Chapter Nineteen: Vanished Without a Trace

  In the middle of the night, Liu Hua woke up once, but the fever had not yet subsided. After taking medicine, he fell into a deep sleep. Wu Ma was old and couldn't hold on, so she rested by Liu Hua's bedside, and soon a faint snoring sound began to emerge.

  Fang You went into the ward and saw that both people were already asleep, the lights in the corridor had also been turned off, and his tense nerves relaxed slightly.

  Yang Rong was a newcomer after all, and this was the first time she had received such a task. On such a quiet night, she yawned repeatedly, unable to hold back her sleepiness. Fang Youjian saw this and said softly, "If you're sleepy, go ahead and take a nap."

  Because I've been yawning a lot, my eyes are red and the corners of my eyes are also a bit moist. "No, let's wait until tomorrow when my colleague comes on shift, then I'll go back to sleep."

  Fang You saw that Yang Rong's eyes were already unable to open, stubbornly unwilling to sleep. "Liu Hua took the medicine, which contains sleeping pills, and shouldn't wake up. With me keeping watch, it's fine. You go to sleep first, and I'll wake you up in the second half of the night. Then you can keep watch while I sleep."

  Yang Rong got up and took a look inside the ward, and indeed two people were already asleep. Thinking that Fang You's words made some sense, since Fang You was on duty for the first half of the night and she was on duty for the second half, there was no need for both of them to stay awake, so she agreed with Fang You's suggestion.

  Fang You folded the coat and made a small pillow, placing it on the long chair, letting Yang Rong lie down. The hospital had heating, so wearing a coat was indeed a bit hot. Yang Rong also took off her coat and used it as a blanket to cover herself, and soon fell asleep after lying down for a while.

  Seeing Yang Rong fall asleep, Fang You stood up and stretched his body. If he continued to sit like this, he would definitely doze off too. So he walked back and forth in the corridor, occasionally glancing towards the ward.

  At 3:00 am, Fang You saw that Yang Rong was still sleeping and didn't want to wake her up. After looking around the ward and finding nothing unusual, he decided to go to the smoking area to smoke a cigarette and refresh himself.

  In the middle of the night, a loud cry echoed throughout the floor. In the hospital, this was nothing out of the ordinary. The commotion was so great that it worried Liu Huan awake. Conveniently, he had also finished his cigarette and extinguished the butt as he walked towards Liu Huan's ward.

  Stretching his neck to take a look, Fang You saw that it was okay, Liu Huan and Wu Ma were still asleep. Yang Rong, who was lying on the chair, turned over and almost fell off, but fortunately, Fang You caught her in time.

  The two of them remained in this strange posture, with Yang Rong's upper body half outside the chair, supported by Fang You.

  Yang Rong was so close to him that he could smell the pleasant fragrance on her body. Girls like to spray perfume, and it should be the scent of perfume. After smelling the disinfectant in the hospital all day, this smelled like perfume, which felt very good.

  Yang Rong is actually quite good-looking, usually Fang has never looked at her so closely and carefully before, now the ambiguous actions of the two people, he can't help but look clearly.

  Arched eyebrows, long eyelashes, small nose, slightly upturned lips, the mark of a beauty. I didn't expect that such a delicate and lovely woman would be a detective.

  He was so absorbed in his reading that he didn't notice a gentle breeze blowing in, although it was very slight, but in the warm room he soon became aware of it.

  Whose wind? Fang You finally realized that it was the wind blowing out of the gap in Liu Huan's hospital room door. How could there be wind, unless...

  Fang You couldn't care about Yang Rong anymore, hastily let go, and rushed towards Liu Huan's room. He opened the door, and a gust of cold wind hit him in the face.

  Without any support, Yang Rong let out a cry of "Ah" and fell off the chair.

  Fang hastily walked towards the window and found that it was open a crack. He opened the window and discovered that a bed sheet was hanging down from the window to the window of the next floor below.

  Yang Rong saw Fang You standing in front of the window, and she had a bad premonition. She quickly opened the door to the ward and found Wu Ma sleeping on the bed. The place where Liu Huan slept was bulging as if someone was lying inside. Yang Rong rushed forward and lifted the quilt, only to find that there was no sign of Liu Huan, just two pillows.

  Wu's mother was woken up by Yang Rong's movements, squinting her eyes and asking in a hoarse voice: "What are you doing?"

  "Where's Liu Huan? Where did Liu Huan go?" Yang Rong hastily asked as soon as she saw Wu Ma wake up.

  "Isn't he sleeping here? Ah, where's Liu Huan? Where did Liu Huan go?" Wu Ma thought Liu Huan was still asleep in bed. At a glance, except for the two pillows on the bed, there was no sign of Liu Huan anywhere.

  Yang Rong said with a bad temper, "I was going to ask you too!"

  "Never mind, go down and take a look." Fang You turned around and ran out of the ward, heading to the floor below where Liu Hua was facing. The floor below was a shared ward with 8 patients inside, who were still sleeping at this hour. Fang You carefully walked to the window and looked down, seeing that it wasn't locked and had signs of being opened. Could it be that Liu Hua slid down from above using the bed sheet and ran out? This was the 15th floor, if he wasn't careful, he could have fallen to his death.

  Fang You let Yang Rong hurry up and call to inform Guo Yining, while he himself went through each floor, searching every ward.

  All the wards were searched, but Liu Hua's figure was not seen. At this time, Guo Yining also rushed to the hospital, asked about the situation briefly, and did not blame Fang You and Yang Rong, but went to the monitoring room to check tonight's surveillance video.

  From the surveillance footage outside the hospital, it can be seen that Liu Huan did not leave the ward. He only threw the bed sheet out of the window and left the window half open. After about ten or so minutes, Fang You appeared on the surveillance camera, opening the window and looking down for a moment before Yang Rong turned on the light. Then the two rushed out of the ward, and Wu Ma also left the ward. At this time, Liu Huan crawled out from under the bed and walked out of the ward with a swagger.

  "He didn't go down along the bed sheet, but instead hid under the hospital bed?" Seeing Liu Hua's face appear on the video, Fang You looked like he had swallowed a fly, and unexpectedly got played by a high school student.

  "This kid is quite clever, he just took advantage of your preconceived notion." Guo Yining continued to check the surveillance footage. After Liu Hao came out of the ward, he went to the janitor's room, changed into a janitor's uniform, and pushed a trash cart past Fang Yu with a swagger.

  It wasn't until now that he recalled, when he was searching for Liu Huan room by room earlier, he did see a janitor wearing a mask. At the time, he had wondered why someone was still cleaning so late at night, but since he was in a hurry to find Liu Huan, he hadn't paid much attention.

  Liu Huan pushed the trash cart all the way to the back door of the hospital, where he took off his janitor's uniform and threw it into the trash cart, disappearing down a narrow alleyway out of sight of the surveillance cameras.

  "Go to his house and see if he's back home." Guo Yining originally wanted to scold Fang You and Yang Rong, but now it would be pointless, so she decided to focus on finding Liu Hao's whereabouts instead. "You two shouldn't stay here either, hurry up and go check Liu Hao's house."

  "Yes!" Fang You and Yang Rong replied in unison, "If Liu Huan is at home, it's still forgivable, but if he's not, they've committed a grave mistake."

  When Fang You and Yang Rong arrived at Liu Hua's home, no one was there except for Wu Ma. Fang You found it strange that Wu Ma was cooking in the kitchen, "Wu Ma, Liu Hua is gone, aren't you worried?"

  Wu's mother blamed the police for Liu Huan's escape, so she didn't want to see Yang Rong at all. "You're monitoring Liu Huan like a criminal, of course he doesn't want to show up. Once your suspicions are cleared, Liu Huan will naturally come back."

  Yang Rong didn't want to argue with Wu Ma anymore. They all understood her affection for Liu Huan, but now Liu Huan was a major suspect. If they let him escape, he might commit another crime and an innocent person would die at his hands again. "From what you're saying, do you know where Liu Huan is?"

  Wu's mother was busy in the kitchen, seeing Yang Rong blocking her way, and she didn't hesitate to push her hard. If it wasn't for Fang You supporting her, she almost fell down. "How would I know? I was asleep last night. If you hadn't woken me up, how would I have known that Liu Huan was gone? I wanted to ask you guys where he was."

  Although Fang Youjian saw that Wu Ma had a very deep impression of the two, but looking at her unhurried appearance, he guessed that Wu Ma must know where Liu Huan was. "Wu Ma, if you know where Liu Huan is, please tell us. If you don't tell us, you're not helping Liu Huan, you're harming him to kill again, and an innocent woman will be killed by him. Wu Ma, please help us."

  "What murderers, what harm people, our Liu Huan is so obedient, you police are the bad guys, not catching any murderers, running to our home, telling me a child is a murderer, you police are simply taking our ordinary people's money, not helping us ordinary people do things, I don't welcome you here, all of you get out!" Wu Ma doesn't allow anyone to say Liu Huan is bad, in Wu Ma's heart, Liu Huan is the most obedient child, seeing two people with ill intentions, she herself doesn't need to be polite to them, picking up a broom and chasing the two of them out.

  "Wu Ma, listen to me. If you tell us where Liu Huan is, we can persuade him to surrender. If he surrenders, the judge will reduce his sentence. Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Wu Ma, please tell us where Liu Huan is." Even when Wu Ma chased them away with a broom, Fang Hai still protected Yang Rong while trying to reason with Wu Ma and move her emotions, hoping she would change her mind.

  Wu Ma didn't think so, but the more Fang You said it, the angrier she became. She couldn't believe he would say such a thing to Liu Huan, it was simply unreasonable. Thinking this, her strength increased and she hit Fang You even harder, causing him to cry out in pain.

  Yang Rong saw Wu Ma take action without mercy, and quickly pulled Fang You to retreat backwards. After retreating out of the door, Wu Ma slammed the door shut, trapping the two outside.

  "How are you, does it hurt? This old lady's hand is too heavy." Yang Rong rolled up Fang You's sleeves, and despite the thick clothes, red marks were beaten out.

  "It's nothing, the old lady is also heartbroken for Liu Huan, it's understandable." Fang You endured the pain and slowly put down his sleeve to avoid worrying Yang Rong.

  "What's the point of understanding? I think she's just a stubborn old woman, it's infuriating, no matter what you say, she won't listen." Thinking of Wu Ma's appearance, Yang Rong got so angry that she stomped her feet.

  "Never mind, let's wait and see." Liu Hao left home, Wu Ma should be worried, but Fang You found that Wu Ma was not worried, but was cooking in the kitchen, as if preparing a meal for someone.

  "What? What have you found?" Yang Rong heard Fang You had something in his words, as if he had discovered something.

  He recalled that the dishes Wu's mother had made earlier were mostly light and plain, and Liu Huan had been ill recently and couldn't eat anything too greasy. It seemed that this meal was prepared for Liu Huan. "Think about it, Wu's mother is so fond of Liu Huan, but now Liu Huan is gone, she not only doesn't go look for him, but also calmly cooks dinner. According to my previous investigation, Liu Jianjun never comes home at noon. If Liu Jianjun doesn't come home, then who is the meal Wu's mother made for?"

  The listener said so, and Yang Rong also felt a bit strange, "Are you talking about Liu Hua?"

  "We can only guess that we should hide first and not let Wu Ma find out, and then see if she goes out to deliver food later." This is just Fang's speculation, whether the speculation will come true or not depends on Wu Ma's actions afterwards.

  Yang Rong had always thought that Fang You was just a yes-man to Guo Yining, doing whatever she told him to do without his own opinions. But it turned out he observed things so meticulously, and some of the views he held previously were somewhat biased.

  Fang You and Yang Rong drove their car out of the neighborhood, stopped at a place, then went to the security room, letting Yang Rong stay in the security room. In case he was discovered by Wu Ma, Yang Rong could still find Wu Ma's trail from the monitor.

  After arranging Yang Rong, Fang You returned to the villa area and found a slightly secluded place in the green belt to hide. Through the gap, he could see Liu Jianjun's villa just right.

  Maybe Wu's mother was afraid that Fang You and his friends hadn't left yet, so after cooking the meal, she waited at home until it was almost time before taking up the lunchbox and going out.

  And for the next six hours, Fang You remained motionless on the grassy area. The ground was icy cold in winter, and some areas were already frozen, but the frost under Fang You had been warmed up by his body heat, and his clothes were also wet. He shivered with cold, but he didn't dare to stand up, fearing that as soon as he stood up, Wu Ma would come out, and if she found him, all his previous efforts would be in vain.

  Fortunately, Fang's efforts paid off. When he saw Wu Ma come out of the house, his blood suddenly boiled and he didn't know what to do with himself. He lay there motionless, staring as Wu Ma disappeared from his line of sight bit by bit.

  After seeing Wu Ma walk far away, Fang You hurriedly got up and called Yang Rong. Yang Rong was waiting in the monitoring room and felt a bit bored. Seeing Fang You's call, she quickly picked it up, "How is it? Has that old lady come out?"

  "It's done, pay attention to monitoring and see where she goes." Fang hung up the phone and walked through a small path, slowly circling around the main gate.

  Yang Rong had just received Fang You's phone call and saw Wu Ma in the monitor. Wu Ma was carrying a lunch box, walking while looking around, probably to see if Fang You and others were following her. After confirming that no one was following her, Wu Ma walked towards the main entrance.

  Yang Rong called Fang You and told Wu Ma that she had arrived at the gate. Fang You told Yang Rong that he was also at the gate, asking her to come out of the monitoring room, and the two met at the gate.