Chapter 20
Chang Ting squatted in front of Xu Candong, grabbed his hair and forced him to raise his face.
"You beast, where did you take Xu Xixi?"
"Ask her mother!" Xu Candong roared angrily, "That bitch stole the child!"
Another policeman found a piece of paper on the coffee table and showed it to Chang Ting.
The paper read: "I took Xixi away." Signed: Zou Li.
Zou Li was Xu Candong's ex-wife. Zhou Zhengzheng also came over to see what was happening, and suddenly realized: "No wonder I couldn't contact Zou Li no matter what I did. It turns out she took the child and went into hiding!"
Chang Ting held two medicine bottles in his hands. They were found in Xixi's cabin, one containing sleeping pills and the other containing anticoagulants.
He looked serious. "She may not be aware of the child's health condition. We must contact her as soon as possible and send the child to the doctor in time."
He turned around and stepped on Xu Candong's head. Xu Candong screamed.
Zhou Zhengzheng gnashed his teeth at him and mouthed: Violation of discipline, violation of discipline!
Chang Ting reluctantly withdrew his foot and asked Xu Candong: "Tell me, when did the child disappear?"
"A week ago... when I came back in the morning, it was gone..."
Chang Ting recalled that when he logged into Xu Candong's video account, all he watched were replays. This past week, Xu Candong had indeed not brought his children live.
He told Zhou Zhengzheng to order: "Go check the surveillance."
Zhou Zhengzheng immediately understood and ran to the property management to check the surveillance.
She squatted in the monitoring room from night to daybreak and finally saw Zou Li walk into the community gate. Beyond that, she found nothing else. She also didn't find Zou Li leaving the community, nor did she see Xixi.
This was understandable. Because the surveillance coverage in this old residential complex was limited, the door to Xu Candong's apartment building wasn't visible. The complex had more than one exit; in addition to the main entrance, there were two unsurveilled side entrances. Zou Li might have left with Xixi through the side entrance.
Zhou Zhengzheng checked the surveillance cameras at the intersections near Xiangyang Community one by one until the afternoon, but found nothing.
Her eyes were almost blinded and she was ruffling her hair in distress.
In the interrogation room of the detachment, Chang Ting's anger was about to burst out.
Xu Candong was brought back last night for questioning on suspicion of child abuse and fraud, but he kept protesting his innocence.
"Brother Chang, you really wronged me."
"Who is your Chang brother?!"
Xu Candong said aggrievedly: "Didn't you ask me to call you that?"
Five years ago, Xu Candong was an eyewitness to the fire at the Zangmo base, and Chang Ting had contact with him many times. At the time, Xu Candong was a high school student, and Chang Ting, fearing that he would be nervous, treated him like a brother.
At this time, I just felt sick.
Xu Candong said with a bitter face: "Brother Chang, my daughter has leukemia. We are fighting the disease. What's wrong with doing live broadcasts to spread positive energy? People donate money to us voluntarily. I didn't force them!"
Chang Ting suppressed his anger and sat across from him: "Then tell me, which hospital was Xu Xixi's leukemia diagnosed in?"
"Does this need to be confirmed by the hospital? Can't we just search on Baidu and find out? She often has nosebleeds and blood spots on her body. Aren't these symptoms of leukemia?" Xu Candong said as if it was a matter of course.
Chang Ting looked at him in disbelief: "Is this a confirmed diagnosis?"
Xu Candong stared: "How could what they said on the Internet be wrong?"
"Even if you're stupid enough to go to a doctor..."
Xu Candong: "I want to complain, you insult me."
Chang Ting held back his anger and said, "Cross out the word stupid. Even if you think the child has leukemia, have you taken her to the hospital for treatment?"
"We didn't go to the hospital, but treatment was not delayed."
Chang Ting thought he had misheard: "What do you mean?"
Xu Candong's expression was both mysterious and serious. "You can't go to the hospital. They're all scammers. The side effects of those Western medicines are so severe. They can kill perfectly healthy people. My Xixi won't fall for that. We're taking conservative treatment. Do you know anything about health tea?"
Judging the condition of the disease without a diagnosis from a hospital and treating the disease on your own without receiving formal treatment - although it is ignorant, it is not illegal.
It seems that Xu Candong had prepared his speech long ago.
Chang Ting realized the man's cunning. He couldn't help but wonder: Could the boy who seemed honest and straightforward five years ago actually be so cunning?
Chang Ting tossed an evidence bag in front of him, revealing two medicine bottles. "These were found in Xu Xixi's room. Why did you give the child this medicine?"
Xu Candong stared at the medicine bottle for a while and said, "This isn't for Xixi. This is my medicine. I have trouble sleeping, and this is my sleeping pill. That bottle is for thrombolytics. I have high blood lipids, so I usually take a few pills to prevent cerebral thrombosis. The medicine bottle is in her room... maybe she secretly took it to play with it."
Chang Ting clenched his fists: "You..."
Xu Candong retreated cautiously: "Hey, Brother Chang, if you hit me, I will complain to you."
Colleagues quickly pulled Chang Ting outside.
Xu Candong's slick voice echoed behind him: "Brother Chang, I understand the law. Without evidence, you can't detain someone for more than 24 hours. It's almost time!"
Chang Ting paced back and forth in the corridor, muttering to himself irritably: "As long as I find Xu Xixi..."
As long as Xu Xixi is sent to the hospital for a check-up, it will be possible to find out whether she has been fed drugs.
He picked up his phone and wanted to call Zhou Zhengzheng to ask if she had found Zou Li. Before he could dial, Zhou Zhengzheng called first.
"Master! We found Zou Li and the child!"
Chang Ting's eyes lit up: "Where is the person?"
"Neighborhood committee! It turns out they never left the complex and were hiding in their neighbors' houses..."
Chang Ting didn't bother to listen to the end: "Keep them, I'll be there soon."
He hurried out, thinking to himself that he had to take the child for a personal examination. As long as it could be proven that the child had been severely abused and injured, Xu Candong could be detained and a request for arrest could be made.
*
In the neighborhood committee office, Zou Li sat on a bench with a nervous expression, holding the sleeping Xixi in her arms.
Zhou Zhengzheng placed a cup of hot water in front of her: "Drink some water first."
"Thanks."
Zhou Zhengzheng sat across from the coffee table and asked, "Tell me what's going on."
"The child was originally awarded to me." Zou Li hugged the child tightly, as if she was afraid that Zhou Zhengzheng would come up and snatch it away.
"I don't mean to blame you. I just want to know what happened."
Zou Li's expression relaxed a little: "When we divorced, Xu Candong's child custody was given to me, and Xu Candong didn't fight for it at all. But after the divorce, Xu Candong suddenly chased me to my parents' house, snatched the child away, and wouldn't let me see him, not even opening the door for me.
"I asked my parents to help me get the child back, but they said that the child originally belonged to the Xu family and they would definitely not treat her badly. Wouldn't it be best if Xu Candong was willing to raise her?
"My parents also said that I couldn't work and had no income with the child, so I couldn't afford to raise the child. It would be difficult for me to find another husband, and I couldn't let them rely on me forever. They made me feel ashamed, and I didn't feel so determined to get the child back. Now I think I was really wrong, I deserved to die..."
Zou Li choked up and said that after that, she went to work, thinking of saving some money and taking the child back when she was able to.
She accidentally came across Xu Candong's live broadcast and learned that her daughter had leukemia. She rushed back, but Xu Candong refused to let her see the child and blamed her for insisting on divorce. The child's illness was caused by the shock and it was all her fault.
Her self-blame, coupled with Xu Candong's beatings, made it even more difficult for her to muster the courage to fight for her rights.
On second thought, Xu Candong was willing to take care of a sick child, which meant he really loved the child. So she didn't insist.
But later she followed Xu Candong's live broadcast and saw the child dying, and felt that the child was not well taken care of.
Zou Li wiped away her tears, raised her face and said, "I thought I couldn't go on like this, I had to get the child back. Xu Candong refused to give it to me, so I stole it. I knew Xu Candong loved gambling and fun, and he often stayed out all night. So a week ago, when I saw him go out, I took the child away..."
Zhou Zhengzheng asked: "Do you have the key to that house?"
Zou Li shook her head: "No."
"Then how did you get in?"
"I knocked on the door and said I was mom. Xixi heard me and opened the door for me from the inside."
Zhou Zhengzheng asked in surprise: "Can Xixi walk?"
"Yes." Zou Li lowered her head and touched the child's head. The child had already grown black stubble.
Chang Ting had previously said that Xu Xixi's long-term use of sleeping pills might have affected her walking ability, which had distressed Zhou Zhengzheng. Now, knowing that the child could walk, he felt very relieved.
Zhou Zhengzheng asked again: "Why didn't you leave and hide at your neighbor's house?"
"That night, when I was walking downstairs with Xixi, I heard a sound outside the unit door. I knew Xu Candong was back..."
"Can you recognize his footsteps?"
"It's not footsteps. It's grunting. Xu Candong has a bad habit. He always makes this noise in his throat. I know it's him as soon as I hear it." Zou Li imitated it twice.
An annoying sound.
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