However, Sikong Wuyou suddenly acted, pinching her other intact cheek.

"Hiss..."

The force of the action was indeed quite strong. If he weren’t standing right in front of her at this moment, An Ning would have doubted whether he was the real Sikong Wuyou!

"What are you doing?" An Ning looked at him accusingly.

Sikong Wuyou: "Checking... if your skin is really that tender."

An Ning: "..."

Her skin had become incredibly smooth after careful care during this time, but she didn’t dare ask about the outcome on her face.

Yan Shi was her biological mother, and even if she momentarily lost control and acted out, it didn’t change the fact that she genuinely cared for her.

An Ning also knew that Sikong Wuyou cared about her a lot, so she didn’t want him to develop a negative opinion of Yan Shi because of this incident.

So, even though her face hurt, she had to do her best to hide it.

"By the way, what happened with that village?" An Ning adeptly changed the subject and was also curious about the situation there.

She didn’t know the other people; the ones who left an impression were not good people.

However, the woman who reminded her that night, since she was willing to speak up, must have been highly likely trafficked there, so An Ning wanted to help her.

But Sikong Wuyou said, "I will handle this matter properly, you shouldn’t get involved. The situation in that village is quite complicated and not that easy to manage."

"Hmm?" An Ning didn’t quite understand what he meant.

Sikong Wuyou explained, "Most of the women in the village were sold there by means of trade. Moreover, many of these transactions weren’t through legitimate channels. This situation has persisted in that village for several centuries..."

This situation is the hardest to handle, especially in this era.

Many of the women sold there have already married and had children. They simply can’t leave the village.

Even if it wasn’t for their children, just for themselves, women who have lost their chastity face only two prospects even if rescued and taken home: one is to end their lives for the family’s honor, the other is to live out their days in the company of a lone lamp and ancient Buddha.

Clearly, neither is a good outcome.

So, aside from the two women who were recently trafficked there, most others have already accepted their fate and don’t even admit they were trafficked there.

The issues in the village are not big nor small.

In one village, more than half of the wives were bought, yet matters truly involving lives are almost nonexistent. Moreover, those women don’t pursue charges, willing to stay and live in the village.

Buying and selling people isn’t illegal in this world. The families in the village who bought those women are also guiltless; the real felons are the traffickers who used sleeping drugs to sell these women. Sikong Wuyou is already working on handling the traffickers.

There’s a saying, it’s a willing act from both sides; if they don’t want to stay in the village, Sikong Wuyou can help them return home or arrange something else. But since they are willing to stay, Sikong Wuyou has even less reason to interfere.

After listening, An Ning actually agreed with Sikong Wuyou’s approach.

After all, the era is different, and this era is indeed too harsh on women.

Therefore, forcible rescue might not be true salvation for them; on the contrary, it could be a deeper kind of hell.