Chapter 804: The Man Who Collects Scrap

There is a river to the north; the water is very deep, and the current is particularly swift.

The people sent out, as well as the old neighbors, all headed north, mainly to the riverside, to search carefully.

Everyone analyzed that she had gone out with a small trowel to dig for wild vegetables.

For the past few days, Shi Yuke had been muttering: "Mom doesn't come to see me because she is pregnant. Being pregnant is so hard; I can't eat candy, I can't eat meat, I can only eat wild vegetables..."

Shi Youxuan had been forbidden by her husband from going out to look for people, but she went out anyway.

If anything were to happen to Shi Yuke, she would feel guilty for the rest of her life!

They searched the riverside carefully, but she was not there.

They pulled up the surveillance footage from several kilometers around to watch; the last place she disappeared from was when she left the residential compound, and then the surveillance did not detect her again.

The police analyzed that either Shi Yuke had fallen into the river, or she had walked further north.

In that direction, there was only one narrow road, and at the end of the road was a slum area.

At this time, there was a new discovery: someone fishing nearby said that a woman had been digging for wild vegetables, but not long after, she was led away by a man!

The man was in his forties and often collected unwanted second-hand appliances in this area, as well as cardboard boxes, magazines, and the like.

The fisherman described the woman's appearance, and the clothes she was wearing were very similar to Shi Yuke's; now it could be roughly determined that she had been abducted!

The target was locked on, and the rest was to find that man.

The man who collected scrap was not hard to find; he lived in that slum area.

There were very few locals in that place; most were outsiders renting rooms there, doing odd jobs or collecting scrap.

When everyone went to look for him, the man who collected scrap was not at home.

There was only a large iron lock on the door.

They asked the neighbors, and the neighbors said that usually, he should have returned long ago by this time, and they didn't know why he hadn't returned yet.

Just as they were talking, a tricycle turned the corner at the end of the alley, and the woman sitting on the vehicle was indeed Shi Yuke.

The man was pushing the cart with all his might; when he saw many people standing at his door, including police officers, he dropped the cart and bolted.

He was caught after running only a dozen steps, then handcuffed and taken away in a police car.

"Yuke, you silly girl, how could you go off with a man you don't know? You scared me to death." Shi Yucheng pulled his daughter into his arms, crying with tears streaming down his face.

Shi Yuke knew she had done something wrong; she lowered her head and apologized in a small voice: "I'm sorry, Grandpa. Yuke knows she was wrong; I shouldn't have gone off with a stranger."

Shi Youxuan was very angry and lashed out at her: "Can you be a little more sensible? Do you know how worried your family was looking for you? Dad's blood pressure spiked and he almost collapsed, all because of you..."

She didn't dare to talk back and lowered her head to take the scolding.

After Shi Youxuan finished lecturing her, her anger subsided a bit, and she also felt she had been a bit excessive.

She is a fool now; it is normal for a fool to do things that defy common sense!

Using the standards of a normal person to demand things of her was wrong in itself.

"Let's go, let's go home." She softened her tone and took Shi Yuke's hand.

The two of them walked past the tricycle, and Shi Yuke suddenly pulled her hand away to rummage through the cart...

"What are you doing? Stop rummaging, it's filthy, hurry up and go back to take a bath." She urged.

The clothes on Shi Yuke's body were filthy, as was her face, and the cart was even dirtier, with some broken refrigerators, color TVs, and old computers piled on it.

She was just there rummaging through it.

"Found it, here!"

She happily pulled a plastic bag out from the pile of junk, held it in both hands, and handed it to Shi Youxuan: "Mom, look, these are the wild vegetables I picked for you. They are all the freshest ones, even fresher than the ones Grandpa and Dad pick."

Shi Youxuan:...

Her eyes instantly welled up with tears.

She didn't care about the dirt and pulled Shi Yuke into her arms: "I'm sorry, it's all my fault."

"Mom, don't cry. Mom isn't pretty when she cries. Mom is the prettiest, Mom don't cry."

The more she said this, the more tears Shi Youxuan shed.

After returning home, Shi Yuke went to sleep soon after taking a bath.

The nanny had prepared a rich meal, but she said she was full.

Everyone sat in the living room, feeling a bit relieved, but even more furious.

They were relieved that she was found in time and it didn't take long to bring her back; if they had found her a little later, and that man had brought Shi Yuke home, it was hard to say what might have happened.

What they were furious about was that man; Shi Yucheng knew him.

He came to the residential compound almost every day, and everyone sold their unwanted scrap to him.

This man was different from other scrap collectors; he offered the highest prices, didn't short-change people, and if he encountered anyone moving heavy objects or had any odd jobs he could help with, he would just lend a hand.

Honest and helpful.

This man was quite popular in the residential compound.

It was just unexpected that one can know a person's face but not their heart; he seemed honest on the surface, but behind the scenes, he actually did such a thing, and everyone broke out in a cold sweat.

News came back from the police station that the man who collected scrap had confessed everything.

That man had been eyeing Shi Yuke for more than a day or two; he was a bachelor without a wife, and seeing that Shi Yuke was pretty, he had other ideas and wanted to pick up a wife for free.

It just so happened that on his way home today, he saw Shi Yuke digging for wild vegetables by the river.

The closer to the water, the more lush and plump the wild vegetables grew; Shi Yuke was only focused on digging and didn't notice her footing, and her foot slipped into the water.

He hurriedly jumped off his cart and went to the riverside to pull Shi Yuke up.

If he had pulled her up and sent her home, nothing would have happened, but after saving Shi Yuke, he assumed the fool had been abandoned by her family and was digging for wild vegetables because she was starving.

As if possessed, he asked Shi Yuke if she was willing to go home with him.

Shi Yuke nodded: "Willing."

He wanted to get a wife for free, so he at least had to buy her some clothes and take her to a restaurant for a good meal.

The two of them arrived in front of a restaurant with a very high-end decor.

This restaurant specialized in soup dumplings; although the name was down-to-earth, the prices were not down-to-earth at all.

Shi Yuke looked through the glass window at the customers inside eating soup dumplings; she stood outside drooling and refused to leave no matter what.

The man thought he would just take her in to eat two steamers of dumplings; no matter how expensive, how much could eating dumplings cost?

So the two of them entered the restaurant and ordered two steamers of soup dumplings.

After the dumplings were ordered, the man was just about to close the menu, but Shi Yuke took it over, pointed at the dishes on it, and read them out skillfully: "One serving of bird's nest, two abalones, one portion of cheese-baked lobster..."

Frightened, the man hurriedly snatched the menu back and returned it to the waiter: "We don't want any of those things she mentioned, just the dumplings."

In fact, even if they had wanted it all, the waiter wouldn't have dared to place the order.

The way these two guests were dressed did not look like guests who could afford to eat lobster, abalone, and bird's nest.

But Shi Yuke looked at him pitifully, her big eyes brimming with tears, and she spat out two words aggrievedly: "Want to eat."

The man hadn't seen many women in his life, let alone a woman acting coquettishly.

He couldn't handle Shi Yuke's appearance at all, so he gritted his teeth and said: "Fine, we'll take it all."

She was full, but the meal cost the man nearly a thousand; the man's heart was bleeding with pain, and then, before he could even get her home, he was taken away by the police.

The man who collected scraps hadn't done anything to Shi Yuke, serving her good food and drink, and then he was arrested.

He had no prior criminal record and was usually a truly honest and law-abiding man, so the police criticized and educated him, warning him that taking Shi Yuke away privately without the permission of her family was against the law.

After consulting the opinions of the Shi Family, Shi Yucheng did not want to pursue the matter, so they let the man go.