529 A Token From Everyone
“Uncle Zhao, can you go to the old mister who lived at the village entrance to borrow his three-wheeled vehicle? Look at us, we’re a group of elderly people and a pregnant woman. It’s more convenient to have the vehicle around. I’m going home to get the money now. Do you think you can help?” Qiao Mei said embarrassedly.
“No problem! I’ll go and ask now! Don’t be too anxious! I’ll get him to come and pick you up!” Zhao Liang quickly rode his bicycle to go and borrow the vehicle.
Xia Zhe came out of the courtyard and gave Qiao Mei a serious look. “Mei Mei, Zhang Chao and Zhang Qin are not in the house. They might have been abducted.”
Abducted? In the village, who would dare to snatch someone else’s children in broad daylight!
“How do you know that they were abducted?” Qiao Mei asked.
Xia Zhe pulled Qiao Mei into the courtyard. During this era, everyone had yellow soil in their courtyard and people would leave behind faint footprints when they walked around.
“There are two sets of footprints here and there are also some drag marks on that side. I’m guessing that the children were dragged away by someone. There are also signs of struggle here,” Xia Zhe said sternly.
Xia Zhe was speaking in his professional capacity, so what he said was probably what happened.
If the children had been kidnapped, the nature of this matter was now different. It seemed that she needed to look for Chen Hu to help with this.
“Mom, come with us later. Let’s go and save Zhang Wei and Zhang Miao first. I’ll get someone else to help look for Zhang Chao and Zhang Qin,” Qiao Mei said calmly.
Being the only person who understood the nature of the messy interpersonal relationships that Li Gui and the children had, she had to calm down and deal with this matter properly.
“Mei Mei, where can these two children go? They were still fine when I left this morning. I even instructed Zhang Wei to make sure they stay at home obediently,” Li Gui said anxiously.
“Don’t be anxious. I suspect that the two children have been taken away by someone, but I don’t know who. I’ll get someone from the county city to help look for the children first. The most important thing now is to save Zhang Wei and Zhang Miao,” Qiao Mei said.
At the mention of saving the two children, Li Gui felt even more ashamed to face Qiao Mei. She had heard from the doctor that this treatment would cost a lot of money. She only had three dollars left, not a single cent more.
“Mei Mei… Can you lend me some money to save your younger siblings… I’ll go to the county city to ask the Zhang family for money later. These children are also part of their family, so they won’t turn away!” Li Gui said as she held Qiao Mei’s hand.
This was her last hope. If Qiao Mei rejected her, she did not know who else to borrow money from.
Qiao Mei wanted to ignore Li Gui. At this point, Li Gui still foolishly believed that Zhang Qian would give her money for these children. If Zhang Qian really cared about the lives of these children, he would not still come to ask for money after he sent them to the countryside.
“They’re also my younger siblings and they address me as elder sister. I won’t leave them in the lurch. I’ll handle the family matters. If you still feel hopeful about Zhang Qian, you can give it a try. If you can get the money, you can chip in the medical fees for Zhang Wei and Zhang Miao,” Qiao Mei said expressionlessly.
Li Gui said agitatedly, “Good, good, good! Thank you, Mei Mei, thank you so much!”
“Grandfather has rode our bicycle out. In a while, Uncle Zhao will drive the three-wheeled vehicle to pick us up and bring us to the clinic. Later on, you can catch the last train to the county city,” Qiao Mei said.
Li Gui packed the two children’s clothes, drinking cups and wash basins and brought everything with her.
Xia Zhe very naturally took these items from Li Gui. Qiao Mei also went home and put 5,000 dollars in her bag. She was not afraid of bringing such a big amount of money, and was more worried that this amount of money would turn out to be not enough later.
Not long after, Zhao Liang came to pick them up in the three-wheeled vehicle. There were some clothes, thermos and other useful items from the villagers in the back of the vehicle.
“Everything here is a small token from the other villagers. Also, here’s some money. Not much, just 21 dollars. This is what everyone has pooled for the two children. Everyone knows about your difficulties. It’s more important to save the children now. We can talk about other things later.” Zhao Liang took out a small cloth bag from his pocket. It was all filled with loose change
Li Gui quickly said, “This won’t do! It’s not easy for everyone to earn money!”
Zhao Liang still stuffed the money into Li Gui’s hands.
“This is from everyone. Just take it and get in quickly. It’s more important to save the children,” Zhao Liang said.