socalfunplaces Chapter 103 The Scene is Out of Control!
Chapter 103 The Scene is Out of Control!
Hearing Wang Xiuying's words, Gu Lin frowned as well.
"Keep looking. The child is small; maybe he's asleep behind some haystack." Officer Zhang tried to remain calm, but the anxiety in his voice was palpable.
He waved his hand and sent two small teams to search the outskirts of the village.
The murmurs among the crowd gradually grew louder.
"We've been searching for over an hour, and there's not even a trace of them..."
"It's pitch black, where could the child have gone? Could it be…?"
One of the three men Su Wanwan had noticed earlier suddenly stood up from the crowd: "If you ask me, they shouldn't have put on this fancy show! A whole bunch of people came, making a racket, it scared the kids half to death! How could a perfectly healthy child just suddenly be gone?"
Those around him immediately chimed in, "Exactly! How many years has it been since a child went missing in our village? They come, and trouble ensues! Who knows what they did to deserve this?"
"Yes! They must have brought this bad luck upon themselves!"
"Soldiers shouldn't have come!"
The villagers are ignorant.
Everyone's been provoked now.
They believe the children were lost because of the army's deployment to rural areas!
Many villagers even thought that it was their arrival that had caused some unclean activity!
Several villagers who were just watching the fun were provoked by these words. When they looked at the performers in red and green costumes from the cultural troupe, their eyes changed, and their pointing and whispering grew louder and louder.
"My second daughter just said her stomach hurt; she must have bumped into something!"
"I've had a feeling that the sound of gongs and drums was off for a while now..."
The situation was on the verge of spiraling out of control.
Zhou Min's face darkened. She took a step forward, her voice clear and firm: "Folks, calm down! We're just as worried as you are about the child being lost! The most important thing now is to find him, not to argue! We're one family, the military and the people; we'll face anything together!"
"Who says we're family?!" the short, stocky man retorted, "The child got lost during your performance, so you're responsible! You're not leaving until you find him!"
"Yes! Don't even think about leaving!"
"Hand over the child!"
The crowd stirred, and several agitated villagers surged forward, pushing and shoving each other.
The soldiers maintaining order quickly stepped forward to stop them, and the scene became chaotic for a moment.
Sweating profusely, Officer Zhang reassured the crowd while whispering to Zhou Min, "Captain Zhou, this can't go on. We need to send more people, expand the search area, and look further afield. We need to go to the Gobi Desert behind the village, and the old brick kiln area!"
Hiding behind Gu Lin, Wang Xiuying watched the chaotic scene unfold before her, and the flower in her heart bloomed ever brighter.
The more chaotic it is, the greater her credit will be when she brings the baby out later.
She secretly tugged at Gu Lin's sleeve and whispered, "Comrade Gu Lin, let's not just wait here. I have a feeling the child might not have gone far, maybe he's just scared in some random corner nearby. Shall we go look for him?"
Gu Lin was already annoyed by the chaotic situation before her, and nodded upon hearing this: "Alright. I can't be of any help here anyway."
Wang Xiuying was secretly delighted, but pretended to be worried: "Then let's look in places where there are fewer people. I think I just saw a small shadow running towards the back of the village."
Gu Lin quickly replied, "Then let's go take a look!"
The two squeezed out of the crowd amidst the chaos, with Wang Xiuying leading the way.
Wang Xiuying went straight to the abandoned brick kiln behind the village.
She walked slowly and deliberately took a longer route.
Every now and then, it would stop and pretend to peer into the haystack.
"Sister Xiuying, are you sure this is the way? It's getting further and further away." Gu Lin looked at the increasingly sparse mud houses around her, and the dark outline of the Gobi Desert in the distance looked like a lurking beast in the night. She felt a little uneasy.
"I...I can't say for sure, it's just a feeling," Wang Xiuying said vaguely, feeling somewhat nervous.
But remembering her glory in her previous life, she gritted her teeth and said, "Since we're already here, let's look ahead. There seems to be an old cave dwelling over there. Maybe the child is hiding inside."
From afar, Su Wanwan saw Wang Xiuying and Gu Lin's backs as they left the crowd.
She is currently unsure whether Wang Xiuying knows the child's whereabouts.
But Su Wanwan always felt that something was off about Wang Xiuying.
She thought about it for a moment, then followed.
The night wind howled, and the dirt road was full of potholes.
Su Wanwan carefully used the terrain for cover, watching the blurry figures of the two people in front of her.
She wasn't sure if Wang Xiuying knew anything, but her intuition told her that she might discover something if she followed along.
At the entrance of the production team compound, everyone was still shouting and making noise.
Officer Zhang and Zhou Min were in a complete mess.
Officer Zhang pulled Zhou Min aside: "Captain Zhou, something's not right. The situation reported by Comrade Su Wanwan is very important; those people are probably not ordinary villagers. I've already sent two alert soldiers to secretly keep an eye on those who are instigating trouble in the crowd."
Zhou Min's expression turned serious: "You mean... someone took the opportunity to cause trouble?"
"We can't rule out that possibility." Officer Zhang's eyes were sharp. "The child's disappearance was too coincidental, and the troublemakers appeared too timely. I suspect they might have hidden the child to create conflict and damage relations between the military and civilians."
Just then, a soldier rushed over and whispered a few words in Officer Zhang's ear.
Officer Zhang narrowed his eyes: "You caught one? Where?"
"He tried to slip away from behind the old locust tree at the village entrance, but we caught him."
"Take me to see it, but be careful not to alert anyone else."
Officer Zhang instructed Zhou Min to continue calming the crowd, and then quickly left with the soldiers.
They wanted to interrogate the suspects discreetly, identify their accomplices, and find the child.
Unexpectedly, the other two accomplices in the crowd were extremely alert. When they noticed that the short, stocky man had not returned and that Officer Zhang had suddenly left, they immediately realized that something might have happened.
The two exchanged a glance, quietly slipped out of the crowd, and ran toward the brick kiln.
The children were hidden behind a pile of broken bricks in the brick kiln. The plan was to wait until things got out of hand before "accidentally" discovering that the children had met with misfortune, thus completely pinning the blame on the soldiers.
Now that their accomplices have been arrested, the child must be moved immediately, and the accomplices will be exchanged with the soldiers later.
The brick kiln was right in front of them. Wang Xiuying stopped and pulled Gu Lin behind a half-collapsed mud wall.
"Comrade Gu Lin, look, that looks like the old brick kiln." Wang Xiuying pointed to the entrance, her voice filled with suppressed excitement. "The child might really be inside. But... let's not rush in."