Chapter 7: Following him, he pulled out a dagger: "Take all the money you have..."
After paying for food and rent last night, Song Xiaojun and his sister only had a little over a hundred yuan left. They didn't know how long they could last.
He wanted to see if he could get some money from Xiao Qiao. Anyway, there was no one in the yard right now. At worst, he could steal the money and run away, then come back later. Even if Xiao Qiao called the police, she wouldn't suspect him.
As it turned out, Xiao Qiao's cabinet was locked and couldn't be opened!
Okay, let me check the bedside table and desk drawers first. I opened them and found nothing in the bedside table except a bag of peach shortbread and a bag of sponge cakes.
The drawer contained only some messy receipts left by the homeowner, and in the end, they found only a 50-cent coin covered in patina in the corner.
I'm so angry! Looks like I'll have to pick the lock!
Song Xiaojun searched the entire yard but couldn't find any tools like screwdrivers. In the end, she had no choice but to pick up a kitchen knife and try to pry the lock off the wooden board from the cabinet.
As a result, he used too much force and broke the tip of the knife. With a loud bang, the broken triangular tip flew towards his face.
He was so frightened that he quickly closed his eyes, but it was no use; his eyelids weren't made of iron or bronze.
Crimson blood accompanied by excruciating pain surged through her. Song Xiaojun dropped the knife in her hand, covered her injured eyes, and squatted on the ground, howling like a banshee.
Song Xiaomei and A Yue returned from grocery shopping. Just as they reached the door, they heard wailing sounds coming from inside. They quickly kicked the door open and came in, only to be stunned by what they saw.
"Who did this? Was it Xiao Qiao?" Song Xiaomei barely thought before throwing down her vegetable basket and quickly bending down to pick up her younger brother.
Song Xiaojun hadn't even thought of a reason himself, but now that his sister mentioned it, he had an idea: "Ah, right, a snake crawled into Xiao Qiao's room and went into her closet. I didn't expect her closet to be locked, so I had to pick the lock, and I ended up poking my eye, boohoo... Sister, it hurts so much, will I go blind?"
"I don't know! Yue, do you remember Xiao Qiao's address? Hurry up and go to the police station to find her parents to pay for the medical expenses!" Song Xiaomei was furious. This Xiao Qiao was such a troublemaker.
A-Yue didn't listen to her and lagged behind, waiting for Li Tuantuan to come back and make a decision in the courtyard.
Li Tuantuan was worried about his sister, so he went to his father's appliance repair shop. When he got there, he saw his sister washing clothes for the whole family. Her hands were red and swollen from the cold!
Li Tuantuan got so angry that she had a big fight with her father and threatened to smash the TV in his shop. Her scumbag father was so scared that he immediately called the police. When Li Erhu arrived, Li Tuantuan didn't say anything, but just grabbed her sister's hand and showed it to Li Erhu.
Li Erhu was also very angry. There were adults at home, yet they made such a young girl do the laundry. It was so cold, didn't she know how to use a washing machine?
He immediately reprimanded the inhuman couple and turned to advise them, "Don't get so agitated. Talk things over. Your sister still has to go to school."
Li Tuantuan clenched his fists, suppressing his anger, and silently made up his mind: he had to make money, make money, make money!
Once he has money, he'll take his sister away from this awful place!
So when he came back from outside, he was still angry and didn't say anything when he saw A-Yue.
A-Yue quickly followed behind him and told him about Song Xiaojun's injury.
Li Tuantuan asked curiously, "Where's Xiao Qiao?"
"I don't know, she hasn't come back yet." A-Yue said helplessly. She had gone grocery shopping with Song Xiaomei and hadn't noticed Xiao Qiao.
Just as I was wondering, Xiao Qiao came back with red eyes. A Yue quickly asked her where she had been.
Xiao Qiao cried as she said, "When I went to the restroom outside, I saw my mom. She was taking my younger brother to school, so I followed her to the school gate..."
She saw her mother hugging and kissing her younger brother, and the younger brother hugging his mother's neck and kissing her back. She was so envious and sad.
A-Yue sighed silently: "Don't think about it anymore. Let Xiaoman help you figure out a way to go to school. Don't run around like that anymore, it's scary. By the way, take a look at your room."
Xiao Qiao ran into the room and saw the broken kitchen knife and blood all over the floor. She looked bewildered and asked, "Sister Yue, what happened?"
"Song Xiaojun broke into your closet," A-Yue quickly asked. "Is all your money in there?"
"Hmm." Xiao Qiao turned around, instinctively reaching for the lock.
Li Tuantuan stopped her: "Don't move. Song Xiaomei is trying to extort money from your parents. There's no way a snake could have gotten into this cabinet once it's locked. Song Xiaojun is lying. Let's call the police so we don't have trouble explaining ourselves later."
A-Yue also felt that this was a safer approach, and quickly advised, "Go to my room first, don't move around here."
Soon, Li Erhu and his colleagues arrived. After inspecting the scene, they determined that it was impossible for a snake to have crawled in. Besides, the weather was so cold, where would a snake have come from?
Li Erhu turned to Xiao Qiao and asked, "How much money do you keep in your cabinet?"
“My parents gave me a thousand each. Yesterday, I paid over two hundred for food and rent. Adding my original travel expenses, I still have over eighteen hundred left.” Xiao Qiao looked at Li Erhu nervously. If Song Xiaomei really asked her parents to cover the medical expenses, she was afraid she would never want to see her again.
Li Erhu comforted him, "Don't be afraid, I'll handle this. It has nothing to do with you. Stay with Li Tuantuan and A Yue, and don't wander off."
"Okay. Thank you, Uncle Li. I'll cook then." Xiao Qiao picked up the basket from the ground and went to the kitchen to get busy.
Li Tuantuan wasn't a great cook, but she still tried her best to help out, while A Yue went back to her room to read.
Qiu Xiaoman didn't return until lunchtime was ready.
The three children waited for over an hour on empty stomachs, and were so hungry that they had to serve the food to the other three children first.
*
Qiu Xiaoman couldn't keep up with the four-wheeled truck on two legs, but she didn't want to lose this important clue, so she gritted her teeth and called out to a taxi driver: "Excuse me, could you please follow that truck ahead?"
The taxi driver glanced back and thought, "Hmm, that guy looks familiar." But it's alright, he has a non-local accent, so he can rip me off! It's a shame I have to ride with him; otherwise, I could take a longer route and earn more.
As the car started moving, the distance between Qiu Xiaoman and the truck quickly closed. The driver, glancing at the rearview mirror, gossiped, "Girl, why are you following someone? Are you collecting a debt?"
"Pretty much." Qiu Xiaoman knew that there wasn't much chance of winning if she just followed along, since she had a pregnant dog with her. If a fight broke out, she couldn't let the dog fight for its life.
Moreover, she has to deal with far more than just human traffickers; her own strength alone is far from enough.
Fortunately, the system only asked her to help rescue the children, not to act as a hero and fight alone.
After much thought, I still need to find a way to call for help.
Unfortunately, she didn't have a mobile phone. If she got out of the car now to call the police, she would lose track of the truck again.
Never mind, let's just follow them. Maybe they're just going back to their hideout.
When the car reached the suburbs, the driver was getting a little tired of driving and muttered, "You've driven all this way, I won't be able to pick up any passengers when I get back, and I'll have to lose money."
"Stop talking nonsense, you won't lose out!" Qiu Xiaoman pulled out a hundred yuan and threw it to the driver. What a load of rubbish! She didn't say she wouldn't pay. Her face immediately turned cold. "Hurry up, don't delay my business!"
The driver shut up. This young girl just threw out a hundred; she seems quite wealthy.
Okay, let's keep following along.
Finally, around 1 p.m., the truck stopped in a small hill in the countryside of Beidu.
Qiu Xiaoman wasn't sure if the group would move to a different location if she went back to report to the police and then came back, so she could only leave Mango there to keep an eye on things.
"Remember, your life is more important. Don't be reckless. Just keep an eye on where they are and wait for me to come back." Qiu Xiaoman got out of the car and whispered a few words of advice to Mango.
Mango understood: "Master, you go quickly, I can find a nearby dog to help me keep watch."
"Okay, be careful!" Qiu Xiaoman quickly got into the car, marked the location on the navigation system, and then asked the driver to turn around and go back.
On the way back to the city, the driver deliberately took a detour, choosing quiet and sparsely populated areas.
Qiu Xiaoman quickly realized something was wrong. She opened the system's navigation interface, observed for a few minutes, and realized the driver was playing a trick on her. She immediately turned cold and said, "Stop the car!"
The driver refused, deliberately driving the car into a dead end. After turning off the engine, he reached into the glove compartment with his right hand and pulled out a dagger: "Give me all the money you have on you!"
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