The car started heading home. Gu Anran tidied her hair and clothes, and along the way, she found a convenience store that was still open and bought some food that she usually didn't let Xiaotian eat.
The snow fell heavier and heavier. Ye Lichuan held her hand and walked forward step by step, the snow falling on their hair and eyelashes. When they got back to the car, Gu Anran's face was flushed red and her fingers were stiff.
The car's heater was on full blast, and it took Gu Anran two minutes to warm up. The frozen ground made the car slippery, and what should have been a half-hour journey took an hour.
After arriving home, Gu Anran hurried to the living room. The air conditioning was on, making the room warm and cozy. She placed the food she was carrying on the table and looked around but didn't see anyone.
Following the corridor to the bedroom door, Gu Anran knocked twice. "Xiaotian, are you sleeping? Mom is coming in."
There was no response from inside, so she knocked a few more times, pressing her ear against the door to listen carefully. There was no sound, so she assumed he was fast asleep. She gently turned the doorknob, opened the door, and went inside.
She found the blankets were neatly folded without a single wrinkle. She hurriedly walked to the computer, reached out to test the temperature, and found them ice-cold.
"Xiao Tian! Xiao Tian!" She ran downstairs in a panic, searching the house, but he wasn't there, still not there!
"What's wrong?" Ye Lichuan stopped the person who looked flustered.
"Xiao Tian... Xiao Tian is missing!" Gu Anran panicked and frantically dialed her phone again and again, but all she heard was a cold, mechanical female voice.
Ye Lichuan panicked, but he quickly calmed down and started contacting the teacher, from whom he obtained the phone numbers of the parents of several classmates who were close to Xiaotian.
However, no one knew where Gu Xiaotian had gone. He took Gu Anran to the company and checked the surveillance footage, but there was no trace of Gu Xiaotian.
"Where did he go? Could he have encountered some danger?"
"No, Xiaotian is so smart, let's think about it again."
Gu Anran calmed down. When they left in the morning, she had specifically told Xiaotian to stay at home obediently. The door to the house was made of special material and could not be opened under normal circumstances unless he opened it himself.
That proves he's someone we know, but why is his phone off? "We've been neglecting his feelings because of me all this time."
Gu Anran bent down and squatted on the ground. She had noticed something was wrong when she came back yesterday. Why didn't she go in and check on him? What if he ran out and encountered danger?
"Let's keep looking, we'll find it." Ye Lichuan pulled her up, and Gu Anran also cheered up. The two split up to increase their efficiency and search for places where Gu Xiaotian might be.
However, by evening they and their men had not obtained a single clue. Gu Anran was drenched in sweat, constantly contacting people with her phone in her hand, and did not notice the stone in front of her.
She fell to the ground, getting a cut on her hand. She wiped the blood off her hand casually and continued searching through the streets and alleys, but still found nothing.
"Let's call the police, this isn't working." Gu Anran gave Ye Lichuan her location and then went into the police station.
After the fall, her clothes and hair were covered in snow, and there was dried blood on her hands. The police officer on duty quickly took her in.
"I need to call the police. My son... is missing. We came back at noon and he was gone."
She sat opposite, holding a cup of hot water, anxiously looking at the policeman across from her. She hastily wiped away her tears, put down the cup and was about to kneel down when the policeman stopped her.
"Tell me slowly what exactly happened."
She recounted how she returned home and discovered Xiaotian was missing, and all the places she had searched. Her tone was flustered, and her speech was somewhat incoherent. Fortunately, the police understood what she meant and quickly recorded her name, age, and gender.
Do you know what your son was doing before he went out?
Gu Anran shook her head. The police officers exchanged glances. "Do you know where your son likes to go the most?"
She told me about all the places she knew, but couldn't say which place she liked to go the most.
"Has he been spending a lot of time with anyone lately?"
She shook her head and burst into tears. It turned out she didn't understand her son at all. The police were also furious, grinding their teeth in anger. This was only making their investigation more difficult.
"I'm sorry, my wife is emotionally unstable. You can ask me if you have any questions." Ye Lichuan rushed over, and the police officer, suppressing his temper, asked him a few more questions. Although he knew more about his wife than she did, it was still clear that they didn't care much about their child.
After failing to type out yet another question, the police officer slammed his fist on the table. "Now you only realize how anxious you are when your child is lost. If you had paid more attention to your child in the past, would he have gotten lost?"
"What could be so important that you would neglect your child? You haven't taken on the responsibilities of being parents at all!"
The two lowered their heads and silently accepted the police's reprimand. It was indeed their negligence towards Xiao Tian that led to this incident.
Despite their anger, the police still consulted their superiors because they couldn't file a case or deploy officers to search for the suspect before the stipulated time had passed.
Gu Anran looked anxiously at the office separated by the glass door, saying, "They will help us, and our son will be fine, so don't worry."
Despite saying that, Ye Lichuan was also very worried. Doing business inevitably involves offending people. He and Gu Anran were both in the business world every day. If someone took this opportunity to retaliate, Xiaotian would be in danger.
Ten minutes later, the police officer who had greeted them came out and glared at them fiercely. "The chief has approved the dispatch of officers. We will do everything we can to find the child. I just hope you will not neglect the child again in the future."
During the investigation of their family backgrounds, all the police officers at the station learned the identities of the two individuals, so the possibility of kidnapping cannot be ruled out. The higher-ups have also instructed them to take this seriously, and the child must be found.
"Thank you, thank you all." Gu Anran bowed to them.
The police quickly assembled and set out to search for the missing person, while the technical staff from the bureau stayed behind to explain the situation to them: "If anyone calls, you must tell us. Parents, don't worry too much. We will contact you if there is any news. You can go home and wait, so that we don't not know when our child returns home."
The two nodded and decided to go home to check first. Xiao Tian still hadn't returned. Gu Anran suggested printing missing person notices, but all the stores outside were closed, so they had to go to the company.
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