CHAPTER 576: CHAPTER 575 THE STORY’S DEVELOPMENT

Xia Xiaoluo, after dinner, hurried to Zheng Min’s sister’s house.

"Zheng Min? She’s not home, must have taken Binbin out to play," said Zheng Min’s sister.

"Oh, then I’ll look elsewhere." Xia Xiaoluo said with some disappointment.

"Once you find her, tell them to come back for dinner. It’s getting late, they shouldn’t be wandering around outside," Zheng Min’s sister added.

"Okay."

Xia Xiaoluo responded and hurried towards Yu Minmin’s house.

Earlier in the afternoon, Zheng Min said she wanted to go to Yu Minmin’s house to see the cosmos flowers. Xia Xiaoluo thought she might still be there.

But when she arrived at Yu Minmin’s house, Zheng Min was nowhere to be found.

"I didn’t see her. I was at my uncle’s house this afternoon and just got back," said Yu Minmin, holding a rice bowl.

In front of her house are two neat flower beds, filled with blooming cosmos flowers, colorful and beautiful.

The only thing marring the view was Yu Minmin squatting in the middle of the flower bed with a blue-rimmed big bowl, as if she was pooping.

"Then I’ll go look somewhere else."

"Why are you looking for her so late? Can’t you say it tomorrow at school? Or are you trying to get her homework to copy?"

"Am I copying her homework? My grades are way better than hers." Upon hearing this, Xia Xiaoluo immediately became anxious.

"Alright, then why are you looking for her?" Yu Minmin, in a determined probing manner, asked.

"I agreed with her to go to the circus show tonight," Xia Xiaoluo helplessly confessed.

"I’ll go too," Yu Minmin immediately exclaimed with delight upon hearing this.

"Haven’t you already seen it?"

"Who said you can’t watch it a second time?"

Yu Minmin quickly finished a few bites and then ran inside the house.

"Wait for me, I’ll go with you."

Seeing this, Xia Xiaoluo sighed. She initially didn’t tell her fearing she’d want to tag along, but eventually couldn’t avoid it.

It’s not that Xia Xiaoluo had any issues with Yu Minmin, but because Yu Minmin is a chatterbox, never stopping even in her dreams.

Yu Minmin moved swiftly, seeing Xia Xiaoluo waiting at the door, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"The circus starts at seven-thirty, it’s a bit early now."

"I know, let’s find Zheng Min first," Xia Xiaoluo said.

The two then searched all over the small town for the places Zheng Min might go, but didn’t find a trace of her.

Finally, as the time approached, they abandoned the search and went directly to the circus.

Meanwhile, Zheng Min’s sister, waiting at home and not seeing the two children, grew anxious and started searching for them with her husband.

The couple went from house to house asking if anyone had seen Zheng Min and Yan Bin.

But everyone said they hadn’t seen them, gradually, the two adults also began to panic...

Eventually, the disappearance of the two alarmed the entire town, everyone went out searching for them but found no trace, as if they had vanished into thin air.

During this period, the police also got involved in the investigation, but still found no clues.

There were simply too many vehicles coming and going from the town, coupled with the discovery that they had been missing for a long time, which added difficulty to the police investigation.

In the end, this disappearance case became a mystery, gradually forgotten over time, leaving behind two broken families.

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"Binbin and I were taken by the people from the circus," Zheng Min said.

Shen Siyuan had suspected as much.

But what puzzled him was that the circus should have been a prime suspect for the police.

How did they evade the police investigation?

Curiously, he asked, "The police found nothing at all?"

Zheng Min shook her head and said, "Because when the circus moves to a new place, they don’t just pack up and leave together; someone always goes ahead to prepare the way."

Shen Siyuan understood upon hearing this. She and Yan Bin were taken by those advance people.

"Why did you go with him?" Taozi asked curiously.

Upon hearing this, Zheng Min said nothing, but lowered her head, showing a guilty and uneasy expression.

Taozi glanced at Shen Siyuan, who shook his head, indicating she shouldn’t press further and quietly wait.

Sure enough, after about ten minutes of silence, Zheng Min started speaking again.

This time her voice was quite different from before, slightly choking with sadness, but more than that, anger and self-blame.

"I hated him, always calling ’aunt, aunt,’ like a fly, or crying and making noise, it’s annoying to death, yet everyone just liked him, saying he was obedient. How is he obedient? Like a fly, fly..."

The more Zheng Min spoke, the angrier she became, but tears couldn’t stop falling from her eyes.

"I didn’t want him to follow, I told him to go back, I cursed him and chased him away, he cried so sadly..."

As Zheng Min spoke, she tried to smile proudly but couldn’t, instead the scar on her face made her look exceptionally fierce.

"He didn’t follow me anymore, he cried saying he’d go home and tell his mom. He’s known for complaining to his mom, but I was not afraid of her. What could she do to me? She wouldn’t dare hit me, if she dared, I’d fight her..."

"I went to a classmate’s house, the classmate was not home, I picked a few flowers and went back..."

Zheng Min had long stopped moving, standing in place as she spoke, seeming a bit dazed, her spirit fluctuating, as if about to vanish at any moment.

"A car passed by me, I heard his crying voice, a sound I’m all too familiar with, that annoying noise..."

"I didn’t recognize the car, nor did I know the driver, and they headed towards outside of town. Seeing this made me happy, that annoying fly finally got taken away, hopefully never to return..."

Upon hearing this, Taozi beside her showed an angry expression, opened her mouth to speak but was stopped by Shen Siyuan’s gaze.

Then Zheng Min continued, "I didn’t know why at that time, even though I hated him so much, I still chased after them. I don’t know why..."

"Two legs can’t catch up with four wheels, just when I was about to give up, they stopped..."

"Later I learned, they were worried I’d call for help, worried I’d call the police, so they decided to just take me away too..."

"Afterwards, I ended up becoming a member of the circus..." Zheng Min’s previously emotional mood started to turn cold.

Taozi couldn’t resist asking, "Never thought of escaping?"

"Escaping?"

Zheng Min grinned fiercely and turned to look at the lion trailing behind them.

"Do you know what it feels like to lock a teenage girl in with a lion?"

"Do you know what it’s like to lock a five-year-old child in with a lion?"

She threw two rhetorical questions, leaving Taozi silent.

Zheng Min eyed Taozi, seeing her reddened eyes, revealing an extremely vile smile.

"That man raped me that night, I was only sixteen. If I didn’t obey, he’d feed Binbin to the lion..."

Shen Siyuan watched her, unable to see she was only twenty-four, looking instead like a woman in her thirties or forties, extremely aged.