It seemed that seeing Song Chaoyu and the others were relatively "obedient," those people didn't make things difficult for them later.
When Song Chaoyu and her group reached the place where the women were, they had only one feeling: lifeless.
Even with Song Chaoyu and the others newly "joining" them, the women didn't make any more moves. They didn't even lift an eyelid to look at Song Chaoyu more than necessary.
As for the man in the hall, he sat back down and violently smashed the empty plate on the table onto the ground, "Are you all blind?! Is there no more food? I'm starving to death! You'll all have to be buried with me!"
Soon, several elderly women found some food and served it to him. His enraged mood seemed to have eased slightly.
As Song Chaoyu and her group found a corner and sat down, a woman approached them and asked in a low voice, "Are you from the capital?"
The woman appeared to be a little older than Song Chaoyu. Her clothes did not look like those of a poor family.
However, she wore no hairpins or jewelry on her head, and her clothes were torn in a few places, making her look somewhat disheveled.
Compared to the other women, this woman seemed to be in better spirits.
Her eyes still held a "sparkle."
Seeing the goodwill in her eyes, Song Chaoyu nodded and replied, "Yes, we came from the capital. What... what is going on here?"
"Alas—"
The woman sighed, "The only ones who dare to come to Ping'an County now are probably you. Once you arrive here, don't think about escaping. Especially a beautiful lady like you, you're likely in for trouble!"
She lowered her head, her eyes reddening, and tugged at her collar, "I came here half a month ago and couldn't escape either."
She pointed to the remaining women, "Look at them, they've been tormented beyond recognition. Many other women have already committed suicide by banging their heads. As for us, we don't know why we're still alive. I didn't expect such a beautiful lady like you to end up like us! This world truly doesn't let people live."
Her lament was perhaps because she had been here for so long and had no one to talk to.
She learned from her that her name was "Zhu Ya," originally from Haizhou City, whose family ran a small business.
She came to Ping'an County because she heard it was a place to seek refuge, but she never expected to fall into a tiger's den.
In the past half month, she had also gone through the stages that the other women had experienced. Those women had not yet "recovered," but Zhu Ya had already emerged from that helplessness, pain, and despair.
She still held onto hope, believing that perhaps one day, she could leave this place.
In fact, Song Chaoyu felt a pang of sympathy for this seemingly optimistic woman.
She could only hold Zhu Ya's hand and say, "Believe me, that day will surely come!"
Then Song Chaoyu looked at the man who was still feasting and asked, "Can you tell me who he is?"
Zhu Ya nodded and began to talk about the man.
Everyone called him "Lion Boss." As for his real name, Zhu Ya didn't know and had never heard anyone call him by it.
Zhu Ya heard that this Lion Boss was also from Ping'an County, but he had left Ping'an County since childhood and instead became a pirate at sea.
This time, for some unknown reason, he colluded with the officials of the Ping'an County yamen and then organized these twenty-odd people, becoming rampant in the current Ping'an County.
Relying on the few extremely fierce men he brought with him, coupled with their many weapons, Lion Boss naturally became the "leader" of everyone.
In the beginning, they did not dare to be so brazen.
After all, the disaster victims of Ping'an County were still there, and people like Xu Yuan were organizing them. These twenty-odd people could not completely "occupy" Ping'an County.
But later, after Ping'an County was repeatedly plundered by the government, they had no choice but to leave.
So Xu Yuan took away most of the people who died. As for those who didn't want to leave, or couldn't leave, they could have survived in the county.
However, the people brought by Lion Boss would not let them go!
They committed all sorts of evil deeds in Ping'an County, burning, killing, and looting, controlling the entire place. Then, day after day, they reached their current scale.
Zhu Ya told Song Chaoyu a lot, making Song Chaoyu feel that she was a good person.
However, when Zhu Ya turned back to bring them some food, the woman who had been lying motionless beside Song Chaoyu suddenly looked up at Song Chaoyu, "Don't believe her!"
Her voice was very, very soft, making Song Chaoyu wonder if she had misheard.
Seeing Song Chaoyu's lack of reaction, the woman quietly moved closer to Song Chaoyu and whispered, "Don't believe Zhu Ya. She's one of them. If you believe her, you'll become someone she uses to gain favor."
Song Chaoyu was puzzled. She looked around, and seeing no one noticed them, she asked the woman, "Gain favor? How will she use me to gain favor?"
"Hmph!"
The woman snorted coldly, "Naturally, she'll try to persuade you to surrender to them, appease them, and then find a way to let you leave. Once you actually do that, she'll go to Lion Boss to claim credit, saying she persuaded you to obey obediently. Lion Boss will reward her. But if you dare to resist, the only outcome will be beating!"
"Here."
She gestured with her chin towards several other women lying motionless on the ground, their bodies stained with blood, "They are the ones who naively believed Zhu Ya and tried their best to please Lion Boss, only to be deceived by Zhu Ya!"
"Alas—"
But the next moment, the woman sighed again, "But even if we don't try to please them, what's the use? We're trapped here anyway, unable to leave!"
After saying that, she turned away from Song Chaoyu and said no more.
A moment later, Zhu Ya brought some food and placed it in front of Song Chaoyu, "What's your name? Eat quickly, this food is hard to come by here! Lion Boss and the others asked me to prepare it, so you see, life here isn't that bad, is it? As long as you can think it through, what is there to be afraid of?"
As expected... her words had begun to sound off.
Song Chaoyu lowered her gaze, nodded, and smiled, "My name is A Yu. It seems you've thought it through?"
"A Yu, you're two years younger than me, let me call you sister!"
Zhu Ya stepped forward and took Song Chaoyu's hand, "Sister, it's not that I'm trying to say anything! Look around you, so many people who can't think straight, what good end can they have?"