“Results may not be satisfactory.” At this moment, the person opposite him suddenly interrupted his thoughts with a statement.
Li Ping’an’s hands resting on his legs trembled slightly. He shook his lips and finally bit down hard until they turned pale, exhaling slowly after a long pause.
“No matter what, their mother is still waiting for them.” Whether alive or dead, they must return home.
After receiving his answer, Li Ping’an left, and just a few days later, news spread that he had been suspended from his position.
Zhou Ying hurried over and grabbed him, “Do you know where my master has gone? I heard he came looking for you earlier.”
“Are you going to help him?”
Lin Ya naturally knew where Li Ping’an had gone, and he also realized that, relying solely on himself, it would be impossible to bring that child back from that village.
However, that person was very stubborn.
Because if they didn’t go now, they would have to wait five years, at which point the village, driven by the profits from human trafficking, would also begin to abduct women. Later, a girl managed to escape and called the police, leading to a large-scale crackdown by the local police.
Li Ping’an was worried about the child’s well-being and was determined to bring the child out immediately.
Over 1,500 days of regret and worry left Li Ping’an unable to wait any longer. However, unarmed and relying only on his own fighting skills, it was challenging to break through a village full of people defending the child.
Lin Ya guessed Zhou Ying would come looking for him, so he didn’t refuse. The two of them boarded a train heading for their destination.
Upon arriving, they headed straight for the police station, claiming that villagers intended to beat someone to death, prompting a group of police to rush to the village with Zhou Ying and Lin Ya.
Zhou Ying was frantic; as she watched time slip away, thinking of her master, she nearly jumped into the driver’s seat herself.
Lin Ya shook his head; being anxious wouldn’t help.
Li Ping’an was indeed not in a good state. He was holding a fainted child, the child’s face pale, with a teardrop birthmark beneath one eye.
He kept retreating to protect the child, his eyes filled with anger as he glared at the villagers approaching wielding hoes, kitchen knives, and clubs, tightening his grip around the child.
“Put the child down!”
“This is our village’s child! You can’t take him away!”
“That’s right! You can’t take him away! This is our village’s child!”
“This is my child! My wife carried him for ten months and gave birth to him with great difficulty!” It was the second time in his life that Li Ping’an shouted like this, his eyes reddened and filled with fierce determination as he glared at them.
The villagers exchanged glances, looking at the child’s ‘parents’. They all knew the child wasn’t biologically theirs, but since they had spent money, the child belonged to them.
“If you want the child, fine! Pay us!” a woman from one household said sharply. “We bought him for a hefty price, and for these past few years, we’ve doted on him. If you want him back, then pay us! 1,000 yuan! Not a cent less!”
Doted on?
The villagers looked at the woman with strange expressions. She actually demanded 1,000 yuan?!
They weren’t unaware that this child had only cost 50 yuan when he was brought home. For the first two years, the couple indeed treasured him, but later, after the woman became pregnant and bore her biological child, they naturally didn’t care for the purchased one as much.
This child, at such a young age, had to help with chores like washing diapers and feeding chickens; his clothes were torn and tattered, and he hardly had enough to eat.
And yet she had the audacity to ask for a price.
Li Ping’an’s gaze pierced through her like a knife, feeling a murderous rage toward her as he held the frail and malnourished child in his arms.
Not to mention he didn’t have 1,000 yuan on him; even if he did, he wouldn’t give it.
Just as the two sides were in a standoff, police cars pulled up not far away.
Zhou Ying jumped out of the car, yelling harshly, “What are you doing?! It’s illegal to hit someone! Who threw the first punch?!”
“Hey! It wasn’t us hitting anyone; it’s this person who is trying to snatch the child! You have to help us!”
A classic case of the villain striking first!
“This is my child!”
Faced with their accusations, Li Ping’an’s eyes were bloodshot with rage, his vision blurring with pain as he glared at them with a murderous intent that startled the woman.
“Look! Comrades, he’s glaring at me!” she feigned distress, clutching her chest as she glanced at the unconscious child in his arms and then suddenly began to wail loudly, “What a sin! My baby is still unconscious! This person must have hit him to make him faint!”
“Spit!” Li Ping’an nearly spat in her face, “You let my son suffer such a severe fever and didn’t take him to see a doctor or give him medicine! You even say he died? Just trying to save a few grains of rice? You say he’s your son—how could you treat your own flesh and blood like that? Huh?!” He recalled sneaking over to check on the child yesterday morning and overheard the couple’s words. Pain surged through his heart.
“Master!” Zhou Ying ran over and stood beside him, glancing anxiously at Li Ping’an before focusing on the child.
That glance made him pause.
This child indeed resembled the one in the photos his master often carried, including the teardrop birthmark’s position.
“Comrade, I have a picture here; you can see if this child looks like the one in the photo.” While holding tightly to the child, Li Ping’an rummaged through his coat pocket to pull out a well-preserved color photograph.
Several police officers took the photo to compare, and after looking at each other, they realized it indeed looked very much alike.
“Comrade! This is our child; they can all testify for me!” The woman panicked upon seeing them pull out the photo and desperately tried to take the child away, insisting on payment first.
“That’s right! We can testify.”
“Yes, yes! This is their biological child.”
“Testifying falsely is illegal; are you sure about that?” Zhou Ying shouted.
At this mention of the law, the noise immediately diminished.
“Police comrade, I have a suggestion.”
Lin Ya suddenly spoke up: “I’ve heard there’s a new technology called paternity testing that can determine whether two people are related by blood.”