Chapter 174

"Of course not. Sister Liu Ting is very smart. She is the smartest child in our village, no, in the whole county. Before her brain was damaged, she ranked first in her grade every year. And the girl is so beautiful. If she had really been able to read it, she would have been so successful in the future! What a pity, alas!"

"You said she had an accident and broke her head. What happened?"

The village party secretary took out a cigarette, and Xia Yongze quickly took out a pack of good cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket and said, "Take mine."

Li Qingyao thought: Isn't this quite clever? Rumor has it that he doesn't understand how good my partner is. He is just a little bit naive, but he is a very thoughtful person. Chen Pu usually doesn't bother to bring cigarettes.

The village party secretary smiled and said, "Thank you! I'll take it. This is the cigarette given to me by the police from the city. Young man, you can smoke one too!"

Xia Yongze subconsciously glanced at Li Qingyao, who smiled and said, "You smoke with the secretary."

Men smoke together, and their relationship becomes closer. The village party secretary opened his mouth even more: "Liu Qiangshun and Ma Yilan, the couple, are Tingmei's parents. They have favored their son more since she was a child. This is also a common thing in our rural areas. But the couple went too far. What era is it now? Even if a family favors boys over girls, they will not do it so obviously on the surface. But they are not only lazy and gluttonous, but their family conditions have always been the worst in the village. They are also particularly partial to their son. All the dirty and tiring work is done by Tingmei, and they only treat their son as a treasure. Tingmei started cooking and doing housework when she was six or seven years old. She is very diligent and sensible. Her younger brother Liu Yukun is much more naughty. He couldn't read since he was a child and fooled around everywhere. But he is good at coaxing, so the couple still likes him the most.

When Tingmei graduated from junior high school, the couple wanted her to stay at home and not study anymore, and get married in a few years, and they asked for a very high dowry. Don't you think it was stupid? They thought it was 20 years ago? At that time, the principal of the county middle school invited the leaders of the Education Bureau, and I went with them. The leaders got angry, and the couple didn't dare to do it. Later, the county waived Tingmei's tuition for three years. I also persuaded them that it would be a blessing for their parents if their children graduated, so they sent their children to continue to study in high school.

It snowed heavily in the winter when Tingmei was in her third year of high school, so she went home for the winter break. I heard that the couple asked her to go up on the roof to sweep the snow, and she accidentally fell down. When the rest of us arrived, Tingmei had fainted and was bleeding a lot. I quickly asked someone to drive her to the county hospital. Don’t you think that couple is sinning! There are three people in the family who don’t work or study, and the younger brother is still a grown man, but they insisted on asking their daughter to go up on the roof to sweep the snow in the cold weather! Although it was an accident, it is also heartbreaking!
The county hospital took a look and said that they couldn't treat him and wanted to transfer him to the city. After a few days, he was finally saved and woke up, but he was also stupid. The doctor said that his IQ was about the same as that of a five or six-year-old child. The city couldn't treat him, so they said that they might have a chance to send him to Beijing Union Hospital. But the hope was not great. There was some blood congestion in his brain. If the craniotomy was not done well, the brain might not be cured, and he might even die. There was no choice but to take him back to the county hospital and stay for half a month, and then he went home.

Since then, the golden phoenix of our Mawei Village has disappeared. Who wouldn't feel upset when talking about this? Some people blamed the couple for their misfortune. But they were Tingmei's parents after all, and they didn't do it on purpose. It's just that everyone is worried about how Tingmei will make a living in the hands of her parents and brother.

Later, Tingmei stayed at home for more than a year, she was locked up all the time and rarely went out. I visited her a few times, she was much thinner, dull, and didn't talk much, but she looked fine otherwise. I also heard from others that her family sometimes beat her. I could only warn her parents a few times, what else could I do?

Who knew that in the summer of 2016, the couple came to me in a hurry, saying that Tingmei was missing and ran away from home in the middle of the night. I organized everyone in the village to search nearby for four or five days, but couldn't find her. I also asked them to go to the police station to report the incident. But the police from the police station came and didn't find her either.

Some people said that she must have walked out by herself and fell into the pond and drowned; others said that she was beautiful but stupid, and was actually sold by her parents; there were all kinds of rumors. But since then, no one in our village has seen Liu Tingmei again.

After listening to Liu Tingmei's story, Xia Yongze was depressed for a long time and didn't talk much. So Li Qingyao knew that under this partner's tough appearance, there was a gentle heart.

Li Qingyao patted his shoulder and said, "So we have to find out her whereabouts, whether she is dead or alive, and give her an explanation." Perhaps it was because he had followed Chen Pu for the past six months and had seen too much darkness, Li Qingyao's heart was still soft, but he could also be tough.

Xia Yongze nodded vigorously.

Next, they went to the county’s No. 1 Middle School and found Liu Tingmei’s former homeroom teacher.

The head teacher's statement was basically the same as the village party secretary's, but when he mentioned the incident, he got angry and cursed: "A good child, but she broke her head when she went home! It's not just her head that was broken, it's her whole life! When she was in school, our teachers of various subjects treated Liu Tingmei like a treasure, fearing that something would take up a little of her energy and affect her studies. She was a college entrance examination candidate! Which college entrance examination candidate would not be well fed and served when she went home, and her grades were so outstanding! But her parents were stupid and bad. I still get angry when I talk about it now! Alas! If nothing had happened back then, Liu Tingmei would have graduated from Peking University now!"

The class teacher's eyes were red as he spoke: "Police comrade, since you are looking for missing persons, please do everything you can to find Liu Tingmei. She is so miserable and pitiful! If she can be found, her parents won't take care of her, so an old man like me will! Anyway, I will retire this year and have a pension. When I am too old to walk, she can live with me in the nursing home, and I won't let her be lonely!"

Li Qingyao's eyes were moistened by these heartfelt words. She silently repeated the name in her heart: Sister Liu Ting, you used to be such a dazzling girl, how could you fall into the hands of those scumbags? They were not even worthy of touching a corner of your clothes.

Li Qingyao took out a photo of Liu Huaixin and asked, "This man named Liu Huaixin also graduated from your middle school. Do you have any impression of him?"

The head teacher took it, looked at it, and nodded: "Liu Huaixin, I know him, but I have never taught him directly. He is two years older than Tingmei, and his grades are also very good. He was admitted to a 211 university in Xiangcheng and was on the school's honor roll. A few months ago, I heard that he committed suicide. Is he really dead?"

Li Qingyao nodded: "Yes, he is dead. Did he know Liu Tingmei?"

"I know her. I think we are quite familiar with each other. I remember a few times, he brought quilts and clothes from home for Tingmei, saying that she was a neighbor. At that time, Tingmei hardly went home except for the winter and summer vacations. By the way, if you want to know more about Tingmei, she had a good friend who is now a teacher in our middle school. Her name is Shu Lili."

"Great, we want to talk to Shu Lili."

"She went to the region to attend an open class today. I'll call her right away and ask her to contact you when she comes back."

(End of this chapter)