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“ bàba, Look over there!” yelled Hua Ying as he pulled on Hua Cheng’s Robes. “ A-Ying, calm down well make our way over there.” Hua Cheng replied as he patted Hua Ying’s head while facing the stall Xie Lian was Haggleing from. “ But bàba..” whined Hua Ying as he continued to pull on Hua Cheng’s robes. Hua Cheng turned and knelt to Hua Ying’s height and spoke while gesturing to Xie Lian. “ A-Ying, you’re diēdie is busy buying something. We’ll make our way over there soon.” Hua Cheng then picked up the pouting child and placed him on his hip. Hua Cheng then turned and faced the stall Xie Lian had just finished shopping at. Xie Lian smiled and walked up to Hua Cheng and Hua his child. “ A-Ying. ” Xie Lian called out as he handed Hua Ying a toy drum. Hua Cheng kissed Xie Lian on the cheek as he watched their son fascinate over the toy drum he was gifted.
The trio continued strolling the market until Hua Ying pointed at a restaurant. “ bàba, diēdie... A-Ying’s hungry,” said Hua Ying while Pointing to himself with his other hand. Hua Cheng smiles at Hua Ying and grabs Xie Lian by the waist and guides them towards a nearby restaurant. Xie Lian tried to redirect the three of them while stating they had perfectly good food at Puqi Shrine. Hua Cheng looked at Hua Ying and then at Xie Lian, “Gege, It’ll be my treat. Puqi shrine is quite a journey from here, and A-Ying’s hungry.” Xie Lian sighed and looked at Hua Ying who was giving puppy eyes to both parents. “ Just this time.” Xie Lian said as he grabbed Hua Cheng’s hand and allowed him to lead them to the restaurant.
The trio entered the restaurant and requested a table. The three were led by a Young lady to a 2 Person table, Hua Cheng then thanked the lady.
Xie Lian grabbed Hua Ying out of Hua Cheng’s arm and sat down placing Hua Ying in his lap. A few minutes later Hua Cheng called over a server and ordered some dishes for dinner. The three of them ate as a family enjoying small talk here and there. Once the three had finished eating Xie Lian stood up and placed Hua Ying on the ground. While Hua Cheng tidies up the Dishes on the table. Xie Lian then turned to Hua Ying and started to wipe Hua Ying’s face with The bottom of his sleeve. By the time Xie Lian finished wiping his squirmy child's face, Hua Cheng had left to go pay their tab.
While Hua Cheng is waiting to pay the tab, Xie Lian decides to bring Hua Ying outside while they wait for Hua Cheng to pay. Once outside Xie Lian quickly notices a commotion happening on the opposite side of the street. Xie Lian turns to Hua Ying and says “ Hua Ying, stay here and wait for bàba or diēdie. Understand? ”. Hua Ying Looks up at Xie Lian and nods. Xie Lian squeezed Hua Ying’s hand before heading over to the other side of the street to see what the commotion was about.
Hua Ying stood and waited for either Xie Lian or Hua Cheng to finish what they were doing. After a few minutes Hua Ying ended up getting bored and pulled out his toy drum his diēdie gave him earlier that evening. As Hua Ying was playing with his drum someone suddenly grabbed him from behind and covered his mouth, Hua Ying tried screaming and squirming around but it was no use, Neither of his parents would hear him screaming or see him struggling. The Person then carried a still squirming Hua Ying to an ally nearby. Another person was in the ally waiting for the one who was currently carrying him. The person waiting in the ally was wearing a black cloak, Hua Ying could just barely see the bottom half of the person's face. They had a nasty scar going across their mouth Diagonally and crooked teeth.
The Person in the Cloak spoke with a nervous tone “ Were you spotted? “. The Person still carrying Hua Ying Chuckled and responded, “ No, I wasn’t spotted. Though this rich young master put up quite a little fight.”. Hua Ying watched as the person in the cloak approached them while pulling out a long piece of cloth. Hua Ying’s eyes widened as he tried to struggle out of the person's arms again with more energy this time. “ Stop Squirming kid.” huffed the Person holding him still. The person in the cloak was now in front of Hua Ying with the Long piece of cloth in his outstretched hands, Hua Ying thrashed his head back and forth as the Person in the cloak tried to tie the Long piece of cloth around Hua Ying’s mouth as the person behind him tried to hold Hua Ying’s face still. After a few minutes of struggling they managed to tie the piece of Cloth around Hua Ying's mouth to stop him from screaming. The Person holding him then spoke again, “ Tie up his hands.”.
Hua Ying could feel the Person behind him shuffling around so the Person in the cloak could access his hands. He started crying; he didn’t understand why these people were doing this. The man with the cloak grumbled, “ Stupid brat, crying isn’t going to save you.” Once they finished tying up Hua Ying’s hands in front of him, they sat him on the ground and they started to search his sleeves for anything useful to sell.
Hua Ying watched as both men’s faces darkened as the only thing they found useful in his sleeves was a wooden toy drum that his diēdie had bought him a few hours ago. The man in the cloak looked at the man who had originally grabbed Hua Ying and hissed in anger. “ Did you even check if this kid had anything valuable on him?”, The other man argued back “The kid's guardian was across the street, I didn’t have time to see if he was really rich!”. “SO YOU JUST ASSUMED?!?” screeched the man in the cloak. As the two men continued to argue they didn’t notice the commotion that was unfolding on the main street of parents screaming their child's name in a frantic search for the child.
“A-Ying! Where are you!” Yelled Xie Lian somewhere in the street connecting to the alleyway. Hua Ying wanted to scream and yell to attract his diēdie’s attention. As Xie Lian got closer his voice got louder finally snapping the two kidnappers out of their heated argument. In a panic, the one who grabbed him suddenly hit Hua Ying over the head knocking the poor kid out. The Man in the cloak then grabbed the knocked-out child and threw him into a cart of hay that was parked nearby. Once they were sure the evidence of their crime was hidden they fled leaving the child in the hay cart. Xie Lian ran down the vary ally Hua Ying was unconscious in, screaming his child's name while on the brink of tears, “ A-YING, PLEASE WHERE ARE YOU!”. Once Xie Lian got no answer he continued his frantic search for his child in the alleyway. Once Xie Lian got closer to the Hay cart he found an item on the ground... a wooden drum. Xie Lian picked up the drum and yelled for Hua Cheng. Within a few seconds, a stressed Hua Cheng rushed into the alleyway. " GeGe, did you find him?" Hua Cheng croaked out his voice strained from yelling his son's name. Xie Lian turned to Hua Cheng and put the drum in his hands, " A-Ying's drum... he was here..." Xie Lian murmured before tears started streaming down his face in worry for his son. Hua Cheng started rubbing calming circles into his husband’s back while stating “ If his drum is here he must not be far, we must continue looking… GeGe I promise we’ll find him.”
Xie Lian and Hua Cheng continued their search in the immediate area hoping to find their missing son, little did they know about 2 hours later just before sunset, an old man came leading a donkey into the alleyway. Without looking into the hay cart the old man Hooked up the donkey and took off towards his set destination: Lotus Pier.