TWWDS - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

On the other side, the young man had already flung the netted sack of river fish away as if it were garbage. He gestured frantically to the attendant, nearly in tears. "I left my little sister in the shop to eat biscuits and told her to wait until I came back after buying what we needed. She has always been sensible. If she cannot see me, she would never leave with anyone."

The commotion at the entrance alerted the shop's proprietor. He clearly recognized the young man before him and looked puzzled. "Young Master Xu, why have you come out with your sister today, with no one else?"

Young Master Xu gave a bitter smile. "After the New Year, my elder sister began suffering from headaches. Once she had improved, she went back to the academy and even sat three days of examinations without a break. She kept sending word that she was all right, but when she came back, she took to bed and could not get up. Others in Nanny Wang's household were ill as well, so she never returned to the city. Everyone else found it even harder to get away, so I took my sister out for a walk."

The weather in the second and third months was touch-and-go, warm one moment and cold the next, so it was easy to fall ill.

The proprietor sighed twice. "I was in the kitchen and paid no attention to what was going on outside. I truly did not see where your sister had gone." He then comforted him. "Do not be anxious. Ask the neighbors, and have someone send word home."

Young Master Xu gave a distracted nod, then questioned the peddlers beside the shop and the broker across the street. But no one had noticed anything unusual.

Chao Qingxiu had also learned from the bystanders' conversation exactly what had happened.

Young Master Xu came from a modestly well-to-do family and owned a little property in Gaofang Prefecture. He now attended the official academy in the city together with his elder sister. His youngest sister, meanwhile, was at a small school, where a tutor was teaching her the basics of reading.

Under normal circumstances, Little Sister Xu was always very sensible. Today she wanted some river fish and begged her brother to buy it. Young Master Xu could not bear to refuse her request, and he thought she would be safe in the busy market district. So he left her in the shop for the time being to eat biscuits and went alone to the riverbank to buy it.

His round trip took no more than the time needed to finish a cup of tea. Law and order in Gaofang Prefecture had always been good, and strangers were seldom seen in the streets. Only in the past two months had a few more refugees begun arriving from elsewhere to seek a living.

He had asked around for half the day, but not one person nearby knew where Little Sister Xu had gone. Young Master Xu's face went white, and he looked ready to faint. The proprietor comforted him: "She may only have been distracted by play and forgotten to come back, but since she is nowhere to be found, it would still be best to report the matter to the county magistrate's office." He then ordered the server beside him, "Go and tell the ward head."

The server was a girl of thirteen or fourteen, her hair hastily tied up and her expression a little dazed. On receiving the proprietor's order, she immediately ran out into the street.

Everyone nearby offered to help and questioned people all around. There were plenty of vendors on the street, some selling snacks and toys, but not one had seen "a little girl about four or five years old, with her hair done up in childish knots, dressed in pale yellow silk, with fine eyebrows and round eyes."

Young Master Xu could contain himself no longer. He dropped to the ground, face down, and sobbed, "It is all my fault. I failed to keep a close watch on my sister."

The proprietor sighed. "Who could have foreseen this?"

Crowds came and went, most of them local residents, and Little Sister Xu was not completely naive. If a bad person tried to lure her away, she would certainly have shouted at once and drawn attention to herself.

As it stood, she seemed to have vanished into thin air, which was deeply unsettling.

Chao Qingxiu stood and said to Young Master Xu, "Please, do not worry."

Young Master Xu wiped away his tears. Seeing that Chao Qingxiu was also a customer in the shop, his tone immediately took on a note of hope. "Might I ask whether you have seen my sister?"

Chao Qingxiu had not, of course, seen Little Sister Xu, but by now she had begun to form a rough idea of what had happened. She asked the proprietor, "Is Wang's Restaurant farther along this street? How do I get there?"

The proprietor quickly nodded. "Go east. It is only three hundred paces."

Another server girl in the neighboring shop, her apron still on, put down her work and said in a clear, lively voice, "I will take you there."

By now, Young Master Xu had begun to suspect something. The moment he saw Chao Qingxiu leave, he followed her.

The server walked quickly east, then turned at the fork onto a road closer to the center of the city. Restaurants and taverns lined both sides of the street. Wang's stood halfway along, right beside both Cai's and Zhou's.

Inside Wang's, Chao Qingxiu clasped her hands in greeting to an attendant and asked, "Excuse me, is there a little girl of four or five here..."

Before she could finish, the attendant laughed. "Are you looking for a little girl in pale yellow? She is here. She says she is looking for her brother, but she has not been able to find him yet."

On hearing this, Young Master Xu finally released the breath he had been holding. His legs went weak, and he nearly sat down where he stood.

Chao Qingxiu raised a hand in signal to Young Master Xu, then said, "Her brother is right here. Please go and fetch her."

The moment she finished speaking, Chao Qingxiu sensed something and opened her Personal Panel. Sure enough, a new system notification was waiting there:

[System: The "Missing Little Sister Xu" case has been resolved. The user has gained 1 Detective Point and 2 Fame Points.]

The server who had led Chao Qingxiu here was so curious that she could not help asking, "How did you know the Xu family's little girl was at Wang's?"

Chao Qingxiu replied, "Only a bit of guesswork." She added, "I noticed that the plates on the table were already empty, with only a few crumbs left. Young Master Xu had only gone to the bridge, so he could not have been gone long. Yet both plates on the table were empty. A child would be unlikely to finish all the biscuits in so short a time."

Besides, two plates of biscuits had been ordered. Most likely, one was for the brother and one for the sister. Given Little Sister Xu's disposition, even if she was able to eat that much, she would not touch her brother's portion.

"But what if Little Sister Xu was carried off by a kidnapper and someone took the remaining biscuits afterward?"

Chao Qingxiu shook her head again as she went on. "There are no beggars in the streets around here, and Little Sister Xu's table was in the middle of the restaurant. It is difficult to imagine a hungry passerby quietly taking the biscuits. If the staff had cleared them away, they would have removed the plates as well. Thus, from the state of the tableware, we can rule out the possibility that an outsider took the biscuits."

Her phrasing differed somewhat from local usage, but it did not make her any harder to understand.

Chao Qingxiu said, "If no one else took the biscuits, the only possibility is that Little Sister Xu took them herself. Since she had the presence of mind to carry them with her, she most likely left of her own accord. Moreover, she left so unhurriedly that no one noticed her."

"Besides, Young Master Xu also mentioned that his sister was always sensible and would not have left unless she had seen her brother return. From this, we can work backward to one conclusion: when Little Sister Xu saw her brother return, she would go with him."

"However, Young Master Xu had only just returned. It occurred to me that today was the official academy's day off. Many students were passing through the street, and they were all wearing the same academy uniform as Young Master Xu. From a distance, Little Sister Xu saw the group pass and mistook one of them for her brother. She took the unfinished food with her and followed them all the way to Wang's. Because a literary gathering was under way there and many students were in attendance, the staff needed some time to determine whether her brother was there, so it did not occur to them that the little girl might simply have mistaken someone else for him."

When Chao Qingxiu first spoke, only Young Master Xu and the server from the neighboring shop were beside her. By halfway through her explanation, a ring of passersby had gathered to watch. They whispered among themselves, asking one another what had happened. By the time Chao Qingxiu had finished explaining her reasoning, they had grasped the broad outlines of what had caused the incident, how it had unfolded, and how it had ended. All at once, they broke into applause and praise.

At that moment, an attendant from Wang's also brought Little Sister Xu out of the restaurant. Young Master Xu hurried over to her, took her hand, and looked her over carefully. Only after confirming that she was unharmed did he let out a long breath of relief. He then walked over to Chao Qingxiu, clasped his hands, and bowed deeply from the waist. Earnestly, he said, "Just now, when I was panicking, I neglected to thank you. Thank you for stepping in. It was thanks to your help that I was able to find my sister."

Chao Qingxiu shook her head and smiled. "Gaofang Prefecture has clean, upright customs, and Wang's is a famous restaurant in the city. Even if I had guessed nothing, in the end your sister would have been safely escorted home."

At the word "home," Young Master Xu's face changed again. He hurriedly hailed a passing errand runner, pulled a handful of copper coins from his purse, and said, "Please send word to my elder sister. Tell her Little Sister has been found and that she must not worry. She absolutely must not."

Just then, the ward head who had been notified arrived at the scene with several constables, just like their counterparts in works of fiction: they had not come until after the case was solved. They saw the situation from a distance, realized that everything had been settled, and exchanged greetings with Young Master Xu and the others. Then one of them said, "It is good that she has been found. I see that Master Xu has other business to attend to. We will close the case when we return, saving you a trip."

In Great Xia, this respectful form of address had originally been reserved for people serving at court. By the present day, many customs had diverged from those of the dynasty's early years, and it was sometimes used for scholars who had not yet sat the imperial examinations, as a way of wishing them good fortune.

Young Master Xu thanked them with clasped hands. "Thank you for taking the trouble." He then called to a server at the neighboring restaurant, "Please prepare a table of dishes." Bowing to them all, he added, "Everyone, please take a seat. Allow me to offer you a cup of wine as a small token of my gratitude."

He had originally intended to host everyone at Wang's, but as it happened, a literary gathering was under way there that day. He therefore invited them all to the neighboring Cai's and asked Wang's to send over a serving of its famous water shield and spring bamboo shoot soup.

The others might have excused themselves from the meal, but Young Master Xu absolutely insisted that Chao Qingxiu stay for the meal.

Chao Qingxiu had just finished a light meal. She began to wonder whether eating again after so short an interval would leave her with indigestion that evening...

Young Master Xu was warm and insistent, but it was not yet closing time at the magistrate's office. The constables still had to patrol the area. They politely but firmly declined, then hurried away after accepting two cups of wine.

Chao Qingxiu had done the most to find the girl so quickly that day, so the guests gave her the seat of honor. Young Master Xu also wanted to toast her, but when he discovered that Chao Qingxiu never touched wine, he tactfully switched to plain tea.

As the toasts went round, Chao Qingxiu heard someone at the next table call out.

The customer tapped the edge of the table. "Why hasn't my roast mutton come yet?"

A girl of fifteen or sixteen hurried over, looking apologetic. "We have been very busy today. I will go and urge the kitchen right away."

The girl looked somewhat familiar. She was the one who had offered food to the family's ancestors at the stone bridge earlier that day. From the conversation around her, Chao Qingxiu learned that she was a child of the Cai household and was now fifteen. Her father had only joined the household later and knew very little about cooking. Her mother, Sister Cai, had died when the girl was three, and the family restaurant had been passed to her maternal uncle. Having relatives around to care for her was not a bad arrangement, but her uncle had been widowed for years and also had to keep the restaurant running, so it was difficult for him to look after her attentively.

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