The twenty-eighth day of the lunar year.
The lively atmosphere started in the morning. This year, it gets more and more exciting as it gets closer.
The streets are full of people, no matter if they are rushing to buy New Year goods or not, they are all willing to join in the fun. Even though there are no street performers like in the past, it is still lively.
Children were running around in groups of three or five setting off firecrackers. Some of them had small holes burned in their clothes by the firecrackers, and they were crying loudly.
A man with his head and face covered walked through the streets, looking both ways.
Someone was selling fried melon seeds without tickets. It was the 28th of the lunar year anyway. Even if they were speculating in the office, they still had to celebrate the New Year, right? So these people were a little bolder. A half-grown boy saw him looking at him like this and whispered to him, "Comrade, do you want fried melon seeds?"
The man with his head covered looked at the children with greed in his eyes and whispered fiercely: "No!"
The half-grown boy took a step back. This guy is really vicious.
The man with his head wrapped stared for a while before reluctantly turning away.
The person following behind not far away:…
No, it's really okay for a beggar like you to speak and act so arrogantly
Didn’t you see that the guy selling melon seeds was staring at you
Ordinary people these days are very enthusiastic and will try their best to do their part when they encounter bad elements.
The person who was following them whispered to his companion, "I asked around, and this guy seems to be the one in charge of the group."
The implication is that even if this guy is a kidnapper, he is not a key cadre.
Or maybe it's just that these kidnappers are hateful. The main kidnappers are the two women, the dwarf, and a young man with a pleasant face.
It's because they look so unguarded that they can commit crimes with impunity.
In the past few days they have put together the files of several surrounding counties. At least 20 to 30 children were abducted, and a dozen children from the countryside were missing. My wife's statistics are incomplete, but there are at least a dozen.
These are just a few surrounding counties. I wonder if this gang of kidnappers has committed crimes in other places.
Do you think it is hateful or not
The usual methods these people use include using informants to scout the area, and using dwarfs to lure children directly like last time.
There were also cases where the two women came out and lied to the children, saying that their children were lost and asked the other children to help find them.
The most infuriating thing is to have the ferocious-looking man pretend to be a couple with the women in their gang, and have them quarrel in the street, or the man grabs the woman's hair and says she is cheating on him.
You know, there is always a crowd for this kind of gossip, and the people in their gang can take the children away while the fun is going on.
By the time the parents discovered their children were missing, these people had already run away.
The two people who were following them gnashed their teeth.
"Why don't our leaders arrest them? Hasn't this already been determined?"
No matter how carefully these people act, there have been some eyewitnesses in recent years. Wouldn't it be easy to understand the truth if they arrested the people
"You are stupid, didn't you hear what the superiors said? This group of people are very smart. Why do they dare to come here after committing so many crimes? It's because there are informants in several surrounding counties. What we want is to arrest the informants together! We also need to get solid evidence against them. It would be best if they were all convicted of serious crimes!"
Compared to the hateful kidnappers, those informants are quite shameless.
They usually pretend to be good people, just like ordinary people. But they secretly scout places for the kidnappers. They know where the kidnappers hide, how they kidnap children, and how they leave safely. These informants are responsible for everything!
It is said that some informants are relatives or friends of the abducted children.
How hateful is this
The stalker suppressed his anger and followed the man until he walked into the dilapidated house.
All they have to do is keep an eye on this place and make sure they catch these people in the act.
However, the person who was following them whispered to his companion, "But you said they were hiding from the public. If they don't kidnap children anymore, how can we catch them in the act?"
This problem is not only a concern for the two young men who were following them, but also for the police station.
The old policeman frowned, and he was surrounded by several people from other police stations.
This incident was no small matter, and almost all the police in the county were mobilized.
As long as this case is handled, maybe several of their police stations will receive honors this year!
"If you ask me, we should arrest them all and put them on trial. Then we will be able to get some conclusions."
"You can't do this. If you don't catch them in the act, they can just talk their way out of it."
"What if they don't do it?"
"… Anyway, we can't alert the enemy. We still have to catch them in the act. We can catch them all in one fell swoop and break their psychological defenses."
"You said it lightly, what if someone runs away again?"
…
The old policeman knocked on the table, also worried.
At this point, the best way is to make these people panic and want to run away. In this way, before leaving, given their personalities, they will definitely want to take a few children away with them.
The key is, how to make them panic
And there's Xu Lei, that guy is quite cautious, with him around, these kidnappers might really be persuaded.
The old policeman thought that if there was an opportunity at this time, it would be great to catch Xu Lei.
…
Xu Lei sneezed several times since he got up early in the morning.
Zhang Yun looked nervous: "Do you have a cold? How about I make you some ginger stewed eggs?"
Xu Lei rubbed his nose: "It's okay."
He felt that Zhang Yun was such a jerk. If she wanted to make it, shouldn't she have made it and brought it to him? She pretended to ask him if he wanted to eat it, but she really had no sense at all!
"I'm going to be out for a while."
Xu Lei put on his clothes and quietly took a dozen baked multi-grain cakes he had brought from home, and went out to deliver food to the group of people.
Although those people had money and tickets, they dared not start a fire. He could only send them some every day.
A dozen pancakes would definitely not be enough, so Xu Lei had to go out to the restaurant to buy some braised dishes and other things and send them over as well.
Xu Lei walked out of the door and happened to meet Wang Ying and Xu Shuang at the door.
Wang Ying was happily eating a candied haws in her hand.
Although Xu Shuang had made up her mind yesterday to stop eating sweets for two days, it was rare to find candied haws for sale on the street!
Wang Ying stared at Xu Shuang for a long time, and finally Xu Shuang softened her heart.
After buying a candied haws stick, Wang Ying counted and ate two, and the remaining ones were reserved by Xu Shuang.
Xu Lei narrowed his eyes and greeted the young couple: "Are you out buying New Year's goods?"
Xu Shuang hummed.
He already knew from his master why Xu Lei had been secretly taking food out recently.
Looking at Xu Lei now, his already negative first impression of this man became even worse. He even felt that such a cripple should not even talk to his pregnant wife.
Xu Lei felt uncomfortable when he saw the other party being so happy.
He pretended to say, "It's easier not to have children. Your sister-in-law and I haven't had time to go out and have fun these past few years. Once you have children, you have to put them first in everything you do."
Wang Ying, haha, how dare you, a beggar, say here that children are the most important
Xu Lei exchanged a few more pleasantries before walking away with his things.
Wang Ying leaned over to Xu Shuang's ear and complained: "This guy is really good, you can't tell at all."
Even she didn't find out about it until later. Who could have known in person that Xu Lei was such a beast in human form
Xu Shuang squeezed her hand and said, "Don't meet him these days. We can stay in the house. I will cook for you."
It seemed like the master had made some arrangements, and recently Xu Shuang could clearly feel that someone was watching their compound and was about to take action against Xu Lei.
Wang Ying listened to the advice and said, "Okay."
The family has plenty of food reserves, and Wang Ying has been eating different kinds of food non-stop recently.
"How about making some noodles with gravy today?"
I choked after eating a lot of meat yesterday, so today I should eat some warm noodle soup.
Xu Shuang: "Sure, what kind of noodles do you want? Old Beijing noodles or egg sauce noodles? Tianjin noodles or old Taiyuan noodles?"
There are some particularities to making this noodle soup.
The old Beijing noodle soup uses water-soaked mushrooms, black fungus, and day lily, stir-fried eggs, pork belly fried to make lard, and button mushrooms to make it fresh. When the soaked dried goods are almost fried, thicken them with starch, add starch twice, cover the hand-rolled noodles with the stew, and top with a small spoonful of freshly fried pepper oil. It tastes slightly spicy and fried, and the noodles and soup are red and shiny after thickening, which is fresh and attractive. Be careful not to mix the stew and noodles when eating. When you finish eating the noodles, the stew has not leaked out, so you can finish the soup and stew together. It's delicious!
Compared with the old Beijing noodles, the Northeastern egg sauce noodles seem to be a little thin in ingredients. The method is bright and simple, just like the Northeastern people's character. The seasoning and ingredients are not so strict. It can be made by simply adding eggs with soybean sauce. The more particular one is to add some green peppers, string peppers, and chili peppers after the eggs are fried. The thick sauce wraps the golden egg cubes. It can be eaten with noodles or with steamed buns in the morning.
Tianjin-style noodles look similar to old Beijing noodles, but the ingredients are different. The key ingredients are shrimp and gluten. It is not enough to just prepare the three-fresh stew. There is also a "four dishes and eight items". If you are entertaining guests, you have to prepare more than a dozen items.
Taiyuan's broth noodles are made with roasted pork, black fungus, shiitake mushrooms, bean curd and day lily. A little vinegar is added to the side of the pot, and a handful of chives are sprinkled on the end of the pot. The marinade covers the noodles...
Wang Ying felt her mouth watering just thinking about it.
"Do we have barbecue at home?"
She wanted to eat Taiyuan's noodles with gravy. If there was some roast pork left, she could have a hotpot in an old copper pot in a few days during the New Year.
Xu Shuang: "No, but I can do it."
Anyway, there are no relatives visiting during the New Year, so what else can I think about except what to eat
The factory where Sun Mei worked also had a holiday, so she left the dormitory and went back home.
The first day after arriving home was fine. Sun Mei told her mother a few twists of Xu Lei's words and expressed her determination solemnly.
"Mom, Xu Lei has already said that his family's job will have to wait a little longer, so please stop pushing me. How could I not know what you mean? I will definitely behave well, and after a while, I will ask him to make my temporary job a permanent one. You don't know how good Xu Lei is to me!"
Sun Mei said happily: "When I get married, I will leave the job to my younger brother. Although my father's job is also in our family, wouldn't it be better if my younger brother doesn't have to take over? It will save the family from being so tight."
Sun Mei's mother, Su Sanmei, glanced at her daughter and said, "It's good that you know. Our family is not like others. We are already tight. If I hadn't seen that you are doing well, I would have signed you up to go to the countryside this year. Don't take it lightly. If you get married, we can ask Xu Lei for help and our family won't have to go to the countryside. You can live a good life."
There are two children in her family, so Sun Mei should have gone to the countryside long ago, but Su Sanmei wanted to find a good family for her daughter, but it has been delayed until now.
But there is no way to delay it any longer. The youngest son will graduate next year. If Sun Mei cannot get married, she will have to move to the countryside next year.
At least one person in a family went to the countryside. If it wasn't Sun Mei, then it would be their son.
Su Sanmei knew without even thinking about it that with the urgency of going to the countryside, her daughter would have to get through to Xu Lei sooner or later.
It would be good if the connection was established. Their family has always been poor. If they can marry into a good family, wouldn't their fortunes change in the future
Su Sanmei was very excited. She asked her daughter to cook at home and she happily went out with her needle and thread to show off to others.
After receiving instructions from her mother, Sun Mei clenched her fists even more.
She had to hold on to Xu Lei's high position and let her mother see her abilities.
But what Sun Mei didn't expect was that something unexpected happened the next day.
Su Sanmei showed off to others all day, and the next day she was still gossiping with others. It was New Year's Day, but it didn't stop her from running around.
The family that was visited was busy preparing for the New Year, but they still had to find time to listen to Su Sanmei showing off. They were already a little annoyed.
Suddenly she heard someone knocking on the door, and she stood up quickly: "Here they come!"
No matter who it is, come and rescue her!
As the door opened, two people dressed as cadres appeared outside.
"Comrade, we are here to investigate the electricity and water problems in your residential area. I heard that someone reported that someone cut the wires in your area in the middle of the night?"
The neighbor slapped her thigh. She was scared when she saw someone coming, but if he asked about the wires, she would feel relieved.
"Leader, this is indeed the case!"
The neighbor pointed at the wires outside and complained: "I don't know which bastard is here, always cutting the wires. At first I thought it was someone's doing it on purpose, because he doesn't like us. Do you think he is a wicked person? He's not afraid of being electrocuted! Then I found out later that the wire cutters not only cut ours, but also several other houses around. It's so inconvenient! Our children have to go to the neighbor's house to do their homework in the light when they come home. We finally fixed it, and guess what? It was cut again!"
The two cadres took out a pen and paper and began to record. The neighbors kept talking, and they wrote down everything one by one.
"Leader, can we solve this wire problem? It's almost the New Year, and if we reconnect it, what if it gets cut again?"
One of them said: "We will also report this to the higher authorities. After all, our words don't count."
Su Sanmei listened for a while and finally saw the opportunity for her to interrupt.
She thought that it would be useless to brag in front of the neighbors, so she might as well show off her son-in-law's abilities now!
"Hello, comrade. I am also a family member of our factory employee." Su Sanmei could not wait to squeeze to the front. "Have you reported the power problem in our family building to the county party committee?"
"Yes, the problems in our factory need to be reported to the higher authorities."
Su Sanmei's tail was about to rise with pride: "Then can you report this to Comrade Xu Lei?"
She wanted to show off, so she described him in great detail: "He's the deputy section chief of your factory affairs office, named Xu Lei. His parents are both cadres of our county's armed forces department."
The two people holding paper and pen frowned slightly.
"Xu Lei?"
Su Sanmei said loudly: "Yes! It's Xu Lei! This is my son-in-law! If you tell him about this, he will definitely expedite the process!"
The two looked at each other and said, "Comrade, there is no such person in the county committee."
Su Sanmei: "How could there be none? His surname is Xu, the Xu with the character for 'Yan' next to it. He works in the factory affairs office!"
One of the men wearing a hat couldn't help but said, "Comrade, our county party committee doesn't even have a factory affairs office."
Another person added: "That's called the Factory Federation. It doesn't belong to the county party committee. It's an independent department."
Su Sanmei felt her breathing quicken: "Impossible! The surname is Xu! Maybe I remembered it wrong, it's not from the factory... Is it from another department? Yes, it must be from another department!"
The man in the hat: "There is no one named Xu in our county committee. And there is no one in the armed forces department either."
"How do you know? You don't necessarily know everyone!"
The man in the hat said unhappily, "There aren't that many people in the county committee now. There are less than a hundred in total. Why can't I know them all? The Armed Forces Department is ridiculous. I live in the Armed Forces Department area. You said I can't know everyone in the Armed Forces Department, but I know all the cadres. There's really no one named Xu."
a bolt from the blue!
Although the neighbors looked puzzled, they felt as refreshed as if they had drunk a bottle of cool water in the middle of summer!
Su Sanmei's face turned red. At this moment, not only the neighbors watched the whole scene, but a large group of people gathered outside.
"Oh, what's this?"
"It's so funny. This old Sun's wife brags every day about how hard her daughter has worked and how she married into a cadre family. So what? She's a liar!"
"He may not be a liar, right? Maybe he remembered it wrongly?"
"If he can't even match the department, how can he not be a liar?"
"Don't tell me, my daughter came back yesterday and told me something, saying that the letter written by Sun Mei's boyfriend was crooked and had a lot of pinyin in it!"
"… Pinyin, whose cadre is like this!"
"Tsk tsk, look at Old Sun's wife's face, I'm afraid she can fry eggs on it, right?"
"Haha, wasn't it the other day when she was talking about our county committee all the time in front of us? She was showing off like she could move into the county committee compound tomorrow."
…
Su Sanmei's face was burning and she felt unwell.
The handsome son-in-law my daughter found is a fake!
This news devastated her to the point of losing her soul.
She didn't even notice the two men had left and walked home in a daze.
As soon as I got home, I saw Sun Mei coming towards me.
"Mom, the meal is ready..."
“Bang!”
Su Sanmei slapped Sun Mei in the face.
Sun Mei's tears suddenly came out.
"You stupid girl, why did you lie to me when you could lie to anyone else? I have completely lost face today!"
Su Sanmei grabbed her daughter and started beating her without giving a single thought.
Sun Mei cried out of breath: "Mom, why did I lie to you?"
Su Sanmei yelled and beat her daughter, and finally she fainted from anger.
When I woke up again, the man with a dark face was already sitting by the bed waiting for me.
Su Sanmei's tears flowed down her cheeks: "Old Sun, this is not my fault."
Does anyone know where Sun Mei found this liar
It was so painful to deceive her!
Her husband smoked a cigarette and spoke after a while: "This won't do. We have to find the liar."
If we don’t find this man, my daughter’s reputation and the reputation of our entire family will be ruined!
Those who know would say that they were unlucky and met a scammer, while those who don’t would think that his daughter was defrauded of her money or her sex.
Old Sun's cigarette was full of smoke, but his eyes were more determined: "We have to find the person and report him. Otherwise, if we can't find him later, Sun Mei's life will be over."
If it was that they were dating secretly, it would be fine, but the problem was that his wife had spread the news that his daughter was dating someone and everyone in the compound knew about it.
If we allow the rumor to spread, it won't be long before people start gossiping about Sun Mei.
Su Sanmei quickly figured it out. She wiped her tears and said fiercely, "Find it!"
She had to catch this liar and give him a good beating!