The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 386 The Kidnapper is Arrested
"Let's go."

Duo'er was so scared that she fell to the ground. Man'er helped Duo'er up and was about to leave.

The four children arrived at the door and found it was bolted shut.

Xiao Long went back to touch the key on Fatty's body; he had seen Fatty lock the door very clearly.

Before I could even touch the key, the door was kicked open from the outside.

"grandmother."

"mother."

"woo woo woo woo."

When Tong Huaqiong and the others arrived at the kidnappers' hideout, they heard cries of agony inside. Tong Huaqiong's heart pounded as she feared that Man'er and the other children had suffered.

Now seeing the four children standing peacefully at the door of the house, I hugged them tightly.

When Man'er, Duo'er, and Yaozu saw Tong Huaqiong, they rushed into her arms as if they had survived a disaster and cried incessantly.

"My son!" Liu Yue'e hugged Gu Yaozu and collapsed to the ground, weeping bitterly.

Xiao Long calmly pursed his lips and smiled at Su Chengmin.

Tong Huaqiong sighed inwardly, "No wonder he was such a ruthless person who ascended to the throne in his previous life. He is so composed at such a young age."

"Let's go inside and rescue the others first." The officer breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the four children were alright.

This is the village magistrate's child! If anything happens to him, Magistrate Liu will be held responsible.

Hearing the wailing from inside, the officers assumed that other children had been abducted, as they had heard about the cruelty of child abductors.

“There’s no one else inside,” Xiaolong said.

The officials rushing inside stopped in their tracks, looking surprised.

"The one howling inside is a kidnapper," Xiaolong continued.

“Them.” Lu Zhaoyang looked puzzled.

Man'er stopped sobbing, looked up, and said, "They...they got pepper sprayed in their eyes."

Everyone stared wide-eyed, scrutinizing the four children from head to toe.

I can't believe that four children could subdue two kidnappers.

The two people screaming inside, one fat and one thin, were the kidnappers that Granny Luo was talking about.

These four kids are something else; they managed to make those two kidnappers suffer such a huge loss.

The people who came along, like Tong Huaqiong, were impressed by the four children.

Lu Zhaoyang and Gu Jingzhe led the officials and yamen runners into the house and immediately subdued the two cripples.

"Sir, sir, please, give us some water."

The two cripples wailed and begged, not knowing what had been sprayed on their faces, but the spiciness was unbearable.

They almost knelt down before the officials.

Are my eyes ruined from now on?

Thinking of this, the two cripples felt so distressed that they wanted to bang their heads against the wall.

Ignoring their pleas, the officials and constables tied them up with ropes and took them outside.

The two thugs went outside, broke free from the officers' grasp, and plunged their heads into the snow, stunning everyone present.

Tong Huaqiong looked at it and understood; it was probably the chili water that had caused it.

Only Man'er could produce this chili water. This granddaughter is truly brave and resourceful. No wonder she was a ruthless person who rose from an orphan peasant girl to become a royal concubine and defeated Gu Jingzhe in her past life.

As the male and female protagonists of their previous life, Xiaolong and Man'er still carry the aura of protagonists even in Tong Huaqiong's world.

"My grandson, where is my grandson?" Granny Luo rushed in with disheveled hair, but only saw four children and not Chunwang. She was about to fight the two cripples.

When the two thugs saw Granny Luo's bloodshot eyes, they hated her to death. If Granny Luo hadn't pointed them out, how could they have possibly offended these four unlucky people?

"That wretched old woman!"

Fearing they would reveal the truth in front of Tong Huaqiong and the officials, Granny Luo picked up a stick and knocked the two unconscious.

The act of child trafficking was so heinous that the officials did not stop Granny Luo's actions.

Granny Luo knocked out the two cripples, rushed into the house, saw Chunwang tied up and unconscious on the ground, and sat down on the ground and burst into tears.

At the same time, she was secretly annoyed that the two cripples were incompetent; she had practically handed the Gu family's entire litter of children to them, yet they couldn't even get a taste.

“This person is an accomplice,” Xiaolong said, pointing to Jiang’s mother in the yard.

Man'er, Yaozu, and Duo'er all nodded in support of Xiaolong.

The officers initially thought that Jiang's mother on the ground was also abducted by the two kidnappers, but they didn't expect her to be an accomplice, so they tied her up along with the others.

Now that I have three crutches, I can claim the reward.

In previous years, there have been cases of children going missing in various counties of Ningcheng on the Lantern Festival, but the kidnappers have never been caught.

We caught them in Yanguan Town this time. If we interrogate them properly, we'll surely find out who the big fish is behind it.

Sitting in the carriage on the way back to Qinghe Bay.

Tong Huaqiong was still filled with lingering fear.

The reason this child abduction incident was resolved satisfactorily is simply because Xiaolong and Man'er, the male and female protagonists from their previous life, had such strong protagonist auras.

Fortunately, Duo'er and Yaozu were not cannon fodder in their world, otherwise Tong Huaqiong would not have been able to face Tong Pandi and the second wife and her husband.

Tong Huaqiong wondered if it was only when they were truly sincere towards Man'er and Xiaolong that their protagonist aura would work on others.

For example, today, the villains all suffered, while everyone on the male and female leads' side was saved.

"Aunt Tong, I failed to keep a close eye on the child this time," Su Chengmin said to Tong Huaqiong with a guilty expression in the carriage.

He shouldn't have been so focused on talking to Gu Taohua, and he shouldn't have been blinded by her smile.

Liu Yue'e hugged Yaozu, and once the shock subsided, she began to express her dissatisfaction with Su Chengmin.

“Laifu, I thought you were a reliable person, that’s why I entrusted the child to you. Didn’t we agree that you were mainly here to look after the child? How could you make such a big mistake?”

"Luckily, nothing bad happened to the child. If something had happened, could you have afforded to compensate? Not to mention my Yaozu, what if Man'er had been lost and my sister-in-law was pregnant and had a miscarriage? And what about Duo'er? My cousin is already unhappy about the Wu family's divorce. If the child were lost, it would give the Wu family leverage."

Liu Yue'e is telling the truth.

The news of Man'er and her children going missing caused such a huge uproar that it's likely the news has already reached Qinghewan.

Tong Huaqiong was worried that Chen Sufeng and Tong Pandi would be anxious, so after the child was found, she asked Nie Xiaofeng, the swift-footed man, to run ahead to Qinghewan to spread the news that the child had been found.

Su Chengmin didn't retaliate after being scolded by Liu Yue'e.

Xiaolong held him in his arms, and he hugged Xiaolong, feeling extremely remorseful.

"Alright, although Laifu made a mistake, it wasn't his intention. It's all because the kidnapper is too cunning. In view of Laifu's negligence this time, let's punish him with three months' salary. This is a one-time exception," Tong Huaqiong said.

Su Chengmin accepted the punishment.

“I find it very strange. With so many children, why did they only abduct our four children and Chunwang?” Tong Huaqiong said, quite puzzled.

Su Chengmin clenched his fingers tightly, his whole body tense.

He feared this was not an ordinary human trafficking case.

Tong Huaqiong glanced at Su Chengmin and said, "I suspect that someone has assigned our four children to kidnappers. If the kidnappers really came with a purpose, there would be no need for them to send a letter to the Nie family to extort money."

However, all of this is just Tong Huaqiong's speculation, and the specifics will have to wait for further interrogation.

Wishing everyone a wonderful new year.