Chapter 504: Searching
Of course, Su Li and the others were still unaware of the shock Little Tang Mo had just dealt the police, or of the bloody storm that was about to unfold.
Or rather, they didn’t know *yet*.
Su Li wasn’t in the Imperial City, but in a neighboring province.
Five days had passed since Little Tang Mo was abducted, and Su Li had grown visibly gaunt.
She had never been overweight to begin with. Not long had passed since the incident with Wu Sheng, and she hadn’t had a chance to regain her strength. With Little Tang Mo gone, she grew alarmingly thin.
To Su Li, Little Tang Mo’s abduction was nothing short of the end of the world.
Compared to mothers who had completely broken down, like Tongtong’s mother, Su Li’s composure was terrifying.
But her calmness was only skin-deep. It wasn’t composure so much as frayed nerves stretched to their breaking point.
Ever since she learned Little Tang Mo was missing and confirmed he had been abducted, her nerves had been stretched taut, never once relaxing.
The shadow of her past life weighed too heavily on her. In that life, she had searched for Little Tang Mo for more than twenty long years before finally finding him.
’In this life, she didn’t know what to do, or how long she would have to search.’
The fear and pressure crushing Su Li’s heart forced her into a state of extreme calm, but it also made her torment all the more agonizing.
Tongtong’s mother could at least cry. She could cry herself to exhaustion and occasionally fall asleep. Su Li, however, couldn’t sleep at all.
She couldn’t sleep, nor could she cry. Though her heart felt like it was being torn apart, her eyes refused to shed a single tear. They were painfully dry.
’She had cried enough in her past life. In this one, she couldn’t even find release in tears.’
Tang Yuanxiao, who had also been plagued by nightmares, was ironically the one who could best empathize with Su Li’s fear and pressure.
Tang Yuanxiao didn’t know why. It had only been a dream, yet the despair he’d felt while searching for Little Tang Mo had been branded deep in his heart.
He had just managed to spend one precious day with Little Tang Mo. He’d gone home, had that terrifying nightmare, and then Little Tang Mo had vanished. The fear he felt was so intense it nearly drowned him.
Su Li dreaded the thought of another endless, twenty-year search for Little Tang Mo. And though Tang Yuanxiao had never lived through it, he shared her dread as if the memory were his own.
Recalling the information she had painstakingly gathered in her past life, combined with a previous abduction attempt in this one, Su Li quickly shifted her focus outside the Imperial City, concentrating on trains as the likely mode of transportation.
On the second day after Little Tang Mo’s disappearance, they finally got a lead.
Wu Sheng had already returned. He had just completed his selection process and was due for a few days of rest, but without a moment’s hesitation, he threw himself completely into the search.
Normally, Wu Sheng was not one to bother others, and he especially disliked using his authority for personal matters. This time, however, he begged for help from everyone he possibly could, leveraging every ounce of power at his disposal.
Friends, relatives—especially those working in the police and judicial systems—Wu Sheng reached out to all of them for help, regardless of how close they were.
He and Wu Qihua were both the same, doing everything in their power to find Little Tang Mo.
Even though Little Tang Mo was older now, and even though he wasn’t their biological son or grandson, they were doing no less than any father or grandmother would.
Even though Su Li had yet to marry Wu Sheng, and even though Wu Sheng had never explicitly said he would treat Little Tang Mo as his own son, he had long since brought the boy under his wing.
Wu Qihua already considered Su Li her daughter-in-law, and Little Tang Mo her grandson.
’When your own child—your own grandchild—is in trouble, how can you not be frantic?’
Now that they had a lead, they naturally threw everything they had into it.
Everyone’s sole focus was on finding Little Tang Mo as quickly as possible.
The days dragged on. By the fifth day, Su Li’s eyes were bloodshot, and she was growing terrifyingly thin.
Unable to sleep, she spent her days focused on one thing: finding Little Tang Mo.
Wu Sheng couldn’t bear to watch Su Li wear herself down like this. But whenever he managed to get her to close her eyes for even a moment, she would jolt awake from a nightmare, drenched in a cold sweat. Sleep was impossible.
Tang Yuanxiao was in the same state. He couldn’t sleep either, and the few times he managed to doze off, he was besieged by one nightmare after another.
Even in his dreams, he was desperately searching for Little Tang Mo, leaving him utterly exhausted, body and soul. It was more tiring than not sleeping at all.
And so, Tang Yuanxiao threw himself into the search with even greater focus, using every bit of his strength. Su Li did the same.
Five days passed. The entire Imperial City had been practically turned upside down in the search for any possible clue.
Following the trail of clues, they made their way to Yuanjing City in the neighboring province.
The trail went cold there. It took a Herculean effort to investigate further, but they eventually uncovered a new lead.
On the fifth day, they successfully rescued another child who had also been abducted from the Imperial City.
It wasn’t Little Tang Mo, but the boy had seen him.
The information they gleaned from him brought everyone a new wave of both joy and despair.
They finally had news of Little Tang Mo. And according to the rescued boy, Little Tang Mo’s behavior had been completely unexpected.
"...The big brother was amazing. I listened to him, so I didn’t get hit."
Su Li listened intently. When she heard mention of a woman with a whip, she couldn’t help but ask.
"That scary woman with the whip... what did she look like? Do you remember?"
The boy nodded. "I remember. I’d recognize her."
He could recognize her, but that was all they could get out of him.
The reason Su Li pressed about the woman was that she was fixated on the report of a woman seen talking to Little Tang Mo and the others.
Su Li couldn’t stop thinking about the young woman Little Tang Mo and Little Tongtong were last seen with before they vanished.
Little Tang Mo was usually very wary of strangers and wouldn’t say much to people he didn’t know.
’So, if they were talking to her, it was highly likely they knew her.’
’A young woman they knew... was she the one who took them? If this was a crime committed by an acquaintance, then who could it be?’
Su Li racked her brain. Then, on the second day after Little Tang Mo disappeared, she had coincidentally learned that Qin Shanshan was in the Imperial City.
Su Li’s suspicion fell on Qin Shanshan immediately. Mr. Zhang, who was heading the search, trusted that Su Li wouldn’t make baseless accusations, so he immediately began surveillance on Qin Shanshan, watching for any unusual activity.
But so far, they hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.
Su Li had no choice but to continue investigating this mysterious woman.
After a long time, Su Li still hadn’t managed to get any more information, so she could only drag her heavy feet out of the room.
"Let’s get something to eat first. After that, we can call back to the Imperial City and check on the situation there."
Wu Sheng put an arm around Su Li’s shoulders, half-supporting her. He felt as if she might collapse at any moment.
"Okay," Su Li said, forcing some energy into her voice. She looked up at Wu Sheng’s reddened eyes. "You should get some rest tonight. I’ll rest, too."
Since she couldn’t sleep, Wu Sheng had been staying up with her, and his eyes had become red as well.
Su Li felt both touched and pained. Wu Sheng had been injured before and still hadn’t fully recovered his strength. Then he’d been busy with work, and now he had followed her here, enduring even more hardship.
"Okay." Wu Sheng agreed to whatever she said.
Back in their temporary quarters, Wu Sheng brought Su Li a bowl of congee.
"Don’t force yourself to eat. Your stomach must be upset from the stress. Just have some congee tonight."
Su Li nodded. She had barely taken two bites when Tang Yuanxiao returned with Lin Huanzhu in tow.
Before leaving the Imperial City, Tang Yuanxiao had gone to the sanatorium to tell Mrs. Tang he was being sent on an assignment and wouldn’t be able to visit for a while. He had run into Lin Huanzhu there, who noticed his troubled expression and asked what was wrong.
Out of concern, Lin Huanzhu pressed, and Tang Yuanxiao didn’t hide much from her. As soon as she heard what had happened, she immediately offered to help.