CHAPTER 527: CHAPTER 97_2

His world had collapsed.

But after selling his child, deep remorse plagued him, faint echoes of his son’s voice calling him "Daddy" still ringing in his ears.

Crouching on the ground, he turned his face to see on the table outside a small shop, among a collection of toys, a red toy car.

At this moment, innumerable voices inside him were despising and verbally abusing him, cursing him for being weak, for being pathetic, for deserving his fate, for being trash.

Yet he still stood up, picked up the toy car, went to the counter, asked the shopkeeper how much it was, took out his wallet, and paid for it.

Then, he began to walk back, holding the toy.

He took deep breaths continuously, with a pained expression, only able to repeat to himself, "Even if it’s just a dog, after being together so long, you develop affection."

He could have left the child with his mother, with that old man, or even at the welfare institution, but he should not have sold him.

Upon this thought, he started to run, faster and faster.

Meanwhile, inside the white tent.

In the bowl that the grandma was holding, the originally faint black water was gradually becoming richer.

Sister Rou noticed and let out a long breath.

"It seems like, although it’s only half the usual quality, it’s passable."

The grandma stood up with the bowl in hand, went to the water tank, and poured the black water into it.

The statue seemed to come a bit more to life.

A smile appeared on the grandma’s face, the saggy skin at the corners of her mouth lifting slightly.

Sister Rou then clasped her hands together and bowed three times to the statue.

After that, she stepped out of the tent and saw the man running towards her holding a toy.

"I’ll give you your money back, give me the child, count the money, I haven’t touched it!"

Xu Dong took out all the money from his pocket that he had put in earlier.

Sister Rou shook her head.

"Give me the child, and I’ll add more money, I’m not selling anymore, give me the child!"

Sister Rou continued to shake her head.

"I’m not fucking selling!"

Xu Dong tried to push his way past.

The next moment, Sister Rou grabbed his neck with one hand and raised her knee.

"Bang!"

Xu Dong clutched his abdomen, kneeling on the ground, mouth agape; he didn’t expect the young girl to strike so hard.

"Give me the child... I’ll add money... you take children... isn’t it for... for making money..."

"Making money? Hah."

Sister Rou laughed, then delivered a karate chop to the back of Xu Dong’s neck.

Xu Dong’s eyes rolled back, and he fainted.

Two circus members came over and pointed at Xu Dong on the ground: "Sister Rou, there’s a reservoir up ahead, shall we dispose of him tonight?"

"Dispose of my ass, lock him in a cage; when we leave Jinling and head north, sell him to the black coal kilns. He has to be alive, otherwise the kid we just got is useless.

From now on, we must take in kids ourselves, to avoid these inexplicable issues.

During tomorrow’s performance, keep a close eye out for kids who come with both parents.

By the way, has the promotional vehicle gone out yet?"

"Not yet, they are having lunch."

"Tell them to eat in the vehicle, start promoting now, go to the residential areas near kindergartens, and turn up the volume of the speakers!"

...

"Yu Family Circus will soon bring you a wonderful performance, featuring cute dwarfs and beautiful mermaids... Kids, hurry and tell your parents to bring you to the west suburb plaza to watch tomorrow!"

Tan Wenbin rolled down the taxi window, looking towards the approaching van with a large loudspeaker on top and various performance posters on each side.

"Brother Xiao Yuan, is it this one? Is it called Yu Family Circus?"

Li Zhiyuan nodded: "It should be."

Tan Wenbin asked the taxi driver in front: "Driver, you know where the west suburb plaza is, right?"

"I know, my home is nearby. Are you guys going to watch the circus? It doesn’t start until tomorrow. When I left this morning, I saw them setting up the tents."

"Is there a big crew with that circus?"

"There seems to be quite a few, there are several trucks. Haha, it’s the weekend tomorrow, the kindergarten is off, I plan to take my kid to see the show."

"Driver, it’s better if you don’t go, it’s crowded and accidents easily happen," Tan Wenbin paused, then added, "It’s not safe for kids."

"My kid is smart and clever; nothing will happen to him. He doesn’t talk to strangers; they can’t even fool him."

Li Zhiyuan said indifferently: "There’s no child that can’t be taken away."

The driver immediately retorted: "My kid really is different, we’ve taught him since he was little. We told him not to talk to strangers, not to take anything from strangers. He’s not like other kids, who are foolish."

Li Zhiyuan said nothing further, thinking that this driver was truly the foolish one.

He had specifically researched many children and reached a conclusion: In this world, there’s hardly any child that can’t be deceived.

Those parents who take pride in their children’s cleverness, believing their children can’t be lured away by strangers, are often truly ridiculous and stupid.

Most importantly, many times traffickers don’t even need to deceive.

It’s too easy for an adult to control a child. With one arm around the child’s body, the other hand covering the child’s mouth, and then just pick the child up and walk away. There’s no way for the child to resist or to make a sound, and it looks nearly the same as normally holding a child.

Even if some children struggle and cry out, traffickers just have to respond with a few words like "Be good, stop making a fuss, listen, I’ll buy you a toy next time," and passersby who see it won’t think it’s child abductions.

Having reached the destination, what is called the west suburb plaza is actually just a small patch of paved ground, along with a large area of wasteland nearby. It was supposed to be developed, but for some reason, the plans had stalled.