1959Siheyuan, a Turnaround

Along the way, Jia Zhang was extremely anxious and hurried. The little Huaihua in her arms was crying non-stop due to the bumpy ride, but she didn't care at all.

The worn cloth shoes made rapid sounds as they stepped on the ground, as if they were the rhythm of her panicked heart.

Finally arriving at the gate of the steel mill, Jia Zhang forced a smile and politely said to the security guard at the gate: "Comrade, please tell Qin Huairu that there is an emergency at home and ask her to come out quickly."

When the security guard saw Jia Zhang holding a newborn baby with an anxious look on her face, and it happened to be a break, he felt pity for her, so he nodded in agreement and turned around to pass on the message for Jia Zhang.

Jia Zhang stood at the factory gate, her eyes full of anxiety and expectation. She kept standing on tiptoe to look into the factory, and kept muttering: "What should I do? What should I do? Where did Banggeng go?"

Not long after, Qin Huairu hurried over, with beads of sweat on her forehead from working, and a hint of fatigue and confusion in her eyes.

When she saw Jia Zhang's anxious look, her heart skipped a beat and she asked hurriedly, "Mom, what happened? Why are you rushing to see me?"

When Jia Zhang saw Qin Huairu, her eyes immediately turned red, and she cried, "Huairu, Banggeng is missing! He left early in the morning and hasn't come back yet. Xiaodang has searched many places but couldn't find him. What should we do?"

When Qin Huairu heard this, her face turned pale instantly, her body swayed slightly, and she almost fell to the ground.

She widened her eyes and said in disbelief, "What? Banggeng is gone? How could this happen? Mom, don't worry, let's think about it carefully. Did he go to a classmate's house or go out with friends?"

Jia Zhang was so anxious that she stamped her feet, tears welling up in her eyes: "Usually he only plays in the alleys, he never acts like this! I am so worried, I am afraid something has happened to this child."

Qin Huairu forced herself to calm down. She patted Jia Zhang's back to comfort her while thinking quickly, "Mom, don't panic. I'll go out and look for her. You take Xiao Huaihua home first. What if Banggeng has gone back? I'll come back to find you as soon as I get any news."

Jia Zhang nodded, but her worried look did not diminish at all. She hugged Xiao Huaihua tightly and walked home, looking back every few steps.

Qin Huairu looked at Jia Zhang's departing back, took a deep breath, turned back to the workshop to ask for leave from the workshop director, and then went out to look for someone.

Qin Huairu anxiously asked for leave from the steel mill, and like a headless fly, she rushed into the streets and alleys.

Her eyes were full of panic and anxiety. Her hair, which was usually neatly combed, was now a little messy and scattered on both sides of her cheeks. A few strands of hair were soaked with sweat and stuck to her forehead.

Her steps were hurried and frantic, her cloth shoes raised clouds of dust, and she kept muttering: "Banggeng, Banggeng, where are you?"

She searched all the alleys that Banggeng often went to, leaving no corner untouched.

"Bang Geng...where have you been? Bang Geng..."

She cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted Banggeng's name loudly, with a hint of crying in her voice that echoed in the empty courtyard.

However, the only response she got was deathly silence and her own increasingly heavy breathing.

The familiar figure was nowhere to be seen. Her heart seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand and she was so panicked that it was about to jump out of her throat.

"Where on earth did this child go? Could it be that he was stolen by some bad guy?"

Qin Huairu couldn't help but have all kinds of terrible thoughts in her mind, but she immediately denied them. "These days, there are many children on the street who have no one to take care of them. Who would come to steal her stick?"

She tried to calm herself down, clenching her hands into fists, her nails digging deeply into her palms, trying to use the pain to wake herself up.

She suddenly remembered the scene when the neighbors were gossiping in the yard that day. That person mentioned that Banggeng was close to a group of gangsters.

"Could it be...Could it be that Bang Geng got into trouble?"

Once this thought came up, it grew wildly in her heart like weeds, making her even more uneasy.

Her steps gradually slowed down, and she paced back and forth in the same place, rubbing the corners of her clothes with her hands, making them wrinkled.

"If Bang Geng really did commit a crime and was arrested, what should I do? Now that Yi Zhonghai is gone, there is no one who can pay to help me quell the trouble. We are the only ones left at home, the old, the weak, the women and the children. How can we live like this?"

Qin Huairu only felt a blackness in front of her eyes, as if she had fallen into an endless dark abyss, without seeing a glimmer of hope.

Her body trembled slightly. At this moment, the tremendous pressure and helplessness overwhelmed her like a tide. She could no longer hold on and slowly squatted on the spot, covering her face with her hands and burst into tears.

The crying sound echoed in the empty streets, full of despair and sorrow. Passers-by cast strange looks at her, but she no longer cared about that at the moment.

After an unknown amount of time, Qin Huairu had cried enough. She slowly raised her head and wiped her red and swollen eyes with her sleeves. Her eyes were like two ripe peaches, red and swollen.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to pull myself together.

"No matter what, running away is not an option. We can only face it head on."

She gritted her teeth and walked towards home slowly and heavily.

Every step I took seemed to use up all my strength. The road that I was familiar with in the past now seemed extremely long, and my legs felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead.

However, before she reached her home, Director Wang from the Street Office came towards her in a hurry.

Qin Huairu forced herself to cheer up and managed a smile. Just as she was about to say hello, Director Wang frowned and said seriously, "Qin Huairu, what's wrong with your Banggeng? How come he still hasn't changed his habit of stealing at such a young age!"

When Qin Huairu heard this, she felt her heart skip a beat, as if she was hit by a bolt from the blue, and she was stunned for a moment.

Although she already had a bad feeling in her heart, she still found it hard to accept this cruel reality when Director Wang told her.

"Director Wang, is there any misunderstanding? How could my little Banggeng steal things when he is still so young?"

Now that we can have enough food at home every day, Banggeng has no reason to go out and steal things!

Her voice was trembling slightly, her eyes were full of pleading and luck, and she tried to defend Bang Geng, with tears flashing in her eyes.

Director Wang frowned even more tightly, and raised his voice a few degrees: "Misunderstanding? How could there be a misunderstanding! The police station called and said that the man was caught at the scene of the theft, and Banggeng was lying on the wall at the time. The owner saw it with his own eyes, how could it be false?"

Qin Huairu felt dizzy and her body swayed, almost falling to the ground.

Her face was as pale as paper, her lips kept trembling, and she murmured to herself: "It's over, it's all over now..."