At six o'clock the next morning, Sun Aimin got up, packed up, went out for a simple breakfast, bought a few new gauze masks at a nearby pharmacy, and then came to Renminli Community again.
He had already inquired yesterday and found out that this community has only one exit, the main gate, and everyone leaving the community has to pass through here, so he is now waiting in the square at the entrance of the community.
Sun Aimin found a piece of cement slab and sat down, staring closely at the people and vehicles coming and going at the door.
Soon, he saw the figure of the girl from yesterday. She should be Qian Niandi, the eldest daughter of Zhan Jinhua and Qian Jindou.
She rode her bicycle out of the community with her schoolbag in the basket. She must be going to school.
About half an hour later, the figure of the short woman from last night appeared.
When she reached the door, a resident greeted her: "Sister Hua, are you going out?"
Sister Hua? Zhan Jinhua? Sun Aimin took a closer look at her appearance. It was indeed as Yuan Jie had described. Her facial features were very similar to Sun Xiaohao's. They looked like a family.
Zhan Jinhua only responded, "Yeah, the store needs someone in it for a while."
The other person added, "You're quite capable. I see your family lives a better life than most people in the city. Unlike us, we have to go to get off work on time and get a meager salary. It seems that if you want to live a better life, you still have to do business."
Zhan Jinhua smiled and replied, "I'm destined to be a hard worker. I have to work. I have several children at home waiting to be raised. If it weren't for the noodle shop, my family would have starved to death. Okay, I won't talk to you anymore. There's a train arriving at ten o'clock. It's a very busy train. I have to get ready to open the shop."
After the two separated, Zhan Jinhua rode her bicycle back toward the train station. Sun Aimin planned to check on the noodle shop again today.
After arriving at the train station, Sun Aimin went to the fried skewers shop he had been to yesterday, ordered some fried skewers, and after chatting with the boss for a few words, he stared in the direction of the noodle shop as usual.
Thinking of Zhan Jinhua's mention of a 10 o'clock train arriving, Sun Aimin asked the owner of the fried skewers shop, "Brother, let me ask you, is there a train arriving at the train station at 10 o'clock?"
The shop owner was very enthusiastic and replied, "There is a train around ten o'clock, and this is the last stop, so there will be a lot of passengers getting off."
Sun Aimin seemed to be thinking about it. "Oh, so, is your business going to get busy soon?"
The boss smiled and said, "It's a bit busy at that time. I can't take care of it alone. My mother has to come and help me for a while every day."
Time passed quickly, and the ten o'clock train arrived on time without being late.
Zhan Jinhua's noodle shop was in business, but the two glass doors were still closed, and there was no atmosphere of welcoming customers. Many tourists saw that the door was closed and it was very deserted inside with few customers, so they basically just glanced and walked past.
There were also a few customers who wanted to eat noodles. They opened the glass door and entered the store, looked at the prices on the menu, and came out cursing.
After a while, the man pulling the black suitcase from yesterday appeared again and headed straight towards the noodle shop.
Seeing that the man was not looking towards the fried skewers shop, Sun Aimin quickly left his seat and ran over when the man was still more than ten meters away from the noodle shop, and bumped into the man when he was not paying attention.
The man cried out "ouch" and held the suitcase tightly in his hand with tense nerves. He didn't intend to get entangled with Sun Aimin and wanted to leave quickly.
Sun Aimin, the man who had bumped into someone, refused to let it go. He grabbed the man and refused to let him go. He apologized profusely, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, and tried to light it for him. He squatted down to check the suitcase, saying, "Did I damage your suitcase just now? Let me see if the wheels are still working. If they are, it would be inconvenient. How about this? You tell me how much it costs, and I'll just pay for a new suitcase."
The man tried his best to get rid of Sun Aimin's entanglement, saying, "No, no, it's nothing, just go away!"
While talking to the man, Sun Aimin took a quick look at the suitcase. He noticed that the zipper wasn't completely closed, leaving a small gap, but he couldn't see inside. The surface of the suitcase wasn't completely flat, with some raised areas.
Judging from the size of the box, it should be no problem to fit a two or three year old child in it.
In order not to alert the enemy, Sun Aimin decided to quit while he was ahead and said, "You really don't have to pay me? Then I'm leaving!"
After saying that, he walked in the opposite direction of the man. The man saw Sun Aimin leave, then hurriedly picked up the suitcase and went up the stairs to the noodle shop.
Zhan Jinhua, who was inside the store, had been watching the situation outside and witnessed the entire struggle between the man and the other person. However, she had only seen Sun Aimin from a distance a few times, when she secretly visited Sun Xiaohao, and each time, Sun Aimin was dressed very formally. But the Sun Aimin just now was wearing a baseball cap and the tacky, baggy clothes of a middle-aged man, so she didn't recognize him at all.
The man with the suitcase entered the noodle shop. Zhan Jinhua asked nervously, "What happened just now? Did you not get discovered?"
The man was still frightened and breathed a sigh of relief: "It's okay, I was just bumped by someone who didn't have any eyes."
Zhan Jinhua's heart was pounding because of what had just happened. She felt like something was going to happen. She said to the man again, "Let's be careful. We have to get this out of the box quickly."
I'll get someone here first. You can go out the back door later. Go back to your hometown to avoid the limelight for a few days. Come back when you hear from us."
The man with the suitcase replied, "Okay, I'll leave right away. You guys should be careful too. Things are a bit tense out there these days."
Then the man with the suitcase quickly slipped away through the back door.
The train station was a scene of chaos. An old woman sat on the ground, crying heartbreakingly, "Mingming, my dear grandson, where have you been? Stop playing hide-and-seek with grandma, and come out!"
Then she pleaded with the passengers in the station, "Please help me find my little grandson. I beg you. He's the lifeblood of my family. I can't live without him!"
While those present sympathized with the old woman's plight, some also seemed to be gloating. Just half an hour earlier, the old woman's grandson had been running around the waiting hall, yelling and clamoring. He saw a passenger offering a snack to the child, and the child, eager to eat, ignored the passenger. The old woman then scolded him, calling him stingy and unkind. If it weren't for her age, the passenger who was scolded would probably have hit him.
When a passenger complained about the child's noise and asked her to take care of him, she engaged in another heated argument, encouraging her grandson to shout even louder and buying him a drink. Then, the old woman sat on a stool and pretended to sleep, letting the child run around and play mischievously. The passengers, annoyed, tried to stay as far away from the grandparents as possible.
At some point, the child's voice disappeared. When the old lady regained consciousness, her grandson was nowhere to be found. The old lady lost her previous domineering demeanor. She was so frightened that her legs gave way and she collapsed to the ground, unable to stand up. She could only sit there and cry.
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