Chapter 136 The whole village is looking for Li Guawa
Gu Jiayue's eyes lit up with surprise. She quickly stepped forward, staring at the boy intently and asking anxiously, "Where did you see him?"
The boy tilted his head slightly, lost in thought. After a moment, he said, "I'm not sure it was him. On my way to school, I saw a man squatting beside a haystack in the field, crying. He looked a bit like Li Guawa, so I called out to him, but he ignored me and ran away."
Although this is just an uncertain clue, for Gu Jiayue, it is better than having no clue at all.
A gentle smile appeared on her face, and she said in a gentle voice, "Okay, then would you be willing to take the Master to where you found him?"
The boy stepped forward without hesitation and said, "Okay, Master, please follow me."
The child was secretly happy in his heart, haha, finally he doesn’t have to go to class, hooray!
Her steps became more and more brisk, and soon she brought Gu Jiayue to the straw pile where Li Guawa was suspected to be hiding, and said, "This is it."
Gu Jiayue was running fast and breathing heavily. After calming down, she asked, "Okay, which direction did you see him running?"
The boy raised his hand and pointed in a direction. "He ran that way."
Gu Jiayue looked in the direction the boy pointed. If Li Guawa had not changed direction along the way, he would have reached the river if he had continued running.
It is summer now and the weather is extremely hot. Many children will run to the river to play when the adults are not paying attention.
This is precisely why the village adults were so willing to entrust their children to Gu Jiayue. With the children all off to school, they had no playmates to go to the river. Learning knowledge while staying safe was a perfect way to have the best of both worlds.
"Okay, I understand. You go back to school and study first. I'll go look for him alone." As soon as she said that, Gu Jiayue felt something was wrong. What if the child also sneaked out to play? So she quickly changed her words and said, "Forget it, just follow me. Can you still walk?"
The child, who had originally looked hopeless upon hearing that he had to go back to school, suddenly smiled when he heard the teacher asked him to follow. He said, "I can walk, but can you? If you really can't, you can rest. I'll go find Li Guawa. I can run very fast."
If he hadn't been waiting for the teacher, he would have run faster.
Gu Jiayue smiled bitterly in her heart, feeling that she was being disliked invisibly.
She took a deep breath and said, "Master, you can still walk. Let's go ahead and see if we can find Guawa."
The two walked forward for a while and gradually saw people working in the fields.
"Second sister, where are you going?" Gu Yushan was bending over to weed the rice in the field. When he looked up, he saw his second sister with a child, looking around.
Gu Jiayue heaved a sigh of relief when she saw someone in the field. She quickly ran over and said, "Brother, have you seen a child named Li Guawa passing by here?"
Gu Yushan was slightly stunned, and after thinking for a moment, he said, "I didn't see it. What's wrong?"
Gu Jiayue had no choice but to explain the whole story in detail.
The noise here startled the people working in the fields, and gradually everyone gathered around.
"Oh, how can this child run around alone?"
"That's right, Jiayue, don't worry. We'll help you find it right away."
"Yes, yes, we'll help you find it. Quick, who's going to tell the village chief? Have the village chief gather the whole village to help look for it."
People came out of the fields one after another. Some ran to inform the village chief, some followed Gu Jiayue to the river, and some went up the mountain to look for it.
When they arrived at the river, Gu Jiayue saw Gu Yuhe there with his men.
As soon as the two groups met, they began to exchange the clues they had obtained.
It turned out that after Gu Yuhe informed Li Guawa's mother about the incident, she was extremely worried. She immediately searched in the direction where the child had left the house that morning. She happened to meet an elderly woman who was about to go to the fields. The elderly woman said that she saw Li Guawa heading towards the river, crying as he ran, and that she called out to him but he didn't respond.
Upon hearing the news, they rushed to the river.
"Second sister, we have searched everywhere around here, but we haven't found Guawa." Gu Yuhe looked a little frustrated.
At this time, the village chief also arrived, followed by many villagers.
Some villagers still had mud on their legs, and it was obvious that they had come directly from the fields.
"Have you found it?" The village chief also looked anxious.
Gu Jiayue shook her head helplessly.
"Ah! My little Guawa, where are you?" Li Guawa's mother's legs went limp and she collapsed to the ground, crying heart-wrenchingly and gasping for breath.
A kind-hearted woman quickly helped her up and said, "Mrs. Li, don't cry for now. Think carefully. Is there anything unusual about the child this morning or last night?"
Guawa's mother suppressed her grief and tried to recall, "There was nothing unusual last night. He was even excitedly telling us about the knowledge he had learned in school and the meals he had eaten. He also said he would go to school early this morning."
"And when he woke up this morning, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But when he left the house... yes, when he left the house, he looked extremely nervous, as if he had done something wrong. I asked him what was wrong, but he refused to say and ran away. But I just thought he was playing around and didn't take it seriously."
The people around started to analyze the situation one after another.
"Oh, did you get bullied in school?"
"Stop talking nonsense! Didn't you hear that everything was fine last night? I think the problem must have happened this morning. Gua Wa Niang, think carefully about what else was wrong this morning?"
Guawa's mother was extremely anxious, but she had to rack her brains to recall. "I really can't remember. There really is nothing wrong. He was fine when he got up, and then he washed his face and put on his school bag to prepare to go out. Oh, right! It was when he put on the school bag that his face started to look strange."
If your face changes color when you carry a school bag, then the problem must be with the school bag.
"But what's the problem? I made the book bag for him last night using some old clothes from home. He put the books in it himself. Everything is fine."
You wouldn't mind that the book bag is made from old clothes, right?
Some families may not even have this.
This child has suffered a lot since he was a child, how could he possibly dislike it?
"Okay, Li Gua Niang, take your time to think about where Gua Wa might go. And fellow villagers, since you are here, you are all warm-hearted and want to help. Now just listen to my arrangements." Gu Huangping has been the village chief for so many years that he is already familiar with arranging such matters.
"Shui Gen, take a group of people to the village entrance and ask along the way if anyone has seen Li Guawa. If no one has, keep looking forward to see if the child went to the county town alone!"
"Li Fugui, take a group of people to the east. Huang Shi, take the people to the west. Huang Wu, you go to the south. The rest of you, search the riverside carefully."
"Okay. No problem."
"Let's go east with Fugui. I'm a good climber."
"Then I'll stay by the river. I'm a good swimmer. If anything happens, I can get in the water."
After choosing their direction, everyone separated, shouting Li Guawa's name loudly as they walked.
The villagers who heard the shouting came over to ask questions, and after knowing the cause and effect of the incident, they basically joined the search team.
Gu Jiayue followed Uncle Gu and walked west along the river.
There are no mountains in the west, only farmlands connected to each other.
The seedlings in the fields have grown very tall.
Because most villagers raise fish in the fields, from time to time you can see small fish jumping out of the fields, jumping from one field to another.
Occasionally there is a small platform between the fields, on which the villagers pile straw.
The straw is piled high, like a small pagoda. When it rains, you can pull apart the straw and hide inside. This is the result of the farmers' wisdom.
"Guawa!"
Gu Jiayue walked along the ridge of the field, one foot deep and one foot shallow. She had not expected such a sudden change today. She was wearing only ordinary embroidered shoes, which were neither waterproof nor had thin soles.
After climbing mountains and wading through water, my shoes have long been worn out.
"Jiayue, why don't you go back first? We'll go look for her." Uncle Gu felt heartbroken when he saw her like this.
When she wanted to set up a school, the Gu family, from top to bottom, did not support it.
Look, it’s only been two days and something happened.
It would be fine if the child was safe and sound, but if something really happened to him, there was no guarantee that the Li family would not vent their anger on Jiayue.
"I'm fine, I must find him." Gu Jiayue's mind and eyes were all focused on finding the child at the moment, so she had no time to care about the condition of her feet.
If a child of that age were missing and could not be found or something happened to him, his parents would be so sad.
She said that this was her student, and even if he was a stranger, she would definitely help find him if she met him.
"Ah." Uncle Gu sighed helplessly. He continued to walk forward, while shouting loudly: "Guawa!"
"Guawa, where are you? If you hear me, answer me!"
"Guawa! Li Guawa!"
"I'm here! Wuuwuwu, Master, I'm here!"
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