Chapter 452 Being Treated as a Bad Guy
Qi Tongwei sighed and stood up: "Okay, let's keep looking." They walked along the lake, asking everyone they passed by. Suddenly, Qi Tongwei saw a girl whose back looked like Cuicui. He excitedly pulled Zhang Long and said, "Look, is that Cuicui?" Zhang Long looked in the direction he pointed, his eyes lit up, and he walked over quickly.
But just as they walked towards the girl, the girl's parents saw them and started shouting and beating the bad guys, so the group started fighting them.
Zhang Long and Qi Tongwei were surrounded by the crowd and beaten and kicked. The scene was chaotic for a while. Qi Tongwei used his arms to block the attack and shouted loudly: "Misunderstood, we are not bad people!" Zhang Long also hurriedly explained: "We are looking for people, not human traffickers!" However, the angry people did not listen to their explanation at all, and the fists continued to rain down like raindrops.
Qi Tongwei was hit hard on the cheek, and felt a sharp pain, but he didn't care about that. He stared at the girl, hoping to prove as soon as possible that this was a misunderstanding. Zhang Long tried hard to take out the wrinkled missing person notice from his pocket and showed it to the people around him in a panic: "This is the person we are looking for. We are really not bad people!"
The girl's parents heard their shouts, paused their attack, and looked at the missing person notice. Zhang Long quickly pointed at Cuicui's photo and said, "We are looking for this girl. We saw your daughter's back and thought it was her, so we ran over here in a hurry. We really didn't mean to hurt her." The girl's father frowned, took the missing person notice and examined it carefully, while her mother pulled the girl behind her and looked at Zhang Long and Qi Tongwei warily.
After a while, the girl's father's expression eased a little, and he said to the people around him: "Everyone stop fighting, it might really be a misunderstanding." Everyone listened to him and slowly stopped fighting, but they still surrounded them and did not disperse. The girl's mother looked at the bruises and embarrassment on Zhang Long and Qi Tongwei's faces, and said with some guilt: "I'm sorry, we are also worried about the child. The world is not peaceful, and when we saw you suddenly rushing over, we thought..."
Qi Tongwei rubbed his shoulder and said with a wry smile: "It's okay, we were too reckless and caused misunderstanding." Zhang Long also agreed: "We have been looking for this girl for a long time. We were a little anxious, so we didn't think much about it when we saw someone who looked like her." The girl's father returned the missing person notice to Zhang Long and asked: "Who is this girl to you? Why are you looking for her?" Zhang Long sighed and said: "She is the girl I like. She suddenly disappeared. I was very worried about her, so I kept looking for her."
The girl's parents looked at each other with understanding. The father said, "So that's how it is. It's not easy for you. But don't be so impulsive next time. It's too dangerous." Qi Tongwei nodded, "We understand. I'm really sorry for this time."
After saying goodbye to the girl's family, Qi Tongwei and Zhang Long continued to look for clues in the park. Qi Tongwei looked at Zhang Long and said, "It's really unlucky today, but it's also our fault for being too reckless." Zhang Long smiled helplessly and said, "As long as we can find Cuicui, it doesn't matter if we suffer a little."
They continued walking along the path in the park, not missing any chance to find clues. At this time, Qi Tongwei saw a folder on a bench, and the pattern on the folder looked familiar. He walked over quickly and picked up the folder. He opened it and saw several paintings in it. The style of the paintings was very similar to the one they had picked up in the woods before. Zhang Long also came over and said in surprise: "Could this be related to Cuicui?"
They looked around to see if anyone was nearby. Not far away, a young man was walking towards them. Qi Tongwei held up the painting folder and asked the young man, "Is this yours?" The young man shook his head and said, "It's not mine. I just saw a girl put it there. She seemed to go over there." Then he pointed in a direction.
Zhang Long and Qi Tongwei immediately chased in the direction the young man pointed. They passed through a bush and came to a small pavilion. In the pavilion, a girl was sitting with her back to them. Zhang Long's heartbeat suddenly quickened, and he whispered to Qi Tongwei, "Do you think that is Cuicui?" Qi Tongwei took a closer look and said uncertainly, "She looks a bit like Cuicui, but I'm not sure."
Zhang Long and Qi Tongwei stood not far away, staring at the girl in the pavilion, but not daring to approach easily. Zhang Long's hands clenched unconsciously, with both expectation and fear of being disappointed again. Qi Tongwei frowned slightly, carefully observing the girl's every move, trying to find some familiar signs.
Time passed by, the breeze blew gently, bringing bursts of flower fragrance, but it could not relieve their nervousness. Zhang Long felt his heart was about to rise to his throat, he whispered to Qi Tongwei: "I don't think it's the same, the back seems a little different." Qi Tongwei did not respond, still watching intently.
After a long while, the girl seemed to be ready to get up and leave. The moment she turned around, Zhang Long and Qi Tongwei saw her face clearly. It was not Cuicui. Zhang Long seemed to have lost all his strength. He leaned against the tree next to him and sighed. Qi Tongwei's eyes were also full of loss.
Zhang Long suddenly became angry and yelled at Qi Tongwei: "Are you done yet? Are you crazy? Looking for Cuicui? Looking for Cuicui, what's in your head? Bullshit! How could Cuicui be here? Maybe we are looking in the wrong direction." Qi Tongwei also got angry when he heard it: "How do I know it's not? I also want to find her quickly. Don't I actively pursue every clue? I have paid as much as you along the way."
Zhang Long sneered, "Pay? That's called looking blindly. Every time you make these mistakes, you are either misunderstood as a human trafficker and beaten, or your expectations are dashed. If you keep going like this, when will it end?" Qi Tongwei was not to be outdone, "Then what do you say we should do? Stop looking? Just give up? I don't want to give up halfway."
The two of them were arguing back and forth, neither of them giving in. The air around them seemed to freeze, and the tense atmosphere was about to explode. Zhang Long's face was flushed, and veins popped out on his forehead: "Keep looking? Keep running around like a headless fly? This series is all lies, all tragedy. We have no direction at all, and it's just a waste of time to continue like this."
Qi Tongwei took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down: "We can't just give up like this. We have overcome so many difficulties before, maybe we can find it next time. We already have some clues, if we persist, we may succeed." Zhang Long held his head with both hands and squatted down: "Clues? Which of those so-called clues are useful? We haven't found anything yet."