The Republic of China: I, Xiangzi, a Hero in a Chaotic Era

"Cremation...mass burial ground..."

Wang Xiue murmured to herself, then everything went black before she collapsed completely into Xiao Fuzi's arms, barely able to breathe, and she didn't even have the strength to cry anymore.

Xiao Fuzi hugged her mother tightly, feeling a chill run from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, freezing her blood.

Not only could her father's body not be brought home, but it was also to be burned and thrown into a mass grave.

This is even more terrifying than being dismembered!

Overwhelmed by fear, she couldn't even utter a sound; she could only bite her lower lip tightly, tears silently streaming down her pale cheeks.

Zhang Kui frowned deeply as he looked at the mother and daughter who couldn't even cry out.

He waved his hand irritably, as if trying to dispel the unpleasant scene before him:

"Alright, alright, what's the use of just crying? Can you cry money out of you?"

"Sister-in-law, Xiao Fuzi, you'd better hurry up and think of a way, try to borrow from relatives and friends, see if you can scrape together the money. I have a ton of official business to attend to, I really don't have time to waste here with you."

After he finished speaking, he didn't look at them again, turned around and strode away from the cold morgue, leaving the mother and daughter like rag dolls abandoned in an ice cave.

The frigid air, carrying the scent of death, pressed heavily upon the mother and daughter.

They sat slumped on the cold, blue brick floor for a long time until the guards impatiently urged them on. Only then did they support each other and, like two walking corpses, slowly and laboriously leave the police station through the door that symbolized despair.

The winter sun was so bright that they couldn't open their eyes, and the noise on the street seemed to come from another world.

Back in the crowded, dilapidated, musty-smelling courtyard in Maojiawan, Wang Xiue pushed open the creaking wooden door almost instinctively.

However, the expected figures of the two sons huddled in the corner of the kang (a heated brick bed) or squatting at the door did not appear.

The house was empty, with only a cold stove and a messy earthen bed.

"A bolt? An iron egg?"

Wang Xiue called out in a hoarse voice, the sound echoing in the empty room with an ominous tremor.

No one answered.

Xiao Fuzi's heart sank suddenly, and a premonition more terrifying than losing her father instantly gripped her.

She rushed out of the house and urgently asked her neighbor, Aunt Zhao, who was hanging out her old clothes to dry next door:

"Auntie! Have you seen my Shuanzhu and Tiedan?"

Aunt Zhao stopped what she was doing and looked at the mother and daughter with some surprise:

"Shuanzhu Tiedan? He just left not long ago, only a quarter of an hour ago."

"A man came looking for us, saying he was a friend of your Erqiangzi, his name was... oh right, his surname was Ma."

"He said that Erqiangzi got drunk at his place last night and was completely unconscious, so he told his two sons to hurry over and bring him back."

"The two brothers followed that man and headed west as soon as they left the house."

"A friend surnamed Ma? Picking up Erqiangzi?"

Wang Xiue and Xiao Fuzi were struck dumb, their faces turning deathly pale.

Erqiangzi was clearly dead last night! His body is still at the police station! A chill instantly ran from the soles of my feet throughout my body.

"Oh no! It's the Hanabusa!"

Wang Xiue let out a piercing scream, and with a sudden burst of strength, she grabbed Zhao Da Niang's arm.

"Auntie! What did that person look like? Which way did he go, west? Tell me quickly!"

Aunt Zhao was startled by her appearance and stammered:

"Just...just a man of medium height, wearing a gray cloth jacket, his face...I couldn't see his face clearly, he seemed quite ordinary...he went out...he went out and turned west into the alley..."

Wang Xiue let go of her hand and rushed out of the courtyard like a madwoman, running wildly westward.

Xiao Fuzi also came to her senses. The immense terror made her tremble all over, but the instinct for survival drove her to stumble and follow her mother.

They walked westward along the narrow, dirty alleyways, grabbing anyone they saw and asking if they had seen a man in a gray cloth jacket with two boys.

The answers I received were either a shake of the head or a vague pointing.

The mother and daughter stumbled aimlessly through the maze-like streets like headless flies, their hoarse cries drowned out by the cacophony of the marketplace. Sweat mingled with tears, their faces a mess, and hope slowly eroded in their desperate run.

As the sun began to set, they had been chasing it all morning and half an afternoon, finally collapsing, exhausted, on the stone steps at the entrance of an unfamiliar alley, covered in dust and filled with even deeper despair, having gained nothing.

The two younger brothers vanished without a trace, as if they had evaporated into thin air.

He had exhausted his last bit of strength.

Wang Xiue stared blankly ahead, making hoarse, incoherent sounds from her throat.

Xiao Fuzi, supporting her mother and dragging her leaden legs, relied on her remaining consciousness to once again walk towards the place that had swallowed all their hopes—the Xisi North Police Station.

They were greeted by Zhang Kui as always.

He had just finished processing a document when he looked up and saw the mother and daughter who had returned, looking emaciated and like ghosts. His brows furrowed as usual, but a knowing look flashed deep in his eyes.

Wang Xiue collapsed onto the bench in front of Zhang Kui, no longer caring about appearances. Tears streamed down her face as she incoherently recounted how her two sons had been tricked away by a "friend surnamed Ma" and how they had searched for them in vain. Her voice was hoarse and broken, filled with a sense of apocalyptic terror.

"...Boss! Please! Save my son! They're only eleven or twelve years old... They must be child traffickers! They must be!"

Wang Xiue lay prone, her forehead pressed against the cold ground.

As Zhang Kui listened, a mixture of sympathy and deep helplessness appeared on his face.

He waited until Wang Xiue had stopped crying before letting out a long sigh, his voice low and slow, carrying a heavy, almost judgmental tone:

"Sister-in-law, get up first, the ground is cold."

He gestured to a young patrolman next to him to help the almost exhausted Wang Xiue up and sit on a bench.

"These days, the world is in chaos."

Zhang Kui shook his head, his tone carrying a sense of world-weariness and detachment.

"The kidnappers who prey on beggars are as numerous as hairs on a cow, and it's impossible to guard against them all."

"Your two children have been missing for so long, from this morning until now... most of the day has passed. Those human traffickers are very quick; by now, they've probably already left the city gates with their men and headed to other places."

"Our Xisi North Police Station only has a dozen or so people, but we have to manage such a large area as Maojiawan and Xianmen Street. We can't even finish handling all the trivial cases every day."

"Where are we supposed to find those two abducted children like finding a needle in a haystack?"

He looked at Wang Xiue's face, which had instantly turned ashen, paused, and then added, his tone carrying a cruel sense of "reality":

"To be honest, sister-in-law, please don't take this personally. Every year in the capital, there are at least eight hundred to a thousand young women, wives, and teenagers who go missing."

"There are tons of reports of cases being filed, but how many have you heard of actually being found alive?"

"That's fate. If you're destined for it, there's no escaping it."

"I'll help you out, register you at the station, issue a document requesting assistance, it's nothing. But what about the other guys at the station?"