Chapter 307: Liberators
Time passed by and the over hundred people in the hall were getting more desperate. Except for a few who knew the existence of Nine Dragon Island, the rest had never even heard of this place. Such foreign environment, brutal pirates and, coupled with the burst of gunfire sounding from time to time, it were as though a Taoist voodoo spell was hastening them to their deaths and scaring them.
In the corner, Yi Lianyan had already severed the rope that tied her hands behind her back. However, she didn’t get up yet and even pushed her back to the corner and maintained the same posture. But her hand tightly held a folding fruit knife.
She loved the ocean and used her summer vacation from Shanghai to visit the Southern Bird Island. Savoring the taste of the customs and visiting the beautiful environment there, even the only hotel where she stayed was facing the ocean. It was as though a warm spring with blooming flowers everywhere.
Unfortunately, after having stayed in Southern Bird Island for more than half a month, when she was about to go to the other islands near Southern Bird Island, the pirates that had snuck into the island began their plunder. Thanks to her life in Sichuan Opera family who possessed magical changing appearance techniques for generations, hence, she hastily used the cosmetics she brought to change her appearance when the pirates weren’t paying attention to her.
She actually possessed a beautiful face, but as the result of her efforts, she looked extremely ugly. It was precisely because of this that she was lucky enough to escape the abuses and ravages of those pirates and was locked up with a few others.
“Everyone please think of a solution! We can escape even if only one person has untied his or her rope,” Kawasaki Oshima was restless as he sweated profusely.
After half a minute, nobody responded. No one got up.
Yi Lianyan’s expression constantly changed. She didn’t know whether there were still pirates outside. Were they still there and learned she was the first to untie her rope, they would probably kill her.
‘What should I do?’
Inside her innermost heart, a fierce battle commenced, causing her expression to constantly change.
‘I gotta go ahead regardless. Even if there’s only a slim chance of survival, I must get a hold of it. It’s better to act rather than resign myself to death and do nothing.’ A determined expression finally appeared on Yi Lianyan’s eyes as she removed the ropes from her body and suddenly stood.
“Bang…”
The muffled sound of a gunshot sounded.
Yi Lianyan’s face greatly changed. She instantly judged that someone had just shot the lock on the hall’s door. Almost in a flash, she squatted on the floor, scrambling to grab the ropes and casually wrapped it back around her body.
In the next moment, the hall’s door was trampled open as several men in casual attire with submachine guns rushed into the hall. Upon seeing the situation inside, they instantly aimed their muzzles at the people inside.
“The hostages are here, Boss!” A man turned his head and shouted toward the outside.
Tang Xiu’s figure appeared at the door as his eyes swept toward the crowd in the hall with anger suffused in his eyes. The vast majority of these hostages were women, most of whom were in a very pitiful and embarrassing state and had apparently been raped and ravaged.
In the corner, Yi Lianyan’s eyes instantly stared wide-eyed with an ecstatic expression in her eyes. The big man who just spoke was neither using English or Japanese. It was pure Mandarin.
‘Mandarin? Are they from China?’
Her breathing turned faster. After firming her heart, she immediately stood and shouted, “Hey, I’m Chinese, and you are?”
Tang Xiu was stunned, looking at Yi Lianyan’s extremely ugly changed face and found that her clothes were still intact with only some scratches on her face. He immediately approached her and said, “Yes, we’re Chinese. I didn’t expect that these pirates also had kidnapped one of our fellow countrymen. What’s your name?”
“Yi Lianyan!”
“How did you get caught?” asked Tang Xiu.
“I was visiting this place, making use of my summer vacation after the CET. I eventually got captured and was transported with them here,” said Yi Lianyan.
Tang Xiu shook his head and sighed, “You luck is not good, but it’s not bad either. Congratulations. You’re free now.”
Several men with submachine guns put their muzzles down and began to untie the hostages. After everyone stood, Kawasaki Oshima came before Tang Xiu with a face full of excitement and then respectfully said, “Hello, I’m Kawasaki Oshima. Thank you for saving us. You’re our savior and liberator, we will remember you.”
Tang Xiu knitted his brows and asked lightly, “You’re all Japanese?”
“Yes!” said Kawasaki Oshima.
“Take a rest first then! I’ll send some people to escort you back after dawn. Also, I hope you won’t spread what happened here,” said Tang Xiu.
“Dear Sir, we must try our best to publicize this act of kindness. After all, you drove away those pirates and you’re also our hero. It is only right if everyone all over the world knows your heroic deeds,” said Kawasaki Oshima.
Tang Xiu indifferently looked at him and said lightly, “We are no heroes nor was it necessary for us to save you. It’s just that I have bought this island, whereas those pirates happened to be occupying it, so it was necessary for us to drive them away. Hence, rescuing you was just a passing incident. Not to mention that once the matters here were to spread out, it would only bring us a lot of troubles.”
The over hundred rescued people looked at each other. They didn’t understand what Tang Xiu was saying. However, Tang Xiu was the one who rescued their lives, they didn’t want to bring trouble for him. Hence, they promised not to disclose anything that happened in this place.
Certainly, the majority of them were women, to begin with. So they were naturally very satisfied with Tang Xiu’s request to keep the matter confidential. After all, they were just violated by the pirates, which was severely detrimental to their reputations.
Tang Xiu then said in a deep voice, “Anyhow, it is not particularly safe outside, though. Some pirates have escaped and I can’t guarantee they won’t be back sneaking here again to avenge their comrades. Thus, you have to stay here until we make sure that all the remaining pirates have left.”
“Alright…”
“Thank you…”
"..."
Tang Xiu shook his head and was ready to leave as Yi Lianyan quickly rushed over and grabbed his arm. She then shook her head and said, “I don’t want to stay here. Can I go with you?”
“You are the only Chinese here?” asked Tang Xiu after a moment’s hesitation.
“There’s only me,” said Yi Lianyan with a nod.
“Come then! Hopefully the scene outside won’t scare you off too much,” said Tang Xiu.
After leaving the hall, Tang Xiu then said to several of his men who just came out, “Pile up all the dead bodies and then wait for Wolf Head and the others to come back.”
“Yes!” the several men immediately dispersed upon hearing it.
Half an hour later, Wolf Head, the Mo brothers, and the others arrived back and brought along six dead bodies. After throwing the corpses at the square outside the castle, Wolf Head respectfully said, “Boss, we only caught six, a few of them have escaped. After we caught up to them, we found that those several pirates had been long gone by ship.”
Tang Xiu nodded, “Since they have escaped, just count it as their good luck. Anyways, pile up all the corpses! After burning them, we’ll clean up the castle.”
“Yes!” Wolf Head respectfully replied.
Tang Xiu then looked to Mo Awen and said, “After dawn, take some men and escort those civilian captives to Southern Bird Island. After you got there, warn them to keep it all confidential.”
“Understood!” Mo Awen replied with a nod.
After the fierce and intense night battle, only a few of the more than 200 pirates escaped as all others were killed here, making Tang Xiu rather satisfied with the victory. None of his men died and only a few were injured.
However, the damage to the castle was not small due to the gun battle. However, since Tang Xiu had planned to rebuild the place, he didn’t seriously mind it. With Mo Awu accompanying him, he visited the entire castle and strolled around for several hours before returning to the square outside the castle with satisfaction.
Yi Lianyan, who had been following Tang Xiu, tried to ask him questions many times, yet, seeing as how Tang Xiu was full of enthusiasm, she repressed her questions inside.
At this moment, she finally couldn’t help asking, “Big Brother Tang, did you really buy this island?”
“Yup,” Tang Xiu laughed.
Once again, she asked, “Who are you really? What are you gonna do with such an isolated island? To my knowledge, it would perhaps take 24 hours to sail from here to Southern Bird Island. Also, this place is very difficult to find if you have no precise sea route navigation.”
“Have you read Tao Yuanming’s Peach Blossom Spring?” Tang Xiu laughed.
Yi Lianyan’s eyes stared wide, astounded, “I have. It’s the lore in the textbooks of junior high school. You mean… you want to build a paradise here?”
“Yup. I want to build a paradise here,” Tang Xiu laughed.
Yi Lianyan’s mouth twitched a few times as she said with a strange expression, "Rich men such as you have very particular hobbies. But how would your men be so powerful? They killed those ferocious pirates without batting an eye. Also, those pirates had more than 200 people, yet only a few of them escaped, while the rest were all killed by you and your men. Isn’t this rather too much?”
Tang Xiu smiled faintly, “I don’t want to answer this question. But I can give you some words for free, though.”
“What words?” asked Yi Lianyan, puzzled.
Letting out a smile that was yet unlike one, Tang Xiu said, “A genuinely smart person is someone who knows how to feign ignorance. But someone who knows nothing yet wants to know the bottom of the matter would be just like the saying -- ‘curiosity killed the cat’.”
Yi Lianyan was stupefied for a moment as she then instantly lowered her head and fell into silence.
Letting out a faint smile, Tang Xiu then turned to Wolf Head and said, “I give you ten days to investigate the whole Nine Dragon Island. I must make sure that nobody except us are in this place. Besides, I’ll also draw architectural designs and decide the construction company that will cooperate with me before I return to the mainland.”
“Boss, I think the constructions here are rather fine! Why do you want to rebuild it?” said Wolf Head.