Chapter 18: Captured (Part 4)

“That’s true.” Li Hui sighed a little melancholy: “It’s just, my big brother has been missing for 30 years now. If he wanted to recognize us, he would have looked for us. However, I dare not say this to my parents, which made the old couple still obsessed! My family used to live in the factory’s dorm apartment. Our house has a small yard on the first floor. Other people’s yards were either have warehouse built or was planted with jujube and pomegranate trees. During autumn, they have a lot of fruits to eat. But there was nothing in our yard. My father made our yard soil uneven. He said my big brother loved to play war games. That yard was their battlefield. The two of them were commanding a group of war tanks toys. They simulated this scene every day. My big brother went missing that day because he dropped his small tank toy on the way when he and my mother went out. My mother said to him that they will look for it after they had dinner. However, when she finished cooking, she found out that their door was open. She didn’t know where my big brother went to.”

Li Hui wiped the corners of his eyes and continued with a bit hoarse sounded voice: “Later on the factory closed down, and our area was going to be demolished to build a shopping mall. My father and mother cried to death and said that if my big brother came back, he wouldn’t be able to find our home, nor eat the pomegranate from Aunt Liu’s tree next door.” Li Hui said with a bitter smile: “The pomegranate from Aunt Liu’s tree is very sour, I don’t like to eat it. So I don’t believe my big brother likes to eat it.”

Li Hui talked about his big brother for a long time. When he finished talking, he realized that the man opposite to him looked a little weird. Then, he realized that he lost control of his emotions just now: “Sorry, Mr. Zhang. I talk so much about the trivial things at home. I made you laughed.”

“Li Hui? Your surname is Li, right?” Mr. Zhang asked a bit strange: “Is your father’s surnamed also Li?”

Li Hui looked at him in surprise and said dumbfounded: “Of course, my surname is Li. I am my father’s son.”

“Did your family lived in the dormitory of a textile factory?” Mr. Zhang’s tone got a little excited and a little annoyed: “I can’t remember where my house is, nor can remember my parents’ names. I don’t even know my name. All I can remember is that my mother calls me Dabao.”

Li Hui’s eyes widened as they faced each other. Mr. Zhang’s voice trembled when he said: “To tell you the truth, I was abducted when I was a child. I was brought to several places until I was taken by my adoptive father, then we settled down in Hong Kong.”

He looked at Li Hui with teary eyes: “My memory of my childhood is too little, but I always remember these scene when my father and I playing in the yard, then my mother will say that none of the children in the textile factory wear so much clothing as much as I do.”

Li Hui swallowed his saliva and remembered what his old parents said just now over the phone. They told him that he will find his long lost brother if he chats and ask questions to the person next to him!!!

Which great immortal was that? The big brother who has been missing for 30 years suddenly standing in front of him. This was too strange!

Li Hui didn’t know what to say, he simply took out his mobile phone from his pocket. Last year, his old mother said that the old photos at home were all yellow and wrinkled, she doesn’t know how long they will last. So he sent those pictures to the photoshop to be fixed and saved an electronic version on his mobile phone.

Mr. Zhang earnestly looked at the photos taken on Li Hui’s mobile phone. He looked at each of them for several minutes. One of them has a child and an adult man lying in an uneven yard. Although both of them looked dirty, their faces had the most brilliant smile.

Mr. Zhang’s fingertips lightly trace the faces of two people in the photo. In the end, his sight fell on the house behind them— — On the windowsill, there was a pot of lush spider plant, tied with colorful little flowers.

“Mom, why doesn’t our spider plant bloom? It doesn’t look good at all!”

“Then let’s make some flowers for spider plants, okay?”

“Yes, with different colors such as red, green, blue, pink, and black!”

“Whose flower is black?”

“Our family!”

The vague memory gradually became clear, his mother’s laughter seemed to be ringing in his ears. Mr. Zhang looked at the black flower on the spider plant, as his tears fell.

“Li Hui, when did you book your ticket? I want to go home with you!”

*

“Seaweed seaweed…swaying in the wind… Seaweed seaweed…dancing in the waves…”

A deafening ringtone suddenly rang. The people, who were concentrating to watch the little master’s fortune-telling, looked to the direction where the sound was coming from with a little dissatisfaction. Even Lin Qingyin swallowed half the word of what she was saying, then looked up at the old couple, who she just finished calculating the eight characters.

The old lady busily took out the mobile phone in her bag. When the people saw this, they turned their heads and continued to look at the little master. However, Lin Qingyin just looked at the old couple and didn’t speak.

“Xiao Hui! Have you found him? He said his name was Dabao? Yes, yes, yes! I called him Dabao! Hurry up and look if he has a red birthmark on his left butt, like a cloud!”

The old lady had forgotten the people around her. She kept holding the mobile phone. Her voice increased by 8 points, but tears kept flowing down her cheeks: “What? He won’t let you take off his pants?! This bear child!”

The old lady doesn’t care what the other people think of her. She kept crying and laughing again and again. It took her a long time before she put down the mobile phone on her hand.

The people around them were quiet. Her old husband was the first to react: “What did Xiao Hui say?”

“Xiao Hui said they will come back tomorrow, and said that…” The old lady looked at her old husband with tears on her face: “Dabao asked if you still remember the song you thought him ‘never surrender’? He said you lost the last you fought, and you haven’t bought the new tank you owed him!”

The old man laughed. This was his favorite nursery rhyme when he plays war games with his son.

While laughing, the old couple also cried. The son they lost for 30 years, was finally found!

The people next to them wiped their tears. Several people handed them tissues and congratulated them. The old couple cried for a long time, but the stone pressing their hearts for many years was finally removed. They didn’t expect that the child they lost for 30 years can be found in this method. It’s just too hard to imagine.

The old couple wiped their tears, then took out all the money in their pockets, which cost 700 to 800 in total.

“Master, thank you so much. We didn’t bring much money today, we will bring it to you tomorrow!”

Lin Qingyin stretched out her hand and pushed back the money: “1000 yuan is enough for divination. You didn’t ask me to solve a big disaster, so you don’t need to pay extra money. Besides, you and your eldest son didn’t separate. So even if you didn’t come to me today, you will still meet each other in the future.”

“But we don’t know when it is. We are already in our 60’s, we can’t afford to wait any longer!” The old lady laughed with tears in her eyes: “No matter what you say, you little master is the great benefactor of our Li family. Tomorrow, my Dabao and younger son will be back by plane. When our family is united, we will have dinner at the best hotel, and invite you to be the witness.”


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9 thoughts on “Chapter 18: Captured (Part 4)

  1. Man the fact the got kidnapped and got amnésia is as much science disproves it able to quite true…

    In my country there is still a missing kid case… for 20 something years the kid is gone and every time the mother comes on the news begging for anything that might it breaks my heart… There isn’t even a body to bury the grief… Only despair and the false hope he is alright and recalls his family…

    Kidnappers are scum, Only Pedophiles rank below them… Good on the Novel to capture how parents feel when their child goes missing and is found a grown man

  2. I thought this would be a usual happy novel to mindlessly read on my lunch break, never thought my heart was wrenched by the beautiful little details in that missing child story…. The black ribbon flower on the spider plant, the sour pomegranate, the father who would rather have an ugly uneven yard so his son could play battle ground, ah so pretty!

    Love this novel!

  3. One of the major downside here I’ve found is that these divination cases are quite quick and fleeting for the most part, even with the most serious cases. They ended up being anti-climatic or so for me since the story doesn’t let it sit for enough time to actually sink in some more and just moves on like its just something little or nothing really.

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