Chapter 54

  "I'm going to substitute for your parents tonight and teach you a good lesson. Teach you how to be a good person, so that when you grow up, you won't become a pervert or a murderer. Look at your attitude! What kind of attitude is this? Don't you know I'm talking to you? When others talk to you, remember to look at their face, this is the most basic courtesy, do you understand?"

  You're already 40 or 50 years old, how can you not even say a complete sentence? How did you survive until now? Do you want to continue living like this in society? What are you thinking about every day? Don't you think about the future at all?

  "With a character like yours that can't even accomplish anything, how are you going to find a wife in the future? You don't look bad, but is your plan just to rely on this face of yours to deceive women? Don't you have any ambition? Don't you feel ashamed as a man? No wonder you've never been able to get a girlfriend... cough, I mean, it's very likely that you won't be able to find one in the future!"

  "Cough, cough! Where are your father and mother? Where are they? Why did you run out in the middle of the night? Don't you know it's not allowed to spit watermelon seeds? You don't even wear clothes when going out, and you're not even wearing shoes, aren't you cold?"

  An idea suddenly occurred to him, and Cheng Zhou stopped talking.

  The little kid let out a crisp burp, rubbed his belly, stretched his small arms and legs, and opened his mouth to yawn widely.

  Maybe he was full and sleepy, the child threw out the snack garbage at his feet, curled up his body, and snuggled into the blanket in the luggage box without moving.

  "Hey, little friend? Feed?" Cheng Zhou stretched out his hand and poked at that lump in the suitcase.

  A small head poked out of the blanket, a little brat with an impatient expression, big and shiny black eyes that were full of discontent.

  "Uh, do you know if there's a police station around here?"

  The child's expression didn't change.

  He's not unable to understand Japanese, is he? After a day of torment, Cheng Zhou had little confidence in his own Japanese language skills.

  I don't know if this kid can read or not... It doesn't seem very likely though.

  Shall we take him and ask around nearby? Judging from his appearance, he might...

  The thoughts that flashed by just now began to spread in my mind, and various news reports of parents abusing/treating their children kept rolling before my eyes.

  Chengzhou's expression became even more gentle, and the warm smile he put on also turned into sincere concern.

  Gently stroking the child's soft hair, Cheng Zhou sat down beside the suitcase.

  "Are you... being treated badly by your family? Are they abusing you? Not only do they not give you food, but also don't let you wear clothes, so that's why you ran away? Don't be afraid, I'm not a bad person, I won't hurt you."

  Regardless of whether the child could understand the Chinese language or not, Cheng Zhou just kept on talking about his own speculations.

  As he spoke, in his eyes this little kid of four or five years old had become the main character of a tragic world, and he was the hero who wanted to save this child.

  From then on, the child remembered this long-legged uncle who had saved him.

  Years later, after the child had grown up to become a great person, one day on stage, the grown-up child spotted him in the crowd, walked down from the stage and hugged his shoulders, then returned to the stage and loudly told everyone in the world that this ordinary-looking middle-aged man was the hero who had saved his life, the most influential person in his life.

  As he watched the grown-up child being so capable, he thought of his teachings back then and was suddenly choked with emotion...

  Cheng Chong has already imagined himself as a great Chinese father with an international mindset, and he is about to be moved to death by his own imagination.

  "It's very cold sleeping like this, okay? Don't be afraid, I'll hold you and we can sleep together, how about that?"

  Cheng Zhou thought he shouldn't object, so he reached out and took the child out of the suitcase. Perhaps due to sympathy, when he saw that the child was wearing one of the two blue shirts he had bought for over 200 yuan, he didn't get angry or complain, but instead put the child on his lap and helped him roll up his sleeves.

  He dragged out the blanket, hugged the child, closed the suitcase with one hand, leaned it against the trunk of the tree, and sat down beside it. He unbuttoned his overcoat, tucked the child into his bosom, and when he saw that the child was not reacting badly, he shook open the blanket and wrapped the two of them in it.

  Look at the watch, 2:07 in the wee hours.

  Let's talk about it when the sky brightens up...

  Cheng Chou closed his eyes.

  The child snuggled into Cheng Chou's arms, his nostrils flaring a few times before he slowly closed his eyelids.

  The white forest's radiance casts a black shadow on the ground. The crunching sound echoes in the narrow space.

  "Hehe, hehehe, hahaha."

  A brown thing knelt on the ground like a human, licking its palm while making what seemed to be an extremely satisfied and happy high-pitched laughter.

  "Save... me...... save..." A hand clawed at the tile-covered ground, trying to crawl forward.

  The brown body seemed to dislike the thing in front of it exceeding its control range, picked up that palm and put it back in place. Thinking about it, the brown body still had some doubts, straightened its waist, took out a folding knife from the pocket of its lower half/kneeling body, bent down carefully cutting something.

  "Waaaahhh..." A faint and muffled cry echoed in this cramped space, unable to find an exit to escape.

  Cheng Zhou found himself more miserable than he had ever been before.

  A group of people surrounded him. From what looked like tourists to locals, there were about ten men and women in total.

  Someone is saying something to him. While speaking, he points at the trash all over the ground, and that person's expression is absolutely not praising him.

  "Uh, that... wasn't me who ate it." After making the excuse, Cheng Zhou regretfully wanted to slap himself. Looking at those people's expressions, each of their faces was written with "this place has no silver three hundred taels".

  Someone picked up the blanket on the ground.

  "Ah, that's mine."

  "I know that's yours. You, guest, do you know that camping is not allowed in this mountain?"

  "What did you say? No, I mean... that..."

  "Would you mind cleaning up here? The public environment is maintained by all of us."

  "Damn it! I don't understand what you're saying." Cheng Zhou was both embarrassed and anxious, so flustered that he couldn't even understand a single sentence of Japanese. Wait, where's that kid? Where did he run off to?

  "What about the child? Have you seen a four or five year old kid?" Cheng Zhou interrupted the other person's words which seemed to be lecturing him and asked anxiously.

  "Kid? You brought a kid? The kid is gone? Oh no!"

  The crowd suddenly panicked. The child was nowhere to be seen in the mountains, this is a big deal.

  As soon as he heard the word "child", Cheng Zhou hastily nodded. I wonder if that child was scared away by these fierce-looking adults or taken back by his vicious parents?

  "What a careless father, bringing his child to camp in the mountains without even a tent, and now he's lost the kid! This is utter nonsense!"

  "Hurry up and call Mountain Police, let them mobilize people to search together."

  Although it's still autumn, the October in the mountains can make people catch cold, and children have poor resistance. The onlookers were chattering away with different opinions.

  "Everyone look around here first, maybe the child is playing and ran into the mountain forest by himself." The enthusiastic local uncle directed.

  "Oh no, that's so dangerous! Although this mountain is not high, there are still many cliffs and waterfalls. How old is the child?"

  "Seems like he's only four or five years old."

  "What! So small? What was his father thinking? And his mother? Look at this man, he doesn't have the slightest bit of responsibility, having a father like that is really..." The crowd looked at Cheng Zhou with accusatory eyes.

  Cheng Zhou's Japanese language skills had deteriorated to the level of a baby, unable to understand what everyone was saying. Otherwise, he would have strangled these three uncles and six aunts before finding the child... in his fantasy.

  "Excuse me, do you know where Shanzhuang is?" Cheng Zhou asked.

  "What did the police say?" No one paid attention to him, and the enthusiastic uncle from just now asked a young tourist who was making a phone call beside him.

  Someone will be here soon. He told us not to disperse too much, otherwise something might happen, and wait for the police to come before assigning specific tasks. Also, he asked us to keep the father of the child. The young man replied.

  "Yes, yes, heaven knows whether the child is lost or something has happened."

  "Excuse me..." Cheng Zhou interrupted.

  "He doesn't seem like a Japanese person."

  "Maybe foreign tourists."

  "He said he had such a big suitcase and didn't check in, could it be..."

  "Ah! That's very likely!"

  Everyone's gaze converged on Cheng Chou, whose clothes were disheveled, hair was messy and face was filled with worry, looking more and more like a stowaway. In the eyes of locals, foreign tourists are extremely particular about their appearance and dignity, it is impossible for them to make themselves look so wretched.

  "Excuse me, do you know how to get to Shan Le Zhuang?" Cheng Zhou finally asked what he wanted to ask.

  The Shanle Manor, with a blackboard at the entrance that reads "Welcome to the AHS Group Asia Pacific Sales Elite Learning and Exchange Conference participants", ushered in the most lively day since its opening.

  When the person in charge of this exchange meeting, Kawabe Kazuhiko, saw the representative of Huaxia region's operation strategy department, Cheng Chou, who was late for a whole night, arriving with police and local community staff, his intuition told him that this man would be the biggest troublemaker in this exchange meeting.

  "You're late, Mr. Naruse." Kawahara and Hiroshi stepped forward with a cold face after learning about the situation from the police officer.

  "Uh, I don't know if anyone will pick me up..."

  Kawai Kazuhiko cut him off, "You even brought your kid along to this meeting, did you think this was a sightseeing trip?"

  "No! Of course not. That child is not mine..."

  "Don't make excuses anymore. You obviously didn't take the meeting seriously. Knowing you'd be late, you still chose to go camping with your kid in the mountains." Kawau's tone had already condemned Shengzhou, "And you even lost the kid."

  "Are you speaking Hua Xia language?" Cheng Zhou suddenly froze.

  "You just realized?" Kawau's eyes showed undisguised disdain for Seijou.

  "Uh, no. I mean your Mandarin is very good..."

  Cheng Zhou is actually a very suitable person for sales to some extent. For example, now, the opponent's disdainful eyes and attitude, he sees it but doesn't take it to heart. In the past when running clients domestically, he had encountered even more rude gazes and words than this, so he has long been used to it.

  "Mr. Cheng, this is not the time for flattery. Tell me, are you here to participate in the conference and learn from it, or are you here to disrupt this meeting?"

  "Kazuhiko, I think Mr. Cheng must be very tired. Why don't we let him rest for a while?" said the thin young man who had been standing beside Kawabe Kazuhiko and hadn't spoken until now, trying to mediate.

  Heiwa gave the young man a cold glance, and the young man coughed dryly and lowered his head, unable to express the grievances in his heart.

  You said that Chuan Jing usually has a dark face in the company all day, which is fine, but even when facing colleagues from overseas branches, you use such a scolding tone, do you think they are your direct subordinates? Don't you worry that in the future when we go to Huaxia, they will secretly make things difficult for us? Alas!

  Chengzhou looked at the thin young man with gratitude and faced Kawau, puffing out his chest: "I hope I can explain this matter."

  "Explanation? I thought things were already clear." Kawau's face turned even colder.

  "Excuse me, who are you?" Cheng Zhou told himself that he mustn't lose face in front of a foreigner and made an effort to sound calm and composed.

  "Kawau. Kawau Hirohiko. The person in charge of this meeting."

  "The child is not mine. I can prove it. If you don't believe me, you can check my passport and look at my entry and exit records."

  Kawa frowned and looked at the police behind Cheng Zhou.

  The police nodded, they had already checked Chengzhou's passport.

  "Whose is it?" Kawau looked at Seijou's expression and guessed that he wouldn't lie about such an important thing.

  "I don't know... I saw him in the mountains at midnight, it was almost two o'clock. Um, he wasn't wearing clothes, when I found him, the kid was stealing my food and wearing my clothes. I felt sorry for him and was afraid he would get into trouble on the mountain at night, so I held him and slept with him for a night, thinking that I would go find the police in the morning. But after dawn, he was gone..."

  A sentence, Cheng Zhou said with a stutter. Because just now he told the same thing to the police, and the two policemen looked at him with an expression as if they were looking at a mentally ill person.

  "How old does he look?"

  "About four or five years old..."

  Kawau is now looking at him with the same gaze. Even the thin young man showed an unbelievable face.

  "Honestly, I swear it wasn't just my imagination."

  "Tell me, are you trying to cover up your mistake of being late and deliberately making up such a big lie? You'd better tell the truth now, otherwise things will get out of hand and I won't be able to help you." Kawau's expression was very serious.

  "I, I didn't lie, there really is such a child. I think he was abused, he...he..."

  "You'd better swear what you're saying is true, or else you won't be able to afford the consequences."

  The author has something to say:

  Today is the third watch, and there is still one more watch in the evening.

  Whether you've read this story or not, friends who are interested can come and take a look around^^

  Don't regard Cheng Zhou as a hero, he's just an ordinary small-town citizen who has never been abroad alone before and can't even speak the language, encountering such an inexplicable thing, he can't even explain it clearly.

  No matter which country people go to another country, they will always have various worries and unease. If it doesn't go smoothly at first, there will be some unhappy and hurtful things later on, unless you adjust your mindset again.

  However, Cheng Zhou... will proudly show off in a different way later on~