Chapter 427: Chapter 306: The Otherworld’s Black Intermediary
The bloodstains on the woman’s clothes were spreading, a clear sign her wounds were still bleeding.
Lin Li didn’t want to waste any more time. He stood up, hurried over to the disheveled woman, and scooped her up into his arms, causing her to cry out in surprise.
The woman instinctively tried to struggle, but when she saw Lin Li’s blank expression as he started running out of the alley, she immediately went still.
Outside the alley, the bald man and his companion watched Lin Li enter a dark passage. They waited a moment, and just as they were about to follow, they saw him running back out, carrying a disheveled woman.
"What’s going on? He was only in there for a moment, and he came out carrying a woman?"
The bald man and his companion watched Lin Li run farther and farther away with the woman in his arms. After a quick discussion, one of them continued tailing Lin Li while the other went to check inside the alley.
They split up, and the bald man headed into the alley to investigate.
TAP, TAP, TAP...
The sound of footsteps echoed in the deserted alley as the bald man cautiously walked deeper inside.
When he rounded a corner deep in the alley, he saw two masked men lying on the ground a short distance away. Two daggers lay on the ground beside them.
Looking at the scene before him, the bald man, a member of the Cyan Stone Gang, instantly pieced together what had just happened.
He stepped forward to examine the two motionless, masked men on the ground and found them both lifeless. One had a caved-in chest, the other a crushed back. They were stone dead.
’No other injuries. A single, fatal blow for each of them. Did that guy do this?’
The bald man muttered to himself as he looked at the two dead, masked assailants. Then he noticed a prominent tattoo on the back of each man’s hand.
’These two are from the Red Blood Gang... Damn. To kill members of the Red Blood Gang just like that... he’s got some serious nerve.’
The Cyan Stone Gang and the Red Blood Gang were on decent terms, so the bald man, being a member of the Cyan Stone Gang, instantly recognized the tattoos on the masked assailants’ hands and identified them.
...
「Inside a clinic in Dongwu City.」
"Sir, this young lady has several knife wounds. Fortunately, the wounds are all quite shallow and not in any vital areas. I have already stopped the bleeding.
I’ll prescribe some healing ointment. Apply it in the morning and evening, and she should be fully recovered in half a month..."
The gray-haired female physician finished examining the disheveled woman. As she explained the diagnosis to Lin Li, she wrote down the name of the ointment on a piece of paper.
’Half a month to heal... It must be just an ordinary ointment.’ After hearing the physician’s words, Lin Li turned to look at the woman lying on the bed.
Afterward, Lin Li paid the 500-copper medical fee and left the clinic with the woman.
After resting for a while on the clinic bed, the woman had regained enough strength to walk on her own.
The two walked single file, with the woman, clutching a backpack, keeping three or four paces behind Lin Li.
Suddenly, Lin Li stopped and turned his head to look at the woman.
The woman, seemingly lost in thought, almost walked right into Lin Li when he stopped. Luckily, she caught herself just in time.
"It’s getting late," said Lin Li, ready to return to Blue Star. "We should part ways here."
The woman opened her mouth. "I..." She seemed to want to say something, but hesitated and fell silent. Instead, she just nodded and turned to leave.
Lin Li pondered for a moment, then called out to her as she was leaving, "Wait."
"Benefactor?"
"Are you... Are you going home now?"
The woman remained silent, not answering Lin Li’s question.
Seeing her reaction, Lin Li thought, ’I guess I was right. This penniless woman probably doesn’t have a home in Dongwu City.’
"Tell me about your situation. Of course, if you don’t feel comfortable talking about it, that’s fine too," Lin Li said.
The woman thought for more than ten seconds, then said to Lin Li, "I heard you can make a lot of money working in Dongwu City, so I left my village. I just arrived here today with a merchant caravan..."
"If you came here to work, how come you don’t have a single penny on you?" Lin Li asked, confused.
"Among the people who came to Dongwu City with the caravan, there was someone else who was also here to find work, just like me.
He told me he had a friend who could get me a job working for a wealthy family, and that the pay was very high.
But it required some money to grease the palms of the wealthy family’s butler, so I gave him all my money, and then..."
The woman finished her story, explaining to Lin Li how she had become penniless.
After listening to the woman’s story, Lin Li thought to himself, ’Isn’t what this woman went through in Dongwu City just like what happens to some workers on Blue Star who get scammed out of all their money by shady brokers?’
"I really didn’t expect this Spirit Realm to have scammers like this too," Lin Li muttered under his breath.
Then he looked at the very dejected woman and asked, "You’re really quite bold. A young woman like you, daring to come all the way to Dongwu City with a caravan to find work all by yourself."
The woman remained silent.
Her reaction immediately reminded Lin Li of the children he’d seen while walking through the city—many of them young, clearly underage, and performing strenuous labor.
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