Chapter 2 The Woman Selling Rice Cakes

  Wu Hui waited in the alley until the time when the children got out of school, and at that moment, the missing student Shang En disappeared from this very alley.

  Zhang Qiang leaned lazily against the wall, he didn't know how many yawns he had let out, this damn jet lag hadn't recovered yet. "Waiting like this, can we find any clues?"

  Upon hearing Zhang Qiang's complaints, Wu Hui handed over the coffee in his hand to Zhang Qiang, hoping it would be of some help. "I don't know, none of the cases have any leads now, so we can only use the most foolish method. Didn't you sleep last night? Why are you still so sleepy?"

  Wu Hui mentioned that he was going to sleep last night, but he scratched his head in embarrassment. "I originally planned to sleep, but I met a woman and chatted with her until after 3 am. Then I tried to sleep, but couldn't fall asleep, so I got up and played a game of mahjong until Guo Yining came home."

  Wu Hui shook his head helplessly. No wonder he had been out of sorts all day today. He thought to himself that if they couldn't find any more clues, he would let Zhang Qiang go back.

  "Who wants candied hawthorn, authentic Beijing candied hawthorn..."

  A voice calling out to sell sugar gourds came from the end of the alley, this voice suddenly gave Zhang Qiang a boost of energy. "Hey, I haven't had sugar gourds for a long time, how about it, do you want to come and get a string?"

  At the mention of hawthorn's sour taste, Wu Hui felt his mouth filled with sour water. He really disliked eating such things and hastily waved his hand, "Forget it, that thing is too sour, can't eat it, if you want to eat it, go buy it yourself."

  "You don't even eat such good things, it's really unknown to enjoy. Then I'll go buy some." Zhang Qiang returned the coffee in his hand to Wu Hui and ran off following the hawking voice.

  The coffee in the cup had cooled down a bit, Wu Hui saw that there wasn't much left, wanted to find a place to throw it away, but this alley didn't have a trash can, he could only hold it in his hand.

  Wu Hui looked down at his watch, it should be around this time. The kids should be getting out of school, he walked to the entrance of the alley and indeed saw the school gate crowded with parents picking up their children, some riding bicycles, some riding tricycles, some riding electric vehicles, and some driving cars, all sorts of vehicles were crowded at the school gate.

  Wu Hui thought back to when he was in elementary school, every day after school he would envy his classmates who had parents picking them up. Since he started school, no one had ever come to pick him up.

  I remember once when it was raining heavily, all the parents were standing outside the school gate with umbrellas waiting for their children. As soon as the school bell rang, the school gate opened and the parents rushed in, each running to the building where their child's classroom was located. The children saw their parents coming to pick them up and ran excitedly into their arms. Only Wu Hui stood alone at the empty teaching building entrance, watching as they left one by one.

  "Isn't the rain going to stop?" Wu Hui stretched out his hand. The rain hit his hand and quickly splashed his sleeve wet, seeing that half of his sleeve was wet, it didn't seem so cold after all, might as well get soaked on the way back.

  Just as I was about to put my backpack on my head and rush into the rain, a kind voice called out: "Little Hui, is that you? Little Hui?"

  It was Qin Mama from Tian Shi Jia Yuan, who was holding an umbrella and carrying a little girl in her arms. She walked up to Wu Hui and bent down, smiling apologetically: "Little Hui, I'm so sorry you had to wait. I was worried that you'd get soaked on the way back."

  Wu Hui still remembers the smile on Qin's mother's face at that time, a warm and comforting smile like the sun in the cold winter, shining brightly in Wu Hui's heart, and he realized that someone had come to pick him up.

  The little girl in Qin's mother's arms should be the rabbit-lipped girl who was lost in Angel Garden two days ago. Because of being in a new environment, she kept crying and only stopped when Qin's mother held her.

  In Qin mama's arms, she secretly measured Wu Hui, saw Wu Hui also looking at her, and immediately buried her face in Qin mama's arms again. "It's raining so heavily, how did you come?"

  "Silly child, of course I'm here to bring you an umbrella! Hurry up and hold it yourself, I'm holding Little Dots and can't spare a hand. You'd better keep up!" Qin Mama opened the umbrella hanging on her arm and handed it to Wu Hui, then picked up another one she had been holding earlier from the ground.

  "I understand." Wu Hui held an umbrella and walked behind Qin's mother with his head down.

  A large black umbrella covered his thin body, and no one could see the expression on his face. At this time, he looked at Qin's mother's feet through the edge of the umbrella, following her step by step, while his face was filled with tears, thinking of his own mother.

  Zhang Qiang held a stick of sugar cane in his hand, eating it while looking at Wu Hui, "Wu Hui... what are you thinking?"

  Upon hearing Zhang Qiang's voice, Wu Hui finally snapped out of his reverie, "Nothing, is it delicious?"

  "It's okay, just an old man selling sugar gourds on a stick over there. Look at these kids, quite a few of them have gone to buy some." Zhang Qiang saw several schoolchildren passing by in front of him, and a few of them stopped in front of the old man selling sugar gourds.

  Wu Hui watched as the children took out money from their pockets and handed it to the old man selling sugar gourds, selecting the ones they liked and pulling them off with a tug. "Kids are all like that, they love eating these sour and sweet things."

  The children gradually walked out of the alley, leaving only the three of them. After waiting for another half an hour, one or two children came out of school and didn't walk down this alley, their homes should not be around here.

  When the old man selling sugar gourds walked past Wu Hui, Wu Hui seemed to remember something and hastily stopped him, "Wait a minute, sir, excuse me, I want to ask, is it just you who sells things in this place?"

  The old man selling sugar gourds may be very kind due to his frequent interactions with children. Upon hearing Wu Hui's question, he stopped and smiled, "I've been selling sugar gourds here for almost ten or more years now. The kids all love eating the sugar gourds I make, so every afternoon I come here and stay for an hour."

  "Besides you, didn't anyone else come this month?" Wu Hui asked again.

  Zhang Qiang suddenly understood why Wu Hui said that. Apart from parents and classmates, the people who can get along well with children should be those who sell snacks around the school.

  "Now that you mention it, there does seem to be someone like that, but not in the alley selling things, rather at the school entrance. Look, right over there." The old man selling sugar gourds pointed to a spot across from the school entrance, which was currently empty and had no one around.

  "What kind of person is he? What is he selling?" Wu Hui found that place was the best spot to observe the school.

  The old man thought for a moment, "It's a woman in her thirties, doesn't sound like a local, seems to be from Sichuan, selling something called niangao, many kids go buy it, business is very good, just don't know why, haven't seen her around lately."

  People from Sichuan, Wu Hui remembered that Shang En's ancestral home was in Chongqing, so he should like to eat niangao. Wu Hui thought of this and hurriedly ran to school.

  After seeing Wu Hui find the clue, Zhang Qiang hurriedly said to Dà Yé: "Dà Yé, thank you!" Before leaving, he didn't forget to praise Dà Yé's sugar gourd, "This sugar gourd is delicious."

  Wu Hui came to the school security room, took out the police consultant work permit previously issued by Guo Yining, and after seeing it, the security guard, although not knowing what position it was, saw the two words "police" and unconditionally brought Wu Hui to the monitoring room.

  According to Wu Hui's instructions, they checked the surveillance footage from a month before Shang En went missing and indeed saw the image of the woman selling rice cakes.

  Every time school lets out, the kids go there to buy things, packed tightly, among them is Shang En. Wu Hui discovers that as long as this woman comes to sell rice cakes, Shang En will go back to buy some, and he's different from other kids, other kids eat after buying, but he buys three or four, then carries a small bag away.

  There were two or three times when the woman selling rice cakes waited until all the school children had left, but she didn't leave. Wu Hui found it strange and after watching for a long time, he discovered that she was waiting for someone, and that person was Shang En.

  She was late leaving those few days because it happened to be Shang En's turn on duty. After Shang En finished his shift and came out, he saw that she hadn't left yet, so he went to buy a few rice cakes and chatted with the woman for a few sentences.

  Wu Hui pointed at the woman selling rice cakes on the monitor and asked the security guard, "Do you have any impression of this woman?"

  The security guard looked at the person Wu Hui pointed to and nodded, saying: "She's a Sichuan woman. She sold rice cakes in front of the school for a few days. We all went to eat them, they were quite good. Later, I don't know why, she didn't come anymore. Probably changed location."

  Wu Hui quickly recalled the surveillance footage of the day Shang En went missing. At that time, after Shang En came out of school, he didn't see the woman selling rice cakes. He looked left and right but still couldn't find her figure, so he walked towards the alleyway.

  Soon Shang En disappeared from view under the surveillance camera. Judging by the direction he was walking in, it seemed like he had entered an alleyway.

  Zhang Qiang thought that maybe it was just an ordinary street food vendor, and shouldn't have anything to do with so many missing persons cases. "Do you suspect that Shang En's disappearance has something to do with this rice cake seller?"

  Wu Hui looked at the surveillance footage and found that the woman had not appeared again. "I don't know, but this is too coincidental. After Shang En went missing, this woman also disappeared. Don't you think it's strange?"

  Zhang Qiang felt that this woman should have nothing to do with the missing case, "But on the day Shang En went missing, that woman didn't even leave her stall, shouldn't she have nothing to do with it?"

  Wu Hui still believed in his intuition, so he asked the security guard to make a copy of the surveillance footage and prepare it for Guo Yining to investigate this woman. "It's too coincidental, not reasonable, let's investigate."

  Zhang Qiang didn't agree with Wu Hui's views, but every time Wu Hui could find important clues from seemingly unrelated things. "I'll go ask that old man who sells sugar gourds when he last saw this woman."