"Related to me?" Qian Qian asked in surprise. "What could possibly involve me? A Jun, do you know something? Tell me, hurry!"
I helplessly raised both hands. "Sorry, it wasn't that I wanted to keep it from you, but some things are better if you aren't involved... though it looks like you've already been dragged into this..."
"Don't make things difficult for him. Let me explain." Lin Xue leaned back comfortably in her seat. "Xu Qianqian, your father is an archaeologist, isn't he?"
"Yes... How did you know?"
"That isn't important. What matters is..." As she spoke, Lin Xue pulled a sheet of paper from a black briefcase beside her and read aloud, "Xu Feng, male, forty-five, renowned Chinese archaeologist, published in numerous domestic and international... hmm, skipping that part. Finally... on December 1, 2010, he traveled with the National Geological Team to inspect recently discovered ruins near the Niya Ruins in the Taklamakan Desert. Three days later... he went missing."
"What?!" Qian Qian and I cried out together.
"My dad went missing?" Qian Qian looked utterly disbelieving. "How could that be? He called home the day before yesterday! You're trying to scare me, aren't you?"
Although Qian Qian refused to believe the news, I knew it was probably true. Given Lin Xue's status, there was no reason for her to lie to us. What I was wondering was why Uncle Xu had disappeared—and how this disappearance had actually alerted the Esper Team Lin Xue belonged to.
"I have no reason to deceive you. And you said your father called home the day before yesterday. What about yesterday?"
Yesterday was precisely the day Uncle Xu had gone missing, according to Lin Xue.
"I have more information here: photos from your father's work, audio and video records, and notes he wrote