Chapter 76: Chapter 76: Song Yangming Is Missing, Why Look For Us?

...Huh?

Chi Wan really hadn’t expected Li Xingye to blurt out something like that.

And seeing the slightly confused look in Chi Wan’s eyes, Li Xingye felt a bit embarrassed. After all, this was the first time he’d ever badmouthed someone behind their back.

But Brother Qiang had told him a long time ago that when you’re chasing a girl, you can’t be too concerned with saving face.

His exact words at the time were: "Especially a girl like the Space God. Like you said, she has a great personality and she’s beautiful. Don’t you think the guys chasing her would form a line? You’re already in a long-distance situation and can’t even be by her side. If you’re still so obsessed with saving face, what makes you think you can win against the others?"

Li Xingye couldn’t agree more.

So he bit the bullet and said, "Even though no one likes me and I’ve never been in a relationship, a young talent like Xiahou Yu... he must not be short on girlfriends, right? No wonder he’s so good at picking out gifts for girls."

But even after trying to comfort himself, he still felt a little guilty. As a result, Li Xingye’s words came out not only lacking confidence, but also with a slight stutter.

Watching him, Chi Wan remained outwardly calm, but inwardly she was dying to slam the table and shout: ’This incredible contrast is just too much! It’s against the rules!’

’Who would have thought that the total badass who was coolly waving his hand and taking out a huge horde of zombies just ten minutes ago would now be racking his brains trying to say "bad things" about another man?’

’And that struggle on his face, which he thought he was hiding so well... he just looked so easy to bully...’

At that moment, Chi Wan could never have imagined how much she would one day miss this slightly inexperienced Li Xingye and his still-unrefined, manipulative words.

She rested her chin in her hands, a smile in her eyes as she watched Li Xingye try to avoid her gaze from across the small table. She asked softly, "Brother Xingye, why... are you so concerned about Xiahou Yu?"

Li Xingye froze, his eyes meeting Chi Wan’s instinctively.

"I..."

"Wanwan? Are you in your room? Come out for a second!"

Just as Li Xingye was trying to summon the courage to tell Chi Wan that he didn’t care about Xiahou Yu at all, but about her, Song Yinghe’s voice suddenly called out from a distance.

For some reason, even though her mother couldn’t see them, Chi Wan still felt like she’d been caught red-handed.

She quickly stood up. Just as she was about to leave, she thought of something. With a mischievous smile, she pushed the wrapped candy she was holding into Li Xingye’s mouth. "We’ll talk next time. I’m leaving now~"

With that, she left the Space without a backward glance.

Li Xingye watched her retreating back, the lively swing of her ponytail, and felt a sense of disappointment.

He tasted the candy in his mouth. A delicate sweetness spread from the tip of his tongue, just like Chi Wan...

"HISS—"

Once the outer layer of powdered sugar was gone, the candy suddenly became incredibly sour. Li Xingye almost lost his composure.

In the end, he couldn’t bear to spit it out. After the initial wave of sourness passed, a hint of sweetness slowly returned to the candy.

Li Xingye sat there and couldn’t help but chuckle softly. ’This candy really is like Chi Wan. Sweet at first glance, but then she’ll suddenly stick out her little claws and scratch you, and you can’t even get mad at her.’

What could he do?

After all, one was a willing victim, the other a willing aggressor.

*

Chi Wan left the Space, unable to stop herself from snickering at the thought of Li Xingye’s face when the sourness hit.

Seeing her daughter finally open the door, Song Yinghe guessed she must have been in the Space. She smiled and said, "What is it? Did something good happen? You look so happy."

Chi Wan hooked her arm through Song Yinghe’s and said coaxingly, "It’s nothing, it’s nothing. I’m just happy thinking about school starting soon. Mom, what did you call me for?"

Song Yinghe knew perfectly well that Chi Wan was just putting her on. ’Happy about school starting?’ she thought. ’I seem to remember a certain someone crying with red-rimmed eyes during her freshman military training, saying she was homesick.’

She didn’t call her out on it, simply leading Chi Wan downstairs. Her expression grew more serious. "It’s people from the police station. They said... Song Yangming is missing. They’re here to investigate."

A flicker of something passed through Chi Wan’s eyes. "Song Yangming is missing? What are they doing here looking for us?"

Song Yinghe shook her head. "I’m not sure either. But apparently, your grandmother was the one who called the police. When the police contacted your father and me, we were worried it might be some kind of scam again. It wasn’t until they said it was about Song Yangming that we rushed back."

"It’s strange, though. Normally, if anything happened to Song Yangming, your grandfather and grandmother would have been at our door in a heartbeat. But this time..."

Chi Wan understood. She guessed that Qian Cuicui and the others, cornered by gambling debts, had actually gone to find Song Yangming’s biological father, Song Baihan.

But Chi Wan couldn’t guess the specifics of their conversation. She was just curious: was Song Yangming’s disappearance the He Family’s doing... or was it arranged by Song Baihan?

After all, given Song Yangming’s personality, if Song Baihan had offered him a large sum of money on the condition that he cut ties with Song Jianguo and Qian Cuicui, he would likely have "disappeared" without a second thought.

Full of questions, the mother and daughter went downstairs.

Sure enough, three people in police uniforms—two men and a woman—were standing downstairs. Seeing Song Yinghe and Chi Wan approach, they didn’t act overly stern, merely stating that they were there to conduct a routine investigation.

After they all took their seats, the oldest of them, a female officer, spoke. "We received a report that Song Yangming has been missing for over three days. As people who had direct contact with him recently, we need to understand what happened at that time." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Chi Yuanshan spoke up. "Officer, this is what happened. Song Yangming came over with my father-in-law and mother-in-law. They were mainly here to ask us for money to pay off his gambling debts. But my wife and I weren’t home at the time; only my daughter was here."

"Luckily, one of her senior brothers and his grandfather came over for a visit and helped Wanwan chase the three of them away."

The female officer nodded and then turned to Chi Wan. "Young lady, can you describe the situation in more detail? Song Yangming’s mother claims they went to the hospital right after leaving your house. We did indeed find a record of his visit. Did things get physical?"

Chi Wan didn’t pretend to be nervous. She just nodded calmly and said frankly, "At the time, Song Yangming was desperate for money and wanted to force our family to sell our mountain to pay his gambling debts. I refused. But my grandfather and grandmother, seeing that I was home alone, actually threatened to use their authority as elders to sell me off for a bride price."

She made no effort to hide her disgust for Song Yangming. "Luckily, my senior brother and his grandfather arrived in time. I’ve also learned some self-defense, so I wasn’t at a disadvantage and managed to run them off. Officer, you said he’s missing. Could he have been kidnapped by his creditors?"

The interrogating officer exchanged a look with the one beside her and took out a report. "During our investigation, we found that you had someone run a test for you a while ago. You’re a young girl, why would you suddenly think to get a maternity test for your mother and grandmother?"

"Or... did you already know something?"