Chapter 26 - 026 ran away with someone
The entire Jigu Commune and surrounding villages are abuzz with talk of something: A fifteen-year-old girl from Li Family Village Production Team has gone missing, and the rumors are flying wild.
Some say that the girl had a sweetheart and took the opportunity to elope while she was returning to her mother's home with her mom.
Others claim that the girl, being pretty and delicate, caught the attention of human traffickers and was sold off into the deep mountains.
The youngsters and elders of Li Family Village have already gone out in search for her three or four times, and the Li Family's men have scoured all the surrounding production teams without a trace of her. Li Erfu's house has been bustling with people coming and going, and Li Dafu, the head of the production team, can no longer misuse his authority to keep sending the team's mules and horses out to search. It has been ten days now, and there's still no sign of her!
Li Dafu, drawing on his pipe, somewhat irritably says to Li Erfu, who's sitting in the corner with eyes red and swollen, "Er Fu, I have no idea where this child could have gone. How can there not be a single clue?"
Li Erfu raises his head, his eyes red and teary. He hasn't slept for several nights, tirelessly searching from the moment he found out on the fourth day of the New Year that his daughter had run off. He's combed through all the surrounding villages in the commune, but there's no sign of her anywhere; he's asked so many people, yet nobody has seen the child, not even at the bus station.
Could it really be as his wife said, that something was off with the girl right from the start, that she was planning to run away? The thought pierces through Li Erfu's heart, making it ache so much that even taking a breath feels painful.
Meanwhile, at West Cave, Ge Sanmei's eyes are red as she enters the eastern room with Old Mrs. Wu Zhaodi.
Old Mrs. Wu sighs, "This child, no one knows where she has gone. She's already fifteen, not a kid who doesn't understand things. But she's been missing for so many days, could she really have run off with someone, like people are saying?"