Chapter 418: Xiao Ni is dead

The old woman had gray hair, a hint of hope burning in her cloudy eyes, and a hoarse voice.

"Xiao Ni's parents passed away a few years ago, and I raised her all by myself. Didn't the Ghost Festival come a while ago? I thought I'd go to the market and buy some paper money to burn for her parents."

"Xiao Ni asked me if I could bring her a hair flower."

"Xiao Ni has a hard life. She lives with an old woman like me. I can't even buy her a new piece of clothing all year round."

The old woman couldn't cry out loud. She just kept muttering about how her granddaughter was not having a good life. Su Tan listened patiently.

"Xiao Ni wants me to take her to buy a hair flower."

"But I'm scared."

As the old woman spoke, she beat her chest hard and even slapped herself several times.

"There are beggars at the market. I'm an old woman. If I run into one, I can't outrun them. My daughter will definitely be kidnapped by them. So I'll leave her home alone."

"I asked her to wait until I came back."

Tears flowed from the old woman's cloudy eyes.

But it is blood and tears.

"But when I came back, Xiao Ni disappeared!"

"I didn't see Xiaoni!"

"I searched for a long time. I went door to door in every village I passed through, searching day and night, but I couldn't find even a strand of Xiaoni's hair!"

The old woman clutched the crutch in her hand in pain.

The crutch slammed heavily to the ground, and her old body was shaky, like a dead vine that could be blown down by the wind at any time.

"Why did I let Xiaoni wait at home!"

"I should have taken Xiaoni to the market with me. I shouldn't have left her home alone!"

The old woman's heart was filled with regret.

How she wished that time could go back and take her back to the day when Xiaoni disappeared. At that time, no matter what happened, she would resolutely take Xiaoni to the market.

"And me and me!"

A father with a worried look on his face and a mother whose eyes were almost blinded by crying, wept in front of Su Tan.

"We took the child to her grandmother's house. Usually, the children would play together, but that day, the children said they wanted to play hide-and-seek. The boys were all fine, but the girls were missing."

At that time, everyone searched the entire village and several neighboring villages.

But even if they turned the sky over and made a hole in it, they would still find nothing.

"It's not that we didn't report it to the police, but it was useless even if we did."

The local officials are not negligent in their duties.

People from the government came again and again.

The whole matter was investigated again and again.

I checked it over and over again so many times.

In the end, nothing was found.

No matter how many people the government investigates or how many people surround the government office, more and more girls continue to go missing.

even--

The people sighed.

"The government even sent people to guard homes with young girls. The officers and soldiers didn't dare blink in the middle of the night, fearing they'd miss a child and let the rampant bandits steal it."

But in this world, there is no such thing as being able to guard against thieves for a thousand days.

No matter how much precaution they took, no matter how many more manpower the government added.

Even though more and more children are missing.

Those who were lost happened to be girls.

Nowadays, every family has a baby girl.

Even when there are soldiers watching, baby girls are still abducted right under their noses without anyone noticing.

"Gradually, rumors began to spread that there was a wolf demon in our village that preyed on baby girls."

"Even, it seems that there are wolf paw prints in the homes of every missing baby girl."

The villagers were filled with righteous indignation and whenever they went to the mountains, they would kill any wolves they saw.

Almost all the wolves on the mountain had been killed, but the number of missing baby girls was increasing.

Later, rumors about wolf demons eating baby girls intensified.

It even forced local officials to step in and suppress the rumors, warning the public not to spread false information.

After all, the rumors about the wolf demon really made people panic.

If we continue like this, who knows what will happen in the end.

"But even if the local officials stepped in to suppress the rumors, they can't stop so many of us from talking. We all saw it clearly."

Girls keep disappearing.

If it's missing, there's no way to find it again.

No one knows what exactly happened.

No one knows what method can be used to prevent these tragedies.

"Everyone came to the capital this time, thinking that they would find out the truth once they were at the feet of the emperor."

The people couldn't help crying.

They all came with their last hope.

But who could have known that even at the feet of the emperor, there seemed to be no proper solution to everything.

Everything is back to the starting point.

The emperor is the same as the local officials.

Even if more people are sent to investigate, nothing will be found in the end.

However, most people do not realize that the emperor is different from the local officials.

It’s not that the local officials don’t want to help the people in their area find their missing children.

I just have no power.

The government has sent people here to protect families with baby girls.

But more and more children are missing.

Even under the noses of officers and soldiers, there were still thieves bold enough to steal the child.

It's obvious that a tight net has been laid here.

But unfortunately, we just can't catch those bandits.

But Emperor Qinglong was not serious about looking for it.

As the ruler of the world and the father of the people, Emperor Qinglong did not care at all about the life or death of the people's children.

No matter whether the baby abducted was a girl or a boy, it was not Emperor Qinglong's child, so he didn't care about the life or death of those people.

The truth is cruel, but it is true.

The people did not know the truth and thought that he was the master of the world, and they could not do anything about those evildoers.

How could we know that Emperor Qinglong didn't want the people from the Dali Temple to investigate these things at all?

The reason why he agreed to Sui Sui and gave the order to let the people from Dali Temple investigate was simply because if he didn't agree, Sui Sui would cry and make a fuss.

If a girl keeps crying, it will cause him a lot of trouble.

He never cared about the lives of the people.

He just didn't want Sui Sui to bother him all the time because of them, so he gave the order perfunctorily.

When facing Suisui, Emperor Qinglong assured Suisui that he would ask the people in the Dali Temple to get to the bottom of everything so that the people who lost their children could have some comfort.

Regardless of whether it was rampant bandits or demons at work, he should at least give the people an explanation.

At that time, he solemnly promised Sui Sui that he would never let his people suffer.

But time passed, day after day, the people at the Dali Temple seemed busy, Emperor Qinglong seemed anxious, but in the end, there was still no progress.

No one knows how all this happened.

However, any discerning person could see clearly that this almighty monarch did not care whether the people's children were alive or dead.

Just like he doesn't care whether his child is alive or dead.

Su Tan felt a pang of pain in his heart when he heard this.

She reached out and took the birth chart that the old lady handed over.

After casting the divination and lighting the incense, my mood suddenly became extremely heavy.

She closed her eyes, somewhat afraid to look into the old lady's eyes.

"Xiao Ni..."

Su Tan sighed deeply.

This answer was too heartbreaking, just like when she lost Changle. When the doctor announced the result, the answer was so sharp that it broke her heart.

The old lady raised her bloodshot eyes, her lips trembling slightly, and stretched out her old and withered hands, tightly grabbing the hem of Su Tan's clothes.

"Master Su, Xiaoni...what happened to Xiaoni?"

There was a hint of hope and caution in the old lady's eyes, as if she was waiting for Su Tan to say that Xiao Ni was safe.

Su Tan's lips trembled.

She cruelly told the old lady the reality.

"Xiao Ni..."

"She's dead."

The old lady's eyes widened and she suddenly fell to the ground.

Tears and blood flowed from her eyes. She struggled to crawl forward, her lips trembling, and she couldn't help shaking her head, "No..."

"No, right..."

"Xiao Ni is still alive and well, how could she die!"

"Xiao Ni won't die. Master Su, you must have miscalculated, right?"

"Master Su, please tell me, are you wrong?"