Guo Pinming turned and walked a distance, intending to help some pitiful children. However, something felt wrong in his heart. The image of the little girl who had stolen money earlier lingered in his mind. After much thought, the matter seemed to have many suspicious points, and the pitiful look on the little girl's face earlier didn't seem faked.
"Could it be that this little girl is being abused, and it's from her uncle?" Guo Pinming thought to himself.
What Guo Pinming hated to see most was children suffering. These children were the hope of the future. They should have grown up in a carefree environment, but now they had to strive for survival, and some even went astray. If this continued, it would surely not be a good thing.
With this thought, Guo Pinming turned to go back. But then he thought of something and used his special ability. Two steel arms emerged from his sleeves, grabbing the balconies on both sides of the road, and he climbed to the rooftop like a spider.
In a secluded corner, the young man slammed Zhou Lili, who was over five years old, against the wall and pointed at her nose, asking, "Little girl, were you trying to ask for help just now? If I hadn't arrived in time, you would have really gotten away!"
Zhou Lili curled up in the corner and said softly, "I want to find my dad. I don't want to steal. You only teach me to steal money. If I get caught later, my hand will be cut off."
Under Shen Feng, the law was also very simple: murder was repaid with life, debts were repaid with money, and for theft, one of the thief's hands was cut off as a warning. As a result, pickpockets were basically unseen on the streets, because once caught, their hands would be publicly cut off, ruining their lives forever.
Zhou Lili clearly knew this rule, so she resisted. But no matter how much she resisted, she could only obey orders and do things she didn't want to do. Otherwise, at best, she would go hungry, and at worst, she would be beaten and unable to get out of bed for days.
"Hmph, didn't I tell you?" the young man said coldly. "Your father is already dead, killed by Shen Feng. Now you have no choice but to rely on us. If you don't behave, I'll cut you into pieces and feed you to the dogs."
Hearing this, Zhou Lili quickly shook her head and said, "I don't believe it. My dad must be alive. He also said he would come to pick me up. At this time, he must have encountered trouble, so he can't get away. It must be like this."
Zhou Lili refused to accept the fact that her father was dead, so she kept denying it.
But the young man had clearly lost his patience. He suddenly kicked out, directly hitting the little girl. A large shoe print immediately appeared on her body. After being kicked, the little girl immediately cried out in pain, wiping away tears as she cried.
"If you don't get beaten, you won't learn your lesson. I'll make sure you know what's what today. I'll tell you, you'll have to make money for us from now on. If you try to run, we'll cut your Achilles tendons and make you beg on the roadside!" The young man then started punching and kicking Zhou Lili, completely disregarding that the one being beaten was a five-year-old girl.
Zhou Lili was still young and could only beg for mercy after being beaten. "I won't dare anymore, I won't dare to run away. I'll steal money from now on, and I'll steal a lot of money. Please don't hit me anymore."
Hearing this, the young man finally felt relieved. He bent down, picked up Zhou Lili's little face with two fingers, and a strange smile appeared on his face. "That's more like it. Be obedient. You're young, so go make money. After a few years, you won't have to steal money. Then, we'll teach you how to serve men, and at that time, you'll have escaped the sea of suffering and entered paradise."
Zhou Lili's eyes were filled with fear. She trembled uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face, but she no longer dared to cry out loud.
Since her father suddenly disappeared a few months ago, Zhou Lili had followed this so-called uncle to a strange place. The buildings here were dilapidated, and the streets were dark and gloomy. She was not the only one with this fate; there were over twenty other children, both boys and girls, all learning to pickpocket. If they didn't study diligently, they wouldn't get food.
Zhou Lili could no longer bear this kind of life, but when she tried to leave, she was mercilessly caught and brought back.
Zhou Lili was now completely desperate. She knew that her future would be a dark and gloomy one. If she failed to escape the first time, she would never be able to escape again.
However, at this very moment, a piece of rubble suddenly fell from the sky, followed by a deep and angry voice from above: "So that's how it is. You beasts are still hiding in the dark!"
The young man looked up in horror. He thought this was a secluded corner with no outsiders, and no one would come here at normal times. But then, a person suddenly fell from the sky, and this man had two steel-like arms. The steel arms grabbed the walls of the building on both sides, and the concrete walls were like paper, easily penetrated by the steel arms.
Guo Pinming descended from the sky, his face filled with coldness. He had thought he had encountered a case of ordinary domestic violence, but he never expected that there were gangs in Yuzhou that specialized in profiting from kidnapping children. He was immediately enraged.
"Don't come any closer, or else, or else I'll kill her!" The young man saw Guo Pinming suddenly appear and was completely panicked. He recognized Guo Pinming as a superpowered individual, and ordinary people were no match for him.
So, the man decisively grabbed Zhou Lili, took out a knife from his pocket, and held it to the little girl's neck. He wanted to escape from the superpowered individual. This was the only way. He couldn't possibly win in a fight, so only by taking a hostage could he have a slim chance of survival.
Seeing this scumbag still trying to resist, Guo Pinming couldn't help but laugh. He looked at the young man and sneered, "You are just an ordinary person, so you probably don't know how superpowered individuals use their abilities. To be honest, there is a range for superpowered individuals to exert their abilities, and my current range is ten meters around me!"
After saying this, Guo Pinming took a step closer to the man and Zhou Lili in the corner.
The man didn't understand what Guo Pinming was saying, but he understood that the distance between him and Guo Pinming was getting closer. If the other party continued to approach him, he could be killed at any moment.
At this point, the man was almost driven mad. He immediately pressed the dagger in his hand. Even if he was going to die, he wanted to take someone with him before he died.
But when he looked down, the man was holding a knife handle, and the entire dagger had turned into liquid, flowing out from the handle. It was clearly impossible to kill someone with the dagger. In front of Guo Pinming, all iron objects within ten meters were under his control, and turning solids into liquids was very easy.
Seeing this, the man was truly panicked. He threw away the knife handle and grabbed Zhou Lili's neck with both hands, shouting, "Don't come any closer, I can strangle this kid at any moment, don't force me to act."
"Shua shua," two short spikes suddenly shot out from the air, piercing the man's shoulder blades and nailing him firmly to the wall. The man cried out in pain, but his shoulders were pinned to the wall, rendering him completely immobile. He could only beg for mercy.
Guo Pinming said coldly, "I thought you guys were all caught during the city-wide search before, but it seems there are still some who slipped through the net. Don't worry, I won't kill you. I'll hand you over to the prison. Zhang Xixi will decide how to deal with you!"
Zhou Lili quickly ran to Guo Pinming's side, grabbed his clothes, her shoulders shaking, and cried softly.
Guo Pinming bent down and comforted her in a low voice, "It's okay, little girl, don't cry. Take me to this gang's base camp. No matter how many bad guys there are, I'll kill them all."
Zhou Lili quickly nodded and said, "Uncle, I'll take you, but you have to protect me."
Guo Pinming casually picked up Zhou Lili with one hand and smiled, "It's okay, uncle is a superpowered individual, I can protect you, no one can hurt you."
After saying that, Guo Pinming followed Zhou Lili to the den where this group trained children to steal. It was a very remote factory, long abandoned, and usually, no one would come here.
Duan Lang was sitting in the factory yard basking in the sun, while also watching the little ones under his command train. It could be considered a blessing in disguise. Duan Lang was an informant for the Dragon Slaying Gang in Yuzhou and had over a dozen people under him. During the city lockdown in Yuzhou, they stayed in the basement and successfully survived. He intended to find an opportunity to return to Jiangyang, but he heard bad news from Jiangyang: the Dragon Slaying Gang had been wiped out by Chang Jianyi and his men, led by Yang Chang's soldiers!
Now, Duan Lang had lost his backing and could no longer rely on the Dragon Slaying Gang to do evil. Moreover, if he were exposed, he would be arrested by the city guard.
However, Duan Lang had become the leader of a small group. He didn't dare to rob or extort protection fees, but he dared to abduct children, especially orphans without parents. After abducting them, he would train these children to steal. If they were pretty little girls, he could even sell them.
During this time, Duan Lang had been living quite comfortably. He would send a group of little ones to the streets to steal. If they were caught, they were just children. A few tears would make people let them go, after all, these were the flowers of the future, and they couldn't be easily harmed.
Duan Lang leaned back on the lounge chair, thinking happily, "In a few days, I can expand my staff and hire some mercenaries to live outside the city. Then, no one will be able to control me!"
Duan Lang leaned back on the lounge chair, basking in the sun, wearing sunglasses, with cold drinks and snacks by his side, while a group of children were training.
In front of the children was a basin of fine sand, with firewood underneath. The fine sand in the basin was extremely hot from the firewood, and glass marbles were hidden in the fine sand. The task of these children was to pick out the glass marbles one by one from the fine sand. Pity these little fellows, who had to undergo such inhumane training. Many children cried while practicing.
The fine sand was very hot. If one's hand stayed in the sand for too long, it would be directly cooked. Moreover, the intense pain was not something ordinary people could endure.
The children could only quickly pick out the glass marbles to avoid their fingers being cooked by the sand.
In contrast, while the children were practicing their skills in pain, a group of adults stood by, holding beer in one hand and willow branches in the other. As soon as they saw someone slacking off, they would immediately start whipping them.
"You little brats, you just don't know how to be grateful. We are considering your future. If you don't want to be caught, you can only be quick when you pickpocket. When you can pick out thirty beads within half a minute, then when you go out on the street, people won't even notice that you are the ones doing it!" The supervisor walked around and reprimanded the children.
However, at this moment, the factory's large iron gate was knocked upon: "Bang bang bang."
"Could it be that Old Six and the others are back? Didn't they say they had to work a full day before returning? It's still noon, why are they back early?" Someone looked at the factory gate in confusion.
This group did not go out to steal all at once, as that would attract too much attention and make them easy to be wiped out. Therefore, this group used a war of attrition, with people taking turns leading children out to steal, keeping an eye on these children in secret to prevent them from running away.
Duan Lang felt something was wrong at this moment. He immediately took out a gun from his body and frowned, saying, "Go and check the wall. I don't think it's Old Six and the others who are back."
Duan Lang knew that the people under him would not return for no reason. Moreover, if his subordinates returned, they would definitely be cursing. But the sound of knocking on the door was made by one person, which meant that the person knocking on the door was definitely not one of his subordinates.
Duan Lang held his pistol, no matter who wanted to enter, they would get a bullet.
At this moment, the factory's large iron gate suddenly melted. The originally solid iron gate instantly flowed like water and directly flowed onto the ground. A middle-aged man with a cold expression appeared outside the gate, holding a little girl in his arm.
"Guo Pinming!" Duan Lang exclaimed in his heart when he saw the person appearing outside the gate. He didn't expect one of Shen Feng's capable subordinates to appear here. Had his identity been exposed?