Lu Shiyan slammed the table and stood up. "Nonsense! What grounds do you have for such a conclusion?"
"Mr. Lu, please calm down," his assistant, Lin, urged quickly.
Lu Shiyan straightened his collar and sat back down. He took a sip of iced coffee and looked coldly at the private detective. "Continue."
"Mr. Lu, we live in an information society. It's impossible for a person, especially a young person, to leave no trace whatsoever. Even if Mrs. Lu prepared cash for her travels, she would need her ID card to purchase tickets for any form of transport."
"She might have hired an unlicensed car to leave."
"Yes, that's certainly possible. Mrs. Lu might be deliberately hiding her tracks to make a point to you. But wherever she goes, she needs to rest. Hotels require ID registration. A lady of her status wouldn't stay in some small, unregistered hostel, would she? Besides, the crackdown on those is very strict now; even those smaller places require ID."
"No traces at hotels. I've checked the secondary rental market, no rental records under Mrs. Lu's name. I've also checked the properties provided by Assistant Lin, all under her name. No sign of Mrs. Lu."
"Not only that, I've checked all social venues in the city - internet cafes, bars, private cinemas, etc. No trace of Mrs. Lu. I heard that the day after your wedding, a custom-made wedding dress was dredged from the river. It had bloodstains and what looked like a knife cut. My suggestion, Mr. Lu, is that you should report this to the police. I have methods for finding the living, but the dead... that's beyond my professional scope."
Lu Shiyan threw his coffee cup against the wall. "Get out! My wife is just throwing a tantrum! How could anything have happened to her!"
The private detective seemed to want to say more but held back. "Mr. Lu, my apologies for disturbing you."
Assistant Lin quickly interjected, "Mr. Lu, I'll see him out and see if there's any more information about Mrs. Lu."
Lu Shiyan sat frozen in place, as if in a daze, offering no response.
Assistant Lin hurried after the detective, stopping him outside the door to pay the agreed-upon final payment.
I leaned by the door,正好 to hear what the detective had to say.
"My apologies, Mr. Zhou. Our CEO is emotionally distraught over Mrs. Lu. He's not usually like this."
"Yes, I understand."
"Mr. Zhou, could you tell me if you found out anything else?" Detective Zhou weighed his words. "Based on what I've found and the inference from that wedding dress, the likelihood of Mrs. Lu meeting with foul play is very high. However..."
"However what? Please, speak."
"There's another possibility. I don't know if you've heard, but the city hasn't been very peaceful lately. Many women have gone missing. If Mrs. Lu wasn't murdered, then this is the only other possibility."
"I've heard about that. The missing are all women, right? Mr. Zhou, do you have any channels to help look into this? Our CEO is going crazy not being able to find Mrs. Lu."
"But the bloodstained wedding dress..."
Assistant Lin continued, "To be honest, I also find it hard to believe Mrs. Lu was murdered. She had such a gentle temperament, brought hope to many homeless children. She was beautiful and kind-hearted, rarely made enemies. Who would want to harm her? And before she disappeared, she mentioned someone was following her."
"There's that, too?"
"Yes, I forgot to mention it earlier. If you have any leads in this area, please help. We'll pay any reward, just name it."
Detective Zhou glanced back inside at Lu Shiyan and lowered his voice. "Assistant Lin, since I took this job, I'll definitely follow up. But I have to be upfront. I've explained the risks. If your Mrs. Lu wasn't killed but was taken... that's not a good outcome either."
"If she had just gone missing and we started looking immediately, there might have been a chance to intercept her. But look, it's been over twenty days now. She would have been trafficked abroad long ago."
Detective Zhou reached for a cigarette, then remembering he was at the Lu residence, put it away.
"Human trafficking and telecom fraud rings overseas are getting more and more rampant lately. Many families have suffered because of them."
"I've seen the news."
"The news?" Detective Zhou snorted disdainfully. "The reality there is much worse than the news. Especially for women. It's hell in the hands of those demons. The fortunate thing is that Mrs. Lu is young and beautiful. She wouldn't be disposed of casually like the other 'piglets.' But beauty isn't always a good thing..."
He didn't finish the sentence, but Assistant Lin understood, his face grim.
"Even if we found her, Mrs. Lu might not be... the Mrs. Lu she was before. A family with the Lu family's status... would they still accept a... wife like that?"
Lu Shiyan's voice came from behind them. "Yes. No matter what state Wanwan is in, I will find her. Go now, investigate whether Wanwan has fallen into the hands of those people."
"Yes, Mr. Lu."
Detective Zhou hurried away. And I laughed silently.
Lu Shiyan, should I praise you for your devotion?
You'd rather believe I was sold than believe I'm dead.
If I really became as filthy and broken as they speculate, would you truly accept me?
Obviously not. Lu Shiyan is far too proud. This is just his ego acting up.
After Detective Zhou left, Lu Shiyan leaned back on a chair in the garden.
It had rained heavily last night. The air was filled with the scent of vegetation. Washed by the rain, the whole world seemed brighter.
The plum blossoms on the tree had already bloomed. Lu Shiyan stared blankly at them, lost in thought.
"Mr. Lu, you don't look well. Perhaps you should rest? I'll inform you the moment we have news."
Lu Shiyan's fingers tightened on the swing's chains. His gaze was unfocused. "Wanwan loved sitting here in the sun."
Seeing his low spirits, Assistant Lin tried to comfort him. "Yes. Back then, you and Mrs. Lu were so close. She would sit on the swing, and you would push her from behind."
I saw the veins bulging on the back of his hand. His voice was almost plaintive. "But I haven't pushed her for two or three years now."
He opened his hands; one still bore the marks from gripping the chains. "How did we end up like this?"
I wanted to ask him the same thing. Two people who loved each other so deeply, how did we end up here?
Separated by life and death. I hate him to the bone, yet I can't take revenge. I can only watch my enemy pacing before my eyes.
Assistant Lin sighed deeply. "Do you really not know because of whom?"
Su Ning'an.
Everyone knew. Only he was oblivious.
"Was I really wrong?" Lu Shiyan's voice was barely a whisper. "If I turn back now... is it too late? Will Wanwan forgive me?"
Assistant Lin shook his head. "As Detective Zhou said, Mrs. Lu has been missing for over twenty days. If she really was trafficked abroad... I'm afraid... the odds are grim!"