Chapter 31 The clothes were held tightly by a small hand...
A small hand gripped his clothes tightly. Xie Baoqiong glanced at the little boy in front of him and saw that he was only up to Xie Baoqiong's waist. His neatly tied hair was disheveled, and his coarse cloth clothes and chubby cheeks were covered in dust. His dark eyes were filled with tears, yet they shone with an unusual brightness.
Before he could ask clearly, Meng Rui, who was beside him, noticed the extra person between the two of them:
"Where did this child come from?"
"I don't know." Xie Baoqiong hadn't figured out the child's origins either.
"Kid, what's your name? Where are your parents?" Meng Rui asked.
The little boy glanced quickly at Meng Rui, tightened his grip on Xie Baoqiong's clothes, and moved closer to her.
"Am I that scary?" Meng Rui complained softly.
When Xie Baoqiong saw this scene, she glanced at Meng Rui and then at the little boy, receiving a look of admiration in return.
He had no choice but to ask Meng Rui's question again: "What's your name? Where are your parents?"
The little boy then spoke up: "Mei, I, my family calls me Amei."
As soon as he finished speaking, Meng Rui suddenly leaned forward and stared intently at Amei's face. "Little sister? You're actually a girl. I really didn't realize." Then, not giving up, he asked again, "Little sister, how old are you?"
Looking at the approaching face, Amei clutched the clothes in her hand and hid them behind Xie Baoqiong, still not answering Meng Rui's question:
“I don’t know where my parents are. I was playing in front of my house when someone suddenly appeared and put me on a mule cart. When I woke up, I couldn’t see my parents anymore. They said they were going to sell me to… uh, sell me to…” Amei patted her head and realized that she really couldn’t remember. So she just continued, “I just ran away when that person wasn’t paying attention.”
Xie Baoqiong waited quietly for Amei to finish speaking before she spoke:
“You should go to the authorities.” He pointed at Meng Rui and said, “We’re both still kids. If the people who’re arresting you come, they might just arrest one and send the other two along.”
Ah Mei seemed surprised by Xie Baoqiong's words, and his face went blank for a moment, but his hand still gripped the latter's clothes tightly.
After hearing Xie Baoqiong's words, Meng Rui immediately realized, "Oh, right."
He turned to look at the attendants following not far away and picked out one of them: "Go and take this child to the government office."
The chosen person handed the item in their hand to the other person and went forward to take Amei's hand.
"Young lady, I'll take you to the government office first, and someone there will take you home."
As he spoke, he walked toward Amei, who was cowering behind Xie Baoqiong. But just as he was about to touch Amei's hand, a burly man suddenly appeared from the crowd, rushed toward Amei, grabbed Amei's collar, and pulled him backward.
"With so many people around, why are you running around like that?"
As he spoke, the burly man's gaze darted around, finally landing on the candied hawthorn in Xie Baoqiong's hand before he pinched Amei's arm:
"You ran over as soon as you saw candy at someone's house. Are you starving at home? You just had to make a fuss about wanting candy."
The burly man gripped her hand tightly, and Amei cried out as he was twisted. He reached out his other hand toward Xie Baoqiong, wailing, "Save me, brother, save me!"
Xie Baoqiong felt as if she was about to be pulled out by this force.
Sanqi, who was following behind, realized that something was wrong and went up to stop the big man's actions, grabbing his arms behind his back.
The burly man struggled but couldn't break free. Instead, he felt the binding force tighten, and a few beads of cold sweat trickled down his forehead. He quickly shouted:
"Gentlemen, what are you doing?"
I'm this child's father. He's always been the most disobedient one in the family. Tonight, as soon as we arrived at the temple fair, he started yelling for candy. I refused to buy him any, and then he disappeared without a trace.
Without Xie Baoqiong's instructions, Sanqi would not release the big man in her grasp, so the big man's words would naturally have no effect.
While the big man was being restrained by Sanqi, Amei, now free, darted back to Xie Baoqiong's side and clutched the small piece of clothing in her hand again.
His clothes, torn and disheveled by the burly man, revealed a bruise where the man had twisted him earlier, which Meng Rui noticed with his sharp eyes.
"You still claim to be her father? What kind of biological father would treat his child like this?" Meng Rui recalled Amei's words and pointed at the big man, saying, "You kidnapped this child, didn't you?"
A crowd of onlookers, drawn by the farce, had already gathered around. The moment Meng Rui uttered the word "steal," someone in the crowd shouted:
"Yes, could it be that you kidnapped this child?"
Soon another person chimed in: "Several children have gone missing in the capital these days. This man might be the one who abducted them. Quickly hand him over to the authorities."
...
The burly man's face turned bright red, but he couldn't utter a word amidst the barrage of barrages from the crowd.
Xie Baoqiong then patted Amei on the shoulder and asked, "Is he your father?"
Amei had been covering her eyes with one hand and rubbing them since earlier, sobbing continuously. When she heard Xie Baoqiong's question, she paused in her sobbing: "No, he's not my father."
After she finished speaking, she burst into sobs again.
"How can you argue now?" Meng Rui said bluntly, but then asked in confusion, "It's been going on for so long, why haven't the officials from the prefectural government and the Court of Judicial Review come yet?"
The people standing around explained enthusiastically, "There's been a theft in the east of the city. The thief is said to be able to scale walls and perform some strange tricks. He's running around with a large group of people, so he probably can't spare any manpower to come here."
The kind-hearted man then said to Sanqi, who was holding the person in custody, "Young man, why don't you go through the trouble of taking him to the authorities? If he really is a kidnapper, it will help the officials find the lost child sooner."
Sanqi remained motionless, quietly awaiting Xie Baoqiong's instructions.
"Sanqi, take him to the government office as well." Xie Baoqiong tried to pull away Amei, who was clinging to him, but unexpectedly, she couldn't budge him on the first try.
Ah Mei, who was holding him, cried even louder as he moved.
The incessant crying beside her suddenly intensified. Xie Baoqiong found it a bit noisy, so she reached out and stuffed the candied hawthorn she hadn't yet tasted into Amei's open mouth, which was agape from her loud sobbing. Instantly, the noise subsided.
Amei, whose mouth was stuffed full of candied hawthorns, was also a little dazed. He put down the hand that was rubbing his eyes, revealing his reddened eye sockets. He also unconsciously withdrew the hand that was holding Xie Baoqiong's clothes from his grip on the candied hawthorn stick.
Xie Baoqiong seized the opportunity to slip away and hide behind Meng Rui.
The servant who had been waiting beside Amei seized the opportunity to grab Amei's free hand and lead her aside.
Having received the order, Sanqi looked over with worry in her eyes: "Young Master..."
Xie Baoqiong interrupted him before he could finish, unable to bear Amei's wailing any longer: "I'll go back with Meng Rui later, and there are so many people following us." He glanced meaningfully at the large group of people behind Meng Rui.
“Yes, young man, your young master is being taken care of. The government office isn’t far from here. If you walk fast, you might be able to catch up with your young master…” someone in the crowd advised.
"Going back so early?" Hearing Xie Baoqiong's words, Meng Rui was not very happy, but he did not refuse: "Then I will take you back to the manor in my carriage later."
Xie Baoqiong quickly devised a plan to return home. Sanqi didn't want to interfere too much. Only after seeing the man leave with the support of Meng's entourage did she escort the big man to the government office.
They boarded the Meng family's carriage.
Meng Rui leaned back on the cushion, smugly saying, "My mother was worried that I would run into kidnappers when I went out today, so she sent so many people with me. I didn't expect the kidnappers to be caught so easily. Clearly, it would have been better to bring fewer people."
Xie Baoqiong didn't reply, but she was still somewhat concerned when she thought about the inhuman aura she sensed on Amei.
"I just heard someone say that a child went missing in the capital. What happened?"
"Didn't Lord Xie tell you?" Meng Rui asked curiously.
Xie Baoqiong recalled for a moment and shook her head: "My father only told me not to leave the people accompanying me behind."
“That’s true. You rarely leave the manor. No matter how bold a kidnapper is, they wouldn’t go so far as to kidnap someone from the Marquis’s manor,” Meng Rui said.
"What kind of children are missing in the capital?" Surely they wouldn't even steal demon cubs? Upon closer inspection, Amei's aura seemed somewhat familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. The only thing he was certain of was that although Amei carried a mottled human aura, it was more like a clumsy disguise, completely incomparable to the jade pendant Su Xiaochun had given him to conceal his aura.
Of course, Xie Baoqiong did not point out Amei's unusual behavior to Meng Rui.
"What kind? Hmm... Most of them are children from ordinary families like Amei, and there seems to be a child from a minor official's family. The younger ones are four or five years old, and the older ones are about our age."
Mentioning the lost child, Meng Rui sat up cross-legged, sighed, and complained:
"After several such incidents in the past few days, I am followed by a group of people every time I go out, which makes it inconvenient to go out."
"It only started in the last few days?" Xie Baoqiong seized on the detail in Meng Rui's words.
Meng Rui recalled, resting his chin on his hand: "About four or five days ago, an old man selling vegetables was shouting all over the street, saying that his grandson, who had come to the city with him, had gone missing. It just so happened that it was the time after court, and the old man was lucky enough to bump into the sedan chair of the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review."
"Have you found the person?" Xie Baoqiong asked.
"No, although Lord Xu arranged for people to search for the child, it's as if the child has wandered into a fairy cave. He has been missing for less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, yet there is not a trace of him."
Xie Baoqiong repeated softly, "A celestial abode?" Thinking of Amei concealing her presence, he couldn't help but feel something was amiss.
Meng Rui didn't hear what he said clearly, only the word "immortal":
"Yes, two more children went missing in the following days. I heard that they couldn't be found either. Rumors started circulating that someone had used supernatural means to take the children away, but some people were also scare people by saying that monsters had taken them away." Meng Rui's last sentence was tinged with resentment, probably because he had been frightened by someone.
“If they were really taken away by magic, wouldn’t we be unable to find them using ordinary methods?” Xie Baoqiong said.
Meng Rui nodded: "Just the day before yesterday, another child went missing. It was the daughter of a minor official. The official loved his daughter dearly and submitted a memorial to his superior. Yesterday morning at court, he impeached Lord Xu for his poor handling of affairs, and the matter reached His Majesty's ears."
Upon hearing of this, His Majesty reprimanded Lord Xu and appointed the Junior Commissioner of the Criminal Investigation Department to take over the case. Lord Xu assisted in the investigation and redeemed himself through meritorious service.
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