At ten in the morning the next day, Ding Yun was studying magic spells in her room when she suddenly heard a knock on the door. She had to stop transforming and muttered, "Who's knocking at this odd hour?" as she went to open it.
When the door opened, the person standing outside was not someone she knew.
It was personnel from the police station.
"Um... what's wrong?"
Seeing the people outside the door, Ding Yun's heart sank. Could it be that her ability to use magic had been exposed, and they were here to talk to her? No way.
She hadn't used magic to do anything bad.
Nor had she done anything sensational.
She'd just been refurbishing phones to sell to make a living.
Was that illegal? Did it count as false advertising?
"You're Liu Lan's mother, right? We're here to ask you some questions. Is Liu Lan at home?"
As soon as Zhu Yun saw her, she asked immediately.
"?"
"Liu Lan? What are you looking for her for?
She hasn't been home much for almost three months. The last time she came back was a week ago, to see her son.
If you're looking for her and came to me, you've got the wrong person. You should look for her at her dad's. She's been doting on her dad lately, she doesn't remember me anymore?"
Although very confused,
Ding Yun said with a hint of sarcasm.
Hearing this, the people outside exchanged glances, and then Zhu Yun spoke again:
"It's like this, this morning someone came to report a case. They said they heard people arguing in a basement next door yesterday, and then today, an old man who used to come out for a walk every day didn't show up.
So they suspected something went wrong during the argument, and perhaps the old man was injured. We went to investigate after receiving the report and found Liu Guoding collapsed on the ground, with a head injury.
Liu Lan, who lived with him, has disappeared.
She may have fled in fear.
Then, through our investigation, we discovered that Liu Lan has a son and also a mother, so we suspect she might have come to see you. May we come in to take a look and understand the situation?"
They hadn't brought a search warrant, so they naturally had to explain the situation clearly and hoped to get Ding Yun's permission.
As for why they didn't bring a search warrant?
This wasn't a case of a stranger breaking in and knocking someone unconscious. It was a conflict between a father and his daughter. Moreover, the person wasn't dead, nor had they become a vegetative state.
Perhaps with a little mediation, a letter of forgiveness could be issued.
It would become a domestic matter.
Therefore, it was obviously unnecessary to go through the trouble of getting a search warrant and treating it as a serious criminal case.
"She had a falling out with her dad?"
Ding Yun's confusion was genuine, as she was truly puzzled as to how her daughter had suddenly fallen out with her father, whom she insisted on filial piety towards, and almost killed him.
What was going on?
After her confusion, Ding Yun still stepped aside:
"Then you can all come in and take a look. However, I don't think my daughter has been back today. Even if she had, she definitely wouldn't have come through the front door."
After all, Ding Yun had taken her child to school that morning, then went out for a square dance for over an hour and bought groceries. She was away for a long time, so she couldn't guarantee her daughter had never come back.
She could only say that she definitely hadn't come through the front door.
Because Ding Yun had taken back her daughter's key.
Even when she occasionally came back to see her son, she had to knock on the door.
Then, of course, they searched every room carefully and found nothing.
Nothing was missing from the house.
Nor was anything added, or an extra person found.
The people who came next could only continue to explain the relevant situation to Ding Yun in detail and hoped that Ding Yun could do her best to contact her daughter.
To let her daughter not flee and hide.
The person wasn't dead, there was no need to be so panicked.
As long as the other party didn't press charges, there wouldn't be any major issues.
Then they all took their leave and departed.
After they left, Ding Yun immediately closed the main door and locked it from the inside. She then quickly walked over to the storage room and knocked on the loose floorboard behind the door: "How long are you going to stay in there?
Get out quickly!"
At first, Ding Yun hadn't really noticed her daughter returning. After all, Liu Lan hadn't come back through the front door. As soon as she returned, she hid in the small basement under the storage room. How could Ding Yun know she was back in time?
It was only when she was searching the rooms with the police personnel that Ding Yun noticed some subtle changes in the storage room and guessed that her daughter might have indeed secretly fled home to hide.
But Ding Yun didn't want to expose this on the spot.
So she even used a trick to cover it up a little, to avoid being discovered. She waited until the police personnel who came to investigate had left before going into the storage room to call out for her.
At first, there was no response from below.
It was so quiet that Ding Yun doubted if she had guessed correctly.
It wasn't until Ding Yun personally removed the wooden board and looked down that she confirmed she hadn't guessed wrong. Her daughter was indeed down there, but whether it was because she was too tired or for some other reason, she had her eyes closed tightly.
She looked like she was asleep.
Ding Yun could only go down herself. She first checked her breathing and found that she was indeed just asleep.
Then, she unceremoniously reached out and pinched her arm.
No matter how tired a person is, as long as they are not unconscious or brain-dead, they would not be insensitive to external pain. So, in the next second, Liu Lan cried out in pain and woke up. She then belatedly covered her mouth and looked at Ding Yun with some bewilderment.
"Stop covering your mouth. What's the use of covering your mouth after you've already cried out? Come up with me. The police personnel are gone. Hurry up and come up to tell me what happened. Why did you have a falling out with your dad, and push him and injure him?"
Ding Yun gave her a helpless eye roll and immediately reached out to pull her, urging her to hurry up and explain the situation.
Liu Lan didn't pay much attention to what Ding Yun was saying.
She only heard Ding Yun say that her dad was just injured.
Then, she excitedly grabbed Ding Yun's arm and asked loudly in a panicked and expectant tone:
"Mom, what did you just say? You said my dad was just injured and didn't die? He really didn't die?"
Hearing this, how could Ding Yun not understand why her daughter was so panicked and fled to this place? Obviously, she thought she had accidentally killed her dad, thought a life had been lost, and that's why she was scared and ran away.
So, Ding Yun immediately began to comfort her:
"Alright, alright, don't get so worked up. Your dad, that old fellow, is a curse of a thousand years; he won't die so easily. I heard he was just injured and hospitalized. And the police aren't treating it as a criminal case, but as a domestic matter. From what they said, they're focusing on mediation.
Come up quickly and tell me what happened and how it escalated to this point?"