CHAPTER 736: CHAPTER 733: MEIZI AND APRICOT

Duoduo quickly returned with a little girl, who appeared to be about the same age as Xiao Yue.

However, looking at her clothes, ’simple’ wouldn’t cut it. How to put it — she was dressed like a rural kid from the ’90s, oversized and loose, and quite dirty.

After entering the house, such a large and beautiful place clearly made her a bit uneasy, as she appeared extremely constrained and nervous.

When Shen Siyuan’s gaze fell upon her, she instinctively hid behind Duoduo.

Clearly, compared to Shen Siyuan, she trusted Duoduo, who was younger than herself, more.

This is human nature; we generally let our guard down more easily around those younger and shorter than ourselves.

"Don’t be afraid, come here." Shen Siyuan beckoned to her.

The little girl didn’t move forward but looked at Duoduo.

"This is Brother Banner Master, he’s a very good person," Duoduo said as she pulled the little girl forward.

The little girl struggled but couldn’t break free, so she stumbled towards Shen Siyuan.

"What’s your name?" Shen Siyuan casually asked.

At this point, Dou Dou leaned in curiously and asked, "Sister, why are you so dirty? Do you not wash your face?"

The little girl was a bit surprised and blurted out, "You can see me too?"

"Uh-huh." Dou Dou nodded proudly.

The little girl immediately glanced at Tang Tang beside her.

Dou Dou quickly said, "She can’t see you; she’s a fool."

"Heh~"

Seeing Dou Dou pointing at herself, Tang Tang instantly gave a foolish smile.

"See, silly right?"

Thankfully, Tang Tang didn’t hear, or else the two would likely start another tussle.

Whether it was what Dou Dou said was funny or Tang Tang’s silly expression, it made the little girl laugh.

However, the smile quickly vanished, reverting to a blank expression.

"Hey, you haven’t answered Brother Fan Soul’s question yet," Dou Dou said.

"My name is Meizi," the little girl said.

Upon hearing this, Shen Siyuan frowned, "That must be your nickname, right? What’s your full name?"

The little girl shook her head, "I’m just called Meizi."

"Last name Mei?" Shen Siyuan thought, now that’s a rare surname.

So he continued, "What is your sister’s name?"

"Apricot."

Shen Siyuan: ...

Mei isn’t a surname at all. This girl either doesn’t have a full name or doesn’t remember what it is.

However, being this age, it’s rare not to know one’s full name.

"Where is your home? Do you still remember?" Shen Siyuan thought for a bit and asked on.

"Of course, my home is in Huangyan Village," Meizi said.

"Huangyan Village?"

Shen Siyuan took out his phone and looked it up on a map but couldn’t find the village.

"Do you remember anything else? Like what town or county?"

"Dajiao Mountain Town," Meizi said.

This time, Shen Siyuan did find Dajiao Mountain but it wasn’t a town, just a hotel or a park, even one located in Bin Hai, but it was a park.

Shen Siyuan tried searching for Da Jiao Mountain and still found nothing.

So Shen Siyuan asked, "Could it be that you remember incorrectly?"

"No way," Meizi was a bit anxious upon hearing this, stepping out from behind Duoduo.

"I was abducted when I took Apricot to the market in town, so I won’t remember that wrong," Meizi said.

"Can you tell me in detail what happened?" Shen Siyuan put away his phone and asked.

Meizi looked at Duoduo and then at Dou Dou.

Dou Dou immediately made a little serpent gesture with her hands, swaying from side to side, without any discernible meaning.

Meizi almost laughed but held it back, withdrew her gaze, and looked at Shen Siyuan, before finally speaking, "Dad and Mom went to work outside, and I stayed home with Little Sister and Grandma, helping Grandma raise pigs..."

"Dad said, once he earned enough money, he would buy a cow for me to tend..."

"Grandma collected a lot of mountain goods on the hill and planned to take them to town to sell. But it kept raining, her legs were in pain, she couldn’t leave, and feared the goods would rot at home, so she asked me to take them to town to sell instead..."

"I often went to town with Grandma before, so I knew the way..."

"I originally didn’t want to take Little Sister along, but she kept following me, so I took her to town with me..."

"On that day, there weren’t many people in town, the mountain goods were hard to sell. Little Sister and I stayed in town till dark, didn’t sell a thing, and Little Sister cried she was hungry and wanted something to eat..."

Speaking of which, on her usually solemn little face, a hint of sadness appeared.

"Then a man came, he wanted to buy all of our mountain goods. I was so thrilled. The man said he forgot his money and asked us to go home with him to get it..."

Meizi grew even more upset upon reaching this point.

Next to her, Dou Dou and Duoduo clenched their little fists tightly.

Dou Dou shouted, "That was a bad guy, a bad guy, never go back with him."

This shouting made Meizi a bit less upset.

She nodded and said, "He truly wasn’t a good person. He chained Little Sister and me indoors with iron chains to keep us from escaping, and after a few days, several people came to look at us, intending to buy us..."

"Eventually, a lady bought Little Sister and me and we got into a car. After traveling a long while, we cried wanting to go home, but the lady hit us and didn’t give us food..."

"Little Sister and I were sold to another family in a village. The grandma there was fierce, said she wanted me to marry her son, made us work every day, and often hit me and Little Sister. She even wanted to get rid of Little Sister..."

"They often quarreled, and later, for some reason, sold Little Sister and me to another family..."

"The lady who bought us doted on Little Sister, and treated us well, but soon after, the lady and her husband quarreled, she poisoned herself, and died. The man blamed it on us, beat us every day, so I ran away with Little Sister..."

...

According to Meizi’s account, these two sisters have endured so much suffering. After escaping from the second family, they went through several others but were never well-treated.

During this period, the sisters were separated at times, yet Meizi always managed to find Apricot.

The final time, Apricot’s stepfather beat her. Meizi tried to stop him, got into a fight, and was accidentally killed. Since then, Apricot has been wandering the streets alone.

Dou Dou and Duoduo, after hearing Meizi’s tale, were already in tears.

Shen Siyuan, after listening, felt deeply touched.

But he caught onto something peculiar in Meizi’s story.