The taxi stopped outside Jinling University. Pulling his suitcase behind him, Duan Zhiyuan looked at the university's imposing gates, filled with both anticipation and anxiety.
Then he took a deep breath, hurried over to the security booth, and knocked on the window. "Sir, I'm a student's parent. May I go in?" he asked with a smile.
The guard slid the window open and handed him a visitor register. "Please sign in first," he said politely.
"Okay... okay..." Duan Zhiyuan hurriedly took the pen, studied the form, and carefully read aloud, "Visitor's name: Duan Zhiyuan. Relationship: parent. Student's name: Duan Xia Xia. Major: third-year English, School of Foreign Languages."
"Sir, I've filled it out." Duan Zhiyuan handed the form back and asked with a smile, "Can I go in now?"
"Please wait a moment. Let me check." The guard took the form, entered the name and major, and clicked search.
With a ding, a blank page quickly popped up on the screen.
The guard frowned and entered the details again, but the result was still blank.
Then the guard turned to him with a frown. "Sorry, there's no one by that name in our system. Could you have remembered something wrong?"
The smile froze on Duan Zhiyuan's face. He stood stunned for several seconds before responding hurriedly, "That's impossible. How could I get my own daughter's name and major wrong?"
He leaned closer to the window and said anxiously, "Sir, could you have mistyped something? Sorry for the trouble, but please try again."
Seeing the sweat beading on his forehead, the guard checked the details on the computer several more times. In the end, he shook his head and said firmly, "I'm sorry. There really is no record of her in the system."
Duan Zhiyuan's heart lurched, and a terrible feeling