Morning on campus was filled with the sound of students reading aloud. The busiest place was the cafeteria. Once morning study ended, every corner of it would be occupied by students. Ming Han finished the sandwich he had made himself outside the cafeteria and waited for the student army to arrive.
The doll that had mysteriously appeared in Liu Wenran’s desk was a puzzle they had to solve. Otherwise, it would be difficult to push the investigation any further. Technical Investigation could currently determine only that the surveillance cameras had been disrupted by a special device from overseas, and there was essentially no way to trace whoever had used it through the device itself. Since that road was blocked, Ming Han intended to set the surveillance issue aside and start with the doll itself. Only Liu Wenran and the few girls who had been with her at the time had seen it. Could other students at No. 10 Middle School have seen the same doll, or something similar?
The moment the bell rang, students surged toward the cafeteria like ten thousand galloping horses. Some of those at the front were even banging their lunchboxes, producing a cheerful clatter. Ming Han stepped back beside one of the cafeteria pillars so he would not block their path. Only after most of the wave had rushed inside did he leisurely follow, wandering among the tables.
As expected, the students could not stop talking about the missing Liu Wenran. Once countless eyes focused on someone, no matter who they were, it became difficult to maintain their usual “persona.” Not long ago, Liu Wenran had still been the “rich-girl goddess.” Now words like “Xingwen Street,” “mahjong parlor,” and “selling herself” were appearing more and more often in conversations. The sudden failure of the Class 13 surveillance cameras and the doll Liu Wenran had received were also hot topics.
“What did that doll actually look like? Everyone keeps talking about it, but nobody has a photo.”
“Because nobody took one. The rich girls in Class 13 all saw it. If you want a photo, go ask them.”
“Then how am I supposed to know whether I got one too? This is terrifying!”
“Please. Why would you get one?”
“Didn’t they say it looked like those blind boxes or chibi figures? I have dozens. Who knows which one it was?”
“Right? And honestly, the big-IP blind boxes are kind of boring now. Niche custom groups and handmade ones are more popular. I was planning to give you guys some custom pieces for Christmas.”
“Stop, stop! I’m scared of these things now!”
Listening to the students, Ming Han caught several useful details. Niche dolls had recently become popular gifts among students. With blind boxes and collectible figures becoming so common, perhaps other people had received dolls similar to Liu Wenran’s.
The doll brought back from Huang Fei’s home had undergone a preliminary examination at Beiye Sub-bureau. It was not any product currently sold on the market. It had been handmade, but the craftsmanship was sophisticated enough that someone unfamiliar with blind boxes and collectible figures might assume it was a new commercial release.
While he was thinking, Ming Han suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure: Lü Ou. Almost every student appearing in the cafeteria at this hour had come for breakfast, but what Lü Ou held in his hands was a doll.
Ming Han frowned faintly and immediately moved closer. Lü Ou was sitting at a table with three girls. The girls were obviously there for breakfast, with food in front of each of them, while Lü Ou held the doll and chatted with them, smiling. The cafeteria was too noisy for Ming Han to hear what they were saying. From where he stood, however, he could make out the doll’s general appearance. It was a little Halloween monster, completely different from the one Liu Wenran had received.
Ming Han took out his phone, zoomed in, snapped a picture, and immediately ran an image search. As expected, it was simply an ordinary product currently on sale.
What is Lü Ou doing with it?
Before long, Lü Ou handed the doll back to the girl sitting across from him, stood, said a few more words that looked like thanks, then left without noticing Ming Han behind him.
The break was simply too short. Before the bell rang again, students were already filing back toward their classrooms.
Ming Han considered Lü Ou’s behavior. The doll had obviously belonged to the girl across from him, and Lü Ou had borrowed it for a look. Why was he paying so much attention to dolls? Because he really was involved in Liu Wenran’s disappearance? That did not quite make sense either. If he knew what Liu Wenran’s doll looked like, he probably would not have paid attention to the ugly little object just now when it clearly had nothing to do with the problematic doll.
Even so, Lü Ou was someone worth investigating thoroughly. He really did not behave like an ordinary student.
The workday had officially begun. After the sub-bureau detectives finished their meeting, they returned to No. 10 Middle School. Ming Han met with a technical investigation officer, who brought him something that could only barely be called a lead. Because they still could not identify who had interfered with the cameras, the time frame under review had been expanded again and again. Unexpectedly, they discovered that over the previous three months, twelve surveillance cameras around No. 10 Middle School had experienced interference that rendered them unusable.
Ming Han lowered his voice. “Twelve? Same method? That foreign jammer again?”
The technical investigation officer shook his head. “No. Those twelve were direct intrusions. That’s why I don’t think there’s necessarily much connection.”
Ming Han said, “If they were intrusions, you should be able to trace where they came from.”
“In theory, yes. But if the other party bounced through enough intermediary servers, there isn’t much hope.” The officer looked troubled. “You know how time-consuming something like this is.”
Anyone would hesitate before spending a huge amount of time on a detail that might not even matter.
“It’s fine. Keep checking,” Ming Han said. The technical investigation officer visibly relaxed. “Brother Bird, you said it.”
Ming Han patted him on the shoulder and laughed. “Wasn’t that why you came to ask me in the first place? You wanted me to make the decision for you.”
Caught out, the officer scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and went back to work.
Ming Han spent the entire morning at No. 10 Middle School. Rather than taking part in the sub-bureau’s routine investigation, he moved around the teaching buildings, sports field, and other crowded areas, staying wherever the students gathered. Gradually, he realized that plenty of girls carried dolls of various kinds, and most of them were designed to look a little unusual. Much of their conversation also centered on Liu Wenran and the doll.
The police had not publicly circulated a photograph of the doll. Very few people had actually seen it, and verbal descriptions naturally became distorted. Girls who owned dolls began wondering whether they had received something similar. All kinds of figures were brought out and compared. As everyone helped eliminate possibilities, the whole thing gradually transformed into a recreational doll-showing session.
Ming Han returned to Class 13. Compared with the other classes, the atmosphere there was much heavier. Zhou Xi had taken leave because of what happened to Liu Wenran. Her parents said that being questioned by police had caused her significant emotional distress and that she needed several days to recover.
The other three girls who had opened the package with Liu Wenran had come to school. They were surrounded in the corridor by other girls holding dolls out for them to identify.
The three looked uncomfortable. Perhaps their upbringing kept them from losing their tempers. Even with dolls practically shoved into their faces, they patiently shook their heads. “No. It doesn’t look like it…”
Only when class was about to begin did the students from the other classes finally leave.
One of the girls was Xiaowen, who had spoken with Ming Han the day before. He asked, “What were they asking you just now? They weren’t bullying you, were they?”
Xiaowen hurriedly shook her head. “No, no. It’s just Wenran’s doll. I saw it, so…” At the mention of Liu Wenran, the brightness in her face faded and her nose turned red. “Can Wenran still be found?”
“We’re working on it.” Ming Han asked, “They wanted you to help check whether their own dolls looked like Liu Wenran’s, right?”
Xiaowen nodded. “Yes. Everyone’s scared.”
“Scared?”
“Because something happened to Wenran. Who’ll be next?”
Students had the richest imaginations. Ming Han followed her train of thought. “Then did you see any that looked similar?”
“I…” Xiaowen grew nervous. “I think two really did look a little alike. Not exactly the same, but the style was like Wenran’s. I didn’t dare tell them.”
Ming Han’s nerves immediately tightened. “Whose?”
Xiaowen became even more anxious. “The dolls can’t really be dangerous, can they? Something won’t happen to them too, right? They already looked scared, and I wasn’t completely sure they were the same kind, so I didn’t dare say anything.”
“It’s all right. Tell me and let the police decide.” Ming Han took Xiaowen into an office, briefly explained things to a teacher, then said to her, “Just tell me what you saw.”
Xiaowen calmed slightly. The two girls were Li Jing from Class 15 and Xu Li from Class 4. They were classmates in a competition-training course and had come to find her together.
Ming Han finished writing it down, then suddenly thought of Lü Ou. “Right. Has Lü Ou from Class 2 come looking for you?”
Xiaowen made a startled sound. “He… he did.”
“He asked about the doll too?”
“Yes. But isn’t he really strange? The police called him in yesterday too. I didn’t dare tell him anything.”
“What exactly did he ask? Don’t be afraid. We’ll protect you.”
Xiaowen explained that Lü Ou had stopped her the moment she arrived at school that morning and dragged her into a deserted corner, frightening her so badly that she could barely speak. He immediately demanded to know what the doll looked like. How was she supposed to describe it? All she could think was that Lü Ou had hurt Wenran and had now come to hurt her. Lü Ou then asked whether she had seen any similar dolls. She told him no. He seemed impatient, completely unlike the sunny, cheerful person he normally presented himself as.
Only when he realized he would get nothing out of her did Lü Ou let her go. He even warned her not to tell anyone he had approached her.
Ming Han comforted Xiaowen for a while, then said, “If you see another similar doll, tell me immediately.”
Xiaowen nodded rapidly.
There was no time to lose. Ming Han immediately went to find Li Jing and Xu Li while thinking about Lü Ou. It really did seem that the boy knew nothing about the doll itself and, like Ming Han, was investigating it. But why? The police were investigating because there was a case. What was Lü Ou’s motive? To find Liu Wenran? To find her before the police did?
Li Jing and Xu Li were both excellent students. When Ming Han found them, their teachers looked incredulous. The two girls themselves seemed to have anticipated something and sat opposite Ming Han relatively calmly.
“You seem to know why I’m here?” Ming Han deliberately made his tone light.
Li Jing and Xu Li exchanged glances. Xu Li said, “Because of the missing girl from Class 13, right? We just went to ask one of the Class 13 students something, and then you came. The way she looked at our dolls was strange. I thought there might be a problem.”
As expected of students from the competition class, their minds moved quickly. Ming Han said, “Do you have the dolls with you? Let me see.”
Both hesitated. Li Jing was the first to pull a drawstring pouch from the pocket of her school uniform. Seeing this, Xu Li took hers out too.
Ming Han put on gloves, opened both pouches, and removed the items one by one.
The two dolls were different colors and had different hairstyles, but their facial features were almost identical to the doll in police custody.
Because they were handmade, slight differences in detail were inevitable. But the similarity of their facial features was already enough to show that they came from the same series.
Xu Li asked uneasily, “They really look like the missing girl’s?”
Ming Han photographed the dolls from several angles instead of answering. “How did you get these?”
Xu Li slumped against the back of her chair. “So they really are the same.”
Li Jing patted her arm. “Don’t worry too much. The police are here now. Nothing will happen.”
Ming Han gave Li Jing a small thumbs-up. “Exactly. Answer my question first.”
Xu Li was still trapped in her anxiety, so Li Jing did most of the talking. Neither she nor Xu Li collected blind boxes or figurines. They had bought the dolls only because they wanted good exam results.
Both had uneven grades that would hurt them in the gaokao. Their mathematics-competition performance was decent, but they had failed to place in Grade 11. Grade 12 was their last chance. If they won second prize or higher, they could earn bonus points for the college entrance examination.
Neither girl considered herself superstitious, but with the most important exam of their lives approaching, they still wanted a little psychological reassurance. Xu Li therefore suggested getting an exam-luck doll. Plenty were sold online, but they all looked ordinary.
The previous month, the girls had gone out shopping over the weekend to relax. They happened across a market aimed specifically at young people. Xu Li noticed one stall covered in dolls. Its sign advertised blessings for exam luck, romance, health, and similar wishes.
“Why don’t we buy one of these?” Xu Li picked up one of the dolls. “Its expression is weird. It has more personality than the ones online.”
Li Jing knew nothing about this sort of thing either. She simply found it unusual and, out of curiosity, asked the stallholder, “Can it really bless us with good exam results?”
The stallholder said yes. Delighted, the girls paid. Dolls like these would normally be displayed somewhere obvious, but because they were competitive, neither girl wanted her roommates to know. They usually kept the dolls inside drawstring bags hidden in their wardrobes.
Li Jing said, “If everyone hadn’t started talking about the missing girl receiving some strange doll, we never would’ve taken ours out.”
Ming Han asked, “Where was the market? What did the stallholder look like?”
“On the first floor of Quanmao Center. I think they hold markets there pretty often. It’s lively.” Li Jing thought for a moment and nudged Xu Li. “Do you remember what the stallholder looked like?”
Xu Li’s face was pale. “She didn’t have a face.”
Even Ming Han froze for an instant. Quanmao Center was Zhuquan City’s largest shopping mall. How could someone sell things there without a face?
Li Jing remembered. “She was wearing a mask, one of those fox masks. She was a girl and wore traditional-style clothes. Probably pretty young. Ah… none of us thought there was anything strange about her wearing a mask at the time!”
Ming Han had visited plenty of open markets himself. In recent years, this kind of commercial event had become common. Stallholders dressed in all kinds of strange costumes. Whether they actually sold anything was one thing, but they certainly made a mall look lively. In an environment like that, nobody would find it strange if the seller wore a fox mask, never mind something even more monstrous.
“How much did she charge?” Ming Han asked. “Do you still have the payment record?”
“Not much. Thirty yuan.” Both girls started searching through their phones. Since some time had passed, it took them a while to find the transaction.
The payment had been made on October 17. The recipient was a personal account whose profile picture was a blurry image of someone who appeared middle-aged. The displayed name ended in “Fang,” looking more like the account of a woman selling vegetables than the young fox-masked stallholder they had described.
Li Jing and Xu Li were both certain this was the transaction. Ming Han photographed the detailed page, then said, “Can I keep these two dolls for now?”
Xu Li already regarded hers like a hot potato. She did not want to keep it, but did not dare throw it away either. The moment Ming Han offered to take it, she said quickly, “Yes, yes! You don’t even need to give it back!”
After sending the girls back to class, Ming Han called Kong Bing from the corridor and explained the new development, then sent him photographs of both the transaction record and the dolls. Kong Bing immediately began investigating the account holder. Ming Han planned to head to Quanmao Center himself. But just after putting away his phone and taking a few steps, he spotted Lü Ou again.
It was already the final class before lunch, with another twenty minutes until the bell. Why was Lü Ou leaving the teaching building now? Every floor had bathrooms, so surely he had not come downstairs just for that. And if he intended to race for lunch, he was much too early. Class 2 was an experimental class with strict rules, and Lü Ou was a class officer besides. Why was he skipping class?
Ming Han simply followed.
Lü Ou seemed to sense someone following him and looked around warily, unlike the relaxed manner he had shown the day before. But he did not spot Ming Han.
He went into the Grade 11 building. When he emerged, he had changed out of his school uniform and into a black hoodie and sweatpants, with a cap pulled over his head.
Well, look at you. Dressed like a criminal now.
Lü Ou reached the school gate. Students were not normally allowed to come and go freely during class hours, but after he said something to the security guard, the man let him out. Ming Han wanted to ask the guard what Lü Ou had said, but he was afraid of losing the boy and chose to keep following instead.
Lü Ou looked around by the roadside, apparently trying to hail a taxi. Ming Han’s motorcycle was still inside the school. He could hardly go back for it now. A taxi approached, and Lü Ou raised his hand. The car stopped.
This is bad. Ming Han could not see another available taxi anywhere. He quickly memorized the license plate and was about to send it to Kong Bing when a car suddenly pulled up in front of him.
He knew the car far too well. He simply had not expected to see it now.
The window lowered, revealing Chen Zheng’s face. “Get in.”
There was no time to ask why Chen Zheng had appeared. Ming Han immediately said, “Lü Ou’s in the taxi ahead. I don’t know why he’s skipping class.”
Chen Zheng nodded, merged into traffic, and followed from a safe distance.
The taxi did not seem to realize it was being followed and continued normally. Traffic on the main road was somewhat congested around noon. At 12:05, the taxi stopped on Tideng Road.
Chen Zheng stopped as well. Looking ahead, all they could see were students. They had left one school and arrived at another.
Liren Middle School, like No. 10, was one of Zhuquan City’s key middle schools.
“What’s he doing here?” Ming Han already had a hand on the door. Lü Ou had gotten out and was walking toward the gate while the taxi pulled away.
“You follow him. I need to find somewhere to park. I can’t stop here,” Chen Zheng said.
Ming Han immediately got out. Chen Zheng turned the car around and slowly rolled away. Ming Han had already gone several steps when he looked back at the departing car, the corner of his mouth lifting into a smile.
It was lunchtime, and the school gate was packed. Many students disliked the cafeteria and preferred the snacks sold outside, so every stall had a line. Security was also more relaxed at this hour. Whether someone was wearing a uniform or carrying a student ID hardly mattered.
Lü Ou walked straight inside without being stopped. Ming Han, on the other hand, was questioned by the guard. Keeping his eyes on Lü Ou, Ming Han quickly showed his credentials. “You heard about the missing-person case at No. 10? We’re expanding our campus-safety investigation.”
Of course the guard had heard. He and his coworkers had spent the entire morning discussing it. He immediately let Ming Han through.
Ming Han genuinely could not tell what Lü Ou had come to do. The boy looked as if he were searching for someone, yet he was not heading directly to any destination. Instead, he wandered through the campus, continuously watching his surroundings. Usually, someone behaving like this had noticed they were being followed and was deliberately taking detours to shake the tail. But Lü Ou was different. He repeatedly stopped in crowded areas, which was the opposite of what someone trying to lose a pursuer would do.
Ming Han happened to be wearing a hoodie. He pulled the hood up, obscuring part of his face.
Lü Ou kept going to places where there were more girls. Ming Han finally began to understand. Is he still looking for girls with dolls? Did he hear something at No. 10 and come all the way to Liren?
Some students had finished lunch and were returning, making the inside and outside of the teaching buildings especially lively. Lü Ou entered the Grade 11 humanities building. His clothes stood out sharply against the students around him, and his face was attractive enough that girls kept glancing over. Those looks helped Ming Han. Lü Ou never discovered who was actually following him.
Lü Ou went to the third floor, checked the class signs one by one, and finally stopped outside Grade 11 Class 20 to look inside.
A student asked, “Who are you looking for?”
“Is Xiao Ling here?” Lü Ou asked.
A girl with two low ponytails said in surprise, “That’s me. Who are you?”
“Can you come out for a second? I want to ask you something.”
A boy appearing at a classroom door to ask for a girl was an extremely familiar scene on a high-school campus. Everyone immediately began hooting and teasing. Xiao Ling flushed red and was pushed outside by her classmates. “Who… who are you?”
Lü Ou suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward a small balcony at the far end of the corridor. Another wave of teasing rose behind them.
Ming Han followed quietly. When he reached the balcony, however, he could not simply walk in. Lü Ou had locked the door, and nothing they said could be heard from outside.
Ming Han was in no hurry. He leaned against the wall and waited.
Just then, a message arrived on his phone. Chen Zheng asked where he was. Ming Han sent his location, then suddenly remembered Chen Zheng coming to pick him up and asked, “Bro, how come you came to No. 10?”
On Chen Zheng’s side, “typing…” remained on the screen for a long time before the reply finally arrived. “Finished questioning Cao Wenmei. Came to see how things were going on your side.”
“That’s all?”
Chen Zheng was walking and did not want to type. “What else would it be?”
Ming Han played the voice message three times, then sent one back. “I thought after eating my sandwich, you’d be thinking fondly of how good I am and come pick me up for lunch.”
Chen Zheng stopped halfway through listening. He had not actually planned to have lunch with Ming Han, but it was true that he had been thinking about him. He had been analyzing the case perfectly well when Kong Bing casually mentioned Ming Han, breaking his train of thought so completely that he could not get it back. In the end, he had decided he might as well come to No. 10 and see whether this particular colleague had eaten. If not, the hamburger place outside the school had a buy-one-get-one deal.
When no reply came for a long time, Ming Han did not mind. This was a high-school campus, and everything around him carried the raw greenness of youth. Places like this made immature thoughts arise more easily and stirred memories that seemed distant but had never truly faded. When it came to Chen Zheng, Ming Han had once used every ounce of strength he had to restrain himself. Now he simply could not be bothered anymore.
His phone finally vibrated with a new message, but he did not get a chance to read it. The door connecting the corridor to the balcony had opened. The girl came out first, looking as if she had suffered a tremendous shock. She was dazed. The moment she saw Ming Han, she froze, then hurried downstairs.
The scene easily suggested that Lü Ou might have done something inappropriate to her, but Ming Han did not think the boy would skip class and come all this way just to do something like that to a girl he did not even know.
Lü Ou came out next and stopped in surprise.
Ming Han no longer bothered hiding. “I just saw that girl run off looking terrified. What did you do to her?”
Lü Ou immediately became guarded. “You followed me?”
Ming Han snorted. “That means you were worth following. Come on. What are you doing here?”
Lü Ou stared at him for a moment, then turned with an ugly expression and started walking away.
“Stop.” Ming Han said, “What does Liu Wenran’s disappearance have to do with you?”
“Didn’t you check the surveillance? I was at school when she disappeared. My roommates can testify.”
“Then what exactly are you doing now?” Ming Han asked. “Studying other girls’ dolls in the cafeteria this morning, skipping class to come here, and looking for someone. Who was that girl? You called her Xiao Ling?”
“None of your business.” Perhaps because they were no longer at No. 10, Lü Ou could not even be bothered maintaining his sunny, cheerful disguise. “I have nothing to do with Liu Wenran’s disappearance. Whatever else I do, as long as I’m not breaking the law, you police have no right to demand an explanation for every little thing.”
When Chen Zheng reached the Grade 11 humanities building, he happened to run into Lü Ou coming down with a dark expression. They passed each other, and surprise flashed in Lü Ou’s eyes. Chen Zheng turned to watch his retreating back, finding something odd.
While we’re investigating Lü Ou, has Lü Ou also been investigating each of us?
Ming Han came downstairs. Chen Zheng immediately asked, “What happened?”
Only after seeing Chen Zheng did Ming Han remember there had been another unread message. There was no point stopping Lü Ou now. The kid had already made his position clear: you don’t have the right to demand an explanation from me. Ming Han simply opened the chat to see what Chen Zheng had sent. It read: “Message withdrawn.”
Ming Han: “…”
“Bro, what did you withdraw?” Ming Han asked, waving his phone.