Zhou Anran and her children had boarded an ox cart yesterday and headed to the town, immediately reporting the matter to the yamen.

Although the huge distance between each house in the village was convenient, there were also some disadvantages. No one had seen who had stolen Xiao Qingya because their house was quite a distance away from the closest house.

The kidnappers also had taken the time to sneak in during the time most people had gone working at the fields.

They had asked everyone they could, and the village chief also gathered everyone to help them search. Unfortunately, even until the sun nearly set, she was still not found.

A few kind neighbors offered Zhou Anran and her family to use their ox cart to the yamen and make a report.

The grandfather, Zhou Wenzhi, was also quick to react. He immediately went to other villages to find clues. They needed to figure out whether it was specifically targeted at Xiao Qingya alone or whether there were other cases.

The result made them even more convinced Xiao Qingya had been kidnapped!

They didn’t believe she had run off on her own.

Xiao Yuyan had been blaming herself. At the inn, she had been unable to sleep all night, crying silently. Her eyes had become red and puffy, and there were a pair of dark circles around them.

"Little Ya, I am sorry..." she let out choked out sobs as she hugged the little sister they almost never saw again.

Xiao Qingya patted her sister’s shoulder with her little hand. "Second Sister..."

Zhou Anran and her two siblings also crowded around with worried looks on their faces, but there was also a hint of relief. Still, they scanned Xiao Qingya from head to toe, making sure she was fine.

"It’s fine, it’s fine," Xiao Qingya said childishly as she tried to console Xiao Yuyan, hugging her back.

Zhou Anran also crouched down, stroking her youngest daughter’s hair tremblingly. She noticed the few small branches and leaves tucked in them. She picked them out patiently.

Zhou Shuran stood at the side, watching the scene with a daze. Beside her, Zhou Wenzhi was talking to the yamen clerk, who had been feeling a little infected by the emotional atmosphere.

"They found the kids at a grain barn? It’s good they have been found," Zhou Wenzhi sighed, his mind a little fatigued. "Thank you for all of your hard work, Officer."

The young yamen clerk was a little flattered. He motioned to Guo Tiansheng and told Zhou Wenzhi, "It’s all thanks to this gentleman. He noticed something wrong about the grain barn and reported it to us."

Guo Tiansheng scratched the back of his head, embarrassed, especially when he remembered he had thought about pretending he didn’t know about the whole kidnapping thing.

When Zhou Wenzhi thanked him, he just shook his head. "No problem at all, I also have kids, so I am afraid they might target other kids next."

Soon, they were attracted by the commotion at the entrance. A few yamen runners were dragging a person inside.

Xiao Qingya’s eyes twitched. It was only one person, He Lang...

She couldn’t help but leaned forward a little as Zhou Anran carried her in her embrace, trying to find any sign of Liu Hei. Unfortunately, she was bound to be disappointed.

All the yamen runners who had participated in the child traffickers’ arrest were already present.

A tired sigh escaped from her lips.

[System, that bad Liu Hei managed to escape.] She complained in her childish voice, her little face red with indignation.

Zhou Anran stiffened a bit, and she braced herself to take in everyone’s expression to see whether they noticed anything. She almost forgot that her baby daughter had leaky inner thoughts.

Although they had made sure that Zhou Shuran couldn’t hear it, they still weren’t sure others wouldn’t be able to hear it as well.

It wasn’t just Zhou Anran who did it. Almost instinctively, Xiao Qingya’s older siblings also looked around.

Fortunately, there was the commotion caused by He Lang screaming and cursing, so others didn’t find it weird that they suddenly looked over his way.

"You bastards, let go of me! Do you know who I am?!" He Lang grunted, and he squirmed uncomfortably at the tight ropes binding his hands and feet.

"And Liu Hei, that bastard. Why did he leave me alone?!" He glared fiercely at everyone who met his eyes. "Why didn’t you all catch him? So incompetent!"

The yamen runners twitched their lips. Even with their incompetence, they still caught you!

They soon grew tired of He Lang’s barrage of insults and stuffed his mouth with a cloth. His voice became muffled and he could only show a ferocious expression to let them know what he was thinking.

Although He Lang was much more robust and had better stamina, the yamen runners found it harder to catch Liu Hei. That person was incredibly cunning. He was fast, and definitely knew how to make use of the terrain to slow down his chasers.

And thus, the yamen runners gradually lost track of him.

Zhou Anran squinted her eyes, wishing she could tear He Lang to pieces. He was the person who had kidnapped her baby daughter!

There was also another one who was still on the run, making her heart, which had been relieved when she found out others couldn’t hear Xiao Qingya’s thoughts, became worried again.

She wasn’t sure the child traffickers would come to kidnap her baby daughter again. Just the thought of this already made her breathless with anxiety.

Besides the Zhou family, Guo Tiansheng also stiffened when he heard they didn’t manage to catch the other child traffickers.

"He is still missing, Officer?" He asked a little tremblingly, his composure gone.

"We didn’t succeed in arresting him this time, but we will try our best to find him. Our magistrate has emphasized this is currently one of our top priorities," the yamen clerk explained.

His words did help to lessen the anxiety of the people present.

They recalled the magistrate who had just recently taken over their county.

[System, is this magistrate an important character?]