Morning arrived. Ying Qingcang and Young Master Shen had spent the entire night without sleeping a wink. Chen Ming had already left to deal with Lu Manman"s funeral arrangements.
"Young Master, please eat something and get some rest." Ah Che came in from outside with Le Le at his heels. Yesterday, Ah Che had been driving around the streets for the entire day to look for Xin Qing. He had taken Le Le with him too. At first, Le Le had was still able to detect Xin Qing"s scent. But as the distance grew, even Le Le"s keen sense of smell was rendered futile. Seeing that Ying Qingcang had completely ignored him, something flashed across Ah Che"s eyes. A loud thunk sounded as Ah Che fell to his knees.
"I hadn"t protected the young miss. This is all my fault." Ah Che was overwhelmed with guilt. If he had followed Xin Qing wherever she went, she would not have been abducted.
Young Master Shen kneaded a spot between his brows and tried to pull Ah Che up. "Enough. This isn"t your fault." Ah Che watched Ying Qingcang with pursed lips. Ying Qingcang waved his hand and said two words, "Get up." Ah Che"s next words came out in the form of a loud wail. "I will definitely bring the young miss back!" Ah Che got up and dashed outside.
"When he gets back, let him rest," Ying Qingcang said to Ah Nan. He knew that Ah Che had been out on the streets the whole night, looking for Xin Qing. Xin Qing"s abduction was not Ah Che"s fault.
The day flew by. The cops had no leads at all. Young Master Shen"s sources had come up empty too. Night descended upon the earth once again. Young Master Shen did not dare leave Ying Qingcang to his own devices. Young Master Shen feared what Ying Qingcang would end up doing when he finally lost it. But in the end, Ying Qingcang did the unexpected. He headed for the lounge. Before he went, he said, "Go to sleep."
Ah Nan glanced at Young Master Shen. "What should we do now?" Ah Nan asked quietly.
"Sleep, of course!" Young Master Shen said, yawning. It probably was not easy for Ying Qingcang to make that suggestion. "You should rest up too. We haven"t got any shut-eye for a day and a night. Just in case..." Young Master Shen did not finish his statement. If they failed to track down Xin Qing within three days, the possibilities would be grim indeed.
Xin Qing was starting to cry. Lu Manman did not come back to release her. When darkness filled the sky, she started to fear. What if n.o.body came for her? How come Ying Qingcang had not found her yet? She had already cut herself loose from the rope used to bind her. Good thing September"s weather was still very warm. She gathered all the torn rags in the area and then sat down with her back against the wall.
Her empty stomach reminded her of just how hungry she was. The food left for her had already turned sour and therefore, inedible. Only half of the water was left in the bottle that Lu Manman had left for her.
Xin Qing stared at the ceiling towering above her. Perhaps Lu Manman would come to release her tomorrow. Perhaps tomorrow, she would be back home. Then she would be able to see Ying Qingcang...
Dawn arrived. It was now the third day of Xin Qing"s abduction.
Ying Qingcang had risen early and eaten the breakfast that Ah Nan had brought back. Calmly, he said to Young Master Shen, "I"ll search up north, you go south. Ah Nan, you stay. Let us know immediately if there is any news from the cops. Also, call Ah Che. Ask him to come back home. Make sure he sleeps."
Ying Qingcang"s voice had just dissipated when Ah Che came rushing in. "Young Master, we have a lead. An eyewitness had seen Lu Manman abandoning her car before she, with the help of a man, lifted a gunny sack onto a second car." Ying Qingcang"s eyes gleamed. It was the first ray of hope he had seen for the past two days.
"Where did they go after that?"
"The car drove to Huancheng West road. That"s all we know." A police officer who was with them quickly took out a map. Everyone stood around the map in a circle, trying to locate the road.
A young officer pointed at the map and said, "This road has only one exit, which leads to West City"s industrial waste zone. We can focus our search in that area."
"But there"s so many..." Ah Nan showed everyone the information from the computer." That area has over 3,000 factories. There"s no way we can find out which one was used to hold her."
Ying Qingcang stood up. "Then we"ll search every single one of them. Four directions. The cops will search on the west. Young Master Shen, you have a lot of people at your disposal, so you"ll cover the north and the south. I"ll take east."
"Young Master, I"ll go along with you," Ah Che said, rubbing his eyes.
Ying Qingcang glanced at him. "Rest."
"Young Master, I"m not tired. I need to..."
"Rest," Ying Qingcang said, looking at Ah Che intently. "That way we can take turns."
Ah Che understood. He nodded and plopped himself down on a couch nearby before closing his eyes.
"Ah Nan, contact the press. Put out a reward to anyone who can find her. 100 thousand for any leads provided. 1 million if she was found." During times like this, Ying Qingcang believed that getting more people to start paying attention to Xin Qing would significantly increase their chances of finding her.
Xin Qing had roused due to hunger. She looked aloft and found that there was sunlight. Based on yesterday"s experience, it should be around noon now. She stood up, using the wall as support. She could not just sit around and wait for death to claim her. She had to find a way out on her own. Otherwise, she would either die from starvation or from thirst.
The entire factory was a metal shack. Using the wall as support, Xin Qing circled the place once. Other than patches of rust and streaks of disgusting dye stains, nothing else could be found in the building. The place did not seem overly large, but yet it took her a while to cover the entire area. Her efforts had left her drenched in sweat and completely out of breath. Panting, she leaned back against the wall and sank to the floor.
Xin Qing took stock of the building, which looked like some kind of metal cage. She had already accepted the fact that n.o.body would come to release her. Plus, it would be too difficult, if not impossible, for Ying Qingcang to find her. She would most probably die here. At such a thought, Xin Qing felt a surge of sadness within her.
Shaking her head, she said to herself, "I don"t want to die. I"ll miss Ying Qingcang. I still haven"t fulfilled my dreams. I don"t want to die." Xin Qing hugged her legs and buried her face against her thighs. She began to sob softly. After a while, she slowly lay down and fell asleep.
Ying Qingcang had brought Le Le along with him. Together, they scoured the area, building by building. Some factories were huge and multileveled. Ying Qingcang did not trust Le Le"s senses fully, so he would search every part of each building himself. From the start of the search until now, Le Le had never barked once. By night, Ah Che and Ah Nan brought over some food. After eating, Ying Qingcang slept in the car while Ah Che and Ah Nan carried on with the search.
On the fourth day, Xin Qing was so hungry that she could barely see straight. She had no strength left. She stared at the food, which had long since gone bad. She grabbed a handful and slowly brought it to her mouth. The smell of it caused her to retch. "Ying Qingcang... why aren"t you here yet..." Xin Qing opened her chapped lips to cry but found that she had no more tears to shed. She glanced at the bottle. The water level was already near the base of the bottle. She licked her lips. In the end, she resisted the urge to take a sip.
At daybreak, Ying Qingcang was prepared to continue his search. Ah Che was resting in the car whereas Ah Nan had gone back to deal with company matters. When Ying Qingcang was about to leave with Le Le, Shi Qianqian and Zhang Mi arrived. They even brought the people that Ding Lei had sent to help in the search.
That day, Zhang Mi had been knocked unconscious and was then hospitalized for two days. When she heard that Xin Qing was still missing, she cried and begged to come along for the search. There was nothing else Ying Qingcang could say, so he asked them to start their search from another corner of the area. Another day had gone by, and still, there were no signs of Xin Qing. They did a rough estimate and found that they had already searched through half the area. It would be the fifth day tomorrow. At night, Ah Che had secretly asked Young Master Shen to come by. Ying Qingcang never said a word. He spent the entire day searching. Ah Che and Ah Nan were worried that their Young Master would lose his mind if they really did fail to find Xin Qing.
"Hey, you okay!" Young Master Shen said when he saw Ying Qingcang, who was swallowing rice without bothering to chew. Ying Qingcang ate rice and nothing else. He needed the rice for strength to keep up the search. Ying Qingcang had never said a word to anyone for the past two days. His comportment looked calm and composed. But Young Master Shen knew that Ying Qingcang was only suppressing his emotions. If Ying Qingcang snapped, Young Master Shen knew that not even he himself could hold the man back.
Xin Qing woke up to darkness. Having no strength left to even sit up, she crawled on the ground. Reaching out a dusty hand, she grabbed a mouthful of food from the container. Her hand shook as she brought the rice to her mouth. One mouthful. Two mouthfuls. She put the rest of the rice into her mouth. Her throat was damaged due to prolonged dehydration. She swallowed the rice slowly before she drank the remaining mouthful of water.
On the sixth day, the cops came by to ask Ying Qingcang if he wanted them to keep up their end of the search. Ying Qingcang asked Young Master Shen to call them back. Ah Che was devastated. He thought that he had fed everyone the wrong information. What if Xin Qing was not kept in the first place? That would render their hard work for the past few days utterly meaningless. Everyone was on the verge of collapse. Ying Qingcang still had not said a word. During the day, he brought Le Le with him to search, just like he had done for the past few days. By night, Shi Qianqian had to take Zhang Mi home, leaving only Ding Lei"s people behind. They had to go home because Zhang Mi had broken down and was crying endlessly.
On the seventh day, everyone was ready to give up. Young Master Shen had run out of ideas to persuade Ying Qingcang that Xin Qing would not be alive even if they found her. Ying Qingcang ignored them all. He took Le Le with him and resumed his search, picking from the area he had left off yesterday. Le Le had been following him around quietly for the past few days, curling beside his feet when he slept at night. All of a sudden, Le Le sprinted towards a mound of soil, barking. Hope stirred in Ying Qingcang"s eyes. Staggering, he ran towards Le Le. From the soil, he picked up a pink bead.
"I recognize this! This is from Xin Qing"s hair clip!" Ying Qingcang thought. Finally, Ying Qingcang could feel his heart beating again. Xin Qing had to be nearby.
"Le Le, come on. You can do this. Find her. She"s somewhere around here." Ying Qingcang brought the bead to Le Le"s nose. Le Le sniffed strenuously before it circled the area a few times. Suddenly, it turned its head at a direction and barked a few times. Then it dashed.
Xin Qing tried, but failed, to open her eyes. Her hand slid on the ground slowly, groping until it touched an empty bottle. There were still a few drops left in the bottle. Xin Qing wanted to pick up the bottle to drink. But she had no strength left to do even that.
She did not even know how many days it had been since she was abducted. In her mind"s eye, Xin Qing saw her entire life flash before her. Memories filled her mind, both the happy and the sad ones. She thought of her mother. She wondered if Ying Qingcang would bury her beside her mother"s grave. She thought of the half-finished designs that she had kept in her drawer. It was meant to be her gift to Ying Qingcang for his birthday. There was also Ah Sha... in the future, Ying Qingcang would find a new mother for her! Finally, Xin Qing felt her hand touching the bottle. Xin Qing channeled all her strength into her arm and lifted the bottle. She brought the bottle to her lips and poured. One drop. Two drops. Only a few measly drops went into her mouth. She licked her lips.
"Clank!" The bottle hit the ground at the same time as her hand. Xin Qing stared at the window above her. This would be the last time she would be seeing a blue sky. It was just so unfair, dying like this. She bet she looked totally pathetic right now.
"Ying Qingcang, you must find me! Or else I"ll rot here after I die. That"s just too horrible," Xin Qing thought, her lips moving as she did. Xin Qing felt her eyelids growing heavier and heavier. Her body, on the other hand, kept growing lighter. She felt strangely comfortable. She just wanted to let herself sleep just like this. She thought she heard a dog"s barking and a loud smash. "So noisy," Xin Qing thought. "And I"m about to fall asleep too."
Moments before darkness claimed her, she thought she had seen Ying Qingcang"s face.