"Baby, would you like to have this pretty auntie give you a hug?"
The woman smiled and gently coaxed the baby in her arms, and the baby finally turned its head.
Upon seeing the baby's face clearly, Ji Xia's heart skipped a beat, and her expression darkened.
It's been at least four or five hours since he got on the bus at noon, and Ji Xia hasn't seen him speak or eat anything. He occasionally groaned in discomfort, and she still hasn't been able to see what the baby looked like.
The baby the woman was holding was short, and Ji Xia assumed it was a baby under one year old. But when the baby turned its head, Ji Xia was startled.
It has a large head, a prominent forehead, big eyes, and a face that is sharply pointed from the cheeks to the chin.
It feels a bit like a bizarre alien, or rather, a prematurely aged dwarf.
This face... it doesn't look like a baby under one year old at all! It looks like someone at least four or five years old.
What a freak! A child like this doesn't need any care. Even if you just leave him here, no one would want him.
Or is this just a way of abandoning a baby?
She looked shocked, and the child, with his empty eyes, unconsciously replied, "I want a pretty auntie."
As he spoke, he reached out his hand, and the middle-aged woman smiled and handed the child to him.
Ji Xia didn't reach out to respond, but leaned back in her chair and stared blankly at the middle-aged woman: "I don't know how to hold a child, you can carry him on your back."
The middle-aged woman was stunned for a moment, never expecting that this sweet-looking, gentle young girl could be so indifferent.
She subconsciously gave a timid smile: "The child is very well-behaved, it's just inconvenient for me to hold her."
"You can carry it on your back."
Ji Xia remained indifferent, leaning back in her chair. The woman, holding a child, reached out to offer it to him, but no one accepted it. After a while, she finally slumped down, unable to move.
But she still smiled reluctantly and said, "Little girl, how about we go fetch water together? I'll hold the child, and you can help carry the kettle."
Ji Xia raised an eyebrow, giving her a suspicious look: "I'm not going to fetch water, you should ask someone else!"
How can you be so cold-blooded and heartless?
"So what if I'm cold-blooded and ruthless? Did I eat your rice?"
Ji Xia sneered and looked directly into the middle-aged woman's eyes: "Country folks can carry one child in front and one in back and still manage to shovel manure, but you can't carry water just because you're carrying a child?"
"So delicate, like a rich heiress, so pretentious. Why go out alone? You should hire three or five nannies or security guards to accompany you!"
She was a master of PUA, and her sarcastic remarks and attacks left the middle-aged woman speechless.
Finally, one of the passengers in the back seat turned around and said, "What's wrong with getting some water and holding the child? How can you be so indifferent? People's hearts have really changed."
Ji Xia turned around and glanced at the person who spoke behind her; it was a girl in her early twenties.
Ji Xia rolled her eyes, and the girl sneered in dissatisfaction: "What? Did I say something wrong? They just asked you to help hold the child, they didn't ask you to do anything else, do you have to be so cold-blooded?"
Ji Xia inwardly cursed her as an idiot, and scoffed disdainfully, "If you're so kind-hearted, why don't you just hold her for a while? What are you yelling about?"
"You—I'll hold him, Auntie, give me the child, I'll hold him for you, you hurry up and get the water."
As she spoke, she stretched out her hands. The middle-aged woman glanced at her ordinary features, then looked at Ji Xia's delicate face. Feeling unwilling, she hesitated for a long time before finally handing over the baby in her hands.
"Thank you, young lady. Would you like to get some hot water together? Let's go together. It's almost dinnertime, so we can get some hot water to eat with some flatbread."
The young woman didn't want to fetch water, but after taking the child and smelling the child's scent, her eyes glazed over for a moment, and she surprisingly agreed to the woman's request.
Then, sure enough, the two women, each carrying a child and two water cups, headed in that direction.
Ji Xia narrowed her eyes, inwardly cursing him as an idiot.
She turned around and met Wang Luoran's curious gaze, which stirred a thought in her mind.
"Comrade Wang, do you need to get some hot water?"
Wang Luoran was taken aback: "You're going to get hot water?"
“I’m not going, but could you go with her and take a look? If you find anything wrong, call the police.”
"Calling the police? Is there anything wrong with that?" Wang Luoran looked at her in surprise.
"I don't know, maybe it's a sixth sense, something feels off."
Ji Xia shook her head. Thanks to the information bombardment of the information age, she knew that many seemingly honest men and women were not truly honest people at all.
These days, truly honest rural people are all farming in the countryside.
Ji Xia immediately sensed something was wrong with this middle-aged woman. She looked like a rural woman, but why would a rural woman be so delicate? Could she not carry a child and fetch water?
But since nothing had happened, they didn't know how to explain it, so they could only ask Wang Luoran to go and take a look.
As for asking her to go with them, she definitely wouldn't; she's worried she might fall for their tricks.
Actually, before Ji Xia and Chen Jing got into the car, they deliberately wore old cotton-padded clothes, the kind that were inconspicuous in color and style.
But a beautiful person is beautiful even if she is wearing a tattered cloth. If she goes with her, who knows what danger it might be!
She certainly wouldn't put herself in danger for the sake of others.
Seeing her serious expression, Wang Luoran thought for a moment and then got up with her water cup and followed her.
Following them from a distance, as they walked back after fetching water, a burly man in his thirties with dark skin suddenly stopped the young woman, shouting angrily, "You wretched woman, you ran off with your son after a fight! I'll teach you a lesson!"
As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed the woman's arm, then slapped her across the face with his other hand.
With a snap, half of the woman's face swelled up instantly.
She was stunned into silence by the sudden slap, and it took her a while to react before she screamed, "Who are you? I don't know you!"
"Don't you recognize me? You wretched woman, I knew you wanted to run away, and even took my son with you? You're trying to cut off my lineage, aren't you? Come back with me."
As he spoke, he grabbed the woman's arm and turned to leave.
"Help! Let me go! I don't know him!" The woman finally realized what was happening, and she let go of the child in her arms, grabbing the back of the chair next to her in fright.
The child in her arms fell, and the child, terrified, clung tightly to her waist, crying out, "Mother—Mother—!"
The middle-aged woman behind her also stepped forward to block her way out, while prying at her fingers on the back of the chair: "Ah Zhen, don't be angry. Fights at the head of the bed are made up at the foot of the bed. Your husband is here, so talk things out. Don't keep nagging about going back to your parents' home."
The two women blocked the young woman's path, pulling her forcefully. They shouted at the mother for being heartless and slapped her repeatedly. A small but agile child clung to the woman's leg and wouldn't let go.
Those around were completely bewildered. Finally, someone spoke up to persuade them: "You're husband and wife, and you have a child together. Can't you talk things out? Stop hitting each other, stop hitting each other—"
While trying to break up the fight and pulling at each other, they still supported the two men in taking the young woman away. The woman finally understood and couldn't help but despair.
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