Chapter 31 - 30: Whitesun Town

Back at the hotel, Elliana rushed back to the master bedroom impatiently. Her phone was still charging at the bedside. As expected, Luna had already sent her a message. Luna Detective: "It’s too remote, I didn’t find much. I’m planning to go to Whitesun Town. If you care, I can take you with me to check it out." Going in person? Elliana hadn’t considered it, but she really wanted to know how Rupert was doing. The cry for help indicated that she was being mistreated. Cat: "Okay." She was someone who acted as soon as she decided to do something. No matter what, once she made up her mind, she would go through with it. However, the hurdle of Norman Bennett was a bit difficult. "Lana, I’m going to stay at my sister Phoebe Lyle’s house for two days. Her cat had kittens, and I want to go see." She told Lana, knowing that Phoebe had rented an apartment in North City, supposedly to write in peace and moved out of the old Lyle family house. "Huh? Miss Lyle, don’t you want to tell the young master?" Lana couldn’t make the decision and couldn’t stop Elliana from seeing her own family, so she had to ask. She smirked: "You tell him, I’m off now." Quickly slipping away! Elliana, as if her feet were greased, headed straight for the door. "Hey! Miss Lyle! Take your medicine with you!" "Oh, right." Elliana picked up the medicine on the table and left hurriedly. Watching the already closed door, Lana didn’t know what to do for a moment and could only quickly call Raymond Wood. "Hello, is this Assistant Wu..." ... North City, Melody Harmony’s branch office. Norman Bennett was in a meeting when Raymond received Lana’s call and couldn’t ignore it. He could only go and knock on the conference room door. "Come in." The people in the meeting watched as Raymond entered, and no one said a word. Raymond walked to Norman Bennett’s side and whispered in his ear. One could see Norman Bennett’s brows furrowing, "Verify it." He wouldn’t stop Elliana from doing what she enjoyed, but he was afraid of being tricked by this little con artist again. "Yes." Raymond left the conference room and quickly went to find Phoebe Lyle’s phone number. ... Meanwhile, Phoebe Lyle, who was typing on her computer, received an unfamiliar phone call. She didn’t hesitate and picked up the phone directly. "Hello." The voice of a man came from the other end, and Phoebe was obviously skeptical upon knowing who it was. But what the other party said made her more and more confused. Her cat indeed had a few kittens last month, but she hadn’t told Elliana, nor did Elliana mention wanting to see the cat. After thinking for a bit, she still said, "Yes, Elliana did say she was coming." After hanging up, Phoebe quickly called Elliana, and it connected promptly. Before the person on the other end could speak, Phoebe impatiently said, "Elliana, I don’t know what you’re doing. Assistant Wu just asked me, and I covered for you. I hope you’re not going to see Shane Southwell. You and Norman Bennett are engaged; I hope you show some respect." Elliana: "..." She was just about to call Phoebe to talk about it... Unexpectedly, Norman acted so fast! Luckily, Phoebe helped her out. "No, Sister Phoebe, I’m not going to see Shane." Elliana quickly explained. Hearing Elliana say that, Phoebe’s tone softened a lot, and she said, "Good, if not. After you’re done, come by and visit. My address is in North City Peacheast New District, Star River Court. Call me when you’re coming, and I’ll pick you up." "Okay, thank you, Sister Phoebe~" After saying that, she heard a beep, and the call ended. "Are you ready? Get in the car." Sitting in the driver’s seat, Luna was apparently running out of patience. This car was rented by Luna, and after thinking it over for a bit, Elliana got in. The car started, and Luna suddenly spoke: "Rupert is a first-year student who was lured to Adrian Young and Raymond Wood in February this year, and then she dropped out in April." Elliana thought for a moment and asked, "Do we know why she stopped attending school?" "Hard to say. In this small place, many things are hard to find out. We’ll know once we get there," Luna said. ――― Daan District, Whitesun Town, New Street. The two of them parked at the corner of the intersection in this remote town. The streets were fairly clean, but with few people around, it seemed a bit desolate. From there, they could see shop number 29, a liquor store called Phoenix Prosperity, with a group of people sitting at the entrance, both old and young, watching a few people playing poker. This must be the liveliest spot on the street. Luna first used binoculars to observe from the car. "Do you see them? The one in yellow, and the one in a black-trimmed short sleeve, those are Rupert’s parents." Following Luna’s direction, Elliana saw the smiling middle-aged couple, the husband playing cards while the wife watched. She was a bit puzzled: "They don’t look the part; if their daughter was being mistreated, how could they be so happy?" Luna didn’t answer her but continued, "See the little chubby kid playing with a phone inside the store? That’s their younger son, just started middle class in kindergarten." "Also, Rupert’s QQ was logged in here, using a Xiaomi MIX2S, so technically, Rupert should be here." Elliana nodded and suggested, "Shall we go down and ask?" "We shouldn’t ask her parents. Based on the chat logs, later messages are likely sent by her parents," Luna said, pointing to an elderly man smoking alone on another street. Elliana immediately understood Luna’s intent, and the two of them got out of the car. The smoking old man was a bit far away, and by the time they walked over, he had already smoked one and was rolling another. "Grandpa, do you know Rupert?" Elliana slightly bent down, addressing the shabby-looking old man. "Rupert?" The old man first glanced at Elliana, frowned his bushy white eyebrows, and said, "Yes, what do you want with her?" The old man spoke with a frown, his cloudy eyes full of wariness. "It’s like this." Elliana tugged at Luna and said with a smile, "Grandpa, my sister is Rupert’s classmate, here to visit her." "Oh~" The old man nodded in understanding, lowered his head to continue rolling his cigarette, and regretfully said, "You can’t play with her; that girl went crazy. Her mom and dad say she got a mental illness." The old man pointed behind them, "It’s the shop at the corner." Mental illness? Elliana instinctively turned to look at Luna. The old man continued, "I heard she went crazy after the Tomb-Sweeping Day. Probably saw something unclean and got entangled." He clicked his tongue twice in pity after speaking. Half an hour later. The two had asked quite a few people in the vicinity, and everyone said much the same—the unanimous conclusion was that Rupert had developed a mental illness. At this moment, Elliana was heading towards Rupert’s house, feeling a bit nervous, occasionally glancing back at Luna in the car. She saw Luna give her an okay gesture. Elliana gathered herself for a moment and started walking towards the group of people, planning to pretend to pass by the shop. As she was dressed in a silk white dress and her appearance stood out in this small town, the card players naturally noticed her. A middle-aged man whispered, "This city girl is indeed pretty, dressed so fashionably." "Quiet down, don’t let her hear." Just then, as Elliana passed the shop, she suddenly turned around and walked back. The group playing cards thought she had heard them and was coming to confront them. Seeing Elliana getting closer, not only was she nervous, but the middle-aged man who just spoke was also nervous. When Elliana reached the shop, she instead approached the chubby kid sitting at the door. Upon seeing this, the Rupert couple immediately stood up from their small stools. "Oh, Jiacheng, it’s really you. Teacher almost thought she was seeing things." Elliana squatted in front of the chubby kid, her voice gentle, her smile warm, like a spring breeze. Hearing this, the little boy’s mom relaxed; so, this person was a kindergarten teacher. They had sent their son to a city kindergarten, and this self-proclaimed teacher must be from there. Their son seemed to have no memory of such a good-looking teacher in the kindergarten. Seeing the little boy’s confused expression, Elliana felt both awkward and nervous, quickly adding, "What? Little Jiacheng doesn’t remember Teacher Lyle?" After a while, the little boy still didn’t respond. He simply couldn’t recall any Teacher Lyle, becoming even more confused. """