Chapter 56: Eight Children Missing
Xu Heye looked at another neighbor, Mrs. Zhao. "Aunt Zhao, do you know where Lian Yushu and Lian Jiashu are? Their sheets are fluttering in the rain, why haven't they put them away?"
Mrs. Zhao said, "Both brothers are out."
"Going out? In such heavy rain?"
Mrs. Zhao explained, "The eldest went out in the morning, and the second went out before the rain started. Wanxia (Mrs. Lian) works as a temporary worker at a nearby toy factory. She called around 10:00 a.m. and asked the eldest Lian to deliver something to her."
The weather changed in the afternoon, and the second son of the Lian family was probably worried that his brother would get wet when he returned without an umbrella, so he hurried out with an umbrella before the rain started, probably to bring an umbrella to his brother.
Xu Heye's heart skipped a beat: "Are you saying that Lian Jiashu is not with his brother?"
Mrs. Zhao was also unsure: "They should be together now."
"You haven't come back for so long. I guess you saw that the rain is getting heavier and you're hiding in some corner to avoid the rain!"
The rain was really heavy, it would not be an exaggeration to describe it as a downpour, and it was accompanied by lightning and thunder, which was a bit scary.
Mrs. Zhao finished speaking and went inside, closing the door. The wind was blowing hard and the rain was pouring down. With the door open, the rain drifted in, soaking half the room.
As Mrs. Zhao closed the door, other neighbors also closed their doors one after another.
Xu Heye returned to the house, feeling increasingly uneasy.
She looked at the heavy rain outside and had an inexplicable premonition that tragedy might happen on such a rainy day with lightning and thunder.
Xu Heye couldn't sit still any longer, so she found her raincoat, put it on, locked the door, and walked to the door of Lian's house in the wind and rain. She knocked on the door: "Is anyone home?" She also wanted to see if Lian Jiashu and his brother had returned.
After knocking for a few minutes, there was no other sound except the sound of rain and her knocking.
There is no way.
Xu Heye pursed her lips, wrapped her raincoat tightly around her, and slowly walked out of the slum.
When the neighbor, Mrs. Zhao, saw this, she immediately called out, "Xiao Nan, where are you going?"
The wind was so strong that Xu Heye was swaying from side to side in the wind and rain. The big raindrops hit her face, causing pain.
Xu Heye shouted at the top of her voice: "Lian Jiashu hasn't come back yet, I'll go to the entrance of the alley to look for him." Lian Jiashu didn't know how to take a car, and he didn't know how to get to the factory where his mother worked.
Lian Yushu left home at around ten o'clock in the morning, and Lian Jiashu left home in the afternoon, so he definitely couldn't catch up with him.
The two brothers haven't come back for such a long time. It is very likely that Lian Yushu was blocked by the heavy rain at the factory where his mother works, while Lian Jiashu was squatting under a big tree at the entrance of the alley waiting for his brother to come back!
The rain was so heavy that Xu Heye was afraid of falling, so she could only hold on to the courtyard wall and walk out of the alley, calling out as she walked: "Lian Jiashu, are you here?"
"Lian Jiashu?"
"Are you there?"
After walking past two large courtyards, Xu Heye was already unable to open her eyes due to the rain. She wiped her face and squinted her eyes to see that this was the courtyard where Sun Hui lived.
Xu Heye smiled bitterly. She felt like she had been walking for a long time, but she didn't expect that she had only walked less than two courtyards.
After struggling to get to the tree, I only saw a tattered, large umbrella lying there, blown over by the wind and covered in mud and water, making it look very dirty.
Xu Heye's heart skipped a beat.
That big flower umbrella is Lian Jiashu’s favorite umbrella.
Lian Jiashu still has the mind of a child, and he also retains a child's habit of clinging to old things. His old quilt, the broken and torn umbrella, and the faded water cup are all still his favorites.
If nothing unexpected happened, he would definitely not have left his big umbrella here.
Xu Heye quickly knocked on the door of the grocery store: "Auntie Liu, are you there?" It was raining heavily, so no one would come to buy anything. She was also worried that the rain would blow in and get the goods wet. Liu Yumei simply closed the store.
"Aunt Liu, Aunt Liu, are you there?" After knocking on the grocery store for a long time without any response, Xu Heye had to turn back and knock on other doors.
The neighbors nearby heard Xu Heye knocking on the door and all stuck their heads out to see what was going on.
"Xiao Nan, it's raining so hard, why are you knocking on the door?"
"Grandma, I'm looking for Lian Jiashu. Have you seen him?" Of the two Lian brothers, Lian Yushu was definitely not as famous as Lian Jiashu. The Lian family's 'little fool' was known to everyone in the alley.
"That stupid boy from the Lian family?"
Xu Heye nodded: "Did you see it? He went out around noon, before it rained, or maybe just after it started raining."
The old woman shook her head and said, "I didn't see it."
Xu Heye looked at the other neighbors again: "Did the other grandpas, aunts, uncles and aunts see it?"
The other neighbors also shook their heads and said, "I didn't notice." During that afternoon, everyone was either taking a nap or busy collecting clothes hung out to dry in the yard, and they didn't pay any attention to what was happening outside.
"Is the boy from the Lian family not at home?"
Xu Heye nodded: "Yeah."
"He went out at noon and never came back. He's a simple-minded guy, and I was worried he'd get wet in the rain without taking shelter, so I went out to look for him. I just found him under the big camphor tree, but I saw his umbrella lying there, but he wasn't there."
The old woman looked at Xu Heye and was very pleased: "Xiao Nan, it's not easy for the Lian family to recruit such a good tenant like you."
Xu Heye smiled, then suddenly thought of something and immediately said, "Uncles and grandmas, are all your children home? Children are naughty, and it's rare to see such heavy rain. Don't run out and play crazily, or you'll get sick from the rain."
If the children were all at home, then her worries would be a false alarm. But if they were all missing like Lian Jiashu, perhaps—Xu Heye's eyes flashed with anxiety.
Everyone present was stunned when they heard Xu Heye's words.
These days, children are left to their own devices. As long as they go to school on time, go home on time to eat, and go to bed on time, their parents and elders don't really care what they do at other times.
It rained and everyone was busy collecting things, sweeping up earthworms, and taking shelter from the rain. They didn't even count whether the children at home were staying indoors.
After being reminded by Xu Heye, everyone's heart was lifted and they turned around and went back to look for their children.
"Xiaohua, Xiaoxia?"
"Zhu Xiaohua, Zhu Xiaoxia, where the hell have you two been?"
"Gu Yu, Xiao Yu?"
"Auntie, have you seen my Xiaohua and Xiaoxia?"
"No. Xiaohua and Xiaoxia are not at your house, I know. You asked Gu Yu, but he didn't see them. They are not at my house."
"Uncle, have you seen my Xiaohua and Xiaoxia?"
"No, not at your house either? Where did those two damn kids go? It's raining so hard!"
"Yongchang, Yongchang, Su Yongchang?"
"Feng Le, Xiaoyan, Wan Xiaoyan?"
"Zeng Qiqi, where have you been?"
After searching around, the group of adults panicked.
They weren't at home, nor in the alley. Lost, all the children were missing. If Xu Heye hadn't reminded them, they would have thought the children were playing at a neighbor's house.
Zhu Xiaohua, Zhu Xiaoxia, Gu Yu, Su Yongchang, Feng Le, Wan Xiaoyan, Zeng Qiqi, and Lian Jiashu who was the first to discover the disappearance.
After a careful search, everyone discovered that eight children were missing from the entire Zhangshu Lane at the same time.
Eight children, Xu Heye frowned and fell into deep thought.
Only seven names appeared in the incident in the previous life from beginning to end, but now eight children are missing. Is it a sudden change in this life, or is there some secret hidden in the two tragedies in the previous life that has not been discovered?
Xu Heye thought of another thing.
At some point, a bird had built a nest in the large camphor tree at the entrance of the alley, laid eggs, and hatched chicks. Perhaps the nest was too small, and some of the chicks were squeezed out.
Fortunately, the little bird did not fall to its death. The featherless chick screamed in confusion and fear under the tree. Finally, these naughty children climbed up the tree and put it back to the nest.
Zhu Xiaohua, who was the leader of this incident, was chased and beaten by his parents with a bamboo broom.
It can also be seen from here that these children have empathy.
Although they are not good kids in the traditional sense, they are not so cruel as to disregard the lives of others and take pleasure in the suffering of others.
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