Chapter 253 Rabbit: She Deliberately Disobeys Their Wishes
The sound of car brakes broke the standoff between the reporters and the hospital staff, well, mainly the orphans.
The man who walked in, accompanied by the sound of leather boots on the stone ground, was wearing a worn police coat, and the smell of smoke on him seemed to seep into his bones.
He opened his tired eyes and asked with a hint of impatience, "Who called the police?"
The crowd exchanged bewildered glances, and one reporter complained angrily, "Who called the police?"
“It’s me.” Wang Xiao stepped forward and spoke in English, “Ladies and gentlemen, we can’t keep going like this. After all, some of you may be waiting for us to save your lives.”
She turned around, took out chocolate balls from her pocket, and handed them to the boys. "Hey, handsome young men, I think we can make a deal. The police catch bad guys, and the police are good guys. Let the police go in, okay?"
The orphans, who were almost as tall as Wang Xiao, didn't answer her, whether because they couldn't understand English or for some other reason. Instead, they stared intently at the gold wrapper containing the chocolate nut balls in her hand and reached out to snatch it.
The headmistress of the orphanage coughed heavily, and the orphan who had already reached out his hand withdrew it in fright, looking at her timidly, like a child caught red-handed by his parents for making a mistake.
The supervisor stepped forward, gently patted their heads, and spoke softly in Roman language.
The boy in the lead, the tall, strong orphan known as Peter, snatched the chocolate ball from Wang Xiao's hand, tore it open impatiently, and swallowed it whole.
There were five balls in total. Every time he swallowed one, the other boys would take the remaining wrappers and carefully lick the chocolate residue off the foil.
The reporters were stunned. How could Peter be so domineering? But the other orphans looked as if they had received a blessing, their faces beaming with joy.
After swallowing five balls in one go, Peter's mouth was practically bursting open. He mumbled something indistinctly and reluctantly moved aside, leaving just enough space for one person to squeeze through.
The other boys eagerly shouted, "Police! Only the police can go in and catch bad guys!"
As they spoke, their eyes were all fixed on Peter's hand, where he was still holding the last candy wrapper.
The reporter objected, dissatisfied: "No, we want to go in too. We need to see what's inside with our own eyes and record it."
As he spoke, he got up and walked into the open door.
Peter, still frantically stirring the chocolate with his tongue and teeth, let out an almost beastly roar and rammed his head into the reporter's chest: "No way!"
The reporter stumbled from the impact, but the door to the air-raid shelter opened halfway as a result.
In the dim light, the corner of a red scarf hung on the rough wall, swaying precariously.
During the reign of Ceaușescu, the country dug too many air-raid shelters, which were always rudimentary.
The orphanage director apologized to the reporter who was hit: "Peter is still a child. You know these poor children, they can never control their strength."
However, the reporter completely ignored the pain in his chest from the impact, and only raised his camera, eager to rush inside.
God, what secrets are hidden in this bomb shelter? It's definitely a treasure trove of news!
"No!" the orphans screamed, their voices cracking with anguish. "This is our secret base!"
"Back up!" the policeman snapped impatiently. "All of you, back up! Don't cause us any trouble."
The reporter protested, "Sir, we are assisting in the investigation of this horrific case."
"Assist with what?" The policeman, his eyes swollen with dark circles, even with bags practically hanging over his cheekbones, couldn't hide his undisguised sarcasm. "Assist in destroying any suspicious traces, Miss Wang—"
He looked at Wang Xiao and frowned. "When you called the police, you said there were fresh footprints at the entrance of the cave. So, which of these footprints are the fresh footprints you mentioned?"
Good heavens, everyone instinctively stepped back, and then an embarrassed look appeared on their faces.
They were so excited just now that they were all eager to enter the air-raid shelter to find out what was going on that no one bothered to leave any footprints.
By the way, how big was that footprint again?
“Behave yourselves, ladies and gentlemen,” the policeman warned, glaring at them. “Stay here and wait, and don’t cause any more trouble for our work.”
Wang Xiao seized the opportunity to chime in: "Yes, everyone, don't go down. What if there are vicious criminals hiding inside? We're not professionals, what if we get injured or even lose our lives? I only want to give the 500,000 leies reward, not 500,000 or even 5 million in medical expenses. Besides, everyone's lives are more precious than gold, and cannot be measured by money."
As she spoke, a team of five police officers went inside.
If we had spent the time arguing with these intellectuals, we could have finished all the work long ago.
Fortunately, the police were understanding of the reporters' needs. As they walked inside, they used a loudspeaker to report what they had seen: "A bunker made of sandbags, an airplane folded from tin foil. These little rascals are quite skillful. Point the flashlight up a bit, what's that?"
The adrenaline surged instantly among those outside, and all the reporters pricked up their ears and gripped their pens tightly, eager to record this earth-shattering information.
The police officer grumbled in dissatisfaction, "Oh, which little rascal planted that flag? It gave me quite a fright."
The reporters waiting outside were all disappointed, but one of them persisted: "Isn't there anything else, sir?"
"What else could it be?" The police officers walked out of the air-raid shelter looking disheveled. They had only been there for less than 10 minutes, and their hair was already covered in cobwebs.
The lead officer muttered, "Besides playing war games, what else can they do? What bad intentions could these boys possibly have?"
He waved his hand, concluding with a final statement, "There's nothing here. Let's move on to other places to search."
But before he could finish speaking, a splashing sound came from inside.
The reporters who had been staring at the air-raid shelter instantly became excited again: "There are people inside! There are living things inside! Officer, there are people inside!"
Before the police could react, Peter had already curled his fingers to his lips and whistled.
A gray shadow darted out from the gap in the air-raid shelter entrance, and Peter grabbed it by the ear and lifted it up.
“It’s a rabbit, my rabbit,” he muttered, complaining. “It’s disobedient and always tries to run back to the forest.”
“Alright,” the orphanage director pleaded again, “Ladies and gentlemen, please stop disturbing the poor children. We don’t have a playground or enough playrooms; the children need their own secret garden.”
The police officer had already started walking forward, muttering, "You should have called the police and cordoned off the scene immediately. What can you possibly investigate? They might have died while you were making a ruckus and gotten away. Damn footprints."
The reporters wanted to refute, but the footprints at the entrance of the air-raid shelter had become a dark chapter in their history, making their voices weak as they spoke: "We just want to catch the mastermind behind this."
But this feeble rebuttal only earned him a soft snort from the policeman's nostrils.
"What is it now?" The police officer frowned impatiently as he walked to the auditorium entrance.
The voices of high school students could be heard from inside: "Laura, how could you leave Anna behind?"
The reporters, who were initially frustrated because they couldn't find a prop master, instantly became as energetic as if they had been injected with stimulants.
Good heavens, they have another brilliant question.
A mysterious girl suddenly appears in the prop box on the stage of the orphanage!
Has her sister arrived? Didn't her sister go to Germany?
In the auditorium, the woman whom the high school students called "Sister Laura" was about thirty or forty years old, with frizzy light brown hair and a face so tired it was almost numb.
Faced with the high school student's anxious questioning, she opened her mouth, her chapped lips managing to utter a single sentence: "She's lost."
The reporter pressed on, "Hey, ma'am, explain yourself. Didn't you take your sister to Germany? How did she get lost and end up in an orphanage? Where exactly did she get lost?"
Laura suddenly exploded: "Explain what? She's an idiot! Are you happy now? Are you satisfied? How exactly do you want to criticize an idiot?"
Anna, who had been wiping away tears, suddenly raised her head and retorted loudly, "I'm not stupid! I'm not stupid!"
Her round eyes, her aggrieved mouth, and her chubby cheeks, at this moment, were as adorable as a Romanian nursery rhyme sung on stage, but because they were out of place, they were strange.
Her classmates immediately defended her: "Yes, Anna isn't stupid. Anna can get her own food, wash her own dishes, sweep the floor, and water the school's flowers."
Anna seemed to gain enough courage with the support of her classmates, and even dared to accuse her sister: "I didn't make a fuss, sister, you didn't pick me up."
Laura frowned and let out a groan that was almost painful: "I can't watch you 24/7. I always have other things to do. Okay, stop causing trouble for me and others, come with me. My life is already tiring enough."
Anna muttered softly, "No, sister, Mom and Dad are heroes, and we are heroes too."
Her words seemed nonsensical, and Wang Xiao frowned slightly upon hearing the translation.
An older reporter from Pravda exclaimed, "Oh my God, you are the Bushulenga sisters!"
The other reporters were bewildered. Who is it? Why does it seem like they're quite famous?
"Chemical plant! A chemical plant leaked toxic gas. The Bushurenga couple, who blocked the valve with their bodies, were their parents! People's heroes!"
Finally, someone in the crowd remembered.
Oh God, that was, well, the chemical plant leak in 1982.
My God, that poor couple, not even their complete remains can be found.
I heard that at the time, their eldest daughter had just graduated from high school, and their youngest daughter was only four years old.
In the blink of an eye, twelve years have passed in the blink of an eye.
In those years, the government frequently promoted this story, calling on everyone to learn from the Buschlenga couple.
A young reporter tried to strike up a conversation with Laura: "When I was in elementary school, I wrote an essay saying that I wanted to be like your parents."
Laura looked at him with a strange expression: "Then you can go and do it now. Not all the chemical plants in Romania have gone out of business."
The veteran reporter from Pravda glared at his young, reckless, and ignorant colleague with displeasure, and asked Laura in a gentle voice, "Are you and your sister alright? Do you need any help? Our director has been very worried about your lives, but unfortunately he has been suffering from a stroke for several years and cannot visit you."
Laura's weariness deepened: "Quiet, we need to be left undisturbed. Excuse me, sir, I need to take my sister with me."
A nursing home worker in a white coat rushed into the hall and tried to stop her: "God, you can't take her away, she's already..."
"Alright!" the director interrupted the caregiver urgently. "It's all a misunderstanding. Our caregiver saw her wandering around nearby and asked her what happened. Her parents are both dead. That's why we took in this poor child. After all, there are too many abandoned children these days, and we can only help one at a time."
Anna opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by her sister again: "Alright, let's go quickly, the weather is bad, it's going to snow."
Everyone instinctively looked up and gazed out the window.
The sky was overcast and a fierce wind was blowing; the heavy snow of winter was indeed coming soon to Bucharest.
Chen Jingjing reached out, wanting to say something to Anna, but Laura had already firmly pulled her sister's hand and was walking outside.
Reporters quickly followed, and some astute individuals had already detected a hidden, explosive news story.
The orphan of a people's hero from the time of Ceaușescu appears mysteriously in a prop box on the stage of the orphanage, while the prop master has disappeared.
There's so much more to uncover here than meets the eye.
Laura seemed to be on fire, and Anna couldn't keep up with her pace, almost being dragged along as she hurried out.
As the group walked outside the auditorium, at the corner connecting to the cafeteria, the tall, strong boys also ran over, and the two sides collided head-on.
They were so menacing that Anna, whose hand was being held by her sister, instinctively burrowed into her sister's arms in fear.
“Iepure.” Peter, who was leading the group, stared straight ahead and uttered a single word.
What? Wang Xiao turned around to look for a translator.
Reporters were already greeting him warmly: "Hey kid, where's your rabbit?"
Peter licked his lips, where traces of brown chocolate syrup remained, his eyes still fixed on the ground: "The rabbit always wants to escape."
Behind him were the high walls of the welfare home, and the electric grid hissed in the strong wind, as if tiny currents were flowing through it.
Wang Xiao gave Ruan Xiaomei a wink, and the latter understood perfectly. She stepped forward and handed Laura her business card: "If you need anything, you can call me. Jingjing calls me Auntie."
Laura pursed her lips and hugged her younger sister tightly. Good heavens, her sister was almost as tall as her already.
She hesitated for a moment, but still took Ruan Xiaomei's business card. However, the winter in Bucharest was too cold, and the cold wind made her fingers tremble. The business card, like a leaf torn by the wind, fluttered to the ground.
Anna, like a nimble little deer, immediately picked up the business card and hurriedly stuffed it back into her sister's hand, her face full of pride seeking praise: "Sister, I can do chores, I picked things up."
Laura paused slightly, nodded hastily, and stuffed the business card haphazardly into her coat pocket: "Yes, Anna is very smart."
Good heavens, who knows how long she's worn this coat? The cuffs and pocket edges are already starting to fray.
Ruan Xiaomei asked softly in Romanian, "Where are you staying now? Do you need me to take you back?"
“No need.” Laura licked her chapped lips. “We can just take the car back.”
A reporter eagerly stepped forward: "Let's go together, let's ride in the car together."
Laura was clearly enduring it.
Ruan Xiaomei had already taken Anna's hand: "Let's go, kids, I'll drive you."
Laura noticed that the other person wasn't wearing a large coat, while her sister's coat was clearly the other person's size. Unable to say no, she could only emphasize, "I'll return your coat to you when we get back."
The two sisters got into Miss Ruan's car and drove away, and the news spread like wildfire.
Wang Xiao then called to his uncle's family, "Let's go, the police are here. Let's leave everything here to the police."
She went to say goodbye to the Minister of Culture, looking at him earnestly: "Mr. Minister, I presume you were able to handle everything before the reporters erupted, right?"
As soon as the police officer arrived, he and the officer exchanged a furtive glance. If that still couldn't calm things down, then it just meant that a mediocre student is a mediocre student; even if they cheated, they still wouldn't pass.
The Minister of Culture's face was expressionless, and he spoke sparingly, "Of course."
Upon hearing this, someone from the film crew anxiously asked the boss, "What about Neri? How are we going to explain this?"
"Didn't he confess to me?" Wang Xiao looked at them strangely. "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't believe I've done anything to wrong him. I don't understand why I'm the one who has to solve all the trouble. I'm not a policeman or a judge; I'm just the person who pays your salaries."
So don't cause me any more trouble, and find out who's giving you money.
The director stepped in to smooth things over: "Alright, everyone cooperate. Don't hide anything when the police ask you about Neri."
Wang Xiao nodded, his tone softening: "Finding clues sooner will also help us find the person sooner."
She turned around and called to her uncle's family again, "Let's go."
Actually, Chen Yidong drove himself here.
He already knew how to drive a truck, and once he arrived in Romania, he easily passed the driving test and soon owned his own car.
This time, however, he didn't insist on driving himself. Instead, he gave the car keys to one of his niece's bodyguards, and the three of them got into Wang Xiao's car.
Chen Jingjing didn't object; she had a lot of questions to share with her cousin.
"That's not right." She had barely gotten on the bus and settled in when she couldn't wait to complain, "Laura's wrong. Anna is lost, why didn't she go to our school to look for her? Anna rarely goes anywhere, just school and home. No one takes care of her, she would never go out to play by herself. Also, why didn't Sister Laura ask us or ask us to help look for Anna? It's so strange."
Wang Xiao didn't answer her question, but spoke to Chen Yidong and Qian Xuemei: "Uncle and Aunt, when are you coming back to China for the New Year? My parents want you to come back soon, there seems to be some kind of memorial service this year."
Chen Yidong was taken aback for a moment, then smoothly continued, "I should go back soon. I've been busy and haven't been home for a long time."
Chen Jingjing tried to change the subject, but she was also led astray: "So early? There are still 10 days until Chinese New Year."
Qian Xuemei frowned: "What do you mean 'early'? It's almost the Little New Year. Perfect timing, quickly ask the school for leave and come back after the New Year."
Chen Jingjing complained, "I'm in high school, why would I take such a long leave of absence?"
"So what if it's high school? If you want to learn, you can learn anywhere." Qian Xuemei started talking. "I think high schools in Romania are not as good as those in China. High school students are always doing this activity and that interest group. Are they going to study or just doing activities?"
Chen Jingjing protested: "Foreign high schools are all like this, unlike our domestic schools, where it's all about rote learning and rigid, formulaic writing."
"Heh!" Qian Xuemei scoffed. "Eight-legged essays, my foot! If you could understand even one of them, your father and I would be laughing in our sleep."
When she was a child, she went with others to destroy the Four Olds and saw an essay written by a scholar who had passed the imperial examinations. Note that he was not a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations) or Zhuangyuan (the top scholar in the imperial examinations). The calligraphy was beautiful, and the essay was wonderful, although she didn't understand it.
The carriage was immediately filled with the sounds of the mother and daughter arguing, and it became incredibly noisy.
Wang Xiao narrowed her eyes slightly, her mind replaying Anna's terrified face as she desperately burrowed into Laura's arms, and the orphan Peter's staring gaze.
Iepure, rabbit.
She was reminded of the prison guards who would always tacitly allow or even arrange for the leader of the inmates to manage the other prisoners.
Over time, these gang leaders also enjoyed the power of prison guards, and were even more cruel to the prisoners.
Those respectable people who are unwilling to do the dirty work should always be taken care of by people with good judgment.
She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again, snow was already falling softly outside the car window.
"It's snowing!"
The snow in Bucharest comes really fast in winter. It's like a worker rushing to meet a KPI, hurriedly pouring snowflakes down in buckets.
If the wind hadn't caused the snowflakes to sway in the air a few times, easing their momentum, Wang Xiao would have suspected that what was falling was actually hail.
A layer of snow quickly fell.
When the car arrived at the entrance of the University of Bucharest, the world outside, as revealed by the windshield wipers, was already a vast expanse of white.
What is that?
Wang Xiao glanced up and pointed to the university gate, where the banners hanging there had frozen into icicles. Next to them, a speaker was playing rousing music, which sounded like the old Romanian socialist song "The Glorious March of Labor," mixed with ice shards and snowflakes, floating in the twilight.
Several students banged their lunchboxes with metal spoons and shouted something, seemingly unconcerned about getting a bellyful of cold air and getting sick when they got home.
The uncle glanced at it and said dismissively, "They're just making a fuss because they're bored and want the government to guarantee them jobs after graduation."
“When Cătiscu was in power, Romanian university students were dissatisfied with the jobs assigned by the state, complaining that they were not related to their majors or jobs they liked. Then the state stopped assigning jobs and let them find them themselves. Now that jobs are hard to find, they are unhappy again and are demanding that the state reinstate job assignments.”
The uncle shook his head, "They really don't know how lucky they are."
Don't let his current position as a factory manager in Romania fool you; his generation has an innate yearning for a secure, government-affiliated job.
Even though he and his wife earn several times more than his sister and brother-in-law, and own their own villa and car, neither he nor Qian Xuemei feel that they are better off than Wang Tiejun and Chen Yanqiu.
Wang Xiao chuckled: "Isn't this just like a besieged city? People inside want to get out, and people outside want to get in."
Qian Xuemei casually chimed in, "The novel *Fortress Besieged* is about marriage. Speaking of which, Jingjing, you..."
Chen Yidong coughed loudly, and Qian Xuemei immediately stopped him: "Okay, okay, I won't say anything. Oh dear, the snow started falling suddenly, we need to pack our things and leave quickly. Otherwise, if the snow gets too heavy, it will be inconvenient to drive to the airport."
Having been led astray, Chen Jingjing finally remembered what she was going to say and hurriedly asked, "Sister, what about Anna? I feel like something's wrong with Sister Laura."
“Alright,” Wang Xiao interrupted her. “This is not something you should worry about. Anna has an older sister who is Romanian. This is a matter for her sister and the Romanian government to consider.”
Without hesitation, Chen Jingjing replied, "The government? Ha, what can we expect from this government?"
The world's teenagers are all angry young people and seeds of anger; they look down on any government.
Wang Xiao looked at her calmly: "And what about you? What do you have? What can I expect from you?"
People who can't even support themselves shouldn't dream of outsourcing their charitable work.
Chen Jingjing's face flushed red, and tears welled up in her eyes as she said, "I..."
Wang Xiao closed his eyes again, his voice colder than the wind and snow outside the car window: "Remember, eat only what you can handle, don't cause trouble for anyone, and don't expect anyone to clean up your messes."
She opened her eyes and looked calmly at the passionate girl. "Remember, everything you have is given to you by your parents, your relatives, including me. When you get carried away, think carefully. We won't pay for the trouble you cause."
That's clever! Choosing Anna to appear in the prop box makes her little cousin a part of the behind-the-scenes play as well.
This cunning fellow is trying to drag everyone into his (her) vortex, making them his (her) weapon.
She simply didn't want to do as he/she wished.
Anyone who interferes with her making money is her enemy.
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Happy weekend! Poor Ah Jin has to work overtime both days this weekend. So frustrating.
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