The Bigshot Married Himself to the Heiress-Chapter 714 - 755: Unlocking

The inside of the wall was bustling, but the outside was exceptionally quiet. There were no lights, and the moonlight illuminated the entire small courtyard.

"Where is this?" Curly looked around, trying to make sense of this unfamiliar place.

It seemed to be someone’s backyard, with a smell of animal dung in the air. Against the wall in the courtyard, there was a row of wooden buildings that Curly recognized as stables.

But there were no horses in the stables.

Suddenly, voices sounded. Curly looked around. The only place to hide was the stable. She crawled out of the small doghole, scraping her arm in the process.

Upon entering the stable, Curly almost cried out, for there was a bloodied young boy lying on the ground.

"Let’s go check on that little bastard, see if he’s dead."

"I warn you, be careful. If you kill that boy, neither of us can bear the responsibility."

"Don’t worry, I know my limits!"

Curly heard footsteps approaching the stable. This is bad! she thought, looking around the empty space. Where could she hide?

Running out now would definitely get her caught.

Dad, where are you? If Dad were here, those people wouldn’t dare bully me.

The young boy opened his narrow, phoenix-like eyes, pointing to a pile of grass by the wall. Curly blinked in confusion, not understanding his intentions.

"Hide!" He spoke in a language she couldn’t understand.

The boy frowned and repeated himself in Amwan Language. This time, Curly understood and ran to hide in the pile of grass.

A corner of her red skirt was still exposed, so the boy crawled towards the grass pile and used more grass to cover the visible part. He whispered in Amwan Language, "Don’t move. If they find you, they’ll kill you!"

"I won’t move!" Curly whispered back.

Two fierce-looking men stood at the entrance of the stable, looking at the young boy who had iron chains on his feet. One of them threw a half-eaten apple at him.

"Here, this is your dinner!"

The boy lay there, eyes closed, as still as if he were dead.

"Could he be dead?"

The man picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it at the boy, who finally stirred. He opened his pitch-black eyes and stared blankly at the man, sending a chill down the man’s spine in the eerie atmosphere.

The other man had a slightly better attitude. He threw a piece of bread inside, saying, "Eat it! As long as your father agrees to our demands, we will let you go. Otherwise..."

He didn’t finish the sentence, but it was clear enough what he implied—they would kill the young boy.

Curly hid in the grass pile, daring not to move.

After a while, the two men walked away. Curly remained crouched in the pile. Then, the sound of chains clinking let her know the young boy was crawling over to her. "You can come out now, they’re gone," he said. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"What if they come back?"

"They won’t come back until seven in the morning," the boy assured her.

"How do you know?"

Curly poked her head out of the grass pile to look at him. The boy was covered in wounds, and his feet were still chained. Curly’s eyes immediately started to redden, her lips trembled, and she was about to cry.

The boy quickly covered her mouth with his dirty hand. "Don’t cry. You’ll attract them."

"Brother, why did they kidnap you?"

Brother? The boy furrowed his brow and asked, "How old are you?"

"Five! I just had my birthday!"

"Five years and how many months?"

"Five years and two months!"

"Then I’m older than you. You should call me Brother."

Curly eyed him skeptically. "But you’re shorter than Dylan! And Dylan’s my cousin!"

"I’ll grow taller in the future!" The boy’s face turned red.

"Alright." Curly’s skeptical gaze made the boy flush even more. In the dim stable, he turned his face away, ignoring her.

Once she was sure the men wouldn’t return for the time being, Curly crawled out of the grass pile. Grass clung to her clothes, and because her hair was curly, the bits of grass stuck in it were especially difficult to remove.

"What’s your dad’s phone number? I’ll go out and call your dad."

"I don’t know."

Curly looked at the boy as if he were a strange creature. "What about your mom’s number then?"

"I don’t have a mom!"

Curly gazed at him with sympathy. "You’re so pitiful. Children without moms are the most pitiful. My mom says that children without moms are like a blade of grass."

"I’m not grass!"

"I didn’t say you are grass. I said you’re as pitiful as grass!"

"I’m not pitiful!" He didn’t need her sympathy!

"You still say you’re not pitiful? Look at you! You’re covered in injuries, you don’t have a mom, and your dad isn’t even here to save you."

"My dad will come to save me!" the boy declared confidently.

Curly had initially wanted to abandon him and run off by herself. However, hearing that he had no mother and didn’t even know his father’s phone number, she imagined countless tragic scenarios for him. She felt that if she didn’t save him, it would be a terrible injustice.

Curly tugged at the iron chains on his ankle and asked, "How do we get this off?"

"We can’t!"

"Where’s the key?"

"Those two men from earlier have it."

Curly’s heart sank; she didn’t have the courage to try to steal the key from them. She remembered what her mom always said: One’s own life is the most important. Before saving someone else, first consider if you have the ability. If you fail to save them and lose your own life in the process, that’s the most foolish thing to do.

Curly thought her mother’s words made perfect sense.

"I have a great idea!" Curly removed a strawberry hairpin from her hair. "We can use this to open the lock."

"But this isn’t a key!"

"Don’t you watch TV? That’s how they always do it on TV. They use a piece of wire, a paperclip, a pin... anything like that to open locks. Why can’t my hairpin work?"

The boy looked exasperated.

"TV shows are fake!"

"Then you tell me how to get it open!" Curly snapped.

Those two men were so fierce; they were clearly bad guys. I want to go home! I want Mom and Dad! I stink all over, and I want a bubble bath!

"Look, you can’t think of a better way either, can you? Let’s just try. Maybe it’ll actually open."

Curly took the sharp end of the hairpin and poked it into the lock. She had no skill whatsoever and just jabbed at it randomly. And then...

"Uh, is it open?" Curly felt a bit foolish.

The boy was also somewhat dumbfounded. He looked at the opened lock, then back at the little girl. This is so strange, he thought. Could it really be that easy to open?

Curly removed the chains from his ankle. Holding the lock, she muttered quietly, "It seems being a thief isn’t such a technical job after all..."