"I... why am I not a human being?" Even though she was scared in her heart, she still had to show that she was not afraid of him.

Glancing outside the courtyard, Li Xiuxiu muttered, "I just ran into the police on the street. They said that human traffickers are rampant nowadays and no lost child can be found. Isn't your wife sad? I am willing to give my son to her as a comfort. What have I done wrong? I am not doing this with good intentions..."

What? Many people thought they heard it wrongly. How could there be such a weird person?

Instead of feeling that he is wrong, he feels complacent and proud of himself?

"Fuck!" Tian Jianzhong heard Li Xiuxiu's words as soon as he squeezed in to see the excitement. He was so angry that he grabbed her collar and pulled her out: "Li Xiuxiu, are you still a human being! Huh?"

Qiao Lu's child was just lost and she is heartbroken. Not only did you not comfort her, but you even came to treat her with malicious intent. Aren't you asking for a beating?

"I've only heard of azaleas in the animal kingdom, but I never thought there are azalea people in real life. How disgusting!" Tian Jianzhong glared at her.

The azalea is the most "vicious" bird in the animal kingdom. Its bizarre breeding method is really admirable.

The azalea does not incubate its own eggs. Instead, it puts its eggs into other bird nests while other bird mothers are incubating their eggs. In order to avoid being discovered, it throws away one of the original owner's eggs on the spot as a form of barter.

When the original owner returns to the nest, because the eggs look so similar, the original owner will not know that her eggs have been swapped, and then she will carefully and responsibly hatch the eggs.

As a result, the azalea eggs hatch first. After hatching successfully, when the mother bird goes out to find food, the azalea chicks will throw all the eggs of the original owner out of the nest and kill them.

In the end, there will be only one azalea chick left in the entire bird's nest.

When the mother bird came back and saw the empty bird nest and the azalea chicks...if it were a human, it would probably go crazy...

In everyone's eyes, Li Xiuxiu, who said such words at this time, was even more hateful than the azalea!

After all, azaleas swapping eggs is a way for their species to reproduce. They are animals, mindless animals!

But Li Xiuxiu is a "high-IQ" human being who has received civilized education. Such behavior is completely evil, stupid, and evil!

Li Xiuxiu was caught off guard and was dragged by Tian Jianzhong. She staggered and shook her son in her arms to steady herself. Her heartbeat quickened. She snorted, "Okay, okay, it's my fault. I'm a bad mouth. I shouldn't say such things, okay?"

But she really didn't think there was anything wrong with what she said.

Judging from the current situation, if Qiao An cannot be found, Qiao Lu will definitely collapse. At this time, as long as she is given another child, after a period of time, she will naturally forget the pain of losing the child and will no longer think about the missing child.

In their village, there was a mother who went crazy because she lost her child. Later, a family gave birth to several daughters and could not raise them, so they gave their daughters to the crazy woman. As a result, the crazy woman got the children and not only did she no longer go crazy, she was almost alive again.

Now I am doing farm work while raising my "daughter". The mother and daughter are happy and just like normal people. How wonderful it is. I don't miss my previous child anymore, right?

So Li Xiuxiu thought that Qiao Lu should also "cure diseases" in this way.

And if she could give her son to them to raise, she wouldn't even have to give up the house!

Li Xiuxiu observed for a long time and came to a conclusion: Xu Haizhou's family is really rich!

No matter what you wear or use or what you use at home, they are all top-notch in the entire compound!

I also heard that the couple are both bosses. Xu Haizhou has a clothing store outside and his business is very good. Qiao Lu also opened a small workshop. Many people call her "Sister Qiao Lu" or "Boss Qiao". It is said that she has countless "employees" under her!

How happy would my son be if he could grow up in such a wealthy family?

Even if the child is not close to her when he grows up, blood ties cannot be severed. How can she not raise her own son?

"You really don't want it?" Li Xiuxiu asked again, seemingly unconvinced.

Qiao Lu pinched Xu Haizhou's arm, suppressed the urge to swear, and was so angry that her chest hurt.

Everyone wanted to kick her - they are a loving couple, can't they have children themselves? Want your kid? Are you crazy?

"Roll, roll, roll—don't shut up!"

"Are you really worthy of being a mother?"

Xu Haizhou's voice was cold, and the frost in his eyes almost solidified: "Do you need me to use a forklift to fork you out?"

The voice was as cold as a blade and had a terrifying power.

Li Xiuxiu shuddered, pouted, and just as she took a step forward, she couldn't control her mouth again: "If your son really can't be found, there are only two people in your family now. Wouldn't it be a bit of a waste to have two rooms? Can we..."

"No! Get out! Get out!" Qiao Lu threw a teacup over.

Xu Haizhou stepped forward, grabbed Li Xiuxiu's collar and dragged her into the yard.

If Xu Haizhou hadn't cared about the baby in her arms, he would have thrown her out. Throwing her hard would have been enough to vent his anger.

Song Qingping was also furious, and she applied Li Xiuxiu's words to herself, so angry that she picked up a broom and threw it at her:

"Get out! You ungrateful bastard, you have no shame! No one in our courtyard welcomes you! Go back to where you came from! Don't bother me! Get out!"

Li Xiuxiu was not a person without temper. In addition, she had been living in a dilapidated temple for nearly a month and had no home to return to. She was holding a grudge in her heart. Now she was abandoned and beaten, and she could no longer endure it.

The true colors are revealed, revealing the rogue nature:

"Okay, go back to where you came from!" She pointed at the house behind Xu Haizhou and his wife, "I came from these two rooms. My mother didn't even go to the hospital when she gave birth to me. She gave birth to me in this room. If you want me to go back, then vacate these two rooms! Otherwise, I can't get out!"

Song Qingping was so angry that she laughed. She took a deep breath and pointed at the Li family's old house: "You also know that it was your mother who gave birth to you, so how did you repay your father? Without your father, could your mother have given birth to you? Is this how you treat your father?"

"That's right! Do you know that your father became sick because of you? If it weren't for you, your father would probably still be alive now!" Chen Jiamei is best at hitting other people's sore spots.

Seeing Li Xiuxiu's expression as if she had eaten shit, I finally felt happy.

Li Xiuxiu only found out the truth today.

"What? How is that possible? What are you talking about? How could my dad be mad at me? I'm just marrying someone. I haven't done anything outrageous..."

Tian Jianzhong echoed: "You can marry someone in Li'an, but have you ever thought about the fact that you are the only daughter of your father! If everyone in the family dies and you get married, who will take care of him? He is so old and has worked so hard to raise you, just to see you abandon him?"

"If it were me, I would be so angry that I would die right now! I can't even survive Xu Haizhou's care!" Chen Jiamei snorted, "And you married me, but you never came back to see me, not even a letter! Isn't that infuriating enough? I'd rather give birth to a barbecued pork than you."

"Do you think I want to? I want to not go back to see him or send him letters? There's nothing I can do!" Li Xiuxiu wiped away her tears desperately. The two poor little girls clutched their mother's clothes helplessly.

They were extremely scared. It was the first time they saw so many people scolding their mother. They stared with their big misty eyes, looking like they were about to cry.

"Life in the countryside is so harsh. My family is poor. How can we afford to buy me a train ticket? How can we afford to send a letter? I wish I could spend every penny carefully! What have I done wrong?" Li Xiuxiu complained.

When everyone heard this, those who were kinder and softer-hearted actually began to sympathize with her.

Song Qingping then asked, "When you were an educated youth in the countryside, didn't you know your man's family conditions? Didn't you choose to marry him when he was so poor?"

Chen Jiamei: "That's right! You have to take responsibility for your own actions!"

Li Xiuxiu beat her chest and stamped her feet: "Yes, it was me who wanted to get married. So I have to bear all this. But I really have no choice. What's wrong with me? Marry a chicken and follow the chicken; marry a dog and follow the dog. I am his person after I follow him. Of course I have to consider everything for our little family. Do I have the ability to take care of both sides!"

He is really stubborn. For the sake of his own small family, he ignores his mother's other small family.

For such a person, you really don’t know whether to say she is selfish or “selfless”.

I can only sigh - the forest is so big that there are all kinds of people!

In the end, Li Xiuxiu's plan to sell out failed, and she fled in disgrace.

…

As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is the safest place. When everyone relaxes their vigilance and thinks that society is stable, human traffickers take the opportunity to cause chaos.

On the fourth day after Qiao An went missing, four children had already gone missing in the entire south of the city!

Looking across the entire Li'an City, the number of missing children has reached eleven!

It's simply lawless and they don't take the law seriously!

This incident alarmed the Public Security Bureau and all the residents. Now the slightest disturbance can make adults and children panic.

Just today, when Chen Dacai got home from get off work, he didn't see his son Chen Jingtao. He called out a few times but no one answered in the yard. But his daughter Chen Nannan was at home. They always went home together after school, so it didn't make sense for Jingkang to still be in school.

He turned around and went into the house to ask his wife, but Lin Caihe had just returned home from get off work and had no idea where his son had gone. Usually it was his mother-in-law who picked up the child.

Moreover, Chen Jingkang is not a kindergarten kid, he is nine years old this year. The children that Li An has disappeared recently are all under six years old and are kindergarten age. She really hasn't been worried.

Who would steal a child of Jingkang's age? Even if you steal him, he won't be accustomed to it. It must be a kindergarten child who "snatched" him.

My little nephew Chen Baitao is an exception among the missing children this time. Although he is already seven years old, his mother gave birth to him prematurely, and the child has been weak and sickly since childhood.

So he started school a year later and is still in the senior class of kindergarten. He is small in stature and people who don’t know him would think he is six years old.

Not finding his son, Chen Dacai started scolding Lin Caihe.

"You're a spendthrift woman! If Jingkang gets kidnapped, I'll punish you!"

Lin Caihe's personality is not as gentle as her name suggests. She immediately lost her temper and confronted her man: "You blame me? You blame me for the child being lost? I go to work every day to earn money, and I have to cook and do housework for your family when I get home in the afternoon. I just got home, and you can blame me for the child being lost? Isn't it always your mother who goes to pick up the child? You want to punish me? Do you dare to punish your mother?"

"you!"

Before Chen Dacai could say anything, Zhang Hongyan came in from the outer courtyard, leading Chen Jingkang, and squinted at the couple.

"What are you arguing about? You're arguing as soon as you get back. Are you complaining that it's been too quiet lately?"

Chen Jingkang broke away from his grandmother's hand, holding the freshly-out-of-the-pot pancakes, and ran to the bedroom in a flash.

"Ah! Pancakes! Brother, give me half!"

The two children were happily sharing the pancakes in the bedroom. Then look at the soy sauce bottle in Zhang Hongyan's hand...

Well, the child was kidnapped by his grandmother to make soy sauce.

Now, it was Lin Caihe's turn to scold Chen Dacai.

It’s no wonder that Chen Dacai overreacted. He has just been scared by the traffickers recently.

Not only was my nephew kidnapped, my next-door neighbor's son was also kidnapped, and the mothers' cries echoed in their dreams in the middle of the night. No one could imagine what they would do if their own children were kidnapped.

…

"Haizhou, recently the exits of the train and bus stations have been heavily guarded, and the passengers' luggage has been strictly checked. We have checked all places where children can be placed, but we haven't found any children. I guess they should still be in the city?"

Li Yu's words immediately woke Xu Haizhou up.

"Have any other children been lost recently?" Xu Haizhou asked.

"I heard there was another one yesterday, but it was not lost in the kindergarten. It was lost on the way when an adult was picking up the child from school." It was several blocks away from the kindergarten.

Xu Haizhou frowned, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong: "Did you lose it on the way home? Is your master not here?"

"It is said that the child ran away because the adults didn't keep an eye on him."

"Lost?" Not a human trafficker?

But even if a four or five-year-old child runs away, it is possible that he or she cannot be found. There are many enthusiastic people these days, and the child can just ask anyone and they will be able to send you to the police station.

Thinking of something, Xu Haizhou suddenly grabbed his shoulder excitedly, his eyes darkened: "Let's go! Don't wait at the train station, let's go to the kindergarten!"

“Ah?” Kindergarten?

The police have been conducting strict inspections recently, and even if you lend money to someone, you wouldn’t dare to go near a kindergarten even if you have ten guts!

If you squat again, can you reach it?

The kindergarten is heavily guarded because it is a kindergarten in a factory area and the factory will be held responsible if anything happens, so the higher-ups paid for two more security guards.

But don't forget, the most dangerous place is the safest place!

"Hey, Chunlan! Why are you here? Are you here to pick up the kids? I haven't seen you for a long time. How are you doing recently?"

The grandmother had just picked up her grandson from kindergarten and was walking home with him. She had not taken a few steps when she was stopped by a middle-aged woman.

"Who are you?"

The woman looked to be under 40 years old, with neat short hair cut to her ears, bright eyes, and she was always smiling when she looked at you, looking very easy to get along with.

The old lady squinted her eyes, looked wide, and looked hard, but she just couldn't figure out who the woman in front of her was.

The woman spoke in the familiar tone of an old friend, smiling brightly: "Oh! It's me, Chunlan. Have you forgotten me after just a few years of not seeing me?"

As he spoke, he gently pulled the mother's wrist and looked at her with a smile: "Do you remember? It's me."

Although the elder sister was called elder sister, she was actually only four or five years older than the woman in front of her. She just looked a little older due to the wind and sun. Therefore, she did not feel offended when the woman called her "Chunlan".

I was just wondering, could this woman really be her old friend?

The two of them kept arguing for several minutes, but the woman refused to tell the aunt her name, as if she was deliberately teasing her.

The old lady was still reminiscing, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not come up with any result.

After chatting for a long time, the child beside me became bored and looked around.

An old lady appeared beside me out of nowhere. She had a hunched body, but her facial features and expression were gentle and kind.

She hunched over, stretched out her wrinkled, old fingers, pinched a piece of fragrant cake between her fingertips, and grinned at the child.

"Good boy, sweet cakes, delicious."

Being fed for no apparent reason, the child was actually a little wary in his heart, but when he saw the kind smile on the old woman's face, he couldn't help but think of his own grandmother... How could his grandmother be a bad person?

So he reached out to take the candy cake.

The old lady took the cake and stepped back half a step.

As the child stepped back, he unconsciously let go of his hand that was still holding onto the hem of his grandmother's clothes.

Then slowly, following the old woman's steps as she walked backwards, he looked at the candy cake infatuatedly and followed her.

The entrance of the kindergarten was bustling with people coming and going, and everywhere were old people picking up their children. Who would notice the kind-faced "grandmother" and "grandson"? No one would suspect anything, okay?

Unfortunately, no matter how cleverly they disguised themselves, they were still discovered by Xu Haizhou who was waiting opposite.

Li Yu and the other two brothers obviously noticed it as well and were about to rush over to catch the old man.

As a result, Xu Haizhou grabbed his arm and wouldn't let him leave.

"Don't worry, let's follow her and see where she takes the child."

The children over there were all attracted by the sweet cakes, but here his grandmother was still chatting and teasing with the strange woman.

When the mother realized that her child was missing, she shouted anxiously. When she turned around, even the woman who had just been chatting with her was gone!

…

Following the old lady as she took the child through the streets and alleys, the child had long noticed something was wrong and started crying and making a fuss about looking for his grandmother. The old lady's old legs and arms were unable to suppress the child's temper, but she had an accomplice.

Soon, after turning a corner into a quiet alley, a strong man came up and hugged the child, holding him in his armpits, covered his mouth with one hand, and punched his little butt viciously: "Cry again! Make trouble again! I'll beat your butt into pieces! You'll never see your mother again!"

The child was scared and didn't dare to cry or make a fuss. He just shed tears silently.

Xu Haizhou and the others followed closely behind. The more he saw their movements, the colder he felt.

He couldn't imagine if An An was treated like this... He was glad that Qiao Lu didn't come along, otherwise she wouldn't be able to contain herself after seeing this scene...

The alley is very long, winding, deep, narrow and long, like a snake, winding through the courtyards of one house after another.

On both sides were dilapidated, moss-covered courtyards, with green weeds and creepers growing wildly between the cracks between the bricks. The narrow alleyway was darkened by the long shadows.

Walking into the alley, everything around was silent, with only the occasional stench of sewage and feces wafting from the dark corners of the walls.

After walking for about ten minutes, we finally arrived at the place where the traffickers hid the child.

After fully confirming the location, Li Yu took a younger brother to the police station to report the case, leaving Xu Haizhou and another brother to guard outside the door.

Li Yu was very fast. He brought the police to the destination in less than ten minutes, and even dispatched the only car in the bureau!

Xu Haizhou: "I've seen it. There's a back door over there. Dahua is guarding it."

Li Yu: "Okay, Public Security Comrade, please send some people to guard the back door."

The leading police officer waved his hand and said, "Follow me."

It was dinner time and smoke was rising from the roof.

Probably because it was time to eat, the people inside had not come out since they entered. After the police arrived, they completely blocked the door and waited for the support colleagues from behind to arrive before breaking it down.

Five minutes later.

"Don't move! Don't move!"

"Don't move—"

There was a loud bang—and chaotic cries for help came from inside the house, all of which were the cries of young children.

“Wuwuwu—Help, help, help, help—No, no, I want my mommy, I want my daddy, Wuwuwu—Help, help, help me—”

You won’t know until you see it. You’ll be shocked when you see it. The small, dark room is full of children! They are sitting in a circle in the middle of the room, shivering and with tears on their faces.

Because the door of the room was opened too suddenly and the children had been immersed in darkness for a long time, their eyes could not adjust to the light all of a sudden, and they all stopped crying and closed their eyes at the same time.

A rough count revealed that there were twelve or thirteen of them, all of them were around kindergarten age, and some were even younger.

Anxiously scanning the children, Xu Haizhou spotted a familiar figure among them.

"Chen Botao!"

The young man looked up and saw who it was. He was so excited that his body was shaking and he shouted, "Uncle! Uncle Xu! Wuwuwuwuwu—Uncle Xu!"

Xu Haizhou walked forward anxiously and excitedly, hugged the man, and patted his back to comfort him.

"Where is An An? Have you seen our An An?" His voice was trembling.

Sniffing, Chen Baitao greedily sucked in the reassuring scent of Xu Haizhou, shook his head and said, "I don't know, I don't know where An An is, I didn't see An An, wuwu - I want mommy, I want daddy, uncle -"

Caressing the child's fragile body, Xu Haizhou turned his head anxiously and shouted in disbelief: "An An! An An!"

No one responded, only the children's cries of distress, the police officers' scolding, the human traffickers' cries of fleeing and begging for mercy...there were no other sounds.

Xu Haizhou put Chen Baitao down, grabbed a human vendor, and punched him violently in the chest. The veins on the back of his hand bulged, and he roared:

"Where's An An! Where's my child!"

The author has something to say:

Turn the page, the next chapter is An An goes home~