The man stared at Ye Qing's hand for nearly five seconds and couldn't help but say, "Buddy, is that sign language? I don't understand. Where exactly are we going?"
"Look closely." Ye Qing retracted his four fingers and only revealed his middle finger.
The man muttered, "That gesture of yours is a bit hooligan."
"Look at my fingertip!" Ye Qing said.
Upon closer inspection, the man suddenly said, "How did your hand get so dirty? Hey? What's this? This... this looks like black soil. Where did you get it?"
Ye Qing nodded and said, "Most of Shenchuan City consists of yellow soil; black soil is very rare. In the whole Shenchuan City, do you know where black soil can be found?"
The man was stunned for a moment, then said, "Is... is this a clue?"
This black soil was exactly what had been sticking to Fang Tingyun's door earlier. It must have been left by the gang of criminals when they kicked in the door.
"This is the clue!" Ye Qing nodded and said, "Where in Shenchuan City can you find black soil?"
The man said, "This stuff isn't common. As far as I know, there are no more than five places with black soil. But the directions of these five locations are very different. So which one are we headed to?"
Ye Qing said in a deep voice, "The one with the pharmaceutical factory!"
"Pharmaceutical factory?" After thinking, the man said, "Of those five places with black soil, there indeed is one with a pharmaceutical factory. But are you sure we are heading there?"
"Yes!" Ye Qing confirmed with a nod.
"No problem!" The man started the car, turned around, and headed in that direction, not forgetting to ask, "Brother, I'm not questioning you, but are you really sure about this? The safety of three girls depends on it; if we go the wrong way, we could be in big trouble!"
"I know." Ye Qing nodded and said, "There's a chemical smell in the black soil. This kind of chemical is typically used by pharmaceutical factories. I'm eighty percent sure they've gone in that direction!"
The man couldn't help but exclaim, "Holy smokes, brother, what exactly do you do? Can you even smell these things? Don't you need to take it for testing?"
Ye Qing remained silent. This was something he had learned through experience in the laboratory during his university days. Taking it for testing would take who knows how long to get results. And now he could only gamble on these clues, needing to rescue the three girls as quickly as possible.
The man drove quite recklessly, which seemed to justify his nickname as Erhuan Shisan. It took less than fifteen minutes for them to leave the city and arrive at a desolate place.
"That patch of black soil is nearby, that factory building over there is an old pharmaceutical factory of Shenchuan City, though it's been abandoned for several years now." The man got out of the car, looked around, and said, "Such a huge factory area, where are you going to start looking? Moreover, I saw that asking about those two cars earlier didn't seem very useful.
Since you already knew these clues, why bother asking which cars they were driving?"
Without a word, Ye Qing took a few steps back and looked around. After walking a while, he suddenly bent down and crouched.
The man hastened to his side and said, "What did you find?"
There were a few chaotic tire tracks on the ground, leading in different directions.
"Darn it?" The man immediately crouched down, took a closer look, and said, "These two tire tracks overlap more; they seem to belong together. And this tire track is deeper; probably because the vehicle was heavier. That must be the van, right?"
Ye Qing nodded and looked into the distance, saying, "They've gone in that direction!"
The man got back into the car immediately and said, "Let's go!"
As the man drove with Ye Qing, he couldn't help but say, "Brother, it looks like you're more thoughtful than I am. If we didn't know what car they were driving, the clues would have ended here!"
Ye Qing remained silent, just looking at the road ahead, carefully watching the tire tracks.
About five more minutes passed when the tire tracks suddenly turned into the roadside brush. The man drove in and, after less than half a mile, Ye Qing suddenly grabbed his hand and said in a deep voice, "Stop!"
The man immediately stopped the car, and Ye Qing opened the door and got out. The man asked nervously, "What's happening?"
"You wait here, I'll go take a look," Ye Qing said in a deep voice.
"Do you need help?" the man asked, grabbing a wrench from the front seat, his face eager to assist.
"No need!" Ye Qing replied and crouched down in the brush, moving forward quickly with the stealth of a watchful cheetah.
The underbrush was dense, but Ye Qing managed to stay hidden within it, invisible to outsiders. After moving forward for about one hundred meters, two vehicles appeared within the thick grass—a van and a Honda Accord, the very two that the convenience store owner had mentioned.
Seeing these vehicles, Ye Qing finally let out a sigh of relief. In fact, based only on those clues, he had been only eighty percent confident of finding these people. He had no choice but to take a gamble, for if he couldn't locate them, the three women would be doomed.
Both vehicles were concealed in the underbrush, surrounded by abandoned factories, and it was unclear where the people had gone. However, this wasn't a problem for Ye Qing; he carefully observed the surrounding grass and eventually spotted traces of it being trampled on one side.
Immediately, he made his way in that direction and after about three minutes, arrived in front of an abandoned factory.
This place used to be home to several heavily polluting businesses, so there weren't many villagers nearby. Now that it was abandoned, even fewer people were around.
The factory was dark inside and it was impossible to see what was within. Ye Qing quietly moved to the main entrance and pressed his ear against the wall, listening intently. Finally, he caught a faint sound of a scream—it seemed the three women had indeed been taken here!
Ye Qing dared not hesitate and immediately entered the factory. The interior was winding, and following the sound, he turned two corners and eventually spotted a hint of light ahead. In a small room, there was clearly a light shining.
Ye Qing's spirits lifted as he heard the voices of the three women clearly. Huo Pingping in particular, she was loudly cursing at something.
Like a cheetah, he moved silently to the doorway in the cover of darkness. There was a crack in the door through which he could roughly see the situation inside.
Inside the room were seven men, and the three women among them, their hands tied to a pillar.
One man was lying on a sofa, with two others beside him, rinsing his eyes with water—he was the one whom Mu Qingrong had sprayed in the eyes with Mosquito Repellent.
"Damn it, no matter what, I must catch that bitch too!" the man roared continuously, his eye pain only adding to his rage.
A man glaring at the three women said, "These bitches really have some skills, setting up those little traps. If we'd known, we would have been more careful going in. Without that alarm going off, none of them would have gotten away today!"
"Hmph, what good are their skills? In the end, aren't they still caught by us?" another man, short in stature, approached the three women. He suddenly reached out and touched Huo Pingping, laughing loudly, "This chick is not bad, tonight she is mine!"
Huo Pingping screamed and immediately started cursing, "You filthy man, stay away from me, I feel sick just looking at your ugly face!"
"No problem, in a bit you'll see what I'm capable of, and afterwards, you might not be able to stay away from me!" The short man smirked, reaching out towards Huo Pingping again, and clicked his tongue appreciatively, "This chick has nice skin, a great body, she's just perfect for me!"
Another man spoke up, "Fifth Brother, that's not fair. With only three women and seven of us here, how can you claim one for yourself? How are we supposed to divide that up?"
The short man laughed, "Don't worry, after I've had my fun, she's all yours."
"What do you mean after you're done? It should be Eldest Brother who goes first, no matter what!"
"It's okay, you can have these three!" The man who had been washing his eyes furiously declared, "I won't fight over these three with you, I must catch the bitch who sprayed my eyes tonight and deal with her properly. Damn it, I'm going to make her beg for death, then sell the ***** to Mexico to work as a prostitute!"
"Eldest Brother, that's such a waste, that chick's got a flavor to her. After you've had your fun, let your brothers have a taste too," the short man said.
"No problem, we'll all have a taste!" Eldest Brother laughed boisterously, "Damn these bitches, causing me to lose hundreds of thousands, and three brothers locked up in prison. I must get this score settled, or how the hell am I supposed to get by in the future!"
"Big Brother, I'll help you settle the score right now!" Fifth Brother suddenly grabbed Huo Pingping, laughing loudly, "Big Brother, I'm going to take care of her now!"
"Let me go! Let me go!" Huo Pingping struggled with all her might, but how could she compete against a man?
"Pingping! Pingping!" Fang Tingyun and Mo Xiang shouted anxiously, but they too were in no position to help Huo Pingping now.
As Huo Pingping was dragged to the doorway, Fang Tingyun's eyes instantly reddened, and she couldn't help but think of the young man in military uniform. If Ye Qing were here, how could such a thing have happened to them?
"Let me go, you freak, let go of me!" Huo Pingping was pulled out of the room by Fifth Brother, still struggling fiercely.
But Fifth Brother was bursting with excitement, dragging Huo Pingping forward and shouting loudly, "Go on, scream, I'm going to show you how amazing I am soon!"
As Fifth Brother pulled Huo Pingping past the corner, suddenly, out of the darkness, someone pounced, pinning Fifth Brother to the ground. Fifth Brother's mouth was covered before he could make any sound, and with a punch to the back of his head, he was knocked out cold.
Huo Pingping was startled and opened her mouth to scream, but by then the person had already stood up, quickly covering her mouth and pushing her behind the wall, a deep voice whispering in her ear.