CH 45

The sight of Miaomiao crying stunned Jingjing. She hurried over to Miaomiao’s side to console her, “Don’t cry…it’s okay…I have an idea.”

Miaomiao asked her with teary eyes, “What idea?”

Jingjing wiped her tears and said, “I’ll tell you during our break time at noon.”

Because Zhou Yuan didn’t come to school, Miaomiao was sitting alone in the first row. Jingjing didn’t want Miaomiao to be alone, so she moved her stool to the middle of her desk, and then she took Miaomiao’s stool from her desk and placed it next to hers. Therefore, the first row was now completely empty, whereas the second row had three students in it.

Jingjing took Miaomiao’s hand and declared proudly, “Don’t be sad anymore. I have an idea.”

Consumed by his curiosity, Deng Feng asked her, “What…what…idea?”

Jingjing said with a mysterious smile on her face, “You’ll find out at noon.”

After lunch, it was time for them to take a nap.

The teacher would come over to supervise everyone. Miaomiao followed Jingjing to the table to lay down.

Then, Jingjing suddenly pulled Miaomiao’s hand and whispered, “Let’s go to the bathroom.”

When Miaomiao was about to raise her hand to ask for the teacher’s permission, Jingjing held down Miaomiao’s hand, hushed her, and gestured to her to crouch down near the table. Although Miaomiao didn’t know why they were doing this, she followed Jingjing’s instructions and crouched down carefully.

Deng Feng also followed them and squatted down carefully and surreptitiously.

Taking the lead, Jingjing placed her hands on the ground and slowly crawled out of the classroom.

Similarly, Miaomiao also crawled out of the classroom.

When Miaomiao was outside their classroom, she stood up and was about to head to the bathroom, but Jingjing dragged her to the side of the flowerbed.

Jingjing said, “Miaomiao, let’s go to Zhou Yuan’s house to check up on him.”

Deng Feng stood next to them and said, “Teacher…won’t let us…leave…”

“We won’t tell the teacher. We’ll go by ourselves. Besides, we couldn’t sleep at noon since we’re worrying so much about Zhou Yuan. We’ll return before everyone wakes up.” Jingjing said.

Jingjing continued, “My grandpa was very sick, and then he passed away to another world. He died and I’ll never see him again.”

The word ‘death’ carried too much weight for children. Especially for Miaomiao. When she was recuperating in the hospital, she heard someone say to her, “Why didn’t you die!”, “I should have died when you were born if I knew you would turn out to be such a scourge!”

Miaomiao was stunned.

Jingjing held Miaomiao’s hand and said, “Deng Feng, you don’t have to follow us if you’re afraid. I’ll go with Miaomiao.”

Deng Feng replied, “I…I’m not afraid.”

The three friends held hands and ran towards the school gates. When they reached the gate, it was locked. They couldn’t leave because the iron gate was locked tight.

Jingjing squatted behind the flowerbed with Miaomiao and Deng Feng and peered at the iron gate.

Parents usually picked up their children before they were admitted outside. Now, we’re not allowed to leave.

They saw the school’s electrician place a ladder on the ground next to them.

Jingjing’s eyes suddenly lit up.

Her eyes first focused on the ladder, and then she looked at the adjacent wall.

“Let’s climb the ladder and leave,” Jingjing suggested.

Miaomiao whispered, “Jingjing. Mom said that an adult should hold onto you whenever you go outside…”

Jingjing indifferently replied, “Then, you should hold onto me and treat me like an adult.”

Miaomiao pondered for a while.

I guess it’s fine.

Jingjing kept staring at the ladder, and when the electrician left, she dragged the two children over, “Let’s move the ladder…”

Deng Feng was a little excited and nodded.

The three of them hurried over and lifted the ladder together. It was quite heavy. Fortunately, they were able to lift it together, even though it required strenuous effort to do so.

After lifting the ladder, Jingjing ordered them to set it adjacent to the wall.

Jingjing looked at the ladder and announced, “Let’s get out of here!”

Then, she began to climb up.

Using both her hands and feet, Jingjing easily clambered up to the wall via the ladder.

Deng Feng also followed her and clambered up quickly.

Miaomiao had never climbed a ladder before and found it a little daunting.

Jingjing perched on the wall and said, “Miaomiao, don’t you want to see Zhou Yuan one last time?”

With tremulous legs, Miaomiao quickly climbed up the ladder like Jingjing. She remembered Zhou Yuan as she was climbing.

They climbed up quickly, and the three children sat on the wall. Even Jingjing, who was the most courageous among them, didn’t dare stand on the wall.

Jingjing suggested to Deng Feng, “Let’s pull it up and put it on another side.”

By doing this, we could descend this ladder.

Deng Feng followed Jingjing’s command and pulled the ladder up.

Miaomiao watched them from the side. She had never stood at such a height before. Her legs were so tremulous that she was afraid to move, but she wanted to see Zhou Yuan.

They quickly pulled the ladder up and set it on the other side.

Even though it was a bit challenging to descend, everyone already experienced climbing it once already, so they were able to descend much faster.

Soon, the three children stood outside their school.

Miaomiao held Jingjing’s hand tightly. Whenever she came out of her house, her mom or grandma would hold her hand…

Deng Feng asked, “I…us…now…how…will…we…go…?”

Jingjing responded, “I already figured it out. We’ll take a taxi.”

Jingjing stood on the side of the road and began hailing a taxi.

She imitated her mother’s gestures.

Noticing three children standing nearby without any accompanying adults, a taxi driver pulled over in front of them and asked, “Where do you want to go?”

Jingjing responded, “Zhou Yuan’s house.”

The taxi driver asked, “Where’s Zhou Yuan’s house? Did your mother tell you?”

Jingjing repeated, “To Zhou Yuan’s house.”

The taxi driver laughed, “You have to tell me the address; otherwise, I don’t know where Zhou Yuan’s home is since I don’t know him.”

Jingjing replied, “Oh.”

The taxi driver left.

She turned her head to peer at her other two friends, “He doesn’t know…”

Jingjing and Miaomiao squatted on the side of the road. They were still wearing their school uniforms, which looked very conspicuous. They attracted a lot of attention while they stood on the side of the road like that.

They looked crestfallen as well.

They were sitting near a bus stop. Many commuters were waiting for the bus there, and they immediately noticed the three children.

A young girl squatted down and asked, “Kids, where are you going?”

Three children in their school uniforms who appeared to be six or seven years old. At this age, they could be left to fend for themselves, but it was still a little risky to ride a bus alone. However, since they were all together, it should be fine.

The others at the station simply overlooked this occurrence, even though they did think that this was unusual.

“We’re going to Zhou Yuan’s house. He’s very ill, and he’s about to die…We want to see him one last time.” Jingjing uttered.

Her mother had previously intended to see Grandpa one last time.

The moment Miaomiao heard that, tears gathered in her eyes. But she refused to cry.

The young girl digested her words, and then she saw the teary-eyed little girl who remained silent all this time. Her heart tightened at this sight.

Jingjing continued, “But we don’t know the specific address of his house.”

The young girl paused for a moment before asking, “Do you know his phone number?”

The three shook their heads at the same time.

The young girl found it a little difficult since they were incognizant of both his address and phone number.

At the same time, the bus that she was waiting for had arrived.

The young girl got on the bus. From the window, she peered at the three despondent children who squatted on the side of the road after she got on the bus. She shook her head and got off, despite already purchasing a ticket.

She squatted next to them, “What about your parent’s number? Do you remember?”

Suddenly, Miaomiao remembered something. For a transient moment, she recalled, “It was Baozi Thief*, No. 222.”

When everyone went to the hot springs together, they exchanged their addresses.

She remembered this because when her mother read it aloud, she thought, “A thief stole the bun? And something about 222 buns?”

Deng Feng and Jingjing were very happy, but this confounded the young girl after she processed her statement.

So, she took out her phone, checked it, and quicked realized that it was “Baozi Street.”

Baozi Street, No. 222. Now, it’s easy to find.

The young girl was still slightly worried, so she sent a text message to her boyfriend and told him to go to the movie by himself, and then she got into the taxi with the three children.

Nervosity gripped Miaomiao’s heart as she stepped into the taxi. She kept musing about what Jingjing had said, about not ever seeing Zhou Yuan again.

Meanwhile, the teacher had discovered that three children were missing.

There was a surveillance camera in the classroom. The headteacher and the dean headed into the surveillance room and watched a video that showed three children crawling out of the classroom before climbing up a ladder and over the wall.

The headteacher watched the scene where the three of them perched atop the wall and almost fainted.

There was a security guard stationed at the school gate, but they somehow moved clandestinely enough to avoid being detected. And in the surveillance room, the other guard was dozing off at the time.

The school dispatched their security guards and teachers. It was now impossible to hide this deed from their parents. They quickly called the childrens’ parents and asked if the children were looking for them or if they had any idea where they would go. 

The parents hurried to the school, including Father Hua. Teacher Li knew that Mother Hua and Father Hua were divorcing, but she was afraid that Miaomiao and the other children would go looking for him.

*Baozi = Bun

**The pronunciation of thief and street is similar in Chinese.