In the western district, near the outskirts of the city, there was an old street lined with low houses. Because it was far from the city center and didn’t belong to any newly developed suburban area, there were no commercial opportunities. Young people found commuting difficult, so only elderly residents accustomed to the place still lived there.

The street had even preserved the tradition of weekend street markets.

The weather was a bit hot, yet Mei Ruixue wore a black windbreaker with the hood pulled up over a baseball cap that hid her face.

She squeezed through the crowd, quickly bought a block of tofu, a bunch of newly harvested water spinach, and a piece of pork belly at a meat stall. Her eyes darted around warily before she jumped on a motorized tricycle and vanished at a dusty corner of the street.

The old building was just six stories tall, two apartments per floor. It looked like it could collapse any minute. Mei Ruixue parked her tricycle downstairs, covered it with a plastic sheet, glanced back twice, and then went upstairs.

As soon as she opened the door to unit 5-1, she heard muffled “mmph mmph” sounds from the inner room. Her face, already worn and bitter from life, instantly twisted in anger. She slammed the groceries onto the table and looked down—four liquefied gas canisters were lined up against the wall.

Clenching her teeth, she dragged two of them to the doorway.

The sounds from the room grew louder. Even though no one lived upstairs or next door, Mei Ruixue’s heart tightened.

She stormed into the room, striding straight to Zhou Zongyi and slapped him twice across the face. She hissed threateningly, “Be quiet! Or you’ll really regret it!”

Zhou Zongyi was tied hand and foot, bound to the head of the bed, with tape over his mouth. His eyes were bloodshot with rage, glaring at her as if, given the chance, he’d bite her throat.

His look infuriated Mei Ruixue further. She hit him on the head a few more times. “No manners at all! Your damn grandmother didn’t raise you right! Don’t blame me—blame your entire family of country bumpkins!”

She stood up, pulled out some medicine bottles from a moldy old cabinet, and shoved them in front of his face. “Know what this is? Saline. Glucose! When it’s time to eat, I’ll peel off the tape. But if you dare scream, you won’t get a single bite until the summer holiday!”

Zhou Zongyi shrank back in fear.

“Scared now? I heard that as long as you inject these, you won’t die. Just behave and stay here until my son gets into a good high school.” Her eyes hardened again. “But high school’s even more important than middle school. If you still don’t learn your lesson and go back to bouncing that basketball… we’ll both die here.”

After the threats, Mei Ruixue returned to the kitchen and began chopping meat and vegetables. She kept glancing back at the gas canisters like they were her personal insurance policy.

She didn’t actually want to die with Zhou Zongyi. Before she kidnapped him, she hadn’t even thought of stockpiling gas tanks.

She just had no other options left. If that rhythmic thumping of basketball continued upstairs, her son would never pass the exams that might change his fate. He’d be stuck in the same swamp of struggle and poverty she was trapped in.

Mei Zong was in his final year of junior high—two more months until the high school entrance exam. He was a good kid, hard-working, but maybe he just didn’t have the brains for it. He struggled with everything he learned and had to spend double the effort to keep up with his classmates.

Every day after school, Mei Zong would study until midnight. But starting last year, there was a constant thumping sound above—turns out, it was the Zhou family kid dribbling a basketball.

Mei Ruixue had gone upstairs to speak to Grandma Zhou, who said the boy was dribbling in the hallway and wasn’t bothering anyone. “He needs to exercise, and I don’t have time to take him downstairs. If he goes missing, who’s going to take responsibility?” Grandma Zhou even showed her a video about encouraging neighborly kindness and gave her a piece of preserved pork rib.

Mei Ruixue was naturally introverted and timid. Her husband had died early. She supported her son by doing black-market massages and driving a motor tricycle. To get her son into a better junior high, she scraped together savings to buy a secondhand unit in Huoxiaoting Community.

But every time the basketball bounced, Mei Zong couldn’t focus. His grades dropped in the final exams. And again in the most recent monthly test.

Mei Ruixue’s anxiety grew. She knew talking would get nowhere. The other family could just shut her down with one sentence—“Zongyi is just a child, try to be more understanding.” Call the police? They wouldn’t care about this sort of thing…

Tossing and turning one night, a terrifying idea popped into her head—she would kidnap Zhou Zongyi. Not to hurt him. Just to stop him from dribbling before Mei Zong’s exam!

Once the idea took root, it never left. It only grew stronger.

Mei Ruixue had grown up on this old street. Her parents, long gone, had been given the apartment by the factory. The building was full of elderly people, now nearly all gone. It was the perfect place to hide someone.

Grandma Zhou watched Zongyi closely. Only when the boy was in kindergarten did she see a possible opening. Then she happened to come across a livestreamer filming at Moonflower Kindergarten.

After studying all the videos, she found that Thursday afternoons were when the kindergarten had the least supervision—and that Zongyi was the adventurous type. The more teachers said not to go to the back yard, the more he wanted to go.

Mei Ruixue mapped out every camera in the community and found a route with no surveillance. Then she waited behind the kindergarten with a brand-new basketball.

That day was her third attempt.

In the afternoon, the faint sound of a basketball caught Zongyi’s attention. He crept into the backyard, where Mei Ruixue waved and smiled.

He knew this auntie from downstairs and couldn’t resist the lure of a basketball. After a moment’s hesitation, he slipped out of the kindergarten.

Mei Ruixue said, “My son’s playing in a basketball game. Wanna come watch?”

Zhou Zongyi said, “Yeah, yeah!”

Once he got on the tricycle, she gave him a drink. When he woke up, he was already tied up.

Mei Ruixue snapped out of her thoughts as she sliced her finger. The smell of blood spread through the air. She dropped the knife and muttered to herself, “I don’t want to kill anyone… I don’t want to kill anyone…”

At first, she had no intention of hurting Zhou Zongyi. She had even stocked up on food—eggs, meat. The old building still had electricity and water. The only tricky part was the gas—she’d have to apply for a connection and get a gas card. So instead, she bought gas tanks from nearby restaurants and planned to cook nutritious meals for him.

But the moment Zongyi woke up, he started screaming. She panicked and taped his mouth shut. Then she bought IV supplies.

As they faced off in silence, she couldn’t stay in the apartment long. She feared the boy might escape—or worse, that the police might find her out.

Her anxiety worsened. She almost slipped up during the police questioning yesterday. She couldn’t do anything all day. She tried to keep working, kept driving the tricycle—and nearly crashed into someone.

The public outrage online toward the kidnapper filled her with fear and regret.

What if she got caught? She had already kidnapped Zhou Zongyi. Even if she returned him safe and sound after Meizong’s high school entrance exam, it was still a crime, wasn’t it? The Zhou family would never let it go. What would happen to her? And to Mei Zong?

Her eyes landed on the gas canisters she used for cooking. As if possessed, she went and bought four more.

At worst… at worst…

“Ding—”

The sudden ringtone made Mei Ruixue break out in a cold sweat. She picked up the phone with trembling hands. The screen flashed: “Zongzong.”

She answered. “Zongzong?”

“Mom, where are you?”

“I’m driving, why?”

“Nothing, just asking. The police came by again.”

Her back was already soaked with sweat. “What did they say?”

“They asked if I knew where you were. Asked if Zhou Zongyi bouncing his ball affected us.”

Mei Ruixue couldn’t speak. A string in her mind snapped.

Mei Zong said, “Mom, you didn’t… do anything, did you?”

“What nonsense are you talking?” she quickly replied. “Focus on your studies. Other people’s business isn’t ours. I need to go now, bye.”

---

“Mei Ruixue’s parents worked at the Xiqiao Construction Plant. The old housing in that area still hasn’t been demolished. If she took Zhou Zongyi, she’d definitely hide him in her old home—that’s her best hideout,” Ji Chenjiao said while reviewing the findings Shen Qi had dug up, and simultaneously made a call to He Feng.

Beside him, Ling Lie was eating the Major Crimes Unit’s “love meal”—which Ji Chenjiao had gone to the canteen to get for him just five minutes earlier.

A task force from the North City sub-bureau was already on its way to Xiqiao Street. He Feng shouted from the car, “Captain Ji, are you coming? This time we really owe you.”

Ji Chenjiao glanced at Ling Lie, who was eating hungrily, and hesitated for a moment. “I won’t go. Mei Ruixue is just a middle-aged woman. Be careful during the arrest.”

“Alright, I guess you’re busy with the Xiyang Road case. We’ve got this.”

After hanging up, Ji Chenjiao continued watching Ling Lie. Whenever Ling Lie ate, he somehow made the food look delicious. But Ji Chenjiao didn’t actually think that greasy and salty food tasted good.

When he cooked for himself, it was usually low-fat, healthy meals. His adoptive mother, Zhou Yun, always complained that his food was too bland. Fortunately, they no longer lived in the same city, so all she could do was nag on the phone.

The canteen food was too oily for his taste, so he would always try to drain it. But Ling Lie? He scooped up the oily gravy with rice.

Ling Lie looked up. “Hm?”

Ji Chenjiao turned to leave. “Eat.”

But Ling Lie put down his chopsticks. “Captain Ji, I think you’ve made a mistake.”

Ji paused. “What do you mean?”

“You think Mei Ruixue is just an ordinary middle-aged woman?” Ling Lie wiped his mouth and took a sip of water. “If our deduction is right, she kidnapped Zhou Zongyi—a child—just because of the ball-bouncing noise from upstairs. What kind of ordinary middle-aged woman does something like that?”

Ji Chenjiao’s gaze darkened.

“An ordinary woman would either keep enduring it, or go upstairs to resolve it—whether by politely talking or cursing someone out. That’s all still ‘ordinary.’” Ling Lie said solemnly, “But secretly taking someone’s child? That’s extreme. And she hid it well. Even the grandma didn’t realize she’d offended her.”

“She might be someone who, under the long-term pressure of life, used avoidance and passivity to protect herself and her son—but one day, she would break.” Ling Lie shrugged. “She already has.”

Ji was silent for a few seconds. “The online backlash could push her even further. When He Feng’s team arrives, she’ll probably resist. I’ll notify SWAT.”

Ling Lie asked, “What kind of resistance do you think she’ll offer?”

Turning a missing-person case into a hostage rescue—SWAT had plenty of experience. And though Mei Ruixue was extreme, she wasn’t truly vicious or hardened. Plus, she was a woman. Rescuing Zhou Zongyi shouldn’t be too difficult.

But Ji Chenjiao saw something dangerous in Ling Lie’s eyes.

“She won’t have a gun. At most, a knife—maybe a cleaver or a hammer,” Ling Lie said. “Captain Ji, were you just thinking: ‘That’s manageable’? That SWAT might not even be needed, the sub-bureau could easily handle it, maybe even cancel the operation?”

Ji Chenjiao: “…”

A gleam flashed in Ling Lie’s eyes. “But what if she has gas canisters?”

Three seconds later, Ji Chenjiao notified SWAT, deployed part of the major crimes unit, and submitted a request for a sniper rifle. Just as he was heading downstairs, Ling Lie stood up. Before he could say anything, Ji Chenjiao shot him a glance—

“Get in the car.”