I did not know how long I was out before vaguely feeling soone touching my body, stimulating my chaotic mind and waking up.
After opening my eyes, the first thing I saw was the half-moon in the sky glowing brightly, lighting up the treetops. Then I felt gentle hands lifting my head up, placing sothing soft behind my head.
In the darkness, I saw the side of her face. Currently, she had no idea I was conscious. After staring at blankly for a while, she lowered her head and held close to her.
Her embrace left awestruck; my face was only inches away from her neck, basking in her gentleness, warmth, and sweetness. Wu Yu, you wont die, right? The ambulance is only twenty minutes away. Dont die on . I wont be able to take it.
Although I felt pain all over my body, my heart surged with joy before I kissed her thin and silky clavicle on the spur of the mont.
Yet, I regretted it imdiately, her thinking to myself what I had done.
Sensing that she had beco frozen, I said her na, which surprised her. Then she let go and exclaid, Youre awake!
You wouldve likely thought Im dead if I didnt wake up, I said as I held her hand and stumbled on my feet.
She looked at worriedly and explained, You have a big bump behind your head and a wound that was bleeding!
Im fine. Just had a fall.
She held my arm with both hands while staring at with her big eyes, saying nothing. Her usual air of arrogance was nowhere to be found. Instead, she seed like a small, nervous animal. I let out a smile that I could not hide. She noticed it and said with a speechless look, Youre still able to smile at a ti like this? You must have knocked your wits out.
How did you find ?
Well, why did you leave so quickly? Did you want to be the hero? My car has a GPS. I ca over when I saw that you had parked the car there for a long ti without moving. Then when I called you at the foot of the mountain, you didnt answer your phone. I felt that sothing was wrong and decided to co look for you. Good thing I found you.
I looked at her legs covered in scratch wounds; there were even cuts on her arms. Yet, she did not seem to care about it. I cared.
I held one of her hands and caressed it with my fingers gently as I asked, Are you not scared?
She froze once more while looking at with her sparkling eyes. I didnt have ti to think about that, she replied before withdrawing her hand and pretending as if nothing had occurred. What happened to you up there?
With her help, we walked back up the woods to find an expected result: the light, the people, and all of the birds had vanished without a trace.
I got her to call Shen Shiyan imdiately before giving her an account of what I saw and everything that had happened.
While waiting for the police to co, the two of us sat against a large boulder surrounded by darkness. We only had an on-and-off and sowhat malfunctioning flashlight she brought.
Was there anything special with the boy, Zhu Zihan? she asked.
I didnt observe anything special about him.
She furrowed her brows, thinking about sothing before she said, There must be a reason.
Indeed.
I raised my face toward the dark sky dotted with a smattering of stars and felt that the sky seed particularly lonely tonight, prompting to pull out a cigarette. As I was about to light it, I saw Tan Jiaos eyes that were reflecting the orange light from the lighter fire. She looked at intently. You cant stop smoking, can you?
I took a draw from my lit cigarette and quipped, Have you ever seen a laborer that doesnt smoke?
She let out a smile in response, a seemingly aningful smile.
I took the cigarette out of my mouth and asked her if she wanted a go.
She shook her head. I dislike won that smoke.
Thats good to hear.
I noticed her hands subconsciously moving back and forth on the ground. Upon closer inspection, I found her pulling out weeds, kneading them in her hand before mashing the grass ball and throwing it away. I looked at her little actions and said, Didnt you say youll handle everything and crack the case? Whats detective Tan thinking about?
She dusted her hands off and said, Well, this man is not abducting the children for money. If he was, why didnt he abduct children from wealthy families? Also, you observed that the children were not tortured, which ans the perp is not doing this to fulfill a desire. If hes schizophrenic and is just randomly abducting children, then why is he able to succeed every ti without leaving a trace? Also, he seems to be following a certain pattern with his abductions. He is not selling the children to another person but keeping them here. So what do you think hes up to?
If hes clear-minded and hes not doing it for money, power, or desires, then it must be love or hate.
Shock briefly appeared on Tan Jiaos face, seemingly not expecting such a response from . Yeah what you said is possible. But, we could also do a more detailed analysis of his psyche through our observation of him so far. Hear out. I have noticed that his victims are all from the sa area. Even though there were children ages seven and eight, they looked like five or six year olds because of their small stature. As such, we can conclude that the targets he chooses look around the sa age while having similar family backgrounds. Yet, after all that effort, he rely keeps them here. So it seems to hes keeping them as companions.
Our gaze t while our surroundings filled with chirps of crickets, and the flashes of police cars appeared at the foot of the hill.
The information from the police details the man as a habitual thief that has received training with years of experience.
Tan Jiao said, Most of the thieves syndicates control have lost their families. So were even orphans themselves.
There was a brief pause between us before she said, But what has he got to do with that ship? With what has happened to us?
The image of that man controlling the birds and that twisted smile which seed sad and joyous at the sa ti erged in my mind. Tan Jiao, when we were on that ship, did you see that person?
Tan Jiao was sowhat taken aback. No, I dont think so.
Neither have I. I guess we can only discover the truth when we catch him.
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