readsfreenovel Chapter 280 Reunion
Chapter 280 Reunion
After Gu Fengyue left, Gu Fengyun was also busy. He changed his clothes and went to the Charity Bureau. It was already midnight when he came back. Gu Fengyue was not so fast. The capital is so big and those places are far away from each other. Gu Fengyue was busy until the next morning.
When he returned to the Ministry of Justice with a group of human traffickers, some early risers were already doing business on the street. Seeing the large crowd, they began to guess what had happened.
One of the traffickers saw a child held in the arms of a guard and immediately identified it as his neighbor's child who had been lost a few days ago.
"Isn't that Liu Quezi's little girl? They said she was lost and could not be found. It was useless to report her to the police. How come she is being held by a soldier now?"
Another vendor reminded him, "You also know that the child was brought back by soldiers. Maybe they found the child. Look at those tied-up people in the back. They are all big and strong. Didn't you hear yesterday that the government arrested a bunch of kidnappers and rescued dozens of children?"
The vendor was shocked: "Is there such a thing? Just help me watch the stall, I'll be there soon."
The vendors around here all knew each other, and seeing this, they hurriedly asked him to go back and inform his neighbors.
"Go quickly. With so many children missing, someone must have received the news and is waiting at the gate of the government office."
"Got it. Just watch out."
After getting the assurance from others, the peddler ran home at the fastest speed in his life, turned into the entrance of his own alley, passed his own gate, and instead banged on the gate of Liu Guizi's house frantically.
"Liu Quezi, Liu Quezi, are you awake? Liu Quezi."
Liu Quezi and his wife in the room had woken up a long time ago. After losing their child, the couple had been unable to eat or sleep well. Liu Quezi's wife cried every day. Now when they heard someone knocking on the door, they both subconsciously thought that the child had been found.
Liu Quezi limped out and opened the door, only to see his neighbor. He looked around but didn't see the child. The neighbor hurriedly pulled his clothes and told him that he had seen his daughter.
"Have you seen my Guizhi?"
"I saw him being held by the military officers. I guess he is going to the government office now. You should go there quickly and bring the child back."
When Liu Quezi heard the whereabouts of his daughter, his limp immediately healed. He rushed into the house, pried open the floor tiles where he usually hid things, and dug out a small piece of silver from inside.
"Dad, is there any news about Guizhi?"
"No doubt about it. Zhang Dabing said he saw it. It was our Guizhi. You stay home and look after our son. I'll be back soon."
"No, I want to go too. I feel anxious when I don't see my child."
Seeing that he could not persuade his wife, Liu Guizi could only settle for the next best thing and take his youngest son with him. The family of three hurried to the government office, fearing that they would miss their child if they were too late.
The children brought back yesterday have been sent to the Orphanage, which is similar to a modern welfare home, but the conditions here are not good and the children can only squeeze into a large bunk bed. So the government officials also hope that they can be taken back as soon as possible. They worked all night yesterday to find out the names of all the children, and then wrote a notice and posted it overnight to notify the families who have lost their children to come and take their children back as soon as possible.
The prefect of Jingzhao was unable to go home yesterday. He spent the whole night checking the child's information. At dawn, he sent people to go door to door, beating drums and gongs to make announcements.
After patting his aching waist and back, the prefect of Jingzhao felt that he had been unlucky this year. How could he run into such a group of ungrateful bandits who even dared to rob the relatives of the Marquis of Yongyi? It was said that the patriotic archer had a very bad temper and would shoot you with an arrow if you disagreed with him. Why did he mess with this little ancestor? He would be killed in an instant, wouldn't he?
The prefect of Jingzhao had never reflected on himself at this time. Why did he allow a kidnapping gang to commit so many crimes in the capital, under the feet of the emperor, but never be caught.
The reason why Gu Fengyun only beat him instead of directly reporting to the emperor to have him dismissed was nothing more than to make him work as a laborer. It was ridiculous that he couldn't see clearly and thought that the other party just meant to pick up heavily and put down lightly.
Perhaps they saw the imperial guards and the government officials going out at the same time yesterday, so some parents who had lost their children came to wait at the door early this morning. The rest were people who got up early and came to inquire about the situation. As the sun rose higher, some parents who heard the government officials beating drums and gongs also came.
Several lawyers asked people to open the door, and when they saw the huge group of people in front of them, they were all frightened.
Are there so many people who have lost their children? The lawyers looked at each other in bewilderment. Some anxious people rushed forward to ask them if they had found their children.
Everyone tried their best to control the situation, and finally with the help of the bailiffs and the imperial guards, the situation was brought under control.
The lawyers set up a table at the door and asked these people to line up and report their own names and addresses first, and then the names of their children. After recording everything, they would take them to the back for verification. Only after confirming that their children were among the rescued children would they give them a note and ask them to wait for the next step.
The parents who received the note happily walked over and waited, while those who did not receive the note cried and knelt on the ground and kowtowed, begging the other party to check again.
The master could only helplessly tell them: "We have rescued many children this time. Some of them cannot be named for a while. Please be patient and wait for these people to take the children back. We will check the rest again."
After hearing what he said, everyone's hope was rekindled, but they refused to leave. They all stood by with eager eyes. It was difficult for everyone to chase them away, so they could only let them stay where they were.
The Song family returned to Changping early in the morning. They didn't go shopping in the market much, but were frightened instead. Several children had nightmares last night and didn't want to eat the breakfast that the Song family was worried about. They just wanted to go home as soon as possible.
"The capital is not as stable as the countryside. No child has ever been lost in our village."
"That's right. It's better to go back early. Chunlin, stay here. You go and buy some New Year's goods."
Grandpa Song spoke, and Song Chunlin had no objection. Chen Yuer looked at him for a moment longer, but ultimately said nothing. However, she always felt in her heart that Song Chunlin seemed to be the one making the decisions in everything in and out of the Song family.
After seeing his family off, Song Chunlin also ran to the Charity Bureau to join in the fun. When the children there saw the big brother from yesterday, they all came up to him and asked if he had brought them any delicious food.
Song Chunlin, who came empty-handed, scratched his head awkwardly and said with a wry smile, "Well, my brother was quite busy and didn't bring anything with him."
When the children heard that he didn't bring anything, they felt a little disappointed, but they were more excited to see their older brother. Some of the younger ones even clung to Song Chunlin's thighs and refused to let go.
He looked down at the children at his feet. He kicked the chubby babies one by one. Song Chunlin narrowed his eyes. It seemed like they were using his trouser legs to wipe their noses?
The adults in the orphanage were all elderly uncles and aunts. They saw that the material of Song Chunlin's clothes was delicate and it seemed that he was not from an ordinary family. They were afraid that these little balls would dirty his clothes and annoy him, and then they might not be able to protect these little kids.
Fortunately, Song Chunlin didn't mind. He just took out a handkerchief from his arms and bent down to wipe the snot of the two babies.
He actually came here today to see if anyone would come to claim the child. Now it seems that he came too early. He used his mental power to scan and saw that the entrance of Jingzhao Mansion was packed with people, all of whom were parents who came to pick up their children.
Song Chunlin watched those people line up one by one, from peddlers to high-ranking officials. Song Chunlin even saw a familiar person, Mr. Su from Shengji. He was supporting an old woman. Judging from her age, she should not be his mother, but perhaps a neighbor or relative.
I didn't expect that so many children had gone missing in the capital, but on the surface everything seemed peaceful. I really don't know how this Jingzhao prefect functioned. Such a big thing happened within his jurisdiction, but he didn't even report it to the emperor.
Song Chunlin could now imagine the miserable end of this Jingzhao prefect in the near future.
Seeing that it was still early, Song Chunlin thought of just giving the children an extra meal, just to accumulate merit for himself.
So he asked the person in charge of the kitchen to take him there. When he saw the thin porridge that was so clear that you could see your reflection in it, and the big pot of sweet potatoes, he could not help but frown.
"Is this what you normally feed your children?"
The person in charge of the kitchen was a young lady. When she saw the manager bringing Song Chunlin in, she thought he was some young master from some family. But when she took a closer look, she felt something was not right. When she heard his questioning, she couldn't help but get angry.
"If we don't give the children these to eat, will they have to eat grass roots and tree bark? It's good enough to have sweet potatoes to eat. The little beggars out there can't even afford sweet potatoes."
The uncle in charge quickly stopped the young lady's behavior. The young lady was a little confused, but she kept her mouth shut.
Song Chunlin still frowned. He knew that there were indeed people outside who could not afford sweet potatoes, but they had rescued so many children, plus what the Charity Bureau already had, could they really be full with just a pot of porridge and a pot of sweet potatoes?
"This is too rare. Where is your granary? Can I go and take a look?"
Seeing that Song Chunlin didn't seem to be angry because of the cook's attitude, the manager breathed a sigh of relief and took Song Chunlin to the warehouse at the back.
"We still have plenty of food in our warehouse, but with so many children coming to us all of a sudden, we don't know how long they will stay, so we decided to prepare for a rainy day. I'm sorry to make you laugh."
Song Chunlin asked in confusion: "Didn't Jingzhao Prefecture give any money?"
The manager, Shumo, smiled bitterly and said, "Where can we get the money? Just let us take the child away first. We are insignificant and have no say in the matter. How can we dare to ask the prefect for help? We can only tighten our belts and hold out for a while."
While the two were talking, they arrived at the warehouse. The uncle opened the warehouse. There was actually quite a lot of food stored inside, but most of them were potatoes and sweet potatoes. There was also some rice and flour, but not much, occupying only a small corner of the warehouse. Vegetables were even rarer, and Song Chunlin only saw a basket of dried vegetables.
There was no meat at all. Song Chunlin thought, these children are growing up, is it really okay for them to only eat these?
Shumo probably saw his confusion, and he pointed at the pile of potatoes and sweet potatoes and told him, "These two lumps of soil are treasures. In the past, we could only grow vegetables in the back mountain here. Since the government gave us these two lumps of soil, saying that we can grow them in the back mountain, we planted them with the idea of giving it a try. Unexpectedly, the yield is really as the Ministry of Agriculture said, very high, and it really can fill our stomachs. Our lives in the past two years have been much better than before. At least we don't have to starve when there is a shortage of food, and we can at least get half a full."
"Half full? Isn't that still hungry?"
"There's nothing you can do about being hungry. Just get through that period. When the sweet potatoes grow leaves, you can eat the leaves, too. They grow faster than wild vegetables."
Listening to him praising potatoes and sweet potatoes all the time, Song Chunlin felt quite uncomfortable. At first, he promoted potatoes and sweet potatoes with the intention of letting everyone have enough to eat, but now it seems that only these two things are far from enough, as there are still so many hungry people in this world.
"Please put down your meal a little later. I'll be back soon."
Shumo didn't understand, but he thought to himself that he should just wait for a quarter of an hour, any longer and the children would be starving.
Fortunately, Song Chunlin came back quickly, carrying two large baskets filled with hot buns, one basket of meat buns and the other basket of vegetable buns. These were the leftovers from the previous space, and they were just right for filling the children's stomachs.
"So many? Where did you buy them?"
Not only Shumo was shocked, but everyone else was also very shocked, especially the young lady who had spoken rudely to Song Chunlin before, her face now blushed with embarrassment.
"I asked someone to buy these before I came here. You can share them with the children first. If there is not enough, I will ask someone to buy more."
"That's enough. There are so many buns. I'm afraid there are hundreds of them."
Several uncles and aunts helped to carry the buns in, and the children who knew they would have buns to eat today burst into cheers.
The porridge from before was not wasted. Everyone distributed it to the children, giving each person a meat bun, a sweet potato and a bowl of porridge. Some of the children were smaller and could not finish a large meat bun, so they shared it in half with other children.
All the children lined up in an orderly manner to get the big, delicious meat buns.
When the bailiffs brought people to pick up the children, what they saw was the scene of everyone sitting on the chairs and eating buns obediently. They thought to themselves, is it possible that a Bodhisattva has come to the Charity Bureau to give alms today?
Before they even entered the door, some sharp-eyed people had already noticed their children.
"Guizhi! My Guizhi! Daddy and mommy are here."
The little girl named Guizhi was eating with her mouth full of oil when she suddenly heard the voice of her parents. She hurriedly looked towards the door and saw that it was indeed her parents. She was stunned for a moment and then burst into tears.
"Dad! Mom! Why did you come just now? Wuuuuuuuuu~"