Chapter 12: Qiqi's Disappearance
"It doesn't matter, you guys also heard what the police officer said that day. They seemed to be four people, only one was the main culprit, definitely sentenced to death, and the other three just went to prison, I'll go in and kill them."
Since An's mom passed away, no matter how we tease An Qi or buy her toys she liked but her mom wouldn't buy for her, An Qi hasn't smiled again. She is not the lively and active little princess anymore, we know the old An Qi will never come back. Although An Qi is still young, she lost her dad when she was little, and the mother and daughter relied on each other for survival, you can imagine how high a position An's mom held in An Qi's heart. The feeling of relying on each other for survival between a mother and daughter is something we cannot understand, this pain may accompany her for her whole life.
Whoever saw Anqi's appearance would feel heartbroken. Days went by like this, one day after another. The four of us still went to school together and came home together after school. What was different from before was that Anqi no longer followed behind us calling out "Gege" (brother), nor did she play with us anymore; every day she stayed at home, holding the necklace her mother had bought for her last birthday, staring blankly. That was the birthday gift her mother had given her, and I also had an identical necklace on my hand, which Anqi's mother had given to me together with Anqi on her birthday. On top of it was a heart-shaped pendant with music; when you opened the pendant, music would start playing, and inside were photos of Anqi and me. This was the first time since we were little that Anqi's mother had bought her a birthday gift. Who knew it would also be the last time? From then on, we only accompanied her at home. We were afraid she would feel lonely at home, afraid she would miss her mother and feel sad. We also knew this was not a solution, but we just wanted to try our best to make her think of her mother less.
It's New Year's and the small town is decorated with lanterns and streamers, and on this day An Qi unexpectedly volunteered to go to the convenience store to help my mother buy things.
Because the convenience store is not far from home, no one at home was worried and everyone was happy. Five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes. The convenience store is only a few minutes away from home, but after twenty minutes, she still hadn't returned, and that's when everyone started to think about why Anqi hadn't come back yet. My mom told me to hurry up and find her, I rushed out of the house and ran to the convenience store, when I arrived at the convenience store and asked the aunt who was selling things if she had seen Anqi. The aunt said she saw her, after buying things she left, it's been a while, as soon as I heard that I knew something was wrong, I quickly ran back home.
"Mom Qiqi is gone, the auntie at the small shop said she left for a while." Mom and Dad heard that they came back for a while, so they anxiously put down their work and ran outside. And I picked up the phone to call Chen Kun, as soon as he answered, I anxiously said, "Chen Kun, Qiqi is gone, you and Cao Lei come quickly!" Chen Kun didn't say a word and hung up the phone. And I just waited for them at home.
Before long, Cao Wei was the first to rush into the house and asked as soon as he saw me: "How could Qi Qi disappear? What's going on?" Chen Kun didn't say a word, but looked at Rong Yao with questioning eyes. Let's go and talk while walking, the three of us ran outwards. "Just now Qi Qi went to the small shop to buy things, and hasn't come back until now. My dad and mom have gone to find her in the neighborhood, and we'll go check the places where we usually play."
The sky quickly turned dark, and we were still outside searching. We looked everywhere she might have gone, but couldn't find her. Holding onto a glimmer of hope, maybe Dad and Mom had found her and was waiting for us at home to eat the New Year's Eve dinner.
