Chapter 494: Who Is It?
Bai Shan shook his head. "He’s not here. We were halfway through our books when Tongtong, the girl who came with him, said she was hungry. So he took her out to buy something to eat."
"He said they were just going to buy a roasted sweet potato, right over there, but he never came back."
Bai Shan pointed to the roasted sweet potato stall not far from the library. "When I saw he wasn’t coming back, I came out to look for him, but I couldn’t find him."
Bai Shan’s face was pale, his lips tinged with blue. He was clearly frantic. "I kept waiting for him. I’ve been waiting for half an hour and he’s still not back. His bag is still inside, so he wouldn’t just leave without a word."
Su Li’s own anxiety flared, but seeing Bai Shan’s state, she quickly patted his shoulder to soothe him.
"Don’t panic, don’t panic, Bai Shan. Take a deep breath. Little Mo wouldn’t just disappear without saying anything. Something must have just held him up."
Su Li’s mind was a tangled mess, but when she saw the purplish hue of Bai Shan’s neck from the cold and felt his icy hand, her first instinct was to calm him down.
"You need to go back inside. It’s too cold out here, you can’t get sick. I can look for Little Mo."
Bai Shan grabbed Su Li’s hand, his face etched with guilt as he took a deep breath.
"This is all my fault. I should have been the one to go buy it for them."
He had actually offered to go with them and said he’d buy it, but Little Tang Mo wouldn’t let him.
Bai Shan had poor health. He’d had a cold before that took a whole month to get over, so Little Tang Mo, afraid he’d get chilled, didn’t let him help, not even letting him come outside.
’It’s all my fault, I’m useless,’ Bai Shan thought, filled with self-blame and guilt. ’I’m supposed to be the adult, but most of the time, it’s Little Tang Mo taking care of me.’
His hand, clutching Su Li’s, was trembling. Su Li’s hand was trembling too.
She took two deep breaths, forcing herself to stay calm.
"It’s okay, it’s okay. It must just be that Little Tongtong got hungry again or wanted to eat something else, so they went somewhere."
Su Li looked directly into Bai Shan’s eyes. "Bai Shan, you need to go inside. You can’t get sick. It’s too cold out here."
"I’ll go with you," Bai Shan said, shaking his head. "I’m too worried."
But Su Li shook her head firmly. Bai Shan looked terribly unwell. "I’ll go, it’s fine. If you get sick, I’ll have to take care of you, and Little Mo would blame himself if he found out, so..."
Bai Shan’s face went pale. Whatever he thought of, he finally agreed.
"Then I’ll wait inside. Ah... Su Li, when you find Tang Mo, you have to tell me."
Looking back every few steps, Bai Shan obediently returned to the library to wait, clutching the backpack Tang Mo had left behind.
The reading room should have been closed by now, but after hearing that Tang Mo hadn’t returned, the elderly librarian was worried and waited with him.
Su Li scanned the area, then walked straight toward the woman selling sweet potatoes nearby.
The aroma of roasted sweet potatoes wafted over, but Su Li had no energy to pay it any mind.
"Ma’am, do you remember me? I bought sweet potatoes from you with my son before."
The woman nodded. "I remember, I remember."
Such a young, beautiful mother, plus the cute and clever Little Tang Mo—the mother and son duo had left a deep impression on her.
"Did Little Mo buy sweet potatoes from you today? He was with a little girl, about five or six, a bit chubby..."
Before Su Li could finish, the woman nodded. "Yes, yes, they just bought some. The little girl is very pretty. She burned her mouth eating, and your son was even blowing on it for her."
Su Li nodded. "Right, right. So they didn’t go back to the library after that? Where did they go?"
"They didn’t go back to the library. After eating the sweet potato, the little girl said she was thirsty, so your son took her over there to buy a drink."
There were shops across the street. Su Li glanced over and pressed on.
"And then? They went over there and didn’t come back?"
"I saw them cross, but then someone else came to buy sweet potatoes, so I wasn’t paying attention. What’s wrong?"
The woman looked at Su Li’s tense expression. "They didn’t come back?"
Su Li shook her head. "No, they didn’t come back."
"How could they not have gone back..." The woman was completely baffled. Su Li didn’t have time to explain further.
"Ma’am, thank you. I’m going to go over there and ask."
Su Li ran to the shops across the street. She asked at two before finally finding the right one.
"That’s right, a little boy with a little girl. They were eating sweet potatoes and came to buy soy milk."
"And after they bought the soy milk? Did you see where they went?" Su Li asked nervously.
"Oh, I wasn’t paying attention. I was inside the shop, I didn’t go out."
The shop owner scratched his head. Seeing Su Li’s anxious expression, he quickly added, "You could try asking that old man across the street. He has trouble getting around, so he usually just sits by his door watching people on the street."
Su Li managed to get another lead on Little Tang Mo and Little Tongtong from the elderly man, who looked to be over eighty.
"Ah, the two little ones? Yes, I saw them, I saw them. So adorable..."
The old man seemed like he didn’t have anyone to talk to, because as soon as Su Li asked, he started chattering away.
"...eating sweet potatoes, yes, eating sweet potatoes. They smelled so good, it made me want to buy one. I even had my son go get me one later..."
Su Li quickly interrupted him. "Sir, where did they go after that? Did you see?"
"After that, the two little ones walked up that way. Then a girl stopped them. Looked like they knew her, but it was too far for me to see clearly."
Su Li was confused. "A girl? How old? What did she look like? Where did they go in the end?"
The old man said, "A girl about your age. I couldn’t see what she looked like, and I didn’t see where they went. When I looked again, they were gone."
He’d wanted a sweet potato, so he’d sent his son to buy one. He was so busy watching his own son that he hadn’t kept an eye on the two children.
The trail for Little Tang Mo and Little Tongtong went cold here.
Su Li asked again, but the old man couldn’t offer any more details. He hadn’t gotten a clear look at the woman who had appeared.
After all, with the distance and his failing eyesight, it was a wonder he could even tell she was a young woman.
Su Li had no other choice but to keep asking around.
But she couldn’t get any more information from the surrounding shop owners or the woman at the sweet potato stall.
Still refusing to believe that Little Tang Mo could have just vanished, Su Li went back into the library’s reading room.
Standing at the entrance to the reading room was Bai Shan’s driver, his face grim and his brow furrowed with worry. His expression soured when he caught sight of Su Li.
Su Li didn’t have time to worry about it and went straight inside.
The sky was growing dark. The reading room was now empty except for the elderly librarian and Bai Shan.
Bai Shan was clutching Little Tang Mo’s backpack. When he saw Su Li enter, he shot to his feet, his gaze looking hopefully behind her.
When he saw that no one was behind her, disappointment immediately filled his eyes.
"You didn’t find them?"
The elderly librarian and Bai Shan asked in unison.
"No." Su Li’s face was ashen. She took the backpack from Bai Shan’s hands and took out its contents to inspect them.
She had packed and checked the bag herself; nothing was missing. When Little Tang Mo went out, it was just to buy a sweet potato, so he had only taken a little money with him.
The toy gun that Wu Sheng had personally made for him, the one he carried everywhere, was also in the backpack.
Su Li looked and looked, but still found nothing.