Chapter 5: 205. He Lost His Child

Qi Le’an entered the little courtyard with He Guang. He still felt confused in his heart.

Inside the courtyard was a dirt road and it was very muddy. An old man was sitting in the yard, holding a bowl in his hand. The bowl looked old and had some black marks on it. Qi Le’an looked at it. There was some cold porridge with very few grains in the bowl.

He Guang squatted beside the old man and shouted, “Uncle Zhu! The person who can help you is here! You eat first! Let me talk to him!”

Uncle Zhu’s eyes were cloudy. As He Guang was shouting to him, it could be inferred that he did not have a good hearing. He Guang didn’t care if Uncle Zhu heard him or not. He stood up and said to the two people, “It’s messy outside. Let’s go in and talk.”

Qi Le’an looked at Wei Changfeng and followed him.

He Guang walked to the door and took off his boots. Qi Le’an asked, “Do we need to take off our shoes?”

“No need,” He Guang said, “It’s dirty here anyway. Come on in.”

Only then did Qi Le’an follow He Guang in.

It also looked poor inside the room, but much tidier. Qi Le’an breathed a sigh of relief and went to the side of the table with Wei Changfeng.

One of the legs of the table was a little broken, and the table was shaky. He Guang skilfully took out disposable cups and poured water for the two.

At a glance, the two cups were actually the most gorgeous things in the house.

Qi Le’an thought to himself, ‘This couldn’t be He Guang’s home, right? It mustn’t be. He just called the person outside “uncle”!’

He Guang poured water for the two, without any tea. After that, he also sat aside and took a sip of water from his shabby cup. Then he said, “It’s not easy to find this place. The two of you must be tired.”

Qi Le’an didn’t feel tired, but he felt that this place was just too poor. He really didn’t expect there to be such a poor place 30 kilometers away from the Hai City.

“More than ten years ago, it was said that this village would be demolished like other villages,” He Guang answered Qi Le’an’s doubts, “It was once listed as a key project. But later, one of the men in charge of this project was caught and sent to jail, and no one dared to continue this project. The road in the village had always been in bad condition. A few years ago, there was even a landslide and the road was completely cut off, and no one came here since then.”

Listening to the story, Qi Le’an thought to himself that He Guang would like to shoot a movie about poverty alleviation.

He couldn’t help but secretly take a look at this place, feeling that it was really good to experience life.

He Guang smiled and revealed his white teeth. “How’s Elder Ge? I haven’t seen him for several years!”

When Qi Le’an heard this, despair surfaced in his heart.

‘You have not seen your tutor for years?!’

He looked at He Guang with a complicated expression and said, “I saw him once at the awards ceremony before. Elder Ge is in a good state.”

He Guang opened his mouth and was about to say something when his phone suddenly rang. The voice was very ear-piercing as he grabbed the phone in his pocket and took it out. Qi Le’an saw that He Guang was not even using a smart phone!

It was just the old phone he used when he was reborn! It was hard to say if it could access to the Internet!

Alright, Qi Le’an was speechless completely.

Now he really wanted to know who this person in front of him was.

He Guang talked to the phone with an uncomprehensible dialect. He looked at Qi Le’an and Wei Changfeng apologetically before walking out of the door. Qi Le’an took the gap and asked Wei Changfeng, “Wei Sama! What do you think?”

Wei Changfeng shook his head, frowned, and thought for a moment, “The watch on his wrist… is estimated to cost him tens of thousands of RMB.”

Qi Le’an was a little surprised. He Guang was wearing an electronic watch and it would cost tens of thousands of RMB?

In a few minutes, the “black egg” came in after answering the call.

“I’m sorry! Where were we just now?” He Guang said with an apologetic smile.

“… Elder Ge,” Qi Le’an said.

“Yes! Elder Ge!” He Guang sat down again and said, “He is my family tutor.”

Qi Le’an was speechless and thought, ‘What kind of person is he?! He could even invite Elder Ge to be his family tutor!’

“As far as I know, Elder Ge has not taught any student for many years,” Wei Changfeng suddenly said.

When He Guang heard Wei Changfeng, he wasn’t annoyed, but just smiled and said, “Yes. My uncle has some relationship with Elder Ge. Back then, I wanted to learn to shoot movies, so he asked Elder Ge to be my tutor.”

“Then who is your uncle?” Qi Le’an asked.

He Guang smiled, “It was the one who wanted to develop this place and then was arrested…”

Qi Le’an was speechless.

Even Wei Changfeng was stunned.

He Guang shrugged his shoulders and said, as if he did not care, “But that’s not the main point… Elder Ge called you here, so you must be here to help me.”

Qi Le’an was confused, ‘Who help who? Shouldn’t you help us?’

As he was puzzled, there was a sudden cry from outside. He Guang’s complexion suddenly changed and he rushed out without even bothering to put on his shoes.

Qi Le’an and Wei Changfeng also stood up and followed to the door. There was a woman, 40-50 forty to fifty years old, standing in the courtyard, tugging Uncle Zhu and crying. Uncle Zhu didn’t react at all. The bowl in his hand was also thrown to the ground.

“Give my baby back! Give my baby back!” The woman cried in a daze as she looked up at the two men in the dark. “Are they the buyers?” Did you sell my baby to them for money?!”

Then she let go of Uncle Zhu and rushed to room.

He Guang stopped her and said, “Madam! Calm down! Calm down!”

Then a few people ran in from outside. They went up to help He Guang control the woman and said, “Mister, we are sorry! I didn’t pay attention and she ran out… We are really sorry!”

He Guang shook his head and said, “Fine. Madam is just too sad. You can go back first.”

The leader of the men nodded and said, “Sorry to disturb you! Mr. He!”

The farce ended and He Guang looked back at Qi Le’an and Wei Changfeng. He said, “Sorry to make you see the farce… That madam appeared just now is Uncle Zhu’s daughter-in-law.”

Qi Le’an thought to himself, ‘That’s really a strong scent of life.’

He Guang sighed and walked over to pick up Uncle Zhu’s bowl. He then said to Uncle Zhu, “Uncle! I have a few words to say to the guests!”

Uncle Zhu didn’t reply and He Guang returned to the house.

Qi Le’an and Wei Changfeng also sat back. Qi Le’an finally couldn’t help asking, “What’s going on?”

He Guang turned around and took out a photo from the shelf where the disposable cups were and handed the photo to Qi Le’an. It was an ordinary photo, a group photo of a family. The child on the photo was about three or four years old. His mother wasn’t very beautiful, but her smile was sweet. His father looked like a humble man and he looked stiff on the photo.

There was a date at the lower right corner of the photo, which read 4/6/2012.

Qi Le’an thought that the mother on the photo and that woman looked quite similar, but the difference in age between them was great.

“She… lost her child?” Wei Changfeng suddenly asked.

He Guang glanced at Wei Changfeng and nodded. “Yes, the child was lost after a few days when this photo was taken. At that time, Uncle Zhu, the child’s grandfather, went to a gathering with the child, and the child disappeared when Uncle Zhu was buying something. Uncle Zhu cried hard after that and his eyes got blind. The mother went crazy. The father spent all his money to go out to look for the child.”

Qi Le’an seemed to understand something.

He Guang took back the photo and said, “There are thousands of families like this in China.”

“Including my uncle. He adopted me because he lost his own child. He felt that having another child was a kind of betrayal to my sister, or, his lost daughter.”

Qi Le’an had never known about this group of people before. When he heard this, he was shocked.

“Uncle Zhu’s family has been looking for the child for four years, and I’ve met other families who have looked for their children for eight, or even ten years. Some people have given up, but more people are still waiting for their children to come home.”

“Then…can they find the children?” Qi Le’an was a little worried when he asked this question.

He Guang smiled and said, “It’s too difficult. My uncle had once been a powerful official. He spent a lot of manpower and money to find my sister and he still failed. Those ordinary families can never succeed.”

Qi Le’an was silent.

“Previously, I was in the mountains, and I got a clue… There is a remote village and it even does not have signals. The thoughts of the villagers are very conservative. They would rather buy a son than raise their own daughters. However, the women who are sold to that place are quite popular. Many families also buy girls to raise them to become their future daughter-in-laws.”

Qi Le’an was stunned when he heard this. He didn’t expect that there would be such a place in the country. He asked, “What about the police? Didn’t they do anything?”

“What can they do?” He Guang sneered and said, “The villagers have deep bonds. They protect each other and no one would like to be a witness. Maybe my sister was sold to that place.”

Qi Le’an was silent again. Wei Changfeng they asked, “Has she been saved?”

He Guang shook his head and closed his eyes. The corners of his eyes were red when he opened them again.

Neither of the two people asked anymore.

“A village like this… There’s no way for a stranger to get in. In order to gain their trust, I pretended to be a geologist who knocked on the stones for eight months. But I still failed…”

“Is…” Qi Le’an said with some difficulty. He remembered what He Guang had said at first, “Is there anything we can help you with?”

He Guang looked at the two of them and said, “I’ve been studying movies with Elder Ge for some time… but… I was not a good student. Half a year ago, I asked Elder Ge if I could shoot a movie about child abduction and trafficking. If more people know about it, then the child might be easy to find.”

He Guang stood up and said, “Since it was Elder Ge who asked you to come, you will definitely be able to help me! And help thousands of families like this!”

“When we’re looking for children. even if there is only 0.01% of hope, we will not give up and treat it as 100%… Please… please help these families!”

He Guang, whp was nearly 1.9 metres tall, suddenly knelt down to the two with watery eyes. Qi Le’an was stunned and quickly stood up to get He Guang up, “Don’t do this! Don’t do this! That’s too much for us!”

He seemed to understand what Elder Ge meant by “scent of life”.

Entering these different families and knowing the happiness and sadness of these countless people. This was exactly “scent of life”. At this moment, Qi Le’an’s heart was shocked and stunned. He felt he was enlightened and had opened a gate to a new world.

Qi Le’an thought to himself that he must help, not only for himself, but for those abducted children and thousands of families like this.