Chapter 661: The Peasant Girl’s Splendid Manor
Chapter 661: The Mastermind Behind the Bandits (2)
No one expected that although the twelve children had set out together to the mountains, an accident occurred on their way in.
When Mo Yan followed Snowball's guidance to the place where the twelve children had disappeared, Snowball used the traces left on the ground and divined through magic to discover that the children had encountered a very fierce group of people here.
These people, all armed with swords and knives, for some unknown reason, had bound all twelve frightened children and taken them deeper into the mountains.
Based on Snowball’s description, Mo Yan speculated that the group was likely a band of robbers planning to descend the mountain for a heist, otherwise they wouldn’t have appeared here armed. The reason they took the children was probably because they were inadvertently seen by them, and fearing that the children might ruin their “plans,” they decided to bind them up, possibly planning to sell them to human traffickers for a big profit.
As for the target of the robbery, besides her own family, Mo Yan couldn't think of another possibility. The entire village, apart from her family, was poor, and the robbers would hardly be satisfied with just stealing a few chickens.
If the situation was as she guessed, and the innocent children were dragged into this because of her family, Mo Yan was even more determined to rescue them.
The traces left by the robbers were quite obvious. Even without Snowball, with Xiao Hua’s tracking ability, they could easily find their hiding place. However, since the robbers were armed and probably experienced in robbery, Mo Yan was reluctant to lead the villagers to search with Xiao Hua, fearing that a confrontation might occur and the villagers could get hurt.
Mo Yan thought about ways to rescue them and felt that the robbers were unlikely to act in broad daylight. The most probable time for them to act would be tonight, which meant she probably had only an afternoon to rescue the children.
While searching for possible traces the children might have left, they called out their names loudly. The echoes bounced around the mountains, but there was no response, nor did they hear any firecrackers from other places.
As time passed and with the sun about to set in just over an hour, everyone began to feel anxious. Once it got dark, finding the children would become even more difficult.
Moreover, night was the time when wild animals came out to hunt, and they worried that the children might become prey to these animals. Such an outcome would be unacceptable not only to the children’s families but would also leave an indelible mark on their own hearts.
“Yan’er, has Xiao Hua found any clues?” Mo Qingze couldn’t help but ask as he watched Xiao Hua sniffing around.
Mo Yan hesitated for a moment and shook her head. “If the children had just gone missing and we had come searching right away, Xiao Hua might have found them. Now, we can only see if we can find any traces left by the children. If we find something, there might be a lead.”
In reality, Xiao Hua had already identified a general direction, but Mo Yan chose not to tell her father and the other villagers. It was for their own good.
This answer was what Mo Qingze had expected. After hearing it, he simply nodded without saying anything more. Other villagers felt somewhat disappointed as they gazed at the vast, dark mountains, their hope of finding the children dwindling.
As the sun sank below the horizon, leaving only a red half-face in the sky, the villagers, who hadn’t even had lunch and were already exhausted and hungry, decided to abandon the search for now and return to the village to see if there were any updates.
Mo Qingze wanted to urge everyone to keep searching, but Mo Yan stopped him. “Father, we’ve searched all afternoon and found nothing. We might have been looking in the wrong direction. Continuing to search aimlessly might not yield any results. It’s better to return first and see if others have found any valuable clues.”
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