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墨書 Inktalez
I picked up my phone and saw that it was Liu Yiyi calling, so I answered.
On the other end, Liu Yiyi sounded quite anxious. She said, "Song Fei, can you come check on my grandmother? It seems like she might not have much time left. Can you see if she's suffering from some kind of illness?"
Upon hearing this, I quickly replied, "Okay, I'm on my way right now. Don't panic, Yiyi."
After hanging up, I grabbed my ghost-hunting tools and headed out.
Zhang Yuru asked me a couple of questions before locking the café's door and getting into the car with me.
I drove straight to Liu Yiyi's villa. After parking, I followed her into her grandmother's bedroom.
Inside the bedroom, Liu Yiyi's grandmother lay on the bed, her face pale and her eyes vacant. However, she was mumbling something, though her voice was too faint to understand.
I checked her pulse; it was weak but somewhat erratic. Then I opened the old woman's mouth to examine her tongue, which was slightly trembling.
From these observations, I understood that this was not a case of Ghostly Energy. I said, "Based on the tongue and pulse readings, your grandmother is suffering from excessive worry and severe depletion of heart energy. The heart governs the spirit; right now, her heart energy is depleted, leading to a lack of spirit. It's not extremely serious, but this condition can be difficult to treat. A heart ailment requires a heart remedy; medication is one aspect, but we also need to resolve the emotional burdens she carries. Do you know how she fell ill?" I asked Liu Yiyi.
Upon hearing my explanation, Liu Yiyi immediately relaxed. "Song Fei, you're much better than those doctors my family found. They all said my grandmother wouldn't last long. The thing is, my grandmother's Flower Girl went missing. She got so anxious that she fell ill, and it's been getting worse over these past three days. She can't eat and doesn't even recognize us anymore. That's why I thought... thought..."
I interrupted her with a question: "Who is Flower Girl?"
"That's our Tabby Cat," Liu Yiyi explained. "You saw her when you came to my house last time."
"Oh," I recalled.
At that moment, Zhang Yuru chimed in, "The person who offered a million for finding Tabby Cat—could it be your family?"
"Yes, that was my dad," Liu Yiyi nodded.
"Ah?" Both Zhang Yuru and I looked at Liu Yiyi.
Zhang Yuru gave a thumbs up. "So the wealthy guy I've been thinking about is actually your dad."
Liu Yiyi didn't smile. "Flower Girl has been with my grandmother for seventeen years. In our family, I’ve been studying outside, and my parents and grandfather are always busy with work. Recently it's been a bit better, but before that, I often couldn't stay home for more than a few days in a year. Flower Girl is like my grandmother's own granddaughter; she values Flower Girl more than her own life, even more than us children and grandchildren. Now that Flower Girl is missing, if a hundred thousand could bring her back, our family would definitely be willing to pay."
I nodded. "How many news articles have been published about that?"
"Two, I think," Liu Yiyi replied.
I thought for a moment. "This news is really hot right now; my social media is flooded with it. It's also made the headlines of various media outlets in Donghai City. So far, no one has contacted your family for two reasons: one is that Flower Girl is gone, and the other is that the person who took Flower Girl hasn't seen the news. After all, even though smartphones are widespread now, there are still many people who don't know how to use them."
"What should we do?" Liu Yiyi asked.
I said, "First, let's get your grandmother treated. I'll prescribe some medicine to nourish her blood and calm her mind; it should help her feel better. As for the Tabby Cat, we'll keep looking. It would be best to post flyers, especially in nearby rural areas and urban villages where people are less likely to have smartphones. If there's still no news, we'll have to find some other way for your grandmother to cope."
"Okay, I'll talk to my dad." Liu Yiyi ran out.
Before long, over ten people rushed in and surrounded me.
I was taken aback.
Liu Yiyi's father was the most anxious; he hurried over to me and grabbed my hand. "Song Fei, my mother won't really die, will she? Is she going to be okay? That's great! That's great!" Then he hugged me tightly.
I felt a bit awkward and quickly said, "Uncle, your mother is just in a daze. As long as we find the cat or gradually help her through this, she'll be fine."
Tears streamed down Liu Yiyi's father's face as he choked out, "I thought... I thought... I thought I was going to become a child without a mother."
I was somewhat stunned by his words but sighed afterward. No matter how old one gets, having a mother feels like having a support system. In that moment, I could sense that Liu Yiyi's father—my future father-in-law—had suddenly become much closer to me.
"Liu Yiyi's Father said: 'Song Fei, help me find Flower Girl. I'll give you two hundred thousand upfront and eighty thousand after we find her. Please help me.'"
Others were also looking at me.
Of course, I couldn't accept the money; after all, it would eventually belong to my own people.
However, I couldn't refuse the task of finding the cat. I said, "Alright, Uncle, let's put the money aside for now. I'll help find it first; treating Grandma's illness is the most important thing."
"Good, good!" Liu Yiyi's father immediately took out a bag and handed me fifty thousand. That was all the money he had.
I tried to decline again, then wrote a prescription and asked Liu Yiyi to get the medicine.
Next, I took Zhang Yuru to print advertisements and went to a company that specialized in distributing flyers. Without haggling, I instructed them to put up the flyers as quickly as possible all over Donghai City, especially in rural areas and urban villages.
This was the best opportunity to build relationships and increase goodwill; I had to give it my all!
The main workforce for distributing flyers was often college students. To be honest, handing out flyers wasn't a great job. If they encountered unscrupulous bosses, those bosses might take a job for ten thousand but only pay three thousand to hire college students for distribution, often finding reasons to deduct wages. In many cases, college students would just endure it, treating it as a personal lesson.
However, these advertising companies preferred hiring college students not only because their wages were easier to manipulate but also because they tended to be more diligent; even when unsupervised, they would still do their jobs seriously.
In any case, I handed over tens of thousands of flyers to the advertising company. Later that afternoon, my phone received several calls. Of course, two of them were clearly scams. After checking one call that turned out not to be from the Flower Girl, my phone rang again shortly after.
"Hello." I was starting to lose patience; having received several calls that led nowhere was frustrating.
The voice on the other end was somewhat hoarse and hesitant. He said, "Um, I wanted to ask if there's really a fifty-thousand-dollar bonus."
"Yes. But you need to provide confirmed information about the cat," I replied.
The person said, "I'm quite sure. Can you come over?"
I agreed.
He mentioned a place called Zhangjiagou. I had never heard of it before; after searching online, I found out it wasn't far away but was a complete urban village. This area used to have a large drainage ditch and due to unstable soil conditions underground, it couldn't be developed like the surrounding commercial districts. As a result, it remained a true urban village.
I drove over and parked my car by the roadside, then walked along an alley for a few hundred meters until I came across a dirty road surrounded by a farmers' market.
Zhang Yuru had been following me, clearly finding this more interesting than running a coffee shop.
We arrived at Zhangjiagou, and Zhang Yuru exclaimed in surprise, "I never expected that just a few hundred meters away is a bustling metropolis with skyscrapers. It's so dirty and chaotic here; there isn't even a decent road!"
I was just as taken aback by the filth of the place.
Not long after, I spotted an old man in his sixties standing there smoking, looking somewhat uneasy.
I approached him and said, "Hello, I'm Song Fei."
"Hello," the old man replied hesitantly. "Um, actually, well, you can give me less money, but please don’t arrest me."
I immediately understood what he meant. "You caught the Flower Girl, didn't you?"
The old man nodded, looking even more anxious. "I really thought it was a stray cat. I knocked it out and then took it to the shelter to sell..."
"A shelter?" I paused at the mention of that word. "What shelter?"
"It's a Stray Cat Shelter," he explained.
Hearing this made me suspect that the old man was lying. Shelters nowadays wouldn’t actively take in stray cats or dogs; caring for these animals costs a lot of money.
"Listen, sir," I said, trying to reassure him. "Our main task right now is to find the cat. And don’t worry about the money; if we can find that cat based on your information, you’ll get fifty thousand without question. So there's no need to lie. It's just the two of us here; we're not police officers. Why would we arrest you?"
The old man sighed in relief. "I really did sell it to the Stray Cat Shelter. I know you’re curious; I’m curious too. That shelter just opened and specifically wanted stray cats, and they pay well for them. For that Big Spotted Cat, they gave me two hundred yuan and told me to bring any more I found for even more money."
"Oh?" My confidence grew upon hearing this. It seemed that buying cats for two hundred yuan wasn’t for food; perhaps Flower Girl was still alive after all. "Alright then, sir, come with us to the shelter. If we find the cat, I'll give you fifty thousand right away. If we can confirm Flower Girl's whereabouts but don’t find her, I'll still give you five thousand. How does that sound?"
"Deal!" The old man agreed immediately.
Zhang Yuru kicked me lightly, and I looked at her.
She muttered, "You're really something; fifty thousand turned into five thousand just like that."
I replied, "It's a miracle we didn't catch him. Every cat and dog is actually family. People who don't have pets think of them as just cats and dogs, but only those who raise pets can understand that kind of bond."
"Alright, alright, you have a point." Zhang Yuru sighed. "Hearing you say that makes me understand Liu Yiyi's family better. If Heizi got lost, it would indeed be heartbreaking."
I took Old Man and Zhang Yuru with me. I drove to my company first, called for Heizi, and then headed towards the Stray Cat Shelter with Heizi and Old Man in tow.
I brought Heizi along because he had met Flower Girl before. Dogs are very sensitive to scents, and Heizi is particularly skilled in this regard. Although he hasn't received professional training, he is an extraordinary dog and can understand my words. Having him with us would be very helpful.
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