"Mom, I've finished my cigarette. I'm going to buy some more. Keep an eye on Junjun." Lin Guodong said to his mother, who was sitting on a recliner knitting socks, as he wrapped a scarf around his neck.
Zhang Jiao started her period today. Her hands and feet were cold and her stomach was in severe pain. After breakfast, she lay down in bed and went to sleep.
Zhang's mother hummed in response, without even lifting her eyelids.
Lin Guodong glanced at her, then tucked his chin into his scarf and disappeared.
Junjun was playing in the mud with other children in the yard. When Lin Guodong went to buy cigarettes, he told him, "Junjun, don't run around. Dad is going to buy cigarettes."
"Dad, I want to go!" Junjun, who was squatting on the ground playing in the mud, stood up. He wanted to go with his dad so that his dad could buy him candy.
Lin Guodong frowned at his dirty appearance. "Where are you going? You're all dirty from playing. Just stay in the yard and play."
After saying that, Lin Guodong left.
Junjun looked at his muddy little hands, ran to the kitchen, tiptoed, turned on the tap to wash his hands, wiped them haphazardly on his body, and then chased after the muddy little hands into the yard.
"Hey, where's Junjun?" Yingying sculpted a little rabbit out of mud, wanting to show it to Junjun, but she didn't see him.
The other two children looked at each other and shook their heads.
"I don't know."
Zhang Jiao woke up from a nap, her stomach still aching, but she was thirsty, so she got out of bed and walked to the living room, clutching and pinching her aching stomach.
"Mom, can you make me a cup of brown sugar water?"
Zhang's mother looked up impatiently, her hands still moving. "Don't you know how to do it yourself? You really can't even do this little thing? You still want to order me around? Do you think I'm a maid you hired?"
"..." Zhang Jiao choked, feeling quite upset. The nanny was much cheaper than her.
Zhang Jiao bent over and moved to the side of the dresser. She took out a jar of brown sugar from the drawer, then took her own drinking cup from the table, poured some brown sugar into it, and then picked up the thermos on the dresser and poured hot water into the cup.
"Mom, where's Guodong?" Zhang Jiao asked.
Zhang's mother didn't even look up, saying, "She went to buy cigarettes."
"Where's Junjun?"
Zhang's mother: "He plays with the other children in the yard."
Zhang Jiao: "..."
She carried the freshly prepared brown sugar water to the storefront, opened the slightly ajar door, and looked into the courtyard.
I saw several children playing in the yard, but I didn't see Junjun.
"Junjun, Junjun?"
Zhang Jiao called out a few times, but no one responded. She then looked at the children playing in the yard and asked, "Yingying, where's Junjun?"
Yingying and the other two children shook their heads. "We don't know."
Zhang Jiao: "How come you guys didn't know? Isn't he playing with you guys?"
Yingying: "While we were playing, Junjun disappeared. We have no idea where he went."
Zhang Jiao's heart skipped a beat. Enduring the pain, she hurried to the courtyard, standing in the alley and shouting loudly, "Jun Jun, Jun Jun, Jun Jun..."
Not seeing anyone in the alley, Zhang Jiao couldn't help but panic. She quickly went into the courtyard and knocked on the gates of each house, asking if anyone had seen Junjun.
Aunt Wang looked at Zhang Jiao and asked, "Has Junjun disappeared? I saw him playing with Yingying and the others in the yard just an hour ago!"
Zhang Jiao: "They're gone. There's no one in the courtyard, and they're not in the alley outside."
"Could he be hiding in that room?" Aunt Wang said. "Go home and look again. My grandson was hiding under the bed a while ago, and we couldn't find him. We were so worried."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Jiao immediately went home and searched through several rooms, but couldn't find it.
"Mom, Junjun is missing! When was the last time you saw him?" Zhang Jiao asked anxiously.
Zhang's mother paused for a moment, "He's gone. He must have run off to play in the alley with the kids in the yard. Why are you so worried?"
"I saw it!" Zhang Jiao shouted. "There was no one in the alley, and the children in the courtyard didn't go out, but Junjun is gone!"
"Why are you shouting so loudly? Are you yelling at me?" Zhang's mother asked with a dark face.
Zhang Jiao took a deep breath, "I won't yell at you, I'm just anxious."
Zhang's mother: "Why are you in such a hurry? Maybe the child went with Lin Guodong?"
"Who went with me?" Lin Guodong returned after buying cigarettes.
Zhang Jiao quickly looked behind him and saw that Junjun was not there, nor was he in the courtyard. She panicked completely.
"Where's Junjun? Did Junjun go to buy cigarettes with you?" Zhang Jiao asked, grabbing Lin Guodong's arm.
"Jun Jun?" Lin Guodong turned his head to look into the yard. "Jun Jun isn't in the yard..."
Lin Guodong stopped mid-sentence, and Junjun, who was playing in the mud, was nowhere to be seen in the yard.
"Where did Junjun go?" Lin Guodong asked his mother.
Zhang's mother: "..."
"How should I know? I've been knitting socks at home all day."
Lin Guodong shouted, "When I went to buy cigarettes, didn't I tell you to keep an eye on Junjun?"
“The door is open. You can see whether Junjun is still playing in the yard just by looking up.”
Zhang Jiao: "When I woke up, the living room door was closed."
Zhang's mother swallowed hard, and said somewhat guiltily, "It's so cold with the door open."
When Lin Guodong went to the door, the door was open, but she felt cold, so she closed it.
Lin Guodong exploded. After enduring so much, he finally broke down.
"I already told you, I'm going to buy cigarettes, and I need you to watch the kids! Watch the kids! Is this how you watch the kids?"
Zhang's mother was extremely embarrassed by her son-in-law's outburst and retorted loudly, "How was I supposed to know the child would run away? You parents can't even keep an eye on the child, and you expect me to take care of him?"
"..." Lin Guodong gritted his teeth.
"How is it? Have you found the child yet?" Aunt Wang asked as she walked to the door.
Zhang Jiao shook her head, "No."
Aunt Wang panicked when she heard this, "Then what are you all standing there for? Hurry up and go look for them! If they run off and get kidnapped, they'll be hard to find!"
"You all hurry up and go look for it. I'll go and call the neighbors to come and help us look." With that, Aunt Wang went to call people.
Lin Guodong and Zhang Jiao hurriedly searched the yard, asking everyone they met if they had seen a three-year-old boy with a round face, wearing a blue cotton coat.
When the neighbors heard that Junjun was missing, they all came to the yard to help search for him.
Zhang's mother paced anxiously back and forth at home, thinking, "If this child really gets lost, Lin Yong and Lin Guodong will definitely come after me. I'd better leave as soon as possible."
After saying that, she went back to her cubicle, packed the clothes she had brought, and slipped away with her bundle.
When Lin Guodong was thinking about what happened when Junjun said he was going to the door, he wondered if the child might have run to the yard to look for him. But he didn't want Zhang Jiao to know that Junjun had followed him to the door to throw the child away, so he suggested that he and Zhang Jiao split up to search, one going to the end of the alley and the other searching from the beginning.
Lin Guodong headed towards the alley leading to the supply and marketing cooperative, asking people along the way until he found the cooperative. However, the people there said they had never seen a three-year-old child.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com