Chapter 146: The Interruption

Nie Zheng expressionlessly repeated the act of driving his blade under the traffickers' fingernails, grinding dirt into a fine powder and rubbing it into the raw beds. He spared not a single trafficker lying on the ground. Piercing wails echoed relentlessly throughout the camp. Once this "task" was complete, Nie Zheng stood up, looked down at the traffickers gasping for air on the ground, and revealed his innocent, harmless smile once more. "That was just the appetizer! Why are you all like this? Your capacity for enduring pain is truly pathetic. Compared to the children you beat to the brink of death, you are far too weak! I had many more 'training' methods prepared. Don't go biting your tongues and killing yourselves before I've used them all on you. I still remember a child tied to the wooden post beside me; he couldn't bear your beatings and bit his tongue to end it. You mocked him for his lack of backbone, saying he couldn't take a little beating. You must not imitate him! You must show some backbone."

The traffickers on the ground gasped for air. A few looked at the boy before them, and realization suddenly dawned. "You’re that little brat who was beaten nearly to death and thrown back into the cell!" One of them recognized the boy—he was the one who had been beaten to a pulp in the "training room," left a bloody mess, yet never once begged for mercy. Eventually, the beatings had become too boring and unrewarding, and seeing that he had almost no breath left, they had tossed him back to the cells to rot. Perhaps heaven had taken pity on him, for it had not claimed his life.

"So, someone remembers me. A pity there's no reward. You shall receive every bit of the punishment you deserve." Nie Zheng toyed with the knife in his hand and crouched down again.

However, just as Nie Zheng was about to proceed with the next stage of his "training," Uncle Yang walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Nie Zheng, is it?"

Nie Zheng looked up at Uncle Yang, nodded, and waited for what he had to say next.

"Give them a quick end." Uncle Yang looked at the state of the traffickers. Although he could roughly imagine what Nie Zheng had endured, based on the scene in the wooden hut, he still felt a slight aversion to the boy’s methods; they were simply too cruel.

Nie Zheng looked at Uncle Yang, bewildered. "Why? I must return everything I suffered to these scumbags. Not just for me, but for all the other children in that hut who shared my fate. We are taking revenge for them, and for myself!" As he spoke, he used the tip of his blade to trace circles on the back of a trafficker's hand.

Zhang Xuan saw that the situation in the camp had largely stabilized. Old Man Tong had scouted the area and found no remaining traffickers, and Zhang Xuan sensed that the prison area was no longer a threat. After telling Yang Zaixing, he headed toward the front gate, as the continuous wailing had caught his attention. He arrived just in time to witness the tense "standoff" between Uncle Yang and Nie Zheng. Zhang Xuan walked quickly to the side of Yang Hu and Yuwen Chengdu to ask what was happening. Yuwen Chengdu gave him a brief description. Seeing the fingers of the traffickers on the ground, Zhang Xuan felt a flicker of shock. This Nie Zheng was truly a student who had surpassed his master! He himself had only used bamboo splinters to prick fingernails, but look at this—he was prying the entire nail plate off. His aptitude for learning was quite impressive.

Though he thought this, Zhang Xuan did not stop. He walked up to Uncle Yang and Nie Zheng, catching the moment Nie Zheng was drawing circles on the trafficker's hand with his knife tip.

"Nie Zheng, give me the knife!" Zhang Xuan said, his voice leaving no room for argument.

"Brother Xuan, are you going to stop me too? You don't know how cruelly they treated us children! How can we just let them go!" The last few words were almost a roar from Nie Zheng.

"It’s not so much stopping you, but we have more important things to do later, and no time to dawdle here. Either you finish these people off quickly, or I will?"

Nie Zheng stared at Zhang Xuan, then finally said nothing. He responded with action, driving his blade into the chests of the traffickers one by one. Once they ceased to breathe, he moved to the next. These men, who had once been so arrogant and domineering, were now, having lost the ability to resist, nothing more than lambs on a butcher's block.

Zhang Xuan watched Nie Zheng without a word; any comment would have been superfluous. When Nie Zheng pulled the blade from the final body, Zhang Xuan pulled him into an embrace. Nie Zheng leaned his head against Zhang Xuan's shoulder, his body trembling with uncontrollable sobs. Zhang Xuan patted his back gently. "Cry. Cry all you want. You'll feel better once it's out."

As soon as Zhang Xuan finished speaking, Nie Zheng let out a loud, wailing cry.

Nie Rong watched Zhang Xuan holding his brother and listened to the loud sobbing. He had lost count of how many times his own tears had broken through the dam today.

Yang Hu and Yuwen Chengdu watched the scene, tears flowing uncontrollably down their own faces. They waved their hands in front of their eyes, repeatedly muttering, "How did sand get into my eyes again?" As for Uncle Yang, he felt a sharp ache in his chest, and his own eyes grew moist.