Chapter 19: Holding on to Xizi

She wanted to reach out and touch, but didn’t dare, afraid it was another dream.

The moment her hand touched her child, the child’s head rolled off like a ball, landing at her feet.

Even the light before her eyes began to blur, dreamlike and hazy.

The young girl, her hair all tangled and smeared with pig feed, saw Xu Huiqing and froze in disbelief at first, then broke into a joyous smile.

She didn’t even have time to put down the gourd ladle she was holding, her face blossoming with surprise as she hurriedly ran toward Xu Huiqing.

Before she could reach Xu Huiqing’s arms, tears full of grievance welled up in her eyes, and she collapsed into Xu Huiqing’s embrace, clutching her tightly as she burst into loud sobs.

Xu Huiqing began to cry as well, but her tears were silent.

One hand held the child’s body, the other cradled the back of the child’s head gently.

Then, as if finally feeling a real, tangible presence, she slowly tightened her arms.

Her lips trembled, unable to utter a sound for a long moment, until finally, from deep within her throat, she managed to squeeze out two hoarse, distorted words: “Xizi…”

Feeling her mother’s call, Xizi finally wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck and cried out loudly, “Mom!!!”

Xu Huiqing hugged her so tightly and with such force that she collapsed onto the muddy ground of the mountain hollow, pinning her own legs beneath her.

The police behind hurriedly rushed down the mountain to the sobbing mother and daughter.

The female officer who had come with them couldn’t help but tear up at the sight, gently embracing the two as she comforted them, “The child has been found, the child has been found.”

At that moment, the half-closed wooden door of the stone and earth house opened from inside, revealing a woman in her thirties, her face old and gaunt.

Seeing Xu Huiqing holding Xizi and crying, she took a few steps forward, but then noticing the police, she quickly shouted into the house, “Master! Master!”

Hearing the woman’s mountain dialect, Xu Huiqing had originally intended to give them a beating.

But Xizi clung tightly to her neck and wouldn’t let go, and Xu Huiqing held on just as tightly.

She gave up on punishing the couple and instead chose to hold her child close, afraid of any accident.

Quickly gathering her composure, she lifted Xizi up and turned to the female police officer, saying, “Officer, I suspect this couple are traffickers too, helping the Zhao family trade loose goods in the mountains. I suggest we arrest them first and interrogate them thoroughly.”

While Xu Huiqing spoke, the man inside had already come out.

He looked to be in his thirties as well, but his deeply lined face made him appear closer to forty.

Seeing the child in Xu Huiqing’s arms, his first instinct was to try to snatch her: “Who are you? We bought this kid! Give her back!”

The female officer immediately twisted the man’s arm behind his back.

“Her mother came looking for her—are you going to give her back or not?”

Xu Huiqing held back the urge to beat the couple and instead delivered a sharp kick to the man’s crotch.

She told the officer, “Officer, you heard him admit it—he’s trafficking children. Trafficking is a crime. Arrest them and interrogate them thoroughly. You might uncover a trafficking ring in the mountains!”

From Xu Huiqing’s previous investigations in her past life, this couple was indeed not traffickers, but many cases of women being trafficked into the mountains were rampant.

For decades, the custom of drowning baby girls in the mountains was widespread, to the point where there was a saying: “One family has a daughter, a hundred families seek; a hundred mountain households, not one girl.”

When the mountain men grew up, where would they find wives?

They bought them from outside the mountains.

This created a fertile ground for traffickers to abduct women.

At the time, Xu Huiqing was just an ordinary housewife who had lost her job.

She searched for Xizi as if looking for a child adopted by a mountain family, not from the perspective of a trafficker.

Once she found her daughter, her first thought was to care for and comfort her, with no energy to help others.

Because of the long search, everyone assumed her child had been trafficked far away, and the police gave up the search.

She never pressed charges against the couple; the revenge was hers alone to settle later.

Her kick stunned everyone present. No one expected her, holding her child, to still not let go of the middle-aged man before her.

The man bent over clutching his groin, screaming miserably like a wild boar in the mountains.

The mountain villagers emerged from the woods, pulling Xu Huiqing back from her drifting thoughts.

Without Xu Huiqing needing to say anything, the police had already subdued the couple.

As the man screamed, small groups of villagers appeared from behind trees.

If they didn’t reveal themselves, their figures would be hard to detect amid the dense trees and thick grass.

They pointed at the captured couple and whispered among themselves, “This must be the girl’s parents come looking for her, right?”

“I heard the parents sold her willingly. I said buying locals isn’t reliable!”

“If you really want to adopt the girl, where she was born, just bring her over. Now the money’s gone down the drain,” they muttered in their local dialect, all of which Xu Huiqing understood.

She held Xizi tightly, bringing the girl’s face close to her shoulder so she couldn’t see or hear the people around her.

She whispered, “Xizi, be good. Don’t be afraid. Mom’s here to get you. Hold on tight to Mom.”

Suddenly, she was struck by a wave of emptiness—where was her home?

Her three older brothers had long since married, and her parents had given their home to the eldest brother’s family.

She lived with them, day to day.

The Zhao family was no tiger’s den, but it was not her home.

She had lost her teaching position at the town’s primary school.

The world was vast, but suddenly she and Xizi had nowhere to go.

But the despair lasted only a moment before she rallied herself.

The Zhao family, except for a few married-off aunts, were all out in the fields.

She had to get back quickly to transfer her and Xizi’s household registrations—and get the money for it.

Even if she wanted to leave, she couldn’t do it without money.

Right now, all she had was her own salary, and some red envelope money from relatives celebrating Xizi’s one-month ceremony.

The sun was setting, and the officers feared it would get dark soon.

Mountain paths at night were treacherous, with wild beasts like wolves and tigers.

After subduing the couple, they set off down the mountain with Xu Huiqing.

The female officer worried about Xu Huiqing’s emotional turmoil after just giving birth a month ago.

After walking for several hours and with Xizi in her arms, the officer tried to reach for the child.

But Xizi clung tightly to Xu Huiqing’s neck, burying her face in her mother’s neck, refusing to let go.

Xu Huiqing also refused to let go, holding her child tightly, afraid that if she loosened her grip, the scene before her would vanish like a dream, like smoke slipping through her fingers.

Only by holding Xizi tightly could she feel a trace of reality.

The morning’s one-month ceremony ended with all the suspects arrested by noon.

The afternoon was spent interrogating them, then they went into the mountains to search.

By then, darkness was almost complete.

Thankfully, it was May, so the nights were still not too early.

Even at six or seven in the evening, the sky was still bright, but the howls of wolves gradually rose in the mountains.

With so many people, they were not afraid.

They were only worried about not descending soon, for if they had to stay overnight in the mountains, the danger would be greater—especially with a three-year-old child among them.

Xu Huiqing had only eaten a bowl of sweetened eggs that morning and had no lunch.

Her limbs felt weak and exhausted.

The mountain path was uneven, going up and down constantly, climbing and crawling.

The late spring vegetation had grown thick, covering the trail.

Occasionally a snake slithered across the path, some even coiled silently on branches, flicking their tongues as they watched the group.

The snakes did not actively attack.

But if it got completely dark and someone accidentally stepped on a snake, a bite was common.

Not only snakes, but poisonous insects also lurked in the mountain.

This was the season when various poisonous bugs crawled over the trees.

Red and black caterpillars, their bodies covered with what looked like eyes, crawled on branches.

Some dangled from invisible threads, hanging in midair.

If you weren’t careful, they’d brush against your face.

The tiny hairs on their bodies could cause rashes on human skin, filled with thousands of tiny needles that stung sharply and itched unbearably—so much that one might want to roll on the ground or tear the affected skin off.

The police knocked the snakes away with sticks as they walked and used branches to swipe at the hanging insects, forcing them down onto the trees.

After three or four hours of walking, guided by Zhao Erjie, who had married into the mountain, they finally exited the mountains.

They squeezed through a narrow passage between huge rocks in the Shimen Gorge, where it was pitch black—so dark that one couldn’t see a hand in front of their face.

Everyone, including the officers, hadn’t eaten dinner and was starving.

Xu Huiqing, still recovering from childbirth, felt dizzy and on the verge of fainting.

She kept going, her body leaning against the damp gorge wall.

She called out with a bitter smile to the female officer supporting her, “Officer, I can’t walk anymore, my vision is blacking out.”

The female officer reached out to take Xizi, but the child was already asleep, her face nestled in Xu Huiqing’s neck.

Still, Xizi’s small hands clung tightly to her mother.

If anyone tried to take her, she would instantly wake and cry.

This moment was no different.

Xu Huiqing didn’t cry loudly but let out a low whimper, like a frightened animal.

They were surrounded by stone, and Xu Huiqing clearly felt herself about to pass out.

She feared that if she fainted and tumbled down the Shimen Gorge, she might be okay, but she couldn’t let her child get hurt.

She gently rubbed Xizi’s back and kept soothing her, “Xizi, be good. Let Officer take you for a moment. Mom can’t hold you anymore. Let Mom rest for a bit, okay?”

Children’s emotions recover much faster than adults.

Hearing this, even though Xizi was still scared and unwilling, she obediently let go and stretched her arms out to the female officer.

The officer held her gently, but Xizi’s eyes never left Xu Huiqing, afraid her mother might suddenly disappear.