Chapter 315 The Little Girl and the Old Lady
"The old lady is the child's creditor? That sounds totally unheard of. Boss, what's going on?"
The restaurant owner then told the story of the old man and the young man, and he said that everyone in the neighborhood knew about it.
About a year ago, the little girl's mother fell seriously ill. In order to pay for his wife's medical treatment, the little girl's father emptied the family savings, making the already poor family even worse off.
In the end, the little girl's mother could not fight the disease and passed away a few months ago.
Only the father and daughter are left to depend on each other.
The old lady was a lonely widower. She had a partner, but they had no children.
Later, the old man fell on the road and hit his head. He stayed in the hospital for three days, but he never recovered and died.
When the old lady was sorting out the old man's belongings, she found an IOU written by the little girl's father, who had borrowed two thousand yuan from the old man.
The old lady is famous for her bad temper in this area, and everyone in the area knows it.
So the old lady took the IOU and went to the little girl's house to ask for money.
But when I got there, I found that there was no adult at home, only the little girl was home alone.
When Zhou Yi heard this, his professional instinct was activated and he asked, "Could the little girl's father be missing?"
The boss opened his eyes wide in surprise and asked, "Have you heard of this?"
Zhou Yi shook his head, but the boss's reaction proved that his guess was right.
"I told you you're a policeman, and you actually guessed it right." The boss praised.
Then she said that when the old lady arrived, she found the child home alone. When she asked her where her father had gone, the child kept shaking her head and said she didn't know.
The old lady had planned to visit again the next day, but seeing the bare walls of the house and the little girl who was so skinny and hungry, she couldn't bear it. When she asked the child, she said she hadn't eaten for three days and only drank tap water when she was thirsty.
From that day on, the little girl followed the old lady.
The old lady told everyone that her father owed her money, and since she was taking her with her, she was not afraid that he would not pay her back, unless he didn't want his daughter anymore.
But the old lady had no money and usually lived frugally. Later, the boss took pity on the two and saved up some leftovers from cooking and gave them to them, which was what Zhou Yi just saw.
After hearing this, Zhou Yi suddenly understood. No wonder he felt strange when he saw these two people just now. It turns out there is such a thing.
However, my impression of the old lady changed drastically. Isn't she a typical example of someone with a sharp tongue but a soft heart?
If the old lady was really heartless, she could just leave and let the little girl fend for herself.
However, it sounded like the little girl's father was in great danger.
A man who is willing to spend all his money to pay for his wife's medical treatment should be a responsible and loyal man. It is unlikely that he would abandon his five or six-year-old daughter and leave.
But I don't know whether it was an accident or murder.
"Have you called the police?" Zhou Yi asked.
"What?" The boss was stunned.
"I said the little girl's father is missing. Did anyone call the police?"
The boss shook his head and said, "I don't think so... This is a family matter, how can an outsider just call the police? Besides, they all said that the child's father must have owed too much money and refused to pay it back, so he ran away."
"Did he borrow much?"
"It's a lot anyway. This one's 300, that one's 500, and the old man's 2,000 is the most."
"Did he borrow all this money just to treat his wife?"
The boss shook his head: "That's what I said, but I don't know the details."
Zhou Yi immediately asked the old lady where she lived, intending to find out more about the situation.
This kind of disappearance is quite abnormal, and no one has called the police yet.
But if you think about it, you can't blame anyone. The elder one has a weak legal awareness, and the younger one knows nothing. As for the outsiders, as the boss said, we are all outsiders. Who would call the police for no reason without evidence?
Thinking about this kind of thing is really terrifying.
The boss showed Zhou Yi the way. Zhou Yi was about to go out, but turned back and asked the boss to cook a few dishes for him to take away.
The boss understood what he meant and praised Zhou Yi as a good person.
Zhou Yi said: "No, I just met you by chance, boss, you are the real good person."
Zhou Yi was carrying a bag containing several dishes that the boss had just cooked.
Following the direction indicated by the restaurant owner, Zhou Yi found the old lady's home, a dilapidated hut hidden behind an old building.
The hut is not big, and the white putty on the walls has long been worn and mottled by the vicissitudes of time.
The door was open, but there was no light. A candle was burning on a table against the wall. To be more precise, it was a candle end, and there were several other candle ends of different lengths on the table.
On the black table, marks of melted and solidified candle wax were everywhere.
The little girl I saw just now was sitting behind the table eating with a spoon, but the bowl in front of her was dark and I couldn't see what was in it.
Zhou Yi stood at the door and looked around, but didn't see the old lady. Only the little girl was staring at him curiously and silently.
The little girl suddenly asked a question. Although she spoke in dialect, Zhou Yi still understood it. The little girl asked herself, who are you?
"Little boy, can you speak Mandarin?" Zhou Yi asked with a smile.
The little girl looked confused, as if she had no idea what Mandarin he was speaking.
Just when Zhou Yi was about to give up, the little girl said in Mandarin: "You talk like the ones on TV."
Zhou Yi was overjoyed: "Yes, that's what the people on TV said. So you can say that."
"My mother taught me." The little girl took a bite of her bowl and asked, "Are you looking for your mother-in-law?"
Then, without waiting for Zhou Yi to answer, he continued, "Grandma went to pick up branches for the fire."
With the faint light of the candle, Zhou Yi looked around the hut. On the right was an earthen stove, next to it was a water jar, on the left was the table where the little girl ate, and at the back was a bed, or to be more precise, a bed made of bricks and wooden boards.
Despite such difficult conditions, the old man actually lent the two thousand yuan he had saved to others for medical treatment. He is truly a good person.
Zhou Yi walked into the house and took a look at the food in the little girl's bowl. It was just some vegetables that were blanched and cooked, without even a hint of oil.
Zhou Yi took out some vegetables from the bag, as well as a box of tightly packed white rice.
"Little boy, eat this. It's delicious and nutritious."
The little girl stared at the food in front of her, swallowing her saliva, but did not pick up the spoon in her hand.
"What's wrong? Don't you like eating?"
"Dad said we shouldn't eat anything given by someone we don't know."
Zhou Yi took out his ID and said, "Your father is right, but uncle is a policeman. Look, this is uncle's ID. So you can eat what the police uncle gives you. It's okay, okay?"
The little girl nodded, not quite understanding.
"Come, give uncle the spoon and I'll put some rice in your bowl."
Zhou Yi prepared some rice for the child and put some vegetables in a bowl, "Try it."
The little girl took the spoon and took a bite. A smile appeared on her face and she said, "It's delicious."
Then he started to eat voraciously.
"What's your name?" Zhou Yi asked, touching the little girl's head.
"My name is Lele."
"Le Le..." This name obviously contains her parents' expectations for her, hoping that she can always be happy.
But the irony is that her current life and future life are unlikely to be associated with happiness.
"Lele, where is your dad?"
"My dad went to work. He said he could buy me delicious food with the money he earned." The little girl said naively.
"Where does Dad work?"
The little girl shook her head.
"Did Dad tell you when he would be back?"
The little girl shook her head again, but her eating movements became a little slower.
"Lele, is Daddy good to you?"
The little girl answered without hesitation: "Okay."
"So... do you miss your daddy?" Zhou Yi hesitated when asking this question, because he knew that this question might hurt the child.
But there is no indication that the little girl's father may have been killed, and without the family's permission, the police cannot find his whereabouts.
Moreover, he was working on a case in a different place. If he were in Hongcheng, he could just call the bureau. But this was Anyuan, and he didn't have the authority to view or retrieve the information here. He needed Pan Hongjie's permission.
But Pan Hongjie is now obviously focused on the case of Li Youqiang. This kind of missing case where no one is found alive or dead may not even be enough to be filed.
The little girl said timidly: "I want to..."
"Then can the police officer help you find your father?"
"Okay!" the little girl said excitedly.
"Then can I take you to the police station tomorrow morning?"
Zhou Yi's idea was to go to the grassroots police station first, report a case in the name of the child, and then ask the police station to check the household registration information, and then analyze the problem himself based on the situation.
If you find anything wrong, find Pan Hongjie again. It will be more natural to proceed from the bottom up.
"Where is the police station?" the little girl asked innocently.
"It's a place where a lot of police officers work. They will help you find your father."
Just as Zhou Yi finished speaking, a voice of mumbling and cursing suddenly came from outside the door.
Zhou Yi looked back and saw the old lady hitting him with a broom.
He was startled, not because he was afraid of the two blows, but because the old lady looked to be in her seventies or eighties, and he was afraid that if something went wrong, it would be troublesome. Just like her husband, at this age, a fall would mean the end of many elderly people's lives.
Zhou Yi didn't dare to hide and quickly said that he was a policeman, but he was still hit by two brooms.
Covered in mud.
The old lady was mumbling in dialect and obviously didn't speak Mandarin, but she should be able to understand what Zhou Yi was saying.
The eyes deep in their sockets were filled with suspicion.
Zhou Yi could only look at the little girl for help.
The little girl quickly spoke a few words to the old lady and pointed at the food on the table. Zhou Yi understood two words from her words: delicious.
The old lady looked at the food on the table, then looked at Zhou Yi, and then put down the broom in her hand.
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