Just as she took out her phone to call the police, a woman in her thirties rushed over anxiously. Seeing the crying little girl, she immediately hugged her. "Xiao Wei, why are you here? You scared me to death!"
The little girl didn't push her away or speak, but continued to cry incessantly.
Seeing this, the woman released the girl, stood up, and looked at Liu Yifeng gratefully. "Thank you for watching my daughter. I brought her out to play, and in the blink of an eye, she was gone. Fortunately, she wasn't taken by bad people. Otherwise, how could I live!"
After speaking, she had a runny nose and tears, looking very sad.
Liu Yifeng saw that the crying little girl did not say that this was not her mother, nor did she reject the woman's contact, so he did not doubt her identity. He quickly said, "You need to be more careful next time. It's too dangerous for a child to be alone outside. If she's taken by criminals, it won't be so easy to find her back."
Xia Qianqian also chimed in, "Since you are the child's mother, hurry up and take her home. I can see the child is quite frightened. You must comfort her well when you get home!"
The woman nodded repeatedly. "Okay, okay, thank you!"
After speaking, she looked at the girl tenderly and took her hand. "Xiao Wei, let's go home, Mom!"
However, the little girl struggled free from her hand and continued to cry.
This made Liu Yifeng, who was about to leave, stop in his tracks. Logically, after being separated from her mother, a child should cling to her mother upon seeing her again.
But this child had not called out "Mom" at all, nor had she shown any affection.
The woman's expression became somewhat anxious, but she still tried her best to soothe the little girl's emotions. "Xiao Wei, it's Mom. Are you scared? I'm sorry, it's all my fault for not watching you properly. Shall I take you home now?"
The girl remained unmoved, only crying, her expression a little fearful.
Seeing this, Liu Yifeng had to question the woman's identity and asked seriously, "May I ask, is this really your daughter?"
The woman immediately looked displeased. "What do you mean? If she's not my daughter, then is she yours?"
"If she's your daughter, why isn't she calling you Mom and why doesn't she want to go with you?" Liu Yifeng pressed.
The woman immediately explained, "My daughter has intellectual problems and she's been frightened, that's why she's like this. You two should leave quickly, I need to take my daughter home." With that, she picked up the little girl and prepared to leave.
Liu Yifeng and Xia Qianqian exchanged glances, both feeling that there was something suspicious about the woman's identity.
But they couldn't be a hundred percent sure that the woman wasn't the child's mother, because the little girl hadn't said it wasn't her mother!
Just as they were unsure what to do, Tongtong suddenly said, "She's not this little sister's Mama, she's a human trafficker!"
Upon hearing Tongtong's words, the woman, though unsure how this child recognized her, quickened her pace to avoid being caught. All she needed was to get into the car.
In fact, she had noticed the little girl crying earlier, but fearing that the child's family might be nearby, she had not dared to act and had only observed from a distance.
Only when she saw Liu Yifeng and the others approach and heard them say they were going to call the police did she realize that if she didn't act now, the child would be taken away by the police, and she would lose her chance to abduct the child. That's why she had feigned panic and approached the little girl, intending to take her away by posing as her mother.
But who would have thought that the child would actually say she was a human trafficker? Her heart was filled with terror. If she were caught, she would spend the rest of her life in prison.
After hearing Tongtong's words, Liu Yifeng didn't doubt them at all and immediately chased after the woman.
Seeing the woman's hurried steps and the little girl's increasingly loud cries, Liu Yifeng shouted, "Stop her quickly, she's a human trafficker!"
The people in the plaza were a bit confused, unsure whether it was true or not.
On the road outside the plaza, a van with a fake license plate had already stopped. Seeing the woman running over, it opened its doors early, ready to whisk her away as soon as she got in.
Just as the woman was about to get into the van, Liu Yifeng, at this crucial moment, grabbed the girl's arm, preventing the woman from getting in.
His grip was incredibly strong, like a mountain. No matter how the woman struggled, it was useless. She could only look at Liu Yifeng with feigned anger. "What are you doing? This is my daughter, are you trying to snatch a child on the street?"
Seeing the surrounding crowd, she put on an even bigger act, pretending to be terrified. "Everyone, I don't know this man. He's grabbing my daughter's hand and won't let go. He's trying to snatch her on the street. Is there no justice?"
Whether it was her excellent acting or the lack of intelligence among the onlookers, they all started to accuse Liu Yifeng. "Are you even a man, bullying a defenseless mother and daughter!"
"Let go of the child quickly, or we'll call the police."
"Are human traffickers this brazen nowadays, snatching children on the street? How despicable! Call the police quickly. Let's stop him, don't let him get away."
However, their threat to call the police did not scare Liu Yifeng, but it did startle the woman. She quickly said, "Did you hear that? Let go of my daughter quickly."
"Am I the human trafficker, or are you? If you were the child's mother, why were you running just now?" Liu Yifeng did not let go, but questioned her aggressively.
The woman explained, "That's because you scared me. If I didn't run, would I wait for you to snatch my child? Let go of my daughter quickly, or I will hold you criminally responsible." She tried to scare Liu Yifeng with this.
However, Liu Yifeng had a clear conscience and was already convinced that this woman was the real human trafficker.
So, he turned to the crowd. "Everyone, this woman is the human trafficker. If you don't believe me, look at whether this little girl will call her mother. Haven't you seen that the child has been in a state of fear the whole time? If she were truly her mother, why would she keep crying?"
His words made many people calm down and feel that there was some logic to what he was saying.
At this moment, someone was already calling the police. The woman and the man in the van knew that if they didn't leave now, they wouldn't escape.
So the man got out of the car. He walked up to Liu Yifeng, clenched his fist, and prepared to knock Liu Yifeng down to make his escape.
"You son of a bitch, let go of my wife and child! My daughter speaks late and can't even call me Dad or Mom yet. She's crying because you're grabbing her hand and scaring her," the man said with displeasure. After speaking, he lunged at Liu Yifeng.