Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Life locked inside a dog cage was miserable.

Every day, Wu Xiaojiu could barely move, and what they fed him was spoiled rice and rotten vegetables. It did not take long before he was visibly thinner.

The place he had been brought to was an illegal operation. On the surface, it ran a bar; behind the scenes, it supplied high-quality “puppies” to clients from various countries.

What were “puppies”?

Once someone was locked in a dog cage, they were considered to have left the realm of humanity and fallen into the Animal Path.

As far as the public pitch went, these people no longer had human souls, only human bodies.

They could be disposed of however one pleased. Whether they lived or died was entirely up to the customer.

That was what they said on the surface. In reality, it was just a way to provide the most satisfying outlet possible for those depraved clients.

And because of that sales pitch, it lowered the psychological burden on those perverts.

As a result, business at the bar never stopped. It was booming.

They could hardly keep up with the demand for puppies.

And so traffickers like Blonde Beauty had emerged.

Their job was to scour every corner of the country for good-looking people, or people with unusual physical deformities.

They usually worked in groups, bringing the puppies in by every means imaginable, whether through threats, temptation, or simply knocking them out and shipping them over.

Wu Xiaojiu had been abducted and brought here about three days ago. Probably because he had market value, the organizers were afraid he might run, so they had set up a separate room to confine him.

The place was cramped, foul stenches drifted in from time to time, and the cage holding him even had dog hair stuck to the top.

But at least he was not like the puppies in the other rooms.

He had not been dragged out by some nameless thugs after they got drunk and used as an outlet.

During the three days Wu Xiaojiu had been locked up, he had been afraid at first. Later, after hearing the hysterical screams from outside, he became even more afraid.

By the second day, however, he had grown somewhat numb. The screams outside had gone on all night, and he had spent the whole night on edge, only to realize in the end that it was useless. He would be better off getting some sleep.

By the third day, Wu Xiaojiu was curled up in the dog cage, bored out of his mind, already able to automatically tune out the screams from outside.

“System, what am I supposed to do? I can’t actually wait for some customer to come and favor me, can I? But this cage is sealed tight. Forget a key, there isn’t even a lock.”

“They welded every opening shut. This is a dead cage. If I want to get out, someone would need to cut it open from the outside with a saw.”

The System gave a long, drifting sigh in his mind.

It expressed that it was helpless too.

“What can I do? I only knew the rough plot to begin with. Now the plot has gone completely off track. It’s not like I can materialize and help you, can I? Wu Xiaojiu, think of something yourself.”

Wu Xiaojiu curled up inside the cage and rocked left, then right.

He discovered that the cage had no flaw at all. He could not pry it open with his hands, and his body could not squeeze through.

Most importantly, it was very small. Every time Wu Xiaojiu moved inside the cage, it made a loud clanging sound.

“No good. This is hard. I can’t move at all. Forget getting out. If I make any bigger noise, the people outside will hear it.”

Wu Xiaojiu had just finished complaining when the door opened.

Someone staggered in, holding a can of beer, and immediately splashed it down at Wu Xiaojiu.

“Damn it, I’m just trying to drink a can of beer, and you still can’t behave. Don’t think you can act cocky just because you’re a puppy reserved for a big client!”

The man seemed drunk. His steps were unsteady, and with the light behind him, Wu Xiaojiu could see by the outside glow that his face was flushed red.

Light spilled into the dog-cage room. Wu Xiaojiu, stung by the glare, shrank back a little.
The man seemed amused by his reaction.

Clutching the empty beer can, he crouched down.

He reached through the gap, grabbed Wu Xiaojiu by the cheek, and shook his face up and down with all his strength, pinching it this way and that.

“Pretty little face you’ve got there. Gotta say, the big boss sure knows how to enjoy himself. Damn it, none of the people around here are normal.”

Wu Xiaojiu’s face was being yanked around so hard his head swayed with it.

The man stared at his fair cheeks for a while, admiring them, then gave a soft hiss.

“Why do you look so familiar? Have I seen you somewhere before?”

The man spoke with an East Asian accent.

Wu Xiaojiu immediately wondered if someone back home had realized he was missing and called the police, and if the police had put up missing-person notices all over the city. Maybe this man had happened to see one.

Wu Xiaojiu hurriedly nodded. The drunk hissed again and scratched his head.

His eyes darted around in confusion as he muttered nonstop inside the room.

“Where have I seen you? Why do you look so damn familiar? Wait, I think I remember.”

The drunk let go, shouted in disbelief, then pulled out his phone and shoved it in Wu Xiaojiu’s face for him to see.

“Look for yourself. Is this you on here? Scared the hell out of me when I saw it playing on that screen. Kid, you’re worth more than a billion. Expensive as hell.”

Wu Xiaojiu curled his lip, not quite believing anything a drunk said.

But when he actually looked at the phone screen, he froze for once.

For no other reason than this:

The video playing on the phone had been filmed on the commercial street with the highest rent in the world, and all around that street were enormous posters of Wu Xiaojiu.

As the camera zoomed in, the vertical waterfall 3D screen inside the commercial street was also playing that same face of Wu Xiaojiu’s.

“Do you have any idea how expensive rent is over there? I heard people say just one plot of land there could buy a small country. Your face was hung all over the entire commercial street. Just one day’s rent had to be at least this much.”

The drunk held up his thumb, ring finger, and middle finger at Wu Xiaojiu.

Wu Xiaojiu frowned and tentatively named a number.

“Three hundred million for one day? And they still didn’t find me? Just hanging posters there for one day cost three hundred million?”

“What three hundred million? It’s one point three billion! And your face wasn’t just up there for one day. It was there for a full three months! They still haven’t taken it down recently. It’s still hanging there.”

“What did you say? One point three billion a day, for three months!”

Wu Xiaojiu got so worked up he tried to straighten his back, but the dog cage was too low, and his head slammed into the top.

He had no time to care about the pain in his forehead.

In his heart, he silently complained about how wasteful his sister was.

Even now, he still assumed it was Wu Yuting looking for him.

The possibility that it could be anyone else never crossed his mind.

“Yeah. I could tell from how soft and delicate you are that you’re nothing like those East Asians. Kid, be honest with me. What did you used to do?”

As the saying went, wealth should not be flaunted; a tall tree catches the wind.

Wu Xiaojiu awkwardly shut his mouth. After fidgeting for a long while, he made up an identity.

“Actually, I used to be a boss. My business was pretty big, but later it went bankrupt. Maybe I didn’t fully settle someone’s wages back then, and they wanted revenge on me, so they started looking for me like this.”

The drunk knew even less about what went on above. After being fooled like this, he hesitated, but still nodded and believed Wu Xiaojiu.

Just as the two of them were about to keep talking, gunshots suddenly rang out outside.

“Drag that pup out. The big boss who bought him is here.”