Chapter 302
When Zhou Yueshen left, he had asked Captain Li to keep an eye on things. Worried about the children, Captain Li had often arranged patrols near Old East Street.
Who could have guessed that even so, the child still went missing.
Captain Li's expression was extremely grim.
Si Nian nodded and said, "Captain Li, I came to tell you something."
She shared her suspicions with Captain Li.
After hearing her out, Captain Li's face changed dramatically: "Is such a thing really possible?"
Si Nian nodded: "It would be best if we could get something out of Teacher Xu, but I'm afraid she might stubbornly deny everything. So, I hope you won't make this public for now. Investigate privately whether she has had any undisclosed contact with anyone recently."
"I understand, sister-in-law. Don't worry, leave this matter to me!"
Captain Li never expected school teachers to be involved in such a scheme.
This would explain why so many children could disappear without a trace, completely unnoticed.
Captain Li's face was dark.
The car drove further and further into the remote countryside. Even Jiang Jiu began to sense something was wrong.
They had been driving for several hours, and these older siblings still hadn't woken up.
The man in the front passenger seat was asleep, and the other was driving in silence.
Zhou Zehan looked at the mountains drawing closer outside, feeling a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen them before, but he couldn't quite place it at the moment.
He scribbled and drew with a pen for a while, then complained of car sickness, leaning against the window and retching.
The driver kept glancing at the two children in the rearview mirror. Seeing them quiet and well-behaved, looking listless, he let his guard down even more.
Soon, the car began to sway and bump violently.
As dusk fell, the scenery outside became indistinguishable.
Jiang Jiu, tired, had fallen asleep. Perhaps being next to Second Child gave him a strong sense of security.
Although things felt off, seeing that Second Child wasn't saying anything, he didn't dwell on it, leaning on Second Child's shoulder and snoring loudly.
Second Child pressed against the car window, straining to see the passing landscape.
The two men, thinking he was just carsick, didn't pay it much mind.
Soon, the car stopped.
The two men got out with flashlights. Zhou Zehan also saw someone approaching with a flashlight to talk.
He could faintly hear the group discussing prices, haggling over some amount.
He was just about to toss out the note in his hand when he heard the approaching old man speak in an excited tone.
The voice sounded familiar.
Zhou Zehan stopped and looked carefully. Suddenly, he realized this man was Old Man Wang from their village!
Turning to look, he was stunned—wasn't this his hometown, Xingfu Village?
In the distance, he could even see the pig farm his father ran. Because someone had to keep watch at night, lights were on, making it clearly visible.
In the whole village, only his family and his father's pig farm could afford to use electricity at night.
When he went to bed at night, he would always look over from the second floor of his house.
Plus, his house was the closest to the village entrance. Now, his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he could vaguely make out his own home.
Soon, a trafficker came over, carrying a sleeping boy, and boasted, "Let me tell you, this kid is very smart, top of his class. You should pay at least 500. He'll have no problem taking care of you in your old age!"
Just as the trafficker and the buyer were haggling fiercely, Zhou Zehan suddenly scrambled out of the car window and shot off like an arrow toward the pig farm.
The traffickers were dumbfounded. Reacting, they hurriedly gave chase.
But who would have thought this little kid could run so incredibly fast?
The two men were unfamiliar with the area. Combined with the poor, dark road, their speed dropped drastically.
In no time, Zhou Zehan had dashed far ahead.
The two men watched, stunned.
Coming to their senses, their faces turned green with anger: "That little brat! Hurry up and catch him!"
"Forget it, we have enough 'goods' anyway. Less trouble is better. Let's finish selling and get out of here," the other said, finding it troublesome.
"No way! If we're discovered, we're done for. Hurry up!"
Hearing this, the other immediately joined the chase.
Sure enough, they soon saw Zhou Zehan at the gate of a farm, yelling and making a racket.
"Uncle Wang! Uncle Liu! Uncle Zhang! Open up! There are traffickers chasing me!"
The man's face turned green. Knowing he was exposed, he dropped all pretense, shouting at Zhou Zehan, "You little runt! No one in this village will save you. Come with me quietly, and I might still find you a good family."
He said this while charging over with a club. But the next second, the iron gate swung open, and several burly men rushed out wielding machetes.
Seeing Zhou Zehan at the gate, they had no time to be shocked. Brandishing their machetes, they charged at the man.
"How dare you, you trafficker! You even dare to kidnap our boss's son? Looking to die?"
The scrawny trafficker was quickly kicked to the ground, letting out a pig-like squeal.
Zhou Zehan didn't care about his fate. He urgently pulled a few men toward the village entrance: "Uncle Wang, Uncle Liu, my friend is still in the car! And lots of other classmates."
He gestured exaggeratedly, depicting a car full of classmates slumped over asleep. Sure enough, when they arrived, they saw the other trafficker holding a child and talking to the buyer, "This is the youngest one we have on the truck, still doesn't understand much. If you teach him well now, he'll definitely treat you like his own father and be filial..."
Zhou Zehan looked over and saw he was holding Jiang Jiu.
Furious, he rushed over and slammed into the trafficker.
The trafficker had been planning to quickly sell the child and then find his partner to leave.
He never expected so many people to suddenly appear and was completely stunned.
By the time he reacted, he was surrounded by a group of burly men and given a severe beating.
Zhou Zehan, still seething, also ran over and delivered a couple of hard kicks.
How dare they try to sell Jiang Jiu too! It made him furious.
Jiang Jiu rubbed his eyes awake. Seeing so many people, he was still confused: "Wh-where is this?"
"Second Child?"
Zhou Zehan patted his head and said, "This is my hometown. I'll take you to my house to play later. Let me tell you, my house is really big too!"
"Really? You brought me to your hometown to play?"
The two children chatted away as if no one else was around, while beside them, the two traffickers were soon beaten to a pulp on the ground.
Old Man Wang was also stunned. After being punched several times, he came to his senses and cried, "I'm not in cahoots with traffickers! They said these kids were orphans from the city, unwanted, that they were pitiful with no parents to find... I just spent money to buy one to take care of me in my old age..."
Village Chief Huo was quickly alerted, and the entire village came running. Seeing Second Child had returned home, everyone was bewildered.
But upon hearing he had been kidnapped and brought back, everyone fell silent.
Good grief. Finally made it to the city, only to get kidnapped right back to where he started.