The sky was already dark.

Mrs. Sun arrived in a yellow cart, and Ling Shu couldn't ride with her. He had to walk beside her and listen to her explain the situation quickly.

Mrs. Sun's child, surnamed Lu and named Lu Zude, went to school as usual today and was supposed to be home in the evening. 

He attended a church school in the concession area, not far from home. Even if he was playing around, he wouldn't be missing at dinner time. 

Mrs. Sun went to the school to look for him, but the teachers said he had already left. She went home and waited, but he still didn't show up. 

That's when she started to worry and realized that her child had gone missing on the way home from school.

Ling Shu asked, "Could he have gone to play with the little dog? My brother-in-law told me that he knew your child because of a little yellow dog." 

Mrs. Sun said, "He usually likes to play, but he has never been this late before. Before he left today, I even told him that I made his favorite shrimp for dinner. He definitely wouldn't forget to come home for dinner."

Ling Shu remembered the child he saw during the day, smart and quick-witted, not like a slow child. If the situation was as Mrs. Sun said, then the child must have encountered some accident.

Anything can happen these days. 

Despite the city's glamorous appearance, there are hidden dangers within. There are both powerful figures like Mr. Lu and Jiang He, as well as opportunistic individuals like Shen Shiqi and Mr. Cheng. Pimps are also everywhere, especially targeting young boys and girls with tender skin. They are the preferred targets of human traffickers. 

Lu Zude had not returned home yet, and it was no wonder that Mrs. Sun was worried. 

If something happened to their child, it would be like the sky falling down for a widow.

Mrs. Sun spoke a lot, first blaming herself for not letting the maid pick up the child from school, and then asking Ling Shu, "Officer Ling, I heard from Mr. Zhou that you have solved many cases, including the recent high-profile murder case at the Yuan Manor. Is it true?"

If it were elsewhere, Ling Shu would have been interested in telling a long and detailed story to a beautiful woman like Ya Qi.

But at this moment, Ling Shu was not in the mood to show off. He simply said, "Those are just rumors in the newspapers."

"How could that be! I read the newspaper at that time too, and it said that you were commended and hailed as the number one detective in the East." Mrs. Sun continued to praise him without stopping.

Ling Shu knew that the title of "the number one detective in the East" was just a gimmick created by some tabloids to attract attention by exaggerating the cases.

"Does Mrs. Sun also have the habit of reading newspapers?" Ling Shu asked.

Mrs. Sun replied, "I don't know many characters, so I listen to others reading the newspaper."

As they chatted, Ling Shu mostly gave perfunctory responses while Mrs. Sun kept trying to engage him in conversation.

Perhaps due to being too nervous and worried, Mrs. Sun needed to distract herself, and Ling Shu knew that some people tend to talk more when they are anxious.

However, Ling Shu and Mrs. Sun had only recently met and could not be considered close friends, so their conversation was too deep for their level of acquaintance.

Ling Shu didn't have much influence with the police station in the concession, but Yue Dingtang did. 

After accompanying Mrs. Sun to the police station, Ling Shu asked for a phone and called the Yue residence to ask Yue Dingtang to help find Smith. Through Smith's connections, they finally got the concessionary police to take this matter seriously, start recording testimonies, and send people out to search for the child.

Mrs. Sun insisted on waiting for news in the patrol room and refused to go back to rest. Seeing her shivering in her thin clothes, Ling Shu advised her to go back and rest. 

But Mrs. Sun suddenly got up and knelt down to Ling Shu.

"Captain Ling, thank you so much. If it weren't for you, I'm afraid I wouldn't even be able to enter the patrol room today!"

Ling Shu was extremely annoyed by her habit of kneeling and crying, but seeing that she couldn't get up, he had to reach out and help her. 

At that moment, Yue Dingtang arrived. 

Behind him was a woman holding a child. Ling Shu recognized them. The woman was a maid from the Sun family whom he had seen before when she opened the door for him during the day. 

The child was none other than the missing master, Lu Zude, whom everyone had been searching for all night.

"Madam!" The maid exclaimed when she saw Mrs. Sun. "Why did you come here? Young Master has been found. Let's go back!"

Lu Zude looked anxious, probably frightened by the adults' reactions. Mrs. Sun turned around and saw her son. Without hesitation, she rushed over and hugged him tightly.

"De'er, you finally came back!" She cried and laughed at the same time. "Where did you go? Do you know how worried I was?"

"I, I went to play with the little dog and got lost," Lu Zude explained. 

Lu Zude looked around at the crowd, hesitant and afraid to meet anyone's gaze, as if he were afraid of his mother's scolding.

Seeing this, Ling Shu also breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where did you find them?" he asked Yue Dingtang.

"After I received your call, I went to Mrs. Sun's house to take a look. I happened to run into the maid bringing Lu Zude back. He heard that Mrs. Sun was looking for him everywhere and even reported it to the patrol room, so he let me bring him over," Yue Dingtang replied.

Mrs. Sun hugged Lu Zude tightly, as if she were telling her son about how nervous she had been. But she had her back to them, and Ling Shu couldn't hear her clearly. 

He only saw Lu Zude timidly glance at them a few times and reach out to pat his mother's back.

"Mom, I'm sorry for worrying you. I won't do it again in the future," he said. 

Yue Dingtang said, "It's getting late, and it's not safe for you to go back now. Why don't you stay at the patrol station for the night and go back tomorrow?"

Mrs. Sun was a little tempted, but the maid reminded her, "Madam, the old master and madam from our hometown are coming to visit the young master tomorrow. Have you forgotten?"

"Oh, right. Look at my memory!" Mrs. Sun's face changed slightly, then she forced a smile and bowed to Yue Dingtang and Ling Shu. "Thank you both for tonight. I am truly grateful. Please forgive me for leaving now. I will definitely show my gratitude with a generous gift in the future!" 

Yue Dingtang said, "Living as a widowed mother can indeed lead to trouble. Tonight, my driver will follow you and wait outside the Sun residence. If you need any help, just call out to him. When your elders arrive tomorrow and there are more people at home, I will send him back."

Ling Shu rarely saw Yue Dingtang so enthusiastic, and it was like seeing the sun and moon rise at the same time.

The Sun family expressed their gratitude and got into the carriage with Lu Zude, while the maid followed beside them.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

Yue Dingtang withdrew his gaze and noticed Ling Shu's expression.

Ling Shu said, "I'm checking if you're possessed by a ghost."

Yue Dingtang reached out with a straight face and suddenly pinched Ling Shu's cheek. Ling Shu was caught off guard and quickly jumped back, looking around.

No one noticed, so it wasn't embarrassing. "Words, not fists, are the mark of a gentleman!"

Yue Dingtang said, "I take back what I said earlier."

Ling Shu: ?

Yue Dingtang said, "There's something strange about Mrs. Sun's behavior."

"You finally noticed. Was I being paranoid?" Ling Shu said smugly, but then realized he was slow to catch on. "Wait a minute, then why did you just pinch me?"

'My hands felt itchy,' Yue Dingtang thought to himself, but said something else. "On the way here, Lu Zude told me when the maid wasn't paying attention that Mrs. Sun is not his biological mother and that she's not treating him well. He thinks she's trying to harm him. I think you were right about Mrs. Sun's strange behavior."

He tactfully admitted that his previous evaluation of Ling Shu was a bit hasty.

Little did he know that Ling Shu didn't feel victorious, but instead exclaimed, "What a coincidence, I just received a distress message too."

Yue Dingtang asked, "From Lu Zude?"

"No, from Mrs. Sun." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper with two crooked words scrawled on it.

"Save me."

As their eyes met, both of them realized that this was no simple matter.

What they had initially thought was just a family drama between Zhou's brother-in-law and a young widow had turned into a small case of helping to find a missing child. 

Now, it had become a mother and son's plea for help.

Ling Shu said, "When Mrs. Sun knelt down to me earlier, she took the opportunity to slip this into my hand. Lu Zude said that Mrs. Sun is not his birth mother and wants to harm him. But Mrs. Sun asked me to save her. Could it be that Mrs. Sun had already anticipated that Lu Zude would tell you all this?"

Yue Dingtang replied, "It's unlikely." 

Ling Shu said, "If Mrs. Sun really had some unspeakable secret, she would try her best to keep it hidden and downplay the situation, rather than actively seeking our help to find someone. It's obvious that she wants to make a big fuss about it. And this woman is not simple. She could have refused my visit at the beginning, but she let me in and I noticed that the furnishings in her home were not in line with her status, which aroused my suspicion and interest. On the way to the patrol station tonight, she even mentioned the case of the Yuan Manor. Now it seems that there is some deliberate intention behind it."

Yue Dingtang asked, "Was she trying to remind you and seek help in a subtle way?"

Ling Shu nodded.

"But I never expected that Lu Zude would ask for your help. Who is telling the truth between these two people? Who should we believe?" 

Generally speaking, children are seen as innocent and harmless, and they tend to be more trusted.

If it weren't for the various doubts that Mrs. Sun deliberately planted in Ling Shu's mind, he would have chosen to believe Lu Zude.

But now, he wasn't so sure anymore.

"If what Lu Zude said is true, then Mrs. Sun might be a human trafficker. I'll have the driver keep an eye on her, just in case. With him there, nothing will happen tonight." 

Ling Shu shrugged, "I have no objections, but have you considered the possibility that Mrs. Sun might be the one who needs saving? Women like her are easy targets. So who could be the one persecuting her? The maid? She seems likely, given her disrespectful attitude towards Mrs. Sun. It's not how one would treat their mistress."

Yue Dingtang said, "Tomorrow we'll visit her under the guise of paying a visit and see if we can uncover any clues."

Ling Shu yawned and grumbled, "Fine, but after the day we've had, did you not see the look on my sister's face? Just as my brother-in-law managed to calm her down, Mrs. Sun showed up and her face immediately turned stormy again. If I go back now, I don't know if I'll be caught in the crossfire." 

Yue Dingtang noticed that his hair was not combed properly, with two stray hairs waving in the wind, and couldn't resist reaching out to smooth them down.

"Come sleep at my place," he offered.

"I can't, I still need to go back and let them know the child is safe. Otherwise, my brother-in-law, being the kind-hearted person he is, will definitely worry. This matter is suspicious, and I want him to stay out of it," Ling Shu replied, his eyes barely able to stay open, like a sleepy and lazy cat taking three shaky steps towards the door.

Yue Dingtang shook his head, afraid that he might trip and fall if he didn't watch where he was going, so he followed behind him.