The past is hazy: the kidnapping of a girl in the millennium

On the way back to Yangliuan, Cheng Sizhou received a call from Zhou Han as soon as he got off the car.

"Comrade Xiao Cheng, you're truly... talented," Zhou Handan muffled the curse words. "I was stepping in and helping Wu Meng, and that's fine, but you went and stabbed your sister Shen. You know how kind-hearted she is, leaving Zhou Yitang behind to go and investigate."

"Isn't that a good thing? Look at the mother and son of the Xu family, what kind of things did they do? It's just that Teacher Wen is generous and doesn't bother with them because the Xu family is not well off. Sister Shen can come to their house and do some work to get the money back privately. By the way, ask the community to take care of them and implement some guarantees. If they really have difficulties, they can organize fundraising." Thinking of Wen Zichuan's pitiful appearance, Cheng Sizhou was still angry and talked like jumping beans.

Zhou Han thought to himself, you know shit. Shen Huifang has been working non-stop for half a month and finally gets a day off. She cooks in the morning and works overtime in the afternoon. She can't even take care of her own child, and she even has to take care of other people's children. What the hell is this!

But he is my ex-husband now, so I can only think about it and cannot say it out loud.

"Everything is clear. Xu Jiaxuan saw the envelope when Teacher Wen was getting the materials, and judging by the outline, he guessed it contained money. He also admitted that he put the laxative in the juice, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to precisely make Teacher Wen go to the bathroom during the time his mother was buying groceries."

"With such a brain, it would be a waste if I didn't follow you in criminal investigation."

"We represent the people's justice, okay? Just him? He's still far behind in terms of ideological awareness!" Zhou Han changed his tone. "By the way, the reason Zhao Ya hit him was, on the one hand, she misunderstood that Teacher Wen and Xu Jiaxuan were in cahoots, and that Teacher Wen sent money to help Xu Jiaxuan escape. On the other hand, when she called the police, Wu Meng's attitude was rather perfunctory. She assumed the police wouldn't show up soon, so she wanted to make a big deal out of it by hitting him."

Cheng Sizhou tried hard not to curse. What kind of logic was this? "Is there no explanation? Teacher Wen almost tortured their family to death."

"The community has made an appointment for Zhao Ya to undergo a mental health examination."

"Mental...illness? That's impossible?"

"It's hard to say." Zhou Han's tone became increasingly serious. "Be prepared, I want to tell you something about the kidnapping of a little girl eighteen years ago."

"Eighteen years ago, the little girl kidnapping case..." Cheng Sizhou found a stone block to sit on, and the past dragged his thoughts into a pool of dark water.

After hearing no movement from the other side for a while, Zhou Han asked cautiously, "Do you still remember?"

Cheng Sizhou laughed dumbly: "How could I not remember?"

Perhaps for others, the kidnapping of a young girl happened too long ago, and in the stories passed down by word of mouth, the deceased girl was just a pitiful little girl who never had the chance to grow up, forever trapped in the memory of time. But for Cheng Sizhou, his life has never fully escaped the overshadowing shadow cast by the kidnapping, and many things have changed because of it.

Because the girl who was kidnapped and killed was Jiang Anyi, the daughter of his master Jiang Yunli.

Cheng Sizhou's mother Wang Xinxin and Jiang Anyi's mother Lin Xin were in the same ward when they were expecting their babies. They got along very well and imitated the plots in martial arts novels, saying that if they both gave birth to boys, they would become brothers, if they both gave birth to girls, they would become sisters, and if they both gave birth to a boy and a girl, they would arrange a marriage for them.

Cheng Sizhou and Jiang Anyi were born on the same day. Both families felt that it was a rare fate, and they maintained friendship and communication after being discharged from the hospital.

Cheng's parents work in a hospital, and Jiang Yunli works at Dengbo. The two workplaces are close to each other, so the two children, in accordance with their parents' expectations, attend the same kindergarten and the same primary school. They often go to school together, do homework together, and play together.

One day in the autumn of the millennium, ten-year-old Cheng Sizhou and Jiang Anyi finished their painting class at the Children's Palace. As usual, they separated after crossing the intersection of Yudeng West Road. Cheng Sizhou went north to a hospital, and Jiang Anyi went south to the Lantern Festival.

Back then, raising children wasn't as elaborate as it is now. Whenever Jiang Anyi came, she'd just say hello to her father and then play with the other staff members' children in the courtyard of the Lantern Festival. Everyone knew each other well, and there were security guards at the gate, using the same security system used to protect cultural relics to protect the children. It seemed more than adequate, no matter how you looked at it.

But that day, Jiang Anyi disappeared.

In the evening, the Cheng family received a call from the Jiang family. Cheng Xuecheng asked Cheng Sizhou what was going on, and Cheng Sizhou said that when they separated, An Yi was fine and even said "see you tomorrow" to him.

Cheng Sizhou wasn't very clear about what happened after that. All he knew was that the Jiang family was being blackmailed, and the kidnappers were demanding a lot of money. He overheard his parents taking out all the money they had to help the Jiang family, but it didn't seem enough. They were hiding in their room, discussing selling the house.

Ten days passed and the Cheng family had not sold the house, so the Jiang family called the police.

In an abandoned factory in the north of the city, three kidnappers held the unconscious Jiang Anyi hostage, awaiting a transaction. This incident attracted considerable attention, with not only the police and Jiang's family present, but also reporters from various media outlets surrounding the factory.

The kidnappers, furious after their extortion attempt failed, raised a knife at Jiang Anyi, only to be shot dead by the police the moment he stabbed her. The second kidnapper rushed towards the window, attempting to escape, but was shot in the leg and fell to his death. However, just as the police were distracted by the second kidnapper's actions, the third kidnapper detonated a bomb strapped to his body.

In this kidnapping case, the three kidnappers and Jiang Anyi died.

"Your sister Chen asked me if I knew the details of the case. I had just started working at that time and could not be involved in such a big case, but I couldn't say I didn't know, so I went to bother my retired former leader. He said that in addition to Jiang Anyi, there was also a reporter named Xu Zhiqin who was killed by the kidnappers who jumped from the building." Zhou Han continued.

"Xu Zhiqin, Xu Jiaxuan's father?" Cheng Sizhou quickly thought of the connection between the two things.

"Yes. Xu Zhiqin worked for the Dengyuan Evening News back then. To get firsthand information on the kidnapping case, he circumvented the security cordon and climbed up the pipes behind the factory to take photos. He was hit by the kidnappers falling from the building, and his spleen ruptured. He died two days later. Xu Jiaxuan was a posthumous child."

Cheng Sizhou sighed. "The people at the Evening News are very shrewd. Even if Xu Zhiqin died while on duty, they would definitely point out his illegal operation and death 48 hours later. I guess the compensation will be very small."

"You know them very well. Your sister Shen asked about it and paid 60,000 yuan."

"Although prices were low back then, Zhao Ya would have to delay her work to have and raise a child. How could 60,000 yuan be enough?"

"Xu Zhiqin's death was a huge blow to Zhao Ya. Neighbors say she often cried all night long in her early years. Later, when Xu Jiaxuan grew up, he would run away from home at any time. She felt like she was stuck in a vicious cycle, constantly calling the police to report her child missing, and the fuss never ended."

In fact, it was not just her. Jiang Anyi's death that year sounded a wake-up call to almost all parents with children in Dengyuan. The intersection of Yudeng West Road is only a hundred meters away from the Dengyuan Museum, and there is a security booth at the entrance of the museum. In such a short period of vacuum, children can be directly taken away by vicious kidnappers. It is really scary.

After Jiang Anyi left, Jiang Yunli seemed to have aged ten years overnight, from being full of vigor and vitality to being haggard and depressed.

For eighteen years, the Jiang and Cheng families tacitly agreed not to talk about the past, and only Cheng Sizhou became like a son raised by both families. During the holidays, he would go to the Jiang family to visit his master and his mistress; every Qingming Festival, he would accompany his master and his mistress to burn paper and give flowers to Jiang Anyi.

Jiang Yunli originally worked in calligraphy and painting restoration, and Cheng Sizhou also studied painting for a few years. Later, his master was transferred to the ceramics group of the Science and Technology Conservation Center. He studied history in college and immediately after graduation, he joined the Lantern Museum to formally become their apprentice in ceramic restoration.

With two sets of parents giving him double the love, he should be the happiest and most joyful child in the world.

"It's quite pitiful." Cheng Sizhou felt a little regretful. He shouldn't have called Xu Jiaxuan a "difficult family." A child without a father and whose mother is in poor mental condition, it's good enough for him to grow up safely. "Sister Chen, have you got the money back? Or forget it, this money is mine, I'll just consider it a charity."

"She didn't say, go ask her." Zhou Han said in a strange tone.

"Okay, I'll ask her." Cheng Sizhou suddenly realized, "By the way, it was Sister Shen who asked you about the details of the case. Why did you specifically tell me about the Xu family? You wouldn't dare to call her back, would you?"

"Don't take my kindness for granted." Zhou Han coughed dryly. When it came to matters of life and death, he had experienced more than Cheng Sizhou and was more open-minded. "I know the Xu family has its own difficulties, and you have yours too. The dead cannot be resurrected, so don't dwell too much on the past. Since you're alive, you should live well, right?"

"I'm not living well, am I? What do you want to say?"

"Hey! It's your sister Chen. She's worried that you can't let go of the engagement you made when you were a child. You're almost thirty and still not looking for a partner or getting married. She said that we're both men and asked me to persuade you!"

…

Is it funny that divorced people advise single people to get married?

Cheng Sizhou's face darkened. He quickly ended the conversation and hung up the phone.

For eighteen years, if he didn't try to recall it, he couldn't even remember what Jiang Anyi looked like. Even if she were alive, she couldn't change her sexual orientation. For both families, it was just another disappointment.

Since he was a child, he has always wanted to behave well, study hard, work seriously, and not disappoint his parents, but he really can't do anything about his sexual orientation.

When he got home and went upstairs, he opened WeChat and transferred 1,700 yuan to Wen Zichuan, leaving a message saying, "The money needs to be returned. Sister Chen refused to accept it and insisted that I transfer it to you. If you don't want to owe her, then owe me."

A few minutes later, Wen Zichuan replied: "Thank you, Brother Zhou."

Cheng Sizhou's face turned red, and because of the delay of WeChat, he found that Wen Zichuan changed his avatar to the little prince.

He said, "Thank you for liking my role."