"That's all?" Qin Xiaoyu was far from relaxed.
"By the way, they went to the car next door to get their tires inflated. Go ask the old man who repairs shoes."
After being pointed out by the gatekeeper, Qin Xiaoyu then discovered that there was a small prefab house sandwiched between the newspaper office and another building. When she passed by there yesterday, the door was closed, so she hadn't paid any attention to it.
Qin Xiaoyu looked into the distance and found that the door was still closed. She was a little disappointed, but she was unwilling to give up, so she simply walked over.
The door had a sign that read "Tire Repair, Inflation, and Shoe Repair." Suddenly, she smelled burning leather. Looking up, she saw smoke rising from the small prefab house. She realized there was something else going on inside. She quickly knocked heavily on the door several times.
"Can't a man get a moment's peace and quiet? Shoe repair, huh?" An elderly man with white hair and beard pushed open the door and let the mother and daughter in.
"Sir, I'd like to ask you something."
"Go ahead and say it." The old man was already sitting in front of the machine, continuing to hang shoe soles.
"Here's the thing, my son didn't come home from school the day before yesterday, and we still haven't found him. Someone said he walked this way with two men and a little boy. I don't know if you've seen him..."
"A boy wearing an air force leather jacket?" the old man interrupted Qin Xiaoyu and asked.
"Yes! Yes!" Qin Xiaoyu grabbed the old man's chapped hand and shook it vigorously. This leather jacket was really the right choice; it worked better than wearing a designer brand.
"Young lady, no, men and women shouldn't touch each other, don't touch me like that!" the old man shouted.
"Okay, I won't touch you. Go ahead and say it."
"There were two men with a boy. Their bicycle tires were flat, and they borrowed an air hose from me."
"What did those two men look like?" Qin Xiaoyu asked, seemingly out of nowhere.
"What does it look like? It just looks like a human, what else could it be? There's a man wearing a big dog-skin hat."
"Yes! It's them!" Qin Xiaoyu was even more certain that the leather hat part matched what the little girl had said.
"Hmm." The old man finished speaking.
Qin Xiaoyu waited foolishly, but when she saw that the old man didn't seem to be going to speak again, she became a little anxious.
"Sir, please tell me what those two men look like."
"Didn't I say I look like a human being? What do you mean by that!" The old man was getting angry. Qin Xiaoyu suddenly turned around and looked at the street, and immediately understood what he meant. The men on the street were all dressed in black or navy blue, gray was rare, and they all had unkempt faces, smoky and grimy, and when they wore hats with their collars turned up, all you could see was a small face, and they all looked pretty much the same.
They're just borrowing a breathing tube; you can't expect them to scrutinize it closely.
She had thought she had found solid evidence, but now it seemed like all her joy had been for nothing. Qin Xiaoyu sat up weakly, forcing back tears, and said, "Thank you."
Qin Xiaoyu pulled her younger sister out of the prefab house, feeling a chill in her heart. She was afraid that the child was really lost. In such a big world, where could she find a child?
Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind: why does the person the old man described look somewhat like my uncle?
Qin Xiaoyu turned back and asked again, "Grandpa, what accent did that man have?"
"One of them is hard to hear clearly, and the other has a local accent."
"What shoes are they wearing?" Qin Xiaoyu glanced at the old shoes on the ground and realized an important point: shoe repairmen inevitably pay attention to the shoes of their customers.
"You've come to the right place. One of the men was wearing suede-lined boots, which were issued as labor protection gear. The other was wearing Hailar cotton boots."
Qin Xiaoyu had basically narrowed it down; one of the men was her uncle. He worked at a heavy machinery factory and always wore suede shoes in the winter.
Upon entering the Tang family's house, Qin Xiaoyu went straight into the west room. Grandma Hanhan and her aunt were talking when they saw her enter, and their expressions changed.
"Tell me! Where did you hide Hanhan?!"
"Don't you dare accuse us! You lost the child and are now trying to extort money from us!" Grandma Hanhan refused to back down and got up to argue with Qin Xiaoyu.
"I have evidence. Where is my uncle? Let him come out and speak. He's the one who took Hanhan away!" Qin Xiaoyu was determined. It was impossible to get them to tell the truth. Now she could only stick to her story and wait for them to make a mistake.
"Qin Xiaoyu, you're shameless, here you go again?" Tang Wenwen opened the door and came in, pointing at Qin Xiaoyu's nose and cursing loudly.
Everyone else was easy to talk to, but when it came to her, Qin Xiaoyu felt both angry and helpless. The deeper their past relationship was, the deeper her hurt was now.
"Wenwen, don't be so heartless. Even if I have a thousand faults, Hanhan did nothing wrong. I beg you, please help me find Hanhan."
"Don't give me that. You have no evidence at all and you're just making trouble. I'm not afraid of you. Come on, let's go to the committee and settle this!" Tang Wenwen pulled Qin Xiaoyu out.
When Grandma Hanhan saw Tang Wenwen make a move, she came to help, and the two of them dragged Qin Xiaoyu outside. Seeing her mother being taken advantage of, the little sister kicked and punched her aunt and grandma.
Qin Xiaoyu sighed deeply. This was the last thing she wanted to see; it was fratricide.
She walked out of the Tang family home in a daze, leading her younger sister. Some people in the alley watched the commotion from a distance, but dared not come closer, pointing and whispering among themselves.
What if we bring the person in for identification? Would the Tang family admit to it?
Qin Xiaoyu decided to take a risk. She brought the newspaper staff and the shoe repairman with her, not believing that her uncle could still be stubborn.
With that in mind, she returned to the newspaper office.
"You've come at the right time. We were just looking for you, but we couldn't get through to you on the phone," the security guard said, leading her outside.
"What's wrong? Any new clues?"
"They're going to Zhaktu," the shoe repairman said sheepishly, rubbing his hands.
"What?" Qin Xiaoyu asked in surprise.
"I forgot to mention earlier, I heard them say they needed to buy tickets, and when I asked where they were going, the guy in the leather hat said they were going to Zhaktu."
"Thank you, sir!" Qin Xiaoyu bowed deeply, picked up the little girl, and ran off.
Zhaktu is a few hours' train ride from here. It's a small county town with a small population. She needs to discuss the itinerary with Qi Si.
“I’ll go there. If Hanhan is still wearing that outfit, she’ll be easy to recognize,” Qi Si said decisively.
"I'll go with you."
"You stay home." Seeing that Qin Xiaoyu was about to say something, Qi Siyi waved his hand and said, "The weather is bad, and it's inconvenient for you to take your little sister with you. Besides, he just said 'Zhaktu' and you believed it? What if it's not true? It's better to have someone at home so that we can deal with any other news. We don't want everyone running to the same place."
Qi Si's argument was reasonable and well-founded, so Qin Xiaoyu could not argue any further and had no choice but to let him go to the train station alone.
The journey was only a few hours, but for Qin Xiaoyu, it was an ordeal.
It seems that the Tang family stole Hanhan without a doubt. Thinking about it carefully, this is probably how they arranged it: steal the child first, then hide her in the countryside for a year or two. With their cunning, Qin Xiaoyu wouldn't be able to keep her. She would remarry soon and have more children, so she wouldn't want Hanhan anymore.
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