Chapter 76: “Isn’t That Your Dad?”

“Isn’t that your dad?”

“My dad?” Meng Bai blinked in surprise.

Meng Xingzhong? At this hour? In this place?

Faint sounds drifted over from not far away, sporadic and halting, as if several people were involved.

Whatever those men were doing behind that cluster of trees remained a mystery.

Standing in the vast expanse of white snow, Meng Bai’s mind reeled. In the span of just a few seconds, a storm of indecision raged inside her.

Should she go look, or not?

Meng Xingzhong’s voice rang out again nearby: “Are we digging in the wrong spot?”

That was when Miao Bai spoke up. “Do you want to go see?”

“I…” Meng Bai’s face drained of color as she hesitated. “I don’t know.”

She glanced at Zhou An, handing the decision over to her.

Zhou An nodded tentatively. “Shall we take a look?”

Of course they had to look. If they didn’t, she’d probably spend several sleepless nights wondering what they were up to. They all wanted to know.

Only then did it hit Meng Bai—she vaguely remembered Meng Xingzhong grabbing a shovel on his way out that evening.

So that’s what it was.

“Let’s go.”

The four of them followed the sounds ahead. In the snowy night, visibility dimmed sharply, the wind howling in their ears. The air had felt so calm just moments ago, but now their hearts refused to settle.

Meng Bai’s pulse hammered in her chest, an inexplicable anxiety gnawing at her.

As they drew closer, the shadowy figures half-buried in the snow came into sharper focus. Soft white flakes drifted silently from the sky, melting into tiny droplets on Meng Xingzhong’s gray jacket.

A cigarette dangled from his mouth, his brows furrowed tight. His powerful arms swung with force as the shovel plunged into the earth, flinging up pale gray sand.

Working alongside him were four or five other men—and the most conspicuous among them was that police officer.

Officer Li Su?

“Hey? Why is Uncle Meng with them?” Zhou An was the first to voice the question.

Yeah, why was Meng Xingzhong hanging around with Li Su?

If she remembered right, Li Su had come to investigate that murder case. It had been a while since anyone had seen him.

She’d thought the investigation had fizzled out, that he’d found nothing.

But from the looks of it, he hadn’t given up….

“What are they digging up?” Zhou An squinted, trying to make out more.

Xu Zhou chimed in from the side. “No idea. It’s weird.”

Meng Bai felt utterly lost. She turned to Miao Bai—only to find her gone.

“Where’s Miao Bai?”

Where was she?

Miao Bai had vanished, and it only made Meng Bai more agitated.

“Wasn’t Miao Bai right next to you?” Zhou An shivered. “Why am I getting scared all of a sudden?”

Xu Zhou tried to reassure her. “Don’t worry, we’re not alone here—plenty of people around.”

Zhou An began trembling all over. “I can’t help it. I’m just imagining things, just guessing… They aren’t digging up that thing, are they?”

Officer Li Su, investigating a murder from twenty years ago, out here on a snowy night with a bunch of guys digging.

What else could it be? It was obvious.

The possibility crashed into Meng Bai’s mind.

No way. It couldn’t be. Not Meng Xingzhong, at least.

In the midst of all this, Meng Bai had no room to think too deeply. Her body went rigid, her eyes fixed on Meng Xingzhong’s back as he swung his strong arms like a warrior battling through the snow.

Without much thought, the words tumbled out of her mouth:

“Dad, what are you doing?”

The muttering men up ahead fell abruptly silent. The world seemed to still. Meng Xingzhong’s movements froze.

The first to turn around was Li Su.

He looked at Meng Bai, surprise in his eyes—clearly wondering why these three kids had shown up here of all places.

“Dad.” Ignoring him, Meng Bai strode straight toward Meng Xingzhong, stopping only when she reached his side. She repeated herself: “What are you doing?”

Meng Xingzhong jammed his shovel into the snow and straightened up, clearly caught off guard. “What are you doing here?”

“Then what are you doing here? What are you digging up?”

“Nothing.” Meng Xingzhong tried to brush it off. He glanced back at Zhou An and Xu Zhou, muttering, “How’d you all end up out here?”

Li Su cleared his throat heavily and turned to Meng Xingzhong. “Old Meng, why don’t you take them home first?”

Meng Xingzhong tossed his shovel to the ground and nodded. “Alright.”

He grabbed Meng Bai’s arm, as if to say they’d talk about this later at home—but her feet felt rooted to the snow. No amount of pulling would budge her.

She stared intently into the dark pit, hoping to glimpse something inside.

Something like that.

But the black void held only a few scattered snowflakes—empty, almost mocking.

As if such a thing would be there.

“No, seriously—why are you here?” Meng Xingzhong tugged at her again. “Come on, let’s go home.”

“I’m not going.” Meng Bai dug in her heels, stomping the snow defiantly, refusing to yield.

She turned to Li Su and asked point-blank: “Dad, why are you with Officer Li?”

“Urgh!” Meng Xingzhong shot Li Su an awkward glance and yanked at Meng Bai again. “Come on, kid!”

Meng Bai fixed Li Su with a steady stare and dropped a bombshell: “Are you digging up a body?”

Li Su’s expression hardened, but he said nothing.

Meng Bai figured it out then. Ever since that last encounter, Li Su must have been in touch with Meng Xingzhong on the down-low.

“Looks like you’re digging up a body, huh? Is this about the case you’re investigating?” Her tone grew bold. “I think I’ve seen him.”

“Pah! What nonsense are you spouting?” Meng Xingzhong smacked her on the head, clearly thinking it bad luck to say.

But those words made Li Su furrow his brow.

For the first time, he truly looked at Meng Bai. The usual adult condescension when eyeing a child vanished from his gaze.

Then he shook his head with a wry smile. “That’s impossible.”

Meng Bai didn’t care if he believed her. “Was it a little boy? Not very old, five or six maybe, skinny, in ragged clothes. If he died, it was probably summer—he wasn’t dressed warm.”

Li Su’s expression turned subtly peculiar.

“I don’t know if it was a hallucination, but one drowsy afternoon, I saw him once—half real, half dreamlike. All I know is that he was covered in blood, his face too. He didn’t cry. He just stared at me like that for a few seconds.” Meng Bai paused, then rephrased it. “Maybe not even a few seconds. Perhaps just a single glance.”

A muscle twitched on Li Su’s face. He was clearly rattled.

So rattled that he reached into his bag, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and lit one up in a hurry. He took a deep drag.

White vapor unfurled into the snowy night, carrying the acrid bite of nicotine.

No one around them dared to speak. Even those in the know seemed stunned by Meng Bai’s words.

Meng Xingzhong sat there, dazed, struck by the feeling that she was rambling nonsense—yet somehow hitting every mark.

It was a long while before Li Su finally exhaled. “A wronged soul. A poor, wronged soul.”

He gave the shovel a halfhearted kick, frustration creeping into his voice as he muttered to himself, “But I just can’t find it. No matter what I do, I can’t find it.”

Meng Bai was quick on the uptake and grasped his meaning instantly. “So it’s real? I actually saw him?”

Li Su stubbed out his cigarette and tossed it into the snow, where it hissed and turned into a lump of black ash.

He said nothing, just shook his head. “It’s too strange.” He glanced around, then lifted his eyes to the tree nearby. “Very strange. It should be right here.”

Meng Bai had no idea what he was mumbling about to himself, but she could sense that dogged determination.

The unyielding obsession to dig to the very bottom of a mystery.

Night had fallen completely by then, and with the situation at a standstill, Meng Bai was at a loss when Miao Bai’s voice suddenly sounded in her ear.

“Meng Bai.”

The clear, resonant voice brushed past like a cool breeze.

Following the sound, Meng Bai looked up and saw Miao Bai standing beneath a tree not ten meters ahead.

Only then did Meng Bai realize that Miao Bai hadn’t vanished at all. She had simply walked a little farther forward, nothing more.

Miao Bai was gazing intently down at the snow on the ground, lost in thought. Her snow-white cheeks stood out even more starkly in the darkness, yet they carried an indescribable air of solitude.

The snow suddenly grew heavier, and Miao Bai’s figure clashed with the white expanse around her. She favored black, while the snow was so pure and white. Meng Bai thought that the sense of contrast probably stemmed from the fact that Miao Bai didn’t belong here in the first place.

In a season when all the leaves had fallen, the pines and cypresses remained evergreen—and there she stood beneath one of those green trees, like some kind of omen.

Meng Bai found herself utterly captivated. She stared at Miao Bai without blinking.

From nearby came Li Su’s voice. “Did I dig in the wrong spot? No, I didn’t.”

It was right after those words that, as if compelled by some unseen force, Miao Bai lifted her head.

She looked at Meng Bai, and Meng Bai looked back at her.

Their gazes met.

Separated by a dozen meters or so amid the whispering wind and swirling snow, Miao Bai blinked and spoke two words:

“Come here.”

In that instant, Meng Bai felt like she understood.

She glanced sideways at Li Su and said softly, “Officer Li.”

Meng Bai pointed toward the pine tree ahead.

The same direction as Miao Bai.

Miao Bai’s figure was perfectly clear to her, but no one else could see it.

It was a silent secret of invisibility, shared only between them.

And in that moment, all eyes turned toward that tree.

Li Su looked baffled and lost.

Under everyone’s gaze, Miao Bai nodded at Meng Bai and pointed down at the spot by her feet.

That was when Meng Bai knew for certain that Miao Bai was trying to tell her something.

She nodded back at Miao Bai, then turned to Li Su. “Since you’ve already dug over here, why not try that side? It’s a tree too, isn’t it?”