CH 141

Chapter 141 - Ticking bomb scenario (3)

The Luo family's second son had fallen to the ground, but he still kept his mouth shut.

Xie Yuanqing told the flogger to stop for now. He squatted down and spoke to him in a very gentle voice. It was like an elder speaking to a naught and guilty junior.

"Where is your brother hiding? Tell us and no one will beat you again."

The Luo family's second son continued to shake his head.

Du Ruo suddenly said from the side, "This is an ethical dilemma. It's called the ticking bomb scenario."

Huh?

Bei Nuan inexplicably looked up at Du Ruo.

Du Ruo explained, "The dilemna is about a bomb that's about to explode. Once it explodes, there'll be countless casualties. The culprit won't say where the bomb is. Under this situation, is interrogational torture justified?"

Bei Nuan didn't speak.

Lu Xingchi added, "Utilitarians will think it's okay to do so in order to save so many people. Their opponents will argue that torture is inherently wrong."

Du Ruo said, "Moreover, once it's allowed once, who will decide in the future when torture can be used? It's too easy for people to exploit this to their advantage."

(T/N: There's a lot more to this debate over this ethical dilemma.  For one, torture often doesn't work, which we can see here in this story too.)

Bei Nuan thought; you're so leisurely and carefree to have the mood to discuss this.

No matter what the predicament is, let's solve the immediate problem.

According to the novel, someone should have found the mutated person and brought him here by now. Had the plot gone off the rails so much that it couldn't course correct itself?

Seeing that the Luo family's second son refused to speak,  Xie Yuanqing raised his hand to gesture to his guards to bring over two people. One was a young woman and the other was a little girl.

The Luo family's second son had stopped moving, but when he saw those two people, he suddenly started to struggle.

Xie Yuanqing still used a calm and gentle tone, but now there was accusation in his voice, "If you refuse to speak, we can only take it out on your wife and daughter. Do you even not care about them?"

Xie Yuanqing gestured and the flogger raised his iron rod.

The woman desperately screamed in fright. She protectively hugged the little girl. The girl's sobbing turned to wailing.

The next blow was about to land on the mother and daughter.

Bei Nuan was shocked. She knew how brutal even one blow from the iron rod was. That little girl probably couldn't even last one blow.

Du Ruo already shouted to stop them, "Wait a second!"

Du Ruo pushed his way through the crowd.

Xie Yuanqing had already raised his hand to gesture for the flogger to stop before Du Ruo got there.

His order came so quickly that Bei Nuan deeply suspected that he had never actually intended to go through with it.

"Wait for what? Do you have any good ideas?" Xie Yuanqing looked at Du Ruo.

Du Ruo rascally answered, "Aren't I thinking about it now?"

Xie Yuanqing was a bit speechless and calmly asked, "So no?" He waved his hand and the flogger raised the iron rod again.

Lu Xingchi had already pushed to the front and brought Bei Nuan along.

"Give me some time," Lu Xingchi said, "I'll go look for him. Everyone else stays up here."

Du Ruo said, "I'll go too."

He had nothing to fear from zombies. He was the most suitable person to go looking for a zombie.

Xie Yuanqing slowly said, "Go look? Where are you going to look? The town is so big. How long will it take you to look?"

A patriarch next to Xie Yuanqing added, "If we listen to you, what if something goes wrong, and the two of you become zombies. Can you take the responsibility for the lives of everyone in Yao Town?"

Bei Nuan had been racking her brains while she followed them over. She suddenly thought of a solution.

“Xie Yuanqing, I know where he might be hiding. Give us 10 minutes!"

Her sweet voice was pleasing to the ear, but Xie Yuanqing was unaffected. He raised his arm and looked at his watch.

"10 minutes," he said.

He agreed so easily that Bei Nuan immediately regretted asking for so little time and bargained with him, "20 minutes. Can you do 20 minutes?"

Xie Yuanqing answered, "15 minutes. The matter is urgent. I can't give you more time than that."

Bei Nuan grabbed Lu Xingchi's arm and ran.

"Where to?" Lu Xingchi followed her.

"I thought of a place he might be hiding," Bei Nuan said while running, "Let's go there to see. If he's not there, we can think of something else."

Bei Nuan finished sprinting to Xie Yuanqing's home.

Fortunately, his home was also on the top of the mountain, not too far away from the meeting place.

As soon as Bei Nuan got close, she saw that the courtyard door was locked, but it was guarded by Xie Yuanqing's subordinates.

Bei Nuan was beautiful, and she had come here earlier today. The guards immediately recognized her.

"Our boss is having a meeting at the public square." They thought Bei Nuan had come here looking for Xie Yuanqing.

"I know. It's your boss that told us to come over to do something," Bei Nuan lied and then added, "We're just going into the courtyard, not inside the house."

The guards knew that Xie Yuanqing treated Bei Nuan unusually. After only a brief discussion amongst themselves, they unlocked the door and let her and Lu Xingchi in.

Bei Nuan led Lu Xingchi into the courtyard without hesitation and stopped in front of blooming dahlias. There was a large wooden manhole cover next to the flowers.

Every household had a cellar for sweet potatoes, and this was the patriarch's cellar.

When the princess had passed by this clump of flowers, she had bristled. Bei Nuan had seen from a distance there was a cover on the nearby slope, but she didn't know what the cover was for at the time.

Since then, she had connected the dots. It was a cellar cover in the same style as the one in the abandoned courtyard, but it was much newer than that one.

Dahua's reaction had been so abnormal. There might be a stranger hidden inside.

Yao Town was only so big. The patriarch's home was the best place to hide.