Chapter Ninety-One: I Forgot Everything, but I Remembered You.

What was going on?

At the funeral that morning, Sister Zhang, Old Zhou’s closest friend, had been there in person. How could a perfectly healthy person simply vanish?

Li Shixin froze when he saw the message.

The WeChat group had already blown up.

“Child, don’t panic. Tell us properly what happened. This morning, when we attended Old Zhou’s funeral, your mother was still there.”

“Yes, we all rode the bus back together. I saw her get off at the stop near home with my own eyes. How could she be missing?”

Faced with the elders’ questions, Zhang Mingrong’s daughter sent another voice message.

“When I went to work this morning, I noticed my mom staring at her phone in a daze, and I just felt she was a little off. But I didn’t think much of it at the time and went to the office. After work, I found that my mom wasn’t home, and she hadn’t brought her phone either! We searched all around the neighborhood, and no one had seen her!”

“Before my mom started following all of you around, she never went anywhere except the square and the market. But those two places don’t have her now either. Tell me, where could she have gone?”

Listening to the woman sob, Li Shixin thought for a moment and sent a voice message.

“Don’t panic. Is your mother in Rongdian with anyone else besides you?”

“No! I’m her only daughter, and she doesn’t have any other relatives in Rongdian anymore. Every day, my mom would make dinner for me and the kid on time. Today she’s just gone! It’s freezing out there, and she didn’t even have much money on her. What if something happened to her?”

Hearing that reply, Li Shixin drew in a sharp breath.

So she really was missing.

In the ensuing silence, Old Liu Feng, who had only just learned how to use WeChat, sent a voice message in the group.

“Do you think maybe Xiao Zhou’s death upset Xiao Zhang? They were practically inseparable...”

“Or maybe... Xiao Zhang just went out to clear her head?”

Listening to the crowd’s wild guesses, Li Shixin quickly cut in.

“Stop speculating. Girl, go report it to the police first. We’ll help you look too.”

“Right!” Once Li Shixin spoke, Wu Ming immediately echoed him in the group.

“Maybe Old Zhang went to the set or someplace like that. She’s been running around those places every day lately, and it’s become second nature. After what happened at Old Zhou’s funeral, maybe she got rattled and wandered off to the set again. Anyone in the group who’s still in good health, and whose children can spare the time to come with them, get out here and help search! Focus on the old stadium and the Old Times film base. Those are the two places we’ve been going most often lately!”

“Okay!”

The group erupted with agreement.

“You all don’t need to come out. It’s already chaotic enough. Don’t make matters worse.”

Seeing that the elderly members of the group, who might forget the way even on a short walk, were insisting on coming out to help search, Li Shixin hurriedly sent another voice message to dissuade them.

“First spread the photos Old Zhang’s sister took this morning at the funeral. Get the word out in your Moments and see whether anyone saw her. I’ll repost it on microblog in a bit.”

“Brother Shixin, with Old Zhang missing, how can we sit at home?”

“Just do as I say!”

Such a huge thing had happened to one of his fans that Li Shixin dared not be careless. After posting Old Zhang’s photos and her daughter’s contact information in his own WeChat and asking netizens to help spread the word, he quickly got dressed. He left a note by the door and hurried out.

Downstairs, he lifted the tarp covering a spot in the parking shed.

“It’s your time to shine.”

Looking at his beloved little three-wheeler, he climbed aboard.

In the night, the engine broke into a rattling roar.

First stop, the old stadium.

...

On the road to the old stadium, he held up the phone with the photo and asked several shopkeepers along the way.

Unfortunately, no one had any leads.

The filming of Rise Against the Wind at the old stadium had already finished, and only a few crew members remained to wrap things up. They were all surprised to see Li Shixin.

When he asked around, every one of them said they had never seen Old Zhang.

Just as Li Shixin was leaving in disappointment and heading for the Old Times film base, a taxi pulled up at the stadium entrance.

Seeing Wu Ming get out of the taxi, Li Shixin flared up.

“Didn’t I tell you not to come out?”

“Oh, all you said was not to let us come out. But now Old Zhang is missing, and we don’t know what’s going on. How could we possibly sit at home?”

Wu Ming looked frantic as he shouted back.

Tsk.

Li Shixin had no choice. Since the man was already here, he said no more and waved him over.

“We searched this area. Nothing. Get in. We’re going to Old Times.”

“Mm!”

Just as Wu Ming was climbing onto the back of the three-wheeler, another engine sounded at the stadium entrance.

A Maybach came tearing in and braked hard to a stop. Then the driver’s door opened.

“Any news?”

Seeing a young woman jogging over from the car, Wu Ming on the back of the three-wheeler blinked.

“Girl, whose family are you related to?”

Draped in a Burberry cashmere coat, with the light makeup she had applied that morning still on her face and purple hair tied high behind her head, Zhao Jinzhi tilted her head.

“Old Sister, it’s me—Zhao Min.”

At the sight of Li Shixin and Wu Ming staring at her in disbelief as though they did not know her at all, Zhao Jinzhi stamped her foot.

“Enough nonsense. Get in the car. I saw it in the group. We’re going straight to the Old Times film base!”

Looking at the jewel-like Maybach, Li Shixin shook his head.

“Sister, that car of yours... won’t do.”

...

“Zhang Mingrong! Where are you? Your daughter says come home for dinner!”

Holding a loudspeaker bought from a fruit shop, and wearing a military coat with no concern whatsoever for appearance, Zhao Jinzhi stood atop the three-wheeler and shouted into the darkness together with Wu Ming.

No one answered.

By then it was already past nine at night.

Three full hours had passed since Old Zhang’s daughter posted the missing-person notice in the group.

At the Old Times film base, the number of veteran fans who had gradually joined the search had already climbed past twenty.

Even Old Liu Feng had come over with his grandson.

But there was still no result.

Li Shixin rubbed his hoarse throat and checked his phone.

On microblog, his post had already been reposted more than seven thousand times by netizens. The comments section was boiling, but he had no time to read them one by one.

Just as he opened the fan WeChat group to ask whether Old Zhang’s daughter had received any calls, her phone rang.

“Uncle Li, the police from Pingyang District Station just called! My mom’s been found!”

Hearing this news, Li Shixin finally let out a breath of relief.

He told the fans at the search site, and a cheer rose from the crowd.

After working themselves to the bone all evening and finally hearing that the person had been found, everyone decided to go to the police station to take a look. They all wanted to know exactly what had happened to Zhang Mingrong.

And so Li Shixin led a group of old fans to Pingyang Police Station once again.

After explaining their purpose to the officer on duty, Li Shixin and the others were shown into a reception room.

The moment they entered, they saw Old Zhang sitting on the sofa, holding a box of dumplings in her hands.

Her daughter was standing in front of her, wiping at her tears as she scolded her.

“Mom! You’re old enough to know better, so why were you wandering around? If we hadn’t found you, out there by yourself in the middle of winter, do you even know how dangerous that would have been?”

Faced with her daughter’s reproach, Old Zhang did not even lift her head. She merely ate the dumplings in silence.

Seeing that her mother would not speak, the daughter asked the policeman beside her.

“Officer, where did you find my mother?”

“Half an hour ago, we received a report from a member of the public saying they had seen an elderly woman sitting for a long time at the entrance of the Pingyang government-run kindergarten. We immediately sent officers over. After seeing her, we noticed that her clothing and appearance matched a missing-person notice we had just seen in a friend’s circle post, so we contacted you.”

Hearing the officer’s answer, the daughter grew anxious and snatched the chopsticks from Zhang Mingrong’s hand.

“Mom, why did you go to a kindergarten?!”

“Ah...”

With the chopsticks taken from her, Zhang Mingrong’s frost-swollen hands still remained frozen in the posture of picking up food.

Like a child who had done something wrong, she slowly raised her head.

Her eyes were full of fear and guilt. Her lips moved for a long time before she finally murmured, “To pick you up from school...”

A scolding caught in her daughter’s throat.

Looking at her white-haired old mother, the daughter suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth.

“I-I don’t know what came over me. Ever since I came out of Old Zhou’s funeral, my head’s been a mess. In a daze, I just felt like I ought to go pick you up from school and take you home... Sigh. I really am getting old and muddled.”

Staring at her forlorn old mother, the daughter could not hold back any longer.

She wiped away the string of tears on her face and shouted, “Mom... I graduated from kindergarten almost forty years ago!”