I'm only five years old, how come I've become the military region's darling?

Su Mei realized what was happening and wanted to chase after him to ask, but Fu Chen simply dodged away.

He waited until he reached the police station but still couldn't find a chance to speak to Fu Chen.

She could tell that Fu Chen was avoiding her, which made her feel even more upset. She was so absent-minded that she didn't even see a woman hurrying by, and the two bumped into each other.

"Ouch—" Su Mei stumbled and bumped her back against the door frame. "How do you walk?"

The woman opposite him lowered her head and apologized repeatedly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Su Mei looked at the woman opposite her. She was as thin as a stick, with high cheekbones and deep-set eyes. There was something on her face that made her look very unwell.

She instinctively got goosebumps and wiped herself off.

The woman, still feeling uneasy, kept bowing and apologizing, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Xing Yong stepped forward from behind, lifted her shoulder, and said, "Comrade, you don't need to do this."

The woman looked at Xing Yong in his uniform, her eyes filled with sorrow, and suddenly knelt down with a thud.

"Officer, I, I..."

The woman was so anxious that she couldn't finish her sentence, and tears immediately streamed down her face.

Xing Yong reached out to pull her up, but the woman didn't get up. Xiao Chun walked up to the woman and gently wiped away her tears with her soft little hands. "Auntie, if you have any grievances, just tell Captain Xing. He's a very good policeman. Don't cry, don't cry."

The woman looked at Xiaochun's little face and sobbed.

"Yes, comrade, please stand up and speak." Two police officers on either side helped the woman up, barely managing to control their emotions.

"Officer, I... I just want to know if you've caught any human traffickers? I heard there were even children's bones?" The woman almost choked up as she said those two words.

She instinctively grabbed Xing Yong's arm. Xing Yong looked down at the woman's rough, cracked hands, his breath catching in his throat. "You suspect your daughter is in there?"

"No, no, it's nothing." The woman suddenly released Xing Yong's arm. "No, no, I won't ask anymore."

Xing Yong looked at the woman's hesitant and trembling body, which clearly showed that she was both afraid and curious.

"My daughter just hasn't come home. Police, I'm not looking anymore. It's all over."

Xiaochun watched as the woman hurriedly pushed people aside and walked outside, as if afraid of hearing some bad news.

"How old is your child? What are their distinguishing features? We did find several children's remains; did you see the notice we posted?"

After arresting Aunt Mei and her accomplices, the police posted their portraits, mainly in order to find information about the children's remains in the large water vat.

The woman couldn't stop crying, her shoulders trembled, "I... my daughter shouldn't be dead, I must have made a mistake."

"Whether you're right or wrong, why don't you go in and have some water first?" Xiaochun's voice was gentle, and the woman looked at her and nodded involuntarily.

"Comrade, when did your child go missing?"

Tears welled up in the woman's eyes, falling in large drops into her teacup. "Six months ago, I felt my daughter wasn't dead, really, Officer Police." The woman gripped the female police officer's hand tightly, eager for confirmation.

"Could you tell me the specifics?"

"I came here because I saw the notice you posted. I've seen that woman before in our village. I suspect she might have been abducted by that woman."

"Then why did you ask about bones?"

The woman froze, her fingers twisting nervously together. "Officer, I'm not superstitious. I've been having these dreams lately, dreaming that my daughter is crying out that it's so dark and in so much pain, and I can't reach her. I guess I'm just overthinking things."

The woman tried to comfort herself, saying, "Officer, could you ask that trafficker where she sold my daughter? My family is from Hongmu Village. We live in the innermost house with a jujube tree. My daughter's name is Honghong. She wears two braids and has a black mole on the left side of her cheek."

Just then, Zhang Ning walked over from the other end of the corridor. She had come to check on things after receiving a message from Xing Yong.

The skeletons they brought back weren't easy to piece together. She and Xiao Dong spent several days and nights piecing them together before they were finally able to. However, some of them were still incomplete. Hearing that some family members had come looking for them, she came to take a look.

When I got there, I saw a woman with a distressed expression and red eyes, crying.

"Forensic Doctor Zhang."

Upon hearing the forensic doctor's name, the woman stood up nervously. "Officer, my daughter... she's not dead."

"Sister, we're just asking as usual."

The woman looked at Zhang Ning in front of her. "Forensic doctor, my daughter isn't dead, is she?"

A woman stared at her expectantly, and Zhang Ning felt a little stifled by that look.

"I knew it! My Honghong is the smartest. I've said before that if she ever encountered human traffickers, she would definitely be able to escape."

The woman was talking to herself with a slight smile on her face.

"Does your daughter have any special characteristics? For example, has she ever broken a bone, or lost any teeth during the time she was most missing?"

There was nothing they could do; they had all turned into skeletons, and the biological characteristics they once displayed were impossible to verify.

The large water vat contained not just water, but something special that the traffickers had put in it, causing the remains to decompose at a rate far exceeding the normal rate of decay.

The woman hesitated for a moment, "My daughter broke her left hand when she fell from a tree when she was little, but she didn't lose any teeth. She hasn't started losing her baby teeth yet. Honghong is only five years old."

A broken left hand?

Zhang Ning's brow twitched, and Xiao Dong's expression changed slightly.

Where is the fracture located?

The woman pointed to her left forearm, saying, "This is where the old doctor in the village cured me back then."

"Comrade, you don't think my daughter is among them, do you?"

Zhang Ning's lips were taut, and as she looked at the woman in front of her, she suddenly didn't know how to start speaking.

The skeletal remains of a five-year-old girl matched perfectly.

Xing Yong knew things were bad just by looking at Zhang Ning. He sighed and said, "Comrade, let's go inside and talk. What are the specifics?"

The woman froze on the spot, and everyone around her fell silent, watching as her sallow face gradually turned pale.

After several seconds, the woman suddenly staggered. "There must be a mistake. Honghong was abducted, how could she be dead?"

At that moment, she wished that her daughter had only been sold and not died.

"Comrade, we do have a skeleton with a left hand fracture that matches your description. Based on the bone spurs, we believe it was fractured about two years ago, right?"

"Two years, it's two years." The woman began to tremble uncontrollably, and suddenly her legs gave way and she knelt on the ground.

"Honghong, my Honghong..." The woman's voice sounded like the mournful cry of a wild beast that had lost its cub. She knelt on the ground and sobbed, "There must be a mistake, a mistake."

Those around her, witnessing the woman's extreme grief, couldn't help but wipe away their own tears.

"What a tragedy, what a tragedy! Those heartless human traffickers, selling children is bad enough, but they also took their lives!"

"Sigh, it's hard for me to say."

A torrent of comments washed over her, and the woman completely broke down.

Just then, a fierce-looking old man suddenly squeezed through the crowd. "You woman, you're just a dead girl, what are you looking for? If she's dead, she's dead; if she's lost, she's lost. Why are you making such a fuss? I turned around and you're here, you son of a bitch! Go back here!"

The woman seemed to have lost her soul, being dragged along the ground without resistance, constantly muttering "red, red, red, red."

"Say that again and I'll beat you to death, you bitch."

The old man raised his hand, but Xing Yong immediately grabbed his arm and warned him, "This is the police station, what are you doing?"

The old man, hunched over, said, "Officer, this woman is just having a fit of hysteria because her daughter is missing. Don't worry about her, I'll take her away right away."

"Aren't you leaving? You're just causing me trouble."

The woman murmured.

Xiao Chun, who had been standing to the side, stared intently at the man who looked to be in his fifties.

"Ding, you have observed a disguised murderer. Your intermediate disguise proficiency has increased by 10."

Murderer? Did this man kill the girl?

As the woman was being dragged outside by the man, Xiaochun suddenly spoke up, "Auntie, Sister Honghong must be crying. She must really want Mom to know what happened to her."