Chapter 380 - The Price of Growing up (2/2)
As a chill breeze blew, four corpses now laid on the empty street, but, when seen from afar, passersby would mistake them as drunken men sleeping off the binge.
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When Ding Zhenyun woke up, he realized he was lying on a large soft bed. The spacious room looked luxurious, with snow-white colored walls, and the place was furnished tastefully.
“Good, you’re awake.”
Xiao Luo walked in with a glass of warm water.
“W-where are they?” Ding Zhenyun squeaked, still in fear of being pursued by that muscular youth and his minions.
“They have been arrested by the police, and their hideout was raided. Your friends and other victims had been rescued and sent home.” Xiao Luo replied. In fact, the hideout had not been handled by the police, but by the NSA, overnight.
“That’s great, that’s so great!” Ding Zhenyun cried, he was relieved.
“Cousin, I…”
He was ashamed of himself and disappointed that he berated Xiao Luo for his earlier intention to advise him on the MLM trap. The words he had uttered to Xiao Luo were inappropriate, and he just couldn’t understand why he had been so abusive to Xiao Luo then.
“It’s all over, it’s good that you have learned your lesson now,” Xiao Luo said, passing him the water with a warm smile.
Ding Zhenyun accepted it with both his hands, and suddenly, his eyes became watery, and he started to snivel slightly. Everything he had experienced in Xiahai City was a nightmare, and even now, he was still having frightening flashbacks. “Cousin, I’m so sorry for not listening to you. I don’t know what was wrong with me, I was probably lost in my greed to make more money. Now that I think about it, I must have gone completely nuts.”
Overcome by guilt, he lost his composure and started to weep.
“Cousin, do you know that these people are demons, not humans. When we realized that it was an MLM scheme, we all wanted to leave. But they wouldn’t let us leave, and even forced us to attend classes every day by imprisoning us in a small rental flat like criminals.
They caught a man trying to escape, and he was held on the floor, and, right in front of us, his finger was chopped off; that man was bleeding profusely and screaming. There was another woman, she couldn’t take such a depressing life, so she hid in the toilet and bit herself to sever an artery and commit suicide. When we finally broke in, she was drenched in blood, but she had gone nuts, she grinned at us, and I even saw pieces of flesh in her mouth. The entire toilet was reeking of her blood.”
Ding Zhenyun recalled the trauma he had encountered recently, and he was still in deep anguish. His eyes turned red, and he stared blankly as he knew that he would forever be haunted by these horrible experiences.
Xiao Luo felt equally guilty as he thought that the MLM organizations were usually gentler with their employees. However, he realized how naive he was to think that these people would not turn to violence after their employees chose not to continue to contribute to the scheme.
Had he known that it would turn out this way, he would have abducted Ding Zhenyun back then. Fortunately, Ding Zhenyun only suffered from some physical torture and did not sustain any psychological damage. If not, he would have a hard time explaining to his aunt, Xiao Jianying.
“I have booked a train ticket for you, and I’ll send you to the train station tomorrow. You should go back home now, and spend some time with your folks. Once you’re well-rested, and if you’re willing, go help out at the farmhouse.”
“Okay, I’ll listen to you.”
Ding Zhenyun wiped off his tears and nodded obediently, his attitude towards Xiao Luo had now completely changed. This experience had made him grow up, and he now understood a lot more in life. Although having the ambition to succeed is good, one should be pragmatic and achieve it step-by-step. Tying to get rich overnight was nothing but a pipe dream.
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