Chapter 23 – She’s Gone

Not long after Song Leyi entered the room, she suddenly ran out in shock.
“Second Brother, this is bad—her things are all gone!”

Song Zhengli frowned. “What do you mean, her things are gone?”

Leyi grabbed his arm and pulled him into the room.
“See for yourself—her clothes and belongings are all missing. And she’s gone! Do you think she ran away?”

Zhengli’s heart skipped a beat at her words, but he quickly forced himself to stay calm.
“That’s impossible. She has nowhere to go.”

“But if she didn’t run away, why would she take all her stuff?”

“Maybe… maybe she went to visit a friend for fun. Let’s wait until Mom and Dad get back before jumping to conclusions.”

When Song Jianshe and Li Yunmei got home from work and heard about it, both were stunned. Jianshe was furious, and Yunmei nearly fainted on the spot.

That wretched girl—how dare she, right in front of Zhao Yinqiu, say she disliked him for being older and for having a child? She hadn’t said that to them before. What exactly was she trying to do?

“That’s impossible. Didn’t she say Zhao Yinqiu had great conditions and she was satisfied?”

Leyi secretly curled her lips.
“Mom, she lied to us. She just didn’t like him and pretended to agree so we wouldn’t interfere. Her real goal was to slip away when no one was looking, so we couldn’t stop her.”

If she didn’t agree, fine—but why say something so offensive? Now Zhao Yinqiu would never forgive her.

The more Yunmei thought about it, the angrier she became, nearly passing out again.
“Find her! Go look for her right now. You must bring her back.”

If she found that girl, she would beat her to death.

Zhengli slumped into a chair. “How are we supposed to find her? The people at the garment factory said she didn’t even show up for work today.”

“How could that be? She clearly changed clothes this morning and left for work…” Yunmei suddenly froze mid-sentence, dashed into her own room, pulled out her key, and unlocked a cabinet. She rummaged through it—only to find nothing missing.

She went through her clothes again, even turning out the coat pockets, but still came up empty-handed. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed.

Leyi shrieked and rushed to hold her up. “Mom! What’s wrong?”

The rest of the Song family came running. Seeing Yunmei fainted on the floor, Jianshe pinched her philtrum to wake her. She eventually came to, weakly murmuring,
“You must bring her back. The notice… she took the admission notice.”

Leyi’s face instantly drained of color, her knees almost giving way.

If Song Kexia had taken the admission notice, that meant she couldn’t go to university.

“How could she do this? We already agreed—how could she steal the admission notice?”

She’d seen Yunmei unlock the cabinet herself—so how had Kexia taken it?

Yunmei, panting in anger, said, “Call the police. Arrest her. Bring her back no matter what.”

That ungrateful wolf—after the family fed and raised her all these years, they only asked her to give up one university spot, and she dared to retaliate like this. This time, she would make sure the girl faced legal punishment.

Yunmei turned to Song Zhengyu. “Go to the police. No matter what, get it back.”

Zhengyu was about to leave when Jianshe stopped him.
“Wait.”

Leyi and Shen Ru helped Yunmei back onto the bed. She glared at Jianshe.
“We must call the police. We must get the admission notice back.”

Jianshe frowned. “Whose admission notice is it? If the police ask, what will you say?”

“Then… what, are we just going to suffer in silence?”

“First check if anything else is missing from the house.”

Yunmei shooed everyone out, then carefully checked her hidden cash and jewelry. Nothing else was gone.

“It’s just the admission notice—everything else is here.”

Jianshe snorted. “She’s clever. She knew if she only took the notice, we wouldn’t have a proper reason to report it. If she took anything else, we could call it theft. But as it stands, we can’t report it.”

Yunmei grew anxious. “Then what? We can’t just let her get away with it! What about Leyi?”

Jianshe’s eyes darkened. “She can’t run far. The only friends she’s close to are a few classmates—only a handful of places she could go. We’ll find her.”

“That’s right. We must find that ungrateful wretch, and when we do, I’ll beat her to death.”

The Song family members skipped dinner and rushed out to search, leaving only Jianshe behind, who didn’t want to risk losing face by joining the hunt.

They went to Kexia’s classmates and friends, but none of them knew where she was—and they were shocked to hear she’d left home.

The family scoured half the city, checking every friend she’d ever been close to, but still found no trace.

Leyi clutched Yunmei’s arm in panic. “Mom, what do we do? If we can’t find her, does that mean I can’t go to university?”

Yunmei, exhausted and with a pounding headache, replied, “Tomorrow I’ll check the garment factory again. I don’t believe she can hide forever.”

When they finally returned home, it was past ten at night, and everyone was too tired to speak. Yunmei, worn out, told Leyi to cook some noodles.

“Mom, I don’t know how to make noodles,” Leyi said helplessly.

Yunmei’s lips trembled, but she said nothing and dragged herself into the kitchen to cook.

When Kexia had been at home, she at least helped with chores—cooking and laundry were no problem. Leyi, on the other hand, couldn’t even boil noodles.

After dinner, the sky was fully dark. The village still had no electricity, so everyone hurried to finish their chores while there was still light.

Wang Guihua cleaned the dishes; some bathed, others did laundry.

Kexia sat on the bed, feeling lost, unsure what she could do. She only snapped out of it when Wang Guihua called her to bathe.

The family’s bath area was a cramped stall made of wooden boards, with only a bar of soap—no shampoo or body wash.

Kexia hesitated, then simply wiped herself down with a towel and changed into her pajamas.

In the yard, there was a well for easy water access. She carried a large basin to the well and squatted to wash clothes.

Wan Ling wandered over and saw her using the bar of soap on clothes. She immediately shrieked,
“How can you use soap to wash clothes?”

Kexia looked up, puzzled. Wasn’t soap meant for washing clothes?
“I am using soap to wash clothes—what’s wrong with that?”

A bar of soap cost more than thirty cents, and she was using it for laundry. And she dared ask what was wrong?