Chapter Ninety: The Road to Exile, Part Thirty-Two

At last, Shi Xianyu could not put her mind at ease and decided to go take another look. It was already very late, and a visit at this hour would be improper; she only wanted to glance from a distance.

No sooner had the motor home started than it startled Ye Liuyun awake. She came out wrapped in a coat and asked in surprise, "Xiaoyu, where are you going?"

Shi Xianyu looked embarrassed. In the dead of night, the sound of the engine was impossible to ignore.

"I want to go see about Lu Li again..." She touched her face awkwardly, her voice growing softer and softer. "Just to look. I won't do anything..."

After thinking it over, Ye Liuyun decided she probably could not talk Shi Xianyu out of it, so she said simply, "Then wait for me. I'll go with you. Otherwise, if the patrols see you out in the middle of the night, there'll be a misunderstanding."

Shi Xianyu felt terrible about it. "I'm sorry. I've kept you from resting."

"It's fine. Actually, I'm a little uneasy too." Ye Liuyun waved it off, hurried back inside to change clothes, and then got into the motor home.

...

In the second half of the night, every road lay hushed and still. Solar streetlamps cast light over the gray-white pavement, and the city was silent on all sides.

There was a security gate outside the neighborhood where Yu Jing lived. Ye Liuyun's credentials could be swiped directly through. She jumped down from the vehicle and was about to use her card to open the gate when she unexpectedly saw Lin Yuan coming out from inside.

"What are you doing here?" Ye Liuyun's eyes widened. "You went to Yu Jing's place too?"

Lin Yuan was also a little surprised. He raised a brow and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Xiaoyu was worried, so I came with her to have a look." Ye Liuyun said.

Without ceremony, Lin Yuan opened the car door and got in. "No need to go. No one's at Yu Jing's house."

"No one?" Shi Xianyu, who was driving, turned her head and asked, "How could there be no one?"

"I don't know." Lin Yuan said. "Yu Jing and Lu Li aren't there. That little boy isn't there either. I climbed over the wall to take a look, and the garage was empty too. They must have driven out."

Ye Liuyun immediately frowned. "Engineers on infrastructure projects often sleep at the construction site and don't come home at night, but in the middle of the night like this, where would Yu Jing drive off to? And with a child..."

Shi Xianyu pressed her lips together and said softly, "If they're not home, there's nothing to do. We'll have to come back tomorrow and ask what happened."

She gripped the wheel and turned the car around. Panic had already begun to creep into her heart, but there was nothing she could do. She had no idea where to look for Lu Li.

Just then, a beam of light swung their way from the street corner. Shi Xianyu froze and instinctively hit the brakes.

"Xiaoyu, stop the car for a moment." Ye Liuyun said quickly. "It's the patrol."

Ye Liuyun rolled down the window and waved toward the beam of light. "We're from Squadron Seventeen."

The light disappeared, and two uniformed men rode over on motorcycles. The beam had been their headlight.

Warriors held a very high status in the oasis, and after checking Ye Liuyun's credentials, the two men let them pass at once without further questioning.

Ye Liuyun took back her credentials and, moved by a sudden thought, called out to the patrolmen, "Have you seen any other vehicles tonight?"

One patrolman said, "Yes, one. It just came out from here."

"Oh? Was the driver a long-haired woman? We drove over here to find her." Ye Liuyun asked in a familiar tone, pretending they knew each other well. "Do you know where she went?"

The patrolman replied, "Out of the city. Said she was taking out the trash."

"Taking out the trash?" Ye Liuyun said.

"Yes. We thought it was strange too. She said it was trash that took up a lot of space, and if she didn't get rid of it in time, her husband would lose his temper when he got back."

When Ye Liuyun heard this, she exchanged a silent glance with Shi Xianyu and Lin Yuan in the car.

Shi Xianyu's face had gone completely white the moment the patrolman said "taking out the trash."

She could not stop herself from imagining terrible things, and yet she also found it hard to believe. Whether it was her or Ye Liuyun, neither of them had not once urged Yu Jing that if she did not want to raise Lu Li, she could send the child to the nursery! She could even send her back!

Why throw her away?

If a child were dumped into the desert outside the oasis at night, would there still be any chance of survival?

Shi Xianyu clutched the steering wheel so tightly that her temples throbbed. Her heart pounded like a drum.

Lin Yuan said, "Maybe she really was just taking out the trash."

Seeing Shi Xianyu's pale face, Ye Liuyun hurried to comfort her as well. "Yes, it's not necessarily what we're thinking. Some trash costs a lot to dispose of. It really does have to be taken outside the city, and leaving the child at home would be worrying. Bringing the child along to leave the city isn't impossible."

But if Yu Jing could afford a villa, could she really not afford even a little disposal fee?

Everyone knew how dangerous the desert was at night, and yet she would rather take the risk and bring the child out with her?

Shi Xianyu bit down hard on her lower lip and forced herself to calm down.

Ye Liuyun said, "It's hot during the day, and at night most mutated beasts come out to forage. The farther you get from the oasis, the more dangerous it is. Yu Jing shouldn't have the nerve to run too far. If we head out now, we might still catch up to her."

Shi Xianyu took a deep breath, started the car again, and headed toward the city gate.

Whether entering or leaving the city, they had to pass through two security checkpoints. With Ye Liuyun accompanying them, they went through without obstruction.

After leaving the city, Shi Xianyu followed Ye Liuyun's suggestion and first drove a circle around the oasis, then gradually widened their search.

Although it was night, without the interference of buildings and streetlights, visibility was actually clearer. In the boundless desert, they spotted the silhouette of a car ahead from far away.

"It's her, no doubt!" Ye Liuyun narrowed her eyes. "Quick, follow her!"

Yu Jing's car was parked by the roadside, its rear hatch open. She was dragging a large black trash bag from inside and struggling to haul it farther away, when she heard the sound of a car approaching from behind. She turned and looked back, shock flashing across her face.

Yu Jing stood rigidly in place, watching them approach with wary eyes.

Ye Liuyun jumped out of the car with practiced ease and, not wanting to break things off outright, gave a false smile and said, "What a coincidence. To run into you at this hour. Need a hand?"

Yu Jing gave a cold laugh. "Captain Ye, you seem to have a lot of free time. But I'm just out here taking out the trash. That hardly concerns you, does it?"

Lin Yuan had no patience for such roundabout words. Frowning, he asked, "What's in the bag?"

"Trash." Yu Jing clutched the mouth of the bag and looked at them coldly. "My husband doesn't like the house to be cluttered, so I came out to deal with the garbage, so he wouldn't be angry when he got home."

Shi Xianyu also opened the car door and got out. Her eyes fixed on the black trash bag in Yu Jing's hands, her heart hanging high in her chest, until even her breathing seemed to stop.

Lin Yuan said, "Open the bag."

Yu Jing kept a firm grip on the opening and sneered maliciously. "What, now the squad is not only responsible for hunting mutated beasts, but also for helping oasis residents take out the trash?"

Ye Liuyun took a few steps closer. "Yu Jing, you should understand what we mean. If you don't want us to do it ourselves, you'd better open it."

Yu Jing bit her lower lip. After a moment of stalemate, she suddenly smiled. "All right, I'll open it right now. But the bag is tied a little tightly, so I'll have to cut it open with a knife."

Without warning, she pulled a dagger from her coat pocket.

Ye Liuyun and Lin Yuan looked stunned. Before they could react, Yu Jing gripped the dagger tightly and drove it savagely into the trash pile.