Facade of Love (Yvette Scott and Idris Young) novel Chapter 421

Rebecca pursed her lips after hearing what I said. She reluctantly nodded and then walked toward the two men guarding the secret room from the outside. I did not know what she said to them.

Nonetheless, the two men's faces lit up, and they followed her.

Once they left, I snuck up to the entrance of the secret room and went inside. The layout of these houses was mostly the same, filled with cages holding people from different countries.

Many of them were missing limbs or had their tongues cut out. Those who were still alive might have been valuable for ransom. Those with no value were mostly dead, their useless body parts were dismembered and discarded in the poppy fields. I had known about this for five years now, and I had seen it with my own eyes.

I looked at the elderly man barely clinging to life inside the iron cage. He had closed his eyes and lay motionless. His face was deathly pale and bloodless, and his tattered clothes were in disarray. The jagged wound on his leg was still bleeding, and the surrounding flesh had turned pale. I couldn't imagine how much blood he had lost, but at this rate, his leg was likely to become useless.

It seemed that the people here had no intention of treating his injuries.

Perhaps hearing some movement, the old man suddenly opened his eyes, fixing his sharp and wary gaze on me. They seemed to be on high alert and looked cold.

Startled by his piercing look, I jumped back. However, after a moment, he seemed to sense that I meant no harm, and he relaxed, closing his eyes once again.

Then, I approached the iron cage to inspect his wound. I could not help but frown. I knew I had to do something to help him.

Perhaps sensing that I had no intention of leaving, he opened his eyes again and looked at me. "You're not from here."

I paused for a moment, surprised to hear him speak with a Lake City accent. "You're from Lake City?" I asked.

He also paused before nodding and replied, "You too?"

I nodded and retrieved some medicine from my pocket. Rebecca gave me this medicine to treat my whip wounds, and it worked quite well. I had been carrying it with me this whole time.

Looking at his injured leg, I said, "Let me help you with that. If it continues like this, your leg will be rendered useless."

He lowered his gaze to his bloody, mangled leg, then glanced at the medicine bottle in my hand. After a moment, he extended his hand toward me and said, "Give it to me!"

I did not understand his intentions, but I handed him the medicine bottle. Once he had it, he ripped off his already-tattered clothes. Then, almost in the blink of an eye, he reached down and pulled the saw blade out of his leg with his bare hands.

"Sss..." I could faintly hear him hiss in pain. He quickly applied the medicine to the bloody wound and then swiftly wrapped it up with a torn piece of cloth from his clothes.

The whole series of actions was rough, fast, and flowed seamlessly.

I watched in complete awe, unable to speak.

Once he was done, he looked at me, his voice hoarse as he said, "Thank you."

I looked at him with many questions on my mind, but I did not know how to start asking them. In the end, I could only say to him, "Stay alive, old man."

He hesitated for a moment. His cloudy gaze rested on me, but he did not say anything.

I understood that most of the people tormented like this here were filled with vigilance and caution. Even if I helped him, it did not necessarily mean he would trust me. Thus, I didn't ask the questions that were nagging at me.

Whether he was a cop and why Lucas's group had not dealt with him yet were questions I was curious about, but now was not the time. Since I was here, I had to do something to survive. Even if I had no particular skills, a small spark could still ignite a raging fire.

Upon leaving the secret room and returning to my own quarters, I saw Rebecca. She had some fruits I had never seen before and handed them to me, asking, "Is the old man okay?"

I shook my head and took the fruits from her. "What are these?" I asked.

"It’s called salak," she replied while sitting next to me. She looked at me and said, "Ms. Scott, can I ask you some questions?"

Seeing her curiosity, I smiled faintly and nodded. "Go ahead, and thank you for what you did today."

She seemed unfazed by my gratitude and gently shook her head. Looking back at me, she asked, "Women are usually brought here by the boss from the outside to be sold cheaply to Kenneth or forced into hard labor in the mountains. However, you've been here for quite a while, seemingly living a leisurely life in these mountains. The boss even had me come and take care of you. What's your relationship with him?"