Chapter 015: Lao Xu, My Sister is Gone
Zhao Xiaomin walked in carrying the thermal box, looked around the room with her dark eyes, and put the thermal box on the dining table.
"Minmin, when did you come? Why are you sitting outside?" Xu Lai was really surprised that the little girl came to him so early in the morning.
"At about six o'clock, I saw your door was closed, so I waited outside," said Zhao Xiaomin.
"Then why didn't you knock on the door and call me? How is your mother?" Xu Lai said with a smile.
"I was afraid of waking up my senior brother, so I waited outside, but I didn't expect him to fall asleep. My mom is fine." The little girl opened the lid of the thermos box and handed it to Xu Lai, "Senior brother, I just made this, eat it while it's hot."
When Xu Lai took a look, he saw a box of bright yellow pumpkin pie.
"What time did you get up?" Xu Lai knew that it would take a lot of time to make a box of pumpkin pie from scratch.
"I got up secretly at two o'clock." said Zhao Xiaomin.
Xu Lai didn't know whether to laugh or cry. No wonder the girl almost fell asleep sitting outside the door.
"Master brother, please try it." Zhao Xiaomin took a piece and handed it over, looking at Xu Lai eagerly.
Xu Lai took it, took a bite, and said with a smile, "It's delicious."
"If you like it, Master Brother, I will make it for you every day." The little girl said crisply.
Xu Lai looked at her, smiled and said nothing.
Zhao Xiaomin blinked her dark eyes, tightened her clothes with her white and tender fingers, and said softly: "Master brother, can you help me find my sister?"
Xu Lai smiled. The little girl came here so early because she was afraid that he would slack off at work, so the supervisor came.
In fact, pumpkin pancakes don’t have to be made on the spot. You can make them in advance and then fry them. The taste won’t be much different.
But this little girl insisted on making everything on the spot, and even got up at two in the morning, just to show him her feelings and make him feel embarrassed to delay her work.
What a little devil.
"You haven't eaten yet, let's eat something together. I'll go find your sister later." Xu said.
"Really? Thank you, Senior Brother!" Zhao Xiaomin said happily, picked up another piece of pumpkin pie and handed it to Xu Lai, then took one piece for herself to eat.
"You just sleep here for a while, I'll go find your sister." Xu Lai said.
"No, I'll go with you." the little girl said immediately.
Xu Lai tried to persuade Zhao Xiaomin several times, but she just refused.
"I am very familiar with this area. It would be best if I go with my senior brother." Although the girl is young, she has a righteous mind. Once she makes up her mind, she will not change it easily.
But Xu Lai was not someone who would change his mind easily, so he said, "If you go, then I won't go."
Zhao Xiaomin bit her lip and said after a long while: "Master brother, just let me go, I'm not afraid of anything."
Xu Lai was stunned and couldn't help but look at her a few more times. Now is the information age, information is extremely developed, and if there is any movement in Jiangning City, everyone will know it soon.
Just like the murder of three models in Zijinyuan, it must have spread a long time ago.
Although Zhao Xiaomin is a young girl, she is precocious and has probably heard a lot of talk about her sister from others.
"Then let's go together." Xu Lai smiled and rubbed the little girl's head.
He put away the unfinished pumpkin pie, closed the lid of the thermal box, and went out with Zhao Xiaomin. When they reached the door of 2101, he put the thermal box on the ground.
"My landlord lives inside. Is it okay to treat her to a meal?" Xu Lai asked with a smile.
"Of course it doesn't matter." Zhao Xiaomin said.
The two of them entered the elevator while talking. After coming out of Zijin Garden, Xu Lai took her to the east.
"Master brother, where are we going first?" Zhao Xiaomin asked.
Xu came to look at her and said, "Don't call me Big Brother anymore. Call me something else."
"What's that called?"
"Just call me Old Xu." Xu said.
"Oh." The little girl nodded obediently.
After last night's survey and calculations, Xu Lai has roughly outlined eight points.
He didn't know what kind of formation the other party had set up, so he could only make a calculation based on the distribution of the two points, Zijin Garden and Tianxiang Garden, and use the Thirteen Diagrams of the Art of Bedroom to match them, supplemented by the layout of the Jiangning City area.
Therefore, the eight points obtained are only preliminary possibilities. It is very likely that only five of the eight points will be true. There is no other way but to check them one by one.
But he really didn't want Zhao Wenjun to be found by him, because if he found her, it would mean that Zhao Wenjun was no longer alive.
"Minmin, look at these places, are there any places your sister has been to?" Xu said as he listed eight place names, seven of which were names of residential areas and one was a middle school.
"My sister took me to Wutong Garden once. She had a classmate here." Zhao Xiaomin said after listening.
Wutong Garden is near Zijin Garden, more than 800 meters away. The two went there first. There are eight buildings in the community, and Xu Lai found Building No. 6 directly.
According to his calculations, one of the eight possible array points is located here.
"Does your sister 's classmate live here?" Xu Lai took Zhao Xiaomin in.
"Yes, I live on the 8th floor." The little girl remembered it clearly.
However, Xu Lai did not go directly to the eighth floor, but started from the first floor and went from house to house.
But he didn't knock on any door or ask anyone. He just stayed outside the door for a while when passing by that house, and then continued to walk to the next house.
Zhao Xiaomin followed him, and although she didn't understand what he was doing, she was very well behaved and quiet, not asking any questions and not disturbing him.
Go all the way to the eighth floor.
"This is the one." Zhao Xiaomin said, pointing to one of the families.
Xu Lai nodded, stood at the door for a while, and knocked on the door. The person who opened the door was the mother of Zhao Wenjun's female classmate. Her daughter was at home, but she hadn't gotten up yet.
When Zhao Xiaomin heard that she was the sister of her daughter's classmate, she invited them to come in and sit down, and then went to call her daughter to get up.
Xu Lai looked around the room and said he had other things to do, so he didn't bother her anymore. He then took Zhao Xiaomin out.
"I asked her a few days ago, and she said she had never seen her sister," said the little girl.
"Well, let's go and have a look somewhere else." Xu Lai said, and took her to the ninth floor.
To be honest, Xu Lai and Zhao Wenjun had never met before, and they had not laid any tracking evidence in advance, so it was impossible to find a living person in Jiangning City.
But even though it is impossible to find the living, it is possible to find the dead.
Xu Lai stopped for a moment at the door of each room, looking for the smell of corpses in the air.
After searching the entire building, they found nothing. The two of them left the community and continued to the next place.
These eight points were scattered and there was no pattern, so we started from the closest one. Zhao Xiaomin was really familiar with this area, and she could find it accurately as long as she told the name.
By noon, they had only searched two places, but still found nothing. Xu Lai took Zhao Xiaomin to a place on the street to eat. During the meal, he received a WeChat message from Chen Duo, asking him where he had been so early in the morning. She happily accepted the pumpkin cake.
Xu said he came out for a walk. This pumpkin pie was made by the little girl from the Zhao family. He was just offering his appreciation.
After lunch, the two started looking from the third point.
These places are all residential areas, and there are at least nearly a hundred households in one building. Xu Lai went from house to house, and Zhao Xiaomin followed him patiently and quietly, without making any noise or asking any questions.
By 3:00 p.m., they had finished searching the fifth location, a middle school, which was the easiest to search and took the least time.
After that is the sixth place, a residential area called Yunshui Bay.
"Are you tired?" After visiting the sixth floor, Xu Lai and Zhao Xiaomin climbed the stairs to the next floor.
"Not tired, very relaxed." said the little girl in a crisp voice.
Xu Lai smiled and walked to the door of room 701. He was about to say something to the girl, but suddenly stopped.
After a while, he turned around and said to Zhao Xiaomin: "Minmin, wait for me outside."
"I want to go with you." Zhao Xiaomin's white little hands tightly grasped the corner of his clothes, "Old Xu, I want to go."
She didn't use the coquettish tone of an ordinary little girl. It sounded normal. She just looked at him pleadingly with her pair of clear black and white eyes.
Xu Lai stared at her for a while, sighed slightly, and said nothing more. He put his palm on the door lock and the door opened immediately. He walked in without knocking, as if he knew there was no one else in the room.
There was a small living room as soon as the door entered, but Xu Lai did not stop at all and went straight to the room closest to the living room.
He pressed the door lock casually, and it snapped open. He did not go in immediately, but turned around to see Zhao Xiaomin following him, her face pale, and her hands trembling as she pulled his clothes.
Xu Lai patted her head and pushed the door open.
Just standing outside the door just now, even Zhao Xiaomin could smell the rotten smell coming from the house. When the door was pushed open, a strong stench immediately hit her nose.
Xu Lai has been dealing with the dead since he was six years old. He has seen everything, so naturally he would not feel uncomfortable at all.
On the floor of the room, there was a young girl lying, naked, with her black hair tangled messily on her chest. Her strange posture was exactly one of the thirteen illustrations of the art of sex.
The temperature was quite high at that time of year and the body had already begun to rot.
But from her appearance, one could still vaguely tell that she was a very beautiful girl. Xu Lai had seen Zhao Wenjun's photo, and the girl in front of him was her.
Zhao Xiaomin stood there woodenly, but unexpectedly she didn't cry or make a fuss, she just trembled all over.
Xu Lai patted her shoulder and was about to take her out when she suddenly said, "Old Xu, can I help my sister put on her clothes?"
Logically speaking, it would be best to keep everything here as it is, but Xu Lai said, "Okay."
Zhao Xiaomin looked around and found her sister's clothes on the bed. The clothes, pants and underwear were all neatly folded there.
Zhao Xiaomin took the clothes and ran to put them on her sister, but the person had been dead for several days and could not bend and stretch like a living person. She tried several times but couldn't even put the clothes on.
"Let me do it." Xu Lai pulled the little girl aside, quickly helped Zhao Wenjun put on her clothes, tidied her hair, and laid her body flat on the ground.
He has been doing this kind of work since he was a child and is as familiar with it as eating and sleeping.
"Minmin." He turned around and called Zhao Xiaomin.
But the little girl was like a clay figurine, just standing there looking at her sister, not saying a word, not even blinking.
Xu Lai sighed slightly, stood up and walked to her side, and lightly flicked her forehead with his finger.
Zhao Xiaomin seemed to come back to her senses all of a sudden, looked up at him, and said, "Old Xu, my sister is gone."
After she finished speaking, her mouth flattened and she burst into tears. She couldn't stop crying and just held Xu Lai's arm and cried until she was dizzy.
