Missing Person Notice
The mother-in-law would come closer to anyone she met, either grabbing their hand or looking at their face. After examining them for a long time, she would reluctantly step back, only to come closer again when the next person arrived.
Some passersby kindly stopped to let her look, while others let go and walked away, and still others cursed at her from a distance.
Meng Yan squatted in the corner, watching until his legs went numb, but by carefully listening to their conversation, he managed to make sense of what they were saying.
The grandmother and her grandson depended on each other for survival. Some time ago, the grandson went out to work. Before leaving, he told her that the workload was heavy and he would have to wait a while before he came back. The grandmother remembered it, but forgot about it as soon as she turned around. She went door to door every day to look for her grandson. This search lasted for more than half a month. At first, the neighbors advised her to relax, but later they must have been annoyed by the disturbance. They told her that her grandson would be back soon and told her to wait at the entrance of the village.
Today, it seems the grandmother still hasn't seen her grandson.
.
The old man was short and hunched over, appearing even smaller against the backdrop of the large locust tree. His head of snow-white hair fluttered wearily in the wind, making it difficult to tell whether it was locust blossoms or the white hair left by the years.
A figure limped toward her; it was none other than Meng Yan.
A faint yet undeniable pain rose from below, instantly piercing through his limbs and bones, jolting Meng Yan back to his senses.
"Girl, have you ever seen a little boy like this? He's about this tall, and he has a scar on his hand that's been twisted twice. He got it from playing around when he was little. His eyes aren't as big as yours, and he always smiles. When he smiles, his eyes disappear."
The height her mother-in-law gestured was barely up to Meng Yan's waist, which didn't quite match her age for going out to work. But then she thought, her mother-in-law might not be able to distinguish between the present and the past anymore.
She wanted to find out the general situation of her mother-in-law's grandson so she could keep an eye on him on her way back, but communication became the biggest obstacle between them.
Although it wasn't yet summer, the sun was already scorching at an undeniable temperature. Perhaps because he hadn't slept all night, Meng Yan felt dizzy just looking at the sky, as if someone had suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the chaos.
It didn't seem like a hallucination; he was walking towards them. The old woman had clearly noticed him too, and she moved from the shade of the trees to the sun, slowly and anxiously trying to catch up with him.
Seeing the shade of the trees, the man immediately stumbled and changed direction, pulling the old woman back from the scorching open ground as he passed by.
Meng Yan suppressed her dizziness and glanced at the person, her last bit of weariness vanishing as she recognized them.
Why is it that delicate young master who falsely accused someone first?
Is this a case of misfortunes never coming singly?
Yue Lang didn't look at Meng Yan, who was almost one with the tree. He first fanned himself and stood there for a while, then stood up straight when he met his mother-in-law's scrutinizing gaze.
"What's wrong, sir? Is there something wrong? Or is there something dirty on my face or body?"
He racked his brains but still couldn't figure out what the problem was.
"No, none of those are true." The mother-in-law looked away in disappointment, but couldn't help but sigh as she looked at him.
Yue Lang frowned, deep in thought about those words. Suddenly, his brow relaxed, and he took his mother-in-law's wrinkled hands in his own: "Is there something dirty around you?"
Hearing only half of the sentence, Meng Yan didn't feel targeted, but when he finished the second half, Meng Yan immediately felt like he was being insulted while passing by.
"Don't worry, old man. I'm a Taoist priest. I specialize in feng shui and exorcising evil spirits."
Are there any other people or things around here? It turns out the evil spirit was myself.
This person is too vengeful. It was just a prick of a needle, why make up such nonsense?
She wanted to argue with him, but after taking only two steps, he leaped back into the sun as if flying, muttering something like "Hurry, hurry, as the law commands."
Meng Yan: "..." It seems the Taoist's identity was also made up.
In the blink of an eye, several talismans exploded in front of her, and smoke rose and enveloped her. Meng Yan couldn't dodge in time and was engulfed in it. The smoke choked her and brought tears to her eyes. She managed to take a few steps back to steady herself.
Once he confirmed that the person was indeed human, Yue Lang turned back to the shade and apologized. He supported his mother-in-law with his left hand to calm her down, while waving his right hand up and down in front of Meng Yan's eyes, seemingly trying to give her the talisman he was holding.
Having just learned her lesson from this stack of papers, Meng Yan, confident in her abilities, decided to take action and demonstrate to him what it meant to "retreat three steps."
As the culprit who hurt someone, Yue Lang knew he was in the wrong and dared not look her in the eye. He could only lower his head and whisper, "I'm really sorry, miss, but I'm afraid you have to accept these talismans today. They contain the antidote for the previous talismans. Otherwise, you might have to cry for a while."
No wonder he's a Taoist priest, he plays such underhanded tricks.
After snatching the talisman, Meng Yan quickly distanced herself from him and hid her face behind a tree by herself.
She no longer saw trees as trees, but as green spheres of varying sizes. At the same time, she could clearly feel something sliding down her face, and tears streamed down her face like they were free.
Not far away, Yue Lang knew that now was not the right time to apologize to her, so he decided to first take a look at the elderly woman's physical and mental health.
"Grandpa? Are you alright?"
The old woman had been quiet for a while, but after he called her a few times, she finally slowly came to her senses: "Okay, okay, you just said you were a Taoist priest, young man?"
Yue Lang nodded, seemingly puzzled.
"Does your line of work require you to travel to different places frequently? Can you help me find someone?"
The old woman's eyes gleamed with silver light. Yue Lang subconsciously pulled out a few talismans to give to her, but after thinking it over, he decided it shouldn't have been caused by accidental injury, so he simply handed them to Meng Yan by the tree.
Meng Yan, who kept wiping away more and more paper: "?"
After handing it over, Yue Lang pretended nothing had happened: "Old man, you said that I would tell everyone in the sect about this matter later, and everyone, whether inside or outside, can help."
She couldn't remember how much time had passed when the old woman heard someone respond to her plea for help for the first time. She held Yue Lang's hand tightly, wanting to tell him many things about her grandson, but the moment she opened her mouth, she became somewhat lost and looked around helplessly.
Yue Lang bent down to wait for her response, but noticed something was wrong as the old woman's withered hands gradually stiffened and began to tremble. He straightened up to look, and saw the old woman's mouth open and close repeatedly, but she couldn't utter a single word.
He understood, and gently patted the old man's back to comfort him, saying, "It's alright, old man. I can ask you questions and you can answer them. Just tell me what you remember."
Although Meng Yan did not participate in their conversation, she overheard the gist of what they were saying. Seeing that her tears had stopped streaming down her face, she turned around and joined her mother-in-law.
As if worried that they would run away, the mother-in-law handcuffed the two of them to the spot. The two men, though caught, were not angry and patiently waited for her to recall the past as much as possible.
The wind rustled through the branches and leaves, and locust blossoms fell to the ground.
Not only locust blossoms, but other things also fell around.
Meng Yan's hearing has been superior to that of ordinary people since childhood. She always comforts herself, thinking that perhaps God did not let her speak so that she could hear better.
She looked at Yue Lang's reaction, but he clearly hadn't noticed the subtle difference in his voice and was still staring blankly at the flowers.
.
The sound of locust blossoms falling from a height is drooping, small and light, and damp; the other sound is dry, dragging on the ground and scraping away the topsoil. If Meng Yan had to describe it with something he already knew, he thought of paper, or rather, paper that had been written on and folded.
Based on her own unreasonable deductions, she roughly checked around the three people, and after scanning the area, she suddenly remembered the yellow talisman that had just been used to plot against her.
Could the owner possibly be completely unaware that such a self-defense tool has been lost? Meng Yan imagined himself with the mechanical kite unable to fly properly, forced to walk back step by step under the midday sun...
The grand plan to improve and perfect the mechanical kite is of utmost urgency!
The Taoist priest over there, who was offering free talismans to everyone he met, came back to his senses and started looking around, mimicking her movements. Meng Yan had a feeling that she was looking at a white egret, but the egret was unaware that it was being watched and was only focused on finding fish in the water.
Are fish really that easy to catch? Just stand still and wait for them to run into you?
A breeze blew by, and the egret looked down twice, picked up a folded piece of white paper from the ground, swept the dust off its surface with its sleeve, and brought it over.
Meng Yan forced a slight smile and accepted it with both hands.
Some waterbirds are chased by the heavens to be fed to fish.
The mother-in-law was still lost in her memories when she saw the white paper being handed over between the two of them, and her fingers unconsciously twitched.
Meng Yan noticed this and placed it in front of her mother-in-law. Yue Lang quickly understood her meaning and pointed to the paper that was trying to escape, asking his mother-in-law, "Is this yours?"
“It’s a letter, written for me by the girl next door. Inside is… it is…” The mother-in-law was excited for a moment, then fell silent.
"You can open it and take a look, I don't know many words." It's clear that this letter is very important to the mother-in-law.
The two people, each holding a piece of the letter, looked at each other, and then Meng Yan suddenly withdrew his hand.
He couldn't read or repeat what he had read, so the Taoist priest, who loves to talk, was the perfect candidate.
Yue Lang realized the letter was familiar only when they made eye contact. The stinging pain from the needle felt like it was right in his fingertips. He trembled twice before he could hold the letter firmly in his hand.
Meng Yansong's release was somewhat unexpected. In his memory, whenever a rare book was unearthed, all the people in the sect who knew about it would crowd together to read it. The sudden emptiness made him feel a little uncomfortable.
He assumed she was just quiet. Despite meeting him so many times, she had never greeted him once. In a way, she was the first person to pretend to be such a stranger.
The letter truly contained what the old woman wanted to say. It was filled with her daily life and her longing for her grandson who was away from home, but she didn't mention once that she wanted him to come home.
The letter writer was thoughtful, as he included the mother-in-law's address and his grandson's whereabouts at the end, suggesting he had guessed what would happen today.
"Grandpa, is this letter for your grandson?" Yue Lang folded it and put it back in the old man's hand.
Only when the texture she had touched a thousand times returned to her hands did the old woman finally remember. She nodded and asked Yue Lang, "How long will it take you to bring it over?"
Yue Lang scratched his head impatiently and replied, "It will take at least three to five days."
Given the rising temperatures and the potential challenges along the way, a week might not even be enough, but he didn't tell the old man any of this.
After a long silence, Meng Yan raised her hand, or more precisely, she raised one finger and pointed at the letter, gesturing "one".
Yue Lang: "?"
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