Chapter 8: Greed Fills the Heart

  "Brother, this is easy to handle."

  After hearing Hao's words, Liu Zi's face revealed a sinister expression. "At that time, we'll pierce the kid's eardrum and feed him dumb medicine. Once on the car, we'll add some anesthetic, I'm afraid he won't wake up until we reach our destination. What are we afraid of once we're in our territory?"

  Liu Zi is in charge of going to various cities across the country to find those homeless children, and through this method, he has brought back at least twenty or thirty kids, making him quite experienced.

  Seeing Hao Lao Da being somewhat moved, Liu Zi continued: "Big brother, since the Liu family is treating us like this, we don't need to give them any face either. Once we leave, it's as if the heavens are high and the emperor is far away, and in the future, we won't have anything to do with them."

  "That's right, Liu Zi, how is it? Have you set a goal?"

  Hao Lao Da was somewhat moved by Liu Zi's words. Anyway, they were all taking the sleeper train, so even if they brought a few more kids along, no one would suspect anything.

  "Big brother, this matter still needs to find a local snake head."

  Liu Zi drained his cup and stood up, saying: "Big brother, I've invited the two Sun brothers, they should be arriving now, I'll go out to welcome them."

  Less than five minutes after he left, two middle-aged men of medium build and similar appearance followed Sixth Son into the room. As soon as they entered the room and saw the wine on the table, their eyes lit up.

  After letting the two in, Liu Zi gave a wink to Hao Lao Da and said: "Two brothers from the Sun family, this is Old Master Chi from the north. I'm just introducing you, you all have something to discuss."

  Those who roam the rivers and lakes, especially those who are good at deceiving others, basically won't reveal their true intentions to outsiders. Hao Lao Da was clearly from the south, but once he arrived in Liu Zi Kou, he became a boss from the north.

  Moreover, Liu Zi's words and actions also made it clear to Hao Lao Da that their relationship was clean, which would make the Sun brothers less vigilant and not think that they were in cahoots with each other to deceive themselves.

  "It's the two Sun brothers, I've long heard of your great reputation. What's with this boss or not boss stuff? We're all brothers within the four seas, come on, sit down and have a few drinks."

  As soon as the Sun brothers entered the house, Hao Lao Da could see that they were good at this kind of thing. He immediately stood up and opened his mouth to speak in a northeastern dialect, without any hint of a southern accent.

  "How...how can I possibly be so presumptuous?"

  Although they hesitated at first, Sun Lao Da and Sun Lao Er couldn't help but sit down at the table, staring eagerly at the wine and dishes.

  The Sun brothers were originally railway workers, and in this era, they were considered to be holding iron rice bowls. However, the two brothers were lazy and hated hard work. After some people got rich first during the reform and opening-up period, the two brothers began to dream of getting rich.

  In the mid-80s, the two of them started doing business in health care for the elderly, but these two brothers were too short-sighted, only staring at the immediate benefits, and their path became narrower and narrower, eventually losing all their capital.

  Doing business has its natural gains and losses, which is nothing unusual. One can simply go back to work, but these two brothers are quite something, they actually came up with a scam.

  In '86, the two of them swindled 5,000 yuan from an agricultural company in Shicheng, but before they could even spend it all, they were caught and each sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

  And Liu Zi was an inmate friend they met at a labor reform farm.

  After entering the prison, work naturally disappeared. The Sun brothers were also lazy and didn't want to exert themselves to work hard. They spent their days idling around and from then on got addicted to alcohol. If they didn't see wine for a day, their whole body would feel uncomfortable.

  In 1990, Liu Zi found two people in the Beijing-Tianjin area and brought back three children. At that time, he gave his brothers 500 yuan.

  For the two brothers of the Sun family who loved drinking, 500 yuan was not enough to spend, and soon they squandered it all.

  However, in the rough and tumble Cangzhou region, the two of them could only hold their tails between their legs and rely on their old father's meager retirement pension to get by. The past two years have been really tough for them.

  So when Liu Zi said there was another deal, the two of them ran faster than rabbits. In the past few years, they had only followed Liu Zi to cheat a few children and earned 500 yuan. If they couldn't find Liu Zi, they would have gone to him long ago.

  "Come on, two brothers, let's finish this cup of wine first!"

  Hao Lao Da raised the wine glass in his hand to toast the two, and Sun Jia brothers, who had already been stimulated by the strong liquor and were itching all over, hastily gulped down the wine in their cups, wiped their mouths contentedly, and didn't even bother to eat the dishes.

  "Old boss is indeed a straightforward person, let me toast you another glass!"

  Sun Jiaolao didn't seem to mind, filling his own and his brother's cups with wine, then pouring a cup for Hao Lao Da. Before Hao could say anything, he tilted his head back and downed the wine in one gulp.

  "Ah, ah, I'll have another cup too." Sun Lao Er saw his brother drink another cup of wine and also unwilling to fall behind, "gulp" downed a cup as well.

  Hao Lao Da wasn't in a hurry, and after finishing that bottle of Erguotou, he took out another one. When he saw the Sun brothers had drunk enough, he finally spoke up: "Two brothers, to be honest with you, this time I came to Cangzhou was to take two kids back home. There are some families in our area who can't have children, so we want to spend money to buy some. Do you think there are any suitable ones here?"

  Abducting children to beg is more serious than abducting and selling them. Hao Lao Da never wanted to get along with the Sun brothers, whose behavior of being drunk all day made Hao Lao Da look down on them.

  "Boss, how old is your kid? Is it a newborn or?"

  After hearing Hao Lao Da's words, the intoxication in Sun brothers' eyes suddenly cleared up a bit. The two exchanged a glance, and it was exactly this excuse that Liu Zi used to deceive them into kidnapping the child back then, so even Sun Lao Da didn't suspect anything.

  Hao Lao Da thought for a moment, then said: "The family we want this time is relatively poor. I'm afraid they can't afford to raise them from a young age. I think six or seven years old would be just right."

  "Six or seven years old? Kids that age are easy to find, but... they're all sensible now, probably can't be tricked away."

  Sun Lao Da furrowed his brow upon hearing this. In the early 1990s, people were relatively simple and honest, most lived in bungalows, and children ran around everywhere, adults didn't have much of a defensive mindset.

  However, the six or seven year old child has already learned to remember things. If by any chance they weren't deceived and were discovered, those two brothers would have to think about the consequences. The customs of this place are violent, and in a moment of sudden anger, killing two people wouldn't be considered anything out of the ordinary.

  In the past few years, there were two human traffickers who cheated a little kid, but before they left the county, they were caught by villagers at the train station. At that time, dozens of people rushed forward and beat the two human traffickers, a man and a woman, to death on the spot.

  As the saying goes, "the law does not blame the masses", in the end, the Public Security Bureau was unable to do anything to those villagers, and only sentenced the two leaders to two years. After this incident spread, the public security of Cangzhou improved a lot, and thieves were no longer seen.

  So they stole a newborn baby from someone's house, the two Sun brothers actually had the guts to do it, because even if they got caught, the newborn baby couldn't say anything, but if they cheated a six or seven year old, the two of them were indeed somewhat fearful.

  "Hey, I'm telling you two brothers, I know you have a wide range of connections in this area. That's why I introduced Old Master Li to you. If we can't even get this done, don't blame me for not taking care of you if there are any future opportunities to make money."

  When he saw the Sun brothers, he was a bit nervous. Liu Zi quickly started tapping on the edge drum beside him and pulled out a stack of "big knots" from his pocket, patted them in his hand and said: "Old Master Chi is indeed very sincere, this money is all ready!"

  "How much is this...this child?"

  Seeing the stack of money in Liu Zi's hand, Sun Lao Da's eyes widened instantly. He and his brother were so poor that they were afraid to even think about it, but the appearance of this stack of money suddenly made their minds fill with reckless thoughts.

  "A thousand yuan each, how's that? The two brothers, Boss Chi is being very generous, right?"

  At the words of Liu Zi, the two Sun brothers simultaneously swallowed a mouthful of saliva. A formal worker on the railway earns just over 100 yuan per month, and 1,000 yuan is almost enough to cover a year's salary. Moreover, it would take a year of not eating or drinking to save that much.

  "It's done!"

  Sun Lao Da looked greedily at the stack of money and said, "Since Old Master Chi thinks highly of us brothers, we won't let Old Master Chi down either. Just leave this matter to us."

  Sun Lao Er still had a few points of rationality and wasn't completely blinded by money, seeing his big brother hastily taking on the task, he immediately pulled Sun Lao Da back and said in a low voice: "Big brother, don't rush to agree just yet, this matter... isn't easy to handle."

  After hearing his brother's words, Sun Lao Da smiled complacently and lowered his voice, saying: "Old Two, what are you afraid of? Have you forgotten those two kids living by the railway? The younger one, isn't he just six or seven years old?"

  "Huh? How did I forget about this? Taking that little girl away, is nobody in charge?"

  Sun Lao Er's eyes lit up, the two of them spent the whole day idling around on the streets, and they did run into Qin Feng and his sister from time to time. However, at that time, those two kids weren't worth their attention, but now it seems they were the best candidates after all.

  The Sun brothers whispered to each other for a while, and then the eldest Sun looked at Hao Lao Da and said: "Old Master Chi, don't be fooled, there are indeed two people. The smaller one is a girl, about six or seven years old, but the bigger one is a bit troublesome, already eleven or twelve years old, afraid it's hard to raise her outside."

  These children who were kidnapped and sold, most of them were sold to some poor mountainous areas where there are no children in the family, but those families want to have descendants, girls are far less favored than boys, Sun Lao Da is afraid that "Chi Laoban" will not want.

  "Is it a girl?" Haolao chuckled and said, "A girl is good, that family wants a girl, an older one is also fine, I'll take her too!"

  This deaf and dumb girl can easily win sympathy, much more than a boy, but the Sun brothers don't know that Old Hao is eager to take a girl back.

  As for that eleven or twelve year old boy, Old Hao also has a way to deal with him. At the time, he can pierce his eardrum and cut out his tongue, then break one of his legs, and he will become a tool for attracting wealth.