“Ah Ling, wake up. We’re home.”
I blinked my eyes open and realized the car was already parked in the garage. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I followed Zhang Youning out. She held the elevator button for me, but once the doors slid shut, I noticed she had only pressed a single floor.
“Aren’t you going back to your place?” I asked, tapping her shoulder.
She shook her head and stepped closer to me. “I’m staying with you tonight.”
“Huh?” Utterly disbelieving, I pointed a finger at myself to double-check.
I wasn’t a three-year-old; I didn’t exactly need a babysitter. Seeing the hesitation written all over my face, she softened her approach. “I just have something to tell you. I’ll leave right after we talk.”
And just like that, I brought Zhang Youning back to my place.
The Neighbor Across the Hall
It looked like a new neighbor had moved into the apartment across the hall. A faint sliver of light peeked through the door crack, and the layer of dust at the entrance had been swept entirely clean.
Back then, the incident that took place there had caused quite a stir. Everyone in this neighborhood knew that apartment was a notorious murder house. Who on earth had the guts to move into a haunted place like that?
I couldn’t be bothered to care. I unlocked my door, flipped on the lights, and welcomed Youning inside.
Right on cue, my two cats emerged from some hidden corner. They meowed loudly, rubbing against our legs and purring contentedly before flopping onto their backs to show off their bellies. Youning grinned, scooping them up and planting a kiss on each of their faces. She whispered something to them, and both kitties held their tails high, radiating pure excitement.
While she played with them in the living room, I went into the kitchen to pour her a glass of warm water. When I came back out, she was sitting on the couch. The previously energetic cats were now resting peacefully by her side, completely quiet. Rongcai had even started snoring softly.
I handed her the glass and sat down next to her, scooping Ningyu into my arms.
A heavy silence settled over the room, broken only by the occasional soft snore from the cats. We both kept quiet, waiting for the other to break the ice. Youning took a large gulp of water, sighed quietly, and threw an arm around my shoulder.
“Ah Ling, are you happy?”
We locked eyes. I smiled faintly, glancing over at the wall covered in certificates and medals. “Yeah, I am. I don’t have to worry about food or clothes, there’s no one breathing down my neck, I’m completely free, and I’ve got a great group of friends. What’s not to be happy about?”
“Do you have any dreams, then?” she pressed.
It was an odd question, sounding almost like a teacher’s interrogation. For a fleeting second, it gave me the illusion that I wasn’t the only one who cared about my future.
“Nothing grand. Just to live well, stick around a little longer, get into a good college, find a stable job, support myself without relying on anyone else, and just live like that until the day I die.”
She stared at me, her gaze growing increasingly complex.
Sensing the shift in the air, I offered an awkward laugh, trying to change the subject. “Why the sudden serious talk anyway? How old are we? We’ve got our whole lives ahead of us.”
Yeah, life is long. That’s true for everyone… except me.
After another brief silence, I gave Youning a playful nudge and asked half-jokingly, “Do you believe in soul transmigration?”
She looked puzzled, clearly not following.
I shook my head and leaned back, stretching out across the sofa. “Never mind. It’s fine if you don’t get it. It’s normal. Honestly, I think it’s bizarre too.”
She didn’t say a word, just watched me quietly.
So what’s the point of soul transmigration anyway? Forget it. It doesn’t matter.
“Oh, by the way,” I sat up straight. “Back at the police station entrance, how did you know instantly that something happened to Shen Leqing?”
“Duh, it’s all over the news. I’m not oblivious.”
Which TV station could possibly move that fast?
“Actually, Shen Leqing exposed herself once before this,” Youning added. “You guys just didn’t notice.”
I frowned, completely blanking on what she meant. She didn’t keep me in suspense and laid it right out.
“Remember when Jinhu bared his teeth at her? I knew right then. Jinhu isn’t a hostile cat. He wouldn’t pick on a sweet, innocent-looking young girl for no reason.”
I was confused. “Then why did he act like that toward her?”
“You forgot? Jinhu was abused when he was a stray.”
Shock washed over me. “So… she was his abuser?”
“Yes and no. Shen Leqing didn’t harm him personally, but you can’t mask someone’s scent and aura.”
It finally clicked.
Still, that didn’t change much. No one was going to take a cat’s word as evidence, and these minor details did nothing to solve Shen Leqing’s actual disappearance. But Youning seemed to already have the answers. She couldn’t articulate all of it out loud, so she pulled out her phone and started typing to lay out the timeline.
What followed was a reconstruction of the case from a third-person perspective, based on her theories and deductions.
The Timeline: One Year Ago
The Discovery: “The victim is male, approximately five years old. The DNA is a highly accurate match with the missing child, Shao Qi.” The body-dumping ground in the suburbs was a desolate area with barely any foot traffic, surrounded only by roads and an unfinished commercial district. However, less than five kilometers from the site sat a cluster of luxury villas.
The Exchange: That same morning, Wen Ling slung her backpack over her shoulder and stepped out of her apartment, crossing paths with the auntie from across the hall. The woman was pulling a woven bag trolley, and something heavy seemed hidden inside. Once Wen Ling was out of sight, the woman ducked into an alley and loaded the contents of her trolley onto an inconspicuous small van. In return, she placed a black trash bag…filled with her payout…back into her trolley. As the van drove off, she blended back into the crowds, pulling her empty cart.
The Syndicate: Children were frequently brought into this dilapidated residential building, and small vans routinely cruised through the area. A dark, illicit trade was being executed right under everyone’s noses.
The Motive: Well before this, Meng Wuyang’s heart condition had deteriorated past the point of no return. Without a matching donor for a transplant, her days were severely numbered. Blinded by love for his daughter, Meng Renxing struck a deal with the human trafficking syndicate.
The Complications: Shen Leqing accidentally stumbled upon the dark secret but kept quiet. Not long after, Meng Wuyang’s transplant surgery was a success. She celebrated the New Year with Meng Renxing and Shen Leqing at a downtown villa, where they ran into Wen Ling and Sui Yue, who had come to visit. To avoid raising suspicions or causing complications, Meng Renxing moved Meng Wuyang away.
The Flight: When his accomplices were eventually arrested, Meng Renxing planned to flee the country with his daughter. However, Meng Wuyang suffered a sudden medical crisis and passed away. Her death exposed their trail, forcing him to flee in a frantic hurry on his own. Knowing that Shen Leqing wouldn’t immediately fall under suspicion before he was caught, he left her at the suburban villa to avoid tipping off the police.
The Twist: Unfortunately, an anomaly occurred: Wen Ling’s mother showed up before the police did. Consequently, by the time the police realized what was happening, she had already vanished.
The Final Hideout
Reading through this massive wall of text made my head spin.
“So… how did you manage to dig up all this information?”
Youning flashed her phone gallery in front of my face. “Stalking and staking out the places.”
I slapped my forehead. “Youning, with that kind of dedication, you could succeed at literally anything.”
But I still didn’t get it. Why on earth was she tracking these people and investigating all of this in the first place? She fiddled with her phone for a good while before finally looking up at me. “Alright, I’ve forwarded all of this to the police. Hopefully, it helps.”
I stayed silent, eyeing her suspiciously. Catching my weird look, she froze for a second, checked her clothes to make sure nothing was out of place, and then glared at me like I was an idiot.
“Why are you glaring at me?” I asked.
“You glared first.”
She was literally Sherlock Holmes a second ago, and now she’s acting like a toddler again.
Back to business. One core mystery remained unsolved.
“So,” I asked, “where do you think Meng Renxing and Shen Leqing are right now?”
“Chongle Island.”
Her tone was absolute. Before I could even question her, she tapped on a video file.
The footage was blurry and the audio was faint, but it was clearly filmed at a hospital. The camera angle was awkward, as if someone had hidden a phone in the bushes to film surreptitiously. A young child sat in a wheelchair while a girl pushed her through a small courtyard, the two chatting amiably.
“Sister Lele, the hospital is so boring. I don’t want to stay here anymore. I want to go out and play.”
“No can do, Wuyang. You’re sick. You have to wait until you’re all better before you can play.”
I recognized that voice…it was Shen Leqing. The other one was undoubtedly Meng Wuyang.
“Then when I’m better, I want to go on a trip with you and Daddy!”
“What are you two little ones chatting about so happily?”
A tall man approached from a distance. This had to be Meng Renxing. He lifted the little girl from her wheelchair and planted a kiss on her cheek.
“Ah! Daddy, your beard is scratching me!” the little girl squealed, quickly covering her face.
The man laughed. “Alright, alright, Daddy won’t kiss you then. What were you just telling your sister?”
Meng Wuyang beamed with excitement. “When I get better, I want to go to Chongle Island with you and Sister! I’m going to build the most beautiful sandcastle on the beach. Then I’ll make a sand-sister, a sand-daddy, and one for me. The three of us will live in the castle together!”
“Hahaha, what a good girl. Once you’re well, we’ll all go to Chongle Island. We’ll stay in the most beautiful ocean-view room and play whatever you want, okay?”
“Okay!”
The video cut off right there.
I looked up at Youning. “You could actually hear what they were saying?”
Expressionless, she tapped the automated captioning feature on her screen.
Fair enough. I was the one living in the past.
“Chongle Island is the most likely spot,” Youning explained. “Besides what was said, it takes half an hour by boat to reach it from the nearest mainland. There’s zero cell service out there…no electronic devices work. But it’s beautiful, heavily resourced, and the perfect place to hide out.”
Put that way, it made total sense.
Of course, everything tonight was just our speculation. It wasn’t a flawless explanation, and it certainly didn’t solve every piece of the puzzle.
Youning tucked away her phone, carefully adjusted the sleeping position of the fast-asleep Rongcai, and stood up to take a massive stretch.
“Alright, I’m heading out. Call me if anything comes up. If you’re scared, I can still stay over tonight.”
Somewhere between amused and exasperated, I gently nudged her toward the door and waved goodbye. “Go on home. I’m not as easily spooked as you think. Don’t worry.”
She flashed me a faint smile and closed the door behind her.