Xiaolan's mother staggered out of the alley and asked passers-by on the street where the county government was. When passers-by saw her in such a mess, they knew she must have been bullied by evildoers, so they kindly pointed her to the county government office.
Xiaolan's mother found the county government office in the south of the city and ran in in a panic.
A government official at the door stopped him and said, "What's the matter?"
Xiaolan's mother said anxiously: "I want to report it to the police. Someone kidnapped my daughter and kidnapped a little boy. They also inflicted injuries on me."
The yamen servant saw Xiaolan's mother's clothes in tatters and stained with blood. Then, the woman looked up and saw that her face was bruised and swollen, and there was dried blood on her forehead. She said, "Come with me."
Then he took Xiaolan's mother to the county government office and said to the master: "Master, someone reported to the official that someone had kidnapped her daughter, kidnapped her son, and injured her."
"It's not my son, it's someone else's son, a little boy of seven or eight years old."
The master said: "Can you see who they are?"
"That's the guy from Zui Chun Tower!"
When the master heard the name "Zuichun Tower", he shuddered in his heart. He heard that this Zuichun Tower had a big backing, and most of the people who went there were dignitaries. How could a small county government dare to take care of this? Yes, I thought I would send her away without informing the county magistrate. However, there was no big expression on his face and he said, "Are you sure it's Zui Chunlou? You can't talk nonsense without evidence."
"They said they are from Zuichunlou."
"They said? They just said yes? Maybe they were just talking nonsense."
"Yes or no, sir, please bring someone over to check and it will become clear."
When the master saw that the lady was wearing rags and her accent sounded like she was not from the local area, he asked, "Where are you from? What's your last name?"
"The little woman is from Shandong, my husband's surname is Fang, and my surname is Feng."
The master continued to ask unhurriedly: "Ms. Feng of the Fang family, please tell me what happened." But in his heart, he was thinking about how to send her away.
Ms. Feng began to tell about the situation at that time. When she said that she regretted not selling her daughter, the master interrupted her: "You yourself regretted not selling her daughter in the middle, and you also said that someone abducted your daughter!"
Feng said with an aggrieved look: "But, don't you know that the little woman was sold to a brothel? I thought she was..."
The master reprimanded: "It's the same everywhere you sell it! It's all sold anyway! If you sell it, you will say that this daughter has nothing to do with you, do you understand?"
"But..." Feng thought immediately, "There was also a seven or eight-year-old child who was also taken away by them."
"tell me the story."
"A little boy of seven or eight years old fell from the sky and fought with the four or five people. He had already broken free, and then another man came. He ran very fast, knocked him unconscious and took him away."
"Are you making up a story here? A seven- or eight-year-old kid beating four or five people? A man who runs very fast? Do you think I'm a three-year-old kid?"
"What I said is real!"
"He's talking nonsense, come here, kick this crazy woman out!"
"The kid said that he was..." Before Li Zhentian's name could be uttered, he was already grabbed by several government officials and driven out of the county government office.
Feng lay on the ground, at a loss. After getting up, she seemed to have thought of something and ran into the alley again. After returning to this alley, no one was here, and the back door was tightly closed. Walking dejectedly on the street, looking at the vendors shopping and pedestrians on both sides, the bustling city of Kaifeng seemed so out of place for me. I walked up to a vendor buying steamed buns, swallowed, walked up and said, "Boss, can you give me two steamed buns?"
The hawker looked at Feng and said, "Do you have money?"
Feng said embarrassedly: "I'll give it to you on credit first, and I'll give it to you in two days."
"I'm sorry, it's a small business and we don't accept credit."
At this time, a man came over to buy steamed buns. The vendor opened the basket and was packing steamed buns for the man. Feng didn't care about the heat of the steamed buns in the cage, stretched out his hands, and ignored the pain in his legs and feet, grabbed the two steamed buns and ran away.
Seeing the situation, the vendor shouted while serving steamed buns: "Hey, hey, hey! There is a thief! Someone stole my steamed buns!"
Feng ran rampantly out of the crowd, looked back and saw no one was chasing her, and then slowly stopped. The heat from the steamed buns burned Feng's hands red. Feng looked at the two steamed buns and shed tears. She didn't know whether she was crying because she was burned by the steamed buns or because of something else.
The sky was gradually getting dark, and with the setting sun still retaining a trace of light, Feng limped to a haystack at the edge of the city, opened a piece of hay, and walked in with her body lowered. In this small, dark space, a four-year-old boy was lying on the hay on the ground, coughing non-stop.
The boy coughed and shouted: "Mom! Cough, cough, you are back, cough."
Ms. Feng forced out a smile and said, "Little Shitou, Mom is back. Are you hungry? Mom brought you steamed buns." She took out two steamed buns, sat next to the little boy, and let some of them cool down. The steamed buns were torn into pieces bit by bit and fed to the little boy.
The boy was eating the steamed buns fed by his mother. He looked at his mother and said, "Mom, where is my sister?"
Feng held back her tears and consoled her: "My sister found a place to work, and she bought these steamed buns with the money she earned. But it's busier there, so she lives there."
"Then will she come back to see us?"
"Yes... I will."
"Yeah. Mom, you should eat too."
"Mom, you're not hungry. Mom has already eaten on the way back. You lie down and Mom will find you some water." After saying that, she walked out of the haystack, suppressing her voice, but her tears couldn't stop flowing out. flow. After a while, I came back after finding some water.
In the darkness, the boy couldn't see the tears on his mother's face, and asked curiously: "What kind of job is my sister looking for?"
"Well, I just work as a maid in someone's house. Sweep the floor, wash clothes, cook and so on."
"Oh. The stone must get better soon. Come on, go and find a place to work." Then he took a sip of the water handed over by his mother, "This way, mother doesn't have to work so hard."
"Yes. So Shitou should have a good rest. When you recover, mother will take you to see your sister."
"good!"
Feng patted her son's back and coaxed her son to sleep little by little. When I saw my son sleeping, I felt so much pain and sleepiness that I fell asleep unconsciously, as if I had collapsed. When Feng woke up, she saw the beginning of white in the east. After walking out of the haystack, he turned back and cried loudly: "Child. Mom is sorry for you two siblings. But that child was taken away to help us. No matter how hard she risked her life, mom would save that child. . I don’t know if I can come back. Whether you live or die depends on your fate." Then, he strode towards the city.
Let's say that Mrs. Zhou and Li Longzhan searched for several people. They searched from the afternoon to the evening, and then from the evening to the whole night. They found no trace of Li Yu. They had no sleep all night and they were restless. By early morning, all the searchers had returned, with no results at all.
Mrs. Zhou said in a panic: "Long Zhan, why don't we mother and son run away! If we can't find your brother, I'm afraid neither you nor I will survive!"
When Li Longzhan saw his mother like this, he said firmly: "Mom! I won't leave. This is my fault. I must take responsibility for the mistakes I made."
"Responsible! What are you responsible for? Your life?"
"When dad and aunt come back, I will tell you everything in detail. If you really can't tolerate me, I will pay for it with my life!"
"Mom, you are the only son, how could you die like this? No, you have to come with me." After saying that, she pulled Li Longzhan to follow her, and said to the maid: "Hurry up and clean up. , and then we’ll go together.”
The maid didn't dare to disobey. After all, she had seen the eldest lady behave like that, and her life or death was uncertain if she stayed.
"I won't leave! My brother's whereabouts are unknown now. If I leave, won't I even have an explanation?"
Mrs. Zhou had been persuading Li Longzhan earnestly, pulling on Li Longzhan's clothes to ask him to follow her. The maid packed her things and said hurriedly: "Second Madam, let's go."
"What are you looking at? Why don't you come over quickly and take the young master with you!"
When the maid heard this, she hurried forward to pull Li Longzhan away. But Li Longzhan was unmoved and stubbornly refused to leave. The two of them were unable to forcefully pull Li Longzhan away.
"We're looking for someone to look for. If we can't find him, then it's because I killed my brother. If I had been more careful, I wouldn't have been in this situation. Mom! If you leave, you can leave. My child. If you don't leave, whether you want to be beaten or killed, you will all obey the orders of father and aunt." Then he separated the two people and walked to the stool to sit down.
Seeing Li Longzhan like this, Mrs. Zhou walked to sit next to Li Longzhan and compromised: "Oh! You are my only son. If you die, what's the point of my mother's life? If you don't leave, don't leave." Then he put down the baggage in his hands and said to the maid: "You can leave on your own. There is no need to risk your life for us two."
When the maid saw this situation, she didn't know what to choose. Just when he was deciding whether to stay or go, a hearty and hearty laughter came from outside the door.
"Long Zhan, Yu'er, haha! Dad is back!"
