Chapter Twenty-Eight: Clues to Human Traffickers?
Recently, children have been going missing frequently in the surrounding villages, causing widespread panic. Adults are afraid to let their children go out after dark. The town's police station has been working hard to investigate and crack down on child traffickers several times, but the problem of missing children is like an endless weed in a field; it keeps popping up as soon as it's suppressed.
The local police had no choice but to seek help from higher authorities, who then assigned him a task to help the police catch all the human traffickers while carrying out a secret mission.
Lin Baozhu watched Qin Haifeng's retreating figure. His faded old military uniform made him appear exceptionally upright, and his steps were quick and steady. As Lin Baozhu watched, for some reason, her gaze fell on his strong back and powerful legs, and then upwards...
The sight of her buttocks made her unable to resist whistling.
Upon hearing this, Qin Haifeng paused, then quickened his pace...
Lin Baozhu's smile deepened, and she cupped her hands around her face like a megaphone: "Qin Haifeng, don't forget to come to Yangchang for mutton soup tonight!"
A muffled reply came faintly from afar: "Understood!"
After watching Qin Haifeng leave, Lin Baozhu, having nothing else to do, started walking towards the winnowing field...
The winnowing ground was bustling with activity. The freshly threshed wheat grains were piled up like small mountains, and the air was filled with the aroma of new wheat. Several teenagers ran wildly among the wheat stacks, their giggles like the tinkling of bells. Lin Baozhu watched this scene, and the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curve into a smile.
She strolled to a smooth, large rock at the edge of the yard, plopped down, spread her legs wide, casually picked a blade of grass from the side and put it in her mouth, watching the children running around wildly in front of her with a bored expression.
She called Tiger to her side, whispered a few words in his ear, and Tiger howled and ran towards the group of children...
Before long, a group of little kids rushed up.
Hu Zi squeezed in front of Lin Baozhu and shouted, "Auntie, they're all here!"
After saying that, she turned to the children of all ages and said, "Think carefully, is there anything interesting? My aunt doesn't like to work, but she likes to listen to excitement. Who wants to go first?"
The children eagerly raised their little hands, their faces tanned dark red, their eyes shining like stars, chattering excitedly: "Auntie, point at me! Point at me and tell me! I know something new!"
Tiger puffed out his little chest and maintained order with an air of importance: "Stand still! Line up! Don't push or shove! Don't worry, my aunt has plenty of candy in her pocket! As long as your story is interesting enough, you'll get plenty of candy!"
As he spoke, he pointed like a little adult at Lin Erdan in the crowd: "Little brother Erdan, you go first!"
Lin Erdan sniffed the snot that was about to drip to his mouth, then darted over to Lin Baozhu, tilting his head back, his voice trembling with excitement: "Auntie! Auntie! I was playing with my cousin the other day, and I saw Lin Chunmei from our village! She ran into the yard next to my grandma's house! We were curious, so we crouched down and followed her, and guess what? We...we saw her with that man..."
After Erdan finished speaking, he hesitated a bit and lowered his voice: "They were kissing! Later... that guy even tore open Lin Chunmei's jacket..." After Lin Erdan finished speaking, he had an expression that looked like he couldn't understand it but also felt like he had discovered a big secret.
Lin Baozhu's eyes widened in surprise, and the grass in her mouth fell out!
Oh mo! Oh mo!
Wasn't Lin Chunmei supposed to be infatuated with that gigolo Bi Yuntao? But behind his back... this is quite a juicy story!
Lin Baozhu composed herself, quickly pulled two White Rabbit milk candies from the pocket of her blue cloth jacket, and stuffed them into Lin Erdan's dirty, sweaty little hands. With a stern face, she pretended to be serious and instructed, "Erdan! This kind of thing is for adults. If you kids see it, you'll get a sty! Don't look! Remember that? Next time you see her heading towards your grandma's village, secretly tell your aunt! Quietly, don't alert anyone!"
She, as an adult, must be able to watch things that children shouldn't!
"Uh-huh!"
Lin Erdan clutched the candy and nodded vigorously, saying, "I'll lead the way! I promise I won't take anyone else!"
"Good boy."
Lin Baozhu patted his shoulder and looked at the other impatient little ones: "Come on, next one, who has any interesting things happening in or around the village? Tell us!"
With Lin Erdan as an example, the children were completely excited. One said his father would hide in the haystack for half a day at night and not come out, another said he saw Aunt Wang stealing Zhang the butcher's eggs... Every story was more than one could imagine, leaving Lin Baozhu speechless and secretly delighted.
She said it herself: these little rascals who run like rabbits and have ears like super hearing know far more "secrets" than those villagers who work silently!
Amidst the noisy atmosphere, a little girl, about four or five years old, timidly tugged at Lin Baozhu's sleeve. The little girl had a round face, but her eyes were timid as she whispered, "Aunt Baozhu, I... my name is Xiaobao. My grandma always scares me, saying that a 'Tiger Granny' lives in the old forest behind our village and eats children..."
Her voice lowered, as if afraid of being overheard, "...But I saw it, it wasn't a monster, it was a person!"
Lin Baozhu's heart skipped a beat. She looked down at Xiaobao's big, wet eyes, filled with fear and earnestness, and gently stroked her sparse, yellowish hair: "Silly girl, what 'tiger aunt'? The person you saw carrying the child up the mountain might just be the child's father."
"No! No!" Xiao Bao shook his head like a rattle drum, hurriedly explaining: "I recognize the child that was carried away! It's Tie Dan from the old Liu family behind my aunt's house! I've seen his father at my aunt's house before. His face is so long, it doesn't look like that at all. Because Tie Dan was crying so hard, he reached out and hit Tie Dan, and his nose even bled."
Lin Baozhu's expression instantly turned serious. Rumors of missing children had been rampant lately. If what Xiao Bao saw was true… that would be terrible! All the children in the village would be in danger!
"Xiaobao, you're a good child, you have good eyesight." Lin Baozhu tried to soften her voice, but her heart was pounding. She picked up Xiaobao and placed her on her lap, then took out a small handful of fruit candies from her pocket and solemnly stuffed them into Xiaobao's little pocket. Holding her little hand tightly, she asked in a low voice, "Tell Auntie the truth, where did you see it?"
“The day before yesterday at noon…” Xiao Bao’s voice was so soft it was almost touching Lin Baozhu’s ear, “My brother secretly took me to the ditch to catch fish. It was by the old locust tree on the back hill, by the small ditch that branches off from the river… We were squatting in the haystacks when we saw two men carrying two babies, walking really fast! I… I recognized Tie Dan’s face at a glance! It was him!”
After the little girl finished speaking, tears welled up in her eyes again; she was clearly terrified.
The little river fork by the old locust tree! Lin Baozhu's heart skipped a beat. She knew that place; the path was particularly narrow, with tall, dense weeds growing on both sides, making it difficult even to ride a bicycle. Villagers rarely went there.
Lin Baozhu hesitated, her eyes flickering. She carefully placed Xiao Bao on the ground and solemnly instructed, "Xiao Bao is a good boy, but you must never run to the river by yourself again! Do you hear me? The river is dangerous!"
Seeing Xiaobao nod vigorously, she stood up, dusted off the dirt on her pants, and looked up at the lush green mountains behind the mountain.
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