Chapter 36: Charging Toward Baiyun Qingtang Street

The small, quick-footed girl darted out of the crowd and kept running. Two rough-looking boys, after kicking aside a few pedestrians, finally broke through and chased after her. As she reached the bus stop, the very bus she was originally waiting for happened to arrive. She hurried up the steps, her lips quivering and eyes brimming with tears, and pleaded to the female driver, “Auntie, please close the doors, hurry, close them!”

The bus driver saw the two menacing youths catching up and, without hesitation, slammed the doors shut. Enraged, the two thugs pounded on the doors and shouted, “Open up! Open the door if you value your life!”

But this wasn’t Baiyun District—here in Tianhe, bus drivers didn’t pay heed to gangsters. She simply glanced at them and drove off, leaving them coughing in the exhaust.

“Where are your parents?” the driver asked, her kindness awakened by the sudden appearance of the little girl. But with the child on board, she was unsure what to do.

“Auntie, can I use your phone to make a call? Please…” the little girl sobbed between words.

The driver, still driving, reached into her bag for her phone. A female university student sitting near the front, having just closed her social app, handed her own phone to the girl. “Who do you want to call? Let me help you.”

“I want to call my brother…” The only person she could think of now was Lu Feng.

“Alright, do you remember the number?”

She nodded vigorously and recited, “I remember, 137…”

The phone rang.

Lu Feng and his companions had already arrived at Lihua Hotel, and Su Muyu was preparing to go inside with the invitation in hand. Suddenly, Lu Feng’s phone rang in his pocket. Seeing it was an unknown number, he answered casually, “Hello?”

“Brother…” came the tearful voice.

Lu Feng’s brow furrowed. “What happened?”

“Mom… Mom was taken by bad people…” she cried.

His heart clenched. He instantly suspected it was the Lianhong Society’s doing—Shan Wei had looked especially displeased when they’d had tea with Seventh Master the other day.

“Don’t be afraid, Xiaoxiao. Tell me, where are you now?” he asked urgently.

“I’m in the car,” she replied.

“What car?”

“A bus.”

Lu Feng was confused.

The girl beside her couldn’t help interjecting, “She’s on bus 502, just outside Wenhua Community, heading toward Starlight Plaza.”

“Who are you?” Lu Feng asked, hearing another woman’s voice.

“Don’t ask so many questions. My name is Zhong Keke, I’m a student at Zhongda University. Hurry over. This little girl’s mother seems to have been kidnapped.” Zhong Keke spoke quickly.

“Thank you… Xiaoxiao, don’t be scared. I’m coming right now. Stay close to this sister, don’t run off!” Lu Feng said, grabbing car keys from Assistant Chen and dashing to the parking lot.

“Young Master Feng, what are you doing?” Assistant Chen called after him.

“Borrowing the car,” Lu Feng replied, running.

“Can you even drive?” Chen asked.

“I don’t know, but I used to help drive trucks for others,” Lu Feng called back.

“What is happening?” Chen was stunned. If anything happened with Lu Feng driving, he’d be in trouble. “Wait, wait, where are you going? I’ll take you!”

“No need,” Lu Feng waved without stopping.

Su Muyu saw him running off and shouted, “Where are you going? The symposium starts this afternoon!”

“I’ll try to make it back!” Lu Feng called, already in the parking lot.

Most cars nowadays were semi-automatic, and easy to handle. Back in the mountains, Lu Feng had driven tractors and trucks over rough roads, so driving a sedan now was a breeze. He revved the engine and shot out of the lot.

He kept the call connected with Zhong Keke, comforting Xiaoxiao while driving. “Xiaoxiao, be good. I’ll be there soon. Miss Zhong, where are you now?”

“Could you not call me ‘Miss’? It sounds like you’re insulting me,” Zhong Keke pouted.

“Then what should I call you?”

“Call me ‘classmate,’ that’s more pleasant.”

“Classmate, where are you now?”

She glanced out the window. “We’re almost at Starlight Plaza. Meet us there. I’ll take Xiaoxiao to the Pizza Hut in the mall—there are security guards, it’s safer.”

“Alright.”

“Also, calls are expensive. Can we hang up? Us poor students can’t afford it,” Zhong Keke joked.

“Alright, thank you,” Lu Feng replied.

After hanging up, Zhong Keke lifted Xiaoxiao onto her lap. “Your name is Xiaoxiao, right?”

She nodded, still crying.

“Should we call the police?” Zhong Keke thought that seemed the right thing to do.

Xiaoxiao suddenly remembered her mother had made her memorize the emergency number and answered hurriedly, “The police number is 110.”

“That’s right, 110. Shall we call?”

“Yes!” Xiaoxiao nodded emphatically.

Zhong Keke then called the police and recounted what had happened.

While waiting, she took Xiaoxiao to Pizza Hut for ice cream. The police arrived first—after all, Lu Feng would take nearly an hour by car.

The officers questioned Xiaoxiao, but her account was muddled; all she could say was that her mother had been taken, then she broke down in tears again.

There wasn’t much the police could do—there was not enough to open a case. They took notes and decided to bring Xiaoxiao back to the station.

Zhong Keke didn’t object; the station was safer anyway. They stayed there about half an hour, during which Zhong Keke phoned Lu Feng to tell him they’d arrived at the police station.

Half an hour later, Lu Feng arrived at the Xingguang Street substation. The moment Xiaoxiao saw him, her tears intensified. She threw herself at him, clinging to his neck, her thin body trembling with sobs.

“It’s alright now… it’s alright,” Lu Feng whispered to comfort her.

The police wanted him to sit and give a statement, but Lu Feng knew nothing and didn’t want to waste time. “I just got here from Haizhu District, I don’t know what happened. I need to go look for someone.”

“Do you have any enemies? Anyone you suspect?” the officer asked.

This was a neighborhood substation—if even the Tianhe branch struggled to control Baiyun District’s gangs, there was little a small station could do.

Lu Feng simply shook his head. “No, I don’t know anything. I need to find someone first before I know what happened. Can I go?”

The officer, helpless, allowed him to leave.

Lu Feng soothed Xiaoxiao, urging her to stay at the station. “Be good, Xiaoxiao. Wait here for me. There are plenty of police officers—you’re safe.”

“Don’t leave me, brother…” she begged, clutching his hand.

“Be good. I need to find your mother—it’ll be harder if you come with me. Stay strong…” he coaxed.

At last, Xiaoxiao nodded through her tears, her eyes red and swollen.

Lu Feng stood up, thanked Zhong Keke, who waved it off. “It’s nothing, I had nothing else to do this weekend.”

He nodded, gently patted Xiaoxiao’s cheek, told her to wait obediently, and then left for Baiyun District.