Chapter 70: The Adventures of Xue Xiaohai p2
Xue Xiaohai only remembered that her father had said that she shouldn’t let others see her.
She left the office with the cardboard box on her head. When she saw someone coming, she climbed into the trash can to hide.
Then someone came to push the trash can. She didn’t dare to make a sound. When the trash can stopped, she climbed out again, entered a nearby elevator, and the door suddenly closed.
She continued to cover herself with the cardboard box and moved slowly, coming outside.
The little seahorse saw the pool and told her, “We can go and play in the water, and then go and find Mommy!”
Xue Xiaohai followed her little seahorse into the pool. After swimming for a long time, she was so hungry that she had to climb out and hide behind a huge metal drainpipe.
She and the little seahorse sat in a corner, soaked.
Tired and hungry, and missing both her mother and father, she covered her face and cried, “Mommy, I want Mommy.”
The little seahorse also cried, its tears flowing like a small stream. I also miss my mommy. Wuwuwu. Huh? What’s my mommy’s name? Oh! It’s Blueberry!
The little master and her little spirit body cried for a long time, then got up and wandered around until the sky was completely dark.
When they reached the outside of a warehouse, the little seahorse desperately squeezed in under the rolling door and stole a bag of biscuits for its little master.
Xue Xiaohai bit open the packaging and ate it all.
After she finished eating, she was thirsty again. The little seahorse floated in front of her to lead the way. When they reached the bathroom, it used its caudal fin to turn on the faucet.
The water flowed down, filled the sink, and then flowed down again. Xue Xiaohai opened her mouth and drank.
The little seahorse played in the running water, and Xue Xiaohai also followed and stepped in the water, having a great time.
The bathroom was filled with water. A military officer was on patrol. He sensed something was wrong and immediately took out a dagger and went to the bathroom. He saw a small child and a small seahorse playing in the water under the sink.
“Bath time! Bath time and then sleep!” the small child laughed, sitting in the puddle and giving the little seahorse a bath.
The officer leaned against the door, his flexible fingers constantly spinning a cold, gleaming dagger, watching the child with great interest.
The small child sang while playing in the water, her words quite clear. “Where has the time gone? I’ve grown old before I could even enjoy my youth…”
The officer listened and couldn’t help but laugh. He walked over and turned off the faucet, then squatted down and asked, “Whose child are you?”
Xue Xiaohai was stunned. She hugged her little seahorse and was about to run.
The officer easily caught her and observed her carefully, discovering something. “Are you that big pervert’s child? You look a lot like her.”
The little seahorse suddenly blew a stream of bubbles at the officer, obstructing his vision. Then it ran out with Xue Xiaohai and hid behind a trash can outside.
A group of soldiers came over and entered the bathroom, asking, “Sir, did you find anything?”
“No. Let’s go and look somewhere else.”
The soldier looked at the water on the floor. “Why is there so much water?”
The officer: “Someone probably forgot to turn off the faucet just now.”
He knew that the child just now was the child that all the investigation soldiers in the White Tower were looking for. He did not plan to report it. Why should he? It was rare to have something interesting happen in the White Tower.
Xue Xiaohai and the little seahorse continued to run around and came to a small balcony at the end of the corridor.
The little seahorse spun in the air. Wuwuwu, I want Mommy!
Xue Xiaohai also cried, I also want Mommy! Wuwuwu!
After crying enough, she was hungry again and wandered around aimlessly.
Xue Xiaohai smelled a fragrance. She and the little seahorse lay in front of a door, drooling.
A woman in an air force captain’s uniform came out and opened the door. Xue Xiaohai didn’t have time to hide. The woman squatted down and looked at her. “Are you that little wanted criminal?”
“Food?” Xue Xiaohai wiped her drool with her sleeve. “I want to eat!”
The captain smiled. Xue Xiaohai was so tempted by the smell of the food that she squeezed in past the woman’s feet.
There were two young men in the room. One of them shouted, “Wifey, dinner’s ready!”
The other also shouted, “Wifey, what are you doing?”
“A wanted criminal has come to beg for food.”
The woman closed the door and pointed to the soaked little child. The men and women of the White Tower were generally over 1.8 meters tall. The small Xue Xiaohai stood by the woman’s feet like a small bucket.
A man came over and squatted down. “Huh? Isn’t this the child the investigation department is looking for? How did she get here?”
The other man also came to look at Xue Xiaohai and looked up. “Wifey, should we report it to the investigation department? There’s a reward.”
The captain went to pull out a chair and sat down. “Is that what a human would do? They can’t even catch a small child. The investigation department is a bunch of good-for-nothings.”
A man stood behind her, put his two hands on her shoulders, and kissed her on the cheek. “Isn’t the investigation department just like that? They get the highest salary and do nothing all day.”
The other man picked up Xue Xiaohai and put her on a chair, a cunning smile on his face as he looked at the woman. “Wifey, why don’t we keep this little thing and play house? You be the mommy, I’ll be the big daddy, and Little Chen will be the second daddy.”
The standing man was not happy. “Why should you be the big daddy? I was with Ranran first. By seniority, I should be the big daddy.”
The woman said, “We can’t keep her. It’s too dangerous. Give her some food. After she’s full, let her go.”
Xue Xiaohai lay on the dining table, holding a bowl that was bigger than her face. It was full of meat. She was scooping it up and eating it with a spoon.
The man opposite her was not being sincere. He was putting food in the child’s bowl while complaining, “I really hate children. I get annoyed as soon as I see a child.”
The other man used a tissue to wipe Xue Xiaohai’s wet hair. “That’s right. How can someone have a child in the White Tower? What a sin.”
The woman took Xue Xiaohai’s spoon and fed her. “That’s right. Children are the most annoying.”
After Xue Xiaohai was full, her clothes were almost dry.
She left with the little seahorse. The three people in the room stuffed a few small breads into her pocket. “Hurry up and go. Don’t stay here. You’re so annoying.”
Xue Xiaohai slept at the end of the corridor and continued to wander around the next day.
She would go into any open door she saw and would also run into some people, hearing the word “annoying” many times. After saying “annoying,” these people would give her a lot of food, and someone even gave her a water cup with a straw.
A big sister kept complaining, “How can there be a child? So annoying! It’s terrible!”
Then, the big sister helped her wash her wet pants, dried them, and put them back on her, telling her to leave quickly.
A man with green hair shouted, “The White Tower can’t tolerate children! So annoying! If you don’t leave, I’ll report you.”
After shouting, the man touched her belly and asked if she was hungry.
When she said she was, the man cooked a bowl of sweet porridge and fed it to her.
“Annoying, annoying.”
Xue Xiaohai mimicked those people. It seemed that “annoying” was a good word. It felt so good to be disliked.
Her pockets were full of food, all given to her by the people who had said “annoying.” Someone had also given her a small backpack, which was also full of food and small dolls.
On the investigation department’s side, everyone found it very strange. In the past two days, they had captured many images of the child on surveillance, but no one had reported any relevant clues.
They followed the surveillance footage to investigate and ask around, but everyone gave a rough answer: I didn’t see her. If I did, I would definitely report it. Children are so annoying. Who would harbor a little thing?
Xue Xiaohai and the little seahorse entered a large hall. It was full of people in military uniforms.
She walked along the corner of the wall. Many soldiers saw her but said nothing.
A group of investigation soldiers in black leather clothes came in. Xue Xiaohai knew that these people in black were here to catch her. Someone had told her to hide when she saw people in black. They were bad people.
The tiered seats in the large hall were in rows. Xue Xiaohai drilled under the seats and passed under these people’s feet.
She secretly looked around and saw that the investigation soldiers in black had come. Suddenly, a soldier scooped her up from under the seat and passed her to another person.
Xue Xiaohai didn’t dare to make a sound. She was passed around by a group of people, holding her little seahorse. Sometimes, someone would pull open their jacket and hide her underneath. Sometimes, someone would block her with a large helmet.
She heard the investigation soldiers in black constantly shouting, “That child is here! Everyone, search! Search carefully!”
She was picked up by different hands and then placed in another embrace. Someone even tore off a piece of small bread and stuffed it into her hand.
After a long time, the investigation soldiers lined up at the door. “Everyone in the hall, come out one by one. We are going to clear the area to search for the wanted criminal.”
Xue Xiaohai was picked up by a strong hand, wrapped in clothes, and carried out. She heard someone ask, “This lady, what’s in your clothes? Please open them for me to see.”
The woman said, “Why should I show you? You’re sick.”
After that, Xue Xiaohai was taken out of the hall.
***
On the third day of Xue Xiaohai’s disappearance, Xue Yu and Mo Li left the contaminated zone. Their watches and Cloud Sound Boxes had a signal, and only then did they see the messages in the group chat.
She quickly contacted Zhou Siyan. “The child is still alive. Her activity level is very high.”
Zhou Siyan’s voice was terribly hoarse. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
Xue Yu: “Don’t say sorry. I’m coming back now. Calm down first. The child is still alive. We will definitely find her.”
Before Xue Yu could return to the White Tower, Xue Xiaohai had returned.
Zhou Siyan had not slept for three days and had been looking for the child outside. He had clearly seen the child’s figure several times on surveillance, but he just couldn’t find her.
On the third night, he was in his office with red eyes, watching the surveillance. There was a knock on the door.
He quickly went to open the door. There was no one there, but there was a cardboard box on the floor.
He opened the cardboard box, and Xue Xiaohai’s head, wearing a brown lamb hat, popped out. “Daddy!”
Zhou Siyan almost fainted. He held Xue Xiaohai, hurriedly returned to the room, and locked the door.
He held the child tightly in his arms, unable to say anything.
Xue Xiaohai took out a small biscuit from her pocket and held it up to Zhou Siyan’s mouth. “Daddy, eat.”
Zhou Siyan wiped his dry eyes, sat down on the sofa, and took off the child’s clothes to check. There were no injuries on her body. Her clothes and pants were very clean, just wrinkled, as if they had been washed and dried.
“Xiaohai, where have you been?”
“I went to play, to see the sky,” she took out the little seahorse that was sleeping soundly from the small backpack someone had given her. “We played in the water together. It was fun.”
She then took out a lot of food from her pocket. “They hate me. They gave me food to eat.”
Zhou Siyan held her, his pupils so dry that it hurt to blink. He urgently made a video call to Xue Yu. “Baby is back. I don’t know who sent her.”
Xue Yu, who was on her way, stopped, panting. “That’s good. Is she injured?”
“No, I’ve checked.”
Xue Xiaohai kept kissing the screen. “Mommy, Mommy!”
She held up the small biscuit to the screen. “Eat! It’s delicious! All for Mommy to eat.”
Xue Yu and Mo Li sat in the grass by the roadside. “Thank you, Xiaohai. Xiaohai is so amazing. A reward for Xiaohai to eat first.”
Zhou Siyan said to Xue Yu, “The matter is exposed. The whole White Tower knows about Xiaohai’s existence. I plan to leave the White Tower. I’ll pack tonight and leave tomorrow morning.”
Xue Yu: “Then you should find a place to hide with the child first. Wait for me to come. I’ll take you and the child to the island by boat. We’ll stay on the island from now on.”
Zhou Siyan: “Okay.”
Zhou Siyan sent a message in the group chat, telling Meng Wu and Feng Qizhou that Xue Xiaohai had been found and that he had decided to leave the White Tower with the child.
Feng Qizhou: Don’t be impulsive. Let’s see what the situation is with the investigation department first. You’re in a high position now and are very important to the White Tower. If you leave directly, the White Tower will definitely hunt you down.
Zhou Siyan: “I have a way to solve it.”
He put Xue Xiaohai in the safe again, went from his office to his apartment, and after Xue Xiaohai had fallen asleep, he kept packing.
He had made all the preparations to escape the White Tower and fight against the investigation soldiers.
The next day, when he opened the door, he saw several packages at the door.
He carefully checked them and, after confirming that they were not offensive weapons, he opened one of the packages. It was a small, furry doll.
Another package was a set of children’s clothes, which looked to be handmade. There was also a note: Please, Director Zhou, can you dress your child better? She’s so tattered. I thought she was a beggar.
He had Heimei carefully identify the smell of these packages. They were not sent by the same person.
He took all the packages into the house and checked the surveillance footage of the corridor. These packages were indeed left here by different people one after another.
He also discovered that someone was secretly deleting the footage of Xue Xiaohai from the surveillance.
To be able to delete surveillance footage, only someone from the investigation department who specifically handled surveillance could do it.
Zhou Siyan did not leave the White Tower immediately and quietly waited at home.
The people from the investigation department did not come to his door. Instead, people kept leaving things at his door, all for the child—clothes, shoes, toys, all sorts of things.
Many “children’s photos” kept appearing on the social network.
These “children’s photos” were not of Xue Xiaohai, nor were they of real children.
They were pictures of people dressing up their spirit bodies in children’s clothes. Some of the primate spirit bodies looked exactly like small children from the back after they were dressed up.
The hottest post on the forum these past few days—A child has appeared in the White Tower. All people of the White Tower, please actively report.
This post gradually sank, and people started to post pictures of their spirit bodies in children’s clothes on the forum: [Sorry to have caused a misunderstanding. My furry child looks exactly like a small child in clothes.]
People kept replying below: It’s clearly my gorilla (with a picture of a gorilla in clothes)
Netizen: Where is the child? It’s clearly my spirit body (with a picture of a golden monkey in clothes)
Zhou Siyan even received several anonymous messages:
—Director Zhou, when are you going to let your child out to play again?
—How are you a father? You can’t even take care of a child! You don’t deserve to be a father!
—If you can’t raise the child well, just send her to me. What kind of tattered clothes are you dressing the child in?
—Heavy reward for a child! Is this child the child of the number one pervert in the White Tower? How was she born? Can you tell me the method? Price is not a problem.
Zhou Siyan put the suitcase he had just dragged out back in its original place.
He had temporarily come to a conclusion.
Most of the people in the White Tower knew about Xue Xiaohai’s existence. These people did not plan to report it. They were fooling the investigation department.
And the so-called “full-scale search” by the investigation department was also fooling everyone. Otherwise, with the strength of the investigation department, it would have been impossible to not find Xue Xiaohai for so long.
Thus, a strange situation had formed where everyone knew about Xue Xiaohai, everyone was saying they would thoroughly investigate, but everyone was also covering for her.