The Vanished Child

The next day.

The police station received another missing person report, with the complainant claiming their son had disappeared without any reason.

Unlike yesterday's false alarm, this wasn't about a missing pet cat - it was about a five-year-old boy.

After briefly questioning about the general circumstances, the police immediately dispatched officers to the scene.

At Wan Shopping Mall.

When the police arrived, they found a couple arguing.

From their argument, the police deduced that this must be the couple whose child had gone missing.

"Are you Mr. Wang who just filed the report?" Han Fei stepped forward to ask.

"Yes, yes, I'm the one who called!" Seeing the police officers arrive, the man immediately stopped arguing with his wife. "Officers, you're finally here. Could you please help find my son quickly? He's been missing for almost an hour now, and I'm worried something might have happened to him..."

The woman beside him also grabbed Han Fei's arm at this moment.

"Officer, he's my only son. I can't live without him. Please, please help us find him."

The woman was extremely emotional, clearly on the verge of breakdown. After seeing the officers, she nearly collapsed after speaking just a few sentences. Han Fei quickly caught her before she fell.

"Don't worry, we'll do our best to find him."

Then, pointing to a nearby restroom, he asked, "You mentioned on the phone that the child went missing in the bathroom? Is it this one?"

"Yes!" The man nodded. "My wife went to the bathroom earlier, and my son needed to go too. I was worried my wife would be anxious if she came out and couldn't find us, so I just waited at the bathroom exit and let my son go in by himself. But after waiting and waiting, he never came out. When I went to check, I found that the child was gone."

"Have you contacted the mall management to check the security cameras?" Han Fei asked.

"No," the man shook his head. "We haven't dared to leave this area. We just called the police and waited for you to arrive."

"Let's check the surveillance footage first."

Being a shopping mall, security cameras were everywhere. Checking the footage was the simplest and often most effective way to find someone. As long as the missing child hadn't left the mall, they could usually locate them quickly.

The group found the mall manager, and after identifying themselves, they reviewed the surveillance footage of the bathroom entrance with the manager's assistance.

The footage matched the man's description perfectly - his son went in but never came out.

As soon as the footage finished playing, the man turned to his wife.

"See? I told you I couldn't have missed him! Xiaoyu never came out! Yet you accused me of not watching him properly. How is this my fault?"

"Why are you yelling at me? Wasn't it you who lost him? I just went to use the bathroom, and when I came out, he was gone. Are you saying this is my fault?"

"I'm not blaming you, I'm just saying it wasn't because I wasn't paying attention and missed him leaving. He really never came out."

"So it's not your fault then? Would this have happened if you had gone in with him? Would our son be missing?"

"I was only waiting outside because I thought you'd be worried if you came out and couldn't find us. How could I have known this would happen?"

"..."

"Stop arguing, arguing won't solve anything... The priority right now is finding your child."

After calming down the couple who seemed ready to argue at the slightest provocation, Han Fei looked at Xu Mo, feeling somewhat uneasy about the surveillance footage.

The latter immediately understood Han Fei's concern and after examining the footage, shook his head: "The footage hasn't been tampered with."

"Are there any other entrances to this bathroom besides this one?" Han Fei asked the mall manager.

The mall manager immediately replied, "No, there aren't. This bathroom entrance is located between two shops. Walk in about ten meters, turn left, and you'll see the bathroom. There's only one entrance, no back door. Everyone has to use this entrance and exit."

No other exits... and no footage of the child leaving - did this mean the missing child never came out? Han Fei said, "Let's go back and check."

The group, along with the mall manager, returned to the bathroom.

As the mall manager had said, there was only one path to the bathroom, serving as both entrance and exit. Everyone had to use this route to go in and out.

Since the cameras hadn't captured the child leaving, he was likely still inside.

"Search thoroughly," Han Fei instructed the officers.

The bathroom's exit and entrance were the same, and while the cameras had captured the child entering but not leaving, and the footage hadn't been tampered with, Han Fei could only think of one possibility - the child might be playing hide and seek with his parents.

"Officer, he's not in there either. I've already searched everywhere. At first, I thought he might be hiding to play a trick on me, but I checked every corner of the bathroom and couldn't find my son. That's why I called the police."

The man added, "I also had my wife check the women's bathroom, but he wasn't there either."

Despite his assurance, the officers still entered the bathroom to check again.

The only places where someone could hide in the bathroom were the stalls, but they didn't find the missing child there.

The officers checked not only the men's room but also the women's room, the handicap bathroom, and the nursing room, but still found nothing.

After the fruitless search, the officers who had split up to search returned to Han Fei to report their findings.

"Captain Han, nothing in the women's room."

"Nothing in the handicap bathroom or nursing room either."

Han Fei's brow furrowed slightly. Could the child really have vanished into thin air? Impossible.

At this point, Xu Mo added another observation.

"I've checked the windows, ceiling, and ventilation fans too. The ceiling and fans are sealed shut, no one could get through there. The windows are big enough for someone to climb through, but this is the third floor, and the exterior wall is completely bare, not even a water pipe to climb on. It's impossible that someone climbed out through the windows."

Compared to other officers, Xu Mo had been more thorough in his inspection. He had not only checked all possible hiding places but also eliminated all other potential escape routes, concluding that it would have been impossible for someone to secretly leave the bathroom with a child.

After hearing this, Han Fei's frown deepened.

This was strange. The cameras hadn't caught the child leaving, they'd searched the entire bathroom and found nothing - had the child grown wings and flown away?

While Han Fei was puzzling over this, Wang Dachuan suddenly spoke up, as if remembering something.

"Captain Han, when we were checking the surveillance footage earlier, I remember seeing a man with a suitcase walking out of the bathroom."

Han Fei waved his hand before Wang Dachuan could finish.

"I noticed that too, but his suitcase wasn't big enough to fit a child that size. It couldn't have been him."

Anything that Wang Dachuan had noticed, Han Fei had naturally noticed too.

He hadn't mentioned it because the suitcase's dimensions weren't large enough to fit a child of that size.

"I know you couldn't fit him in directly, but what I mean is..." Wang Dachuan glanced at the couple who had lost their child and chose not to finish his sentence in front of them, mainly to avoid distressing them further.

Instead, he leaned close to Han Fei's ear and whispered his theory.

After hearing Wang Dachuan's whispered words, Han Fei was visibly stunned.

Although Wang Dachuan's theory was somewhat disturbing, it was indeed possible...

"Check the surveillance footage again. Find out who that person is... Track him down!"