Walking Fifty Thousand Yuan

By evening, Mo Qiong had already noticed that several GPS devices had stopped.

GPS devices were not heavy, weighing only one module and one battery.

Once connected, they were about the size of a USB drive. Wrapped in a sponge casing, they weighed only twenty-five grams, roughly as much as an AA battery, and were soft and spherical.

The soft sponge casing meant that even at high speed, they absolutely could not kill anyone.

With cushioning and no sharp edges, something like this traveling at 340 kilometers per hour would only injure a person; it would not penetrate the skull.

The Magic Ball launched it at sixty meters per second, which was only 216 kilometers per hour.

For an adult, it was equivalent to being struck hard in the face by a phone. A child might be injured, but would not suffer any lasting effects.

If he really wanted to kill someone, replacing it with a pen would be enough. A pen traveling at two hundred kilometers per hour could easily pierce deep into the human body.

"The damage rate is pretty high."

Mo Qiong had assigned every GPS a number corresponding to its target.

Whenever he found that a GPS had stopped flying, it meant that it had struck its target.

Mo Qiong kept his eyes on the computer, only to discover that twelve GPS devices had lost contact.

Several of the locations where contact had been lost were inside villages and towns. They had probably been dismantled or damaged after hitting walls. The arrow did not necessarily take the shortest route. When faced with a wall, it would scrape along it until it went around.

It was just like when he had passed the ball to Han Dang. Han Dang had jumped up and caught it with his chest, and the ball had slid down his chest, rolled between his legs, and reached the Landing Point.

Of course, if the soccer ball had been replaced by a bullet, it would not have gone around. It would have shot straight through Han Dang.

This had to do with hardness. If the obstructing object was less hard than the arrow, the arrow would pass straight through it, treating it as background scenery.

Just as an arrow passed through air and water.

If the arrow's hardness was infinitely high, its path would be extremely straight, piercing through everything in its way without turning.

If the obstructing object was harder than the arrow, the arrow would not force its way through the target. Instead, it would try its best to slide toward a door, window, or some other opening.

This characteristic could be seen from small details. For example, if he shot an arrow toward somewhere in America,

the arrow would not pass through the earth and emerge from the ground on the other side to strike its target. Instead, it would travel halfway around the earth to reach America.

This was the arrow judging its own path, choosing as much as possible to move through media less hard than itself.

Only when the target was in a completely sealed room with no gaps for it to squeeze through would it forcefully smash through the wall, even if doing so crushed itself to pieces.

In short, the arrow's hardness affected its path.

Together with its initial speed and Landing Point, these three factors determined how the arrow would strike its target.

The simplest experiment would prove this.

Stand a plastic board in front of a target, then throw a paper ball hard, and one would see the paper ball draw a beautiful arc around the metal sheet and hit the target.

In contrast, if he shot a proper arrow, the arrow would maintain its speed, pierce through the metal sheet, and hit the target.

Even if the arrow shaft and fletching were badly worn down in the process, it had still chosen the more direct route.

"But these few GPS devices lost contact in the wilderness. They might have been struck by lightning or suffered some other mishap along the way."

Mo Qiong pondered. Even if they had been damaged, they would certainly still hit their targets, but after falling there, he would have no way to investigate.

Four of them, however, had stopped while maintaining their signals. They had probably struck their targets and then fallen freely.

In such cases, the locations shown by the tracking system would definitely be the endpoints.

"Three children's, and Zhao Mingjun's."

Mo Qiong checked the information and looked over the three children's family backgrounds.

"None of them come from particularly well-off families. Forget it, then."

By "forget it," he meant that he would give up appearing in person and did not intend to accept a reward.

He switched to a new SIM card and called the father of the first child.

"Who is this?" The voice on the other end sounded exhausted.

"I saw your information on the Baby Home Network. I'm at..." Mo Qiong looked at the location shown by the GPS and read out the address on the map in detail.

"...the fourth household in Shangtang Village, Taiping Town, where I saw your son Xiao Bao. Go and confirm it. Although I saw him at the fourth household, he might not still be there. You'd better search the entire village."

Mo Qiong spoke calmly, but the other man did not react excitedly. "Really... Can you be sure that's my son?"

"Hm?" Mo Qiong was stunned. "Whether he is or not, you should go and confirm it yourself."

The other man fell silent.

Mo Qiong's thoughts turned, and he immediately realized that the man had probably been deceived too many times.

Many people had likely called him before with similar claims.

He might have made countless trips only to return disappointed, and now he no longer dared to believe anyone easily.

Mo Qiong said solemnly, "I'm not joking with you. I can't be one hundred percent certain that he's your son, but I can be one hundred percent certain that his birthmark is exactly the same as in the photo you provided."

"Whether he is or not, I don't need a reward. I'm no longer there, so I won't be involved in what happens afterward. Remember to notify the police when you go, and make sure you hurry."

Mo Qiong spoke with such confidence that he immediately restored the other man's spirit.

Hearing the certainty in Mo Qiong's voice, the man was finally moved by his seriousness. "All right. I'll book a ticket right now. Can you confirm the address again? I didn't write it down before."

Mo Qiong smiled. "I'll send you the address by text message."

"All right, all right, thank you so much. If he really is my child, I'll definitely give you a generous reward..." the man said gratefully.

"No need. I'm just a passerby. If you don't find him, let me know. If you do, there's no need to contact me again," Mo Qiong said.

"Hm?" The man was startled, wondering whether Mo Qiong had said it backward.

Regardless, Mo Qiong's intention not to accept a reward was perfectly clear.

"Thank you. Thank you so much." The man kept repeating himself. The fact that Mo Qiong wanted no reward meant that he was helping them purely out of goodwill. Whether he succeeded or not, that alone was worth several more words of gratitude.

But Mo Qiong had already hung up.

Next, he contacted the parents of the other two children. Both had gone missing less than a year ago.

Their parents were still extremely eager to search. The moment they heard that Mo Qiong had information, they immediately prepared to set out and verify it.

As for the matter of payment, Mo Qiong directly said that he did not need anything.

Ordinary families could not offer much of a reward. The long-term search for a child alone could cost an unknown amount of money. Even if Mo Qiong accepted a reward, it would probably only be a few thousand yuan.

To take the money, he would have to appear in person, perhaps even get involved and deal with the police. Although these were private rewards and appearing in different places multiple times would not be a problem,

there was no need to do all that for a few thousand yuan. He might as well help the families save the money.

He knew which families truly needed to pay a reward, and he had marked them all on his list.

The reward from one of those families was worth as much as the rewards from ten families like these.

"But I still haven't found them yet. The GPS devices tracking these children lost contact halfway, so I have to launch them again."

"Luckily, the new batch of GPS devices has arrived. Time to keep launching!"

On the rooftop, Mo Qiong launched twelve more GPS devices in rapid succession, corresponding exactly to the twelve that had lost contact earlier.

All at once, only eighteen GPS devices remained in his possession.

He did not use the remaining ones to search for more children.

That was because most of the other children had been missing for more than one or two years. There were only so many children who had disappeared around a year ago, and he had already launched GPS devices for every one of them.

For a small child, two years was enough to bring about major changes, especially after changing living environments. The changes would be even greater.

Frequent exposure to the wind and sun could greatly alter their skin, while bumps and bruises could cause further changes.

If he could not fill in the details accurately, Mo Qiong had no way of knowing whether the person he imagined was actually the person he was looking for.

Relying only on photos from when they had gone missing, or from when they were even younger, he could do nothing.

Unless they were like Xiao Bao, who had a distinctive birthmark despite having been missing for two years.

Or like Qin Ya's younger male cousin, who constantly wore a pendant and had a close-up photo of it. Only then was it worth trying.

Nowadays, although many children went missing, fewer had disappeared within the past year or two.

Most of the information Mo Qiong found involved children who had been missing for four or five years, or even more than ten.

He had even seen cases where people had continued searching for twenty-five years...

For those who had been missing that long, even if they had personal belongings, scars, or birthmarks, they were no longer useful. Too much time had passed, and everything had changed.

In cases where even the children's biological parents might not recognize them, Mo Qiong was even more helpless.

"Even if my GPS hits that Longevity Lock, her cousin might not still be there."

"Four years have passed. Who knows whose hands that Longevity Lock is in now?"

Mo Qiong shook his head. Since this concerned someone close to him, he had to try even if hope was slim.

"Whew. The last one whose location I can confirm is Zhao Mingjun..."

"He's actually in Qilu Province. How did this guy flee here from the south?"

Mo Qiong stared at the display on the electronic map. Suddenly, the corresponding signal vanished, and the GPS lost contact.

"Huh?"

The signal had still been present moments ago, and it had been stationary. That meant it had not been damaged after hitting something halfway along the route. It had reached the location, struck its target, and only been damaged after remaining there for so long.

"Was it discovered and then deliberately destroyed..." Mo Qiong quickly thought of this possibility.

Zhao Mingjun was a wanted fugitive who had been on the run for years. The fact that he had not been caught for so long meant that he was probably extremely cautious.

He must have torn open the sponge casing, realized there was a GPS inside, and destroyed it.

At this moment, he had certainly already left the location marked on the map.

Thinking of this, Mo Qiong secretly cursed the situation as troublesome. It would definitely not work to simply call the police and report it.

What could he say when he called? That he had seen Zhao Mingjun in this place? He had never even been there.

By the time the police rushed over, Zhao Mingjun would certainly be gone.

For a matter that required him to appear in person and collect the reward, Mo Qiong had no choice but to make the trip himself. Only after confirming that he had found Zhao Mingjun would it count.

"Weifang? He probably couldn't have gone far. I'll go there myself and start tracking and searching step by step once I get close."

Mo Qiong made up his mind, picked up his phone, and quickly booked a ticket.

It was 250 kilometers from Dengzhou to Weifang. The journey took three hours by car. If he set out early in the morning, he could arrive by ten.

With a few quick strokes, he wrote a leave request and placed it on the desk.

He only needed to call his instructor tomorrow morning. Classes were important, but fifty thousand yuan was even more important.

Zhao Mingjun was fifty thousand yuan walking around in Mo Qiong's eyes.