CHAPTER 35: 35

Zhao Li stuffed candies into Lan Tian’s arms and, after receiving a promise from Lan Tian, looked back three times with one step before joining those scrambling for fabric.

"Such a crowd?" Chuntao sighed, looking at Lan Tian, "Grandma Sun is really good to you, and so are your uncle and aunt."

"Mhm," Lan Tian nodded.

Chuntao, now thirteen, had heard many things in the village and thought to remind her, "Before you came, Fourth Grandpa had talked to your grandma about adopting Yanhua and her younger brother to your grandma, but she did not agree. Yanhua, she isn’t as simple as she appears. You need to be careful in the future."

Lan Tian looked up at Chuntao with deep meaning, feeling a mix of emotions. In her past life, Chuntao had looked down on her sister-in-law and often bullied her behind her back, later helping Bai Lianhua against her.

Everything from her past life died with her, disappeared like smoke. In this life, things that haven’t happened won’t lead Lan Tian to seek revenge. Recognizing Chuntao’s good intentions, Lan Tian suddenly smiled, "Okay."

Lan Tian, holding a candied hawthorn, rubbed her temples. She had felt uneasy since entering the marketplace this morning; there’s a rural saying, twitching left eyelid signals incoming wealth, right signals disaster.

At that moment, Lan Tian hadn’t cared much, but now her eyelid twitched more fiercely, as if hinting at impending danger. As a cultivator, she was alert to personal threats, feeling the upcoming event might involve her.

"Lan Tian, what’s wrong with you? Why are you rubbing your eyes? Did some dirt get in?" seeing Lan Tian rubbing her eyes red with tears forming, Chuntao quickly grabbed her hand.

"My third brother always says, if something gets in your eye, it’s best not to rub but to use a damp towel instead. Wait, I’ll get some water, don’t rub it," she said, turning to run towards a tofu vendor.

In the oil pressing shop across the street, two men with shifty eyes ducked down, seeing no one around the little doll at the moment, eagerly looked towards the eastern exit, soon, their accomplices arrived, and they quickly headed towards Shitou.

Lan Tian, feeling uneasy, glanced at the crowd scrambling for fabric, not seeing Zhao Li. Pressing the corners of her eyes, she surreptitiously assessed her surroundings. The marketplace was bustling with people coming and going—old men, women, children, every face unfamiliar, nothing extraordinary, yet the twitching intensified.

Anxious as fire, Lan Tian was about to jump off Shitou to find Zhao Li when suddenly a large shadow appeared in front of her, blocking her path.

Lan Tian looked up; the figure was a simple-looking farmer with dark skin and a straightforward gaze, bowing slightly, nervously rubbing his hands and offering a forced smile, seemingly unaccustomed to asking people questions.

"Young girl, may I ask you something? Have you seen an old grandma pass by, wearing a floral cloth dress, with completely white hair, followed by a big yellow dog?"

As he approached, a strong malevolence hit her, Lan Tian’s heartbeat sped up, her eye twitched violently, and, sensing danger, she turned to leave without answering. Suddenly, a pair of hands reached from behind, a handkerchief covering her nose while another arm wrapped around her, a strange smell invading her nostrils, darkness fell before Lan Tian.

Disaster!

In a blurry vision, Lan Tian lifted her hand as she saw Chuntao approaching, eventually losing consciousness.

"Lan Tian?" Chuntao came back with a bowl of water, not finding Lan Tian on the rock, set the bowl on Shitou, and checked behind it only to find no sign of Lan Tian. She immediately began searching nearby, circling a few times without success.

Chuntao, only thirteen, and never having encountered such a situation, started crying out of fear. Sobbing, she called out for Lan Tian and after a while, remembered to look for Zhao Li.

Hearing Lan Tian was missing, Zhao Li felt a blackout coming, almost fainting; she left her fabric and hurriedly joined the search.

The marketplace, vast as it is, made finding someone as hard as reaching the skies. After an unsuccessful search, she took Chuntao back to call more people. Learning her granddaughter was missing, Grandma Sun, distressed and crying for her dear granddaughter, staggered and fainted.

Mo Junhua, with a stern face, quickly moved his remaining goods to an ox-cart, asking a nearby dry goods seller to keep a watch, handed him three coins.

The group, frantic, scattered to look for her in every direction. Grandma Sun couldn’t run, so she searched nearby while Wang Guiyu and Zhao Li went to ask for help from the villagers. Chuntao led Mo Junhua to the incident spot, both families utterly distressed.

Meanwhile, Lan Tian, unaware of the chaos behind her, woke up to darkness; her head still dizzy, consciousness blurry, took a while to remember she had apparently been drugged.

She tried to call for help but found her mouth stuffed, unable to shout with muffled sounds, her hands tied behind her. Desperation made Lan Tian break into a sweat.

After thinking, a glint of hope sparked in Lan Tian’s eye as she pushed the cloth in her mouth with her tongue trying to expel it. After struggling for a long while, her cheeks aching and tongue numb, the cloth didn’t budge. Exasperated, Lan Tian cursed, annoyed at how tightly the cloth was tied, fearing it might choke her.

After struggling in vain, Lan Tian quieted down. Once silent, she felt her body being carried, undulating, certainly by the human traffickers who had drugged her.

Nearby, faint bustling of voices suggested the marketplace wasn’t far. Her aunt must have noticed her absence and be utterly worried; Lan Tian was more concerned about how her grandma would handle the news, fearing the old lady couldn’t withstand the shock.

Unable to escape, Lan Tian began analyzing what had happened.

Seemingly a group’s operation, two men were involved in drugging her; one distracted her while the other attacked from behind, professionally drugging her and carrying her away in a sack. Experienced maneuvers indicated their habitual actions.

Lan Tian recalled a vendor near Shitou selling dried goods, who had talked to her, yet he hadn’t noticed her being taken, a total injustice. Were all marketplace people blind? How could no one see a child being kidnapped by traffickers? Or was it just her exceedingly bad luck?