one punch

Jiang Ran's bicycle was pedaling very fast, as if there were some ghosts and ghosts chasing him behind.

He first knocked on doors to inquire, and then went to the small supermarket where Dou Tianxiao often went to buy snacks, and happened to meet Dou Tianxiao's aunt.

My aunt is slightly fat, and after running back and forth, the sweat on her forehead slowly slid down her cheeks. In the coldest season of the year, all that was left on her body was a thin bottoming shirt, sweater and outerwear. on the arm.

The cashier in the supermarket was collecting money, and my aunt leaned over the cashier, panting and asked: "Little sister, have you seen our child, little boy, third grade, about this height..." Her right hand was on her There was a gesture at the waist, "Wearing this black cotton coat with a hat, he often comes to your house to buy things, and every time he buys two lollipops to go home... Do you remember?"

The cashier looked up at her, "I didn't notice, I see so many children every day, how can I remember them clearly?"

My aunt let out a disappointed "Oh" and yelled into the supermarket, "Dou Tianxiao!—You brat! Are you hungry! Do you want to go home for dinner!"

The cashier seemed startled by her shocking voice, and glanced at her impatiently, and then met the girl at the cashier next door when she turned her head. The two smiled at each other and continued to collect money with their heads bowed.

The disdainful and contemptuous smiles from the corners of their mouths, like a sharp knife, pierced into Jiang Ran's sight.

For the first time, he really felt the biting chill of "nothing to do with yourself".

Maybe they couldn't understand that this slightly fat woman with some rude words was tormented by a deep sense of fear.

When Jiang Ran walked out of the door, night had completely fallen, and the inside and outside of the supermarket were completely different scenes.

At that time, there were no street lights on the roads in the small town, let alone any surveillance devices. Jiang Ran had never stayed outside at this time since he was a child, and his fear of the dark made him hesitate.

In the end, he chose the latter between the two decisions of "going home" and "continue to search".

Along the way, Jiang Ran heard many people calling Dou Tianxiao's name, some voices were familiar, some voices were unfamiliar, they were probably relatives and friends brought by his grandfather or enthusiastic residents nearby.

He felt that there were so many people on the street who didn't respond to the yelling, so it was unlikely that he was here, so he rode straight to the police station. Unexpectedly, he saw his mother, Ye Xi, and grandpa at the gate of the police station.

Grandpa still had an extremely anxious expression on his face, and he knew there were no clues at a glance.

Jiang Qing raised her eyes and saw her son, she was stunned, "Why did you run out!"

Jiang Ran hurriedly changed the subject, "Have you found someone?"

"No," Jiang Qing shook her head helplessly, "The police said that the child's disappearance cannot be filed for less than 24 hours. Let us look for it ourselves."

"It's really a bunch of drunkards!" Grandpa turned his head and pointed at the door and scolded, "Why do we need their police if we can find them!?"

The people inside probably heard something, and one of the men glanced back.

"Okay uncle, it's useless to scold them now, let's find the child first, and then think about whether he has other friends?" Jiang Qing said.

"This kid is seldom talkative in class and doesn't have many friends. He often goes to your house." Grandpa sat on the curb in a sense of loss, propped his elbows on his knees, held his thin cheeks and rubbed them back and forth a few times , "It's all my fault. I keep lying to him. He must be angry with me, so he refuses to go home."

Grandpa's voice was tired and choked, full of self-blame.

Jiang Ran also saw him make a gesture of wiping away tears. It was the first time in his life that he saw an adult shed tears.

"Grandpa, what did you lie to him?" Ye Xi also sat on the curb.

Jiang Qing and Jiang Ran looked at each other and fell silent tacitly.

The neighbors who were called by the uncle and the others were to help inquire at first, but as time went by, the inquiries became less and less, and when it was past eleven o'clock in the night, only Dou Tianxiao's family members were still struggling to find out. , The lights on the street have basically been extinguished.

Jiang Qing called her husband to ask her husband how to deal with this situation, but Wang Yingsong was working in the urban area after all, and the far water could not save the near fire, so he just asked his former brothers to help.

One of the old colleagues promised: "If you still can't find them tomorrow morning, I will help them go to the coach station to adjust the surveillance."

Several figures shuttled in different corners of the town. The light of the flashlight shone through the deserted dark alleys, illuminated the underground air-raid shelters where snakes, rats and ants were crawling, shone through the smelly public toilets, and even shone The huge green trash can on the side of the road.

The fear of the unknown keeps rising and spreading.

Everyone's voices became hoarse, and tears of anxiety and panic welled up in Ye Xiaoyue's eyes. She no longer cared about talking about love, and prayed silently in her heart, as long as her son was fine.

She shouted her son's name hoarsely on the street, but she was greeted with a sentence, "Can you stop crying like this, I managed to put my son to sleep, and I was woken up by you again, I don't want to sleep with others I still have to sleep!"

"My son is gone!" Ye Xiaoyue couldn't help crying at last, she beat Li Qingning's arm fiercely, and growled while crying, "Where did you get him!——"

"My son doesn't like it and blame others. It's so annoying in the middle of the night." The person upstairs muttered something in a low voice and closed the glass window.

Jiang Qing and Jiang Ran returned home after twelve o'clock. They searched almost all the places Dou Tianxiao had been to, but they couldn't find him. They planned to continue searching tomorrow morning. After all, it would be easier to find him during the day than at night. many.

After comforting each other, they went back to their rooms to wash up.

Jiang Ran lay on the bed tossing and turning pancakes, his eyes were sore and swollen but his mind was still active.

He still can't believe that Dou Tianxiao is really missing.

He always felt that this should be a joke, maybe he was hiding in some bushes and waiting for him to find it as usual, or he was afraid of being scolded by his family, so he went home secretly and lay on the bed pretending nothing happened.

Nothing happened to him.

Jiang Ran tried to close his eyes, but the news scenes that often appeared on TV unconsciously appeared in his mind.

Heartbeat is difficult to calm down.

People always seem to suddenly realize the importance of a person or something when they lose it.

He really hoped that in the future, after class, he would bump into the little crying bag guarding the door.

Jiang Ran turned on the desk lamp and opened a book of "Story Club". After more than ten minutes, he still hadn't turned the page. Those small black characters jumped into his sight, but couldn't enter his mind.

At two o'clock in the morning, he vaguely heard a faint ringing of a bell, and it took him a long time to recognize that it was the voice of his mother's PHS.

Who called in the middle of the night?

Jiang Ran hurriedly put on his pajama pants and got out of bed, fear gripped his heart tightly.

"Hey ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Thank you, police officers!" Jiang Qing's face was full of surprise and excitement, and there was even a crystal light in her eyes.

Jiang Ran's chest felt hot, and he heard his own heart beating like a drum, "Did you find it?"

"Found it!" Jiang Qing quickly put on her coat, "It's at the police station."

When calling the police, the landline number of the noodle shop and Jiang Qing's PHS number were left behind just in case. They arrived at the local police station first.

Looking at this brightly lit police duty room again, it's like seeing an oasis in the desert.

The first time he stepped through the door, Jiang Ran saw Dou Tianxiao who was lying on the bench and sleeping heartlessly, and the big stone stuck in his heart finally fell to the ground.

Jiang Qing and the police went to ask for details, and Jiang Ran went to the bench and squatted down.

Dou Tianxiao's body was wrapped in a policeman's coat and blanket, his hair was messed up like a chicken coop, his eyelashes were still wet and stuck together, two curved tear stains could be faintly seen on his red face, it looked like he was crying into the Dreamland.

Although Dou Tianxiao has grown taller, his body is still thin. When he is curled up in a ball, he looks pitifully like a little stray dog ​​on the side of the road. Just looking at it will make people feel a strong desire for protection.

Jiang Ran rubbed his icy fingertips to warm them up, pinched Dou Tianxiao's dry little face, and there was a smile on the corner of his mouth that he didn't even notice.

This kind of false alarm, the joy of regaining what was lost washed away his exhaustion and sleepiness all night.

An idea suddenly popped up in Jiang Ran's mind: It would be great if Dou Tianxiao was really his younger brother.

A policeman on duty surnamed Li said that they actually received a notice from the policeman on duty in the next town that a child from Xizhen had gone to them, and asked if they had received a report from their family members, so Xizhen The policeman on duty here hurriedly drove the man back from the next town.

As for the period of Dou Tianxiao's disappearance, it can be described as a thrilling adventure.

Accompanied by Li Qingning, Dou Tianxiao saw his father who had been "going out to work" for many years in the No. , and then was scared to cry by the dispute between Dou Guangmao and Li Qingning.

He couldn't understand what the two adults were arguing about, but he only remembered that his father scolded Li Qingning fiercely at the end, "Get out".

In fact, it's not that he hasn't heard the legend about his father for so many years, but he still has illusions in his heart, so he chooses to believe in grandpa, but when his father with a bald head and handcuffs really appeared in front of him, the shock It's as if seeing Monkey King killed by the bone spirit with his own eyes.

It was a devastating disappointment, even despair.

He seemed to see the taunting smiling face of the little fat man, and heard the voices of his classmates scolding him as a "little murderer".

He was afraid of going back to class, and felt ashamed to face all this again, so after Li Qingning left on the motorcycle, he turned and walked in the opposite direction of the school.

At first, he wanted to go to his grandfather's factory to find comfort, but he found that he had gone astray halfway, because the farmlands in the countryside all looked the same, and when he found out, he had already walked into a completely unfamiliar crop field.

He walked faster and faster, and the speed under his feet became faster and faster. All the way forward, he was lucky enough to come to a wide road.

Although this road is unfamiliar, it is very lively. There are many shops and vendors along the street. He was attracted by the smell of candied haws, baked sweet potatoes and popcorn, so he stopped, but he had no money to buy, so he could only watch from the side. An old man who painted sugar figurines.

Seeing that he was sitting still and refusing to leave, the old man was very pitiful, so he rewarded him with a little rooster painted with sugar. At first, Dou Tianxiao didn't want to eat it at all, and wanted to take it back to show off, and then he would reconcile with Jiang Ran. Ye Xi and the others ate separately.

He made up his mind to give Jiang Ran the chicken head and neck, Ye Xi the stomach, and himself the tail.

Grandpa's business was good, and he sold several sugar paintings in a short while.Dou Tianxiao was sitting on a small stone bench by the roadside waiting for his family to pick him up, his nose was filled with the sweet smell of sugar painting, and he was constantly salivating.

He was so hungry that he licked his tail first.

This licking couldn't stop, and before he knew it, he finished licking the golden cock in his hand, and the grandfather of the sugar painter also picked up the burden and walked back.

In the dim night, he just followed the old man quietly and walked several kilometers to the next town.

The old man walked into a one-story house carrying a burden. Seeing that it was someone else's house, Dou Tianxiao didn't have the nerve to follow, and still held the bamboo stick left by the sugar man in his hand.

Holding a bamboo stick, he walked in the dark, surrounded by unfamiliar buildings. Fear gradually enveloped his limbs, muscles, and nerves. He stared at the familiar landmarks with his two black pupils, but nothing.

Under the darkness of night, he could no longer restrain the fear in his heart and began to cry, but in this strange place, he didn't even dare to cry loudly, sobbing all the way, he thought of those bad guys who lied to children that the teacher said , Thinking of the monster eating Tang's monk meat on TV, staring vigilantly at every adult on the road who casts curious glances at him.

When an uncle asked him if he was lost, Dou Tianxiao ran away as if he saw a monster.

When he passed a dark alley, he heard a cat meowing, and stopped out of curiosity.

With the thin and cold moonlight, he could barely make out that it was a middle-aged man, and in front of him was a little boy who was about the same height as himself.

The middle-aged man seemed to have pulled out a piece of cloth like a red scarf to tie up the little boy's eyes. Dou Tianxiao couldn't hear what he was saying, but he saw the little wild cat beside the trash can.

So he approached quietly on tiptoe, and the little wild cat jumped onto the trash can.

Dou Tianxiao saw the man take off his pants from the gap between the trash can and the wall.

Dou Tianxiao's eyes widened suddenly, and he couldn't help holding his breath while watching this bizarre scene.

The middle-aged man reached into his underwear with one hand, rubbed it a few times, and supported the little boy's shoulder with the other hand, "Open your mouth and eat candy."

Dou Tianxiao stood there in amazement, thinking: That's not a lollipop at all...

The boy obviously noticed this too, and reached out to grab the cloth strips covering his eyes, but the man stopped him with a yell. Then, Dou Tianxiao heard the boy sobbing softly.

The middle-aged man took out the things under his body and covered his mouth almost frantically.

A terrible idea suddenly flashed in Dou Tianxiao's mind - human traffickers!

He once heard Mr. Jiang say that the way several human traffickers coax children is to trick them into eating candy, and then tie them into the car and take them away.

He saw the child crying more and more heart-piercingly, and suddenly a fire of justice rose in his chest. He rushed out of the alley at high speed, and chose a clothing store with no customers among the rows of stores.

The proprietress of the clothing store is a slightly chubby middle-aged woman who looks a bit like her aunt in figure. When she heard that someone kidnapped the child, she immediately called the bosses of several nearby shops and rushed into the dark and narrow alley together.

Later, I heard that the bastard was pushed to the ground before he could lift his pants, and that child was actually his own nephew.

The bastard was a little unconscious after drinking, but he was beaten by the child's father and sent to the hospital.

Of course, the police and Jiang Qing said what happened afterwards, and Dou Tianxiao didn't know about it.

He was fast asleep on the bench, dreaming of candied gourd skewers, the fruit candy Jiang Ran gave him, and the braised pork cooked by his grandfather, but he was awakened by a sound of thanks.

He opened his thin eyelids, and saw Jiang Ran's eyes that were red from staying up all night suddenly plunged into his arms.

"Brother!—I thought I would never see you again, and I ate the cock..."

"What cock?" Jiang Ran couldn't laugh or cry, he lowered his head and rubbed his head, "Where did you go?"

"I have no idea……"

When Dou Tianxiao saw Jiang Ran, it was like seeing his relatives. All the grievances poured out like a flood of beasts, and he cried incoherently while crying, "I saw my father...he was locked up by many policemen. Uncle Li said that he did something bad... the classmates in the class will definitely call me a little murderer again if they find out."

The nerves in Jiang Ran's chest twitched suddenly, and he put his arms around Dou Tianxiao's shoulders, and moved them into his arms.

Probably because he had been crying for a long time before, Dou Tianxiao's voice was a little hoarse, and Jiang Ran's shoulders were wet a lot soon.

He didn't know how to comfort him, he just patted Dou Tianxiao's back lightly, "It's okay, with me, they dare not scold you."

When people are most vulnerable, they can't hear such emotional words. As a result of these words, Dou Tianxiao cried more and more...

My aunt couldn't help but took out the small purse in her pocket to thank the police on duty.

"Ouch! Auntie, Auntie, you can't do it!—"

"Hold it! Thank you for your hard work in the middle of the night!"

"I can't make it... I should."