Zoe Sawyer, who had been taking notes on the information the old lady was providing, stopped. She looked at the woman, asking in surprise, "The child has been missing for so long. Why didn't they call the police?"
'Normally, if a child goes missing, shouldn't you call the police?'
"They wouldn't dare," the old lady said, her expression conspiratorial. She glanced left and right, and after making sure no one from that family was around, she whispered to Zoe Sawyer, "Officer, let me tell you, those people are blinded by greed. They promised someone they'd marry their daughter off to an idiot.
"That girl might seem gentle and sweet most of the time, but she's stubborn as a mule! The moment she heard her parents had accepted a 500,000-yuan bride price, she jumped from the second-floor window that very night and ran away."
Everyone in the village knew she'd run away. They just didn't say anything to save the family's face.
