After a good night's sleep, Jiang Yiyi woke up feeling refreshed.

I got up, dressed, and took my things to wash up. Gu Yunze walked in from outside the yard. He must have gone for a run. His army green vest was soaked, and beads of sweat hung on his wheat-colored skin, reflecting the light under the early morning sun.

Jiang Yiyi really wanted to whistle, but she couldn't. Even if she could, she wouldn't dare to. Gu Yunze had let her go last night. If she dared to whistle now, Gu Yunze might go berserk and prevent her from leaving the house today.

She was going to look for Zhang Mei again today. She always felt that something had happened to Zhang Mei and her son.

Gu Yunze naturally accompanied her.

…

The door of Zhang Mei's house was still locked.

Jiang Yiyi knocked on the door of the eldest sister's house she met yesterday. Seeing that it was them, the eldest sister hurriedly said, "The reason why I didn't go with them yesterday was that I wanted to stay and tell Qin Gang so that he could go to the hospital."

She did tell Qin Gang, but his reaction was beyond her expectations. He just said "I know" and closed the door, with no intention of going to the hospital at all.

"I'm not asking for this. I just want to ask you, do you know where Zhang Mei's parents live?"

"I don't know that, but I know where the relative who lent her the house is."

"Can you tell us?"

"I'll take you to find her."

Zhang Mei's relative is Zhang Mei's cousin. It was she who introduced Zhang Mei to Zhang Yan. She thought that Zhang Yan was a soldier and Zhang Mei would not have a hard life with him. However, she never expected that Zhang Yan would die. The Zhang family also drove Zhang Mei and her son out. She felt guilty and gave her own house to them and their son to live in.

When I heard that Zhang Mei and her son hadn't returned home for several days, I thought they had taken the child home and told Jiang Yiyi their address.

Zhang Mei's parents' home was only three miles away from the county town. The two asked along the way and soon found it.

There were two shabby houses without even a courtyard wall. The windows were papered, some of which were torn, and the white window paper fluttered in the breeze.

As the two men walked to the front of the house, a man with a shaved head and ragged clothes ran out. He looked stupid and silly. He ran up to the two men and grinned at them, "What are you doing?"

An older woman followed quickly, fearing that her son might hurt the two of them, and hurriedly pulled him away, "Don't be afraid, he won't hurt anyone easily."

"Is this Zhang Mei's home?"

Before the woman could say anything, the man clapped his hands and said, "Sister, sister."

It is undoubtedly Zhang Mei's home.

She didn't say she was here to see Zhang Mei, but instead said,

"I'm her friend. She's been very busy lately and doesn't have time to come home, so she asked me to bring her five dollars."

As he said this, he took out the money and handed it to the old woman.

The old woman didn't answer. "It's not easy for Meizi to take care of the children alone. We old couple can't help much. You can give her this money back and let her keep it to buy delicious food for the two children."

Jiang Yiyi stuffed the money into her hands and said, "She said when she came here that she would give you the money no matter what. You keep it."

The old woman held the money tightly in her hand and thanked her.

After leaving Zhang Mei's house, Jiang Yiyi felt a little heavy-hearted, both because of the situation of the Zhang family and the whereabouts of Zhang Mei.

"We can start with the Zhang family."

Gu Yunze said.

Since there is no mother's family, it means that the Zhang family hid the person.

Jiang Yiyi thought so too.

She was not good at this. "What's your idea?"

"We can lay a bait for the Zhang family."

Things should be done sooner rather than later. After returning to the county, the two of them went to find Zhang Mei's relatives, inquired about the address of Zhang's family, and went there.

Let Gu Yunze wait in a hidden place, and Jiang Yiyi went over and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

An impatient voice came from the yard. It was Zhang Yong's wife.

Then the footsteps reached the door, and the door was opened. Seeing that it was Jiang Yiyi, the woman raised her eyebrows instantly, put her hands on her waist, and seemed to want to scold her, but then she thought of something, put her hands down, turned around and shouted into the house, "Zhang Yong."

Zhang Yong walked out of the room in two or three steps. When he saw Jiang Yiyi, his face was immediately filled with smiles. "Please come in."

"The workshop is very busy. I'll make it short. If you want to sell the cold noodles, you can ask Zhang Mei to write a statement. The statement will be automatically given to you to avoid trouble in the future. Write it and give it to me, and I can start selling it today."

"That's easy. I'll go find my sister-in-law and ask her to write it."

Jiang Yiyi nodded, turned and left.

The door behind them slammed shut, and Zhang Yong's wife picked up the Qiao instead, "She told me to go sell it, so I went to sell it, but I refused to go, and it made her so anxious!"

"Hey, wife, it's several dollars a piece, why should we be so hard on money!"

"We still have dozens of them, so we can still make a difference. Look how anxious she was just now. She must be in need of help. If I don't catch her, what will she do to trip me up in the future?"

Zhang Yong always goes along with her. "What my wife said makes sense. I will listen to you. We will do whatever you say."

…

Jiang Yiyi and Gu Yunze were guarding not far from the entrance of Zhang's house, and they didn't see Zhang Yong and the others come out until noon.

"I'll keep an eye on it. Go back to the workshop and eat first. Then bring it to me after you're full."

Gu Yunze said.

It could only be like this. Jiang Yiyi rode her bicycle to the workshop, hurriedly ate a portion of cold noodles, filled an enamel pot with another for Gu Yunze, took two steamed buns, and hurried back to hand the enamel pot to Gu Yunze, letting him eat with peace of mind while she stared at him.

Gu Yunze had just taken a few bites when the Zhang family's door opened. Zhang Yong came out humming a little tune and pushing his bicycle. He closed the door behind him and rode out of the alley. Gu Yunze gave the enamel pot to Jiang Yiyi, and waited until he was more than a hundred meters out of the alley before following him.

But he came back soon, and Zhang Yong just went to the state-owned restaurant to buy a few dishes.

It was not until dark that Zhang Yong went out again. He rode his bicycle around and around until he stopped in front of a dilapidated house outside the city and knocked on the door. "Mom, it's me."

The door was opened, Zhang Yong pushed his bicycle in and closed the door behind him.

In the dilapidated house, Zhang Mei was tied up and thrown on the bed, with the exposed areas on her face and body covered in bruises.

Beside her, there lay a thin boy, his face was abnormally flushed, and his eyes were staring at them with resentment.

Next to him was the little girl that Jiang Yiyi had seen. There was blood at the corner of her mouth and her face was so swollen that it was unrecognizable.

"What are you looking at? If you keep looking, I'll dig your eyes out!"

Zhang Yong spat at the little boy. If he wasn't afraid of risking someone's life, he would have thrown the little bastard to death long ago. Over the years, it had cost his Zhang family so much money.

Zhang Mei struggled to block her son behind her.

Zhang Yong took out a pen and paper and said, "Write a statement saying that you voluntarily gave up the business of selling cold noodles to us. If you dare to make a fuss..."

He pointed at the little girl and said, "I'm going to throw her to death!"