Big Winter Melon, Big Winter Melon

The next day.

Li Douyu decided to put up "missing person notices" somewhere with plenty of foot traffic.

They were not really missing person notices.

They carried a secret code that only she and Zhang Youzhi shared, something only the two of them would understand.

That secret code had let her expose the fake Zhang Youzhi in one stroke. Fortunately, she had not tipped him off.

Li Douyu put on a long-sleeved shirt and a sun hat, then added sunglasses and a mask. After making sure no one was following her near her room, she hailed a taxi and quietly slipped off to the largest mall in Songjiang City.

Kaiyuan Mall.

After buying two pretty outfits for appearances' sake, Li Douyu carried her shopping bags around and began putting up little "missing person notices" in the busiest parts of the mall.

Each notice was an A4 sheet with a meme of someone making a phone call to find somebody, along with a single sentence:

"Big Winter Melon, Big Winter Melon, are you there?"

There was nothing else on it.

She had put up more than half of her hundred-odd notices when a patrolling security guard finally noticed something was wrong.

"Hey, hey! You there! What are you sneaking around doing?"

The guard came after her.

Li Douyu took off running.

To keep people from tearing the notices down, Li Douyu had put double-sided tape on the backs of the A4 sheets, then used the long pole she carried as a walking stick to press them onto the walls.

She put them nearly three meters up, making sure most people could not reach them. Anyone who wanted to take them down would have to fetch a chair, which would be a real hassle.

She trusted that the guards would not have that much time on their hands.

Sure enough, after running some distance away and hiding behind a pillar to watch, Li Douyu saw the guard merely glance up. Once he confirmed that the A4 sheet was not some sort of advertisement, he left it alone.

He let that "Big Winter Melon, Big Winter Melon" stay on the wall.

She had finished covering the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth floors. Looking at the stack of A4 sheets still in her hand, Li Douyu felt a little lost.

Where should I put the rest?

While Li Douyu stood there hesitating with the remaining sheets in her hand, a couple walked over arm in arm. They casually took one, even remembering to thank her.

With that couple taking the lead, other passersby began helping themselves to A4 sheets from her hand.

There really were plenty of kind people in the world.

Everyone had silently taken the young woman for someone handing out flyers, and the kind too shy to call out to people at that. They all happily lent her a hand.

One person took a sheet, then another. Before she could react, all the flyers in her hand were gone.

"Wait, I'm not handing out flyers." Li Douyu snatched the A4 sheets back from the passersby, bowing in apology as she reclaimed them.

"Sorry, sorry. These are missing person notices."

"Sorry, sorry. I'm not handing out flyers."

But when she found the couple who had started it all, Li Douyu discovered that no matter how hard she tugged, she could not get that sheet back.

"You?" Li Douyu looked at the young man in front of her in confusion.

"Come on, give the notice back to your big sister."

Wen Xuanjing: ?

Who are you calling your little brother?

The girl holding the boy's arm instantly lost it, clutching her stomach and roaring with laughter.

"Seriously, how old are you? Calling yourself my big sister?" The boy glared at her.

Whatever else had happened, the two of them had finally made contact with their target.

"You, of course. Who else? You're still in high school, aren't you, little brother? Dating so young isn't a good idea." As Li Douyu took back the notice, she slipped into teacher mode, habitually explaining the pros and cons of teenage romance.

Beside them, Nanmen Yingyun was laughing so hard she could barely stand.

Wen Xuanjing protested, "Look, I'm a college senior, not a high school student, and definitely not your little brother. You don't look much older than me."

Li Douyu paused, then patted his shoulder. "A college student, huh? That still makes you my junior. I've been a teacher for two years."

Seeing that her "little boyfriend" was about to step forward and keep arguing, Nanmen Yingyun grabbed him.

"Oh, it was a misunderstanding. Hello there! We thought you were holding flyers. We're really sorry. What are these?"

"Missing person notices." Li Douyu straightened her remaining notices and raised an eyebrow as she looked at the beautiful woman before her.

For some reason, this woman felt familiar to her.

It was as though...

She had seen her at the train station before.

She had a good memory for faces, so she took another look at the young couple. Suddenly, she realized it was not just the girl. Even the boy beside her seemed a little familiar.

Li Douyu blinked.

"But this missing person notice doesn't even have a phone number... or a photo. How can you find anyone with it? And who are you looking for?" Without giving him a say, Nanmen Yingyun pulled her "little boyfriend" over and held him close, looking curiously at Li Douyu.

"I'm just putting them up for fun. Once he sees one, he'll come find me himself." Li Douyu shook her head, said no more, and turned to leave.

She was going to keep putting up notices out on the street.

Nanmen Yingyun grabbed her. Perhaps she had failed to rein in her strength, because Li Douyu grimaced in pain.

Why was this girl's grip so strong? It was even stronger than Zhang Youzhi's.

"Uh, sorry." Nanmen Yingyun awkwardly let go, then tried to salvage things. "Actually, I'm a senior at Songjiang University. I know lots of people. Maybe I can help you find whoever you're looking for."

She was awfully eager to help, wasn't she?

"No, no need." Li Douyu shook her head, then bowed to the two of them in gratitude.

"Thank you both. I have something else to do, so I'll be going."

Then, carrying her clothes pole and wearing her little backpack, she lowered her head and hurried away.

The young couple did not keep pestering her. Nanmen Yingyun looked at her "boyfriend" and sighed.

"This is all your fault. Why argue with her? Just let her call you her little brother. You're younger than her anyway. We didn't make a very good first impression. Getting close to her later might be harder now." The girl shook her head and tapped the boy on the head.

Wen Xuanjing ignored her. "That sentence printed on the A4 sheet looked familiar. I think I've seen it in the chat logs. Didn't Si Weizhe give us a stack of printed chat logs back then? I think that sentence was in there. I'll look through them again when we get back."

Nanmen Yingyun was still worried. Soon, a voice came through her Bluetooth earpiece.

It was Si Weizhe.

"You two, pull back for now. Based on her earlier behavior, I suspect you've already made her suspicious. She probably saw you when you were following her before. I've already sent Bai Song and Gu Yu to get into disguise. This time, we shouldn't arouse her suspicions."

"Understood." Nanmen Yingyun and Wen Xuanjing exchanged a glance and answered in unison.

The voice in their earpieces continued, "I've looked at the flyer too. Xuanjing, you remembered correctly. The sentence printed on it matches something the target said to our operator four days ago. She sent Zhang Youzhi's account the question, 'Big Winter Melon, Big Winter Melon, where are you?'

"But our operator couldn't answer it, and afterward, Li Douyu's attitude underwent a very subtle change. I suspect she's been questioning the 'The Truman Show' world we built for her ever since then. We need to be on our guard. Come back for now."