Chapter 43: The Slums

After being thoroughly fussed over by Fox Ear, Jiang Qin was transformed from a fragrant, soft little female into a disheveled, foul-smelling, and slovenly half-beast female.

This was because he had also attached a pair of black, fluffy cat ears to her head.

With her standing there now, even Yuwei probably wouldn't recognize her.

Her naturally delicate and captivating facial features had been altered into squinting eyes, a flat nose, and thick lips, with various mottled spots painted across her cheeks.

Her fair skin had also been dyed a dark brown.

She truly looked like a wandering, insane beggar.

Once the disguise was complete, one of Fox Ear’s companions carried a tattered chemical bag and took the lead.

Fox Ear himself dragged her along to keep up.

After leaving the scrapyard and walking west for more than half an hour, the four of them finally arrived at a shanty settlement.

If Jiang Qin had to describe it, it felt somewhat like the slums of a certain South Asian country.

Filth, stench, and chaos all rolled into one.

There were no houses here, only rows upon rows of dilapidated and cramped sheds.

However, the area was vast, resembling a massive, densely populated enclave, with a high population consisting mostly of half-beasts.

The present appearance of the four of them blended right in with the locals.

Aside from half-beasts, Jiang Qin also saw human beings chained by their necks at the thresholds of some doors. Those people all wore numb expressions; some were working, while others lay motionless on the ground.

As they walked further, passing a section of shanties that looked slightly different, she noticed many male half-beasts standing in line.

In front of those sheds were groups of men and women who had been selected for display.

There were both half-beasts and pure humans among them.

Compared to the others, they were much cleaner, had slightly more meat on their faces, and were reasonably attractive overall...

Seeing the four of them pass by, a half-beast with most of his face covered in scales stepped forward with a smile.

He sized Jiang Qin up with the appraising gaze one might give to merchandise and asked, "Brother, are you planning to sell her?"

Jiang Qin's chained hands clenched tightly inside her sleeves.

However, she wasn't worried that Fox Ear would sell her. They had lost so many men and expended so many resources to snatch her away, certainly not for a mere handful of star coins.

Therefore, Fox Ear naturally shook his head, indicating he had no intention of selling. "This is a female I went to great lengths to capture. I'm keeping her."

The half-beast wore a sympathetic expression.

"Brother, you must be truly desperate to be able to stomach a female like this."

He offered a sincere suggestion, "You'd be better off selling her and spending a small sum to get yourself a few pretty females or males from our place. We have delicate pure humans, and half-beasts with incredible endurance~"

The male half-beast winked suggestively at the three of them after speaking, his unfinished words heavy with provocative implications.

Fox Ear remained unfazed, maintaining a smile on his face as he pulled Jiang Qin into his arms and said, "I have a weird fetish; I just happen to fancy ugly little things~"

Probably not expecting any male to harbor such a peculiar taste, the half-beast looked completely astonished, gave an appreciative thumbs-up, and walked away.

Jiang Qin watched as the man cheerfully approached another group of males to solicit business.

Presumably, this person's sole job was to drum up customers for these tents.

After leaving that specialized area, the four of them continued walking forward.

They didn't stop until they reached another equally dilapidated shanty.

Once inside, Fox Ear and the other two males sat down and began tinkering with some devices she couldn't understand.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to her, Jiang Qin quietly sat down as well.

The length of the chain did not allow her to stray too far from Fox Ear.

"Ugh..." Perhaps finally relaxing a little, Jiang Qin began to retch continuously.

After all, there was nothing to eat in interstellar space, so her vomiting produced nothing more than bitter stomach acid...

Fox Ear frowned as he walked over, scanned her body with a scanner, and only relaxed his brow after confirming she was not actually sick.

He asked with a beaming smile, "Little cutie, you wouldn't happen to be vomiting from the stench of your own body, would you?"

Jiang Qin gave him a speechless, sideways glance, knowing full well why he asked.

"Why aren't you talking? It seems you haven't spoken the entire way here. Are you naturally quiet? How about you sing a song for your big brothers?"

"Ugh... Sing... I can't."

"Alright, look at your pitiful little self, it really breaks my heart. Go rest properly over in the corner."

After finishing these caring words, Fox Ear pulled her arm and forcefully injected her with something.

Immediately afterward, she felt the world start spinning around her.

Before losing consciousness, she seemed to hear someone complaining discontentedly, "Fox Ear, stop injecting her with so much medicine. What are you going to do if it affects the research later?"

"Got it," Fox Ear replied lazily.

***

When she woke up again, it was already broad daylight.

Jiang Qin discovered that the chain around her wrists was gone, replaced by one bound to her ankles, with the other end fastened to an iron pipe driven straight into the ground.

The iron pipe was tall, piercing right through the roof of the shanty.

Thus, there was no way for her to slip the chain off the top, and pulling the iron pipe out of the ground would likely be extremely difficult.

Fox Ear was nowhere inside the shanty; she had no idea where he had gone.

As for the other two males, they were still inside the shed, continuing to tinker with their contraptions.

They conversed without any attempt at discretion, presumably figuring it didn't matter whether Jiang Qin heard them or not, since she couldn't escape anyway.

Therefore, Jiang Qin openly began eavesdropping.

"The higher-ups have already started exerting pressure. The spaceship terminal will be fully unsealed by tomorrow morning."

"Good. Then we just need to hide out for a few days and evade the searches."

"We still can't lower our guard. Right now, there are several factions looking for her on Azure Star, and three factions from the capital star have also intervened."

"The capital star? Didn't we check that she has no background whatsoever? Her mother is merely a B-grade female, and her partners are all A-grade males, posing no threat at all."

The male who held the intelligence report explained, "The Jiang family hasn't sent anyone, but our people found out that one of the factions likely belongs to the family of that small bar owner.

Another faction is Tianwen Entertainment; this female has decent composition skills, so she probably had some cooperation with Tianwen Entertainment.

The last faction is somewhat tricky—they're people from the Bai family of the capital star."

"The Bai family? Is she connected to the Bai family?"

The male shook his head. "Our investigation showed no connection. It's unclear whether there truly is none, or if it's just classified at too high a level."

"Aside from these three troublesome factions, there's one more minor nuisance.

She has quite a few fans on the interstellar network, and those fans have pooled together money to hire a bunch of bounty hunters. Those people should arrive on Azure Star by noon."

Bounty hunters were more annoying than regular security forces because their methods were unpredictable.

They didn't play by the rules and were extremely familiar with the underbelly of any given planet.

The only downside was that these people generally disliked operating in large groups—forming a small squad was fine, but too many people wouldn't work.

Because none of them were the type to submit to discipline, gathering them all together easily caused trouble.

Therefore, they rarely chose to collaborate with strangers.

However, since these kidnappers had dared to openly abduct a female in public, they certainly weren't afraid of these bounty hunters.

It was just that being discovered and bogged down by them would be somewhat troublesome.

"Other than those, the rest are completely vulnerable."

"What about the security forces?"

"Word has already been sent to the top. There are our people among them, so running into them will only work to our advantage."