The fact that he kept standing still caught the attention of some people. A man and a woman looked at each other and slowly approached Baodan. Although the little guy was wearing old clothes and was a little dirty, he had a pretty face. Most importantly, he was a boy. If he could be sold, it would be another fortune. Thinking of this, they couldn't help but feel excited. The woman slowly approached the target boy with a confident smile on her face. Before she could stop the boy, the boy took two steps back vigilantly and looked at her.
The woman's expression froze for a moment, then she smiled and said, "Little guy, why are you walking around here by yourself? What are you looking for? Are you looking for your mother? I just saw someone looking for her son, could it be your mother? How about I take you there?"
The woman pretended to be very worried as she looked at the child in front of her, with an inexplicable light flashing in her eyes. She reached out to touch Baodan's head, but Baodan dodged it swiftly.
Baodan looked at the woman warily. He had always been a bully among the children in Xishan Village, and not just anyone could touch his head. He didn't know her, so why did she get close to him? His parents said that any stranger who approached him had bad intentions, so he must never follow them or eat food from strangers. Moreover, this person cared about him for some unknown reason, just like the beggar his parents had talked about before.
His mother said that beggars would specifically target children like him who were alone without adults. He is so smart that he can always find out which family in Xishan Village has delicious food. His parents say that he is the smartest. So Baodan immediately classified the woman in front of him as a person with bad intentions. This was the look in his mother's eyes when she wanted to take advantage of someone. He was very familiar with it.
Then he said unhappily: "Who are you? I don't know you. What does it have to do with you whether I look for my mother or not?" The childish voice was deliberately amplified a lot, attracting the attention of many people, but what he said was a bit too much.
The woman looked around and smiled awkwardly, "I mean well, kid. Are you afraid that I'm a bad person? Don't worry, I'm not. I really saw a very anxious woman just now. She was over there. Is she your mother?"
The woman pointed to a remote alley. As she spoke, she took a step forward, but the little guy quickly took a few steps back, widening the distance between them. A flash of displeasure flashed across the woman's eyes.
She thought that after catching this child, she would give him a good beating. Such a naughty child needs to be disciplined. If there weren't so many people coming and going on this street, there would be no need to use the method of chatting up. You could just hug him and carry away. This is how you get what you want from children in the past.
"Are you telling the truth?" Baodan looked in the direction the woman pointed and said doubtfully. He cursed inwardly, thinking that he was a fool for treating him as a child. Which kid in the village could have deceived him back then?
Although he was so angry that he didn't remember the way, he knew that he was running on the main road. It was impossible for him to run in the alley, and his mother would not be there. If he had suspected that the woman was not a good person before, now Baodan is certain that this woman is definitely a bad person who just wants to trick him into the alley, and he will not be fooled.
"Of course it's true. If I hadn't seen you standing here with a helpless look on your face, I wouldn't have been so kind as to tell you. I'll take you to find your mother." As she spoke, the woman stepped forward with a fake smile on her face.
"Wait a minute," Baodan took a few steps back, "Auntie, you're really weird. I didn't cry or make a fuss. Do I look like a child who can't find his mother?" Baodan then pretended to think, and then pointed at the woman with sudden realization,
"Ah! I see... You weren't trying to trick me into going to the alley!" The voice of these words was deliberately loud, especially the last sentence, which was almost shouted.
As he coaxed these words out, he, who had been observing the escape route, suddenly discovered that a man not far behind was also looking at him with ill intentions, just like he had done before when he wanted to do something bad. It's bad, he met more than one bad guy, and his way forward was blocked.
Baodan rolled his eyes and continued shouting, "I guessed right, you just wanted to trick me into going to the alley. You were trying to trick a child." The previous words had already attracted attention. Many people stopped and looked at them strangely, especially the woman, who looked at them with suspicion. After adding this sentence, the eyes of people passing by were not just suspicious.
The woman was not as calm as the man, and her expression suddenly changed. This was seen by passers-by, and someone couldn't help but say, "You are not really lying to the child!"
"That's right, otherwise why would you stop someone else's child for no reason?"
"This child didn't cry or make a fuss, but he insisted that he was looking for his mother. How weird!"
"I think so."
"…"
Many people nodded. The people on the street looked at the woman with increasingly strange eyes, as if they had already determined that even if she was not a beggar, she was not a good person either.
The man who was blocking Baodan glared at the woman and cursed her inwardly, "She is incapable of accomplishing anything, but always capable of causing trouble." Just pretend to be the child's family and take him away.
Woman: "…"
She did want to, but the child simply wouldn't let her get close to him. The little kid was sharp-tongued and it was obvious that he was a naughty child who needed discipline. The woman was so angry that her teeth itched. With an awkward smile on her face, she shouted at everyone,
"You misunderstood. I am the child's mother. The child was having a conflict, so I was just trying to coax him into playing."
Then she said to Baodan gently: "Look, I have already cooperated with you. Now I have become a bad person in the eyes of others. Please don't be angry with me!"
Although his tone was gentle, there was a threat in her eyes when she looked at Baodan, and Baodan felt it at the first moment. After all, he was just a child, and couldn't help but yelled,
"You're lying, you're not my mother!"
"Yes, yes, if you say no, then it's no. Be obedient and go home with me. I'll make you my favorite braised pork." The woman acted as if she was listening to whatever the child said.
What everyone saw was the mother being tolerant of her child, and for a moment the onlookers were a little confused.
Seeing everyone's expressions changed, Baodan got really anxious and shouted, "You're lying, you're not my mother at all. You're a prostitute and you're so ugly, how could you give birth to someone like me? You're old enough to be my grandmother, and you have a mouth full of buck teeth. Your children should also have a mouth full of buck teeth."
(No offense to anyone, it's just a plot requirement.)
Baodan is indeed a person who knows how to poke people in the lungs. The woman was so angry that her nose almost broke. As the dead child in front of her said, most of her children inherited her teeth. She immediately stopped pretending to be gentle and said,
"Little kid, how can you say that about your mother? A dog will never dislike its mother being ugly. No matter how ugly I am, I am still your mother. Come on, stop making trouble and go back with your mother." As she said that, she was about to grab Baodan.
Baodan retreated in the direction he had chosen earlier, cursing, "You are the dog, more than the whole family of dogs. I am not ugly, and my mother is not ugly either."
Then he shouted to the people around him: "Believe me, she is a bad person."
But at this moment, Baodan's behavior is really like that of a spoiled and willful child, and it is really hard to tell whether it is true or false.
Even in real life, many child abductions occur in places visible to others using the trick of pretending to be the victim's family ಥ_ಥ