The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 343: Missing

She shot to her feet when she saw Gao Yang and Wang Zikai, and she rushed toward Gao Yang, holding onto his arm.

“Brother!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Gao Yang caught her hands. “What did the police say?”

“The case was filed and the investigation started. They told me to go home and wait for updates. Mom...mom’s gonna be okay, right?” Gao Xinxin’s eyes brimmed with tears as she spoke.

“She will,” Gao Yang reassured her with confidence he didn’t feel.

For the next ten minutes, Gao Xinxin told Gao Yang and Wang Zikai about the disappearance.

It all started on the first day of the Crimson Tide.

Things were fine when Gao Yang and Wang Zikai left home for the club. At seven, the rest of the family had dinner together before going on a stroll. After a while, they started feeling drowsy and decided to go back home.

It was then Gao Yang’s mother remembered that they had run out of soy sauce, and she went out alone to the supermarket to get a new bottle, telling the others to go home first.

It shouldn’t have taken her long.

But she never returned.

Half past seven, his father and grandmother had already retired to their bedrooms. Gao Xinxin was feeling sleepy as well, but since mom wasn’t home yet, she called her.

She told Gao Xinxin that she had run into a highschool classmate she hadn’t seen for a long time in the supermarket. They used to be close, and his mother decided to stay the night at her friend’s place.

Gao Xinxin didn’t think too much of it, falling asleep on the couch.

The next morning, the family woke up to find that his mother still hadn’t come home.

His father called her, only to find her phone shut off.

His father was a little worried, but it wasn’t a big deal for an adult to visit a classmate; perhaps her phone had simply run out of battery.

However, his mother was still missing by the evening, and her phone stayed dead.

Only then did the family recognize how strange the situation was. They considered calling the police. Since she had been unreachable for twenty-four hours, the situation met the criteria for a missing person case to be filed.

Strangely, even though they were all worried about his mother, they fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the day came.

His mother was still nowhere to be seen when they woke up, and their call didn’t get through to her phone. They decided to turn to the police.

It would be difficult for Gao Yang’s father to go to the station in a wheelchair, and the same was true of his grandmother, whose old age had caught up with her. Thus, Gao Xinxin went on her own and told the police everything.

The police’s first theory was that his mother’s classmate might have joined a pyramid scheme or a scam syndicate, and his mother had been fooled in some way or even imprisoned.

The police started an official investigation and were now going over the surveillance footage of the community. They told Gao Xinxin to stay at home, and should his mother call, she must record the call from the very beginning and notify the police.

Gao Xinxin called his father and grandmother, telling them to not worry and wait at home.

Finally, Gao Xinxin settled down somewhat. “I’m sorry, Brother. I know you’re keeping Wang Zikai company as he trains...”

“Nonsense!” Wang Zikai cut her off vehemently. “Your mother’s missing. With something like that happening, how am I supposed to keep training?”

“But isn’t being a pro gamer your dream?”

“I’ve got loads of dreams. Failing one isn’t a big deal!” Wang Zikai added, “Besides, there’s always tomorrow.”

“Wang Zikai’s right,” Gao Yang reassured her. “Don’t worry. Mom will be alright.”

Gao Xinxin nodded. “Let’s go look for her.”

“Yeah!” Wang Zikai said. “Get into my car. We’ll look for her together.”

“Don’t rush.” Gao Yang thought differently. “We don’t even know where to start. Let’s go home and wait for updates from the police. Then we’ll look together.”

“You’re right.” Wang Zikai nodded.

Gao Xinxin was radiating anxiety the whole drive, and Wang Zikai kept comforting her.

Gao Yang, on the other hand, was too deep in his thoughts to say much.

He was worried about his mother too, but there were two possibilities he had to consider.

First, his mother was an elite monster, and learning that Gao Yang was an awakener, she set things up to lure him out.

Second, the classmate his mother ran into was an elite monster. She had imprisoned his mother in order to lure Gao Yang out.

Both were possible, but not likely to be the case.

If an elite monster would like to lure Gao Yang out, it should’ve contacted him and given him a time and place. His mother was missing, though, which didn’t fit the MO of an elite monster hunting down an awakener.

Gao Yang, Wang Zikai, and Gao Xinxin went home to find his father and grandmother in panic. Gao Yang had to calm them down.

After that, they waited at home aimlessly, forgoing lunch altogether.

It wasn’t until five o’clock in the afternoon that two police officers visited with wiretap equipment.

They said that they had gone over the surveillance footage of the community and the supermarket by the street from last night, where the suspected crime occurred.

And indeed, the missing person had bought a bottle of soy sauce at the supermarket before running into a middle-aged woman wearing a mask and a sun hat. They had a pleasant chat before leaving the supermarket arm in arm. Then they left in a taxi.

Tracking the car through the cameras, they found out that the taxi had gone to the suburban area in the Xijing District.

There, many crossroads weren’t installed with surveillance cameras. The police had found the taxi driver and learned of the location the passengers had gotten off at, but searching through the area, they hadn’t found anything.

It was possible that Gao Yang’s mother had been kidnapped or trafficked.

The police suggested the family wait at home patiently. If it was a case of kidnapping, the kidnapper would call to ask for ransom, and the police would wiretap their calls and track the source of the signal.

If it was a case of trafficking, however, they would have to wait for the police to track down the culprit.

For the next hour, the atmosphere at home was heavy. They each had their phone in hand, waiting for a call to come. Time crawled excruciatingly slowly.

“No!” Gao Xinxin shot to her feet and handed her phone to her father, looking determined. “I’m going to look for mom!”

“I’ll go with you.” Gao Yang stood up and handed his phone to his father too, having turned on safe mode. “Wang Zikai, you drive.”

“Will do!” Wang Zikai agreed readily. He wasn’t one to sit around doing nothing. He had been itching to move already.

“Dad, Granny, stay and wait for a call,” Gao Yang said. “We’re gonna go out and look.”

“Okay,” his father croaked, nodding like his soul had left his body.

The two officers suggested they wait at home together, but they couldn’t stop Gao Yang, Gao Xinxin, and Wang Zikai when they insisted on going out and searching. After all, it wasn’t yet confirmed if the missing person had been kidnapped.

...

An hour later, Gao Yang and Gao Xinxin rode on Wang Zikai’s car to the suburban area of the Xijing District, at the crossroad where his mother had gotten off the taxi.

“Let’s think about it.” Wang Zikai pondered as he drove. “Were we the scammers or the kidnappers, where would we hide her?”

Gao Yang attempted an analysis. “It has to be a place that doesn’t attract attention, doesn’t require ID, doesn’t have so many cameras that they can’t stay unseen, and is conducive to hiding.”

Gao Xinxin called up the map on Wang Zikai’s phone, looking for places to hide in and coming up with many.

They started their search, grabbing a few bites on the way.

Time flew by, and it was half past ten at night when they realized it.

During the past few hours, Gao Xinxin had been sleepy, and she did fall asleep many times in the car but quickly jerked awake. Wang Zikai, on the other hand, had been wide awake.

Since the Crimson Tide was coming, Gao Yang suggested, “Why don’t we call it a day? Gao Xinxin, go home. Tomorrow, we’ll...”

“The Gu’s Mountain Retreat!” Gao Xinxin suddenly shouted, pointing at the map on the phone. “Here! It was supposed to be a retreat where visitors can enjoy farm life, but the construction was never completed. Could mom be hidden there?”

The possibility was slim, and Gao Yang wasn’t feeling optimistic. Still, he couldn’t just douse her hope.

Facing despair, people would reach for the slimmest possibility.

“It’s possible! Come, let’s go look!” Wang Zikai gave her his full support. He made a U-turn and drove at full throttle.