The following days were calm and peaceful. Xu Wu sent three people to stay over, living together with Old Geng and Hu Zi, while Leng Qing was always careful, especially since Xu Wu recently instructed to ensure the safety of the two children at all costs, advising against going to the park and staying at ho instead.
anwhile, at Li Xianglu’s bank, complaints about letters of credit fraud surfaced one after another, causing quite a stir at the bank.
Many of the letters of credit were outright forgeries. After goods were delivered, when the other party went to withdraw money, the bank would inform them that the letters of credit were fake, and the goods and companies would have vanished without a trace.
Such incidents occurred in most major banks, causing widespread panic among the public, including those not involved in business, as they felt societal instability.
The governnt, furious over these events particularly because these incidents involved foreign trade companies with large amounts of goods being defrauded, led to significant losses mostly to state-owned enterprises. Hence, the public security increased their scrutiny and efforts to investigate.
However, the fraudsters, just like last ti, disappeared without a trace, leaving no leads whatsoever.
Many were arrested, but most were just peripheral helpers in shipping, who had no idea about the fraud, making them useless for the investigation.
This matter quickly passed, and then by the end of April, as the weather started to heat up, the twins who were now one year and five months old and could stagger around, beca even more restless and had to have soone by their side as they liked to play outside all day. Su Yan, being quite old, could only help look after them, needing to rest at noon.
While Leng Qing went to Beihai to see Li Jianqing, leaving only Sister Ma alone to look after the two children.
Li Xianglu and others from her bank had been coming ho late due to business training, sotis only after the children had gone to sleep, and Qin Xi would pick them up.
On Friday, finally no training, and it being a major holiday, Li Xianglu ca ho right after work only to find Aunt Ma panic-stricken, pushing a stroller back ho.
Li Xianglu stopped her bicycle, calling out.
Seeing Li Xianglu, Aunt Ma didn’t relax but burst into tears instead.
Startled by this, Li Xianglu quickly pushed her bike toward Aunt Ma, only to hear the crying of a child.
Looking down, she saw only one child in the stroller; the other was missing. A sense of panic struck Li Xianglu, and noticing Aunt Ma’s expression, her voice trembled as she asked, "Where is the child, the other one?"
Aunt Ma, unable to conceal the truth any longer, trembled and said, "Gone, the child is gone."
What! Li Xianglu’s bicycle clattered to the ground as she grabbed Aunt Ma’s arm, shaking her, "The child, where did the child go? Tell , where’s the child?"
Before Aunt Ma could even speak, Su Yan opened the back door of the house. Waking from her nap and seeing both Old Ma and the children, including the stroller, gone, she thought they had gone to the park. But as it was already six o’clock and they hadn’t returned, she decided to look for them. She then ca out just to hear Li Xianglu’s cries of panic, and she too was stunned.
Su Yan stepped forward, grabbing Li Xianglu, "Don’t panic. Let Old Ma explain." She then picked up the twin in the stroller, which seed to be Ba’er; thus, the missing one was Ba Yi.
Aunt Ma then stutteringly said, "I went to the restroom, and when I ca out, one child was missing. I searched the entire park, couldn’t find the child, and nobody saw anything."
Li Xianglu turned and started to run towards the park, but Su Yan grabbed her, "Don’t panic. Settle Ba’er down first then go look."
Li Xianglu tried to calm herself, but how could a mother stay calm when her child was missing? Trembling, she took Ba’er inside while Li Huai Ren hurriedly made several phone calls.
Fortunately, Qin Xi was not working overti and entered the door, thus everyone began to spring into action.
Li Xianglu was held back by Qin Xi, preventing her from running around erratically. The two searched the entire park and even asked around in nearby restaurants, but no one had seen the child.
As darkness fell, Li Xianglu thought she heard the cries of a child and couldn’t help but scream out in panic.
Seeing this, Qin Xi grew even more worried, grabbed her, and firmly said, "Don’t worry, the child will be alright. Let’s go back now and see if grandpa has heard anything."
Saying this, he forcibly pulled her back ho. Li Xianglu, utterly distraught, had no choice but to follow.
When they got ho, everyone had returned. They had searched several places, even the stations. Sister Xing’s husband had also arrived.
Not long after, Xu Wu arrived with seven or eight people. He shook his head at Qin Xi, "The child must still be in the capital. None of the major stations have reported seeing a child leave."
Li Xianglu’s gaze then shifted to a trembling Aunt Ma, and she stepped forward, grabbing her hand, "Aunt Ma, please speak clearly, why did you take the children out alone today?"
After calming down, Li Xianglu rembered sothing—that ever since Qi Mutang and Qin Xi’s uncle appeared, the family had not allowed the children to leave the house. Even if they did go out, it was always accompanied by three or four people, and even during safer tis, it was only with Su Yan or grandpa.
So, why did Sister Ma take the children out alone?
At that mont, Xu Wu was also blank-faced, then gestured, and Da Li ca over grabbing soone up, and coldly demanded, "Why!"
Aunt Ma was soone Su Yan had brought in, having heard that she had prior experience watching children for influential families, indeed she was experienced, having taken good care of the two children, so there had been no worries.
Aunt Ma was so frightened she trembled, but Da Li’s strong grip made her cry out in pain, begging for rcy.
Li Xianglu, however, did not relent and continued to press, "Aunt Ma, why don’t you want to talk? The child is just over a year old, you know how precious these two children are to our family, how could you bear it."
Aunt Ma’s eyes flickered, and just as she was about to speak, she closed her mouth. At that mont, Xu Wu signaled, and Da Li picked up a small hamr used for cracking walnuts and smashed it down onto Aunt Ma’s arm.
With a ’snap,’ the sound of bones breaking was heard, and Da Li did not stop. Two more people ca over to hold her down, and as Da Li continued to hamr, he demanded, "Tell us, what exactly happened."
Aunt Ma hadn’t expected that these people would actually resort to physical actions, and she exclaid without holding back, "I’ll talk, I’ll talk, I’ll speak!"
After Aunt Ma’s recount, Qin Xi told Li Xianglu to wait at ho while he went out with Xu Wu and two others.
Looking at Aunt Ma collapsed on the ground, Li Xianglu showed not a hint of sympathy.
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