Li Weiyi’s heart was both excited and nervous. Her intuition told her that the person who won the lottery was her father! But why hadn’t he gone to claim the prize for an entire month, until the night before the lottery ticket expired, when he suddenly had strange movements and then disappeared?

She understood her father’s character very well, and with a little thought she had a theory—

Her father never bought lottery tickets. Perhaps after picking up her note at home and looking at the string of numbers, at first he might not have thought about what it was; or perhaps he thought of it but didn’t take it seriously. Until one day on a whim, he bought a lottery ticket for the April 8th drawing. With his old workhorse personality of being busy all day long, he most likely forgot about this matter afterward.

That would explain everything.

Until almost a month later, on the evening of May 8th when he was going home, perhaps he noticed the winning information at a lottery shop along the road, perhaps he heard people talking about the explosive news that someone in the city had won the jackpot but hadn’t claimed it and it was about to expire—only then did he realize he had won. Her father ran a small business and carried a small waist pack every day. The lottery ticket was very likely bought and casually stuffed in there, carried on his person.

But why did he run to the riverside lottery shop?

That’s right—he had bought the lottery ticket there. Perhaps he wanted to go confirm it, or perhaps he thought he needed to claim the prize at that lottery shop.

But for the Double Color Ball grand prize, one had to go to the provincial capital Xiangcheng to claim it.

He must have heard people talking at the lottery station and learned this news.

Li Weiyi’s heart shook: That’s right! It must be like this.

The last alley where her father appeared—no one knew where he was trying to go. It was neither in the direction of home nor in the direction of the shop.

Because it was in the direction of the bus station. The lottery ticket would expire the next day—he was trying to catch the last night bus to Xiangcheng!

It was her father’s first time buying a lottery ticket. He didn’t know that the Xiangcheng lottery center would be closed at night, and he was also dazed by the 5 million yuan. He hadn’t brought his phone and couldn’t consult with his family. He must have wanted to get to Xiangcheng as quickly as possible to secure the money, and then explain to his family.

All the suspicious points made sense now.

Li Weiyi sat down hard on the curb, murmuring to herself: “But did my dad disappear in this city, or did he disappear in Xiangcheng?”

She raised her head and met Zhang Jingchan’s gaze. His hands were in his pockets, looking thoughtful. Only then did Li Weiyi remember that he didn’t know anything. She hurriedly explained: “The situation is like this…”

“No need to explain. I can roughly guess—your dad wanted to go to the bus station to take a night bus to Xiangcheng to claim the grand prize?”

Li Weiyi: “…Damn! You’re really so smart!”

Zhang Jingchan smiled faintly, thinking to himself that her little brain wasn’t slow either.

“What should we do now? Go check the bus station surveillance?” With the case suddenly becoming clear, Li Weiyi’s mood was both excited and worried.

Zhang Jingchan said: “We don’t need to check ourselves. Call to notify Ding Chenmo. I see he’s quite capable and useful. He should be able to investigate clearly.”

After saying this, Zhang Jingchan also sat down on the curb and took out his phone: “Captain Ding, I’ve thought of an important lead.”

Zhang Jingchan clearly and concisely explained the lottery matter. Li Weiyi heard him say almost exactly what she had been thinking, just omitting the detail that she had left the note with the winning numbers. This truly convinced her—this person’s insight was sharp to this degree. Did all CEOs’ brains work like this?

Ding Chenmo on the other end, upon hearing this, also thought it made a lot of sense. An old detective like him had very strong instincts, and immediately felt this was the key to solving the case. However, he said: “No need to check the bus station surveillance, because yesterday I already sent people to check all the bus station, highway, and dock surveillance—your father didn’t leave Huaicheng. Li Weiyi, you go home first. Don’t wander around anymore, and don’t leak this theory to anyone, not even close acquaintances. I’ll immediately mobilize police forces to pursue this lead. Don’t worry.”

As soon as the call ended, Zhang Jingchan said: “Captain Ding suspects it was someone he knew who committed the crime.”

Li Weiyi was startled, then understood.

Zhang Jingchan pondered: “Let’s go to the alley where your dad disappeared and see if we can discover anything.”

This was an extremely narrow alley with high walls on both sides. There were only a few households, and their doors were closed even in broad daylight. At the alley entrance was a convenience store.

Because it was a shortcut, quite a few people came and went through the alley during the day. Li Weiyi remembered that at night, the alley was pitch dark, the vegetable market at the other end was also closed, and there were very few people.

The alley wasn’t long, only three or four hundred meters. A surveillance camera on the main road had captured Li Zhongheng entering the alley—this was also the last image of him.

The two walked through the alley once. As expected, they came up empty-handed. At one household they knocked but no one answered. At two other households they said they hadn’t seen Li Zhongheng. The convenience store owner at the alley entrance said there was no business at night and he had closed up at 7 or 8 PM.

But both of them believed the possibility of Li Zhongheng disappearing in this alley wasn’t high—he should have walked out.

Exiting the alley was a not-too-spacious road, with the vegetable market beside it. Around the area were also an elementary school, work unit dormitories, many self-built houses, and storefronts—extending in all directions with a mixed population.

This was where the police had lost track of Li Zhongheng.

Zhang Jingchan accompanied Li Weiyi searching from morning until afternoon. The two slipped into the school and searched through the remote equipment rooms, storage rooms, and laboratories. They also entered the dormitories of two nearby work units, asking the security guards, asking passersby, going through every nook and cranny. No one had seen Li Zhongheng. There was also the vegetable market—they looked through it inside and out.

What remained were those self-built houses of various shapes. These buildings were even more difficult to investigate, and moreover, the police had already checked through them once. House-to-house searches were impossible, but they had certainly done a general investigation.

The two hadn’t eaten lunch and were starving when they sat down at a wonton stand. Li Weiyi saw that Zhang Jingchan had taken off his school uniform jacket and was wearing only a short-sleeved T-shirt, his forehead covered in fine beads of sweat. She couldn’t help but grab a tissue and wipe it for him.

Zhang Jingchan looked up at her.

Li Weiyi didn’t know why she had made such a gesture. Perhaps it was because that forehead belonging to her own self was too fair and pale, and those beads of sweat looked too unsightly. She put down the tissue and said: “It doesn’t look good for a girl to be covered in sweat. You need to maintain my image.”

She tossed the tissue into the trash can and said with a grin: “I’m the one who’s a good man who cherishes and protects the fairer sex.”

This was teasing him again with words he had said on the airplane during the last time travel.

Zhang Jingchan stood up and sat with her on a long bench, resting one arm on the table as he pulled off a section of tissue. Li Weiyi’s back stiffened slightly. He had already used the tissue to wipe the sweat from her forehead, his eyes ink-black and lazily indifferent.

Li Weiyi said sheepishly: “I’ll do it myself.” She tried to snatch the tissue from his hand. His hand lifted, dodging her, and he tossed it away. He took another tissue, wiped her cheek once, and said: “Is that enough?”

“Yes, yes, yes! Please sit back down, sir.” Li Weiyi hurriedly said, “I was wrong. I won’t dare to touch you again.”

Zhang Jingchan’s hand paused. He tossed the tissue in the trash can, sat back in his own chair, and said: “I didn’t say you did anything wrong either.”

This statement sounded strange. Li Weiyi instinctively skipped over it without thinking deeply, and instead said: “Thank you for today, for accompanying me searching all day. If… by tomorrow morning we still haven’t found him, let’s go find your dad first and deal with Fu Ming’s matter. Save whoever we can save.”

He said: “We’ll talk about it when the time comes.”

It was already sunset. Golden sunlight fell scattered over the surrounding buildings of varying heights. The two sat side by side eating wontons. Out of the corner of her eye, Li Weiyi suddenly glimpsed a figure walking into a courtyard. She looked carefully—it was a woman, thin and tall, wearing light makeup, with high cheekbones and red lips, dressed in a peach-red short skirt and high heels. She looked somewhat familiar.

Li Weiyi looked up again at the courtyard the woman had entered. It was clearly a restaurant with a sign at the entrance reading “Song’s Dining Garden.” Inside were several buildings occupying quite a large area. But it was already dinner time, yet the main entrance had few people coming and going. At a glance it looked cold and deserted, clearly not doing much business.

Li Weiyi put down her chopsticks.

Zhang Jingchan: “What’s wrong?”

Li Weiyi frowned: “I recognize that woman.”