The next day, Miss Mazi came to Tao Xiaoxi's pharmacy. Tao Xiaoxi explained the job content to her, gave her a brief training, and then let her get started.
The girl with pockmarks was a little confused. She was starting the job already?
"What are you still standing there for? Get to work." Tao Xiaoxi urged, as naturally as if they had never had any grudges or conflicts.
When the eldest sister-in-law came over, the pockmarked girl was already busy. The eldest sister-in-law looked at her warily and asked, "Why are you here so early?"
The pockmarked girl smiled and said, "Sister Zhou Lan, I always get up early."
My sister-in-law felt a little ashamed.
"Sister-in-law, didn't you bring Miss Mo with you?" Tao Xiaoxi asked after coming over with the medicine.
"I left her at home. Wouldn't it be a problem if I brought her here?"
"Then can she be okay at home alone?" Tao Xiaoxi was a little worried.
"Don't worry, she's fine. She won't play with others and will just stay in the yard."
Tao Xiaoxi didn't ask any more questions.
However, before noon, Mrs. Li came running in in a panic, shouting that Miss Mo was missing.
"No, Mom, she never runs around." The eldest sister-in-law said as she took off her apron and ran back.
Tao Xiaoxi gave the pockmarked girl some instructions and followed her out.
As expected, she was not at home. After searching everywhere inside and outside, there was no sign of Mo Yatou. The eldest sister-in-law began to feel a little panicked and anxious.
"Let's look for her separately. Sister-in-law, can you think about where Miss Mo likes to go on weekdays?" Tao Xiaoxi asked.
"No, no." The eldest sister-in-law just murmured, "Mo girl won't go anywhere to play. I'm actually looking forward to her going somewhere to play..."
At first, no one took it seriously, thinking that the kids were just playful and would come back when they were tired. But when the sun was setting in the evening and it was getting dark, Mo Yatou was still nowhere to be found, so the people in Mantou Village also started looking for her.
During the day, the people of Lao Li's family had searched the village thoroughly. Now the villagers of Mantou Village searched again, with a level of rigor no less than a carpet search, but still found nothing.
"Where could he go? A living person just disappeared for no reason!" The eldest brother held his head, unable to figure it out.
The eldest sister-in-law was tired of crying. She was holding a piece of clothing of Mo Yatou, her face pale and unable to say anything. She felt extremely guilty. If only she had brought her with her during the day, if only she had not tried to show off her ability, her Mo Yatou would not have disappeared.
Just when everyone was at their wit's end and puzzled, Sun Wangcai interrupted, "It seemed like a beggar entered the village earlier this morning, and when he left, he seemed to be followed by a little kid."
"Who are you following? Is it girl Mo?" The eldest sister-in-law grabbed Sun Wangcai and asked anxiously.
"It was far away and I couldn't see clearly. I just remember it seemed like a baby. Didn't babies follow beggars and play with them in the past? Who would have thought it was Mo girl, and that she followed her? What normal child would follow a beggar?" said Sun Wangcai.
The Li family glared at him and said, "Why didn't you say so earlier?!"
"I just remembered it now." Sun Wangcai looked at his wife Tao Xiaoxi, afraid that she would find out that he had been hiding in the medicine field for half a day and slept in for half a day, and would only know that Mo Yatou was missing when he woke up.
"Where did you see them going?" Tao Xiaoxi asked the key question.
"The entrance to the village, heading out of the village."
"South or north?"
"I don't know. When I saw it, we hadn't reached the fork in the road yet."
This is tricky, as the roads heading south and north lead to different places, one to the county town and the other to the neighboring province.
"Brother and sister-in-law, I suggest that we split up into two groups and give chase. Maybe we can find out." Tao Xiaoxi suggested.
The eldest brother and his wife looked at their parents.
"Mom and Dad, please tell me quickly." Tao Xiaoxi turned and asked.
Old man Li, who had been silent the whole time, finally spoke up. "Then let's go look for it, but it's been so long, it's hopeless."
So the Li family, together with some villagers who volunteered to help, split into two teams and headed in two directions of the fork in the road to look for the missing person.
The second brother and his wife happened to be in the same team as Tao Xiaoxi. When they just set out, the second sister-in-law thought the night was too dark, so she turned back and got a flashlight. She was also very slow on the way, and Tao Xiaoxi endured it and didn't get angry.
"What a bunch of fools." The second sister-in-law muttered, and Tao Xiaoxi in front heard it.
"Second sister-in-law, what do you mean by this?"
"Isn't it obvious enough? In broad daylight, who—"
"Stop chattering and find it quickly! How do you still have time to chat?" The second brother scolded and pulled his wife aside.
Tao Xiaoxi felt something was wrong. It seemed like her second sister-in-law had something to say but her second brother stopped her. What was it that she couldn't say to her?
Tao Xiaoxi couldn't figure it out.
The group searched until midnight and couldn't bear it any longer. They still found nothing. Gradually, some people began to give up. After one person found something, two people did. Finally, everyone unanimously suggested going home.
Tao Xiaoxi stood in the pitch-black night. She did not feel fear, but only sadness, just like Mo Yatou's fate. It seemed that she had not been recognized since she came into this world, and it was full of tragedy.
She always felt that there was something strange about Mo's disappearance, but it couldn't be someone doing it on purpose. Mo was already very pitiful, who could be so cruel? Tao Xiaoxi didn't dare to think about it, nor did she want to think about it.
When they returned to the village, their eldest brother's team had also returned. Tao Xiaoxi was very surprised. She thought that her eldest brother and sister-in-law would somehow find Tianliang, but she didn't expect that they had returned too.
"I've looked for it and asked people along the way, but they all said they haven't seen it," said the eldest brother dejectedly.
Although Tao Xiaoxi still had many questions in her mind at this time, she kept silent when she saw that everyone else in the Li family had given up. Especially her eldest brother and sister-in-law had also given up without hope. What else could she say?
When everyone went back, Tao Xiaoxi pulled her sister-in-law aside and asked her to think carefully about whether there was anything wrong during the day, whether it was Mo Yatou or anyone else.
The eldest sister-in-law thought about it and shook her head. "I didn't find anything wrong. Poor little Mo, she just disappeared like that. It's me, as her mother, who hurt her!"
The eldest sister-in-law sobbed softly, not even daring to cry loudly. Tao Xiaoxi felt a pang of anxiety in her heart and patted her on the back. "I think we should call the police."
The next day, she gave her eldest brother a day off and asked him to call the police. Her eldest brother came back in less than two hours.
"Have you called the police? Has the Public Security Bureau filed a case?"
The eldest brother shook his head and said, "They said they won't file a case until 24 hours have passed."
"Then why did you come back? Waiting there?" Tao Xiaoxi was so anxious, what a wooden man!
"There is still a lot of work to do in the medicine field. It's a waste of time to stay there. I'll come back first." The eldest brother said and went to the field.
Tao Xiaoxi hugged Manman tightly, and suddenly hugged her tightly, putting her face against her little face, and murmured, "Mommy will never lose you."
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