“How would I know? He didn’t even tell me about being with Xia Xuanxuan,” Meng Qing said, feeling hurt that Lin Bai had kept such an important matter from him.
“Let’s continue reading the diary. Didn’t the diary record their story?” They hadn’t read carefully earlier and hadn’t seen the part about their breakup.
Xia Xuanxuan was at that time conducting a transaction with Xia Zhenda. After receiving a warning from Lin Bai, she let her father escape because she had a brain chip that allowed the Time and Space Management Bureau to locate her exact time and space coordinates. She was unable to escape the time and space special police pursuit, but Xia Zhenda could flee.
Xia Xuanxuan was arrested and confessed all her crimes, admitting that she had exploited Lin Bai’s trust and emotions.
Smuggling goods between different time and spaces was considered a serious crime of disrupting time and space because it could profoundly affect the development of various time and spaces and ultimately lead to time and space imbalance. Ultimately, Xia Xuanxuan was sentenced to exile in a desolate time and space for ten years.
A desolate time and space, as the name suggests, was a barren time and space without intelligent life. Exiles could live on a planet suitable for human habitation within this time and space.
With basic needs met, but enduring ten years of solitary life, with no one to communicate with and no entertainment, days passed monotonously and tediously. Xia Xuanxuan had been living alone on that planet for over two years.
Yu Yi and Meng Qing quickly browsed through the subsequent diary entries. After Xia Xuanxuan rejected Lin Bai’s visitation proposal, Lin Bai never mentioned her again in his diary.
Yu Yi asked, “Would Lin Bai have gone to find Xia Xuanxuan himself?”
“No,” Meng Qing shook his head. “Although Lin Bai’s terminal can freely traverse time and space, he would not irresponsibly disappear for many days, abandoning his work and friends.”
Hearing this, Yu Yi said worriedly, “Xia Xuanxuan is still serving her sentence in the desolate time and space, but Xia Zhenda has escaped. Maybe he will come back to take revenge on Lin Bai? That would be terrible. He would definitely harm Lin Bai.”
Meng Qing, who had been frowning while reading the diary, said with a worried expression, “I hope not, but currently, the most likely lead is this case involving Xia Xuanxuan.”
After pondering, he added, “Actually, I would prefer if Lin Bai’s disappearance was indeed done by Xia Zhenda, as that would still offer a chance of finding Lin Bai. I think Xia Zhenda coming to find Lin Bai after more than two years might be to force or use him to rescue Xia Xuanxuan, which would at least mean Lin Bai is still alive.”
Yu Yi nodded, “Indeed, but how to find Xia Zhenda… Oh, do you know where Xia Xuanxuan is serving her sentence? If Xia Zhenda wants to rescue his daughter, he would definitely go to her place of exile.”
Meng Qing agreed, “Her sentence location is randomly designated by computer in all desolate time and spaces. Let me check… there are time and space coordinates in the record. We can apply to visit Xia Xuanxuan.”
Yu Yi asked, “Won’t we tell the investigation team? They would have more manpower and resources to find Xia Zhenda, right?”
Meng Qing shrugged, “Of course we’ll tell them, but they can investigate Xia Zhenda’s whereabouts, while we’ll focus on talking to Xia Xuanxuan.”
Meng Qing said: “We are Lin Bai’s friends.”
Xia Xuanxuan’s eyes flashed with a hint of mockery, and she curved one corner of her lips: “After more than two years, he finally thought of having friends come to take the lead?”
“It’s not Lin Bai who asked us to come,” Meng Qing stared at Xia Xuanxuan and asked,
“
Xia Xuanxuan widened her eyes and quickly asked, “Are you looking for me to find him? He has never been here.”
“So, Miss Xia, do you know where Lin Bai is now?”
She shook her head and laughed dryly, “I’ve been serving my sentence in this godforsaken place for over two years, not having faced anyone face to face. Aren’t you looking for the wrong person by coming here?”
“Miss Xia, do you really not know Lin Bai’s current situation?”
Xia Xuanxuan shook her head again, her face indifferent: “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know, and I can’t possibly know.” After a pause, she added: “If you’re here just to find him, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. I advise you to go look elsewhere, where your chances might be better.”
Meng Qing was unwilling to give up and asked, “Since we’ve come all this way, won’t Miss Xia invite us in to sit?”
Xia Xuanxuan sneered: “Mr. Meng, are you suspecting that someone is hidden in my small house? If you don’t mind wasting your time looking for someone, then come in and sit.”
Meng Qing wasn’t bothered by Xia Xuanxuan’s sarcasm.
Seeing Yu Yi’s laughing glance, he understood what she was laughing at. He couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth, pretending not to understand Xia Xuanxuan’s words, and walked straight into the small house.
The small house had two rooms with a bathroom. Meng Qing used the excuse of convenience, entered the bathroom, and used an infrared thermal imager to check the inner room, finding no one inside. When he came out of the bathroom, he subtly shook his head at Yu Yi.
Xia Xuanxuan pretended not to see his movements and gestures, poured two cups of water, and leisurely chatted with them, asking about the tasks they had done and how the executors they knew before were doing.
In the end, it was Meng Qing who proposed to leave, and Xia Xuanxuan smiled and said, “No need to see me off.”
After Yu Yi and Meng Qing left Xia Xuanxuan’s small house at a distance, she whispered to Meng Qing: “Her attitude is unnatural. Did you really not notice if someone else was in her house?”
“The infrared thermal imager didn’t detect anyone,” Meng Qing was slightly surprised, “Her attitude was unnatural? I didn’t see it.”
After putting on heat-reflective suits, they quickly walked back to the rear of the small cabin. Yu Yi continued to observe the cabin’s interior with a thermal imager, while Meng Qing installed a listening device on the cabin’s outer wall to capture conversations inside.
After a short while, Xia Xuanxuan rose from the table and opened the basement door, calling softly downstairs: “Dad, they’ve left.”
With her call, movement indeed began in the cabin’s basement. Meng Qing and Yu Yi exchanged a glance, listening intently to the sounds inside.
Seeing Xia Zhenda coming up the stairs alone, Xia Xuanxuan looked behind him and asked, “Where are they?” When Xia Zhenda arrived, he had brought Lin Bai and one subordinate.
“Knocked out,” Xia Zhenda answered simply. Because Lin Bai tried to make a sound and attract Yu Yi’s attention, Xia Zhenda had knocked him unconscious. As soon as he finished speaking, Gao Zhuo half-supported, half-dragged Lin Bai up.
“Quickly lay him on the bed,” Xia Xuanxuan hurried over, helping Gao Zhuo escort Lin Bai out of the basement door and onto the bed.
Lin Bai let out a low groan and fell back into unconsciousness. Xia Xuanxuan looked at him worriedly and sighed: “Dad, you should leave quickly and take him back. I’m here deservedly, let me quietly serve the remaining sentence, and then I can live as an ordinary person. If I escape with you today, I’ll become a fugitive…”
“Dad… I really don’t want to become a fugitive, always living a life of avoiding capture, never able to see my old friends again.”
Xia Zhenda pointed at Lin Bai and frowned, asking: “Do you still like this guy? Weren’t you arrested because he reported you?”
Xia Xuanxuan shook her head: “I’m not still thinking about being with him. I betrayed him first and hurt him, which is why he reported me. If he hadn’t warned me, could you have escaped?”
