I thought about it for a long time, completely torn over whether I should tell Mom my suspicion.
She noticed my hesitation and offered a gentle, reassuring smile. “It’s alright. Mom was just asking on a whim. If you don’t want to say, you don’t have to.”
With that, I kept my mouth shut. After all, saying less was always the best way to avoid trouble.
After dinner, I used studying as an excuse to retreat to my room. Closing the door, I collapsed onto the bed and started scrolling through the videos I hadn’t finished earlier that day.
“Yeah, right, that’s exactly the situation…”
I caught the sound of Mom’s voice. It was coming from the balcony; it sounded like she was on the phone with someone.
I pushed the window closest to the balcony open a bit wider, leaning against the frame to record the audio while eavesdropping. However, Mom was speaking so softly, and she was too far away. Even with my undivided attention, I couldn’t piece together much. I only managed to catch bits and pieces—”daughter,” “syndicate,” “whereabouts unknown.” Still, it was enough to deduce that this was a major deal, and it seemingly had something to do with me.
Driven by curiosity, I waited until the dead of night to open an audio-editing app and began restoring the recording.
Mom: “Captain Li, I’ve found a new lead over here.”
Captain Li: (A deep voice, sounding like a middle-aged man) “Oh? Weren’t you supposed to be home spending time with your daughter? What kind of lead?”
Mom: “Yes, I was, but when I picked Lingling up from school today, I ran into a little girl. Care to guess who?”
Captain Li: “Who?”
Mom: “Shen Leqing…the niece of the CEO of the Mengqiang Syndicate.”
Captain Li: “Meng Renxing’s current whereabouts are unknown. Logically speaking, anyone close to him wouldn’t dare appear in the public eye right now. So why is she here?”
Mom: “I find it strange too. There isn’t a single soul left at his estate…not even an ant. How on earth did they manage to overlook her?”
Captain Li: “Xiao Song, keep an eye on her for the next couple of days, but don’t make any sudden moves. We don’t want to spook the target. I have a feeling Meng Renxing is going to make his move very soon.”
Mom: “Understood. Will do.”
Shen Leqing? Meng Renxing? What on earth was going on? Why would the police be investigating her?
I racked my brain all night but couldn’t come up with an answer.
The next morning, I woke up before my alarm. The moment I sat up, a knock sounded on my door.
“Are you awake, sweetie? Mom doesn’t have to work today, so I’ll drop you off at school. What would you like for breakfast?”
I didn’t have much of an appetite, so I just threw out a few random choices, threw myself together, and headed out with her. Even though our house was incredibly close to the school and there was absolutely no need for her to drive me, we both knew what was really going on, so I didn’t refuse.
But things didn’t go as planned; she didn’t get to see Shen Leqing.
That was to be expected. Shen Leqing was a notorious procrastinator, a master at cutting it close. She usually wouldn’t stroll into the school until the morning bell actually started ringing, and even the security guards at the gate knew her routine.
With me standing right there, Mom couldn’t exactly act freely. So, I said a quick goodbye and hurried along, vanishing from her line of sight.
Meng Renxing must have committed a massive crime to go on the run like this. Meng Wuyang’s death might have been the critical turning point, but how any of this connected to Shen Leqing was completely beyond me.
Sheng Yitang was face-down on her desk catching up on sleep, just like any other day. If you listened closely, you could even hear her snoring. No prizes for guessing she’d stayed up all night reading web novels again.
The bell rang for class. Even when Mr. Jiang walked into the room, there was still no sign of Shen Leqing in the hallway.
Once Sheng Yitang was shaken awake, she stood up begrudgingly, leaning sleepily against my shoulder as if her soul hadn’t quite returned to her body.
“Hmm? Wen Ling, what are you staring at? What’s so interesting about that bare banyan tree?”
I shoved her head away. “Nothing. Move your head, it’s heavy as a rock.”
She grumbled, reluctantly shifting her weight, shot me a glance, then looked out at the hallway. “Wait… are you waiting for Shen Leqing?”
“How did you know?” I was caught off guard.
“Shen Leqing passes by here at exactly this time every day, and she always says hi to you. It’s been pretty quiet today, though. She hasn’t arrived yet, right?”
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I had to nod. “You guessed right.”
And so, she joined the waiting game. As expected, Shen Leqing never showed up.
Sheng Yitang tagged Shen Leqing in our group chat, AAA Organic Pig Farm: “Leqing, did you take the day off today?”
Not long after, Sui Yue chimed in: “She called in sick? How come I didn’t know?”
“We’re not sure either. Haven’t seen her all morning,” I replied.
Once class let out, the three of us instinctively gathered outside the door of Class 2-3.
Sui Yue caught the perfect moment to call out to a girl sitting by the window. “Hey girl, did Shen Leqing come in today?”
The girl glanced at Shen Leqing’s empty desk, whispered a few words to the person next to her, and turned back to shake her head at us. “She hasn’t been here all morning. Maybe she took a leave of absence.”
“I see. Thanks anyway!” Sui Yue smiled and led us away.
Sheng Yitang felt something was off. She pulled out her phone to text Shen Leqing, only to discover…
“Holy crap, Shen Leqing blocked me!”
Sui Yue and I rushed over to look at her screen. Then, we each tried messaging her ourselves. Sure enough, we were both greeted by that jarring red exclamation mark.
Refusing to give up, Sui Yue tried calling her directly.
“The number you have dialed is no longer in service. Please—”
I had a sinking feeling that something terrible was about to happen.
Suddenly, Sheng Yitang frowned, eyeing me with deep suspicion. “Wen Ling, I remember you were looking for her first thing this morning. You spent the whole morning keeping an eye out for her. Do you know something?”
I immediately cried foul. If I actually knew anything, why would I be standing here panicking with them? Besides, even if I did know something, it wasn’t exactly something I could share.
In the end, the three of us decided to find a small diner to talk things through over lunch.
“Shen Leqing usually gets along great with us, and we haven’t had any arguments lately. Why would she suddenly block us and vanish into thin air?” Sheng Yitang propped her head up, entirely baffled.
“No, it’s not that,” Sui Yue said, scrolling through Shen Leqing’s various social media profiles. “She didn’t just block us because of a fight. She went on the run.”
“On the run? What did she do that required running away?”
Sui Yue shook her head. “No idea. But every single one of her social media accounts has been deleted, and even her phone number is deactivated. You can’t even send her a text. She’s completely evaporated. Something massive must have happened.”
“So suddenly? Did she kill someone? Or rob a bank?” Sheng Yitang still couldn’t wrap her head around it.
That was when I, having remained silent the entire time, finally spoke up. “By the way, Shen Leqing usually lives with her uncle, right? Where are her parents?”
Sheng Yitang looked at me. “You don’t know her backstory?”
I shook my head honestly.
Sui Yue took over the explanation. “Her mom died giving birth to her, and her dad was a truck driver who never had time to take care of her. Since her mom was an only daughter, her maternal grandmother and uncle couldn’t bear to leave her behind, so they took her in. Her dad came to visit her a few times when she was little, but word is he remarried later on and stopped showing up. Eventually, her grandmother passed away, so it’s just been her uncle looking after her.”
Wow. That really is tragic.
“But she did luck out in a way,” Sheng Yitang added in a low voice. “Within a couple of years, her uncle’s business completely took off. Apparently, he’s the CEO of a massive conglomerate now. Plus, with whatever inheritance they had from her mother’s side, he holds quite a bit of power.”
“Seriously?” I was stunned. “She never mentioned her family was that loaded.”
“Well, why would she brag about that? We only found out through some random gossip,” Sui Yue said.
Sheng Yitang set her chopsticks down. “So, does any of this actually matter? Does it have anything to do with her disappearance?”
I scratched my head. “I don’t know. Just asking out of curiosity.”
In response, I received a matching pair of eye-rolls.
I patted both of their shoulders. “Alright, there’s no point in us losing sleep over her disappearance anyway. That’s a job for the police. It has nothing to do with us.”
The two of them seemed to agree, offering no counterarguments.
“Wen Ling, who said this has nothing to do with us?”
This time, I didn’t dare say a word…mostly because we had just stepped out of the police station.
It wasn’t because we had done anything wrong. It was because Shen Leqing actually had done something terrible.
To put it simply, the police had uncovered traces of her life at her suburban home. In the basement, they found a roll of video tape. The footage documented the children who had gone missing over this past period…and depicted Shen Leqing “getting along beautifully” with them.
The content was so disturbing that I threw my phone aside after a single glance. Word was that this was already the most “tame” video among the numerous tapes uncovered.
They had called us in for one reason only: to understand what kind of person Shen Leqing was.
I didn’t know much about her…in fact, some details I had only learned that very noon. As for her personality, all I could say was that aside from a naturally melancholic and aloof aura, she was exceptionally gentle and kind. At least, she had always been that way with me.
If she truly was the heartless, sadistic monster the police claimed she was, then I could only say she missed her calling as an actress.
As soon as we walked out after giving our statements, I spotted Zhang Youning waiting for me right outside the entrance.
The moment she saw me, she rushed forward, wrapping her arms around me tightly like a mother cat protecting her kitten, her face a mask of sheer anxiety.
Surprised by her sudden appearance, I pulled back slightly to ask, “How did you know I was here?”
“I tracked down your classmates and asked.”
She had actually gone all the way to my school just to find me.
“What happened? Why are you at the police station?”
I shook my head. “It’s nothing. Something happened, and I just had to give a statement.”
“Is it about Shen Leqing?”
She was eerily sharp, hitting the nail right on the head.
Sui Yue and Sheng Yitang walked out of the station right behind me. Seeing Zhang Youning and me practically glued together, they burst into laughter. “Oh look, Big Sister Youning is here. Comforting your little girlfriend?”
Seeing them, Zhang Youning greeted them warmly, nodding like a total dork without even processing what Sui Yue had actually said.
I shot Sui Yue a fierce glare. “What nonsense are you spouting? You can’t just joke about stuff like that.”
Sui Yue merely smirked and let it drop.
Zhang Youning took my hand, ready to lead me away. Mom was working through the night again, so she wouldn’t be coming home.
I followed Zhang Youning, climbed onto the back of her electric scooter, and let her take me home.
As the old saying goes, one autumn rain brings a touch of chill; ten autumn rains call for winter quilts. I didn’t know which round of autumn rain this was, but the nights were undeniably getting colder.
Leaning against Zhang Youning’s back, I watched the scenery blur past us along the roadside, feeling nothing but a profound, overwhelming exhaustion.