Chapter 215: Separation
He quietly stuck half of his head out and silently counted the heads in his mind: one, two, three.
The three of them were wrapped tightly in thick cotton coats, huddled together to keep each other warm and resist the cold wind.
After thinking about it, Suning left a secret code on the ground that only she could understand, and then slowly retreated quietly.
From what they implied, the batch of goods had already arrived and the transaction would take place in the next two days. In order to avoid alerting the enemy, she chose not to use medicine to find out.
After all, it is best to catch the thief and the evidence at the same time.
…
Tao City, Wuling County.
At seven o'clock in the evening, after changing buses several times, Zhang Ze finally arrived at the small county town where Wu Meng's family lived.
This county town is far inferior to Yong County under the ancient city, and it doesn’t even have a decent main street.
There are only two small two-story buildings.
After finally finding the old bridge, Zhang Ze immediately became alert, knowing that he was not far from the home that Wu Meng mentioned.
I saw a small camel-like hill not far away, and there were a large number of residential houses at the foot of the hill.
In the dark night, it was impossible to tell whether the mountain was a peach blossom forest that stretched as far as the eye could see as Wu Meng described.
"Dongdong~"
"Dong Dong Dong~"
"Who is it, late at night, coming?"
The man in the room casually put on a patched cotton jacket and opened the gate against the cold wind.
When I saw the unfamiliar face and met the sharp eyes, I didn't know if it was because of fear or the cold, but my calves started to tremble.
"You, who are you?"
"Hello, brother. I am a distant relative of the Wu family. I came here late at night because of an emergency at home. Could you please help me find the way?"
"Wu family? Which Wu family? This was originally Wujia Village, but most of the people here have the surname Wu!"
"My cousin's name is Wu Meng, Wu Meng's Wu family."
Wu Meng?
The girl from Wu Shengli's family at the end of the village?
"Wait a minute."
After gathering his clothes, the man returned to the house, greeted his wife, took a torch, lit it in the stove, and strode out.
"Come on, I'll take you there."
"Thank you, thank you brother!"
"We are all from the same village, so why are you being so polite? This road is not easy to walk on, so just follow closely."
"Yeah, okay."
Zhang Ze responded and followed him closely with the torch he held high. During this time, he couldn't help but ask, "How is my aunt?"
"You old blind woman, your son is not around, and your daughter is gone, your life is not easy."
The captain was kind-hearted and gave her easy and capable work on weekdays, so that she could barely make ends meet and not starve to death.
Besides, this place is not far from the county town. Although Wu Han can't come back, he is a filial son and his monthly allowance is mailed back home.
Otherwise, this man is blind and in poor health, so he has to take medicine every day. It would be useless if he had just that little food.
"Well, this is the room."
Before Wu Shengli got into trouble, the Wu family lived a life that was not too bad either in the village. The couple loved each other very much and they had both a son and a daughter.
Ever since her husband got into trouble, Wu Mengniang's body has deteriorated and her eyes have gone blind from crying. If she hadn't had her two children who couldn't let go, they would have probably followed him.
"Thank you, bro. I'm sorry to bother you!"
When they arrived at the place, Zhang Ze thanked him and took out a pack of Daqianmen from his pocket and handed him two cigarettes. After the waiter smiled and waved goodbye, he turned around and knocked on the Wu family's door again.
…
In order to save firewood and because she was blind and did not need firelight, Wu Mengniang went to bed early when it got dark and lay there even though she could not sleep.
Hearing the knock on the door, a look of confusion appeared on his wrinkled face.
She was so familiar with every corner of the house, inside and out, that even in the dark, she could accurately avoid the tables, chairs and benches and make her way to the front door without any obstacles.
"Who is it?"
Wu Mengniang felt the stick behind the door and picked it up. Instead of opening the door in a hurry, she asked carefully.
"Auntie, is this Wu Meng's home?"
"Girl?"
When Wu Mengniang heard her daughter's name from other people again, her hand trembled and the stick fell to the ground.
"Yes, yes, this is Wu Meng's home, her home!"
Startled by the sound of the stick, Wu Mengniang pulled out the bolt in panic, asking repeatedly, "Who are you? Do you know my Wu Meng? Where is she? Why hasn't she come home for so long?"
When asked the last question, the old man couldn't control his sobs, and the tears that he thought had dried up burst out even more.
"Don't get excited, Auntie. Let's talk slowly!"
"Okay, okay, I'm not excited, not excited... cough cough cough~"
The rough hand touched his face vigorously. Wu Mengniang stopped coughing and suppressed the uneasiness and discomfort in her heart as she led him into the house. "Come in, young man, let's go in first and talk inside."
Zhang Ze had good night vision and helped her into the yard.
I was led to sit down by the brazier in the kitchen. I saw her skillfully using dry fir needles to make a fire and adding a few thick firewood. I don't know why an inexplicable sourness welled up in my heart.
"Don't bother, Auntie. I'm not thirsty and I don't need to boil water."
"How can this guest not drink some hot water when he comes to visit?"
"Really? Please sit down first. If I'm really thirsty, I can make the soup myself, right?"
"Well, can you tell me now, young man? What happened to my Wu Meng?"
"aunt…"
After organizing his words, Zhang Ze told Wu Meng about the situation with some difficulty.
The cause and process of the incident were described as briefly as possible, just in a few sentences, for fear of scaring people and causing harm.
If there was still a living person in the house, even if it was a child who had not yet grown up, he would not choose to tell her about this.
"I knew it... I knew it. How could my girl not come to see me for such a long time? Something must have happened..."
"Whoever comes back, tell me my girl, my girl is gone, she is gone, she is nowhere to be found..."
"What do you mean she ran away with someone? My girl is not that kind of woman... Woohoo, my baby, my girl..."
"Auntie, you have to take care of yourself. Wu Meng is still waiting for you. She dreams of you taking her home."
Although what he said was concise, she had lived for so many years, and had seen and experienced everything, including wars and famines.
Wu Mengniang knew what the words "kidnapped" and "detained" meant just by thinking about it.
Even if her daughter survived, she knew better than anyone what would happen to the Wu family when they returned, as a widow.
But she wanted her baby to be alive. Even if he lived with a stigma on his body, it was better than a cold corpse.
Wu Mengniang calmed down quickly and stopped crying. She opened her lifeless eyes and grabbed his arm. "Young man, please take me to see her. Please! Don't wait until she's better and then send her back. Take me, take me to find her first!"
"Okay, let's set off tomorrow morning and I'll take you to see her."
"Thank you, thank you young man!"
Wu Mengniang fell to her knees with a thud and was about to kowtow in his direction.
"Auntie, what are you doing? Get up!"
"Thank you for saving my girl, and thank you for coming all the way to tell that blind woman..."
"aunt!"
Holding her shoulders firmly, Zhang Ze lifted her from the ground and placed her on the chair behind him.
"Auntie, I am also a soldier and your son is a ZY. I only regret that I didn't rescue him earlier. I don't deserve your thanks and your respect."
After much persuasion, Zhang Ze finally managed to persuade the man to stop.
But tonight's night is destined to be long.
…
There is a small courtyard of the Su family on the first street of the south gate of the ancient city.
Suning and Zhang Qi returned home one after the other. Before they could say anything, they saw the little guy, who should have gone to bed early, running into the main room.
"Auntie!"
"Xiao Qiu?"
He quickly held her in his arms and tore open his coat to wrap her up. "Why did you run away? Did you have a nightmare?"
"Aunt, why am I back in Gushi, but I still can't see you every day when I open my eyes? Do you not like Xiaoqiu anymore?"
When I opened my eyes, she had already gone out, and when I closed my eyes, she returned home.
Xiaoqiu pouted with two pools of tears in her eyes. Her aggrieved look made people feel both distressed and amused.
"How could that be? Xiaoqiu is so well behaved and cute, how could my aunt not like our Xiaoqiu?"
Fearing that the little one would catch a cold, Su Ning picked her up while coaxing her, "Godfather, godmother, brother, I'll take Xiao Qiu into the house and coax her to sleep first, and we'll talk later."
"I'd better let me go. You just came back and haven't even had time to eat a bite of food."
Hu Yingtao quickly stepped forward and took the child from her arms. She patted the little guy's butt in an angry manner and said, "You are disobedient. You don't listen to what grandma says?"
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