Chapter 009 Playing Hide and Seek
The noisy crowd around suddenly quieted down, and everyone looked at the woman who had lost her child. The woman was wearing pajamas and it seemed that she had just run out after receiving the news and did not even have time to change her clothes.
Hearing the woman say this, Weng Xuhua quickly asked her to sit down: "Don't worry, tell me what happened slowly."
The woman had no time to sit down. She grabbed Bai Mian's hand and said earnestly, "Master, my child is seven years old this year, a boy. After I sent him to school this afternoon, he disappeared. Can't you take my pulse? Please take my pulse and figure out where he is!"
An old lady stepped forward and reminded the woman: "Who can understand you if you say that? What do you mean by going to school or missing? You'd better calm down and make your words clear. This will save the master's time."
The woman nodded, took a few deep breaths, and spoke again: "My name is Xu Lian, I'm a housewife. My son is Huang Ziyi, and he goes to school at the No. 1 Primary School in Qingshui Town. This afternoon, I sent him to the school gate as usual, watched him enter the school, and then I went home. In the afternoon, when I was doing housework at home, I suddenly received a call from my son's class teacher, who said that my son did not go to school in the afternoon."
"I was so frightened that my mind went blank. I ran out without even having time to change my clothes. The child's father is a construction worker. Because of work, he often can't go home for a month, so he left the child to me to take care of. I haven't dared to tell the child's father about this yet. If his father knew that such a big thing had happened, I don't know how he would blame me!"
"I've already gone to the police station to report the incident, and the police have already gone to look for someone near the school. My neighbor said that you're very accurate in fortune-telling, so I came to find you. I thought, at this critical juncture, I have to try any method I can!"
The crowd was in an uproar and started talking among themselves.
"No way, it's only a short distance from the school gate to the classroom door, how could he disappear?"
"There are security guards at the school gate, so bad guys definitely can't get in. I guess the kid ran away on his own."
"Did the child have an argument with his parents before he left, so he ran away on purpose out of anger?"
"Kids these days are so terrible. Take my unlucky grandson for example. Last semester, while others were taking final exams, he climbed over the wall to go to the Internet cafe to play games!"
Xu Lian retorted, "Don't make wild guesses. Our Ziyi is not that kind of person. He is very well behaved and never plays games. He doesn't even have a cell phone. He usually only uses a children's watch to contact me. We didn't have an argument before we went out today, so he definitely wouldn't run away on his own!"
"That's even worse!" An old lady lowered her voice and said to the people around her, "Have you heard that there is a gang of human traffickers in Qingshui Town? Many children in the town have disappeared in the past two years. It's all their fault!"
An old man answered, "I heard that this group of people don't even let go of corpses. They often go to the mountains to dig graves. If the child falls into their hands, how can it be good?"
After hearing this, Xu Lian's legs went limp and she sat on the ground crying, "Oh my God, how can I live like this? If anything happens to Ziyi, I won't live either..."
"Don't scare her!" Bai Mian dissuaded everyone and reached out to pull Xu Lian up, "Let me help you take your pulse."
Bai Mian placed two fingers on Xu Lian's pulse. Xu Lian held her breath nervously, not even daring to breathe. The people around her also tensed up, waiting for Bai Mian to speak.
"The child is in danger now." Bai Mian described what he saw. "He is at a construction site. There is a dirt pit on the ground. The child is in the pit. There are construction vehicles all around him. A bulldozer is driving towards him."
Hearing Bai Mian's description, Xu Lian's eyes rolled back and she almost fainted.
Bai Mian continued, "In two minutes, the forklift will come down and take the child away and dump him into the mixer next to it."
"Ah——" Xu Lian let out a shrill cry, and Weng Xuhua signaled Bai Mian with his eyes to stop talking.
Bai Mian stopped talking, and the old men and women next to him started talking.
"It's outrageous that he could actually run to the construction site. How did he get there?"
"I've seen news reports of people being bulldozed by forklifts. The chassis of such large trucks is too high, so the driver couldn't see the child at all. The construction site was also noisy, so no one could hear the child's cries for help."
"Pour it into a blender? Wouldn't that make it minced meat? Oh my god, how can I say that? Amitabha..."
Listening to people's discussions, Xu Lian's face turned paler. Bai Mian reminded her, "The child is still alive. The most urgent thing is to find where he is and stop the forklift. Think about it, which construction site is the child most likely to be at?"
"I understand!" Xu Lian slapped her thigh and stood up immediately. "Blue Sky and Green Water! This is the project my husband is working on now. I told the child about it before, and the child probably remembered it. I completely understand what's going on—"
"The child doesn't see his father usually, and he always says he misses his father. This morning I just taught him how to use his watch to make WeChat payments, and he disappeared in the afternoon. He must have pretended to enter the school gate, but actually turned around and ran out of the school when I left, and took a taxi to find his father!"
After figuring it out, Xu Lian immediately called the police to tell them the clue. The police immediately contacted the person in charge of the Blue Sky and Green Water Project Department, who stopped all activities at the construction site. Everyone entered the construction site as a group and searched for a long time. Finally, they really found the little boy in the pit that Bai Mian mentioned.
After finding the person, the couple brought their child to Cixintang to thank Bai Mian. Xu Lian cried and laughed, hugged the child tightly in her arms, first wiped the child's dirty face, then slapped the child's back a few times, cursing:
"Who told you to run so far alone? What if something happened? You scared me to death!"
The little boy burst into tears and pointed at his father, saying, "Dad... find... Dad!"
Huang Dali, the father of the child, was sweating profusely. He wiped the sweat off his head and began to blame himself. "It's all my fault. I can't go home once a month, causing the child to run so far to find me. But I can't do anything about it, wife. I also want to make money. Our family has to live. I can't stay at home with you every day."
Xu Lian rolled her eyes at Huang Dali, stood up with the child in her arms, and bowed to Bai Mian with the child:
"Thank you, Master. You are worthy of your reputation. Today you saved my son. From now on, you will be the benefactor of our whole family. If you need us anywhere, just let me know!"
After saying that, the family of three seemed to want to leave. The old men and women, after watching the show, were also preparing to leave.
"Don't go," Bai Mian suddenly said, "The child hasn't finished what he wanted to say just now."
"Ah?" Xu Lian was stunned for a moment, then she explained embarrassedly, "Oh, it's like this, our Ziyi's situation is a bit special. The doctor said that he is slow to develop and has expression disorders. He can only say a few words and cannot speak complex sentences. In short, most people can't understand what he wants to express."
"Really? But I can understand it," Bai Mian frowned and said, "This child wants to say--"
"I was playing hide-and-seek with my dad. I was hiding there, waiting for him to find me."
"What?" Xu Lian sat back in front of Bai Mian and lowered her head to ask the child in her arms, "Is this what you mean?"
The little boy nodded happily and gave Bai Mian a thumbs up.
Xu Lian was confused. "How is this possible? Son, didn't you go to the construction site to look for your dad, and then you accidentally fell into the dirt pit? You never saw your dad from beginning to end. When did your dad tell you to play hide-and-seek?"
"That's because your speculation is not the truth. At least, not all of it."
Bai Mian glanced at Huang Dali and saw that the man was sweating profusely and his shirt was wet in a large area.
"Your son did learn how to pay with his watch, so he took a taxi to the construction site. Although he has speech impairment, it was enough for him to say the name Blue Sky and Green Water."
"The kid was short, and the guard couldn't see him from the window of the guard room, so he got in easily."
"Contrary to what you guessed, after entering the scene, your son found his father. In fact, he is smarter than you thought. When you talked to him before, he not only remembered the name of his father's project, but also his father's position and office."
"After finding his father, his father told him that he wanted to play hide-and-seek with him at the construction site outside and asked him to hide first."
Xu Lian's eyes turned blood red in an instant. She turned around and stared at the man standing behind her: "Huang Dali! What are you thinking?"
"For the child, he had no idea what was going on. He kept hiding in the pit, waiting for his father to find him. He didn't expect that the people who came would be the police, and you all blamed him, so of course the child felt very aggrieved," said Bai Mian.
After hearing this, Xu Lian slapped Huang Dali in the face: "Huang Dali, are you still a human being? Letting such a young child run around at the construction site is basically sending him to his death! How can you be so cruel? Is it because our Ziyi develops slower than other children that you think he is a burden and want to get rid of him?!"
"It's not because of this," Bai Mian corrected, "It's because of money."
"When he saw the child at the door of the office, he came up with this vicious plan. When the child was born, you provided him with a full set of insurance. If the child died accidentally, the insurance would pay a lot of money. Moreover, the child died at the construction site, so the construction company is also responsible. If a lawsuit is filed, the construction company will also have to pay you a sum of money."
"Anyway, the child has communication difficulties and can't speak clearly. Even if the plan fails, no one will know that he planned it."
"What nonsense!" Huang Dali's face flushed, and he was about to hit Bai Mian, but was stopped by Lame Brother. Huang Dali turned around and shouted to Xu Lian, "Wife, you can't believe her. This kind of quack, under the banner of fortune-telling, is swindling and trying to sow discord between us. She must have said all this to make you suspicious and then trick you into buying some amulet or something like that!"
"No way, Master Bai is a real master with a conscience. She was the one who calculated the child's position just now, and she didn't ask me for money!" Xu Lian retorted.
Huang Dali spread his hands: "If it's not for money, then it's for other purposes. I don't care what she does it for. Anyway, she is just smearing me! Wife, you know me. We have been married for so many years. Let's not talk about anything else. I really have never treated you badly in terms of money. I have always been the one supporting the family. I have never asked you for a penny. How could I harm my son for money now?" When he said this, Xu Lian also wavered. She looked at Bai Mian helplessly and explained for Huang Dali: "Master, I am not protecting my shortcomings, but I really want to say something for my husband. Don't look at us two husbands and wives dressed in ordinary clothes. In fact, our family is in good financial condition. Although he is the only one working in the family, he is doing very well. He is still a small leader on the construction site, managing the salaries of more than 20 people, and taking a lot of money back every month. If you say that he poisoned the child for money, I really don't believe it."
"What you said was all in the past," Bai Mian said leisurely, "Why don't you ask him about his family's current financial situation."
Xu Lian looked at the man, and the man said with all his might: "What's wrong now? Our family is fine now, with a big house to live in and a nice car to drive! Isn't that good?"
Xu Lian nodded repeatedly. Bai Mian sneered: "I'm afraid you don't know yet, but the house you've been living in has actually been mortgaged a long time ago. As for the family car, it has been missing for a few months, right? Even the wages of his workers have been squandered by him a long time ago. In order to pay off the deficit as soon as possible, he is almost crazy for money."
"Bullshit! You're just exaggerating!" This time Huang Dali just cursed but didn't refute it with facts.
Xu Lian's heart almost stopped beating after hearing this. She took a deep breath, grabbed Huang Dali's collar and asked, "Could it be true what she said? Has our family really reached this point?"
Huang Dali comforted her, "No, my dear, don't worry, our family is financially stable!"
"It's easy to judge this. Just take a look at his balance." Bai Mian pointed at Huang Dali's mobile phone.
Before Huang Dali could say anything, Xu Lian snatched the phone from his hand and tremblingly used facial recognition to open the bank's app.
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