Nie Chongyang, faced with such a situation, was naturally very attentive, but he couldn't help but tease a bit.
"We haven't finished dealing with the previous matters, and now there are new ones. It seems your side is just as busy as ours."
The little fox said helplessly, "Since we've encountered this, can we just ignore it? If the matter is true, how can we live with ourselves if we just stand by and do nothing?"
"And even if they are this child's biological parents, beating a child like this, I think there's a big problem. We can't just ignore it."
Nie Chongyang knew it was the same principle. He took note of the matter and said he would help the little fox investigate and verify.
After the little fox thanked Nie Chongyang and hung up, he told Xiao Miaomiao. Because it was too complicated, the child couldn't understand, so he used the simplest and most reassuring explanation for the child.
"Brother has called the police for you and told the police uncles everything."
"The police uncles will definitely investigate impartially. If the situation is confirmed to be true, they will definitely not ignore you and will not let you return to the bad guys."
Xiao Miaomiao felt relieved and relaxed a lot after hearing the little fox say this.
She didn't know anything else, but in the hearts of children, police uncles were the most reliable existence. They represented justice and would definitely help protect her.
And since the little fox was willing to help her call the police, he probably wasn't a bad person.
She thought to herself.
Ye Tiancheng returned quite late. On one hand, he was waiting for the sugar figures to be made, and on the other hand, he was observing the situation and paying attention to the couple who brought Miaomiao here.
That couple was really not very attentive to the child. It took a long time for them to realize the child was lost. They did look for the child, but Ye Tiancheng saw that they didn't look like anxious or panicked parents who had lost their child. Instead, they looked a bit exasperated.
Ye Tiancheng felt that their demeanor was unusual, so he secretly followed them for a while.
To avoid being discovered and to not attract the attention of others, Ye Tiancheng couldn't follow too closely and couldn't hear the couple's conversation clearly. He could only catch snippets of their words by following closely.
Ye Tiancheng learned from them that the two of them were not bringing the child out to play out of kindness, and they were not the child's biological parents.
He overheard some words, such as "the substitute is lost, find it back, hurry up, don't miss it," and combined with some other information, he roughly understood the meaning of these fragmented words.
The couple brought Miaomiao to this place with ill intentions. For them, Miaomiao seemed to be a substitute. They brought Miaomiao here for an upcoming evening event, and it seemed to be very important, something they couldn't miss.
Ye Tiancheng narrowed his eyes, feeling that the situation was increasingly serious.
Later, because it was inconvenient, the couple returned to the hotel after being unable to find the child. Ye Tiancheng, unable to sneak into the hotel, finally left.
At least he knew where the couple was staying, which would give him a direction for future investigations.
He returned to the guesthouse and learned that the little fox had already contacted Nie Chongyang to investigate Xiao Miaomiao's matter, which saved him some effort. He then exchanged information with the little fox, roughly telling him what he had heard and deduced. The little fox's expression became serious after listening.
Ye Tiancheng had also notified Fatty.
However, Ye Tiancheng and the little fox couldn't continue their investigation at the moment, as they both had other things to do. Fatty couldn't come back with them immediately. Thinking that he might still find some other clues outside, he didn't rush back.
Around seven or eight in the evening, Fatty returned and brought back some food, mainly for Xiao Miaomiao.
Because Xiao Miaomiao's whereabouts were not to be exposed, and it was not very safe to wander around with Xiao Miaomiao all the time, even with talismans, it was easy to attract attention if a child suddenly appeared among the three brothers. Therefore, Ye Tiancheng did not plan to take Xiao Miaomiao out frequently.
It would be best to hide Xiao Miaomiao in the room.
Fortunately, the child was not very old, so hiding her in their room was not too awkward, but it was inconvenient for her to go down to eat.
When Fatty handed Xiao Miaomiao a bento box, he said to her, "I don't know what you like, so I just got some randomly. If there's anything you don't like or particularly like, just say so, and I'll get you more of what you like tomorrow."
But Xiao Miaomiao didn't mind at all. Perhaps she had had a really bad time before, as she ate ravenously and with great urgency.
The three big men surrounded a little girl, watching her eat. Seeing her like this, they were afraid she would choke, so they held water and waited beside her, "Eat slowly, don't rush, there's plenty of food, be careful not to choke."
They felt quite sad. Such a young child had gone through such experiences. Seeing her like this, they wondered how much hardship she had endured.
Xiao Miaomiao listened and slowed down her movements a bit, but it didn't make much difference.
Ye Tiancheng and the others were very understanding and accompanied the little girl as she ate.
In just a short while, Hou Mingzhu and Ye Qingcheng called Ye Tiancheng as usual, a video call, to report their safety and to chat.
Ye Tiancheng did not mention that he had picked up a child for the time being, because the matter was not yet settled, and the guesthouse room was too small to avoid people. It was not convenient to say some things in front of the child.
After Ye Tiancheng finished the video call as usual, he noticed Xiao Miaomiao looking at him with envy.
Ye Tiancheng was touched, knowing that the child was probably feeling homesick.
He heard Xiao Miaomiao say, "Big brother, were the sugar figures and sugar paintings you bought earlier for that big sister and young lady just now?"
Ye Tiancheng was confused for a moment, then remembered the excuse he used when buying the sugar figures and sugar paintings, and couldn't help but smile. He said, "I have other things to do here, and it's not convenient to see them for now, so that was just an excuse at the time. The sugar figures and sugar paintings were bought for these two big brothers."
The little fox asked confusedly, "What sugar figures and sugar paintings?"
Fatty understood. Although the little fox didn't understand, Fatty's reaction was obviously greater.
He exclaimed, "What the heck? Why did you buy us candy?"
Ye Tiancheng did not intend to explain. If he really explained this matter, it would indeed make him seem like a bad person in front of Xiao Miaomiao.
Therefore, Ye Tiancheng only said, "I had nothing to do, so I bought them for you. For Mingzhu and Qingcheng's share, I will definitely buy new ones and bring them when I can see them."
When Ye Tiancheng took out the sugar figures and sugar paintings he had ordered, Fatty's expression became even more distorted. The little fox was somewhat speechless. They even saw Hello Kitty and Miffy Rabbit among them, which was ridiculous.
Let alone them being adult men, even when they were minors, they wouldn't have liked this kind of thing.
Ye Tiancheng smiled and said to them, "Don't be polite with your big brother, take them and share them."
Fatty took two steps back in resistance. The little fox happened to catch sight of Xiao Miaomiao looking at them with longing. He casually picked up a sugar figure and twirled it with the bamboo skewer.
He said to Ye Tiancheng, "Give it to Miaomiao."
Miaomiao's ears perked up. Fatty also quickly expressed that he would give his share to Miaomiao.
Ye Tiancheng did not agree.
"I have no objection to giving the child some, but she can't have it all. If children eat too much sugar, their teeth will decay."
The final result was that Xiao Miaomiao got half of these sugar figures and sugar paintings, and the rest were shared by Ye Tiancheng, the little fox, and Fatty.
The three big men sat together, eating sugar with the little girl.
Fatty looked pained, "So why did you buy so much?"
They each had two, one in each hand, and were cloyingly sweet.
Ye Tiancheng said matter-of-factly, "To stall for time."
However, the little fox and Fatty both knew that Ye Tiancheng wouldn't be slacking off at that time, and he probably had another purpose, so he was stalling for time.
As a result, not only did he buy a pile of sugar figures and sugar paintings, but he also brought back a child.
Since sugar paintings were even harder to preserve, Ye Tiancheng did not allow the child to eat too much sugar at once, so he let Xiao Miaomiao eat the sugar paintings first and temporarily put away the other sugar figures for her.
This was to prevent Xiao Miaomiao from losing all her teeth within a few days of them taking care of her.
After a day like this, Ye Tiancheng's main gain was still in Xiao Miaomiao. The little fox, having been called back by Ye Tiancheng midway, did not gain much, but he was not entirely uninformed.
The little fox had some understanding that the upcoming evening event was probably related to the worship of some deity, a lesser-known deity, probably the local people's faith. In short, it was said to be a mountain god, very efficacious.
Ye Tiancheng felt that this was truly excellent.
During their previous investigations, they had not received any wind of this at all. If they had received even a little bit of information in advance, it would have been difficult for them to be so disheveled now.
And they wouldn't be completely in the dark.
Fatty also understood roughly the same information, but he knew a little more.
Fatty learned from some people that the local people's requests to the mountain god were quite utilitarian. The mountain god was very efficacious, and tourists from outside naturally came for this supposedly very efficacious mountain god.
Ye Tiancheng and the others thought that regardless of whether this so-called mountain god was efficacious or not, they felt that the possibility of it being a divine being was not high, and it was likely something that involved trickery.
Especially when combined with some other clues, which came from an unexpected source, obtained through Xiao Miaomiao.
Those who engaged in trickery, impersonating mountain gods and responding to people's requests, would not be without their own desires.
Ye Tiancheng suspected that Xiao Miaomiao was also one of the "desires" of that trickery.
The little fox and Fatty naturally felt sympathetic towards Xiao Miaomiao, while Xie Tiancheng thought more about it.
Ye Tiancheng tried to ask Xiao Miaomiao some questions and found that she knew nothing about this aspect, so he didn't ask further. After all, the truth of such matters was too cruel for a child like Xiao Miaomiao, and Ye Tiancheng did not want Xiao Miaomiao to know.
Xiao Miaomiao only needed to know that from now on, she would have a very bright future, and that would be enough.
As for those more cruel realities, they should be left for complex adults like them to study.
Ye Tiancheng made full use of the assistance from Nie Chongyang, quickly sharing the information and asking Nie Chongyang to investigate with the new clues.
As for Ye Tiancheng himself, he also had some other ideas.
He still remembered some of the words he heard from the couple, they said Xiao Miaomiao was a substitute.
Generally speaking, those who were taken to see such fake mountain gods who engaged in trickery were basically sacrifices. Ordinary people should also call them "offerings" or "sacrifices," which were used for offerings.
So what did "substitute" mean in their mouths?