Teacher Song stood up, looked me up and down, and said, “Teacher Xiao, I heard you’ve been working here for almost two years and have never taken a child home before. What made you so benevolent today?”

“This is exactly how I’m showing my attitude…” I said with a bitter smile. “I’m going to turn over a new leaf.”

The two idiots ultimately agreed.

After all, they still weren’t as smart as me!

Tonight it would be just me and Shanshan.

When the teachers and children had all left the kindergarten one after another, I found Shanshan.

This little girl whom I had hit dozens of times and pinched countless times.

“Shanshan, I’m taking you home.” I said to her with a smile.

When she saw me, her whole body stiffened, as if she had seen a demon or ghost.

“Teacher… Teacher Xiao…” Shanshan lowered her head deeply. “I want Teacher Song or Teacher Chen to take me home…”

I smiled as I moved close to her and said, “You little bitch, I advise you not to refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit. If you don’t agree, teacher will have no choice but to pinch your thighs.”

Shanshan trembled all over, tears welling up in her eyes, wanting to cry but unable to.

“Good girl, teacher will take you home.” I grabbed her hand.

I practically dragged her along the entire way. This girl wasn’t cooperating at all.

This is why I hated children the most.

After leaving the kindergarten, I turned through several alleys toward the location I’d agreed upon with Brother Qu.

“Teacher… Teacher Xiao, this isn’t the way to my home…” Shanshan said somewhat fearfully.

“Don’t worry, I’m your teacher. I won’t harm you.” I gripped her hand tightly and brought her into the alley.

Brother Qu had a van waiting there. Beside him were several fierce-looking men.

Seeing me approach, they all got out of the vehicle.

“Brother Qu, is this the person you mentioned?” A scarred man asked.

“Yeah.” Brother Qu nodded.

“Damn, it’s a girl.”

Hearing this, Brother Qu’s expression didn’t look too good either.

“Xiao Ran, are you stupid?” Brother Qu said viciously. “What did you bring a girl for?”

“I’m stupid?” I was stunned. “You never told me whether you wanted a boy or a girl. How is this my fault?”

“Alright, stop arguing. A girl can still fetch some money. This is our first job since getting out, so let’s be cautious.” Brother Qu pulled Shanshan into the van, then took out his wallet and counted out three thousand yuan for me.

“Three thousand?” I was stunned. “Brother Qu, what kind of joke is this? Wasn’t it thirty thousand?”

“Thirty thousand is for a boy. A girl is only worth three thousand.”

He was about to get in the car without looking back, but I was furious.

“No!” I grabbed Brother Qu. “You didn’t say that beforehand! You only said thirty thousand! Give me the rest of the money!”

“Let go!” Brother Qu kept swatting at my arm.

“I won’t let go!” I shouted. “If you don’t give it to me, I’ll call for help and let all the neighbors here hear!”

“Fuck you!”

Brother Qu slapped me across the face, knocking me to the ground.

They then drove off in that dilapidated van.

I sat stunned on the ground for a long time, until the nearby neighbors gathered around.

“Girl, what happened to you?” An old lady asked.

“Who was shouting just now? What happened?”

The crowd became noisy with chatter. Suddenly, an idea came to me.

“Call the police! Someone’s kidnapping a child!”

After these words, everyone was shocked.

…

I was brought to the police station. They took my statement.

Chen Ting and Teacher Song, who had originally gone home after work, also came. When they heard Shanshan had been taken, worried expressions appeared on their faces.

Acting. Still acting.

You had no relation to Shanshan—what was there to worry about?

“Xiao Ran, what did you do to Shanshan?!” Chen Ting grabbed my collar as soon as she appeared. “She’s already so pitiful, and you still won’t let her go?”

Several police officers rushed forward to restrain her: “Miss, please calm down.”

“I don’t need to calm down!” Chen Ting pointed at me and said to the several officers present, “Officers, whatever happened to Shanshan, this woman is definitely involved! I swear to heaven!”

“Chen Ting, that’s enough.” I stood up, my expression also angry. “I already said the child was kidnapped. Many neighbors saw it at the time. Not only did they take the child, they also hit me.”

“You’re lying!”

Chen Ting looked quite furious, while Teacher Song was thinking about something on the side.

Before long, Teacher Song turned to ask an officer, “Where was Shanshan taken?”

“At the east end of Old South Street,” an officer said.

“Old South Street?” Teacher Song looked at me with furrowed brows. “Shanshan’s home can be reached by taking Yangjiang Middle Road. Why did you go to Old South Street?”

“Yangjiang Middle Road? This was my first time taking Shanshan home, so I didn’t know the way. I went the wrong way.” I answered.

An officer knocked on the table and said, “Miss Xiao Ran, I hope you’re not hiding anything. Everyone wants to find the child as soon as possible. If you lie, the search and rescue work will be very difficult.”

“I really didn’t lie.” I shook my head. “Those people took the child and hit me. There were so many men, I couldn’t resist at all.”

I secretly felt pleased inside. They couldn’t possibly find any evidence.

I had also deleted the call records with Brother Qu. Now I had no flaws.

Teacher Song turned back to the officers and said, “Officers, don’t you find this suspicious? Xiao Ran got lost and happened to appear there, and there just happened to be human traffickers there.”

“We’ve considered everything you mentioned.” An officer presented a document. “But there are witnesses at the scene who testified that they personally heard Xiao Ran shout something like ‘if you don’t give it to me, I’ll call for help’ to those traffickers, which shows she tried to struggle with them. Additionally, someone personally saw Xiao Ran being hit.”

After hearing this, Teacher Song also fell into thought. After a moment, she said word by word, “Could it be that Xiao Ran was working with those traffickers all along, and what she said was just demanding money?”

I had to admit I had underestimated this woman.

“You might as well arrest her first. I feel you’ll be able to interrogate the child’s whereabouts sooner or later,” Teacher Song said.

After hearing this, the police slowly looked up and said, “We need evidence to handle cases. We also need evidence to arrest people. Based on the current situation, there are no surveillance cameras in the alley. Whether Xiao Ran was an accomplice still needs to be investigated. You can only go back and wait for news first. Our urgent task is to conduct road blockade inspections and find the child as soon as possible.”

They asked some more unimportant questions and finally let me go.

Chen Ting, Teacher Song, and I left together, just in time to see a tottering old lady walking toward the police station.

She had a very unpleasant old person smell about her.

Disgusting.

“Teachers, are you Shanshan’s teachers?” The old lady asked tearfully.

“Ah…” Chen Ting suddenly showed a guilty expression. “Are you Shanshan’s grandmother?”

“I’m sorry…” The old lady held back her sad emotions, grabbed Chen Ting’s hand, and actually bent down to apologize. “My granddaughter has caused trouble for the teachers… I’m truly sorry… My granddaughter…”

“It’s no trouble at all!” Chen Ting hurried to help her up. “Auntie, Shanshan getting lost is our responsibility… We’ll definitely find her.”

“Which one is Teacher Xiao?” The old lady asked again.

Those two women looked at me at the same time.

“Teacher Xiao…” The old lady came forward and grabbed my hand. “I heard from Shanshan that she always makes you angry… Please don’t blame her… Now she’s caused you all such big trouble, I’m truly sorry…”