264: The number is incorrect

Outside the cities of the Tianlong Republic, many areas are forests. These places have excellent environments, but occasionally exotic beasts appear. However, compared to the five major exotic beast zones, the danger is much smaller.

But this danger is for mercenaries; for ordinary people, the wilderness is still relatively dangerous. So, for safety, many places in the cities create parks of various sizes for people to relax and entertain themselves.

These parks are very popular. Elderly people come here to exercise in the morning, young people come here for dates, and children also come here to play.

Maple Leaf Park in Province B is a relatively small and not well-known park.

However, this season is when maple leaves fall, and this park has many maple trees, so the scenery is still worth seeing… Xu Yuanyuan looked at the watch on her wrist, felt it was almost time for kindergarten to let out, and that it was time to go back. So, she stood on a rock and shouted loudly.

"It's almost time now, little friends, it's time to gather! Everyone line up properly, the teacher is going to call names."

As soon as her voice fell, there was a flurry of activity, and the children she spoke of gathered around her from all directions. At the same time, the other three teachers who came with her also walked towards her… Today was the day for Garden Kindergarten's outing.

Although it was called an outing, they certainly wouldn't dare to take them into the wilderness, so they only dared to take the kindergarten children to a nearby park.

Maple Leaf Park was near their kindergarten. After unanimous agreement from the teachers and children, the outing location was chosen as Maple Leaf Park.

One day in advance, the kindergarten principal had communicated with the park, so this afternoon, Maple Leaf Park was cordoned off. Others could not enter, and it was exclusively provided for the children of Garden Kindergarten to play.

The nearby residents were also very understanding. If they wanted to play in a park, they could walk a few more steps to another park; there was no need to insist on playing in this one.

Besides, most of these kindergarten children were related to them or were their own children, so how could they mind?

Upon arriving at the park, the teachers first took the children on a tour of the park, introducing them to various flowers and plants, while explaining and reminding the children not to go out and only to play within this park.

Immediately after, free activity time was announced. The children dispersed in twos and threes to play together. Xu Le was also one of these children.

For children, this park was full of novelties everywhere. A leaf, a stone, all were worth playing with for a long time. The park was filled with children's cheers, shouts, and screams.

Because there were people guarding the park entrances and exits, the four teachers were arranged in places where danger was likely to occur to watch the children… The scene shifts back. Children have a lot of energy, but they couldn't let them play all the time, so they limited their playtime to only three hours. Once the time was up, all the children had to gather and return to the kindergarten together.

After Xu Yuanyuan called for assembly, the children gathered in front of her.

Xu Yuanyuan: "Everyone line up according to the previous teams, okay?"

Following the teacher's words, the children eagerly found their positions. There were two lines, and the two children at the front of the line held hands and stood in front of the teacher, then raised their other hands. The children behind them then lined up behind them.

"Xiao Xiao, you're behind me."

"Sisi, I'm in front of you, you got it wrong."

"No, you got it wrong, I'm in front of you. If you don't believe me, ask Xiao Mi."

"Oh dear, you stepped on my foot."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to."

...Although the children often lined up, lining up was still quite difficult for them, so it still took a lot of time.

By the time they finished lining up, 10 minutes had already passed.

Xu Yuanyuan stood on the rock, covered in sweat.

The weather was still a bit cold, so the sweat on her head wasn't from heat, but from anxiety.

10 minutes was already a long time for her, enough for her to count the children lined up in front of her twice.

First count, it seemed the number was incorrect?

Second count, yes, the number was not correct!

Two children were missing.

Xu Yuanyuan became anxious, quickly pulled out the list from her pocket, and checked it name by name to confirm which two children had not yet come.

Although she hoped inwardly that she had miscounted, reason told her she had not.

One minute later.

She finally confirmed which two children were missing: one was named Ji Tao, and the other was named Xu Le.

After confirming, Xu Yuanyuan felt even more panicked.

Neither of these two children were from ordinary families. One was from the Ji family, and the other was the child of the Thunderbolt Company's boss.

The Ji family was an old-established first-tier family, and Thunderbolt Company was a rising company currently in the spotlight. Offending either one could cause them serious trouble; now having offended both, the consequences were even more unimaginable.

Xu Yuanyuan quickly got down from the rock, then ran to the three teachers standing nearby and whispered the situation.

"Two children are missing, named Ji Tao and Xu Le. Please look for them immediately. Maybe they were too far away to hear, or they went to the restroom."

The three teachers nearby heard Xu Yuanyuan's words, and their expressions immediately became serious. They also knew the identities of these two children, so they understood that this matter was very urgent. Thus, they quickly went to search in the distance.

Xu Yuanyuan, meanwhile, had to first take the remaining children back to prevent any further problems.

Although the children below didn't hear the teacher's words, several of them actually realized that some companions were missing. They had noticed it when lining up: some people's partners in front were gone, and they could only look at the person to their right to confirm their position, then step forward after lining up.

This method of lining up was also because children sometimes get sick, and occasionally a few children would be absent, so they needed to line up and then step forward.

But today, when they came, they had lined up, and there were people in front of them at that time. Now, when lining up to go back, there was no one in front, so they knew someone was missing.

However, they didn't think much of it, assuming their friends were in the restroom or had forgotten while playing. So, they obediently followed behind the teacher, holding hands, and walked towards the kindergarten… After learning that the children were missing, the park staff also dared not be careless. They quickly reported the situation to their superiors while searching for the two children with the kindergarten teachers.

However, they searched all around, even dragging the small lake in the park, but found no trace of the two children.