Chapter 218 Meeting a Child in the Mountains
218
Tang Yue was stunned. What did she see? How could there be three children in the Qinling Mountains? Looking at their clothes, how could they look like beggars? Of course, they were much cleaner than beggars.
"Brother, let's find a way to eat something hot. I feel like I'm starving to death if I keep eating like this."
The boy, called "Big Brother," cleaned the leaves and stood up. "Well, Xiaoyu, Big Brother will find a way. But until we can find a fire, we still have to use this to fill our stomachs."
Don't worry, Yanyan and I already know where the rabbits hang out. We'll go over there and dig traps so we can have meat to eat tomorrow."
"Really? Big brother, big brother, can we have meat to eat?"
The little girl has big eyes and no flesh on her face. Her cheeks are so thin that they are sunken.
The three children were all pale and thin, looking malnourished. Tang Yue felt that these children were not much better off than when she first came here.
"Daughter, are you done washing? Why don't you go back?"
Tang Shengkai squatted beside Tang Yue and helped her tidy up her hair.
Tang Yue turned her head to look at her father, still watching the interaction between the three children in her mind.
"Dad, do you think there are children living in these deep mountains?"
Tang Shengkai paused while stroking his hair. "Daughter, did you see the child? How is that possible? It's so dangerous in here, how could the child survive?"
Tang Yue followed the three children's footsteps and approached a cave. She explored inside and found that besides some dry branches, there were only some crumpled grass leaves spread on the ground, which seemed to be where they slept.
There are several large rocks at the entrance of the cave, which seem to be used to block the entrance at night.
"Dad, there are three children upstream, and they are starving."
Tang Shengkai stood up quickly and said, "I need to report this to the battalion commander." Then he hurried back to find someone.
Soon Xu Hongchang and Chang Yin came over, "Xiao Yueyue, is there anyone upstream?"
"Yeah, when I was washing my face just now, several vegetable leaves floated down from upstream. They were wild vegetables from the mountains, and someone must have been washing them."
Xu Hongchang and Chang Yin immediately became alert, "Ambush and investigate the situation."
Fei Shuwen stayed here to wait for Wang Ming and Sun Jinan to come back, while the rest of the people went upstream to scout together.
Tang Yue was walking in front. Now no one looked down on Tang Yue. Everyone knew her abilities, so they thought it was natural for her to walk in front.
She moved quickly, and the children sat down on a stone slab outside the cave. "Come, Xiaoyu, Yanyan, let's eat."
"Thank you, brother!"
"Thank you, brother!"
"Yanyan, why don't you eat?"
Little girl Yanyan looked at the vegetable leaves in her hand, worry in her big eyes, "Brother, I wonder how grandma is doing. We can still eat vegetable leaves when we hide in the mountains, but grandma..."
After the little girl said this, the two brothers couldn't eat anymore. The three of them fell silent.
Tang Yue raised an eyebrow. These three children had hidden themselves in the mountains, and their grandmother was still outside. What about their parents? This family must have encountered something.
The eldest brother took the lead in picking up the vegetable leaves and stuffing them into his mouth, one by one without stopping. The second brother and the youngest sister watched the eldest brother stuffing the vegetable leaves into his mouth without saying a word, and they felt so distressed that they almost cried.
Little girl Yanyan was the first to lose patience. "Wuwuwu, big brother, I was wrong. I shouldn't have mentioned grandma. Big brother, please stop eating. Wuwuwuwu, big brother, you'll choke to death."
The eldest brother was stopped by Yanyan from stuffing the leaves into his mouth. He fiercely chewed the leaves in his mouth and swallowed them, his eyes red. "One day, one day..."
The teenager tightly grasped the vegetable leaves in his hands, and the leaves were crushed into vegetable paste by him.
"Brother, don't be angry. Yanyan just misses grandma. From now on, we won't talk about it anymore."
The eldest brother looked at his younger siblings and fought back the tears in his eyes. "It's okay. You can miss me. I miss grandma too. So, we must live on. Maybe grandma is still waiting for us to come home."
“Wuwuwu…”
Yanyan couldn't hold it back any longer and burst into tears.
The two boys also quietly wiped away several tears.
When Xu Hongchang and his team arrived nearby, the children had already finished eating the vegetable leaves and were looking around for suitable stones to dig.
Chang Yin could feel the breathing of the three children from a long distance. They had not received any training, their breathing rhythm was just that of ordinary people, and their movements were not light either. He knew that there were three ordinary people in front of him.
But they were still shocked when they saw the three children.
The eldest brother was more alert. When Chang Yin and the others were about to show up, he suddenly felt the change in the air around him. "Who?"
He immediately grabbed two fist-sized stones beside him and used them to block his brother and sister-in-law.
Xu Hongchang and Chang Yin exchanged a glance and then emerged from the bushes. Xu Hongchang was wearing ordinary civilian clothes, while Chang Yin was wearing a green combat uniform. This outfit was recognizable to everyone in China.
Yanyan poked her head out from behind her brother, and when she saw the clothes on Chang Yin, she exclaimed in surprise, then pulled her brother's clothes and whispered, "Brother, he's a soldier."
The child called Xiaoyu was obviously a little excited. They had been in the mountains for six or seven days. The surroundings were terribly quiet and there was no one around. They didn't know how long they could hold on.
The eldest brother did not dare to relax at all. He felt that it couldn't be such a coincidence. They had only been in the mountains for seven or eight days when these people came to find them and even wore military uniforms to deceive them.
"We have no food, you should leave quickly." The eldest brother spoke in a cold voice.
Xu Hongchang and Chang Yin looked at each other again, and Chang Yin's cold voice rang out, "We are not here to ask you for food, we are soldiers."
A hint of mockery flashed in the eldest brother's eyes, "What you are has nothing to do with us, get out of here!"
He spoke, but his grip on the stone tightened.
Both knew that the children in front of them were wary of them, so neither of them approached, and no one else showed up. As they were thinking about how to approach and talk to the children, Tang Yue walked out from behind them.
My brother was stunned. Why were they carrying a child, dressed in military uniform? Could they be human traffickers, specializing in preying on children? But how did they find them?
The eldest brother quickly stepped back a few steps, and his younger brother and sister-in-law followed behind him. The two children didn't understand why, but they obeyed their eldest brother.
Tang Yue tilted her head and looked at the children, "Are you afraid of us?"
The little girl's soft voice rang out in the silent forest. The two children behind Brother Gou poked their heads out again. The brother was tense, fearing that he could not protect his younger siblings.
"Don't be nervous. We are truly Chinese soldiers. We are not human traffickers who capture children. We are not bad people either."
“Human traffickers won’t admit they are human traffickers.”
Tang Yue shrugged. She had heard the children's conversation and knew they had hidden in the mountains. But Xu Hongchang and Chang Yin didn't know that they were also on guard against the children.
Tang Yue immediately pulled out the pistol from her waist. Chang Yin saw it but it was too late to stop her.
Tang Yue placed the gun in her palm and said, "Don't worry, they are not human traffickers. If they were, a little kid like me wouldn't have a gun in my hands."
The second brother Xiaoyu was obviously tempted, but he didn't say anything and didn't look at Tang Yue again.
The eldest brother looked at the gun in Tang Yue's hand, then at Chang Yin and Xu Hongchang. They were clearly upright, but the eldest brother didn't trust anyone now. Maybe this little girl was deliberately brought by them to lure someone.
In just over a month, they have experienced all kinds of ups and downs in the world, and he will never trust anyone again.
"Whoever you are, get out of here. You are not welcome here."
Chang Yin didn't say anything. Xu Hongchang was the first one who couldn't stand it anymore. These children were about the same age as his Xu Zhenfei. He had not forgotten how he and his wife felt when Xu Zhenfei was kidnapped by human traffickers.
"How can you children live in the mountains? It's too dangerous. You should come with us and we will take you home."
"Get out! Get out now! You are all bad people!"
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