Chapter 3: The Most Humble When I Like You (Twenty-Three)

  The First Watch

  "Not here!" Tangtang's grandmother replied hastily while rushing out of the house and opening the courtyard gate.

  Summer night one listen, even more flurried.

  "What's going on? How could our Sugar disappear?" The old man asked anxiously.

  "I'm not sure either, anyway, Tiantian hasn't come home until now." Xia Ye said with a troubled mind.

  "Has something happened?" The old man guessed that this was the situation Xia Ye most didn't want to face, and hearing it from his grandmother's mouth made his heart even more sorrowful.

  He calmly comforted the old man: "Don't worry, I'll definitely find Tang Sugar for you."

  The old man looked at him with some trepidation, hesitated for a moment before asking in a low voice: "Is it that your mother has given Tang sugar again?"

  The summer night lowered its head in shame.

  Tangtang's grandma saw him like this and couldn't bear it, muttering to herself: "It shouldn't be, our Tangtang has a good temper!"

  On a summer night, Xia Ye heard this and became even more sorrowful, with tears almost falling out. He pretended to look at the sky and held back his emotions, stabilizing himself before forcing out a smile and saying to Sugar's grandmother: "Grandma, you go back inside and sleep, I'll go find her again. Maybe she's playing happily at one of her classmate's homes! When I catch her, I must make her kneel on the floor!"

  "How can I sleep? I'll go find Tang Sugar too!" The old lady said, wanting to head out, but was stopped by Xia Ye: "Grandma, don't make things worse, if I find Tang Sugar, you'll just get lost again."

  He pushed the old man's house all the way back to the room, shouting: "Little black! Little black!" A pair of eyes searched around, and it seemed that Little Black had not returned since he rushed out of the yard earlier. Xia Ye called for a long time, but the little thing did not show up.

  Midsummer night's resentment: This damn cat, when you need it, it runs out to hunt, and when you don't need it, it's running around the house, following people's feet, tripping over hands and feet, can't even walk smoothly.

  Xia Ye reminded her grandmother again before leaving.

  The night was deep, and there were few pedestrians on the street. At the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, the cold air also spread slowly in the dark night. Xia Ye couldn't help but sneeze, hugging his arms tightly. He thought that even he, who was so strong, would feel cold, and wondered if Sugar was indoors or outdoors now, and whether she was feeling cold.

  Her heart suddenly tightened into a small knot as she thought of this, and she hastily remembered that she should call home, maybe Sugar had already returned!

  His heart was immediately stirred up by this idea, and he came to his senses, hurriedly making a phone call back home, which was answered by Tang Xin.

  "Has my sister come home?" Just a few seconds of waiting, but Xia Ye felt like it had been a long time. As soon as the phone connected, he couldn't wait to ask, his heart full of hope and fear at the same time. He was afraid that there would still be no news about Tang Su, really scared.

  "On the other end of the phone, Tang Xin replied in a childish voice: 'Not yet! Mom said if she wants to die outside, let her die outside, brother, you come back quickly, mom and I have been waiting for you.'"

  "Tell mom that I've died outside with Tangtang, and she doesn't have to wait for me anymore!" Xia Ye said angrily.

  He had originally wanted to scold Tang Xin severely, but thinking again, he was so young and didn't have a sense of right or wrong. He would do whatever his mother told him to do. Moreover, his heart was already filled with sad emotions, and he didn't have the mood to discipline Tang Xin.

  He felt as if he was standing on a melting glacier, surrounded by turbulent seas, unable to see any passing ships, isolated and helpless.

  It was on a summer night when he felt useless for the first time. He knelt down powerlessly and painfully hugged his head.

  Just as he felt desperate, his mobile phone suddenly rang, and Pu Shu's sad song "Life is like a Summer Flower" sounded particularly loud in the middle of the night.

  Is it sent by Tang Sugah?

  In the summer night, he was startled, his tense hands trembling, and he hastily pulled out his phone from his pocket. After hesitating for a moment, he slid open the screen, holding it to his ear as if awaiting judgment. He said "hello" softly, but then didn't dare make another sound. His heart was racing violently, as if it wanted to break free from his chest cavity before calming down.

  "Summer Night, this is Teacher Qin." The calm and gentle female voice came from the other end of the phone, causing Summer Night's tense nerves to relax immediately. His heart was like a roller coaster, suddenly dropping from its peak to its lowest point, wave after wave of disappointment surging up in his chest.

  "Hello, Teacher Qin." Xia Ye greeted.

  "It's like this, I just called all my students and they last saw Tangtang when school was dismissed, she was still in the school at that time." Qin teacher spoke very slowly, her tone was heavy with emotion.

  She stopped and waited for Xia Ye's reaction, but Xia Ye didn't say a word, his throat seemed to be blocked by something, unable to speak.

  Mr. Qin had no choice but to continue: "As for what happened outside the school, nobody knows, I think... you'd better report it to the police."

  Xia Ye's heart had already fallen into an endless abyss with Qin teacher's unoptimistic words, holding onto the last thread of hope, he dialed 110, a sweet but completely emotionless female voice asked him what he needed help with.

  "My sister is gone." Xia Ye choked out, tears finally streaming down his extremely handsome but now sorrowfully contorted face.

  "When? Where? How long ago? How old is your sister now? Have you looked for her?" The policewoman on the other end of the phone threw out a string of questions like a robot that had been programmed.

  Xia Ye wiped away the tears on her face and replied, "From this afternoon after school till now, she hasn't returned home. She's 15 years old this year. I've looked for her everywhere I can think of, but there's no sign of her."

  The policewoman on the other end of the phone listened patiently to him, then calmly said: "I'm very sorry, your sister is not a child under the age of five and has been missing for less than twenty-four hours, so we will not file a case. Please understand."

  Her official tone immediately ignited the anger in Xia Ye's heart, he had long thrown his sadness aside and roared into the phone: "Now that it's a matter of life and death, do you have to wait until after 24 hours? By then my sister will be dead, are you going to take responsibility?"

  It was probably the phrase "human life is at stake" that moved the policewoman who answered the phone, and she asked: "Can you confirm that your sister's life is in danger? What makes you certain?"

  (This alarm is from a real experience, when I was in elementary school fifth grade, my partner became obsessed with internet cafes, after school she would go inside, at that time I often helped her father and mother to find her in the middle of the night, one by one internet cafe, once it took several days and nights to come back, that time scared everyone, then reported to the police, at that time the police said so, very cold-blooded, afterwards never reported again)