Looking for People

A long night.

Hesta woke up very early today. It had been a long time since she had experienced this kind of refreshing feeling upon waking, as if she were a Pandora's box that had been opened once: all the fatigue and low spirits had dissipated in the previous night's sleep, leaving only a vague, omnipotent intuition still crashing around in her mind.

She hadn't felt this refreshed upon waking in a long time.

Hesta hummed a tune as she did her morning workout, showered, and brewed herself a cup of coffee. While waiting, she stared blankly for a moment at the big hole in the kitchen door.

Suddenly, her phone rang. Hesta picked it up and saw it was an unknown number.

"Hello—"

"Where the hell did you hide Ding Xueyang!" a nearly frantic male voice came through the other end of the phone, shouting in fluent Common Tongue. "She's not at the hospital, she's not at home! What kind of games are you playing? She's a pregnant woman, she has to check her blood sugar every day, do you know that? If someone dies, you'll be held legally responsible!"

Hesta pinched both ends of the phone between her thumb and index finger, moving it about thirty centimeters away from her ear.

"Who are you?"

"Stop playing dumb and tell me where you've hidden her! Otherwise, I'm calling the police right now and having every last one of you wreckers of other people's families arrested! That criminal record will go on your permanent file and follow you for the rest of your life. I mean it!"

Hesta finally recognized the caller's voice, but for a moment she couldn't remember his name. She tried to persuade the other party to calm down and ask for details, but the man seemed