After a moment of silence, Shen Mingzhi said to Li An in a serious tone, "Xiuzhu hasn't returned yet, so I can't give you a solution immediately. If there's really no other way, you can ask someone to tell the Song family that you won't cooperate with me anymore, and see if you can get a quota."
Upon hearing this, Li An immediately became somewhat angry. "Even if I were to do that, do you think Xiuzhu would agree? He considers you a friend and listens to you... His sister is especially grateful to you for getting this idle younger brother to do something productive. Didn't you say last time that you wanted to go look at the factory? I recently asked someone to inquire about it—"
"Is this where Shen Mingzhi lives?!"
Before he could finish speaking, a man wearing a yellow hard hat at the door asked loudly.
"Yes, that's me." She glanced at the old watch Jiang Shaozhen had given her earlier; it wasn't lunchtime yet.
Upon hearing this, the man immediately came in and anxiously pulled at her, "Sister-in-law, Comrade Jiang has had an accident. You must come with me to the construction site!"
Shen Mingzhi's heart skipped a beat. She immediately stood up and said to Li An, "You go back first, I'll come find you later!"
Ang Lee nodded, picked up the black leather bag beside him, and left first.
The man tugged at Shen Mingzhi's sleeve and kept rambling on, "He suddenly became strange, he's not quite right in the head. We suggested taking him to the hospital, but he refused and insisted that you come instead!"
Shen Mingzhi pulled her hand back and said to him, "Comrade, don't worry, I'll go with you right away."
After explaining things to Wang Xinian, she went out with the man.
Jiang Shao-chen's construction site is in the suburbs.
Halfway through her ride, Shen Mingzhi turned to look at the man, wanting to ask him about Jiang Shao Chen's situation, but found that the man seemed very nervous.
There was absolutely no sense of relaxation as before.
A strange feeling flashed through her mind as she recalled the previous scene.
She soon realized that the man was very clean. Every day when Jiang Shao Chen came back from the construction site, his fingernails were covered in dust, and he would trim them himself and wash them several times.
This person's fingers are completely clean...
Shen Mingzhi slowed down her bicycle pedaling. When the man's bicycle came up beside her, she stretched out one leg and kicked him off the bike, then turned her bicycle around.
"Damn sluts!"
The man she kicked into the ditch next to the field was cursing as he picked up his bicycle.
She frantically pedaled her bicycle in a panic.
The man pushed his bicycle out of the ditch, ignoring the mud on his clothes, and chased after Shen Mingzhi, shouting, "You stop right there!"
Shen Mingzhi thought only a fool would stand still!
As she rode her bicycle back to the residential compound, before she could even catch her breath, she heard a commotion inside.
The faint sound of Wang's sobs could be heard amidst the murmurs.
Shen Mingzhi's mind went blank for a moment. She dropped her bicycle and rushed in, pushing through the crowd. She saw Wang Sao with tears streaming down her face and asked, "What happened?!"
"Zhizhi! The child is gone! I only went to the kitchen for a short while, less than three minutes... and the child who was sleeping in the main room just disappeared!" Aunt Wang grabbed Shen Mingzhi, crying her heart out, "The Jiang family doesn't want me to live anymore! Which heartless bastard actually came to the family compound to steal a child!"
There was no surveillance in this era... Shen Mingzhi could barely stand.
Her lips were bloodless as she helped Wang Sao up and asked, "Where's Xinian? Didn't I tell him to keep an eye on him?"
“He went to find the children… He didn’t see anyone come in…” Aunt Wang said, crying.
The onlookers were buzzing with discussion.
"Stealing a child in broad daylight... It looks like it was done by someone they know. Otherwise, how would they know she has two children?"
"It was someone we know? That's terrifying! Everyone should close their doors during the day, or the children will be stolen!"
Upon hearing this, Shen Mingzhi looked at them and said, "Didn't any of you see it?!"
"Everyone's busy in the kitchen at lunchtime, who would be chatting at the door? You know, if it were after lunch, this wouldn't happen!"
"We knew, so of course we told you! Go and go look for it!"
"Zhizhi, quickly go and inform the Jiang family. Maybe the traffickers haven't gone far. Mobilize the guards to look for the child!" Wang Sao cried out.
Shen Mingzhi let go of her, turned around and ran outside. She picked up the bicycle at the door and rode it towards the Jiang family's house.
When she arrived at the gate of the Jiang family compound, she jumped off her bicycle, but before she could run two steps, her legs gave way and she fell to the ground.
A piercing pain shot through her palms, elbows, and knees, and she couldn't help but cry out, "Uncle Jiang!"
The guard at the door stepped forward and helped her up. "Comrade Shen, what's wrong?"
“My children… my children are missing, both of them are gone. They want me to see Uncle Jiang…” Shen Mingzhi said incoherently.
This isn't modern times; once a child is taken away, they can't be found... The thought of her two children not being able to speak, only able to babble and cry, drove her to the brink of madness.
The guards led her into the house. Jiang Qing came downstairs and, upon hearing that the child was missing, immediately ordered the guards to search for him and called Jiang Guofu at the same time.
While the call wasn't going through, she couldn't help but yell at Shen Mingzhi, "What kind of mother are you! All you ever do is make money, right?! You don't even care about the kids at home, just relying on Wang Sao and that relative of Wang Sao? I've told their father several times to come back, but you insisted on moving out. Now look what happened, both kids were taken away in broad daylight! What kind of mother are you!"
Shen Mingzhi was crying so hard she couldn't speak, her whole body trembling. She didn't know what to do... In modern times, she could check surveillance footage, but the moment she ran out of the family compound, looking at the streets stretching in all directions, she felt lost.
After the call connected, Jiang Qing cried, "The two children have been taken away, and no one has seen them... Please send someone to look for them!"
After she finished speaking, she slammed down the phone, grabbed Shen Mingzhi by the collar, and said, "If anything happens to the child, I'm telling you, you're getting out of the Jiang family. I'll make sure you divorce Shao Chen no matter what! What kind of mother are you?! What kind of mother are you?!"
Jiang Qing practically roared, veins bulging on her forehead, as she shoved Shen Mingzhi away, yelling, "If you can't find the child, you might as well die!"
Shen Mingzhi's eyes were swollen, and her hands, placed at her sides, were trembling constantly.
The blood from her palms stained her clothes.
After Jiang Qing finished cursing, she collapsed onto the sofa and burst into tears. "My grandchildren are in trouble! Shen Mingzhi, I want your life... Is this how you raise children? You two adults don't care, and you're just relying on others. We told you to come back, but you won't... You've killed two children!"
Shen Mingzhi turned and ran out of the Jiang family compound, picked up her bicycle, and began searching for her child all over the street.
She didn't know how many streets she rode through or how many children she saw... In the end, her legs gave out, and she fell off her bicycle.
She fell to the ground and lay there sobbing.
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