Chapter 113: Speculation

At that moment, she was dressed very stylishly. She waved at me excitedly and ran over with a beaming smile. However, I soon became stunned and hurriedly asked, “How are you here? What about Li Ling? Where is she? Why has her phone been off all this time? And...”

Before I could finish, Anna waved her hand to interrupt me, her voice filled with urgency. “Teacher Li is missing! I’ve been looking for her too! It’s so good to see you. Can you help me?”

Anna was clearly agitated, and her Chinese wasn’t very fluent, making it hard for me to understand everything clearly. My thoughts were scattered as well. After calming her down with some effort, I found a quiet spot and we sat on a bench. I tried to organize my thoughts as we talked.

It turned out Anna hadn’t come with Li Ling. Due to some family matters, they had been apart by two days. Anna told me that Li Ling had given her some information beforehand, roughly saying they would meet in the capital. Anna also knew where Li Ling was staying, but once she arrived, she lost contact with her. This happened around the same time Li Ling messaged me, meaning that shortly after sending me the message, Li Ling disappeared.

Anna had been in the capital for five days. In that time, she had been wandering around like a headless fly. She had considered reporting to the police but lacked evidence linking Li Ling’s disappearance to any crime. Moreover, the hotel where Li Ling stayed had surveillance. Li Ling left the hotel on her own and got into a taxi, but that was where contact ceased. Since Li Ling is a returned scholar with a doctorate, the police took it seriously, but so far there had been little progress.

However, Anna showed me an important clue. She pulled out her phone and showed me an incomplete message Li Ling had sent. It contained only two characters: “Dragon Head.”

Just those two words, without any punctuation. Anna said Li Ling was compulsive about punctuation—she always included it, especially in her messages. I checked the previous messages Li Ling sent me, and sure enough, they all ended properly with punctuation. But this message had none. Immediately, I suspected Li Ling might have been interrupted while typing, sending an unfinished message in haste.

I glanced at the timestamp and asked Anna about it. She said the time was when she was on the plane, and the phone was off during the flight, so Li Ling’s calls wouldn’t have gone through then. The cryptic two characters without context left me puzzled.

The situation had to be urgent. Could it be that Li Ling was truly in danger?

My heart skipped a beat. Although I didn’t have a deep friendship with Li Ling, learning about her predicament made me anxious. I wasn’t sure why—perhaps because she carried those two elixirs of mine, or maybe for some other reason. My feelings were complicated.

“Yun, you have to help me,” Anna pleaded.

I glanced at her and nodded. Anna’s face lit up with relief, perhaps reassured by my willingness. From what little time I’d spent with Li Ling, I sensed she was an optimistic person, or rather, a carefree foreign girl.

I checked the time—it was already noon. We needed to eat before making plans. Near the academy, there were many small eateries. We picked one at random. As I ate, I pondered the meaning of those two characters, “Dragon Head.” I knew the term appeared in ancient tomb feng shui, but what did it signify here? Could it refer to a tomb? And what relevance would that have?

At that moment, I noticed Anna eating heartily. Perhaps she’d been too anxious to eat well before. She glanced up, caught me staring, and blushed slightly. “Sorry, Yun. These past few days I've been so worried I couldn’t eat properly. But seeing you now, I suddenly feel hungry. Sorry about that.”

I smiled at her. “It’s alright. I was rude to stare. Please, continue.”

She asked what I was thinking about, and I told her those two words. Anna blinked her large eyes and softly suggested, “Maybe… maybe it’s a person’s name? Or a place? Or something else…”

I took a bite of shredded pork in garlic sauce, smiled, and shook my head. I was about to respond when the idea struck me: a person’s name? That seemed unlikely—who would be called “Dragon Head”? But a place name... that might be possible. I racked my brain. I didn’t recall any city called Dragon Head, but perhaps it was a county or a smaller locality. Maybe I should find an internet café later and look it up.

Though uncertain if my guess was accurate, it was some progress. Honestly, when I saw Anna, I felt we had made headway. At least she was someone closely connected to Li Ling.

In the afternoon, I took Anna back to her hotel. I had wanted to check Li Ling’s previous room for clues, but the front desk said it was already occupied. That meant the room had been cleaned, and any evidence lost.

Left with no choice, I settled Anna in and told her I had some business to attend to and would inform her of any developments. Anna, unfamiliar with the city, needed a safe place. Besides, my own situation was precarious—Old Ghost and the others could appear anytime, so I had to remain cautious.

After ensuring Anna was settled and exchanging phone numbers, I hailed a taxi and went to Wang Wenshan’s house to inquire. Though I had long suspected Wang Wenshan hadn’t returned, I didn’t want to miss any possibility. As expected, he had not come home, which left me feeling a bit disheartened.