The Cat Who Saves the World - Chapter 6
Chapter 6
He was a basketball player-tall, strong, and blessed with a harmonious family, a virtuous wife, and a devoted daughter.
Everything came to a screeching halt one day when his thirteen-year-old daughter vanished.
It happened on her way home from school.
His daughter had inherited his height; at thirteen, she was already over 1.7 meters tall, though she still retained the innocent air of a child.
She was abducted on that walk home.
That day, he had been away playing basketball in another city, and his wife had undergone a minor gynecological surgery at the hospital. Their thirteen-year-old daughter had puffed out her chest and said, “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m so tall and strong! If one bad guy comes, I’ll fight him; if two come, I’ll take them both on.”
His wife had smiled. “Alright, then Mom will take a rest today and see if you can find your own way home.”
The school was less than a kilometer from their house, just a few minutes’ walk.
And yet, in that short distance, his daughter was gone.
By the time he rushed back from out of town, his wife was on her deathbed. She pleaded with him, “You must find Jiao. You have to find her.”
Surveillance footage showed an old woman who had twisted her ankle. His daughter had helped her, walking her home, but she never emerged from the unmonitored alleyway.
Afterward, he stopped playing basketball. He took all his savings and scoured every mountain region in the country, determined to find his daughter.
Hard work pays off. In the eighth year, he found her in a mountainous village where boys were favored over girls, and many female infants were drowned at birth.
With such a skewed gender ratio, the village had turned to buying women.
When he arrived, the daughter he had once held in the palm of his hand was being kept in a pigsty. She was barely clothed and had only a single breath left in her.
The moment their eyes met, his daughter’s eyes widened, but she immediately lowered her head in shame.
Looking like this, how could she face her father?
The Bearded Man knew he couldn’t take on the entire village by force, so he said, “I want to buy this woman.”
He never expected that Jiao would be strangled to death in the pigsty that very night.
Every woman in that village had been bought. They weren’t allowed to let even one escape, or the entire village would face dire consequences.
After that, the Bearded Man went mad.
He stayed in the village and used every means at his disposal to slaughter everyone there.
Burned, hacked, poisoned…
When the police arrived, he had just killed the last person: the village chief, Liu Laosi.
And so, he was arrested.
The police said, “You are suspected of killing Liu Laosi. Come with us.”
At the station, the officers treated him quite well. They poured him water and showed him a photograph.
“The man in this photo is the one who kidnapped your daughter. We are doing everything we can to capture him.”
“Legally speaking, you broke the law and must take responsibility. But personally… thank you.”
“The people in that village were lunatics. We knew they were trafficking women and sent officers several times, but the whole village would swarm and attack us. They were completely unreasonable. We still have several officers recovering from being hit with hoes.”
The Bearded Man’s lips trembled. “Will I be sentenced to death?”
The officer patted his shoulder. “I’m the eyewitness. I saw you kill Liu Laosi, but I didn’t see anything else.”
And that was how the Bearded Man ended up in this prison. Barring any surprises, he would spend the rest of his life here.
