Sun Xi received Yu Kaixuan’s phone call over an hour later.

By that time, he already knew something had happened to Xiao Jiu.

Sun Xi had stood outside the village supermarket staring at that message for a while. After suppressing the joyful shock those few words brought, he gradually figured out the reason for his growing panic. Besides this answer he’d been waiting for coming too suddenly, what was stranger was that Xiao Jiu had sent it via text message, not WeChat. They hadn’t used text messages for many years.

Still uneasy, he turned to send Xiao Jiu a WeChat message. Not mentioning those few words, he just asked if she was finished there. Over ten minutes passed with no response.

Sun Xi went directly to the cattle-raising old man Gao Wanfu’s home and saw that the family of several people had already eaten their fill and were sitting on the kang playing mahjong. He asked about that bank employee, and they said she’d left. He asked who was last with her, and they said it was a cattle farm feeder. At this point Xiao Jiu still hadn’t replied to his WeChat, and she wasn’t answering his calls either. Sun Xi became anxious and found that feeder for thorough questioning, learning that she’d gone to a tall, sturdy woman’s home.

Following the location, he came to that brick house with only one room. The door was wide open, the room cold and empty with no one inside. He looked around. His gaze swept over a ball of hemp rope on the floor and landed on a small stool padded with an old cotton jacket. He froze, bent down to pick up a gray wide headband, and held it in his hand. His internal organs all twisted together.

He’d examined it carefully in the car this morning and remembered it clearly—this was what Xiao Jiu used to tie her hair, her headband.

Yu Kaixuan called at that moment.

He was using Ge Fan’s phone. When he heard Yu Kaixuan’s cold and harsh voice, Sun Xi understood this call boded ill. He had no time to figure out how their relationship had been exposed. Though panicked, he was very certain that at this moment he couldn’t hide anything more from Yu Jiuqi’s father. So he answered every question, honestly explaining the situation.

Yu Kaixuan didn’t waste words with him either, asking directly right away: You went to Fuman Village with Xiao Jiu? He said yes. You’re still there? He said yes. You didn’t go when Xiao Jiu went to the client’s home? He said correct. How long have you been separated? He said over an hour. Do you know something happened to her?

Sun Xi randomly found a wall and leaned against it weakly, closing his eyes fiercely. He couldn’t say which was more—fear, heartache, guilt, or self-blame. They tormented him until he could barely stand steady.

“She’s been kidnapped.” Yu Kaixuan said this sentence with extreme difficulty.

Sun Xi used all his strength to stay calm and said: “Uncle, have you received some message? Can you tell me more?”

Yu Kaixuan was silent for a moment.

Sun Xi suddenly remembered a long time ago and lowered his eyes heavily, saying something familiar and pathetic.

“I’m sorry, Uncle.”

“Don’t give me that useless talk!” Yu Kaixuan was still as serious as in the past. “I’m talking to you now because I want to know if there are any clues to find Xiao Jiu.”

Sun Xi looked at the hemp rope and stool on the ground.

“I might be in the room where she was kidnapped.”

A woman’s furious roar suddenly came through the phone, shouting something. Sun Xi didn’t hear it clearly but knew it was Wen Wen’s voice. He paid no attention. At this moment, even if she used the most vicious words to curse him or the cruelest torture to kill him, he wouldn’t make a sound.

He just darkly scanned the room again with his gaze, repeatedly recalling all the clues he’d just learned. Suddenly remembering something, he said into the phone: “That colleague of Xiao Jiu’s—she should know who the kidnapper is.”

“Wang Huan?” Yu Kaixuan almost shouted it out.

“Right, she should have seen her.”

This morning at the county highway entrance, he hadn’t heard every word of Xiao Jiu and Wang Huan’s conversation clearly, but he’d caught some key words. A tall woman with a buzz cut had asked about Xiao Jiu at the bank—he’d heard that. Yu Kaixuan said he was near the bank and would go ask right away. Sun Xi said alright, he’d stay in the village. Once they found out the woman’s information, tell him—they shouldn’t have gone far.

Because that housewife had conducted a transfer transaction at the bank, there was surveillance and transfer records. They quickly traced her identity. Yao Xue, 44 years old, indeed from Fuman Village. Yu Kaixuan also contacted Fuman Village’s village Party secretary to ask, and learned she currently lived in the county town. Only one distant relative remained in the village.

Sun Xi went directly to that relative’s home, bringing out that hoodlum bastard attitude of his. In a few moves he got them to reveal that not long ago Yao Xue had borrowed a cheap transportation vehicle from the relative, saying she was hauling some mountain goods back to the county town. She should be on the road now. Sun Xi also asked clearly about the vehicle model, license plate number, and county town address, then set off directly.

On the road driving back to the county town, he called Ge Fan. Naturally, Yu Kaixuan was the one waiting on the other end. He was no longer as panicked as at first. He told him the information he’d learned, then said, Uncle, you stabilize the other party first, buy some time. I’m heading over now.

“How much longer until you arrive?” Yu Kaixuan asked.

“A bit over half an hour.”

“If we go now, we can arrive within an hour too.”

“Alright.”

The other end was silent for a moment.

Sun Xi frowned and suddenly said: “Uncle, you know.”

He felt a wave of sadness and looked at the evening paddy field snow scene outside the window: “I absolutely won’t let anything happen to Xiao Jiu.”

Yu Kaixuan hung up.

Yu Kaixuan directly returned the phone to Ge Fan in the driver’s seat. He sat beside him, saying in a low voice to drive to Mei’an County, don’t go through the city center—rush hour traffic now. Go around through North Mountain Park, get on the highway directly, drive as fast as possible. If traffic police stop you, ignore them—just don’t hit anyone.

Meng Huihong sitting diagonally behind him suddenly leaned forward, saying anxiously to Yu Kaixuan: “You should tell that woman first, say you’re raising the money, tell her to wait, and also ask how Xiao Jiu is.”

Yu Kaixuan stared impatiently at his phone: “I know.”

“Also, shouldn’t we call the police?” Meng Huihong scanned everyone in the car. “Calling the police would be more secure, right?”

Yu Kaixuan shouted: “Didn’t I just say! I contacted Li Jun from the Criminal Police Team. He’s also on the road. Damn, those VIP supreme bathhouse cards I send out every year—I didn’t send them for nothing!”

Meng Huihong also got anxious: “What are you shouting at me for!”

“You keep saying useless things!”

“I’m anxious too!”

Yu Kaixuan glared at his second wife, then turned his head back to scan behind, looking at the person sitting directly behind him who’d been silent for a long time—his ex-wife. He saw her staring at the streetlights that had already lit up in the rapidly retreating street scene outside the window, her face deathly pale, both hands tightly clenched together and pressed against her legs, still visibly trembling.

It was Wen Wen who’d told Yu Kaixuan about Sun Xi and Xiao Jiu being together last night. At the time he was frantically communicating with the kidnapper and let it slip, allowing Wen Wen to find out. He thought Wen Wen would definitely go crazy and make a scene right away, saying Sun Xi had harmed Xiao Jiu, that Sun Xi was taking revenge, that they needed to find Sun Xi and deal with him to death. But she didn’t mention anything, just kept a tight face, not daring to breathe heavily, not saying a word beside him.

Only when she heard Sun Xi say he was in the room where Xiao Jiu was kidnapped did she suddenly come over wanting to speak to Sun Xi. Yu Kaixuan, afraid she’d make trouble and delay important matters, had Meng Huihong stop her and even pointed at her, glaring fiercely with a threatening look.

He knew Wen Wen was afraid of him at certain moments. He didn’t easily treat her this way, but for his daughter, he couldn’t take risks.

Yu Kaixuan saw she was still like that, so he turned significantly sideways and patiently explained: “The most important thing now is to find our daughter, for Xiao Jiu to be safe, to return home safely. Everything else can wait.”

Wen Wen’s eyes instantly reddened, and she pursed her lips.

Yu Kaixuan also felt bad. He held back and added: “About Sun Xi, we’ll discuss it after we rescue Xiao Jiu. I’m her father—I won’t turn a blind eye to this.”

Wen Wen didn’t make a sound.

Yu Kaixuan still wasn’t reassured and instructed again: “You’re a mother. You need to have some sense of what matters more.”

Wen Wen blinked and paused before saying something strange in a small voice: “Brother, don’t you think it’s very similar to that time?”

Yu Kaixuan understood and replied: “It’s not the same thing.”

Wen Wen said nothing more. Yu Kaixuan also slowly turned back around, and the entire car instantly fell into silence.

But Ge Fan, sitting in the driver’s seat, driving Yu Kaixuan’s treasured Land Rover Range Rover at flying speed on the highway, had his mind exploding.

Of course, the main thing was worrying about Xiao Jiu’s safety. From the moment Yu Kaixuan asked if he had Sun Xi’s phone number and told him something had happened to Xiao Jiu, the terror that jumped to Ge Fan’s throat never came down. All his blood rushed to his head. He felt he was going crazy, yet didn’t dare show emotions that exceeded his status in front of the parents.

He wanted to kill that kidnapper, whether male or female. He also wanted to suffer this ordeal in Xiao Jiu’s place, yet found it difficult and couldn’t bear to imagine what ordeal she was suffering.

What drove him even crazier was that before Xiao Jiu had the accident, she’d spent a day and night with Sun Xi.

He was now very certain that all his previous speculations were correct—Sun Xi and Yu Jiuqi were being ambiguous.

And from the veiled exchange between Yu Kaixuan and Wen Wen just now, they knew about Sun Xi and Xiao Jiu’s relationship. At least regarding that incident similar to elopement that nearly caused a death, they’d been deeply involved.

For the first time in a long while, Ge Fan felt he’d lived in muddle-headed stupidity, completely unaware of so many secrets hidden in the family. In a burst of irritability, he pressed hard on the accelerator. At that moment, Zhu Duomei called.

Zhu Duomei had somehow learned that something had happened to Xiao Jiu and asked: You guys went? Why didn’t you call me? Forget it, tell me where Xiao Jiu is—I’ll go myself!

Ge Fan glanced at the parents. No one wanted Zhu Duomei to come cause trouble, so he said just wait at home, we’ll tell you when there’s news.

Zhu Duomei got anxious and started cursing, saying fuck you Ge Fan, cut the crap with me. I’m doing this for Xiao Jiu, not for you! Then on the phone he cursed the kidnapper, saying fuck, if they dare touch a single hair on Xiao Jiu’s head, I…

Ge Fan hung up.

The car also drove into the county town boundary.

Yu Kaixuan took Ge Fan’s phone and sent Sun Xi a message asking about the situation.

Sun Xi replied: Found her, she’s at Yao Xue’s home in the county town.

Yu Kaixuan gripped the phone forcefully.

Yao Xue’s house in the county town was just a neat bungalow—an iron gate, a path, vegetable gardens on both sides overgrown in the east. The bungalow had two rooms east and west. The transportation vehicle borrowed from the relative was parked at the door. White smoke rose from the roof chimney, as if cooking or heating the kang. Only one lamp was lit in the house, blocked by curtains.

Sun Xi parked his car far away on another street, hiding behind a plum tree outside the vegetable garden. By now the sky had completely darkened, and he was wearing all dark colors, not easily discovered.

He observed for a while, carefully listening to the activity in the house. It seemed a TV was playing, no other sounds. That tall, sturdy housewife came out once to pick up a few pieces of firewood and went back in. No one else appeared.

Standing there for twenty minutes, Sun Xi could almost conclude that inside, aside from the kidnapper and Xiao Jiu, there was no one else. He couldn’t wait any longer, not even a moment. Just as he was about to go in to rescue her, Yu Kaixuan sent a message.

As if guessing Sun Xi would do this, he warned him not to act rashly, not to play hero, not to be counterproductive again.

Sun Xi stared at that message. Those similar wretched fragments flashed before his eyes. After a stalemate for a while, Yu Kaixuan added that he and the Criminal Police Team deputy captain had arrived together.

For Li Jun, who specialized in handling serious criminal cases, this case with extremely clear motives, evidence, and suspect was a piece of cake. He’d also checked Yao Xue’s social relationships—only elderly and children remained around her. There was some sense of desperation, but the threat level wasn’t high. And a low-intelligence kidnapper who directly brought the victim home—he hadn’t seen one in many years.

If it weren’t for Yu Kaixuan’s daughter, he couldn’t be bothered to come.

Li Jun briefly deployed the plan. He had two plainclothes officers break in through the bungalow’s back door first. He’d lead another plainclothes officer to knock on the front door, drawing out Yao Xue. As soon as she showed her head, the police who entered through the back door would pin down Yao Xue.

The entire process took less than ten minutes.

After Yao Xue was pinned down, the entire Yu Kaixuan family waiting at the front gate rushed in together. In front wasn’t the two men, but Wen Wen who swept in like the wind.

Sun Xi ran over from outside the vegetable garden, a few steps slower. When he reached the doorway about to enter, Yu Kaixuan suddenly turned around, glaring fiercely at him with unmistakable meaning—telling him to get lost.

Sun Xi didn’t force his way in and just stood there. Fortunately, it wasn’t far from the house. He could see clearly—he watched Wen Wen crouch before a folding bed. Yu Jiuqi lay on it, covered with her black down jacket, not moving at all. Wen Wen shook her, jostled her, called out several times, but Xiao Jiu still didn’t move.

Wen Wen turned her head and shrieked toward the doorway: “What happened to her? What happened to her?”

Sun Xi clenched his fists, trembling all over as he looked at Yao Xue being held by the police beside him. Seeing her pause, she said slowly: “Sleeping pills.”

“What?” Wen Wen shouted again.

“She kept crying and wouldn’t leave with me, so I fed her some of my usual sleeping pills. Not much—she’ll wake up soon.”

Yu Kaixuan waved his hand, saying hurry up and leave, go back first.

Ge Fan went over, picked up Xiao Jiu horizontally, and strode out. At the doorway he bumped into Sun Xi, turned his head, and glared fiercely at him.

But Sun Xi paid no attention to Ge Fan at all. A pair of pitch-black eyes all stopped on Xiao Jiu in his arms. She looked like she was just sleeping, her hair fallen down covering most of her face, only revealing a bit of tranquil profile, eyes tightly closed, her dangling hand sliding down bit by bit with Ge Fan’s long strides.

Lost in a daze, he didn’t realize he’d already followed two steps until someone blocked in front of him, and he stopped.

Looking down, he saw Wen Wen’s small, pointed face filled with hatred.

This was their first meeting since that accident nine years ago. Sun Xi suddenly felt she’d aged a lot, but that expression of hating him remained unchanged—still that fierce face and scarlet eyes.

Those eyes only stayed for a few seconds. She said nothing and turned to run.

When Sun Xi looked over again, Yu Jiuqi’s figure had already disappeared. He swayed in place as if his soul had been extracted.

After all, it was a kidnapping case. Li Jun required everyone to go to the police station to give statements and go through procedures, all returning to Shicheng together. On the road, the group split into four vehicles.

Two police cars—one carrying Yao Xue, one carrying Yu Kaixuan, Wen Wen, and Yu Jiuqi.

Yu Kaixuan wanted to take Xiao Jiu directly to the hospital. Police cars could use express lanes, so the family of three simply rode in Li Jun’s car back. But halfway there, Xiao Jiu woke up.

Xiao Jiu sat in back with Wen Wen. She lay on Wen Wen’s lap, Wen Wen holding her head, helping smooth her hair from time to time, bowing her head to kiss her forehead from time to time, quiet, not making a sound.

Halfway down the highway, a weak voice suddenly sounded in the car: “Mom, why are you crying?”

Wen Wen hastily looked down. Yu Kaixuan in the passenger seat also suddenly turned his head, seeing Xiao Jiu opening a pair of quiet almond eyes, looking at Wen Wen above her, touching her own face. Then another tear drop fell down.

She said again: “Mom, why are you crying?”

Wen Wen looked at Xiao Jiu for a while, then suddenly couldn’t hold back. She held her tightly, as if holding a treasure lost and found again, burying her head and crying hard.

Yu Kaixuan also couldn’t take it, forcibly holding back: “Alright, alright, as long as she’s okay, stop crying. This is a police car—what are you crying in a police car for?”

Then he sat back down, looking out the window, wiping the corners of his eyes with two fingers.

Following behind them was Yu Kaixuan’s Land Rover Range Rover, inside only Ge Fan full of questions and Meng Huihong anxious and uneasy.

Also on the highway, Ge Fan called Yu Kaixuan and learned Xiao Jiu had woken up. Mother and son both breathed sighs of relief. Ge Fan finally couldn’t help but probe Meng Huihong beside him about the matter that had entangled him all day.

“Mom, did you know about Xiao Jiu and Sun Xi’s situation before?”

Meng Huihong sighed: “I also only learned a bit from your dad today.”

“In 2014, he and Xiao Jiu together…” Ge Fan was unwilling to use that word, “…left home, right?”

“Mm.” Meng Huihong nodded. “They almost caused a death too. Your dad also compensated quite a bit of money because of this.”

“Why did my dad compensate money?”

“To settle things.”

“Why help Sun Xi settle things? Wasn’t it Sun Xi who beat up that person?”

“Xiao Jiu was also involved.”

“What about Xiao Jiu?”

“Don’t know. Seems Xiao Jiu also had responsibility.”

Ge Fan was startled but suddenly understood somewhat—understood why Yu Kaixuan was willing to briefly cooperate with Sun Xi today. It seemed that regarding Xiao Jiu’s matters, he believed Sun Xi had no malicious intent.

At the very back was Sun Xi’s car. He also had a police officer riding with him.

Just about to exit the highway, that police officer received a call from Li Jun saying Yu Jiuqi had woken up. Everyone should go directly back to the station. After hearing this, Sun Xi suddenly turned the car and stopped by the roadside.

Then he said to the person beside him: “I’m a bit tired. Can you drive for a while?”

The police officer said alright.

Sun Xi sat in the passenger seat. As the car drove toward Shicheng city center, he suddenly bent down, curled up his body, covered his face, and didn’t move for a long time.

The driving police officer couldn’t help asking: “Are you alright?”

He shook his head.

Seeing he was still like that, he asked again: “What’s wrong?”

After a while, a faint voice came: “Stomachache.”

Sun Xi saw Yu Jiuqi forty minutes later.

It was in the medical room of the Shicheng Criminal Police Team, but he wasn’t in the room—he was outside the window.

The medical room was on the first floor. After Sun Xi asked clearly about the location, he circled around the entire building, passed through an alley, walked to the back, and stood on a small flower bed filled with snow. Looking straight ahead, he could see Xiao Jiu sitting on the bed with an IV in her hand. A girl in police uniform was taking her blood pressure.

Wen Wen and Yu Kaixuan were probably busy with other things and happened to both not be inside.

Sun Xi looked at her for a while, seeing she was still that smiling appearance, as if nothing had happened, chatting with the person before her. Standing in the cold wind like this for a while, he finally took out his phone and sent Xiao Jiu a WeChat message.

【Look outside.】

Yu Jiuqi saw her phone beside her light up, picked it up with the hand receiving the IV, slowly unlocked it, looked at it, then suddenly in shock looked toward the medical room’s only window.

Sun Xi lowered his head and sent again: 【You don’t need to reply.】

Xiao Jiu looked at her phone, looked left and right to see no one else, then straightened her body and looked hard at him.

【Are you better?】

Xiao Jiu nodded.

【Were you afraid?】

She shook her head.

【It’s okay now.】

She suddenly stopped moving.

Sun Xi saw her, across the cold air, across the night, across the not-clean-enough glass, across the not-too-bright incandescent light, staring straight at him.

Then he smiled with a trace of bitterness, pursing his lips.

Yu Jiuqi also, across the not-too-bright incandescent light, across the not-clean-enough glass, across the night, across the cold air, looked toward the man standing alone and solitary outside the window.

She hadn’t seen him smile so warmly in a long time.

When he circled back to the Criminal Police Team building, that smile had fallen away.

Then suddenly, Sun Xi received a message from Wang Heyuan saying the transfer procedures for Lesheng Huang should go through the process. He should transfer the first payment by noon tomorrow, or else it would be voided.

Sun Xi hesitated for a moment and didn’t reply. Instead, he scrolled to another message.

It was the one Yu Jiuqi had entrusted that kidnapper who’d instantly enlightened her to send at that perilous moment of being kidnapped—those few words he’d anxiously waited for all these years.

She said: 【I have decided, I will go with you.】

Sun Xi stood dazed again, looking at it for a while.