Chapter 139: Silhouette in the Rain 1
On the weekend, a fine, drizzling rain fell over the entire city. This kind of not-too-cold, not-too-hot weather was perfectly suited for staying comfortably at home.
Zhuang Ningyu tidied up the bedroom and study, then squatted in the entryway, opening the express packages just delivered by property management one by one. Yi Ke wasn’t home; something had come up at work, and he was called in early in the morning for overtime. He still hadn’t returned.
“Are you really not going with me?” Before leaving, Comrade Xiao Yi held his sweet-smelling wife’s sweet-smelling hand, confirming for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time.
Zhuang Ningyu waved his arm. “It’s fine, you just go to work.” His separation anxiety was now very manageable, basically not affecting normal life. The reason it was controlled so well was mainly thanks to the modern-day Hua Tuo, Director Wang, Pei Yuan, and the patient’s own relatively stable mental state.
As for whether it had any specific relation to the extended personal documentary titled “Hubby is Strong”—which Yi Ke insisted on sharing, hired a professional Hollywood team to film to reassure his wife, comprehensively showcased his multiple evolutionary achievements, and featured ultra-clear close-ups of his handsome features and perfect physique—it was hard to say. Zhuang Ningyu still hadn’t summoned the courage to watch the whole thing. He usually had to squint and exit the video after a few frames to recover.
A roll of thunder rumbled across the sky, and the rain fell harder.
At 3:00 PM, the sound of elevator doors opening and closing came from the hallway, followed by hurried footsteps. Someone was clearly running. As the electronic lock clicked and turned, the security door was pushed open.
Yi Ke saw Zhuang Ningyu in the entryway, perfectly fine, nearly drowned in courier boxes, and seriously studying a new electric toothbrush. The heart that had been suspended in his throat the whole way finally settled. He leaned against the doorway and smiled, shaking the honey lemonade he was holding—bought specifically on his way back from work.
Zhuang Ningyu calmly kicked off his slippers, hiding the exact same drink ordered from a delivery guy half an hour ago behind the shoe changing stool. Yi Ke didn’t notice this small action. He walked over, squatted down, and helped unpack and organize the cardboard boxes. Then, he suggested with supreme casualness, “Later, I’ll drive to the suburban courtyard to deliver some fruit to my in-laws, and by the way, bring all your luggage over?”
He held a certain degree of not-so-explosive anger over the fact that “Wifey actually took advantage of my inattention to send all the packed luggage to my in-laws.” He had been grumbling and repeatedly testing the waters for a week: Can’t you really move in? I’ve even designed a display wall for your kindergarten certificates.
But Zhuang Ningyu remained unmoved. He pushed away the head buried in his chest. “The rain is so heavy. Are your friends still up on the mountain?”
“They should be. That camping base is very established; ordinary wind and rain won’t affect it. It doesn’t matter,” Yi Ke answered. The camping base was built in a forest park on Mingzhu Mountain. A music festival was being held there over the last two days, bustling with people. Quite a few colleagues from the Order Maintenance Department had also been dispatched to help maintain order.
Zhuang Ningyu finished organizing the packages and stood up holding a pile of newly bought underwear, ready to put them in the washing machine. Perhaps because he had been squatting for too long, or maybe due to the humid weather during the changing seasons, his knee joints, which hadn’t troubled him for a long time, suddenly began to ache faintly again. Numbness mixed with a familiar prickling sensation, like an electric current instantly piercing through his nerves.
The things in his arms fell to the ground with a crash. Yi Ke, who had already reached the kitchen door, immediately turned back upon seeing this. He swept Zhuang Ningyu up into a princess carry, brought him back to the sofa, and fetched the special medical kit.
He was already very familiar with this care routine. The ointment was carefully massaged into the skin, its spicy sensation effectively relieving the sore, cold stinging pain. Zhuang Ningyu pinched the flesh next to the knee twice and said, “It’s already much better than before.”
Yi Ke gave a muffled “Mmhmm,” continuing to cover the injured area with his hot palm without speaking. Zhuang Ningyu lowered his head and suddenly planted a loud kiss on the back of Yi Ke’s hand, intending to soothe his lover’s emotions.
However, perhaps because Yi Ke had been massaging too vigorously, even the back of his hand was covered in ointment. Like fingers that had cut chili peppers, it looked fine, but rubbing one’s eyes would reveal whether it was actually fine. Zhuang Ningyu’s lips were instantly electrified by the spice. He wiped them with a wet wipe for a long time, but the pain didn’t subside; instead, the redness doubled, giving him a mysteriously sexy look. Yi Ke felt both distressed and amused. Just as he was about to remotely consult Pei Yuan on how to handle it, his phone vibrated first.
“Brother Yi, help!” As soon as the call connected, a wail came from the other end, audible even to Zhuang Ningyu sitting nearby.
Yi Ke frowned. “Speak properly. What happened?”
His friend’s utterly distraught voice was sandwiched between the deafening thunder in the mountains. “Pei Zheng is missing! Could he have been kidnapped by criminals?”
Pei Zheng was Pei Yuan’s nephew, just turned 16 this year. He had been studying abroad and recently came back to visit his grandparents during the school holidays. The friend calling was Song Yang, who had chased the cruise ship in a speedboat when Zhuang Ningyu was trapped in the New Gene Bio Rule Zone. He was an investor in the music festival and had a good relationship with Pei Yuan. Hearing that the nephew was bored at home, he had volunteered to take the kid up the mountain to relax.
But less than two days later, the person was gone. His phone was left at the campsite, and he carried no tracking devices. Although Song Yang had called the police, today’s music festival featured heavyweight singers. Even the bad weather didn’t dampen the fanatical enthusiasm of the audience and fans. The surveillance footage was full of young men and women wearing colorful rain ponchos and holding umbrellas; faces were impossible to see. Finding Pei Zheng under these circumstances was as difficult as ascending to heaven, which was why he frantically sought out Yi Ke.
The music festival on Mingzhu Mountain was called the Mingzhu Music Festival. It had been held for ten consecutive years and was a well-known event in Jincheng. Zhuang Ningyu had been there once during college. He remembered that although the forest park was located deep in the mountains and the towering ancient trees looked dangerous, connecting to the entire Mingzhu Mountain range, the scenic area was actually surrounded by wire fences over three meters high. Safety was guaranteed; it was unlikely for a tourist to just wander off and accidentally enter the deep mountains.
“Uncle Lin is on leave recently. I’ll ask him if he’s free to help,” Zhuang Ningyu said.
Yi Ke nodded. “Okay.”
Uncle Lin’s name was Lin Daguan, the deputy leader of the Investigation Team. He had learned behavioral analysis from Zhong Pinghe back in the day, and his ability to process surveillance images with the naked eye was top-notch. After receiving Zhuang Ningyu’s call, he readily agreed to go up the mountain to help.
“It’s too cold on the mountain, and it’s raining,” Yi Ke said worriedly, holding Zhuang Ningyu’s arm. “I’ll take you to stay at my mother-in-law’s, okay?”
Zhuang Ningyu picked up his small medical kit and shoved the whole thing into Yi Ke’s arms, sighing, “Director Pei helped me so much before. Now that his nephew is missing, how can I stay home and ignore it? Let’s go.”
Yi Ke hesitated but finally nodded, putting an extra warm knee pad on him. The rain washed over the entire city. The two first picked up Lin Daguan by car. Zhuang Ningyu checked the 48-hour weather forecast for Mingzhu Mountain on his phone; the rain didn’t look like it would stop anytime soon.
“How old is the child?” Lin Daguan asked as soon as he got in the car.
“Sixteen, studying music. He’s usually very sensible and hasn’t had any conflicts with his family recently. He shouldn’t have run away from home voluntarily,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “Also, the music school he attends abroad is built in the mountains, so he should be familiar with similar environments. He wouldn’t be unaware that the temperature drops sharply in the mountain forests at night. Yet, the few thick clothes he brought up the mountain were all left in the tent. All clues point to Pei Zheng not leaving voluntarily.”
Song Yang’s wail was justified. After all, even Zhuang Ningyu couldn’t think of a second reason besides “kidnapping” at this moment. According to the Order Maintenance Department’s internal network, no Rule Zone had appeared there, so the possibility of being swallowed by white fog didn’t exist for now.
Mingzhu Mountain was about eighty kilometers from downtown Jincheng. Even with good road conditions, it took an hour to drive, let alone with rain and the music festival traffic. The three left the city around 4:30 PM, but were still stuck halfway at 6:00 PM. The sky was yellow, as if a filter had been applied, but fortunately, Song Yang said the rain on the mountain had subsided significantly.
Zhuang Ningyu passed water and bread to the back seat, then opened a bag of biscuits for himself, wiped his hands clean, and fed Yi Ke. Although the intention was to save time so everyone wouldn’t work on an empty stomach, Lin Daguan still actively turned his head to look out the window, avoiding direct eye contact with the Order Maintenance Department’s number one couple feeding each other, showing the self-awareness of an elder.
Raindrops pattered against the window. Lin Daguan unscrewed the cap of his mineral water bottle, took two gulps, and his gaze habitually fell on a car in the next lane. A sports car, quite expensive. In the driver’s seat was a young girl with hair dyed half purple and half gold. Because the glass didn’t have privacy film, he could clearly see she was moving back and forth to the music, flamboyant and uninhibited.
She should be going to the music festival too.
Another hour passed, and Yi Ke finally successfully drove up the mountain. The evening session of the music festival had already begun. Even though the office glass was double-thick, it still buzzed from the sound waves. The moderate rain had instead become a catalyst for the audience’s excitement. Zhuang Ningyu stood by the window looking at the unused secondary stage in the distance. The originally clean concrete ground was littered with discarded, colorful raincoats. Under the illumination of the large streetlights, one might suddenly mistake it for a beautiful flower field.
Pei Yuan hadn’t come down from the operating table yet, so he didn’t know about this matter.
“The last time Xiao Pei appeared in the surveillance video was at 10:00 AM,” Song Yang said. “After getting up, he went to the scenic area restaurant for breakfast, then to the convenience store to buy a cup of coffee. I was busy coordinating business matters at the time and didn’t attend to him. I only realized the child was missing in the afternoon.”
The policewoman enlarged the surveillance footage. The image quality was a bit blurry. It could be seen that before entering the restaurant, Pei Zheng was wearing a blue semi-transparent poncho. When he left the restaurant, he had changed into a white poncho. This was also one of the headaches for the police. The quality of these free ponchos distributed by the organizers was very poor, making them impossible to wear a second time. So most people carried five or six in their bags, changing them as soon as they tore. In other words, it was basically impossible to use the color of the rain poncho for a first round of rough screening.
By this time, the sky was completely dark.
Song Yang couldn’t sit still and took security guards out to search again. Yi Ke patted Zhuang Ningyu and said, “You stay here and watch the video with Uncle Lin. I’ll take a few friends to check the back mountain.”
Zhuang Ningyu nodded. “Be safe.”
Song Yang had summoned not only Yi Ke but also more than ten other friends, as well as friends of friends. For finding someone, there was strength in numbers. A new round of mountain rain began to fall, and the temperature was already very low. In the video, Pei Zheng was only wearing a regular summer/autumn windbreaker without a liner, completely unsuitable for spending the night outside. Lin Daguan pushed the oil-filled heater in the office in front of Zhuang Ningyu, telling him to mind his knees. Zhuang Ningyu called the policewoman over to warm up as well.
The three continued to watch the computer screen. After leaving the convenience store, Pei Zheng walked towards the east, which should have been the way back to the tent base. This path was also his vanishing point.
“There are cameras before and after the road, and no forks. It’s just this one path. So logically speaking, Pei Zheng should have appeared in this surveillance frame ten to fifteen minutes later, around 10:50 AM,” the policewoman pointed at the screen. “But he disappeared.”
“Without his phone, how did he pay for breakfast and coffee?”
“Cash. Because he grew up abroad, he’s used to using cash. For large expenses, he usually swipes his father’s supplementary card.”
“Were there any card transactions during the music festival?”
“Yes, yesterday he bought a signed album by Rex Dong.”
“Where is the album?”
“Still in his backpack, with the other luggage.”
The policewoman brought the album over. Rex Dong’s real name was Dong Feifan, a rock singer. He was very popular recently and was one of the heavyweight guests performing today; many fans came specifically for him. Lin Daguan took the album, looked at the trendy half-gold, half-purple cover design, and immediately remembered the girl driving the sports car during the traffic jam in the afternoon. Half gold hair, half purple hair—she must be a fan of this Dong Feifan.
“Is that him singing outside right now?” Zhuang Ningyu asked. “Why does it sound like a female voice?”
The policewoman called over a staff member from next door to ask. The person replied, “No, Sister. Rex already finished performing in the afternoon. Actually, based on his popularity, he really should have sung the finale at 8:30 PM. But isn’t his recent hit song called ‘Sunset at 4:50 PM’? To match that, the time was changed.”
“Changed temporarily?” Lin Daguan asked.
“Changed a long time ago. This song has been out for a while, and our music festival promotion has stated it was an afternoon slot from the beginning.”
Afternoon slot? Doubts welled up in Lin Daguan’s heart, and he pressed further, “How many shows is this Rex performing at your music festival in total?”
“Just one, the one this afternoon. He’s so popular, we wanted to book him for two days, but the negotiations didn’t work out in the end.”
“What’s wrong, Uncle Lin?” Zhuang Ningyu asked. During the traffic jam, he had been looking down eating, so he hadn’t noticed the sports car next to them.
Lin Daguan asked the staff member to go back first, then recounted his encounter with the girl, emphasizing, “She looked very excited at the time, dancing along to the music the whole time.”
This was obviously abnormal. According to the music festival schedule, at that time, Dong Feifan should have been on the music festival stage performing his new song for fans. Following normal logic, a fan stuck in traffic should be anxious and worried, or at least, shouldn’t be dancing so enthusiastically.
Zhuang Ningyu frowned slightly. Although this matter had nothing to do with Pei Zheng, it did sound a bit strange.
