Jiang Jianguo held his daughter and led the villagers who had helped search the mountain back to the threshing floor.
Seeing the father and daughter return, Lin Wanting rushed forward to embrace them. The tears she had held back for so long finally spilled over as she welcomed her daughter back.
The threshing floor was in chaos. Families with children scrambled to find their own, terrified that their little ones might have been abducted by any traffickers who had escaped the net.
Amidst the confusion, no one noticed Jiang Yaozu. His face was deathly pale. Seeing that everyone’s attention was focused on the captured traffickers and the family of the third son, he snuck out of the threshing floor and ran back home, his heart filled with the panic of a failed plan.
“Stop running around! Watch your children!” the brigade leader roared at the top of his lungs. “Team leaders, take attendance immediately to see if any children are still missing!”
Soon, the results of the roll call were in. Fortunately, other than Jiang Tangtang and the child Jiang Jianguo had mistakenly thought was his daughter, all the children were accounted for.
This news made everyone heave a sigh of relief, but it was immediately followed by fury. Every gaze cut like a knife toward the man being pinned down by the militia.
“Beat these goddamn traffickers to death!” “Heartless monsters!”
The crowd was incensed. A few hot-headed young men even tried to step forward to attack, but were held back by village cadres and the militia.
“Villagers, stay calm! Calm down!” the Party branch secretary shouted loudly. “A trafficker ran off into the back mountain earlier; they must have a gang behind them! We must hand him over to the Public Security Bureau. Let the police handle the interrogation; they will surely be able to rescue more children!”
These words quelled the crowd’s impulses.
“That’s right! Send him to the police station! Let the comrades from the Public Security Bureau interrogate them!” “They must not be let off lightly!”
The brigade cadres and several militia members escorted the ashen-faced trafficker and rushed him to the town’s police station.
As the father of the abducted child and a key figure in capturing the trafficker, Jiang Jianguo was also asked to go along to explain the situation.
He looked at his wife and daughter with concern. Although Lin Wanting was still shaken, she nodded at him: “Go ahead, I can take good care of Tangtang.”
Only then did Jiang Jianguo grit his teeth and follow the militia team to town.
At the town police station, the duty officers heard that the Jiangjiaao Brigade had captured a trafficker and immediately realized this could be a breakthrough. They called in an experienced veteran officer to interrogate the captive.
In the interrogation room, the blinding lights shone on the trafficker’s face. At first, the trafficker still held onto a glimmer of hope and refused to admit anything, claiming only that he thought the child was cute and wanted to give her a hug.
However, the veteran officer had found tools on the trafficker used to drug children—the evidence was conclusive and undeniable.
They were indeed a wandering criminal gang that specialized in targeting rural markets, temple fairs, and outdoor movie screenings—places with high traffic and weak security awareness.
Once they succeeded, the children would be quickly transferred through several transit points and eventually sold into remote mountainous areas or other provinces.
He revealed the locations of several transit points, as well as descriptions of other gang members.
Upon receiving this critical information, the station chief reported it immediately. The County Public Security Bureau quickly established a special task force and deployed an operation overnight. A thunderous crackdown on the child-trafficking gang had begun.
Following the clues from the interrogation, the police quickly raided the first transit site 30 miles from the town, successfully rescuing two three-year-old boys who had not yet been moved!
Following this, the County Public Security Bureau coordinated with units in neighboring counties to expand the investigation. Following the trail, they dismantled two more secret dens in the neighboring county, captured five involved suspects, and rescued another four abducted children!
Finally, after careful planning and surveillance, the special task force even apprehended the ringleader of the gang at an inter-provincial long-distance bus station as he was preparing to flee!
This crackdown, which lasted less than ten days, yielded brilliant results. A child-trafficking gang that had been entrenched for years was wiped out, over ten criminal suspects were captured, and eight abducted children were successfully rescued!
When the news reached the village, everyone was overjoyed. The anti-trafficking operation, which everyone had participated in, concluded with a complete victory for the police.
Jiang Jianguo and Lin Wanting let out a long sigh of relief.
Their daughter had truly almost been taken by the trafficker that day. Thinking back on it still left them with lingering fear; they were terrified that the traffickers might make a comeback, and they never wanted to experience that kind of torture again.
The town leadership and the County Public Security Bureau even specifically sent representatives to Jiangjiaao to commend Comrade Jiang Jianguo for his bravery in confronting the trafficker without fear.
Although there was no material reward, that letter of commendation with the red seal made even Old Mrs. Jiang a bit more amiable toward her “useless” third son.
As for Jiang Yaozu, who had been the one pulling the strings behind the scenes, he had been living in agony since the traffickers were caught.
Every time he heard news about rescued children, he would shrink his neck in fear and guilt, terrified that the police would follow the trail and find him.
Inside the Jiang family’s small cottage at night, Jiang Tangtang nestled in her mother’s arms, listening to her parents whispering about the aftermath of the incident.
“Husband, tell me… how could it be such a coincidence? Jiang Yaozu spilled water on me and Tangtang, and right at that moment, the human traffickers followed us home?” Lin Wanting stroked her daughter’s soft hair, still shaken.
Jiang Jianguo’s eyes darkened as he recalled the events of that day. “I’ve been thinking about this too. It doesn’t seem right. At the time, he seemed to deliberately move toward you, intentionally splashing water on you both to lure you home, as if he were creating an opportunity for the traffickers.”
He subconsciously glanced in the direction of the eldest branch of the family. Jiang Yaozu’s behavior recently had been very abnormal, and the look in his eyes whenever he glanced at their little family of three betrayed a sense of guilt, leaving Jiang Jianguo deeply suspicious. However, he had no evidence.
Lin Wanting held her daughter tight, still feeling lingering fear. How could one not be afraid of such vicious people living under the same roof? Over a minor friction, he had led traffickers to abduct his own cousin. If there were ever a greater conflict of interest in the future, who knew what he would be capable of?
“Husband, let’s separate from the main family. Let’s move out and live on our own; we shouldn’t get tangled up with them anymore. This time he dared to sell Tangtang—who knows what he’ll dare to do next? I’m scared…”
Jiang Jianguo reached forward and pulled his wife and daughter closer. He understood his wife’s fear; Tangtang’s abduction had truly terrified her. He spoke slowly to comfort her: “Just endure it a little longer. I will find a way for us to separate. By next year at the latest, we will definitely move out and live on our own.”
Cuddled in her parents’ arms, Jiang Tangtang’s eyes sparkled as she also considered the possibility of moving out.
Although there was no evidence to do anything about Jiang Yaozu this time, the family of three was certain that he was inextricably linked to the incident. Jiang Tangtang simply couldn’t swallow this insult; she had to think of a good way to vent this pent-up rage.