Even hybrid monsters have their day

A sharp pain shot through her eyes, and she instinctively closed them. When she opened them again, a bruised face appeared before her without warning.

His unfocused eyes were staring wide-eyed, his entire body was covered in bruises, and he wore a water-drenched T-shirt and shorts. The water dripped from his clothes but disappeared when it hit the ground. He looked so small, barely reaching Geng Miaowan's waist even when standing there.

Upon closer inspection, he didn't seem that scary; it was just that I wasn't prepared and was startled when I suddenly saw him.

Geng Miaowan tried her best to control her facial expression, and waved to him in a friendly manner, "Xiaoming, is that you?"

Xiao Ming's unfocused eyes remained fixed on her, without moving an inch. He seemed uninterested in her suddenly being able to see him, and asked immediately, "Where's Shuai Shuai?"

She turned around and sat down on the steps by the door to meet his gaze. "Is Shuai Shuai sick and staying in the hospital?"

"why?"

“Because…” Geng Miaowan suddenly didn’t know how to describe her feelings. He probably really wanted to be friends with Shuai Shuai, right? If he knew that Lu Shuai Shuai was dying because of him, he would definitely be very sad. She thought for a moment and said, “If you can help me do a few things that will make Shuai Shuai get better faster, would you be willing?”

Xiao Ming nodded, his face still expressionless.

"I'm asking you, do you know where you live?"

"beside."

Where is it next to?

Xiao Ming shook his head. Geng Miaowan looked at him and said, "Can you think about it carefully?"

He thought about it for a moment, then shook his head.

"Then where do you live now?"

He stretched out his hand, as if to point somewhere, but he didn't know where to point, his face blank. Then his expression turned to fear, and he said, "Cold, so wet."

Geng Miaowan thought for a moment to recall any places that fit this description, but couldn't think of anything. Judging from the dripping water on him, it must be related to water. But she had lived in this courtyard house for a while, and there was no place to store water there at all.

She reached out to touch him reassuringly, but then realized she couldn't actually touch him, so she withdrew her hand.

"Do you know how you ended up living there?"

Xiao Ming thought for a moment, then shook his head.

Suddenly, he called out to his left, "Mommy... I miss Mommy..."

Geng Miaowan followed his gaze and saw a courtyard house with a similar layout. Because of Xiaoming's situation, she knew the circumstances of several households in the vicinity quite well. An elderly couple lived there; their son and daughter-in-law had both gone to other places, leaving only the two of them at home.

She remembered hearing from her neighbors that they used to have a three-year-old grandson who had gone missing a few years ago. They reported it to the police, who searched for half a month without success, and finally suspected that he had been abducted by human traffickers.

Thinking of this, she sighed softly. If a family loses a child, the family is essentially destroyed. Suddenly, she remembered the file she had seen at the police station. She wondered what was wrong with society these days, that such tragedies kept happening. How could anyone do something so heinous? Didn't they have a heart? Didn't they feel any remorse?

She glanced at Xiaoming in front of her, her eyes filled with heartache. He should be at an age where he'd be cherished and pampered by his parents, yet he'd turned out like this. And his loving parents must be heartbroken and scarred.

As she looked at him, she suddenly felt that the person in front of her looked somewhat familiar, as if she had seen him somewhere before. But for a moment, she couldn't remember where she had seen him.

She continued, "Do you know what everyone in your family is called?"

Xiao Ming shook his head.

"You really can't remember where you live now?" Geng Miaowan asked, unwilling to give up.

Xiao Ming shook his head again, then suddenly two streams of black liquid flowed from his eyes, and he said, "I miss my mom..."

Geng Miaowan spent nearly an hour trying to get any useful information out of him, so she had no choice but to head back home.

Peng Yuxian's car was parked outside because it was dark and he couldn't get back to the city. So he sat in the car waiting for her. As soon as she got in, he asked, "Did you find anything?"

Geng Miaowan shook her head.

Just then, her phone rang. She picked it up and saw it was Lu Fangtong calling. She figured he was probably asking about the progress of the matter.

Geng Miaowan hesitated for a moment before pressing the call button.

"How did it go? Did you get any results?" He immediately asked the question that concerned him most.

"No, maybe he was too young when he died and didn't understand much."

The voice on the other end of the phone went silent. After a while, Lu Fangtong asked again, "Should I contact those people again and ask them to search for the child more carefully?"

"The police station? No need..." They've already investigated everything they could, so she's given up hope.

However, before she could finish speaking, something suddenly flashed through her mind, and she quickly said, "Wait!"

"how?"

"I want to see the file on the missing children." Her voice betrayed a nervousness she herself was unaware of.

"Okay, I'll call them right away and have them arrange it." Lu Fangtong agreed without even asking why, completely disregarding the time and whether the police station staff would have to rush over to work overtime because of his call. Now, he could only place all his hopes on Geng Miaowan.

Geng Miaowan hung up the phone, and Lu Fangtong noticed something was off. "What's wrong?"

"Do you remember when we went to the police station to check the files that day, I accidentally knocked over one of their files? I felt that Xiaoming looked a bit like a child in that file, but... I only glanced at it casually, so I'm not really sure."

"You...you really saw Xiaoming?" Peng Yuxian asked him, his expression complex. Even now, he still couldn't quite believe that ghosts really existed in this world.

Geng Miaowan nodded, her hand holding the phone trembling slightly, unsure whether it was from nervousness or excitement.

Peng Yuxian freed one hand and reached over to cover it, saying softly, "It's okay, we can confirm it tomorrow."

The next morning, Geng Miaowan rushed to the police station. When Lu Fangtong arrived, she and Peng Yuxian were already searching for files in the archives. Several files lay scattered in front of her, seemingly having been thoroughly examined, and she was still engrossed in her search. (To be continued.)