NOVPUB
Chapter 358: Chapter 358: Is this your new marketing strategy?
Gu Hongwei frowned and walked over to the counter to dial the emergency number.
She never thought he’d actually call the cops. The arrogant look on the woman’s face faltered. She tried to pull the child away through the crowd, but found Tong Yao squeezed up to the kid’s face again, inquiring about their relationship.
The audience’s attention was also on the little boy, worrying if the woman was indeed his mother.
"Child, don’t be scared, tell the uncles and aunts, is that woman your mother?"
Despite everyone’s questions, the little boy remained silent. A man with vast experience guessed,
"Could this child have been drugged? I’ve heard about kidnappers medicating children to mute them. Some even intentionally cripple the kids and then send them to public places to beg for money."
Kidnapped children sold to others to be raised as their own are considered lucky. The unlucky ones would be drugged to become mute or even crazy. With no reaction from the boy despite our repeated inquiries, he may indeed have been muted by drugs.
After hearing this, Tong Yao felt her heart sink. She pried open the boy’s mouth and saw something that sent shivers down her spine. The boy’s tongue was cut in half and the wound hadn’t fully healed. It wasn’t a congenital deformity.
The moment the boy’s mouth was forced open, fear sparked in his previously lifeless eyes, and he started trembling. Tong Yao quickly let go and softly comforted him. 𝚗o𝚟pub.𝚌𝚘𝚖
Whoever could cruelly hurt a young boy like this was beyond imagination. She had only ever seen similar cases on the internet before and always felt distant from such events. Never did she think she herself would encounter such a situation.
The man behind her also saw this, and immediately shouted, "This kid has been kidnapped! Quick, catch that woman, don’t let her escape, she’s a human trafficker!"
People these days despise nothing more than human traffickers and cattle thieves. Once caught, they would be beaten half to death. Some even stripped child thieves naked and tied them to a tree to vent their anger.
"Hey, where’s that woman?"
It was at this moment that everyone realized, while their attention was on the boy, the woman had slipped away. Some of them went out to search, but couldn’t find any trace of her.
"This poor kid, how much pain must he have suffered when his tongue was cut off?"
"Those damned kidnappers, they’re not human! They even target young children, aren’t they afraid of divine retribution?"
"My sister was kidnapped when she was about seven or eight years old. We haven’t found her yet. I don’t even know if she’s still alive." A twenty-year-old man teared up as he looked at the boy, reminded of his own sister.
"Not to upset you, but in this day and age, there’s less demand for female children. Your sister is likely no longer in this world." In those times, people preferred boys over girls. If it were an adult woman, families might buy her for marriage, or sell her into unethical professions.
A little girl would likely be tortured until she was deformed, like this boy.
"Thank goodness, the boss Tong was quick to realize something was wrong. Or who knows what other miseries this kid would’ve suffered."
Everyone circled around the boy, expressing their sympathy. They cussed the kidnapper, while praising Tong Yao for her wit. If the trafficker had continued torturing the boy, it would have been fatal.
Poor child, at such a young age his tongue had been cut off, how would he live in the future?
From now on, everyone would need to keep a close eye on their children. There were plenty of human traffickers these days, and if one was not careful and lost their child, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack to get them back. Nobody they knew had ever found their missing child.
It wasn’t until the police arrived that people stepped back. A police officer came over to inquire about the situation and asked for a person from the shop to go to the police station to give a statement and provide a description of the suspected trafficker. Gu Hongwei volunteered to go, leaving Tong Yao in the shop.
As she saw the police officer out, Tong Yao spoke to one of them, "Officer, I suspect that the trafficker brought the child to the shop to cause trouble on someone’s instigation. Could you also look into this? I’ve opened three milk tea shops. Now, each of these shops has a Coco Milk Tea Shop opening next to it. I don’t think this is a coincidence, but rather, someone is targeting me."
The officer glanced at the milk tea shop being renovated across the street, "Do you have any evidence to support this?" They needed evidence to take action and they couldn’t base it on her suspicion alone.
Tong Yao replied slowly, "She came here to cause trouble, but she didn’t ask for compensation. She only wanted to smear the shop’s reputation so it would have to close. This is simply not normal."
The officer analyzed her explanation with a serious face. Noticing the anomaly, he assured her, "Don’t worry, we will investigate thoroughly."
After saying this, they took the boy and Gu Hongwei back to the police station.
Tong Yao addressed the onlookers who were about to leave.
"Thank you all for your help and trust. I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time. It’s pretty cold today and I’d like to offer everyone a cup of hot milk tea. Just line up if you would like one."
She turned back and went behind the counter to start making the milk tea. Everyone was standing in the cold for almost an hour and, on hearing the offer, they cheered, spontaneously forming queues for the milk tea, and started discussing what a good person Tong Yao was and praising her as a conscientious shop owner.
As soon as Tong Yao had made two cups of milk tea, Zhou Lei arrived at the shop. Seeing twenty-something people queuing at the door, he was astounded.
He rushed behind the counter and asked, "Yaoyao, why is business so good today? Where’s Gu Hongwei?"
He just finished his elective and arrived to find the cafe busier than usual at this hour. It was even stranger that half of the customers were in their forties and fifties, an age group they rarely saw coming for milk tea.
Had the sun risen from the west today?
Tong Yao was making milk tea without lifting her head, "A lot happened, make the milk tea first and I’ll tell you later, make them all original hot milk tea."
"Okay." Zhou Lei started to work even as he spoke.
Zhou Lei was efficient, and Tong Yao was not exactly slow either. They quickly prepared over twenty cups of milk tea. It wasn’t until everyone had left the shop that Zhou Lei noticed a serious problem. Everyone who took a cup of milk tea complimented Tong Yao, but none of them paid.
They were running a business, not a charity. How were they supposed to continue if they didn’t collect any money?
"Yaoyao, did you forget to collect the money? Or were you giving it out for free? Is this a new marketing strategy?"
Could it be that Tong Yao was trying to woo customers because there was another milk tea shop opening opposite?
