Xiaoxiao quickly climbed down from the tree. The person guarding them had gone to attend to other children.
She was angry and wanted to go argue, but Xiao Xingxing grabbed her and said, "I'm fine. We'll just pick some wild fruits to eat when we finish work, and we'll be full."
"Brother Xingxing, are you really okay?" Xiaoxiao asked worriedly. "You look unwell."
"That's because I just recovered from a serious illness, so I don't feel uncomfortable," Xiao Xingxing said with a smile. "Let's hurry and finish our work, so we don't get seen and beaten again."
Xiaoxiao was half-believing his words, worried that something might happen to him.
Her hands were busy working, but her mind was constantly thinking about how to escape this hellish place.
She had experience escaping. First, she escaped from the kidnappers, and then she escaped from the old man who bought her… This time, she should be able to think of a way to escape as well.
By the time they finished work, it was already dark.
At night, the island would get windy, making people feel very cold.
The children's clothes were all very dirty and they wore too little. Huddled together in the drafty thatched huts, they still felt the cold.
Each child in the thatched hut held a bowl of mixed grain rice, but Xiao Xingxing had no rice.
He secretly took fruits from his pocket and put them into his mouth, chewing them slowly.
He felt that these small fruits he picked in the forest tasted better than the food given by these bad people.
As he was hiding in a corner eating fruits alone, a small figure quickly ran to his side.
He widened his eyes and, by the light outside, saw that it was Xiaoxiao.
Xiaoxiao, like a vigilant little monkey, looked around and then brought the bowl of rice she was hiding to Xiao Xingxing, saying, "Brother Xingxing, you haven't eaten yet, have you? This is for you."
"Why did you run over here? You'll get beaten if you're discovered!"
Xiaoxiao smiled proudly and said, "No one discovered me. The few bad guys guarding the entrance are gathered together playing cards and drinking, they're not looking this way at all."
Xiao Xingxing finally breathed a sigh of relief. He took out a fruit from his pocket and said, "I've eaten so many fruits, I'm not hungry at all. You eat it yourself."
"Can you get full just by eating fruits? How about we each have half a bowl? You eat first, and the rest is for me," Xiaoxiao said, pulling out a dirty spoon from her pocket and handing it to Xiao Xingxing.
After being captured and brought here, hygiene was no longer a concern.
Xiao Xingxing took the spoon from her hand and gave her a fruit, saying, "You try this too, it's very sweet."
Xiaoxiao took a bite of the fruit. It was so sweet. She said, "Brother Xingxing, it's like the liqueur chocolates you gave me last time."
"Last time?" Xiao Xingxing ate the cold, dry mixed grain rice with the spoon. "That was a long time ago. It's a pity there are no liqueur chocolates in the hospital, otherwise I would have put them in my bag."
"Let's eat them together when we get back to Lancheng," Xiaoxiao said happily. "We can imagine these are delicious liqueur chocolates."
"Mmm," Xiao Xingxing imitated her, looking up at the night sky outside the window, imagining delicious things and fun activities. The bowl of rice didn't seem so unappetizing anymore.
...
Susu returned to Lancheng. From the moment she got off the plane, she kept looking at her phone, afraid of missing any news from Tianyi.
She also missed the other two children dearly.
When she returned home, she saw that Hengheng and Tiantian had also lost a lot of weight. She felt heartbroken, feeling that she had not fulfilled her duties as a mother to these two children.
Hearing Xiaomei describe the children's illness, she felt even more that she was trying to manage too many things at once.
After returning, she didn't rest and played with the two children for a long time.
When night fell and she wanted to hand the children over to the nanny, Hengheng held onto her tightly, afraid she would leave again and he wouldn't see his mother.
Tiantian, on the other hand, cried and asked for his father, asking where his father was.
She could only tell Tiantian that their father was on a business trip and would be back in a few days.
Seeing the children's reluctance to let her go, she couldn't help but be reminded of when Xiao Xingxing was very young, just like Hengheng, he was afraid she would leave.
So she picked up the two children again, thinking she would sleep in the children's room tonight.
After the two children fell asleep from exhaustion, she lay beside them and picked up her phone again, checking it repeatedly. There was still no message from Tianyi.
Even though she knew that An Jing and Tianyi hadn't found any useful clues there today, she couldn't help but send a text message to Tianyi.
"Honey, are you asleep? Have you found any trace of Xiao Xingxing?"
A moment later, Tianyi replied, "The police found a clue today, and it should be soon."
Knowing that he was comforting her, Susu sent another message: "That's good. The two children at home are very well-behaved. Don't worry, I'm sleeping with them."
"Wife, you've worked hard."
"You too, take care of yourself." Susu put her phone aside.
If Xiao Xingxing couldn't be found, Tianyi would also be very anxious, as would An Jing.
He had no clues about Xiaoxiao. Now that he finally had some clues, he must want to find Xiaoxiao.
So Susu felt that she couldn't put too much pressure on them and had to believe in their abilities.
After exchanging messages with Susu, Tianyi did not rest but continued to analyze with An Jing where the two children might be.
They had already hired private investigators who were well-connected in both the underworld and the legitimate world, and they couldn't rely solely on the police.
Tomorrow, they planned to go to the place where Xiao Xingxing was abducted, and the small road where the taxi drove in, to see where that road led.
Today, the private investigator provided them with an important piece of information: the proportion of missing children in this city had been increasing recently. Several parents had already approached their detective agency to help find their children.
According to the private investigators, each child disappeared in a different way, and it was suspected that a specialized child trafficking ring was committing crimes frantically in this city.
It was highly likely that the disappearances of these children were all related to this child trafficking ring.
Therefore, Tianyi and An Jing felt that if they could find the person who captured Xiao Xingxing, they might be able to find this criminal organization.
Xiaoxiao also disappeared after appearing in the flower float, and perhaps she was also captured by these people.
They reached an agreement: finding the black driver who took Xiao Xingxing was key.
And to find that driver, they had to find that taxi first.
Now it seemed that the taxi had been disguised. To disguise the car as a real taxi without arousing suspicion from people on the street, the black man would have to find a professional repair shop.
They, along with the private investigators and police officers, agreed to divide into three groups to check all the repair shops in the city. They were sure to find records of this car being disguised or modified.
Thinking of it, they acted immediately. Tianyi and An Jing didn't want to rest for a moment. Without finding Xiao Xingxing and Xiaoxiao, neither of them could sleep peacefully.
...
Susu lay beside the two children, unable to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she would think of Xiao Xingxing and regret not communicating more with him.