiar with the contours of their eyebrows and eyes.