"Meow..." It called to Xiao Hei.
"Meow."
Xiao Hei responded with a low cry.
…
Hua Shi, who had already gone downstairs, had no idea that the black cat in the room jumped down from the windowsill and slipped out quietly after she left the room.
I don’t know when Xie Mingchi will come back, Hua Shi thought, I’ll just take a look around the streets outside and wait for him to come back.
As soon as he reached the door, he saw a large and turbulent crowd gathered outside the open gate of the inn. A noisy discussion came from the bustling street.
Hua Shi approached with doubt and vaguely heard unclear words such as "dead person..." and "child..."
"Poor thing, he was fine yesterday, but he died just like that..."
When Hua Shi got closer, she heard an old lady carrying a vegetable basket sighing and saying.
She walked calmly to the side of the old lady and squeezed into the crowd. Through the tight gap, she saw a corpse surrounded by the crowd.
From the scarf wrapped around her head and the dark-colored clothing on her body, it was clear that the deceased was a woman... Her face was pale, her lips were purple, and aside from the wound on her forehead, her exposed hands and feet had no other obvious injuries. The cause of death was unknown, and her identity was also unknown...
"Who is the dead person?" Hua Shi asked casually.
The woman standing next to her took a look at her. Seeing that she had red lips and white teeth, she looked pleasing to the eye. She casually replied, "Who knows? She doesn't look like she's from this town. I don't know her. I saw her hanging around here a couple of days ago. I don't know how she died."
As the old lady spoke, she clicked her tongue and shook her head, with a look of sigh on her face.
"How do you know that?" Hua Shi asked back.
The old lady listened to the questioning tone in her question and looked unhappy. She said, "I live at the entrance of the alley next door and come here every day. I must know. And I also know that she was sitting here crying and shouting yesterday, saying that her son was missing and she wanted to go look for him. She was crying and talking nonsense. I think she didn't take good care of her child. He was abducted by human traffickers and might have been sold on the black market without her knowing."
After hearing what the old lady said, Hua Shi suddenly remembered the two women who were forcibly kicked out of the inn the day before yesterday. One of them was shouting that her child was missing...
Hua Shi turned to look at the corpse surrounded by the crowd. Thinking of it, it looked familiar. It seemed to be one of the women who was driven out that day...
Combined with what the old lady said just now, this woman lost her child for some unknown reason and kept staying in the lobby of the inn, refusing to leave. After being driven out by the people in the inn, she still wandered around and was reluctant to leave. She stayed for a day and a night, and died here the next day for some unknown reason.
Her child was most likely trafficked into the black market...
"Auntie, do children in this town often get lost?" Hua Shi suddenly asked.
"How could that be? Haven't you seen how few children are playing on the streets? A few children were lost before, but then everyone stopped letting them out on their own, so we haven't heard of any children being lost since then. But those outsiders who come here often don't keep an eye on their children, so every now and then you hear someone shouting on the street that their child is lost."
The old lady suddenly lowered her voice as she spoke, "I heard that all the lost dolls in town were buried in the black market. It's impossible to find them. Once lost, they're lost. Even if they're found, they may not still be alive. If you ask me..."
Before the old lady could begin her long speech, there was a sudden movement at the entrance of the street, followed by a rough voice, scolding.
"Get out of the way, get out of the way! Everyone, get out of the way!"
A chaotic and hurried sound of expulsion rang out, and the familiar people quickly retreated to both sides. Those who didn't know what was going on and were still standing there stupidly watching were pushed away by the dozen or so yamen officials who rushed over. After several rounds of pushing and shoving, the crowd fell to both sides.
“Hey hey hey…! My shoes! My shoes…!”
"Stop pushing, stop pushing!"
“…You stepped on me!”
The crowd was in turmoil, with screams coming one after another. The scene looked funny for a while.
The dozen or so ferocious yamen officials didn't care about these things and pushed people without knowing how hard they pushed. Several people who were pushed to the ground, who were retreating, didn't pay attention and were stepped over by the people who fell to the ground.
The lady who was talking to Hua Shi was also very smart. When she heard the voice of the yamen official, she immediately hid far away. Hua Shi also hid far away, thus avoiding being squeezed out by the surging crowd.
After the dozen or so yamen officials drove the crowd to both sides, without asking any questions, they assigned four people to lift the corpse on the ground and walked back in the direction they came from. The remaining yamen officials controlled the chaotic situation.
With lightning speed, in the blink of an eye, the body was carried away, and the yamen officials also left. When the crowd of onlookers saw that there was nothing to watch, they also dispersed.
The streets returned to calm, as if the corpse lying on the ground was an illusion. No one cared about it, and it just... ended up in vain.
"Ashi...? Why are you standing here like this?"
When he was in a daze, he suddenly heard Xie Mingchi's voice beside his ear, and Hua Shi turned around to look over.
Xie Mingchi noticed that something was wrong with her expression, so he walked up to her and rubbed her face with his hand.
The calloused hand roughly stroked her cheek, scratching her face painfully.
Hua Shi's brows furrowed suddenly, she took a breath, and slapped his hand down, "Don't rub it, it hurts...ah."
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