4 4 - Abused Child

Within seconds of looking at the group of what seemed to be missionaries in front of him, LinYu quickly established that these people were hostile towards the young child and seemed to be extremely dangerous, with their swords branded aggressively and their stance ready to attack.

Thou it would seem hilarious that these men had their mouth agape just like fishes left out on land, their muscular figures and their hard grips on their weapons made LinYu felt slightly threatened.

Seems like they are after this poor kid. I wonder what did he do to deserve such treatment from these brutes. Wow, those muscles are huge. I wonder how much they lift. Wait no. Now ain't the time for that. Okay, if they were to attack, I'll just grab the kid and retreat into the cage. The defense system should still work, right? I hope it does.

I think with the trainings I received I should have enough speed to retreat without injuries, right? Right? But what if they are quicker? Goddamned, those swords look sharp as fuck. Without the system, I wonder if the medical bay still works. Not really keen to find out like that thou.

Shit. What should I do. Okay. Nevermind. First, we save the kid. No matter what he has done, adults shouldn't be holding their swords out and calling a kid such insults. What kind of place did the parasite place me in? Holy shit, ain't there any laws protecting young children?

Oh right. These men may be outlaws. Then if they are… Well, I don't think they will think twice before hurting me. Fuck. I really don't like where this is going.

Okay. Breathe boy, breathe! I'm a cool cucumber. I'm an ice cube. I'm a tiger. I will fight them all if I have to. No wait. I don't really want to do that. I'm a law-abiding citizen. But those laws back on Earth shouldn't really matter here, right?

Well, first things first…

Trying to establish the relationship between the child and the group of men who were now vibrating on their knees, LinYu asked, "Who are you and what do you want with this child?"

With that one simple question, suddenly all the men dropped to their knees, leaving LinYu stunned and at a lost for words.

"Please forgive us for trespassing on your land, great one. We were merely following orders from the Qing family lord to capture Qing ChaoTian. We sincerely beg for your mercy," said one man, who seemed to be the leader of the group.

With question marks floating around his head, LinYu thought the men were just really friendly and that it was their culture to kneel when entering the land of another like in some cultures it was customary to remove their shoes before entering a house.

But when they used the word capture, especially when followed by what seemed to be the young boy's name, LinYu was extremely concerned.

The fear was clear as day, with his wide bloodshot eyes and pale, bloodless face when LinYu looked at the child. He could feel that the child's whole body was shivering with fear even with just one hand on his shoulder.

The whole body posture of the young boy was so defendant that it broke LinYu's heart. It was like watching a child flinching when a hand was raised to pat his head, a clear sign of history of abuse.

Back on Earth, with all the human rights and laws that help to shape society into a more structured place to live in, there were still people who deliberately broke the laws because of their selfish desires. It wouldn't surprise LinYu that there would be criminals in this place as where there are human beings; trouble follows suit.

Even with such a friendly culture, it didn't mean that bad people didn't exist. But then again, without knowing the full story, it wouldn't be wise to place the blame on these men just because they looked like fierce warriors.

That would be a crime of stereotyping and LinYu wasn't about to make that mistake with the first human contact he just made in a hundred years.

"Don't speak with your heads down. Stand up. It's alright. I forgive you. But someone has to explain the situation at hand to me else I can't possibly allow this child to go with you," said LinYu.

Trying to be as friendly as possible with his tone, he hoped he did not make any cultural blunders by making such a request.

Linyu bent down and carried the child in his arms. He's worried that by asking for the situation, it might place the boy under extreme distress and carried him to give some sort of protection, hoping that it will help to calm the boy down.

The boy was extremely lightweight and bony to the touch. Even though LinYu did not have children back on Earth as his right hand did not ovulate, he knew the child was severely underfed. Anger flared up at the thought of such a young child succumbing to abuse.

Only scums would mistreat a child and for that he was willing to break any rules that only bound him back on Earth in order to give those assholes what they deserve. He always thought that the rules back on Earth were too gentle on such scums, only giving them jail time which was idiotic to LinYu.

Jail was basically adult time-out sessions which really did nothing to justify the pain that young children had to go through at the hands of these assholes and on over one occasion while reading the news, he had to stop simply because of the burning rage that threaten to sway him to the wrong side of the law.

Trying to ignore the nagging sense of rage burning in the pits of his stomach, LinYu tried to focus on the child. He knew that the boy being starved was the least of his worries as when he carried the child, he could more clearly see the scars on the young boy's hands and that deep scar running down his face.

At first the child tensed up and leaned away from LinYu. Assuming that the child had been starved and beaten at such a young age, it did not shock him that the boy would distrust adults.

But he did not put the child down even thou the child was resisting him. He merely stroked the child's back gently, like how a mother would comfort a scared child, and whispered into his ear, "Don't worry. No harm will come to you. Don't cry. Everything will be alright."

LinYu heart ached when he felt the boy relax slightly and lean towards his touch. How deprived of love must this child be if he would lean towards a stranger's touch as distrusting as he was after being abused and mistreated?

Although LinYu had given the permission for the men to stand and look at him, they did not obey. Be it out of culture or whatever fear that seemed to poison their minds and numbing their tongues, LinYu could feel his patience dwindling with each passing second that the men in front of him were taking to answer his question.

Feeling the rage boiling up from within at their silence, LinYu silently took a deep breath. Suddenly a light bulb lit up in his head and he said, "Since you answer to the lord of the Qing family, perhaps it would be wiser for us to speak directly. Please extend my invitations to this lord to come to this area before sundown and we can have a chat with regard to this child."

Maybe just like the companies back on Earth, sometimes to fix an issue, you just have to escalate the matter to the top management before anything is done. With the same vision of thought behind it, it wouldn't be surprising that sometimes employees cannot answer the directions behind certain orders.

So since they said that they were merely following this Qing guy's orders, maybe he could answer to what they want with this child and then LinYu would get some answers to why the hell is this child so… damaged.