Chapter 21: Supporting a Useless Brother? Not Happening!
Officer Xiao Liu, a diligent young man on duty at the local police station, was still full of energy even at 1:30 in the morning, ready and waiting to serve the people whenever needed.
He wasn’t afraid of hardship or exhaustion—what he feared most was wasting time idly with nothing meaningful to do.
Still, seeing the peaceful life in their county filled him with an indescribable sense of pride and satisfaction.
Living in an era of stability was truly a blessing for everyone. Just as this thought crossed his mind, the police station doors were suddenly slammed open, startling him right out of his seat.
The one responsible for this dramatic entrance was none other than the strong-willed Li Amei. She burst in, arms flailing, and immediately grabbed Xiao Liu’s arm, shaking him violently.
“My grandson is missing! You need to send someone to find him—right now!”
She hadn’t even finished the sentence before she broke into loud, wailing sobs. If the police station weren’t built so solidly, she might’ve brought the roof down with her cries.
Poor Xiao Liu, blessed with keen hearing, had his brain ringing from the sheer volume of her voice.
Rushing in behind her was Xie Yaozu, his face filled with panic. He hesitated at the doorway when he saw Xiao Liu in uniform, mumbling from a distance, “Officer… my son’s gone.”
Last to enter was Wang Tingmei, who was crying so hard she couldn’t speak. She collapsed onto a cold bench and continued to sob quietly.
“Auntie, please don’t panic. Sit down and tell me exactly what happened,” Xiao Liu said as he gently pried off Li Amei’s iron grip. His arm throbbed with pain, but he still kept a polite smile on his face.
Returning to his seat, he picked up a pen and paper to begin taking notes.
“How old is the child?”
“Thirteen years old—but taller than most kids his age! You can tell right away he’s smart. Fair-skinned, chubby, and just the kind of kid everyone loves!”
Li Amei, still crying, gave a highly subjective description of Xie Guibao’s appearance.
“When did you notice he was missing? Where was he last seen?”
Li Amei shot a cold glare at Wang Tingmei and snapped, “She’s the one who noticed—ask her.” Then she leaned against the wall, dabbing at her eyes, refusing to say another word.
Left with no choice, Wang Tingmei wiped her tears and stammered through the story of how she woke up in the middle of the night to find her son gone.
After listening, Officer Xiao Liu felt a headache coming on.
“So, he went out around 7:30 p.m. to meet some classmates, and based on his usual habits, he probably went to an internet café. But he didn’t come home at the usual time tonight. Did you check the local cafés yet?”
“Internet café? No!” Xie Yaozu slapped his forehead, then grabbed Wang Tingmei and hurried toward the door. Over his shoulder, he called out, “Sorry to trouble you, officer! We’ll go check right now!”
Seeing them rush off to look at internet cafés, Li Amei suddenly felt a wave of relief.
Her grandson was definitely off playing games somewhere. That fool Wang Tingmei panicked for no reason and stirred up this whole mess. Now that the adrenaline wore off, Li Amei realized she was exhausted from all the running, so she plopped down and decided not to leave.
“Young man, get me a glass of water. I’m parched over here—feels like my throat’s on fire!”
After making her request, Li Amei launched into a long-winded rant about how Wang Tingmei had woken the whole family in a panic, rushed over to file a police report, and gradually shifted into criticizing her daughter-in-law’s usual behavior.
Officer Xiao Liu’s head was pounding. He couldn’t exactly kick an elder out, so all he could do was hope the parents would quickly return with the child and cancel the report.
Sure enough, they came back in under an hour—but without the child, which made Xiao Liu even more worried.
“You didn’t find him?”
“We did, we did.”
Xie Yaozu forced a dry smile, swallowed hard, and awkwardly tried to hand Officer Xiao Liu a cigarette.
Naturally, Xiao Liu declined. Glancing at the two of them drenched in sweat, he asked, “Where’s the kid then?”
“We took him home to sleep first. He’s been gaming all night—we were worried he might collapse from exhaustion,” Xie Yaozu explained, swallowing again. He quickly turned to his mother and said, “Mom, let’s go home. Let’s not waste the officer’s time anymore.”
Li Amei grumbled a few more criticisms at the silent Wang Tingmei before finally leaving the station with her son’s support.
Xiao Liu watched them go, still feeling that something wasn’t quite right. But since the parents insisted the child had been found, he figured they were just embarrassed about making a false report.
“These kids these days… more trouble than they’re worth,” Xiao Liu sighed. He wrapped his hands around a glass cup filled with goji berries and red dates, already thinking about what to eat after his shift in the morning.
On the way home, Li Amei never stopped complaining.
She started with how Wang Tingmei had done nothing but give birth to two useless girls, then moved on to how even her own mother wouldn’t give her money.
It wasn’t until the two people beside her grew unnaturally quiet that she finally paused, turned around, and looked at them.
“Yaozu? What’s going on?”
Xie Yaozu’s face was pale as a sheet. With trembling hands, he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket—a printed message in bold letters:
[Xie Guibao is in my hands. If you want him alive, don’t call the police.]
Li Amei opened her mouth but couldn’t make a sound. She stared at her son in confusion. “What… what does this mean?”
“Mom… I think Guibao’s been kidnapped.”
Xie Yaozu’s legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the curb outside their building, panic written all over his face.
Wang Tingmei couldn’t even cry anymore. She stared blankly into the distance, as if trying to understand why the heavens were treating her this way.
When Li Amei heard her son’s words, her whole heart sank. Her face drained of color, turning deathly pale. A surge of anger flared inside her, and she raised her hand, slapping Wang Tingmei hard across the face.
“What are you standing there for? What happened? Tell me!”
Wang Tingmei’s legs were already weak, and the sudden slap sent her stumbling toward the wall. Her head struck it with a heavy thud.
She didn’t even let out a sound. Holding her numbed cheek, she stared blankly and replied in a daze: “We went to the internet café to look for Guibao. The owner said he had left long ago. But a student they didn’t recognize left a letter at the counter, saying it was for Guibao’s family.”
The café owner thought it was just some prank letter written by a mischievous student and casually handed it over as a joke. But when the couple tore it open outside, they were horrified by what it said.
Someone had kidnapped Xie Guibao—and threatened to kill him.
Terrified, the couple didn’t dare say much more to Officer Xiao Liu and hurried back to the police station to lie.
“Yao… Yaozu, we… we should report it to the police.”
It seemed Wang Tingmei had only just realized the seriousness of the situation. Her emotions exploded uncontrollably as she grabbed Xie Yaozu’s shirt, pulling him toward the police station.
Xie Yaozu was terrified. In his mind, the kidnapper had to be the man with the gold chain—the same one who had threatened him before, trying to force him to hand over money.
There was no way he dared to report it. No matter how you put it—whether to find a husband for his daughter or to buy and sell people—he was already weak at the knees just thinking about the police.
Slap!
Xie Yaozu, refusing to show his fear, let it boil over into anger. He raised his hand and slapped Wang Tingmei hard—now both her cheeks were swollen, perfectly symmetrical.
“Didn’t you read what it said? Do you want to make the Xie family end with me?!”
Wang Tingmei collapsed onto the ground, sobbing softly. Her voice was filled with sorrow and bitterness as she whimpered, “Why didn’t they take those two useless girls? Why did they have to take my Guibao? Why, God, why do you always turn a blind eye—”
Their voices were kept low, careful not to disturb the deep, silent night. The entire neighborhood was still, with only the intermittent chirping of cicadas filling the air.
