Missing

"This isn't a vacation."

The fatty seemed to realize something. His face went pale as he said, "So you mean Sister Nuan just now... was a ghost?"

"I'm afraid so." Jiang Cheng nodded.

"Then the real Sister Nuan, and that girl called Chen Xiaomeng in the room, wouldn't they..."

"Enough," Jiang Cheng cut him off. A few seconds later, he said, "Let's go to the living room."

To avoid causing any unnecessary misunderstandings, Jiang Cheng didn't try to soften his footsteps as he went downstairs. But when he and the fatty reached the ground floor, all that remained was the fire blazing in the fireplace.

Fan Li, who should have been beside the fireplace, was nowhere to be seen.

The fatty was a little scared. "Could something have happened to him too?"

Jiang Cheng looked around, then said, "Come out. We're people, not ghosts."

As soon as he finished speaking, a figure as strong as a bear rose from behind the sofa. Fan Li watched them warily, a sharp knife glinting coldly in his hand.

"Why did you come downstairs?" He quickly glanced at the stairs, then focused on Jiang Cheng again. "And where are the other two?"

"Something happened to them."

Fan Li eyed them suspiciously. Based on their earlier reasoning, the women should have been safe in this mission. How could something like this have happened?

The fatty quickly recounted what had just happened to Fan Li.

Fan Li's expression changed slightly, and he sighed. "If that's what happened, they're probably doomed."

"Doomed" didn't even begin to cover it, the fatty thought. He could only hope they hadn't died as horribly as Xie Yu.

Since the ghost had appeared tonight, Jiang Cheng and the other two were relatively safe now. But after what had just happened, even the fatty had lost any desire to sleep.

"We should still get some rest," Jiang Cheng said. "I won't sleep. I'll wake you both in two hours."

Fan Li had probably been through this sort of thing often enough to get used to it. In any case, he lay down—not on the sofa, but in front of the fireplace.

No one knew whether he was really asleep. He'd put away the sharp knife they'd found in the kitchen, likely hiding it somewhere on his person.

In the warmth of the fire, the fatty's resolve began to waver. He hadn't had a full night's sleep in a long time, and only his last scraps of consciousness were keeping him going.

He sat on the sofa as the scene before his eyes gradually blurred.

When he opened his eyes again, dawn was breaking. Jiang Cheng and Fan Li were huddled together, quietly discussing something. Jiang Cheng's expression looked about the same as usual, but Fan Li grew agitated from time to time.

The fatty shifted, and the sofa gave a faint creak.

Jiang Cheng turned to look at him. "You're awake?"

"Yeah." The fatty rubbed his face sheepishly. "It's light out. Should we go upstairs and take a look?"

"No rush. Let's wait until it's fully light."

They waited for about another half hour. During that time, the three of them ate a few small rolls and other things, enough to fill their stomachs.

Once it was fully light, Jiang Cheng stood up and said it was about time. The three of them picked up what they had and started upstairs.

Fan Li still held the same sharp knife from the night before. Jiang Cheng had a rolling pin now, and since there wasn't anything useful left in the kitchen, the fatty carried off a cutting board and held it against his chest like a shield.

The three of them slowly reached the second-floor hallway and edged toward the master bedroom.

By then, they were sure something had happened to Sister Nuan and the others.

The master bedroom door was open a third of the way. There wasn't a sound from inside.

Jiang Cheng reached out and pushed the door open.

The fatty immediately raised the cutting board.

They had prepared themselves to see two corpses, or even a ghost rushing at them. But once the door opened, there was nothing inside.

No corpses, no ghost, no bloodstains.

There wasn't even any sign of a struggle.

The bedding was neatly folded, and everything on the table and chairs was in order. A silk nightgown was draped over the sofa, as if the lady of the house had just stepped out.

"Where are they?" the fatty asked, eyes wide.

Jiang Cheng checked under the bed while Fan Li, his expression dark, searched the wardrobe. Then they checked the bathroom and behind the sofa. In the end, they even searched the nearby rooms, including the one where they'd found Xie Yu's body.

Nothing.

There was nothing.

Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng had vanished as if they'd disappeared into thin air.

Jiang Cheng thought for a while, then suddenly asked Fan Li, "Is it possible that they didn't die and have already managed to leave this place?"

"You mean they've completed the mission?" Fan Li's expression was dark and uncertain, but after a moment, he answered, "It's unlikely, but I can't rule it out."

The fatty cut in. "If that's the case, how do you explain the ghost we ran into last night?"

Jiang Cheng knew what the fatty meant. Since the ghost had taken Sister Nuan's appearance and appeared in the master bedroom where Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng had been staying, they must have encountered it.

Before running into the ghost last night, Jiang Cheng had been on the second floor. He hadn't heard anyone walking in the hallway, which meant Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng hadn't left the room.

The villa's windows couldn't be opened either, so there was no way they could have left through one.

That left two possibilities: either the ghost had killed them and hidden their bodies, or they'd finished the mission and returned to the real world before the ghost appeared.

Fan Li shared what he'd learned about how to leave a mission. He said that once all the clues had been found, a door would usually appear.

Passing through that door would take them back to the real world.

But he emphasized that the door could appear anywhere. It usually wouldn't be in some remote location, though, and most often it was connected to an important clue in the mission.

"Like the iron door we pushed open in the dream?" Jiang Cheng asked.

Fan Li nodded. "Yes. You can think of it as a passage connecting the Dream Realm and the real world."

Back in the first-floor living room, Jiang Cheng sat down on the thick carpet. Fan Li and the fatty sat across from him.

Their situation was complicated.

"All right," Jiang Cheng said, looking up. "Let's assume Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng managed to leave. We need to figure out how they did it."

The fatty hunched his shoulders and stammered, "But why do I feel like the ghost killed them?"

Jiang Cheng looked at him and replied coldly, "That question is meaningless. If you insist the ghost killed them, then we might as well wait here to die."

Jiang Cheng's attitude frightened the fatty, and he didn't dare say anything more for a while.

Fan Li nodded. "You're right. Sister Nuan and Chen Xiaomeng must have found a way out!"

"So... it's our turn now." Jiang Cheng brushed off his pant legs and stood up.