15. The Girl Runs Away From Home (Part Two)

"Teacher Wen... Yunmei... Yunmei..." The more urgently he tried to speak, the less able he was to get the words out.

"What's happened to Little Blueberry? Do you have news of her?" Over these three days, Wen Mingjuan had kept in constant contact with Mr. Lan; he'd finally managed to reach Little Blueberry's mother, but Little Blueberry wasn't there.

So they had filed a police report.

Seeing Mr. Lan in such a panicked state now, she guessed there must be news of the child.

"Just now, a call came in for me. The moment I picked up, I heard crying, and then it cut off right away." Mr. Lan said tensely. "I'm afraid it was Yunmei."

"Crying?" The teachers present exchanged glances. "That must be her, then. What do the police say?" Everyone began chattering excitedly about it, each with their own opinion.

"If she can't find her mother, she could just come home! It's been three whole days—why hasn't she come back?" As Mr. Lan spoke, his eyes reddened.

"And how long has it been since you last showed any interest in this child?" This came from Little Blueberry's English teacher, who had always doted on her.

Wen Mingjuan tugged discreetly at her sleeve, signaling her not to let the atmosphere get too tense.

"I know, I know." Mr. Lan said, full of remorse and regret.

"Knowing it now is already far too late." The English teacher said angrily, not sparing his feelings in the slightest.

"What good does saying all this do now? It won't fix anything." Wen Mingjuan tugged at the English teacher's sleeve again, none too pleased.

She really didn't want any more complications at a moment like this—the most important thing right now was certainly not arguing over who was at fault.

"It seems like things might not be so simple." Lin Yitan came over as well to offer his own opinion. "Could she have been taken by human traffickers?"

It wasn't a pleasant thing to say, but it was a possibility that couldn't help but demand careful consideration.

Little Blueberry was already a sophomore; if she could make her own way to Taipei, why couldn't she make her own way back? Unless she was willing but unable. In other words—was it possible she simply couldn't come back?

"I've... been worried about that too." Mr. Lan's face had gone the color of ash. Though he'd abandoned his wife, it seemed he still cared about his daughter. "That's why I rushed over here to ask if you teachers had any good ideas."

"What good ideas could I possibly have?" Wen Mingjuan shook her head, looking utterly helpless. "I'm just a powerless..." She nearly trotted out her usual line, but sensing the timing was wrong, she swallowed it back down.

"What about the police? Didn't you already file a report?" Lin Yitan asked.

"We did! But so far the police haven't come up with any plan at all. They just say they'll do their best, and that since she went to Taipei, it's not really their jurisdiction—they even told us to go file a report in Taipei instead."

"What? There's such a thing?" Lin Yitan frowned at hearing this.

"Maybe they have a point. Like us—an English teacher shouldn't go meddling in someone else's math or physics class. Crossing into someone else's territory might stir up unnecessary trouble." Little Blueberry's English teacher said.

"But maybe that's just another way of the police passing the buck." Wen Mingjuan frowned as well.

In her mind surfaced the words Tao Muwei had once said to her: filing a police report might get Chen Hongjia killed.

Whether filing a report would really have gotten Chen Hongjia killed, she had no way of confirming. But there was no doubt at all that Gao Weizhao got things done far more efficiently than the police.

Gao Weizhao?

Why on earth was she thinking of him out of nowhere?

Just then Lai Chunxiang crept over stealthily and murmured into her ear, "Since you feel you can't rely on the police, why not go find that acting head of the parents' association? Didn't he help you get Chen Hongjia back last time?"

Oh, come off it. Of all the things to bring up, why that.

Wen Mingjuan shot Lai Chunxiang a sidelong glance.

"Teacher, I'm at my wits' end." Mr. Lan's eyes were growing redder and redder; if he kept talking, he might start bleeding from them.

"You're a grown man—could you not be so fussy about it?" Perhaps the English teacher held some prejudice against him; her words carried sharp edges, aimed right at him.

"Do you have a better idea, then?" Wen Mingjuan shot back.

"No." She answered without a moment's hesitation.

"Really, though." Lai Chunxiang, not giving up, leaned in again, murmuring, "You might want to consider what I said."

"He doesn't owe me anything." Wen Mingjuan retorted, none too pleased.

"I actually think you two get along quite well. Why not have your student Tao Muwei put in a good word for you again?" Lai Chunxiang said, looking rather pleased with herself, as if she were directing a play and the whole plot was unfolding exactly according to her design.

"Are you done or not?" The moment Wen Mingjuan finished speaking, Lin Yitan, apparently noticing how bizarre this exchange between the two of them sounded, jumped into the conversation.

"What are you two talking about?" Lin Yitan asked urgently.

Perhaps the very mention of Tao Muwei's name was enough to send a jolt through Lin Yitan's whole body, since behind that name lurked another person who left him unable to sit still—Gao Weizhao.

"It's nothing, why are you so tense about it?" Wen Mingjuan glared at Lin Yitan; she really couldn't stand this constant hovering and surveillance, and even if he were her boyfriend, this wouldn't be acceptable—let alone the fact that he wasn't.

"Don't go looking for that man again, he's a dangerous element." Lin Yitan pressed on, refusing to let it drop.

"Teachers, who are you talking about? Who has a way to help me find Yunmei?" Mr. Lan, though he had no idea what was going on, latched onto this hope the moment he caught even a fragment of a sentence about getting his daughter back.

"It's nothing, we were just talking casually." Lin Yitan tried to steer the topic away.

"Please, have some sympathy for a father's feelings." The tears in Mr. Lan's eyes finally burst forth all at once. "If there's any way at all, please, at least try it."

Wen Mingjuan's heart filled with dread—not because she didn't want to try, but because she didn't want to shift any more trouble onto Gao Weizhao.

Besides, she and Gao Weizhao had no real relationship to speak of; there was no reason he'd keep helping her over and over.

* * *

Little Blueberry's case was a thorny one; several days had passed with no news at all, which was certainly not a good sign. If something had happened to her, they needed to seize the earliest possible moment to rescue her—any delay could lead to a truly awful outcome.

Mr. Lan's worried face was etched vividly in her mind, impossible to forget no matter how hard she tried. Sitting in a daze in the rattan chair in the living room for a full hour now, Wen Mingjuan was still tormenting herself over Little Blueberry—after all, that girl was her student, and she had always treated her students like her own children or younger siblings. How could she bear it if anything happened to them?

Just as she was thinking this, Zhang Tingyu came over.

"Why are you sitting there staring into space? Have you showered yet? You've been sitting there since you got off work—what's going on?"

"It's still about Lan Yunmei." Wen Mingjuan sighed. "This afternoon the principal called me in about it. He said even though the child didn't go missing from school, we should still do our best to help."

"That makes sense, actually." Zhang Tingyu nodded repeatedly. "People are emotional creatures after all—we can't just wash our hands of it simply because she didn't go missing on school grounds."

"It's not really about whether we're emotional or not. What matters is, what can we actually do to bring the child back?"

"Solutions are something people figure out." Zhang Tingyu said.

"So you're saying, anyone who can't figure out a solution isn't a person?"

"Uh..." Zhang Tingyu scratched her head, looking a bit embarrassed. "That's not what I meant."

"I'm sorry..." Wen Mingjuan rubbed her temples, looking apologetic. "It's just that none of us can come up with any solution, so we're all just stewing in anxiety, which is why I got so sensitive about what you said."

"I understand, it's fine." Zhang Tingyu said, shaking her head.

Suddenly the phone rang, and Wen Mingjuan dashed over to answer it at once.

"Hello, this is Wen Mingjuan." She said tensely.

"Teacher! Just now my sister called our dad, only managed to say someone was about to hit her before the call got cut off. Dad's already run off to the police station; before he left, he told me to call and let you know."

"Is this Big Blueberry?"

"Yes."

"All right, I understand."

Setting down the receiver, Wen Mingjuan simply couldn't set her mind at ease. Lan Yunmei must be in trouble—what should they do? And what was she supposed to do now?

Wen Mingjuan felt a tightness in her chest; her mood was thoroughly wretched, so she decided to step outside for a walk to clear her head.

Wen Mingjuan walked along with her head bowed the whole way, and when she finally lifted it, she was startled to find that she had, without even realizing it, walked in the direction of Tao Muwei's house.

"How did I end up here?" Wen Mingjuan muttered to herself.

Just as she decided to turn back, she spotted Gao Weizhao off in the distance, smoking a cigarette as he walked toward her. The moment Gao Weizhao saw Wen Mingjuan, the relaxed, at-ease expression on his face vanished instantly, replaced by one of utter astonishment.

"You again?" He immediately flicked the cigarette in his hand to the ground, stomped out the glowing embers, and even remembered to frantically wave away the last puff of smoke he'd exhaled with both hands. "What are you doing here?"

"Did you see a ghost or something? Scared like that? This is a public road, why can't I be here?" Wen Mingjuan scoffed at his question.

"Are you a ghost? First time I've ever heard someone describe themselves that way." Gao Weizhao said, shaking his head.

"Fair point." Wen Mingjuan gave an awkward smile, though her bad mood made the smile come out a bit stiff.

"What's wrong? You look like you're in a pretty foul mood." Gao Weizhao asked her.

"Is it that obvious? Even you can tell?" Wen Mingjuan touched her own face.

"More or less." Gao Weizhao nodded in agreement. "Every feeling you have shows right on your face."

"Really?" Wen Mingjuan instinctively pinched her own cheeks. "Are you also in a bad mood, and that's why you're out here clearing your head?"

"Me?" Gao Weizhao was taken aback. "So anyone who takes a walk after a meal to help digest is automatically in a bad mood?"

"I'm so hungry." Hearing Gao Weizhao mention food, Wen Mingjuan suddenly remembered she hadn't eaten dinner yet, and now she really did feel hungry.

"You haven't eaten?" Gao Weizhao asked, glancing at his watch.

"Right."

"Sorry, I don't have any leftovers at home, or else we could've made do with those." Gao Weizhao said earnestly.

"I'm not a pig." Hearing the words "leftovers," Wen Mingjuan's mind went straight to slop.

"That's not what I meant." Gao Weizhao looked helpless.

"Never mind."

Under the night sky, the stars had come out too; light pollution in the rural south was far less than in the big cities, so all one had to do was look up to freely and effortlessly enjoy the brilliant, glittering expanse of stars, one's spirit growing clear and translucent along with it.

Wen Mingjuan tilted her head back and gazed quietly up at the stars, unwilling to look away for a long while.

"Gao Weizhao."

All at once, she called out to him.

"What?"

"Did Tao Muwei tell you about Lan Yunmei going missing from our class?"

Hearing Wen Mingjuan ask this, Gao Weizhao watched her face warily.

"What are you scheming now?" He asked.

"Can you not be so tense about it? I just want to ask you what you think might have happened to Lan Yunmei." Wen Mingjuan lowered her head, looking dejected. "I'm really worried about her. She's a girl who doesn't know anything except studying."

"..."

"Didn't Tao Muwei mention it to you?" Wen Mingjuan's eyes turned sorrowful.

"He did." Gao Weizhao shrugged, looking rather troubled.

"Just now she called home, only managed to say someone was going to hit her before the call got cut off."

"Those clues alone aren't enough to say for certain what's happened to her." Seeing the grief written all over Wen Mingjuan's face, Gao Weizhao felt compelled to offer his own opinion.

"But we can be certain something's happened to her. She must be terrified right now, completely helpless." As she spoke, Wen Mingjuan sighed again.

The atmosphere between them grew heavy.

"Shouldn't you go eat something first? It's already so late." Gao Weizhao suddenly said, completely out of nowhere.

Was he deliberately changing the subject? Wen Mingjuan wondered.

"No matter how worried you are, it won't get the child out of danger. Better to go eat first—it's more urgent than it seems, and besides, you'll only have the strength to worry properly once you've eaten."

What Gao Weizhao said actually made some sense—from the moment this all began until now, no matter how anxious either she or Mr. Lan had gotten, it didn't seem to have helped clarify the situation one bit.

It was just... she simply couldn't let it go that easily.

By the end of that evening, Wen Mingjuan's heart remained knotted, her mind a fog, and she had no clear idea what she'd even done. She only vaguely remembered that Gao Weizhao had specifically accompanied her to dinner, then walked her home—everything else, she had no memory of at all.