Chapter 86 Chapter 86 Kidnapper

At the end of the year, Kang He called Yihuan to the city to learn the job of cutting meat in the shop. In the winter, he kept Yihuan in the shop and sent Chen Sanfang to the city to look after the shop.

He and Fan Jing went out to slaughter pigs, firstly to supply the shop, and secondly to slaughter New Year pigs for people, so as to earn some money from slaughtering pigs.

"Take me to the city and run the shop with my mother. I know arithmetic now."

There was not much work to do at home in the winter months, and Erxi helped take care of things, so she spent most of her time idling. When she heard that her mother was going to the city, she wanted to go too.

Zhen'er knew that her sister couldn't stay at home, so she spoke up for her.

This little girl was learning to read and write at Fan Xin's private school. She had little interest in learning to read and write, unlike Zhen'er who loved reading. She was only interested in arithmetic.

In the whole school, no one, big or small, is as good at arithmetic as she is.

Even Fan Xin said that with her skills, she could become an accountant in the future.

Chen Sanfang took Qiao'er to the city with him, and Zhen'er was the only one at home looking after Dafu.

However, Kang He and Fan Jing have not been taking care of the shop in the city recently, and they have been returning early after going out to slaughter pigs.

At the end of winter, Dafu was no longer in the habit of drinking milk at night, and he was able to sit and play on his own.

Put him on a soft cushion on the bed, and he can play with the small bow and ball for a long time without crying or making a fuss. He is very easy to take care of.

As we enter the twelfth lunar month, the weather becomes noticeably colder, with snow falling every few days.

That day, Kang He came back from outside and it was snowing. He went straight into the room where Dafu played and felt very warm.

There are three charcoal braziers in the room, so it's bound to be warm.

When Zhen'er saw Kanghe and Fan Jing coming back, she went out of the house and went to the kitchen to boil some hot water for them.

Kang He took off his coat that was covered in snow, and he went over and picked up the fat baby sitting on the couch.

"My son, what are you doing today?"

He hugged the white cub and kissed it.

Fan Jing came in later and the door creaked open.

The wind outside, carrying snow, rushed into the house, making Dafu squint his eyes and snuggle into Kanghe's arms.

Seeing this, Fan Jing closed the door.

As people came in and out, the warm room suddenly felt a little colder.

He thought of getting two pounds of cotton and sewing it into a door curtain to avoid the strong wind when opening and closing the door.

After searching for a while, he found a piece of old indigo cloth and two pounds of cotton, and started sewing on the couch.

Dafu looked at the white cotton, thinking it was food, and stretched out his little hands to grab it.

Kang He hugged the cub tightly and said, "This little guy is really strong. Since he stopped drinking milk at night and started eating more food, he has grown taller and stronger."

Fan Jing didn't play with him with cotton, for fear that he would stuff it in his mouth.

Ever since he started to grow teeth, he loved to grab things and put them in his mouth, and he also loved to drool. If you tie a saliva bag around his neck, it will get wet in half a day.

Every time I come home, I can see Jane hanging a row of bibs and diapers in the yard.

Seeing that his father not only refused to give him the cotton but also moved away and carried him on his back, Dafu made a "hmmmm" sound and mumbled, "Yes, yes."

Kang He heard his son's voice and looked down: "Can you speak now?"

Fan Jing also understood what Dafu said. Some time ago, this kid could mumble something, but it was hard to understand clearly. People could only guess what he meant occasionally.

This is the clearest time.

Kang He was surprised and said to Fan Jing, "I heard that babies can speak simple words as early as ten months old. Let's try teaching him to call daddy and see."

Upon hearing this, Fan Jing touched Dafu's chin and said, "Call me little daddy."

Dafu thought Fan Jing was going to feed him, so he opened his mouth to lick his fingers, and his saliva immediately flowed out again. Fan Jing wiped his mouth with a handkerchief.

"Call me little daddy."

"Little Diet..."

"Oh, our Dafu is so smart."

Kang He laughed happily when he heard these vague words: "Come on, call me daddy again."

Dafu saw Kang He laughing and chuckled: "Little Diet..."

Fan Jing couldn't help but smile. He reached out and held Dafu in his arms, then threw the cotton and cloth to Kang He.

Kang He held the cotton and said, "How can I do this?"

Fan Jing said, "It's easy to stuff the cloth in, lay it flat, sew it, and sew it. Didn't I sew clothes in the mountains before?"

Kang He chuckled, licked the thread end, threaded the needle, and started doing needlework.

The snow outside was falling heavier and heavier, and it was so bright through the window that the house was bright even without the oil lamp.

The two of them were doing needlework in the house, while one was entertaining Dafu, and it was a rare moment of leisure.

Zhen'er could hear Kang He and Fan Jing teasing Dafu in the kitchen, and she couldn't help but smile gently in her eyes.

She has taken a lot of care of Dafu, and if she gets married next year, she will really be reluctant to let her go.

Turning her head, she saw a layer of snow in the yard. It was snowing and cold today, and her mother and Qiao'er would definitely be cold when they came back. So she took out a basket of pig hearts and lungs that Kanghe and Fan Jing had brought back from slaughtering pigs, cleaned them, and prepared to stew them with radish to make a hot soup.

She opened the basket of melons and vegetables and found only two fist-sized radishes left. She knew it was not enough to eat, so she went out of the house and called Erxi to pull some fresh radishes from the field. She also asked him to pick some fresh vegetables.

"Little girl."

Erxi had just gone out with the backpack on his back, and Zhen'er was about to go back to the house when she heard someone calling her over.

She turned around and saw an old woman lying in a huddle with a square scarf wrapped around her head. The few strands of hair that were exposed were a little gray.

The man stood hunched over in the rustling wind, looking very pitiful.

"Old lady, what can I do for you?"

Zhen'er stood at the gate of the yard and asked outside.

"I want to ask you for a bowl of hot water. It's freezing cold out here, and if I don't have something hot, I'll freeze to death."

Seeing that the old woman was braving the strong wind and snow without holding an umbrella, Zhen'er quickly agreed, "Hey, I just boiled some hot water in my room. I'll pour a bowl for you, old lady."

She was about to open the gate and let the man into the kitchen for some hot soup, but then she saw that the man looked unfamiliar and thought he was definitely not from her village, so she stopped and asked, "Grandma, where are you from? I don't think I've seen you before."

"It's the end of the year, and I'm here to visit my relatives in your village. The Xu family in the valley of your village are my relatives."

The old woman said, "I'm from Xiangshui Township, far away from here. I seldom come here once every two or three years. My relatives have become estranged as we haven't seen each other much. Even on a snowy day, no one would stay with me."

Then he sighed and said, "How can I not stay here? I won't come here anymore."

Zhen'er knew the Xu family in Aozi. They were notoriously fierce in the village and were related to Xu Yang. They were very domineering before, and now that Xu Yang became the head of the village, they were even more powerful.

After hearing what the old man said, Zhen'er also felt that the Xu family was really unkind.

Thinking that my brother and brother-in-law are at home, it’s not a big deal. What can an old woman do?

Zhen Er opened the door and shouted into the house, "Big brother, brother-in-law, there's an old woman in the house asking for water."

Forget it, she smiled and led the old woman into the kitchen and poured her some hot soup.

The old woman looked at the house where Zhen'er was calling from, and saw several diapers dripping with water hanging under the eaves. She said nothing and followed Zhen'er with a crutch.

After entering the kitchen, he looked around and praised the house for being well-repaired and clean.

"The little girl is kind-hearted. She will surely be rewarded in the future."

The old woman blew on the hot soup and talked to Zhen'er.

"A bowl of hot soup. Anyone in the village would give it to you in this snowy weather. Grandma, just eat it if you're relieved. When you leave later, I'll fill a kettle for you to drink on the way."

The old woman thanked him again and again, took a sip of the hot soup, and said, "How many people live in your family, young lady?"

"There are quite a few people living in my house, a large family."

The old woman said, "Just now I saw a man leaving your house. Is that your brother?"

Zhen'er just smiled, without saying yes or no.

The old woman was about to speak again, but Kang He heard Zhen'er's voice, put down his needlework and came out of the house. Seeing the old woman sitting under the stove, he greeted her face to face.

When he heard that the old woman was a relative of the Xu family in Aozi, his brows furrowed. "The Xu family, let alone relatives, shouldn't treat an ordinary old woman like this."

"When I meet the village chief, I will tell him to go."

The old woman thanked Kang He again. Although she thanked him verbally, there was no gratitude on her face. Instead, she looked a little unnatural.

She then buried her head in her soup.

After taking a sip of hot soup, I heard the baby's cooing sound. I looked up and saw a man with a not very friendly face coming into the kitchen holding a fat baby.

Oh my god, that little kid is so well taken care of. He has round eyes, two chubby cheeks, and a round and white face.

The old woman was so stunned that she even put down her soup:

"Good and well-behaved child, let me hold you."

Fan Jing held Dafu in his arms and glanced at the old woman. He didn't know where she was from.

He was unwilling to give the child to anyone easily, and was not afraid of offending anyone. Instead, he hugged Dafu closer to himself.

"Children won't cry or make a fuss if they're not held by strangers."

After saying this, he took a bowl of hot soup and went back into the house holding Dafu in one hand.

Kang He's eyebrows twitched when he saw this, and he tried to smooth things over: "My husband has a bad temper, please don't be offended. The child is too young and shy, so few people can hold him in their arms."

The old woman waved her hands and said it was okay, saying that she felt the child looked like her grandson and liked to be close to him.

They talked for a while in the kitchen, and when Erxi came back, the old woman said she was leaving.

Kanghe and Zhen'er packed a thermos together and took it with her on the road.

After seeing the man off, Kang Heyan watched them walk further down the village road. "It's only now that we're leaving. Xiangshui Village is so far away. It'll be dark halfway there. How can we get back in time?"

Zhen'er answered Kanghe, "The old woman said she was originally going to the city, but she passed by here and remembered her relatives, so she came into the village to visit. Who knew the Xu family didn't welcome her? When we got to the official road, we stopped an ox cart and took it to the city."

Kang He heard this and found it made more sense.

"It's cold outside, let's go back inside."

He had just said something to Zhen'er when he turned around and saw Fan Jing coming out at some point. He was standing on the eaves, looking in the direction the old woman had gone, his brows furrowed.

"What's wrong?"

Fan Jing said coldly, "What kind of old woman with a stick can be so nimble?"

After hearing this, Kang He went to look at the old woman again. In just a few words, the old woman had really gone so far away that her figure was almost out of sight.

"Are you saying there's something strange about that old woman?"

Fan Jing didn't answer him, but only instructed Zhen'er, "From now on, don't let strangers into the house. Even if they want to ask for water or something, just let them wait outside."

Seeing Fan Jing speaking with a stern face, Zhen'er hurriedly and carefully nodded.

"I just brought her in because I felt she was old and pitiful, and my brother and brother-in-law were at home."

Fan Jing said, "She may not be very powerful. I'm afraid she's a kidnapper or a child thief, and she specifically sends these old and weak people to come to the door to scout out the people."

Zhen'er's heart skipped a beat when she heard this: "Then, what should I do?"

After hearing what Fan Jing said, Kang He realized that he had been careless. The old woman's words just now were so convincing that they really made him let down his guard.

If Fan Jing hadn't refused to hold the baby with her and hadn't looked unhappy, he really wouldn't have paid much attention to what this man said.

"Just pay attention to it recently and keep a close eye on Dafu. The family can't be without a male to keep an eye on them."

Zhen'er quickly said, "I understand."

Kang He felt somewhat uneasy, so he went to Xu Yang's house and told him that an old woman had gone to his relative's house and had taken her away in a humiliating manner.

When Xu Yang heard this, he realized that it was inappropriate to teach an old man to walk on the slippery road in the snow. It would be fine if it happened to an ordinary family, and even if he was the village chief, it would be difficult for him to discipline him. He could only say a few words at most. However, he still had to discipline his own relatives, otherwise others would say that he was taking advantage of his power to do something inhumane.

As they talked, the two of them went to Xu's house in Aozili together.

Xu Yang scolded his relative.

"We are wronged. Our whole family went to the city to buy New Year's goods early this morning. We just got home a while ago, and there are no distant relatives from Xiangshui Village visiting us."

"She probably saw no one around and left on her own. Why is she blaming us for chasing her away?"

Afraid that people wouldn't believe him, the Xu family man showed them the New Year's goods he had just brought back, with some snow still on top.

His children insisted on going to the city to buy some firecrackers, and they blew up clay pots in the yard, making a lot of popping sounds.

Kang He and Xu Yang looked at each other.

"Oh no! I'm afraid the kidnapper has really come to the village to scout out the situation!"

This guy is so powerful that he had prepared a set of excuses in advance, and even the Xu family in Aozi knew about it.

Everyone in the village knew that the Xu family in Aoli was overbearing. As for driving away poor relatives, it was really something that their family could do. How could the villagers not believe it when they heard it?

"At the end of the year, there are many strangers in the villages, so these thieves sneak in and start stealing again."

When the Xu family's wife heard what the two said, her face turned pale and she hurried to the yard to carry the boy into the house.

Seeing this, Kang He said to Xu Yang, "This isn't just a matter for one or two families. There are children in many households. We need to teach everyone to be vigilant."

Xu Yang responded. His brother Yuan was also pregnant and was about to be a father. How could he allow kidnappers to come into the village and steal the child?

If you lose rice and grain, you can plant them again later. But a child is a piece of flesh and blood of his parents, so how can you throw him away?

Later that day, Xu Yang called a meeting of the villagers and told them about the kidnapper.

"Oh my! An old woman like that came to my house too. She asked me for a strong stick to use as a walking stick and begged me to come inside to rest for a while. I kindly let her in to have some soup and even gave her two pieces of fruit. I never thought she'd set her sights on my house!"

Four families in the village said they had seen this old woman, and each had different reasons for wanting to enter someone else's home.

She was quite a thief, and she would specifically target households in remote areas. Once she had entered one household, she would go to households farther away. The households she had entered undoubtedly all had young children.

At this gathering, it was confirmed that the person was a kidnapper, and all the Murakami families with children were terrified.

At the end of the year, people slaughter the New Year pig, prepare New Year goods, and everyone is happily preparing for the New Year. But when this happened, who wouldn't be worried and scared?

Xu Yang instructed the villagers to be extremely alert and to question any strangers entering the village. Offending someone was a small matter, but losing a child was a big deal.

On weekdays, men should also go out more often to prevent anyone from exploring the village.

Fan Xin's private school was busy in winter, when there were the most children, big and small. After something like this happened, no one dared to slack off.

First, I told the children to talk less with strangers and not to accept food or toys from unfamiliar people.

Outside of school, he left home early and asked the child's family to pick him up.

"After two years of silence, how come these kidnappers are active again? I'm looking after a shop in the city, and these past few days I've heard customers talking about kidnapping activities. I just treated it as gossip, but I didn't expect these reckless people to actually sneak into the village!"

When Chen Sanfang heard that a kidnapper had entered their house today, he was terrified and hugged Dafu in fear.

After greeting the beggar's family, he said a few words to Zhen'er. Zhen'er knew that the woman was a beggar, and she felt extremely guilty.

Kang He talked to her for a few words and told her that not all ordinary people have bad intentions.

It was probably because the first time he entered the village, he was surrounded by the villagers because of his unclear speech, and he had no way to express his grievances.

Chen Sanfang always knew that Zhen'er was kind-hearted, and she didn't mean to blame the kind-hearted girl. Not to mention this child, if she had met the old woman at home today, she would definitely have felt sorry for her and asked her to come in for some water.

They were not the only family in the village who had been tricked into letting the kidnapper into their home. People said that the villagers were rough, but most of them were kind-hearted. If anyone was to blame, they could only blame the kidnappers for using people's kindness to do evil.

After talking about it for a while, she couldn't help but kick Father Fan again: "You only know how to go out to eat and have fun. If our Dafu is stolen one day, I wonder where you can find it."

Father Fan also accepted the scolding. Everyone in the village said that their Dafu was a well-behaved child. If he was really lost, he would be heartbroken.

"I won't go out for drinks anymore. I'll just stay home. If you want to eat, just invite everyone to our house. We're all men. Let's see if that kidnapper dares to come!"

"Bah! After drinking two ounces of horse piss, you still can't tell east from west? I'm afraid if that kidnapper comes to your door, you'll still grab his hand and call him brother!"

Father Fan waved his hand: "Fine, fine, don't even let them come home to eat."

The atmosphere at home was tense, but after seeing these two people arguing, the atmosphere became a little more relaxed.

At night, Fan Jing carried Dafu into the house and slept with him in bed with the couple, and he felt more at ease.

The three of them were covered in one quilt, and it was quite warm.

Dafu rarely slept with Kanghe and Fan Jing. He was a little excited lying in the quilt. He stuck his butt out and crawled along Kanghe's legs to the other end of the bed, then crawled back after a while.

She giggled, revealing a few baby teeth.

After making a lot of noise for a while, she was tired and finally fell asleep in Fan Jing's arms.

Kang He smoothed the baby's soft hair and said to Fan Jing, "Luckily you didn't give birth to our child with that old woman today, otherwise I would have felt unlucky."

Fan Jing said to him, "Isn't it bad luck that you gave her the hot water kettle for nothing?"

"It's really unlucky. If she was just an ordinary old woman, and I didn't give her hot water, she would freeze to death on the roadside. Wouldn't she regret it when she thinks about it?"

Fan Jing didn't say anything, he also felt the same way.

In the past, when a beast like Sun Dasheng accidentally fell into a trap, he would put a piece of wood in it to teach him how to climb out. The same principle applies today.

He felt sorry for Dafu and was just saying that out of anger.

Kang He said, "I've sewed the curtain and hung it on the other side of the door. Do you think it looks good?"

Fan Jing took a look and found that the seams were tight and wooden boards were fastened on top, so it was not easy for the wind to blow it away.

Seeing that he remained silent, Kang He asked, "Is it still ugly?"

“It’s so ugly.”

Kang He pinched Fan Jing's waist and said, "If it looks good, it looks good. If it looks ugly, it looks ugly. What does it mean to be very ugly?"

Fan Jing raised the corner of his mouth, ignored him, closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Kang He leaned over and kissed the corner of his relative's mouth, then fell asleep next to the sweet and soft Dafu.