A middle-aged man in a navy blue cotton jacket, black pants, short curly hair, and dark skin walked up the slope, but when he went uphill, his left leg bent slightly less than his right leg.

He looked at the Queen Mother, who shook her head at him, her brows furrowed slightly, and her expression was a little tangled.

Then, he looked at Qin Hui and Ke Luo again, his face was not good.

"Who are you?" As soon as he spoke, the man's voice was wary and filled with anger.

Corot nodded at the man, and said slowly: "It's Xiaowen's father, we are from Rongcheng, and we were entrusted by Teacher Qu's mother to come here to find his whereabouts. ”

When he heard the words "Teacher Qu", the royal father's eyes opened slightly, and his pupils also dilated, but it was fleeting, and he soon returned to normal.

"I've only met Mr. Qu a few times, but I'm not familiar with him." After that, he was ready to enter the door.

"Living here, although the environment is good, the humidity is very heavy, which is easy to cause rheumatism."

Qin Qi said suddenly, and turned his gaze to the left knee of the royal father.

The royal father reflexively touched his left knee, his brow furrowed slightly.

"Haven't you been complaining about knee pain lately, could it be rheumatism?" The Queen Mother lowered her eyes and looked at her father's left knee.

The royal father waved his hand and said, "When you are old, you may be deficient in calcium." ”

"It may be caused by calcium deficiency, but it is not ruled out that it is rheumatism or rheumatoid arthritis, where the humidity is too high, and after living for a long time, there may be shoulder and neck pain and low back pain."

Qin Qi pointed around, and everyone looked over with his gaze, and saw the moss at the foot of the wall, the wet ground, and the woods next to the house.

The scenery here is excellent, suitable for travel, but it is definitely not suitable for living, otherwise, why would so many houses be vacant?

"What then?"

The Queen Mother turned her head and touched her neck, and she heard a "click" sound.

"It's best to eat less spicy food, quit smoking and drinking, drink more water, bask in the sun, eat some vitamin AD and calcium, and do more cupping, acupuncture, massage and other physiotherapy if possible, of course, it is best to move and move to a place with low humidity." Qin Bai said.

"Do you hear that? Quit smoking. The Queen Mother looked at her father and said.

The royal father sighed and said, "The trees here are densely shaded, and the sun does not shine all year round. ”

"It's still our own home, living at the foot of the mountain, with good scenery, good air, sunshine, and often smelling tea. It's like here, the clothes don't dry after a few days of washing! The Queen Mother complained.

Hearing the Queen Mother's words, the Queen Mother sighed again and took out a cigarette from his pocket.

"Didn't you say quit smoking!" The Queen Mother grabbed the Queen Father's cigarette case.

"This..."The royal father looked at the queen mother in embarrassment, and then at Qin Li and Ke Luo.

"Why do you have to move here? Isn't your tea mountain still in Ningxiang Township, running at both ends like this, although it is not very far, but it is also quite tiring, especially if you have pain in your left knee now, and you have been climbing the hill for a long time, and over time, it will aggravate your condition. Corot took advantage of this to change the subject and pulled the question back.

The Queen Mother looked up at her father, then bowed her head again and said no more.

"Ahh ”

The Queen Mother opened the door and retreated into the room, and the Queen Mother walked in with Qin Li and Corot.

The room was dark and the lights had to be turned on even during the day.

When I walked in, I felt a cold moisture drilling into my trouser legs.

Corot tucked his coat and rubbed his hands together.

"Men are afraid of cold, it is a sign of poor kidney function, spleen and stomach disorders, go back to see a doctor." Qin Li walked to Corot's side and whispered.

Ke Luo turned his head, glared at Qin Li, and muttered in a low voice: "I'm not you, of course the beast is not afraid of the cold!" ”

"Come here to sit, the house is a little cold, even Xiaowen can't stand it, I'd rather stay at school, saying that the school is warmer."

The Queen Mother brought them to the brazier and brought them two stools to sit down, while the royal father added a few more pieces of charcoal to the brazier to make the fire burn more vigorously.

Corot sniffed and put his hand on the brazier and roasted it repeatedly for a while before feeling a little warmer.

"Teacher Qu's parents must be in a hurry, right? All of a sudden, his child was gone..."

After the four of them roasted the fire for a while, the Queen Mother was the first to speak.

The light of the fire shone on the Queen Mother's face, flickering and brightening, revealing the traces of time on her face.

The queen mother should be only in her early forties, maybe less than forty, and the locals got married early, but on her face full of fine lines, she has long lost the grace of the past, only the tenderness of motherhood is profound, even when mentioning other people's children, she still reveals motherly care.

"Well, I'm very anxious, Dad Qu was deeply hit, his heart attack recurred, and he was hospitalized, Mother Qu didn't dare to let the elders in the family know, and she kept finding all kinds of excuses to hide it, and she was alone in bearing all the pressure, hey!" At the end, Corot also sighed from the bottom of his heart.

Father Wang said in a dumb voice: "Although Teacher Qu has not taught my family's Xiaowen, I heard from other children and parents that he is very responsible, and he is actually not a few years older than those children, but he takes good care of them. Every time I saw him, he would say hello to me, even though he might not know me. ”

"I've heard that over the years, in fact, some of your children have disappeared here, or relatively young adult men." Corot said.

"Hmm." The royal father nodded, his brow furrowed.

"Is that why you're moving?" Corot asked softly.

The Queen Mother pursed her lips and glanced at her father, then continued to stare at the brazier, while the father clenched his hands loosely and tightly, his brow furrowed even deeper.

Ke Luo and Qin Li glanced at each other, did not speak, but quietly waited for the royal father's answer.

They knew that only Father Wang could answer this question, and it was definitely not like what Father Ai and Principal Wang said, there must be a complicated story behind it.

"Give me the cigarette." After waiting for a while, the royal father finally spoke, looked at the queen mother, and spread out his hands.

"Didn't you say it's better to quit smoking?" The Queen Mother did not move.

Corot took out the cloud cigarette he bought before from his pocket and handed it to the royal father, "To quit smoking, take your time and reduce the number first." ”

"Thank you! Thank you! The royal father hurriedly took it, tore open the package in three or two times, took out one, and lit it with the charcoal fire in the brazier.

"Whew..."

Taking a deep breath, the royal father exhaled smoke and looked pleasant.

"The only benefit after moving is that you can buy good cloud cigarettes, and the rest is gone." After saying that, the royal father took another sip.

After smoking a third of the cigarette, the royal father slowly spoke, "You guessed it, that's the reason. ”

Through the smoky smoke, the vicissitudes of the royal father's face loomed, like his thoughts, drifting into the distance...

Just like Qin Li guessed, the queen mother was indeed not very old, she was less than eighteen years old when she married the royal father, and the royal father was already twenty-eight at that time, not only nearly ten years older than the queen mother, but also had a marriage.

The royal father was married before, but his wife died in childbirth, and one body died.

The queen mother is the cousin of her deceased wife, and her family is very poor, and the whole family of five guards the small tea garden that can't grow good tea, and lives in poverty.

Because they are relatives, and the royal father is diligent, has a good temper, and was good to his deceased wife before, when the royal father proposed to the queen mother's family, the queen mother's parents agreed without thinking about it.

Soon after the two got married, they had Wang Yuanwen, and the royal father regarded him as a treasure and took care of him carefully.

However, since 2012, the peaceful countryside of Ningxiang Town has no longer been peaceful.

One after another, people disappeared, and most of them were underage children, all boys, which made the royal father worry about whether such a bad luck would befall his son.

But despite their concerns, nothing has changed in their lives.

It wasn't until December 1 last year that what the royal father feared finally happened.

That night, Wang Yuanwen, who was a sophomore in high school, went home after evening self-study as usual, no different from usual.

The Wang family did not live in the town, but at the foot of the mountain, more than half an hour away from the school.

Although he has to walk at night, Wang Yuanwen is also a 170CM guy, and the surroundings are very peaceful, not even a thief, although there are disappearances from time to time, but they all happened in the mountains, and they have not happened under the mountain, so the royal father is relieved to let him go home alone.

But that night, Wang Yuanwen walked more than ten meters away from home, and was suddenly strangled by someone from behind with a belt.

Wang Yuanwen screamed in fright and struggled desperately.

The royal father, who heard the shout, hurried out and found that it was Wang Siliang, a well-known fool in Ningxiang Township, who strangled his son with a belt.

"Didn't call the police?" Corot asked.

"I reported it, but when the police arrived, Wang Siliang argued that he was playing with the child and didn't mean it." The royal father threw the cigarette butt into the brazier, a little indignant.

"The police don't think that this matter constitutes harm, and Wang Siliang has a mental problem, so it's over." Qin Li added.

"Yes!" The royal father nodded, looking more and more angry.

"I don't understand, he strangled Xiaowen's neck red, just because of his joke, the police let him go, causing Xiaowen to have nightmares for several nights, and he didn't dare to walk at night anymore, even during the day, he didn't dare to walk on that road alone, it was at our doorstep!" The Queen Mother said aloud, her tone angry.

"No wonder you're moving, but why are you hiding the truth from this?" Corot asked.

"We were forced to hide it!" The royal father gritted his teeth.

"In fact, not many people know the truth, only a few leaders in the town, as well as the surrounding neighbors, know about it, and everyone else thinks that we want to change Xiaowen's environment before we moved." The Queen Mother explained.

"I didn't want to cause panic, so I hid it." Qin Bai said.

"Huh!" The royal father sneered and pulled another cigarette out of the cigarette case.

nodded and then took a deep breath and said: "Our Ningxiang Town is a well-known five-good township, everyone here is very kind, how can there be an incident of hurting people, even if someone is just a fool, they will not hurt people at will." ”

The royal father's tone was sarcastic, mixed with unquenchable anger.

"Do you think those missing people have anything to do with that fool?" Corot asked.

"This, I can't say it, and I don't dare to say nonsense, although he hurt Xiaowen, but he can't just wrongfully accuse people of being murderers!" The royal father said.

"Mom and Dad, I'm back."

At this moment, the door was pushed open, and Xiaowen walked in against the light......