Chapter 004 Chapter 4

The incident happened this summer, before the end of the final exams of the second year of high school.

One day, Meng Youwei went out to work as usual, and Yuan Cuilan was preparing dinner at home. Suddenly, her cell phone rang. She picked it up and saw that it was the head teacher's call.

Each class has its own parent group. If the head teacher has something to do, he will usually notify the parents in the group. She didn't know why the other party called her directly.

Yuan Cuilan wiped the water off her apron and answered the phone: "Hello, Teacher Wen, I'm Meng Xuerui's mother. What happened to our Xuerui?"

"Hey, Meng's mother, I still want to talk to you about Meng's situation. With her current grades, if she works hard before the college entrance examination, she can get into a key university. I think it's better not to let the child miss evening self-study frequently."

Yuan Cuilan felt strange and said, "Teacher Wen, our Xuerui has been going home on time after evening self-study recently."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment.

"During this period, Meng's father sometimes asked for leave for Meng's evening self-study. Didn't he communicate with you?"

Both of them seemed to realize that there was something wrong.

Yuan Cuilan said, "I'm sorry, Teacher Wen, I will tell Xuerui and ask her to pay attention. Please don't tell my husband for the time being."

After hanging up the phone, Yuan Cuilan opened the call record and was about to call Meng Youwei, but her finger stopped at the moment of pressing.

She thought for a moment and put the phone away.

When Meng Youwei came back and finished his meal, Yuan Cuilan did not mention this to him.

On Saturday, Yuan Cuilan asked Meng Xuerui to go out to buy groceries together. Halfway through the trip, Yuan Cuilan asked about this matter.

Meng Xuerui's face wrinkled when she mentioned this.

"Mom, during this period, Dad took me out to eat every few days. I told him that I wanted to go to evening self-study, but Dad didn't allow it. He said he wanted to cultivate my drinking awareness in advance."

Yuan Cuilan frowned deeply.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Dad told me that you know, he has already communicated with you." Meng Xuerui pouted, feeling a little aggrieved.

Yuan Cuilan immediately realized that something was wrong, and asked again: "Who were the people at the dinner table?"

"Dad's work partners, they said some words I couldn't understand, and they talked like an underground gang. The food was delicious, and we went to big restaurants. Sometimes some pretty sisters would come with us, and they would persuade us to drink."

"They persuaded you to drink too?" Yuan Cuilan's tone was a little scary.

Meng Xuerui shrank her shoulders and said: "They persuaded me several times, but I stopped them by saying that I had to read books when I got home."

"Didn't your dad stop them?"

Meng Xuerui shook her head.

Yuan Cuilan took a deep breath, and her expression was very serious the whole time she was buying food.

On the way back from the market, Yuan Cuilan said to Meng Xuerui seriously: "Xuerui, next time Dad asks you to skip the evening self-study class, you should say that your studies have regressed and you can't keep up with the progress. You can't be absent again. I will contact the teacher and let her help you tell her."

Meng Xuerui nodded.

"Also, you must keep this a secret from Dad. You can't let him know that I know that he took you to the drinking party. Do you understand?" Yuan Cuilan repeatedly instructed, even a simple person like Meng Xuerui also knew the strangeness.

After saying hello to the teacher, Meng Youwei could no longer take Meng Xuerui out of the evening self-study class.

Meng Youwei also became busier and busier.

One day after dinner, Meng Youwei said that he was going on a business trip and asked Yuan Cuilan to help him pack his luggage.

Since Meng Youwei was promoted to a supervisor, his business trips have gradually decreased, and he may not leave home once a year.

Yuan Cuilan helped Meng Youwei pack his things, and the next morning, Meng Youwei left with his suitcase.

Yuan Cuilan had lunch alone at noon.

After lunch, Yuan Cuilan pushed open the door of Meng Youwei's study.

Usually, Meng Youwei never allowed Yuan Cuilan and his daughter Meng Xuerui to enter and leave the study. At first, Meng Youwei even locked the study. Yuan Cuilan wanted to help clean it, but seeing Meng Youwei like this, she no longer touched the door of the study. As

time went by, Meng Youwei knew that neither mother nor daughter would enter the study, so he no longer locked the door.

Today was convenient for Yuan Cuilan.

She entered Meng Youwei's study.

The layout of the study room is no different from a normal study room, with a desk, bookcase and a tea table.

Yuan Cuilan looked at the books on the bookcase. They were all books on politics, economics and management. The covers were very new, and it was obvious that Meng Youwei didn't read them often.

She looked at the desk again. There were only some stationery on it. The computer was locked, and she didn't know the password.

Fortunately, the drawers of the desk were not locked. Yuan Cuilan searched for a while but didn't find anything strange.

Just as she opened the last drawer to search, a notebook pressed at the bottom caught her attention.

Yuan Cuilan took out the notebook and looked through it. There were many names written on it.

Looking at the characteristics of the names, most of them were female names, with a few male names occasionally mixed in.

Some of the names were checked, some were crossed out, some were crossed out, and some were circled.

She flipped through the pages again, and they were all blank. When she turned to the last page, Yuan Cuilan saw a recorded address.

She subconsciously felt that there was something wrong with the address, so she took a photo with her mobile phone and wrote down the address.

After that, she found nothing else. Yuan Cuilan carefully put everything back to its original state and left the study.

She went there according to the address that day. It was a trading company located in the suburbs of the city. It was located in a three-story self-built building. There was no one at the door, and only a receptionist was watching a TV show on a tablet.

There were few people passing by the company, and most of the shops were closed.

Yuan Cuilan gained nothing, temporarily suppressed her doubts, and went home.

After Meng Youwei returned from his business trip, everything was as usual.

Yuan Cuilan noticed something was wrong when Meng Youwei got angry for no reason one day after get off work. He said, "What's the point of a girl studying hard? She still has to get married in the end. Now that someone wants her, we have to negotiate a good price!"

Hearing this, Yuan Cuilan suddenly remembered that Meng Youwei often took his daughter to skip evening self-study and attend drinking parties.

She remained calm and just smiled and said, "Nowadays, it is popular to marry at an equal price, with equal gifts and dowry. After marriage, the children will be taken back to their own home anyway, and there are not many places to sell daughters."

Meng Youwei realized that he had said something wrong and agreed with a smile.

When her daughter came back in the evening, Yuan Cuilan asked Meng Xuerui while Meng Youwei was taking a shower: "Did your father pick you up again after evening study?"

Meng Xuerui's expression was not very good. She nodded and said, "I said I would not go, and the teacher also said it for me, but he refused and got very angry. Later, I ran away and he didn't catch me. I don't like that kind of place. Those uncles are weird."

Yuan Cuilan hugged Meng Xuerui and kissed her, saying, "My dear daughter, you did a good job, but remember, don't show your dislike in front of your father. The reason you refused is that your grades are lagging behind, understand?" Two days

later, after Meng Youwei went out to work, Yuan Cuilan did not go out to buy groceries.

She quietly followed Meng Youwei.

As Meng Youwei's car turned around, Yuan Cuilan felt that this place was familiar and strange.

Finally, the car stopped at the gate of the trading company.

Yuan Cuilan quickly asked the driver to stop the car, and got off from a long distance away. She hid in a secluded place and watched carefully.

This wait lasted for several hours.

Yuan Cuilan even thought that the other party was really just a small supervisor of this trading company.

But there was always a voice deep in her heart telling her: Things are not as simple as you think.

At noon, a delivery man brought in a lot of takeout, and even went back and forth several times. The quantity was enough for at least more than 20 people.

But since she started tracking, she had not seen anyone enter except Meng Youwei.

Could it be that they go to work early? But there were people who didn't order takeout at noon and wanted to eat out, but she didn't see any of them.

It was almost two o'clock in the afternoon when someone finally came out.

Two men, carrying a bag.

The bag was an ordinary snakeskin bag, not small, and seemed to be twisting slightly.

The two men carried the bag onto a van on the street, which drove out of the city and soon disappeared.

Yuan Cuilan stood there for a while before walking away.

Taking a taxi would be too conspicuous.

She was in deep thought all the way, wondering what was in there.

Seeing Meng Youwei being so secretive, it might be some rare wild animal, or maybe he was doing smuggling or something like that.

This made sense. Meng Youwei suddenly came back with a large sum of money one day, saying that he met his boss who brought it with him. What

if the boss who brought him the money was in the smuggling business?

But Yuan Cuilan always felt that something was not right.

She stood blankly on the busy pedestrian street, her sight attracted by two people, one big and one small.

The child was about four or five years old, and was in a bad mood and wanted to buy something. He lay on the ground and refused to move. The adult was so angry that he bent over and clamped the child under his arm. The child was hanging with his legs and feet twisting .

If a snakeskin bag was put on, it would look very similar, right?

Yuan Cuilan suddenly felt like she was electrocuted, and remembered the notebook full of names that she had seen in Meng Youwei's study before.

Her face turned pale.

Could it be... Could it be...

Yuan Cuilan couldn't believe it, she had to confirm it again.

She quickly grabbed a car and went back home, rushed into Meng Youwei's study, and began to search.

This time, she saw something else.

In an envelope were some photos of children. The photos did not look like they were taken normally, as the children did not look at the camera.

On the back of the photos, some were ticked.

Yuan Cuilan did not dare to think about the meaning of the ticks.

She wanted to see if there were any other things, but suddenly, a cell phone rang outside the door. It was Meng Youwei's cell phone.

Then, he said "Hello" after answering the phone.

Yuan Cuilan felt as if a basin of ice water was poured over her head, freezing her from head to toe.