Chapter 77

"What's wrong?"

"..." After a long silence, Luo Jingyao managed to find her voice again: "Have most of the children you rescued been sent to welfare homes?"

"It's about half and half." The little girl seemed a little angry when she mentioned this. "For those who are confirmed to be fatherless or motherless or who can't find their families, the welfare home will take them in. For those who do have parents, the principle is to let them return to their original families as much as possible."

"In most cases, the parents of these children will still take them back. After all, the police intervened, and they want to avoid going to jail..."

"Oh..." Luo Jingyao responded in a long voice.

Perhaps because she hadn't moved for a long time, the little girl curiously poked her head over and said, "Sister Luo thinks this kid is good-looking too, right? I noticed him the same way when I first arrived."

"What's his name?"

"I'm not sure about that..." Just as the little girl was scratching her head, Achao passed by the door, and the little girl hurriedly called him in.

"Brother Chao, do you know this kid?"

Ah Chao walked closer and took a look, his expression changing slightly. "If I remember correctly, this child was abandoned on the roadside about half a year ago. He has a slight disability in his left foot and suffers from epilepsy. He's only been at the association for four or five days."

"We all called him Little Potato because he couldn't tell us his own name no matter how we asked him. Then he disappeared."

"Missing?" Luo Jingyao raised the last line of her voice, trying hard to show just the right amount of surprise on her face.

"Well, he probably ran away on his own. We just haven't found him yet. We later reported it to the police, but they couldn't find anything." As if afraid she'd misunderstand the association as inaction, Ah Chao explained, "Actually, it's not just here. Welfare homes and charities across the country encounter this kind of situation."

It’s not so bad for younger children, as those who are abandoned usually have some physical problems, and since they are young, they won’t be lost as long as they are properly looked after.

Older children are more difficult to deal with. They already have independent thoughts and have formed certain worldviews, but they stubbornly believe only what they believe. Even some physical defects do not prevent them from doing everything they can to leave this place that is not their home.

When adolescent boys and girls grow up, they become the most troublesome for all institutions and organizations. Most of them wander around all year round and are not subject to any constraints at all. They are used to the so-called freedom and cannot stand the rules of the welfare home.

Unless you find a chain to lock them up, these children will disappear in the blink of an eye.

Apart from anything else, there are at least dozens of cases of missing children that have not been closed every year in the Jinshi Public Security System, most of which are reported by welfare homes and public welfare organizations like them.

Luo Jingyao frowned unconsciously, took a deep breath, and said in a deep voice: "Such a young child, what a pity."

For a moment, she had no clue. Lin Jiafan's special case investigation team didn't handle this kind of missing child case. Besides, the case was over six months ago and should have been handed over to a specialized department long ago, let alone their team.

There were too many messy thoughts in her mind. By the time Luo Jingyao came to her senses, she had already come down from the second floor. There was an aunt standing in the yard, shouting that dinner was ready.

The little girl didn't seem to notice her abnormality. She took two steps forward, took her arm and walked out of the building.

The association's kitchen is located in one of the bungalows on the east side. The space is very cramped. Apart from necessary kitchen utensils such as a stove, it can only accommodate a long table.

There are several pots of steaming food on the long table. It is not very rich but definitely not shabby.

Taking the small stainless steel basin handed over by the little girl, Luo Jingyao first scooped a spoonful of rice, and then covered it with three kinds of dishes: pickled cabbage, stir-fried shredded potatoes, and braised pork, quail eggs and potatoes.

After preparing the meal, she followed the little girl back to the yard, found a flower bed and sat on the edge of the cement.

"I'm so sorry, Sister Luo, we usually do this too. We just find a place to eat after getting our meals." The little girl's words were tinged with sadness. "There's really not enough space... Originally, Brother Li wanted to use the activity room upstairs as a restaurant, but then everyone decided it would be too much trouble to clean up and gave up."

"That's great. It's quite interesting to have so many people eating together in the yard." Luo Jingyao smiled, lowered her head and took two mouthfuls of rice. While mechanically chewing the food in her mouth, she began to daydream again.

At the same time, Ah Chao walked around the yard with his food bowl in hand, then snorted coldly, "Xiaozhe, why hasn't he gotten up yet?"

After saying that, he placed the rice bowl on the flower bed and walked angrily towards the bungalow on the west side.

However, before two minutes had passed, Ah Chao ran back to the yard, his thin, dark face showing visible panic: "Miao Miao, did you see Xiao Zhe this morning?"

The little girl, who had just swallowed a mouthful of cabbage, was so frightened that her eyes widened. She swallowed the food in her mouth with great effort and shook her head. "No, I was cleaning upstairs this morning, and then I stayed with Sister Luo. Isn't Aunt Zhang in charge of looking after the children today?"

Aunt Zhang, who was called out, was sitting on a small bench under the tree. When she heard the noise, she hurriedly stood up and wiped her hands on her apron. "I... when I went into the room to clean up this morning, I saw him lying in bed!"

"I watched the gate closely all morning, and I'm sure no child went out."

Ah Chao paced anxiously in the yard. At this time, Brother Li saw that something was wrong and rushed down from upstairs: "What's going on?"

"Xiaozhe ran away again. The back window of the room where he slept was pried open. I guess he took advantage of Aunt Zhang taking all the children out to bask in the sun this morning and jumped over the wall to escape." Ah Chao wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Isn't this just nonsense? His injuries haven't healed yet!"

"Fortunately, they are just superficial injuries. The weather is good today, so you shouldn't encounter any danger." Brother Li tried to calm Achao down with words.

"Oh!" Aunt Zhang shouted without warning, then frantically counted the number of children in the yard. After counting several times, she rushed into the bungalow on the west side: "Guoguo? Has anyone seen Guoguo?"

The remaining children in the yard were still young and could not quite understand the adults' current situation. When asked, they shook their heads innocently.

"That's impossible! Guoguo has poor eyesight and she's a girl, how could she disappear?" Aunt Zhang slapped her thigh anxiously: "She can't even walk out of the room by herself!"

Seeing that the association was in chaos, the little girl Liu Miaomiao put down her bowl and chopsticks and stood there at a loss.

Everyone searched upstairs and downstairs, inside and out, and almost turned over the cement floor in the yard, but there was still no sign of Xiaozhe and Guoguo.

"Could Guoguo have left with Xiaozhe?" Liu Miaomiao speculated at this moment: "The children can't just disappear for no reason. Everyone who should be in the association is here, except for these two."

"..." Ah Chao opened his mouth, but no sound came out at first. After a while, he said uncertainly, "Not really, right? What good would it do Xiaozhe to take Guoguo away, other than being a hindrance?"

"Benefits? He's just a born bad seed!" Aunt Zhang plopped down on the stool and burst into tears, pointing at Brother Li and Ah Chao: "I didn't agree with you two bringing him back from the street. He's already twelve or thirteen years old, and he's been out there for a long time! Maybe he just relies on cheating and deceiving people to survive!"

"Who knows what he wants to do by taking Guoguo away?! Anyway, if Guoguo can't be found, you two will have a guilty conscience for the rest of your lives!"

Listening to the woman's sobbing complaints, Brother Li gritted his teeth and said, "Call the police! Before they arrive, let's go out and look for her. I'll lead a team up the road, and Ah Chao, you lead another team toward the foot of the mountain."

This time, Brother Li did not dare to be careless, as the current situation was obviously different from that night.

Xiaozhe's disappearance might be a simple escape, but it's very likely that he took another child with him today! This would make the matter completely different, and it's not something that a small rescue association like theirs could resolve.

Soon, Brother Li set off with two people. Before leaving, he contacted some nearby volunteers, who would probably come to help one after another later.

Shortly after he left, Achao also prepared to leave with another person.

At this moment, Luo Jingyao, who had been silent the entire time, quickly caught up and volunteered, "Can I join you?"

Achao subconsciously wanted to refuse, but he probably thought that she had some basic first aid knowledge, and he also recognized Xiaozhe's appearance, so he finally agreed.

Soon, the three of them set off in a car.

Unlike the roadside above where there are some businesses to ask, the area at the foot of the mountain they are responsible for is surrounded by nothing but trees and grass. Apart from a few passing private cars, it is difficult to see even a single person.

Occasionally they would pass by a few small roads leading to the mountains. Whenever this happened, Achao would stop the car and take another person in to look for them, but after dozens of minutes, there was still no trace of the two children.

"Logically speaking, if he really took Guoguo with him, he shouldn't have gone far." After returning empty-handed from the small road again, Achao started the car while muttering.

The man in the passenger seat suddenly spoke up, "Speaking of which, Black Wind Mountain has been quite uneasy lately. I heard a lot of campers have lost their children. Of course, most are found, but some aren't. Older people like my mom say it's these campers who disturb the peace of the fox spirits in the mountains, and when they get angry, they kidnap and eat their children."

"You believe that?" Ah Chao looked at me like I was stupid. "The campers here aren't obedient. They don't set up camp in designated safe areas, but instead go deep into the mountains to find some 'undiscovered beauty'. Most of these people don't have any basic knowledge of wilderness survival. It would be a miracle if they didn't get lost."

"We often suffer from such idiots."

Everyone was full of complaints when they mentioned work. The two people who were complaining didn't notice that Luo Jingyao's expression in the back seat suddenly became a little strange.

After hesitating for a while, she opened the chat software and found the dialog box belonging to Lin Jiafan.

"Will you take on cases involving fox spirits eating children?"

After a few minutes, the phone in her hand vibrated.

"?"

"Coach Luo."

"Do you want to see what nonsense you are talking about?"