Chapter 332 Aunt Mei

Xiao Jiu woke up in the middle of the night; she and that woman trafficker were sleeping in a mud-brick thatched hut.

This house is not only drafty, but also dilapidated. The bedding smells terrible and is dark. It's awful!

Neither of them took off their clothes; they just lay there like that. The woman with the mean face was sleeping soundly and had foul breath, probably because she hadn't brushed her teeth.

Xiao Jiu couldn't stand it any longer, and he was also hungry. While the woman was sleeping soundly, he went into the warehouse to wash himself up, then took the lunchbox he had prepared earlier and slurped down a full meal. After that, he started writing a little note.

The notes had the winery's phone number, her parents' names, and other contact information. She also wrapped a penny or two in each note.

The brown one-cent banknote with the image of a Liberation truck and the blue two-cent banknote with the image of an airplane were chosen because many people at that time were illiterate.

She drew a policeman on the front of the note and wrote the words "Call the police" in big letters, while the back had her parents' contact information.

She had a lot of loose change, especially these cheap bills, which added up to dozens of them, and planned to throw them away along the way tomorrow.

Whether it will be effective or not is unknown, but since it's her first time experiencing something like this, she has to be fully prepared.

She thought these people would stay until dawn, but she underestimated their resourcefulness.

Around four or five in the morning, they started banging on their door.

"Mei-jie? Mei-jie, are you up? We're all ready, hurry up!"

As the so-called "beauty sister" reacted, Xiao Jiu lay down and closed her eyes, and was naturally shaken awake by her.

"Wake up, wake up! Hurry up and put on your cotton-padded coat. We're going to ride in an oxcart soon, and I won't be responsible if you get cold."

Once she boarded the oxcart, she realized that these people were so cautious that they were taking her to the next county to catch a ride, and weren't going to their county town at all.

Incredible! Who could have imagined this?

She is very obedient. If you give her food, she will eat it. If you don't give her food, she won't say anything and will do whatever you ask.

So this woman called Aunt Mei neither hit her nor scolded her, but she kept trying to get information out of her.

Xiao Jiu wasn't stupid; she told everyone about her nine daughters and how her father was punished for selling her mother and was killed.

She is able to go to school now because her older sister supports her.

"Aunt Mei, you are beautiful and kind-hearted, please let me go? My sister is almost thirty and still not married. She has been heartbroken for me. If I were lost, she would go crazy. She has raised me like her own daughter."

"Let me tell you, don't think you can climb the social ladder just because I'm giving you a little face. If you're obedient and well-behaved, I can find you a good family. But if you start thinking about all sorts of nonsense, I have ways to deal with you."

When they arrived at the neighboring county town of Gong, there was another baby boy on the oxcart. Judging from his appearance, he looked to be less than a month old!

These beasts are truly inhuman.

Because babies are difficult to care for and need formula, they stopped briefly at the supply and marketing cooperative. Xiao Jiu held the baby while Aunt Mei went to buy formula. Xiao Jiu watched the hurried passersby with indifference.

Along the way, she chose several crowded places to throw the notes out. Why not larger bills? She felt that some people would only take the money and ignore what she wrote on them.

She's casting a wide net; as long as even one person calls the police for her, it won't be a losing proposition.

Aunt Mei ultimately failed to buy the milk powder; this was a year of famine, and even with ration coupons, one might not be able to purchase it.

So even though she came back and snatched the child back, and went to buy a store with the child in her arms, they still wouldn't sell it to her, and she said it with great helplessness.

"Comrade, it's not that we don't want to give it to you, it's just that we don't have any stock at all, okay?"

Milk powder is so scarce that, let alone you, even if a leader came and wanted to do someone a favor, we could only watch helplessly.

"We really don't have any stock, I'm not kidding you!"

Without food, the baby cried loudly, forcing Aunt Mei to drive her oxcart into every village she encountered to find pregnant women, pay them money, and have them nurse their babies.

We traveled on and off, and finally arrived in Los Angeles before dark.

Instead of entering the city, they headed directly towards Luan County, where there are many mountains. Judging from this, they must be planning to sell them there.

Aside from having eaten a cornbread bun in the morning, Xiao Jiu, who hadn't eaten anything all day, was really hungry.

She hadn't eaten or drunk anything all day. Not to mention her, even the baby in her arms cried until it was too tired to sleep, and then cried again when it woke up. It broke her heart to see it all.

After a bumpy ride and feeling hungry, Xiao Jiu drifted off to sleep.

She was awakened again by the sound of her child crying. They had arrived at a village, but she didn't know exactly where.

The child cried until her voice was hoarse, and Aunt Mei scolded her when she saw that she was awake.

“Since you’re awake, come and feed the child. After you’ve given him this bowl of rice porridge, you can eat two cornbread buns yourself.”

She glanced at the hard, cracked black cornbread next to her and realized she had absolutely no appetite.

The rice gruel had cooled down enough, and she gently and patiently fed it to the child, spoonful by spoonful.

Seeing that the baby had finally stopped crying, the traffickers, who were already exhausted from the ordeal, quickly went to find a place to eat.

After Xiaojiu finished feeding the child rice and oil, he still smacked his lips as if he wanted more, clearly not full.

He grumbled and tilted his head back and forth, becoming increasingly agitated. He had calmed down, but then started kicking his legs wildly again.

It wasn't until I smelled the stench and opened the swaddle blanket to look inside that I found a whole bag full of excrement, and the blanket itself was filthy.

“He pooped. Do you have a changed diaper or a swaddle? He's very uncomfortable like this, and he started crying again soon.”

Aunt Mei walked into the house with a displeased look on her face. A short while later, she brought out a brand-new swaddle blanket and a pack of clean diapers of various sizes. This did not look like something a human trafficker would prepare. I wonder where she got it from.

"I need some hot water to wash him."

Aunt Mei looked at her suspiciously: "You can take care of children?"

"Yes, my grandma helped take care of the aunt next door during her postpartum period. I went to see her."

Upon hearing this, Aunt Mei waved her hand and said, "Then I'll leave the child to you."

"No way, I can't, and I can't bring it. If I accidentally kill it, I can't afford to pay for it."

Xiao Jiu immediately felt as if she were facing a formidable enemy, and even took a step back in fear.

"If that's how you want it to be, then I'm not doing it. You do it!"

Aunt Mei herself was also annoyed by that little brat, and now seeing Xiao Jiu's resistant expression, she was even more furious.

"Just do what I tell you to do. Why are you talking so much nonsense? You can only observe him for three days at most. After three days, he will be sent away."

As he spoke, he made a promise to her: "If you take good care of her, I'll cook you three meals a day; if you don't, I'll only give you one meal a day."

Without even thinking, Xiao Jiu said, "Even if you don't give me food, I won't bring it. You cry all the time, it's so annoying. I won't bring it. If you don't want to, just kill me. Anyway, I'm not bringing it. Whoever wants to bring it can bring it!"