After leaving Hou Diankui's place, Jiang Qiao went to find Song Shutian and first requested to use the car. "Okay, okay, you can use the car as you like for the time being. Little girl, is there any progress?"

Jiang Qiao smiled and said, "I can't say there's any progress. As long as there's even the slightest possibility, I'll go and take a look. I just heard some news: the prison has a basement. You guys should quickly verify this with the prison authorities."

There's nothing there. I'll be going to another place tomorrow. It's said that the Japanese soldiers sneaked up the mountain back then. As for what they did, I'll only know when I get there. Hopefully, this is the place I'm looking for.

"How's it going on your end? Any progress?"

Song Shutian felt a little ashamed. Only a day had passed, and Jiang Qiao already had clues. Compared to them, Song Shutian seemed to be far behind.

“I’ve already sent someone to keep an eye on that woman, Jiang Qiao. Our leader highly praised your ability to handle things. Keep up the good work. I’m not familiar with this place, so there are some things I might not be as good at as you locals.”

Remember, if you discover something is really wrong there, don't act rashly. If they left something behind, how could they have done it without some precautions? If they do, let us know, and I'll send professionals over.”

Jiang Qiao nodded. "Okay, I understand. If there's a problem, I'll have the local police keep an eye on it."

Another question I'd like to ask is, what exactly caused the death of that woman? Have you made any judgments?

Speaking of this, Song Shutian shook his head. "We can only guess. After all, the people involved are gone. I suspect that perhaps the dead man didn't want to be involved in their affairs anymore, so he killed him."

Think about the bombings in the north. Why did they use guns? According to the confessions, they said they ran out of time bombs. They had promised to send more, but they didn't reach their initial target. I now suspect that the person who died in the detention center might have died because of this.

"What about the explosives? Did they take them from here?"

Song Shutian shook his head. "It seems unlikely. If they had taken it, what would those people be busy with now?"

Jiang Qiao didn't waste any more words and urged Song Shutian to contact the prison.

Gu Zhengkai was also stunned when he received the call. "You mean there's a basement here? How come we didn't know about it?"

Song Shutian told the people at the prison to prepare, and he would immediately send people over to assist.

"Okay, you guys go ahead and get busy. If you find it, let me know. I definitely have to go there tomorrow anyway. We can talk about it when I get back."

Jiang Qiao had no idea that the prison was in a flurry of activity after she left. She had to hurry back to cook so she could bring her grandfather home. She was really worried about leaving her two grandfathers outside, after all, they were old, and that house, even with a fire burning, was drafty. She didn't know how they were doing that day.

To be honest, Gu Hanting and Qiao Jie, those two old men, are really good at enduring hardship. They aren't afraid of the cold, but they are afraid of not being able to find out any useful information. They are worried that it will delay their child's important matter.

However, the two old men had gathered quite a bit of information from the little beggars that afternoon, but none of it was useful to their granddaughter at the moment. However, Gu Hanting was old but shrewd. Just because it wasn't useful now didn't mean the child wouldn't need it in the future. He took out a pen and paper and wrote down all the information.

When Jiang Qiao went to pick them up, the two old men were still happily teaching the children to read the text.

Speaking of which, all these things were given to them by Jiang Qiao. Although these children came from different backgrounds and had different reasons for begging, some of them were literate.

Jiang Qiao stipulated that those who could read would teach those who couldn't, and the older ones would supervise the younger ones. If you didn't know how to read, you could look it up in a dictionary. In her words, you can choose your way of life, but you can't be illiterate. Don't not even know the difference between men's and women's restrooms, or don't even know who your roots are or who your parents are. Take advantage of the fact that you haven't forgotten them yet and quickly memorize them. When the time is right, it will be up to you to decide.

"Sister, you're here. Grandpa and the others are doing well; they haven't been beaten or scolded."

Upon seeing Jiang Qiao, the child immediately sought praise from her. Jiang Qiao patted the child's head and said, "Well done, thank you for taking care of the two grandpas today. These are still warm, I just made them, you can keep them for dinner. I'll take the grandpas with me now, we'll continue tomorrow."

Gu Hanting and Qiao Jie were a little reluctant to part with the children, so they patted them and said, "Grandpa will come back to visit you again tomorrow."

On the way, Gu Hanting and Qiao Jie felt quite sorry for the children.

Jiang Qiao sighed, "What can I do? I can help them find a better place to live, but if people find out that these children are living better than them, who will still give these children food?"

The key problem is that they don't have household registration, which is the real headache. They can still beg for food now, but what about when they grow up? They can't beg for food for the rest of their lives, can they?

I do have an idea now, though I don't know if it's mature enough. I'm thinking of finding someone to teach them a skill, so they can at least support themselves in the future.

Gu Hanting nodded. "But not having a household registration is a big problem. Which factory would be willing to hire a worker without a household registration?"

I've been thinking about it. Maybe I can talk to your Uncle Jiang later and see if our team can accept these kids. But then another problem arises: they're so young, they can't really do much work. I'm worried that if they go there, the people in the team might have something to say. After all, one more person means one more ration.

Qiao Jie remained silent for a while before speaking, "We'll discuss it with Lao Jiang later. No matter what, let's get the children registered first. As for how to make a living, the girl can help us think of a way. If all else fails, we can open a private restaurant and cater to regular customers."

Jiang Qiao gave a wry smile. "That's what I thought at first too, but given the current situation, the timing isn't right. Food shortages are a big problem, and meat is also a problem. The game in the mountains is almost extinct. Even if I wanted to go hunting, there's nothing to hunt."

Opening a restaurant wasn't too difficult for Jiang Qiao, but she couldn't go out to get food whenever she wanted, and since food was so hard to detect, the source of the food was a big problem.

Gu Hanting was well aware of his granddaughter's difficulties; it was precisely because he understood them so well that he truly comprehended how difficult things were for her.

"Let's wait and see. Let's help out for now and make sure the child doesn't starve. We have to feed them little by little, and we have to take things one step at a time."

Jiang Qiao looked at Gu Hanting and smiled, "Grandpa, the first step depends on the two of you. Try to get them registered so that everyone won't worry. If it can be arranged in the city, I will try my best not to trouble everyone."