Chapter 36
Full Support
Jiu Que looked up blankly at the suddenly energized crowd, not knowing what was going on. When she turned around, she saw Aunt Lin wiping away tears.
“Lord Ying, I know—I know you’re a good official! I’ll thank you first! Once this old woman finds my Mingde, I’ll treat you to lots and lots of candied melon seeds!”
Ah, so she still remembered that. Jiu Que gave a helpless smile and immediately ran after them. That day, many common folk who had been busy with their daily labor dropped what they were doing and rushed out to help when they heard the commotion.
People’s hearts are made of flesh, after all—and hatred for child traffickers has always been unanimous. Everyone has children, and everyone fears that their own might be stolen. Helping others now was like helping themselves.
Before long, the families of the six rescued children also began to arrive. Even though the squad captain had already taken the children away, hearing the details eased their hearts a little.
But gradually, Jiu Que realized something was wrong.
They had only found six children, yet more and more families were showing up—at least twenty households! When she asked for details, they all said their children had gone missing within the past three days—and that the number of missing children was still increasing.
All of these parents and elders wore despair on their faces, clinging to a faint hope because they’d heard that some children had been saved. They were waiting anxiously to see if theirs were among them.
But in a city like the capital, this many missing children should have put the prefecture on high alert, shouldn’t it? Yet from what the parents said, the Prefect had done nothing but tell them to stay calm and wait.
Looking more closely, Jiu Que noticed that all these families were ordinary people—at best, small merchants. It seemed the traffickers had done prior research before striking. But for the missing children to be spread across every part of the capital—how could they have managed that without being noticed?
There was no internet or communication network at this time. The only way to know anything about someone was to observe them in person. Yet when she asked the parents whether anything had seemed strange beforehand, they all said no after careful thought.
“This is odd,” Jiu Que muttered. “They took so many children without being caught in the act, left no trace behind… Did they escape through the river system? And the methods are all so similar—don’t tell me all the kidnappers in the capital are working together?”
As she ran, Jiu Que’s mind raced. For some reason, the capital felt especially chaotic today. Many patrol soldiers were already scouring the streets. When she asked, she learned that the only son of a high-ranking official had gone missing.
That made it even stranger.
If these traffickers only targeted common families, it meant they feared the powerful. So why take such a risk to abduct a noble’s son?
It didn’t make sense.
Following the city’s waterway system outward from the bridge where the first six children were found, everyone sprang into action. Surprisingly, the citizens obeyed Jiu Que’s directions efficiently. Fifteen minutes later, they caught another pair—a man and a woman.
Unfortunately, they only rescued two more children, about seven or eight years old.
The farther the search expanded, the more stretched their manpower became. Just then, another patrol team appeared and ordered Jiu Que and her group to stop.
Their reasoning sounded proper enough—they feared the commotion might alert the traffickers and interfere with the search.
“But the squad captain who took the six children has already gone into the palace!” someone argued.
A murmur ran through the opposing soldiers. Clearly, even among the patrols, things weren’t harmonious. The team that had been “scooped” of their credit looked irritated. When they saw the two newly rescued children, they brightened and immediately tried to take them away, claiming they needed to show them to a certain nobleman to see if one was his son.
The crowd of anxious parents grew increasingly restless. Aunt Lin and the others pleaded desperately, and chaos began to rise.
Jiu Que frowned. If this continued, a fight might break out. She wasn’t afraid for herself—but if these good-hearted citizens who came to help ended up punished, their goodwill would be extinguished. Next time something like this happened, who would dare step forward?
Just then, the sound of pounding hooves thundered like a storm. Everyone turned toward the noise, and some gasped in shock.
Under the dimming golden sunlight, a troop of riders in black armor charged toward them, long sabers gleaming. Even their warhorses were clad in metal chain barding. The leader—towering, perhaps nine feet tall—looked even more imposing atop his mount. His target was clearly Jiu Que.
“Whoa!”
They pulled their reins in unison, stopping with military precision. Clearly, these men were highly trained.
The leader’s face was stern, seemingly in his late thirties or early forties, with faint strands of gray at his temples. His aura was sharp and chilling, as if he had marched straight out of a battlefield, reeking faintly of blood and rust.
Noticing his intense gaze fixed on her, Jiu Que stayed silent, though she quickly ran through her memories—she had no recollection of offending anyone like this.
Then, the man leapt off his horse and strode toward her.
Under that gaze, Jiu Que felt her blood run cold—then begin to boil. Her instincts warned her she was facing a formidable opponent.
“You are Ying Jiu Que?” he asked.
Jiu Que tore her eyes away from him and glanced at the black-armored soldiers behind him—each cradling a trembling child. One, two, three, four, five, six… six children.
So the high official’s son was still missing?
The rescued children, including the two newest ones, had all been stripped of their outer clothes and redressed in plain coarse garments. In the rush, she hadn’t had time to notice their backgrounds. So they hadn’t found the official’s son yet? Wait… then this cold-faced but anxious man was—
“I am,” she replied.
“My son—Bao’er—he’s five years old. He went missing about an hour ago. Can you find him?”
“And you are…?”
“I am Qi Zheng. You’ve already found six—no, eight—abducted children. Can you find more?”
“I’ll need more manpower,” Jiu Que said, “and no one can interfere with my search.”
Qi Zheng turned to the trembling patrol soldiers who immediately dropped to their knees under his gaze. His tone was sharp and decisive:
“No problem. His Majesty has already decreed that all patrol forces—and I myself—are to assist you fully. The people you’re used to working with are already on their way. They’ll be here soon.”
The people she was used to working with?
Wait—could he mean Chunyu and the others from her previous cases?
