Dai Zhiqiang froze in his place when he saw her.
It had been a while since she saw him, and as much as she loved to talk to him leisurely, there was a more pressing issue at hand.
"Zhiqiang, have you seen my sister anywhere?" Li Caiyi asked as she walked over to him.
"Li Chunhua left the classroom as soon as the class ended. I haven't seen her since then."
Li Caiyi was visibly disappointed upon hearing that. "I-Is that so? Alright. Thanks for your help."
"Did something happen? You seem to worry about something." Dai Zhiqiang asked carefully.
"No. I just have a bad feeling and want to make sure my sister is okay. I'll try to call her." Li Caiyi pulled out her phone and dialed Li Chunhua's number, but the line was always busy. She bit her lips in frustration.
"Do you want me to help look for her? If she is still on the school grounds, it will be faster if we search for her together."
Li Caiyi nodded gratefully. "Thank you, Zhiqiang. Then let's exchange our contact information so we can communicate."
Dai Zhiqiang took out his phone, and after successfully exchanging their contact, they split the area to search. When Li Caiyi was about to leave the classroom, Meng Renshu suddenly appeared at the entrance with a hurried expression.
"Brother Renshu?" Li Caiyi exclaimed in shock. At regular times, Li Caiyi would feel awkward and avoid him at any cost, but he was one of the best people to depend on during times like this.
"Where is Xiaohua?"
Li Caiyi and Meng Renshu asked the same question at the same time. Both of them exchange a surprise glance mixed with confusion toward each other.
"Brother Renshu, did you also look for her?"
"Yeah. She called me a while ago. When I answered, she didn't say anything, but there was a loud sound before it was completely disconnected. I called her back, but she didn't answer. It got me worried, so I thought I'd better go check on her."
His explanation only made Li Caiyi even more anxious now. If what he said was true, then the bad feeling she felt earlier must be because something had happened to Li Chunhua!
Li Caiyi was worried about her sister, but she knew she couldn't freak out here. She had to calm down if she wanted to find her sister. She rubbed her chest repeatedly before she asked Meng Renshu again.
"Where is my big brother right now?"
"Junjie is checking the schoolyard. I bet he's searching for Xiaohua around the front gate now."
"Have any of you informed this to Mother yet?"
Meng Renshu shook her head. "No. We want to make sure of the situation first before unnecessarily worrying, Auntie. When Junjie called Auntie earlier, she said Xiaohua hasn't come back yet."
"Did Mother know where she went to?"
"I don't think so. Auntie asked us why we would ask about her when she was supposed to be with us, so I don't think Auntie knows where Xiaohua is right now."
Li Caiyi fell into deep thought. Li Chunhua had always been under strict regulation, so she hardly could go anywhere outside Su Suyin's supervision. Her sister needed to report her whereabouts whenever she wanted to go to some other places regularly. The fact that Su Suyin didn't feel suspicious at all meant that Li Chunhua had reported to their mother beforehand on where she would go after school.
As a person with a weak constitution, her phone was an essential item to her, so there was no reason why she would not pick up the call. Based on Meng Renshu's explanation, it was most likely that Li Chunhua didn't disappear voluntarily. But where did she go?
"Oh! There you are, Caiyi!"
Li Caiyi turned her head to the source of the voice and found Shao Jingfei, who was covered with sweat. "Thank goodness you are still here! I think your sister is in trouble!"
Shao Jingfei's news immediately alarmed Li Caiyi and Meng Renshu. This impeccable timing must mean that Shao Jingfei knew what caused Li Chunhua's disappearance.
"Shao Jingfei, please take a deep breath, and tell us what you mean by that," Li Caiyi calmly consoled the panicked Shao Jingfei, but she was actually pretty shaken too inside.
"I was punished by Mr. Xu to clean the storage room, so I went there after the class ended. When I went out to throw the trash, I saw your sister walking with a big uncle."
"A big… uncle?" Li Caiyi frowned.
"Yeah. The uncle wore a flamboyant suit and flashy jewelry. He's at least 2 meters tall and looks pretty dangerous, but I'm not sure if that uncle is a bad person or not, so I did nothing. But I thought I should at least tell you about it."
"Why didn't you stop her? That kind of guy clearly looked suspicious. What if he is a bad person targeting young girls?" Meng Renshu said sharply with his eyes narrowed down, looking ready to pounce on Shao Jingfei.
Li Caiyi quickly held his arm to stop him from doing anything impulsive. "Brother Renshu, that's not what's important right now, and this isn't Shao Jingfei's fault. He might think that man is probably our family member, so he didn't call them out. Besides, if that man truly is a bad person, doing that might cause more danger to Xiaohua instead, and Shao Jingfei could even get dragged into it. If that happens, no one can inform us about Xiaohua's whereabouts anymore."
Meng Renshu gritted his teeth, but he had to admit that Li Caiyi was right. In this situation, this girl could think more rationally than him. He was ashamed of himself.
After calming Meng Renshu down, Li Caiyi shifted his attention to Shao Jingfei. "I'm sorry about that. He is just too worried about my sister. Don't take it to heart."
"No problem. Shall I continue, then?"
"Yes, please."
"Your sister went with them obediently. She wasn't struggling or anything like that, so I don't think there was anything wrong with it at first. But I can't calm down after that, so just to be on the safe side, I followed them and took a picture of the van they used." Shao Jingfei showed a picture on his phone. The picture showed Li Chunhua, who went into the car on her own, without anyone pushing or dragging her.
Thankfully, Shao Jingfei was smart enough to ensure the license plate was clearly captured in the picture. They could find Li Chunhua with this!
"Brother Renshu—"
"I know. Don't worry, let me take care of this." Meng Renshu gave Li Caiyi a reassuring smile while patting her head. "You should go home first and wait for further information from me and your brother. Don't tell Auntie about this yet."
"I want to come with you too!"
"No, you can't," Meng Renshu looked sternly at the girl in front of him. "This might be dangerous, so just stay back and prepare to greet Xiaohua when she comes back later."
"But I– Wait!"
Meng Renshu didn't wait for Li Caiyi to finish and ran as fast as possible. Li Caiyi, who watched his back felt that perhaps she could let him take care of this. After all, there was no way Meng Renshu would slack off when the safety of his beloved was on the line.
The Meng family had a lot of connections, and he knew a bunch of people who could help with this case. Compared to him, Li Caiyi couldn't do anything to help at all.
She was worried and frustrated, but acting stubbornly here would only delay Li Chunhua's rescue, so she begrudgingly held herself back.
"Caiyi."
Dai Zhiqiang was so quiet all this time that Li Caiyi almost forgot about him. Now that they had found where Li Chunhua was, there was no need to search within the school grounds anymore. "Zhiqiang, I don't think we need to search the school grounds anymore now. Please don't mind us and go on ahead if you want. You too, Shao Jingfei."
Shao Jingfei looked at Dai Zhiqiang and Li Caiyi alternately. Then, he replied in a friendly tone, "Well, I'm very concerned about your sister. I hope she will be fine. Please let me know if you need my help with anything. Then, I still have my punishment to do, so I'll go first."
"Thanks for your help!" Li Caiyi waved her hand lightly.
After Shao Jingfei left, Li Caiyi wondered why Dai Zhiqiang didn't go and only stood there in silence. Moreover, he had a deep frown on his face, like he was thinking seriously about something. "Zhiqiang? Do you still have something to tell me?"
Dai Zhiqiang glanced at Li Caiyi with an inexplicable gaze. He hesitated at first but eventually told her, "Caiyi, I think I know where those guys have taken Li Chunhua."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺