Chapter 10

Previously, Mo Wen had thought that the so-called human market was just a couple of streets like a market. Only when he arrived did he realize that this city, named Angcheng, was a massive human market. The city was three times the size of the town where they had previously gathered information. Apart from the merchants who ran teahouses and inns, there were no permanent residents in the city, only sellers and buyers of people.

The city was divided into the East City and the West City. The West City was mainly where impoverished families sold their children. These people were without exception ragged and emaciated. The parents who sold their own children showed no reluctance; their eyes were only filled with emptiness and numbness. The children, with grass markers in their hair, sitting by the roadside, did not show any attachment to their parents. Whenever passersby walked by, they would stare straight at them, their eyes filled with pleading and longing. Mo Wen could understand the helplessness of the parents, as selling their children was actually to ensure their survival, but he could not understand why these children showed no attachment to their parents.

"From the looks of it, they really want to be bought," Mo Wen said to Lao Wu, who was walking beside him.

"Of course, if they are bought, they won't have to go hungry. You haven't experienced hunger, but when people are starving, they will do anything. These children around ten years old still have a chance to be bought, but the younger ones who can't be sold can only be traded with other families," Lao Wu said casually.

"Traded? Traded with whom?" Mo Wen was slightly puzzled.

"With other poor people," Lao Wu replied.

"What for?" Mo Wen was even more puzzled.

"To eat. They are unwilling to eat their own children, so they eat others'," Lao Wu said.

"Trading children to eat?!" Mo Wen was shocked and his face turned pale. Before this, he had only heard of the barbarians eating people, but he never thought that impoverished Han people would also do such inhumane things.

The two of them had a small amount of dry rations. At first, Mo Wen did not give any to the children by the roadside, knowing that once he started, others would swarm around to beg. But after not walking far, he could not resist his compassion and secretly gave some food to a pitiful child. The child was skin and bones, lying by the roadside, barely alive.

"How can there be a father like you?!" Mo Wen shouted at the middle-aged man who snatched the dry rations from his child.

The man did not respond, quickly eating the half loaf of bread and ignoring his child's crying hands reaching for his mouth.

Mo Wen, helpless, gave the child another half loaf of bread. The child hurriedly took it, clutching it tightly and shoving it into his mouth, afraid that his father would snatch it away again.

Mo Wen stared at the father and son, still in disbelief. He had initially doubted Lao Wu's words, but now he believed them. When people are starving, they will do anything.

"Sir, don't look. This kind of thing happens in the State of Jin too. You just haven't been out much," Lao Wu said, pulling Mo Wen forward when he saw him standing there in a daze.

"Let's buy that child. Otherwise, he will starve to death," Mo Wen said, frequently looking back.

"Can you buy them all? Besides, what will you do with them after you buy them?" Lao Wu pointed around, indicating that there were hundreds of children in the same situation as the one they had just helped.

Mo Wen could only sigh. The scene of the father snatching the child's food kept replaying in his mind. It was a choice made between life and death, a wrong and hateful choice.

"If I were him, I would rather starve to death than take my child's food," Mo Wen said solemnly.

"People are different," Lao Wu said. He understood the hardships of the poor better than Mo Wen and had become accustomed to it.

The West City not only sold children but also adult men and women. The men were mostly young and strong, and their prices were higher because they could work and farm. Buyers from all over examined them like livestock, even checking their limbs and teeth. The women were mostly young, with their husbands and children behind them. They sold themselves voluntarily to ensure their families' survival. Here, there was no taboo about physical contact, and buyers would touch their waists and breasts in front of their husbands and children. The husbands would look pained, while the children would stare in confusion.

"These men are all healthy. As long as they work hard, why can't they support their families? How did they end up in such a miserable state?" Mo Wen asked Lao Wu again.

"They might not have land, or they might have suffered from a disaster. They were already struggling, and one disaster was enough to leave them without food," Lao Wu said.

Mo Wen sighed again. Since arriving at the human market, he had been sighing frequently. Everything here made him feel so ugly and evil. To him, this was not a place for humans but a hell filled with betrayal and separation, a netherworld devoid of conscience and kindness.

Although he was sighing, Mo Wen did not stop walking. He and Lao Wu quickly searched, covering the entire West City before moving to the East City. When they arrived, Mo Wen knew he had found the right place. This was a large open area where the barbarian soldiers sold the women they had plundered. The barbarians wore military uniforms and armor, not hiding their identities. The captured women sat in rows on the ground, and most of them were beautiful. Compared to the lifelessness of the West City, this place was filled with resentment, with the cries of the women and the shouts of the barbarians.

The women captured by the barbarians numbered in the thousands. It seemed that they did not belong to a single group, as they occasionally cursed at each other. The young barbarians spoke Chinese, while the older ones spoke a language Mo Wen did not understand.

There were also many Han people buying women. The barbarians, though glaring, did not hit them, and the buyers were not afraid, haggling over prices.

Seeing this, Mo Wen dared to lead Lao Wu over, searching for Lin Ruochen among the crowd. Since they were unsure if Lin Ruochen was still wearing red pants, they had to examine each woman's appearance. Most of the women were looking down, so their search was slow.

Although the women were beautiful, they were all disheveled. As they searched, Mo Wen thought to himself that if he found Lin Ruochen, he would comfort her and take good care of her. He could not blame her; she was powerless to resist, and her family was already dead. As a husband, he could not abandon her.

As they searched, the barbarians occasionally shouted at them for just looking and not buying. Mo Wen did not respond, quickly moving on to avoid arguments.

They had spent an hour in the West City and arrived in the East City by mid-morning. By noon, they had examined over a thousand women, but Lin Ruochen was not among them.

"Sir, should we search again?" Lao Wu suggested, seeing Mo Wen's low spirits.

"No need," Mo Wen slowly shook his head. They had searched very carefully, and there was no way they had missed her. Besides, if Lin Ruochen had been in the crowd, she would have already noticed them and called for help.

"You've done your best. Let's go back," Lao Wu said.

Mo Wen glanced at Lao Wu, knowing that he did not agree with the search for Lin Ruochen.

"Let's check the inn again. If there's no news, we'll go back," Mo Wen said in a consultative tone.

"Alright," Lao Wu nodded.

Mo Wen turned and walked towards the inn in the city. The inn was the largest building in the city, where the sellers and the women to be sold stayed at night.

Inside the inn, Mo Wen found a corner to sit. There were not many people in the inn, and a waiter came up to serve them. The food here was mainly porridge, meat, and offal. Mo Wen, thinking they had not had meat for a long time, ordered two bowls of offal soup.

The offal soup was quickly served, and Mo Wen paid with copper coins, giving the waiter two extra coins to ask if he had seen a woman in red pants staying there about half a month ago.

Mo Wen did not have much hope, as it had been nearly a month. However, the waiter had a good memory and remembered that a few weeks ago, a barbarian officer had brought a group of women to sell, including a woman in red pants. This woman in red pants was not sold by the officer but was taken back to Ye City in a carriage. From the description, the woman was very likely Lin Ruochen.

"Sir, you're not thinking of going to Ye City, are you?" Lao Wu handed Mo Wen a piece of bread.

"Having a lead, I can't just ignore it," Mo Wen took the bread.

"That's the capital of the State of Zhao, full of barbarians," Lao Wu frowned.

"After lunch, we'll split up. You go back first, and I'll head north to find her," Mo Wen said resolutely.

"Wherever you go, I'll follow," Lao Wu, knowing Mo Wen was angry, quickly lowered his head to drink the soup.

After lunch, the two set off again. On the way, they found an abandoned village by the roadside and estimated they could reach it by nightfall. They rested in the abandoned village at night and continued their journey during the day.

Ye City was about two thousand miles away. Mo Wen and Lao Wu traveled north, and after a few days, it snowed heavily again. They walked through the snow, moving slowly. When they encountered barbarians, they would avoid them from a distance, and if they couldn't avoid them, they would lower their heads and let them pass. Because Mo Wen was cautious, they endured many hardships but did not encounter any danger. On New Year's Eve, as they passed through a forest, an unexpected incident occurred. Several burly men rushed out from the forest, surrounding them.

"Hand over your belongings, and we'll spare your lives..."