After getting out of Sun Zhiqing’s car, Jiang Manman didn’t head directly to the supply and marketing cooperative. Instead, she went to the noodle shop next to it and said:
“I haven’t eaten breakfast yet and I’m feeling a bit hungry now. Let me treat you both to noodles!”
Sun Zhiqing let out a surprised exclamation,
“That’s really not necessary, how embarrassing!”
Jiang Manman had a specific purpose for going to that noodle shop – there was no way she would cancel her invitation.
“It’s fine, let’s go. We’ll head over right now.”
After saying this, she took the lead and walked toward the shop across the street.
“Boss, three bowls of noodles please!”
Hearing her order three bowls, the owner immediately responded:
“Coming right up! Please wait a moment, you three!”
After the three of them sat down, Tang Yumin asked:
“Third Aunt, do you need to buy a lot of things at the supply and marketing cooperative this time? And how is Third Uncle’s illness? Is his leg hurting again? Is that old Chinese medicine practitioner reliable?”
Hearing his series of questions, Jiang Manman replied while surveying the noodle shop:
“That old Chinese medicine practitioner is famous throughout several villages, so he must be quite good. I don’t need to buy much this time, actually I could have come alone. By the way, do you hear any sounds? It sounds like a child crying.”
Tang Yumin and Sun Zhiqing exchanged glances and shook their heads.
“We didn’t hear anything!”
Sun Zhiqing also said:
“I didn’t hear any sounds either. Are you mistaken?”
How could Jiang Manman be mistaken? She shook her head with certainty.
“No, I definitely heard a child crying. Listen. Do you really not hear any sounds at all?”
Just then, the noodle shop owner came over carrying a bowl of noodles. Hearing Jiang Manman’s words, he paused for a moment.
After his expression briefly turned complicated, he forced a smile and said:
“Young lady, you must be mistaken. How could there be a child crying in our noodle shop?”
The people in the backyard had gagged all the children to keep them from making any noise.
There was no way any crying could be heard.
Jiang Manman picked up some noodles with her chopsticks and asked the approaching shop owner with a smile:
“Yes, how could there be a child crying in your noodle shop? How strange?”
The noodle shop owner smiled without responding, but he felt uneasy inside.
Seeing him about to turn away, Jiang Manman quickly moved forward and grabbed the man by the neck.
“Don’t move, or I’ll break your neck. You can test whether I have the capability.”
As she spoke, she tightened her grip. The middle-aged man whose neck she held quickly raised both hands, not daring to move at all.
“Hey, let’s talk this through properly. Why resort to violence?”
Tang Yumin was also stunned by Jiang Manman’s sudden action, not understanding why she had attacked so abruptly.
“Third Aunt, what are you doing?”
Jiang Manman gestured for him to go to the noodle shop’s backyard.
“Go to the back. I heard a child crying, coming from the backyard.”
Sun Zhiqing was also rendered speechless by the situation. They were just here to eat noodles – why get involved in so much trouble?
He was about to speak when he saw Tang Yumin already standing up and heading toward the backyard.
“Hey, we’re just here to eat noodles. And this might just be the noodle shop owner’s child crying. Isn’t this a bit of an overreaction?”
Tang Yumin, halfway to the backyard, turned back upon hearing this and said:
“That’s right! It might just be the noodle shop’s child crying. It’s just a child crying – wouldn’t it be inappropriate for me to barge in?”
“No, there’s clearly something wrong with that crying. Let’s go check it out.”
He was convinced the child’s crying was the problem and wanted to rush in to investigate.
Tang Yumin had no choice. As a man, he couldn’t let a woman charge ahead of him, so he had to take the lead and enter first.
Just as they reached the backyard, they saw five people standing there, all with hostile expressions glaring at him.
Sun Zhiqing, who had followed them in, was nearly in tears. These people clearly looked like trouble-makers, and they were just here to eat noodles!
Why did they have to get involved in this?
At this moment, hadn’t Tang Yumin and her become sitting ducks in their trap?
She couldn’t help but say to Jiang Manman:
“You should let him go now. It’s all a misunderstanding. There’s no child here. These are all adults, and no child is crying. Let’s just go back and finish our noodles!”
Jiang Manman glanced at her. Still thinking about noodles at a time like this.
This Comrade Sun hadn’t realized the situation – she really had nerves of steel.
“What noodles? This place is clearly a den of criminals.”
As she spoke, she threw the noodle shop owner toward the group of people then charged straight at them.
She casually said to Tang Yumin beside her:
“Go check the side room to see if there are any children there.”
Tang Yumin stared blankly as Jiang Manman charged forward alone, taking on all five people without showing any sign of being overwhelmed.
Within moments, she had knocked all five to the ground.
He completely forgot about Jiang Manman’s instruction to check the side room for children.
The terrified Sun Zhiqing quickly ran back to hide behind the door.
Heavens! This Third Aunt of Tang Yumin’s was incredibly powerful!
“Find me some rope to tie them all up.”
Tang Yumin paused for a moment, then snapped to attention and went to look for rope. Remembering his task, he went to kick open the door of another room.
“There really are children here! They’ve all been gagged and locked up in here. Quite a number of them too. It seems those people really were up to no good.”
Outside, Jiang Manman had already tied everyone up and called out to Sun Zhiqing hiding behind the door:
“Go to the public security bureau and get help!”
Hearing her words, Sun Zhiqing immediately turned and ran out to find help from the town’s public security bureau.
Meanwhile, Tang Yumin had already freed all the bound and gagged children.
Then the entire backyard erupted with the deafening cries of children
“I want my mom! I want my mom! Waaah!”
Tang Yumin instantly felt his head swell with frustration.
“Alright, stop all that wailing. You’re all safe now. Someone will notify your parents to come get you soon. Do any of you remember which villages you’re from?”
Tang Yumin tried to communicate with the children to get them to stop crying, but the entire backyard was filled with their loud wails.
Jiang Manman, meanwhile, didn’t find anyone called Chai Shiba among the people in the backyard.
It seemed that person wasn’t here.
“Tell me, where is that Chai Shiba?”
When Jiang Manman asked about Chai Shiba, the man glared at her fiercely.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What Chai Shiba or Chai Shijiu? We don’t have anyone by that name here.”
“No? Since you won’t talk, I’ll just extract your memories directly then.”
Jiang Manman didn’t care that he was just an ordinary person and directly used Soul-searching on him.
After a moment, she threw him down and handed him over to Tang Yumin, saying:
“Take charge of this person. I’m going to West Zhou Village to find the mastermind behind this. Inform the police here about it later.”
“Third Aunt—”
Before Tang Yumin could finish his sentence, Jiang Manman’s figure had already vanished from the backyard.
From that person’s memory, I just learned that the man named Chai Eighteen went to Western Zhou Village, where they actually had another stronghold.