Chapter 219
On Monday, when Ye Sanfeng saw Baoya at school, she couldn't help but avoid her gaze. She thought about what happened that night and was worried that Baoya would look at her strangely.
However, Baoya didn't mention what happened that day. She and Zhang Shasha continued to play with Ye Sanfeng after class, just like they always did, as if nothing had happened. Gradually, Ye Sanfeng stopped thinking about it, and the three of them resumed their previous relationship.
The days passed, the weather grew colder. After two heavy snowfalls, another New Year's Eve arrived. After the Lunar New Year, Baoya was seven years old. She had grown taller, her face had grown, and you could see a glimpse of her future form. The only thing that hadn't changed were her clear, dark eyes.
Yuanbao is still the same as before, not much has changed, so much so that when he and Baoya stand together, people can hardly tell whether he is the older brother or Baoya is the older sister. Once when Baoya and Yuanbao were outside together, someone mistook Yuanbao for Baoya's younger brother, which made Yuanbao very angry and he emphasized it several times.
"I am the older brother, she is my younger sister, she is my younger sister."
Baoya was smiling with her eyebrows curved and her eyes full of laughter.
After the Lantern Festival, school was almost back, and the kids started catching up on their winter break homework. Since there was a fire burning in the house, their hands didn't get cold, so they could do their homework in the morning and then go out to play together in the afternoon, without any delays.
With a week left before school started, the Song children had finished their winter break homework and were out playing in the alley. They called out to the children they knew from the neighborhood, and suddenly there were more than a dozen of them together, making a blast so loud they could have blown the roof off their heads.
"Come on, let's play hide-and-seek. The area is still as large as before. Everyone must be careful not to break the rules. If anyone breaks the rules, they won't be allowed to play with us next time. Now let's play rock-paper-scissors to see who will be the first to catch someone."
Everyone gets together to play rock-paper-scissors, and the loser is responsible for catching it.
"Count to fifty, no peeking, let's go hide." After saying that, the one who was supposed to catch someone was left standing there counting loudly with his eyes closed, while the others all ran away in a swarm, looking for their own hiding places.
Baoya also ran quickly, looking around with big eyes, looking for a good place to hide herself. Soon, Baoya found a good place, then squatted at the back and listened nervously to the sounds outside.
Because we often play around here, the hiding place we've circled is quite large. Just now, everyone was so busy looking for a hiding place that they didn't pay attention to their surroundings. And where Baoya was hiding, there was no one in sight when I looked up.
After hiding for a while, Baoya started to feel a little scared. She didn't know whether she should go out or continue hiding here. She was afraid that she would be caught if she went out, but she was also afraid that they would forget about her.
After waiting for a while, Baoya heard a sound outside. It was the arresters coming to look for her. Baoya breathed a sigh of relief, then hid carefully, not daring to move again.
After playing for nearly a whole morning, everyone was about to go home. The last person in charge of catching people only found five, so he simply admitted defeat. Then several people called out to the people hiding nearby to end the game and go home.
Baoya heard the sound from afar and came out from her hiding place, ready to go find them to gather together. At this moment, she saw a woman coming out from the alley next to her. The woman also saw Baoya and her eyes lit up immediately.
However, she didn't know what she was thinking about, but a look of hesitation appeared on her face.
Baoya didn't look at the woman again, and turned to look for Yuanbao, Tianen and the others. At this time, the woman saw Baoya was about to leave, gritted her teeth and made up her mind, then shouted: "Ouch~"
Her voice sounded painful, which made Baoya stop and look back at her.
The woman saw Baoya stop in her peripheral vision, and her expression became even more intense. She covered her stomach and wailed non-stop: "Ouch, my stomach, my stomach hurts so much~ Little girl over there, come quickly... come and help me..."
Baoya looked at the woman's bulging belly and knew she might be pregnant, because Zhang Hongli's belly was like that before. So, seeing the woman wailing in pain, Baoya hesitated to leave.
However, after thinking about it, Baoya did not approach the woman, but said: "I will call someone to help you."
After saying that, Baoya was about to run away, wanting to quickly call Boyu and the others over to help her. However, when the woman saw that Baoya didn't come over and was about to run away, the painful expression on her face suddenly disappeared, and she immediately raised her foot to catch up with Baoya.
Baoya was only seven years old, so how could she outrun a middle-aged woman? She was quickly caught. Baoya turned her head to look at the woman and began to struggle: "You, you let me go... Brother, brother... Ugh!"
The woman covered Baoya's mouth with her hand, preventing her from making any sound. She guessed that she might have family nearby, so she didn't dare to stop and dragged Baoya away. Baoya struggled desperately, but her arms were no match for her thighs. Slowly, Baoya could no longer see the familiar place.
Tears slowly welled up in Baoya's eyes, and her vision gradually became blurry. However, she soon fought back the tears, blinking rapidly, trying to see the path she was being taken away.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Baoya was brought to a remote house by the woman. After entering the house, the woman looked behind her cautiously before locking the door and releasing her grip on Baoya.
Baoya turned and rushed to the door, wanting to escape. However, the woman was prepared and grabbed Baoya's arm and pulled her into the main room.
The man in the room heard the noise and came out. When he saw the woman coming back with Baoya, his brows furrowed. "Why did you bring back another money-losing item?"
The woman pulled Baoya over and said to the man, "I didn't want her originally, but I saw that she was pretty and thought she would fetch a good price, so I got her."
As she spoke, the woman lifted Baoya's head. The man saw Baoya's face and immediately stopped accusing her. He nodded and said, "It's really good, but it looks quite old. It should be six or seven years old. If it were younger, it might be sold for a higher price. Forget it, since we have it now, let's take it all away."
The two men dragged Baoya into the side room. The woman pushed her hard and Baoya fell directly to the ground. Then the woman didn't look at her again. She turned around and walked out and locked the door from the outside.
Baoya bumped her hand, and a burning pain shot through her palm. However, she couldn't care less now. She looked up and saw five other children around her age in the room, four boys and one girl. The youngest looked only three or four years old.
The five of them were huddled in a corner. When they saw Baoya come in, no one came to speak, and they didn't even move. Only when they saw the couple did they subconsciously tremble.
Baoya didn't bother to say anything to them. She got up from the ground and went to the door, trying to open it. However, the door was locked from the outside, and no matter how hard Baoya tried, she couldn't open it. Slowly, Baoya's strength ran out. She turned her head to look at the other people in the room, then walked over to sit next to the little girl.
Baoya thought about the people in the old Song family, about her brothers who were looking for her, and about Feng Guizhi who was waiting for her to come home for dinner. Tears slowly accumulated in her big eyes.
......
After the game ended, everyone started calling out to those who were still hiding. After a while, everyone came back except Baoya.
Yuanbao, Tianen and the others started to get anxious, and then a group of children started to look for Baoya together: "Little sister,
"Baoya, come out, Erpang has admitted defeat."
"Baoya, the game is over, come out now, no need to hide anymore."
"Sister Xiaobao, we have to go home for dinner, come out quickly."
"Little sister..."
However, no matter how hard they looked, they still couldn't find any Baoya. Furthermore, they searched almost every corner of the area, but still couldn't find any Baoya people.
At this moment, everyone began to panic, their voices trembling slightly as they shouted, "Little Sister, don't hide anymore. We need to go home. Grandma is waiting for us to come home for dinner."
"Sister Xiaobao, please come out quickly. Where are you?" Yun Duo's voice was already filled with tears.
"Little sister..."
They searched again and again, and bad thoughts began to emerge in everyone's mind. The hearts of the Song family's children felt as if they were being tugged by a hand. They no longer dared to think about the consequences and hurried back home to ask others to start looking together.
"Grandma, grandma, daddy, come out quickly, little sister Xiaobao...little sister Xiaobao is missing..." Yuanbao couldn't help crying as he spoke. He was filled with fear and self-blame, which made him almost unable to breathe.
Feng Guizhi, Song Jianshe, and the others were stunned when they heard the voice: "What do you mean? What do you mean it's gone?"
"We were playing hide-and-seek just now, and when we went to look for Xiaobao, we couldn't find her. We searched the whole area several times but couldn't find her.
To little... little sister Xiaobao." Boyu quickly recounted what had happened, his voice choked with sobs.
Feng Guizhi's heart sank to the bottom after hearing this, but now was not the time to think about these things. She hurried out to follow and look for them, and then said, "Jianshe, go to the police station to report the case. Second brother's wife, go to the factory now and call back the second and third brothers' wives. Fourth brother's wife, come with me to look for them."
Everyone ran out immediately, everyone was worried and secretly praying that things would not be as they imagined.
After searching for an entire afternoon, I found nothing. Finally, I received some bad news from a woman: "I seemed to have seen the little girl you mentioned at noon. She was with a woman. The woman dragged her away. It was noon, and I thought it was her mother calling her home..."
After hearing these words, the hearts of the Song family fell into an ice cellar.
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