Chapter 4

Chapter 4

November 13, 2020

I didn’t understand.

There were two questions I had been pondering for a long time, and I couldn’t make sense of either.

Why did Yutong ask someone else to give me two yuan that day?

And if Yutong came to buy them every day, why did that boy say she had never actually eaten one?

I moved my stall to a different kindergarten.

Every time the school bell rang,

A little girl in a blue pinafore dress,

Would always appear in my vision,

Skipping and running toward me.

Then, my thoughts would drift back to those two questions.

Day after day, the cycle repeated.

Until one ordinary afternoon,

A small coincidence,

Led me to a sudden realization regarding one of those questions.

It was a weekend,

I had nothing to do at home, so I set up my stall anyway.

As expected, there weren’t many customers.

I leaned over the table to take a nap.

In my dream, I vaguely felt a hand pushing me.

I jerked my head up.

A little girl was standing beside me.

“One red bean cake, please.”

“Oh, okay.”

I stood up, expertly bagged a cake, and handed it to her.

She took the cake and gave me a sweet smile.

I thought she wanted something else and was about to ask.

Instead, she turned around and ran off.

She didn’t pay.

I stood there dazed, watching her back disappear into the entrance of a nearby alley.

I didn’t call out to her.

This kind of thing happened occasionally.

I’d just consider it a treat on the house.

I sat back down and went back to sleep.

I don’t know how much time passed before I heard someone calling me through my haze.

“Uncle, Uncle…”

This time it was a boy’s voice.

“Oh, coming…” I looked up, let out a yawn, and grabbed a red bean cake to pack it up.

That was when I saw someone standing behind the boy.

It was the little girl from before.

There were still crumbs from the red bean cake stuck to the corner of her mouth.

Her eyes were red, and her shoulders were heaving.

She had clearly just been crying.

“I’m not here to buy a cake.

My sister was being too naughty just now. She came to your stall to get a cake but didn’t pay.”

As the boy spoke, he handed me two coins.

“Here, Uncle, I’m paying you back.”

Chapter 8

August 6, 2024, 11:10 AM

“How did you know!”

Brother Liu from the Second Team asked me in surprise.

Just moments ago, I had gone to him with the case file,

And told him about a lead I had discovered.

“That couple kept this a damn good secret,

I only found out later during a routine follow-up visit to their home.”

Brother Liu spoke as he reminisced:

“The moment I walked in and saw their balcony, I froze.

You’d think, since the child has been missing for so long,

Why would there be,

A row of freshly washed children’s clothes hanging on the balcony?

At first, her parents refused to say anything, stammering and trying to change the subject,

But how could I not press for an answer on something like that?

After I repeatedly insisted, they finally told me,

None of those clothes belonged to Ding Yutong.

That was when I learned,

Ding Yutong actually had a sister.”