Chapter 24: No Results

The group searched everywhere—inside the school’s teaching building, dormitory, cafeteria, and even every hidden corner of the school playground—but there was no sign of Liu Chun. Not even a shadow of a person.

The heavy snowfall blanketed everything in white, and the crunching sound of their footsteps on the snow felt jarring in the silence.

Anxiety grew.

Where on earth had Liu Chun gone?

Zhang Rui was on the verge of tears!

Cases of women and children being abducted were not uncommon these days, and at this moment, her mind was racing with the worst possible scenarios.

“What should we do, Old Liu? Where do you think our Chun’er could have gone?”

Liu Jianchang was just as anxious, but as a man of few words, he was focused on thinking of a solution. “Let’s go to the nearby police station first!”

“Yes! Yes! We need to find the police! Hurry!”

The three of them quickly mounted their bicycles and rode toward the nearest police station.

Just as they entered the station’s main gate, Jing Xi spotted a familiar face pushing a bicycle out from inside.

Perfect timing.

“Officer Li!”

“Ah, Comrade Jing Xi! What are you doing here? Did something happen?”

Li Tao was slightly surprised to see her, but when he noticed the Liu couple standing beside her, he immediately realized that something must be wrong.

“It’s like this,” Jing Xi explained. “Liu Chun—the second daughter of Uncle and Aunt Liu—was supposed to come home for the holiday today, but she never returned. We searched all over her school and asked her classmates in the village, but no one knows where she went. We’re really worried, so we came here to report her missing and ask for your help!”

After hearing this, Li Tao stopped his bicycle, his expression darkening. “Come inside. We need to talk.”

“Recently, we’ve received multiple reports of missing female students. Just in the past two days alone, there have been three cases…”

His words struck a heavy blow to Zhang Rui and Liu Jianchang’s already fragile nerves.

Zhang Rui became visibly shaken. “Officer! What… what should we do? Could our Chun’er also be…?”

“Calm down first,” Li Tao advised. “My suggestion is to contact everyone who knows Liu Chun. Check all the places she might have gone. Reach out to her teachers and classmates. If we still can’t find any trace of her, we’ll officially file a case after 24 hours.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Rui couldn’t hold back her tears, and they streamed down her face. Jing Xi felt deeply distressed watching her break down.

Just a few days ago, Liu Chun was still at home helping with chores. And now, in the blink of an eye, she had vanished without a trace.

“Auntie, don’t cry! I know you’re upset, but first, we need to search every possible place she could be! We can’t waste any time!”

Zhang Rui wiped her tears and nodded, turning to Liu Jianchang. “Our Chun’er usually only goes between home and school. She rarely visits classmates. Sometimes, she goes to my younger brother’s house to play. Let’s contact my brother first!”

Liu Jianchang nodded. “I’ll go call him right now!”

“Uncle, use the phone at the station! That’ll save time!”

Li Tao led Liu Jianchang to the phone room. Zhang Rui wanted to follow but hesitated, afraid of hearing Zhang Xiang say that Liu Chun wasn’t there.

She could only stand in place, restless with worry.

As expected, Liu Chun was not at Zhang Xiang’s house. But as soon as Zhang Xiang heard that she was missing, he couldn’t sit still either—he and his wife immediately rushed to the station.

“Sis, brother-in-law, what exactly happened?!” Zhang Xiang asked anxiously.

Zhang Rui explained everything in detail.

Zhang Xiang’s wife made a quick decision. “We can’t just wait—we need to keep searching!”

She worked as a ticket seller at the bus station, so she immediately contacted the station’s drivers to ask if they had seen a girl matching Liu Chun’s description.

Meanwhile, Jing Xi and the others combed through the streets, checking every restaurant and small shop they could find, but there was still no sign of Liu Chun.

After hours of fruitless searching, exhaustion set in. The group decided to head home, hoping that maybe, just maybe, Liu Chun had already returned.

By the time they got home, it was past 4 a.m.

As soon as Liu Yan saw her parents returning, with Jing Xi following behind, she hurriedly opened the door and rushed out.

“Mom! Dad!”

Zhang Rui wiped her tears and sighed. Jing Xi quickly signaled to Liu Yan and pulled her aside.

“Yan’er, we haven’t found her. We’ve already filed a report at the police station, but a person has to be missing for 24 hours before they can officially open a case. Do you have any classmates or anyone else who might know Liu Chun? Can you still contact them?”

Liu Yan’s eyes were filled with tears. “No, I’ve already asked everyone. What do we do? How can a living person just disappear? Just a few days ago, I heard a teacher say that there had been cases of missing girls recently, and they warned us not to wander around during the holiday. How could something like this happen to our family?”

“Sis, don’t panic yet. Maybe Liu Chun just lost track of time while playing outside! We have to think positively! She will come back!”

Jing Xi tried to comfort Liu Yan, but she wasn’t sure herself.

A living person had just vanished.

“Let them get some rest first. Uncle and Aunt searched all night; they must be exhausted. If we haven’t found Liu Chun yet, at least they shouldn’t collapse from exhaustion.”

Liu Yan nodded.

After returning home, Jing Xi rested for a while, but she was so exhausted that she fell into a deep sleep.

By the time she woke up, it was already close to nine o’clock.

She hurriedly got up, tidied up, made breakfast, and then headed to the Liu household. To her surprise, there was a crowd gathered there.

Relatives and neighbors had come together, ready to head to town to help search for Liu Chun.

Meanwhile, Zhang Rui’s sister-in-law, Wu Wen, had received a lead—apparently, a bus station driver saw Liu Chun around noon yesterday. She was with a few other girls and a man. The man wasn’t very tall and was dressed in a formal suit.

However, the driver couldn’t remember his exact appearance or where they went.

Having a lead was good news!

More people meant more ideas.

No matter what, Jing Xi and Liu Yan managed to coax Zhang Rui into eating breakfast.

If she collapsed from hunger, what would they do then?

Even though Zhang Rui had no appetite, she still forced herself to eat half a bowl of porridge with Chinese artichokes. After that, she refused to eat any more.

A group of twenty or so people from the neighborhood set out for town to search for Liu Chun.

Some even suggested looking outside the town.

However, Jing Xi felt that with such heavy snowfall, even buses couldn’t leave. Even if human traffickers had a car, they wouldn’t be able to drive it away either.

No one had cleared the snow, and it was still falling with no sign of stopping. If she were a trafficker, she would find a small, quiet inn to hide in until the weather improved before making a move.

Jing Xi noticed that Zhang Rui’s sister-in-law, Wu Wen, remained calm under pressure, so she shared her thoughts with her.

Wu Wen found her reasoning logical and suggested they focus on checking small inns and hotels today.

The town wasn’t large—there were only two main streets. The rest consisted of government offices, residential complexes, and factory units. While it wasn’t too difficult to search, the severe weather made things challenging.

However, searching for Liu Chun wasn’t as simple as Jing Xi had hoped.

Neither small inns nor hotels allowed them to enter.

If they met someone reasonable, a couple of cigarettes or some cash might buy them a chance to take a quick look. But those who were less accommodating didn’t even lift their heads, refusing entry whether they had lost a child or anything else. If they weren’t guests, they weren’t allowed in.

The standard response was, “It’s the rule, don’t make things difficult.”

Rules were fixed, and these people weren’t willing to bend them, leaving everyone at a loss.

Jing Xi took note of the inns that had refused them and instructed some of the helpers to keep an eye on the guests coming and going to see if anyone looked suspicious.

After seven or eight hours of searching, there was still no news.

The cold was unbearable, and Jing Xi was both frozen and starving. Eventually, everyone decided to call it a day.

Zhang Rui was in a terrible state, so she and Liu Jianchang went to Zhang Xiang’s house to wait until they could officially file the case at the police station in the evening.

Jing Xi returned to the village with the rest of the group—she still needed to check on Liu Yan.