Void Jigsaw Puzzle

Guo Ling held his breath, stood sideways behind the bus stop billboard, and glanced at the simple breakfast shop across the street.

Although it was already mid-morning and past the typical breakfast time, there were still a dozen people lined up at the door of Xiandele, anxiously waiting for freshly baked sesame cakes.

Just now, he received a call from the owner of Xiandele, informing him that the couple he was looking for came to buy breakfast again.

So, Guo Ling and Old Man Liu quickly rushed down from the office in Linjiang Building.

For safety reasons, they did not bring Fan Ting and Zhu Tong.

Guo Ling's plan was: if Zhu Tong's parents were willing to recognize each other, he could take them back to Linjiang Tower to see Zhu Tong; and if they were unwilling or if something unexpected happened, Zhu Tong's absence would allow them to deal with the situation more without distraction.

Old man Liu was lurking at the intersection closest to the entrance of the Xiandele store, while Guo Ling was observing from across the street.

A man and a woman in the team caught his attention. He locked his eyes on them, not daring to blink.

The man was slightly plump, with an honest face and short flat hair; the woman was tall and thin, with a pretty face, shoulder-length hair, and a very obvious mole at the corner of her mouth, which could be vaguely seen even from across the street.

After repeated observations, Guo Ling couldn't wait to send a message to Old Man Liu, then slipped out from behind the billboard, while observing the passing vehicles, he crossed the road directly and walked towards the door of Xiandele.

Old man Liu also came out from behind the corner.

The extended lines of the two people's routes formed a right angle, and the vertex of the right angle was in front of Xiandele's door.

The couple had just received the pancakes from the boss and were about to leave the crowd and walk towards the intersection when they heard someone calling them from behind.

"Zhu Tong's father, Zhu Tong's mother!"

The two men's eyes met quickly, as if they had heard an unbearable curse. They turned around at the same time, opened their eyes wide, and threw the baked buns they had just bought at Guo Ling!

Guo Ling was caught off guard and subconsciously dodged, raising his hands to block in front of his head.

Everything happened in just half a second.

The pancake did not hit Guo Ling, but when he reacted and looked forward again, the man and woman had already rushed towards the street corner at a very fast speed and were about to hit Old Man Liu.

"Old Liu, be careful!" Guo Ling had just shouted this when he saw the two men sideways and flash past him on the left and right at the moment before knocking Old Liu down, and then left him stunned behind.

At this time, Guo Ling also rushed to Old Man Liu, staring at the route of the two people, without even looking at Old Man Liu, and directly stuffed the car keys in his hand into his hand.

"You drive! I'll catch up with them! We'll keep in touch!"

After saying that, he ran away.

Old man Liu, holding the car keys in his hand, finally reacted and quickly crossed the road and ran to the underground garage of Linjiang Building.

The moment he crossed the road, he glanced back and found that the proprietress of Xiandele was looking at him from a distance.

Seems to be rolling his eyes.

......

Guo Ling stared closely at the two people dozens of meters away, not daring to relax at all.

He had already followed the two men for two intersections and was about to turn onto the riverside road.

"That's great! If they go to the riverbank, at least there's a river on one side, which will make it easier for me to follow them... But why are they running to the river?"

Before he had time to think further, he saw the two men rushing onto the river bank and running along that side of the river.

"Come on! I know this road..."

Guo Ling was overjoyed and continued to bite the two of them.

He usually runs for exercise, and his regular route is to go back and forth along the river bank, so he feels that he has entered his comfort zone at this moment.

However, his excitement did not last for a few seconds. As he was entering a state of rhythmic breathing with his mouth half open, he found that the two men jumped directly into the river one after the other!

Guo Ling still had his mouth half open, but his face was full of astonishment.

He quickly ran to the shore and looked into the river. He saw two splashes of water spreading on the surface of the river and quickly disappeared in the rapid current.

Neither of them showed up again.

Guo Ling searched around the center of the splashing water but found no signs of people. He then turned and stared at the other side of the river in disbelief, although he did not believe that two people could swim to the other side in such a rapid.

However, after waiting for an unknown amount of time, he scanned the river banks and river edges on both sides countless times, but he could not find any trace of the two people.

They were like two fish that jumped into the river and never appeared again.

At this time, Guo Ling's cell phone rang. It was Old Man Liu.

"Hey! Drive to He'an Road. From the intersection of Sanduping and He'an Road, drive toward He'an Road. You'll see me on the roadside after about a hundred meters..."

A few minutes later, Old Man Liu drove over. He parked the car on the side of the road, jumped out of the driver's seat, and hurried towards Guo Ling.

All I saw was a middle-aged man with a puzzled look on his face.

"what's the situation?"

"If I say they jumped into the river and never came up again, would you believe me?"

"...With the river flowing so fast, they're courting death!" Old Man Liu shook his head. "In my entire life, I've never seen anyone dare to swim in this section of the river!"

"But they just disappeared. What do you say we should do?"

"Could they have been carrying diving gear, put it on after jumping into the river, and then swam away underwater? This is the only possibility I can think of."

"But I observed carefully when I was following them just now, and they didn't have anything on them."

"Forget it, let's go back first."

The two returned to Linjiang Tower somewhat dejectedly, just in time to meet the expectant gazes of Fan Ting and Zhu Tong.

Fan Ting only took one look at the two of them and knew that things were not going well. She quickly said, "Take a break first and tell me slowly, what exactly happened?"

Although Zhu Tong was not as sensitive as Fan Ting, at least he did not see any familiar figures behind the two of them, and he also roughly understood that the two of them would most likely return empty-handed.

She pouted slightly and said nothing.

Fan Ting sent Zhu Tong to the conference room and took out a tablet computer. "Xiaotong, Aunt Fan just saw a very good animated film. It tells the story of a little girl exploring a mysterious world. Let me show it to you."

After Zhu Tong nodded, she gently closed the door, turned around and walked out.

"How is it? Is there no progress?" She went straight to the point.

"There has been some progress... We found her parents, but when I went over to say hello, they acted like crazy. Not only did they throw sesame cakes at me, they almost knocked Old Man Liu down. Finally, after I followed them for a few hundred meters, they jumped into a river and never came out again." Guo Ling recounted the entire process in one breath.

Fan Ting was stunned for a moment, then seemed to think of something and asked, "Where exactly is the place where they jumped into the river?"

"The intersection of Sanduping and He'an Road. I've already got onto He'an Road, but not far away."

"Oh..." Fan Ting thought carefully.

Guo Ling and Old Man Liu didn't dare to speak, for fear of disturbing Fan Ting's thoughts.

"I understand!" Fan Ting finally shouted.

His tone was full of surprise.