Chapter 216: Why Is It Her?

She Tou's foot was sprained; because it was summer, he was wearing shorts, and when his foot sank in, it was also scraped by broken tree branches, leaving several bloody marks.

The pit wasn't deep; She Tou sank in only up to his knees, but inside there were all kinds of filth—rotten melon flesh, other household trash, and a urine stench.

She Tou's anger flared, but now wasn't the time to lose it; he couldn't mind his foot injury, steadied his flashlight, gripped his dagger, and wanted to find out who was opposing him nearby.

The villager standing not far behind She Tou felt something brush past him just now, raising goosebumps all over his body, especially when he heard She Tou say 'I've bumped into something evil,' his back turned chilly.

"I really didn't see anything just now! I just felt… a bit cold…" the villager trembled; he actually believed in ghost stories, and he had helped She Tou with some not-so-good deeds; now, looking back, he felt guilty, as if some 'unclean thing' was watching him.

The commotion when She Tou stepped into the trap was somewhat loud; this household kept a dog, which was barking loudly. Zheng Tan decided to add fuel to the fire. After giving She Tou a shove, he sprinted into the vegetable garden; the distance between the fences was just right for him to pass through without jumping. He picked up a stone from around, and before She Tou noticed this side, he hurled it hard at the household's window.

Pa!

The sound of breaking glass rang out.

The dog inside barked even fiercer, and the lights in the house came on. The back door creaked open, a sturdy native dog shot out, easily leapt over the fence, and lunged at She Tou, biting the arm that held the knife. The dagger fell to the ground.

"Ah——"

A miserable cry shattered the night's quiet.

Zheng Tan hid beside that woodshed, hooked his tail, listening made it hurt. Serves him right!

That dog must have experience catching thieves; it rushed over too fast, and in the whole sequence of scrambling over the fence and biting people, it showed no hesitation. I don't know whether its bite on She Tou's knife-wielding arm was accidental or intentional, but Zheng Tan thought the dog bit well!

The homeowner rushed out wielding a hoe, murderous aura, thinking a thief had come; but after taking a closer look, he recognized the villager who had been with She Tou. After listening to the villager's lengthy explanation, he finally realized it was a misunderstanding. Still, the dog had bitten, and as for the pit—it was dug by those village kids; many people knew. It's none of his business. The homeowner is also a tough character; especially seeing the dagger She Tou had dropped on the ground made his expression worse—how could he take responsibility? In the end he could only blame She Tou's own bad luck.

Zheng Tan slipped away while they were arguing. The dog barked furiously at She Tou, not looking elsewhere, and with the cover of night, no one noticed Zheng Tan; he left easily.

The next day, Gu Yezi planned to take the two kids to a friend's place to see turtles; he intended to buy a few turtle hatchlings for the kids to play with, and could bring them back to raise in Chu Hua Shi, since these hatchlings don't take up space. Before setting out, someone came to find Gu Yezi, so the plan to go out in the morning was postponed to the afternoon.

In the morning, with nothing to do, Xiao Youzi was drawing; Zheng Tan looked and saw it was the little girl holding a broken bucket and carrying a sickle.

"I heard she often gets beaten, she's so thin—won't she get sick?" Xiao Youzi said while drawing, speaking to Zheng Tan, who was lying on the table.

After finishing the drawing, Xiao Youzi thought of something and asked Zheng Tan, 'Do you know where she is?'

Zheng Tan thought for a moment and nodded; although he didn't know where that girl was now, knowing where she would go was enough. When alone with Xiao Youzi, Zheng Tan rarely pretended to be clueless, since Xiao Youzi wouldn't gossip outside, so sometimes he could express himself more directly.

Xiao Youzi got down from the chair, rummaged through her schoolbag, and pulled out a packet of candy that had never been opened; each packet contained about twenty pieces.

"Give this to her; I still have plenty." Xiao Youzi looked expectantly at Zheng Tan.

Zheng Tan nodded again. He quite approved of Xiao Youzi's approach; that girl's life really made one feel sorry for her, and a packet of candy was nothing important to Xiao Youzi.

She wiped the edges of the candy packet with clean water, then handed it to Zheng Tan; she knew the black cat in front of her sometimes had a bit of a cleanliness obsession and didn't like to randomly carry things in its mouth.

Zheng Tan held the candy packet in his mouth and ran out the door; he didn't go to the pond, since the girl usually wasn't there in the morning, so he went straight to the 'secret base' she had once taken him to.

Not seeing the girl, Zheng Tan simply placed the candy packet in her hiding spot, didn't linger, and went back.

Not long after Zheng Tan left, the dark‑tanned little girl walked over; she glanced at her hiding spot and knew it had been disturbed, her gaze hardened, thinking someone had stolen something, and she hurried over to push aside the concealing grass.

What met her eyes was a packet of candy, the packaging very familiar.

She had just finished the previous packet of candy; last night, as she slept, she even felt wistful, dreaming of another packet, and she hadn't expected it to actually be there.

She carefully tore open the packet, peeled off one candy and put it in her mouth, then re‑hid the rest; she searched the surroundings carefully and finally found faint cat paw prints in one spot—if more time passed and the wind blew hard, the dust would sweep them away and they'd disappear.

In good spirits, the little girl decided to go home to see if there was any leftover rice; by then the family should have finished their meal. Then she would continue in the afternoon to go to the pond to catch shrimp.

Just as she stepped through the door, the little girl noticed guests in the house; these three visitors she had seen before in the woods, and the black cat was wary of them—surely they weren't good people.

"This is my family's Xiao Jiu." The man sitting in the chair, smoking a cigarette and wearing a fawning smile, pointed at the little girl who had just entered and said. He was the head of the household.

Sensing something wrong, the little girl turned to run, but before she could get out the door, someone firmly seized her.

Meanwhile, Gu Yezi took the two kids to see the turtles; the farmer mainly raised tortoises and turtles, seeing the kids liked them, he planned to give Xiao Youzi and company a few baby red‑eared sliders, but Gu Yezi waved his hand, saying he only needed two—more he couldn't keep, the kids just wanted novelty. The man also gave a glass fish tank; Gu Yezi disliked owing people. They went back and forth, and in the end Gu Yezi stubbornly shoved twenty yuan into the man's hand.

"Ay, Gu Shu, really don't need twenty…" the man was about to continue, but Gu Yezi gave him a glare, so he stopped, shook his head, laughed, went inside, and when he came out he slipped two packets of turtle feed into the glass tank without waiting for Gu Yezi to speak, then patted his butt and left.

On the way back, the two kids walked while playing with the turtles, so their pace slowed considerably; Zheng Tan walked a stretch, then stopped to wait for them.

A toad jumped out of the grass; Zheng Tan, idle, went over to tease it a bit. The toad kept jumping forward; when it hopped into the grass beside the road, Zheng Tan pressed it down with a paw, ignoring its ribbiting, and thought: 'Little thing, let's see how far you can jump.'

After waiting two minutes, Zheng Tan slowly relaxed his grip; the toad immediately sprang away like it was fleeing for its life, crossing the nearby concrete road and disappearing into the field on the other side.

Zheng Tan was crouched in the grass watching the toad disappear when a Santana drove by. Probably a stone‑hauling truck had passed earlier that morning, leaving small stones scattered and piled on the road; as the Santana approached, it slowed to swerve around the stones at the edge, then continued.

As the Santana swerved around the stones, Zheng Tan saw the person leaning against the rear‑seat window and the person sitting in the driver's seat. The driver was smoking, the window there fully open, and Zheng Tan recognized the driver—he had been with She Tou before, so they were likely accomplices.

The rear‑seat window had tinted film and was half‑open, showing only the upper half of the nose, but Zheng Tan still easily recognized the person, who also spotted Zheng Tan crouched in the grass.

How could that girl be in the car? And together with those people?!

Earlier, listening to the little girl's account, Zheng Tan had thought they came to the village not to buy children, but now it seemed he was mistaken.

Without further thought, Zheng Tan sprinted after them. But how could a cat outrun a car? Moreover, the road was flat, with no other vehicles blocking the way, and the car was moving fairly fast; after dodging those stones, it began to accelerate, as if eager to leave, and quickly left Zheng Tan behind.

Zheng Tan could only watch helplessly as the car drove farther and farther, until it became a black dot and vanished.

Inside the car, the little girl pressed against the window shifted her gaze back from outside. Even though she had been beaten black and blue by her father and knew she was being sold without crying, her eyes reddened and tears streamed down. She had lived in this village for ten years; when she finally left, the only thing that tried to hold her back was a single cat.

The person assigned to watch her glanced at the rear window, saw no one pursuing, then looked at the little girl beside her, thinking she was just a child reluctant to leave home—crying was nothing, after all, it's normal for a child to cry when taken by strangers; previously, her not crying had made them suspect something was off, but now they felt reassured.

Zheng Tan lay panting beside the concrete road; his field of vision no longer held the car's silhouette. He had wanted to note the license plate, but discovered it was covered by a shield. He didn't understand: even if they were buying children, didn't that girl still have two older sisters? How could it be her turn so quickly?

Returning listlessly, Xiao Youzi was calling Zheng Tan's cat name; from the tone one could tell she was very anxious.

Seeing Zheng Tan return, Xiao Youzi had been ready to say a couple of things, but noticing his condition was off, she held back her reproach.

Over the next few days, everyone clearly noticed Zheng Tan was off; usually so energetic, now he was listless, uninterested in everything, having gone out once only to become even more lethargic, and his appetite had decreased somewhat.

Gu Yezi said, 'He must be missing a female cat,' and even borrowed two sturdy females from someone else; but when those two cats saw Zheng Tan they kept their distance, wouldn't approach at all, and even a female in heat brought in for him didn't get close.

Jiao Ma wanted to take him to see a vet, but Zheng Tan refused; to reassure Jiao Ma and the others, his food intake returned to former levels, though he just looked less spirited than before.

These past days, after Zheng Tan returned, he went to the girl's 'secret base' several times, confirming she hadn't come back.

One evening, while cooling off outside, he heard people discussing.

"They sold another one so soon?"

"I heard they sold Xiao Jiu this time."

"Xiao Qi and Xiao Ba are still around—why did they pick Xiao Jiu?"

"Who knows? Maybe they chose Xiao Jiu because he's the youngest."

"Ah, that child back then didn't even finish first grade, but I heard that when she was in school her grades were not bad..."

"That Xiao Jiu has a fierce temperament, completely unlike her several sisters—how could she be sold?" a young voice rang out.

"What nonsense are you talking? If you don't know, just shut up!" an old man beside him scolded.

"Ah, what sin!"

Zheng Tan went to the neighboring village to find the little girl's home, but he heard that her father had gotten drunk the night before and fallen into the fish pond, was rescued and sent to the town hospital; his life was not in danger, he just needed to stay in the hospital for a while. Zheng Tan also didn't hear any other useful information; the people in this village, including the little girl's family, only knew that their Xiao Jiu had been sold, and it's unclear why she was sold to those people.

At the end of August, Jiao Ma prepared to leave with the child and the cat. It seemed that in just a few days school would start. (To be continued...)

ps: (4.6)