"Quickly find her, that little minx couldn’t have gone far!”
“The woman is beautiful, we could sell her for a good price, we can't let her run away!”
In the midst of the noise, Li Chun Ning woke up from unconsciousness; her head was throbbing, and her entire body ached, as if she had been run over by a large truck.
She frowned as she looked around, and she was shocked to her core. This seemed to be an uninhabited wilderness, surrounded by large trees. She was hanging halfway up a mountain, underneath there were overgrown weeds and dense thorny bushes.
Where was this place?
Wasn't she battling with criminals, protecting hostages from a high-rise building?
While she was bewildered, another severe headache hit her, and a wave of memory surged into her mind.
She had crossed time and space, crossing over to the 1970s!
She became a female educated youth with the same name and surname, who was seventeen years old and had just relocated to a rural area.
The original Li Chun Ning was from Beijing, born into a prominent background, and she was the only child of her family. She was not required to relocate to the countryside, but she resigned from her job and came to Qingshan Village of Hongqi Commune in the North Province at the instigation of her best friend Luo YingEr.
Yesterday, she and several other educated young women went to the town to shop. On the way, they were stunned by traffickers and ended up bound hand and foot in a remote civilian house!
The person who kidnapped her was an old woman with two accomplices.
After the original Li Chun Ning woke up, she secretly wore down the rope. When the two male accomplices went out to contact buyers, she knocked the old woman out and escaped on her own.
In panic, she slipped and rolled down the slope, unfortunately dying.
And so, Li Chun Ning, a special soldier from the 21st century, has ended up here under a rather unexpected twist of fate!
When she first woke up, the voice she heard was the human traffickers who came to look for her shouting, but she was hanging on the mountain flank, luckily not discovered by them.
Exercising calm, Li Chu Ning carefully observed her present predicament.
The place where she was located was about ten meters away from the foot of the mountain, below it was a winding mountain road. As long as she can escape to the side of the road, she could seize the opportunity to stop a passing vehicle, thereby escaping danger.
During her escape, her previous host had lost her shoes, the soles of her feet were worn, and there were abrasions all over her body.
Braving the pain, Li Chu Ning hooked the vines around the big tree with her feet, wove them into a long rope, tied it around her waist, and gradually avoided the thorns, slowly climbing down the slope.
Upon reaching the winding mountain road, she hid in the bushes to avoid being discovered by the human traffickers if they followed her. Hence, she waited for an opportunity.
After patiently waiting on the road for a long time, finally, a military jeep passed by!
Li Chu Ning’s eyes brightened up as she rushed over to stop in front of the jeep, pleading, “Help me! Comrade soldier, please save me!”
The vehicle stopped abruptly making a harsh noise as the tires rubbed against the ground.
Li Chu Ning ran to the side of the window, seeing the familiar military outfit worn by people inside the jeep brought tears of excitement to her eyes.
"Help me, People’s Liberation Army comrade! I am a 'down-to-the-countryside' youth who was kidnapped by human traffickers. I just escaped risking my life. Please rescue me and take me away from here!”
The jeep driver looked at the co-driver soldier who inspected her, then nodded.
The driver immediately got out of the car, opened the back door and helped Li Chu Ning in, passing her a first aid kit.
"Comrade, you bandage yourself first. We will take you to a hospital in the town for a checkup afterwards.”
"Thank you, but that's not necessary. They're just skin abrasions. Please, can you give me a ride to the police station in town.”
The soldier in the passenger seat kept his lips tightly closed, his eyes cool and alert, keeping a vigilant watch around.
The vehicle started again, and the driver, looking through the rearview mirror at Li Chun Ning in a pitiful state, asked: "Comrade, which commune's educated youth are you? How did you get kidnapped by traffickers?"
Li Chun Ning sighed: "I am an educated youth from The Hongqi Commune, Qingshan Village. Yesterday, I went to the town with other educated youths to buy some things. We planned to meet at the gate of the town's primary school. An old lady approached me to ask how to go to the machinery factory."
"I pointed her in the right direction, but she still claimed to be confused. Feeling sorry for her, I decided to lead the way. Who would have known, she suddenly drugged me when we passed by a secluded alley."
"When I woke up, I found myself lying in a stranger's house, with my hands and feet all tied up. After the old lady's accomplices left, I knocked her out and managed to escape."
The passenger seat soldier suddenly spoke, his voice low and powerful: "Do you remember where that house is? Did the traffickers have any distinct characteristics?"
His voice was calm and magnetic, bringing an inexplicable sense of safety, which somewhat eased the panic in Li Chun Ning's heart.
She thought for a moment and said: "I can sketch it out. Do you have paper and a pencil?"
"Yes, wait a moment." The soldier said and took out a few pieces of paper and a pencil from his bag and handed them to her.
Li Chun Ning took it, paused slightly to recall, and then began to draw.
The interior of the vehicle was extremely quiet, the scratching sound of the pencil on the paper clearly audible.
After about half an hour, the car drove into the town. Li Chun Ning finished drawing and handed the sketches to the stern soldier in the passenger seat.
She had made four sketches in total, three of which were portraits of the old lady and two men, and one was a rough location of where she was imprisoned, along with a diagram of the inside of the house.
The soldier examined the sketches carefully, his brows furrowing tighter.
Unexpectedly, this girl's drawing skills were so impressive. Not only did she manage to produce four sketches in such a short time, but they were all vividly detailed, almost like photographs!
Jin Changzheng stared at the portrait, his gaze fixed firmly on the face of a man depicted in it.
The man looked cultured, with prominent features. There was a large mole near his chin on the right cheek, lightly covered by sparse hair.
Jin Changzheng's thumb caressed the sheet of paper, his eyes brimming with chilling coldness and an icy aura. They had headed north from the military area for the sole purpose of apprehending this man.
Unexpectedly, a clue had been handed to them by a girl they met midway.
What a twist of fate.