Gao Mingcheng quickly ran over with a stick in his hand: "Where's the thief? Where is he?"
Upon seeing Grandma Tan, Gao Mingcheng paused for a moment: "You are..." For some reason, he felt that she looked somewhat familiar.
"Are you Xing Zhaozhao's lover?" Old Mrs. Tan asked Gao Mingcheng directly.
Gao Mingcheng's expression hardened as he looked at her warily and asked, "Who exactly are you? How do you know my Zhaozhao?"
Grandma Tan didn't answer him. She looked nostalgically at the stone house next to her and said, "Do you know? This used to be my home."
Gao Mingcheng narrowed his eyes slightly, then, as if realizing something, his face showed surprise. He said, "You're Old Master Tan's... Impossible, didn't you already..."
He quickly noticed that the old lady Tan's clothes were out of place in their time, but he could see similar clothes in some of the books that Xing Zhaozhao had brought from there.
He stared at Old Mrs. Tan in disbelief, his mind reeling with shock: "Where did you come from?"
Before Grandma Tan could say anything, Hongyu blurted out, "My brother and I saw her come out of our cellar, Dad."
really.
"You can also access that door?" Gao Mingcheng asked. "So, when you disappeared before, you didn't die, but went to the other side of the door?"
Grandma Tan remained silent, which was taken as tacit agreement.
"Since you've been gone for so many years, why did you suddenly come back?" Gao Mingcheng asked, puzzled.
Grandma Tan suddenly smiled and said, "I never thought I would be able to come back. It's all thanks to your husband."
What were meant as words of gratitude sounded strangely unsettling to Gao Mingcheng: "What do you mean? You ran into my Zhaozhao over there? Where is she? Didn't she come back with you?"
"She..." Old Mrs. Tan was about to say something when she suddenly frowned in pain, clutched her stomach, and bent over.
Gao Mingcheng was startled and asked, "What's wrong? Are you alright?"
"I..." Before Old Mrs. Tan could finish speaking, her eyes rolled back, her body swayed, and she collapsed to the ground unconscious.
Gao Mingcheng looked grave and immediately rushed over to help the man up: "Hey, are you alright?"
Grandma Tan's face was deathly pale, and she was completely unresponsive. All that could be seen was a ring of blood on her clothes near her stomach.
When Gao Mingcheng lifted her clothes, he discovered that there was a horrific incision on her stomach that had been stitched up, but it had now reopened.
Gao Mingcheng quickly picked the person up and prepared to take him to the town hospital immediately.
Hongfei and Hongyu were terrified when they saw the bloodstains on Grandma Tan: "Dad, what happened to Grandma? Why is she bleeding?"
"Dad needs to take this old lady to the hospital right away. You two stay home and take good care of your little sister. Dad will be back as soon as possible," Gao Mingcheng instructed the two children.
Hongfei and Hongyu nodded in unison.
Gao Mingcheng carried Old Lady Tan and ran wildly down the mountain.
Aunt Hao had just returned from picking some vegetables in her private plot when she ran into Gao Mingcheng. She asked curiously, "Hey? Mingcheng, who are you carrying? It doesn't look like Zhaozhao. What happened? Where are you going?"
To take Grandma Tan to the hospital, his identity couldn't be kept secret, and Gao Mingcheng didn't want others to know about the door in the cellar, so he made up a lie: "It's not Zhaozhao, it's an old lady I found in the mountains. She seems to have been injured and fainted, so I'm taking her to the hospital."
Aunt Hao was startled and immediately leaned over to look: "Found in the mountains? Was it the work of the comrades who dug up graves in the mountains? These clothes look expensive, they must be from a big city."
Gao Mingcheng hesitated for a moment, then said, "It shouldn't be. I know all the experts and professors who came from above..."
"Huh? Why does she look so familiar?" Aunt Hao noticed something was off as soon as she saw Old Mrs. Tan's face.
Gao Mingcheng didn't have time to chat with her much right now: "Auntie, could you help me find Uncle Da Han? I'd like him to give me a ride on his tractor."
Without thinking twice, Aunt Hao rushed off, shouting, "I'm going right now..."
Aunt Hao went to the field and found Gao Dahan, who was working there. Captain Gao happened to be there too. After hearing about it, he came over as well, along with a group of gossipy aunties. Captain Gao couldn't get rid of them no matter what he tried.
Those who followed curiously glanced at Old Mrs. Tan, and the same thought popped into their minds: Huh? Why does she look so familiar?
Even Captain Gao was one of them.
A group of people stood there, forgetting to chat, all tilting their heads, wondering where they had seen each other before.
Gao Mingcheng carried Grandma Tan and quickly jumped onto Gao Dahan's tractor and drove off. Before leaving, he didn't forget to ask Aunt Hao for help: "Auntie, Zhaozhao went out today and isn't home. I'll have to trouble you to go and look after the child for me."
Aunt Hao readily agreed: "No problem, you can go without worry, I'll take care of things at home."
After saying that, she watched the tractor leave and prepared to go to Gao Mingcheng's house on the mountain. Suddenly, she heard an old lady next to her slap her thigh hard. The sound was so loud that it looked painful.
"I remember now, it's a silk handkerchief," the woman exclaimed.
Aunt Hao immediately forgot about the old lady's pain and looked over curiously.
"The silk? Which silk?" someone asked.
"Which other Juanzi is there? The crazy girl Juanzi who used to live with old man Tan up in the mountains," the old woman said.
It was only then that everyone around, including Aunt Hao, realized what had happened.
"That's right, it's her. I was wondering why she looked so familiar, but I just couldn't remember who she was."
"Me too, me too..."
"But wasn't it said that crazy girl was dead? How come..."
"No, we only said they were missing. Everyone guessed they might be dead, dragged away by wild animals in the mountains..."
"It looks like it really was taken into the mountains, but it shouldn't be a wild animal..."
"Not a wild beast, but a beast, almost..."
"I heard Mingcheng found her in the mountains? It's quite a coincidence. They stayed at her house, and in return, they brought her back from the mountains..."
A hint of doubt flashed in Aunt Hao's eyes: those clothes didn't look like they came from the mountains...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com