Chapter 225 It turns out their two families are inextricably linked.

He didn't want to hear anything; he just wanted to see his child return safe and sound.

Seeing that things had already developed to this point, Xie Zhiyan didn't say much, but simply patted his shoulder gently to comfort him.

"Everyone, go to the places where you usually see Stone and help search. If anyone has any news, please report to Stone's house. Also, the child has been missing for several days, so everyone should carry some food with them. The child might be starving."

Xie Zhiyan's consideration was thorough. The group quickly dispersed and searched every corner nearby. Yueyue's eyes darted around, and she looked at Yangyang. The two siblings had the same idea.

Yueyue gently shook Shuying's arm, "Mom, I think I know where Brother Stone is. He took us to a secret base before, and he said it was very quiet there."

Upon hearing this, the group finally had a target in mind. Wang's wife had some food with her. "Comrade Shuying, let's go together and take a look. If anything happens, we can all help out."

The surrounding women readily agreed, and Xie Zhiyan and Shu Ying, led by their two children, went out the door.

Zhao Lijuan stood at her own door, fanning herself with a fan, and looked at Li Chunyan in the neighboring yard.

"You know, this widow is really pitiful. She raised a child and it turned into an enemy. If you ask me, other people's children are never as good as your own. I fed and pampered her, and she raised a thankless wretch who caused such a big commotion. This child is really troublesome, and he's so cunning."

Li Chunyan folded the dried quilts together and was about to bring them inside. As she watched the departing figures, she secretly felt relieved.

"Fortunately, I had always told my children not to play with him. He seems withdrawn and doesn't like to socialize, so he must have some kind of problem. This child is like a blank sheet of paper; he will learn the habits of the people he associates with. Luckily, my child hasn't been led astray by him. If he were to run away from home every few days, I couldn't stand it."

Zhao Lijuan found a stool and sat down, still feeling angry when she thought about how Shitou had protected Yangyang and Yueyue in the sandpit on the playground.

"I could tell last time when this little brat defended those two bastards that this child was definitely not someone who could be raised properly, and that he would only side with outsiders. That widow has probably learned her lesson this time, and she will treat this child like an ancestor in the future. If something happens again, with so many people in the yard, they could drown her with their spit."

Potato and Sanniu stood awkwardly to the side, looking somewhat guilty for some reason.

Potato kept fidgeting with his fingers, his small eyes no longer showing their usual shrewdness, and his expression was a little off. Li Chunyan gave Zhao Lijuan a wink, and she finally came to her senses.

"San Niu, what did you and your brother do?"

San Niu waved her hands repeatedly, "It wasn't us, I don't know anything, we didn't cut off his pants."

Zhao Lijuan…

She put down her fan, picked up the peppercorn stick beside her, and her face darkened. "You little brat, you're always leading your brother to do bad things. Is the loss of the stone related to you? If you don't tell the truth, I'll beat you to death today."

Potato burst into tears, clinging tightly to Zhao Lijuan's legs, his sobs muffled and incoherent.

“We were fighting in the sandpit that day. It was Shi Tou who had to get involved, which made Dad come back and beat me up. When he was taking a nap at school, my sister and I cut up his favorite pants.”

San Niu also started to cry. She was in the process of losing her baby teeth and was already missing a front tooth. It looked even more awkward when she opened her mouth and cried.

“I just wanted to teach him a lesson, but I didn’t expect him to cry so hard when he woke up. He said that the pants his mother made for him before she died had a beautiful patch with a little mushroom on it. We didn’t do it on purpose. If he hadn’t been so nosy, we wouldn’t have cut off the pants his mother made.”

San Niu was sobbing uncontrollably, saying in broken sentences, "He disappeared when I came back from school that day. He must still be angry."

The two children originally just wanted revenge, but they didn't expect things to escalate so much and become known to so many uncles and aunts.

They dared not speak up, fearing they would be beaten.

But now it's clear that this matter can no longer be kept secret.

Zhao Lijuan stumbled, her mind went blank, and she almost fainted from anger.

She held up the peppercorns in her hand, reluctant to drop them, saying, "You two troublesome children, if something really happens to Shi Tou, you won't be able to deny it even if you want to."

She clasped her hands together and silently prayed, "God help me, please don't let him die like this, please don't let him touch our family."

These two children are so young; we can't let them bear the burden of a life for no reason.

When they reached the fork in the road, Yangyang led Xie Zhiyan and his group to their usual playground, while Yueyue led Shuying and several of her sisters-in-law to continue walking forward.

At the very back of the residential compound, there is a row of trees. Between the sixth and seventh trees, there is a hole. The hole is not very big, but a child can crawl through it without any problem, and a slightly smaller adult can also easily enter and exit.

Yueyue climbed over first, then turned and waved to Shuying, "This place is the secret base that Brother Stone told us about. He said we can only tell the people we trust the most."

Shu Ying bent down and crawled over from the ground. She was a little taller, but fortunately she was thin. Although it was a little difficult to crawl over, she managed to get across.

Climbing out of the cave, I was surrounded by fields. People had already started harvesting this month, and the golden wheat stretched as far as the eye could see. Stones couldn't possibly be mixed in with wheat fields.

Shu Ying looked around. Apart from the surrounding grass, there was nothing else. It was unlikely that Shi Tou had come here. After not going home for so many days, he would eventually need to find a place with food.

"Yueyue, are there any other places you and Brother Stone often go?"

Shu Ying searched around but couldn't find Shi Tou. The area was overgrown with weeds and had a lot of mosquitoes, so a small child shouldn't be able to stay here for long. Besides, people had been harvesting wheat these past two days, so if they found Shi Tou, someone would surely make a sound.

Yueyue shook her head, unable to think of anywhere else to go.

"Comrade Shuying, have you found the child? Should we go over and help?"