Melissa’s tears blurred her vision, but she still didn’t care and insisted on hugging her.
“What’s going on with you? Don’t you even recognize me anymore?” She hugged Lillian, feeling her stiff body, and rubbed her back a few times. “Let me feel-have you gained weight or lost it these past few years?”
Her lighthearted tone immediately eased some of the burden in Lillian’s heart. “I haven’t gained or lost any weight. I feel the same as before.”
“No, I think you look even more beautiful than before. Am I right, Jasmine?”
Of course, Jasmine nodded eagerly. “Yes, yes, Mommy’s the prettiest!” Then, she glanced at Melissa’s face. “Mommy Melissa is pretty too, both of you are pretty.”
“You little charmer, only you can say such sweet things, with that smooth tongue of yours.” After saying that, Melissa turned to Lillian and asked, “Do you want to pick up Quincy today? We might as well take him out with us.”
Lillian didn’t ask how Melissa knew. She figured that when she came back, Conrad must’ve had someone check on things, and George would’ve told her.
“Okay, you can meet Quincy too.”
“Great! I’ll go pick out a set of clothes for you. Conrad might not have much else, but he sure has an extensive collection of clothes, more than even the boutiques. It used to just be one floor, but now it’s three or four floors full of clothes for you. And honestly, over the last five years, Conrad has been on his best behavior-not a single rumor or scandal about him.”
Melissa, being quite chatty, didn’t leave a word hanging. She never asked Lillian about the past few years.
Lillian stood up and followed her into the dressing room, watching her as she said, “Did he ask you to come keep me company?”
While flipping through clothes, Melissa held back her tears and responded casually, “What big influence does he have? But you, on the other hand… You’ve been gone for five years, and when you come back, you don’t even look for me. What’s up, are you afraid of involving me? Well, let me tell you, I’m not scared of him anymore. If he dares to touch me, I’ll tell Jasmine.”
Melissa shoved clothes into Lillian’s arms. “Okay, go change. Once you’re done, we’ve got plenty of time to talk about how much we’ve changed over the years.”
Once Lillian entered the dressing room, Melissa took a couple of deep breaths, thinking back to the man who’d appeared at her house so early in the morning. She almost tripped on the stairs when she saw him.
But after he finished speaking, she couldn’t sit still for a second.
She hurriedly urged George to join him in investigating that village.
If Lillian hadn’t left voluntarily all those years ago, then how had she survived these past few years? She must’ve been in a very tough situation when she gave birth to Jasmine.
Just thinking about it made Melissa anxious.
Meanwhile, Conrad and the others were already aboard the helicopter piloted by Lionel, and the satellite had pinpointed the location of that village.
“Damn, what kind of remote place is this? How far would we have to drive to get there?”
“At least two days. Didn’t you see how rugged the mountain roads are? I bet there are many places cars can’t even drive, so they’d have to use other animals to transport things in.”
Hogan immediately felt his scalp tingle. “Could it be that Lillian fell into the water back then and got sold by some ruthless human trafficker to have a child?”
As soon as he said this, Gordon elbowed him hard. “Keep your mouth shut if you don’t have anything useful to say.”
Hogan immediately shut up.
George asked, “Where exactly are we going to settle?”
Looking around, there wasn’t even a town, just scattered villages.
“We can settle wherever we want.”
Lionel set the location and chose a village nearby to land. As soon as the helicopter touched down, the men nearly took a step back from the thick dust in the air.
Although summer was almost over, the temperature here was still unbearably high. The sun had cracked the ground, and the farmland that hadn’t been cultivated in years was now split open. Even the weeds were sparse.
“Is this the village Ethan mentioned?”
“Damn it, the phone signal is gone. What now?”
“What do you mean, ‘what now’? The village is right up ahead. Just ask around, and we’ll find out.”
They initially planned to split up, but the village was so small there was no need to. One road led straight through, and you could see the end of it.
After asking several people, either the dialect was incomprehensible, or a few old men just stared at them.
“We can’t understand a thing. Coming here is useless.” Hogan felt anxious.
Just then, a military vehicle stopped at the village entrance. Two tall soldiers in uniform stepped out and headed straight toward Conrad.
“Conrad!”
Conrad was surprised. “Evan, what are you doing here?”
“My father heard you were coming this way. I just happened to be here training with Mike. Mike’s from this area. If you need any information, leave it to us.”
“Perfect timing! You two help us ask around-have they seen this woman? Or if anyone in the village has seen any strange people five years ago? It’s not just this village; if you know the way to the others, you can take us there.” Gordon quickly took out a photo and showed it to them.
Evan glanced at it and said seriously, “Got it.”
Hogan didn’t want to discuss things in front of Conrad, so he found a spot to mutter to himself.
Gordon happened to come over to borrow a lighter and grumbled, “What the hell are you doing, sitting here talking to yourself?”
“I’m just thinking, if she really ended up here, how much suffering she must have gone through. I can’t bear it.”
Hogan touched his chest. “It’s painful.”
“You’re in pain? He is suffering much more,” Gordon said, exhaling a smoke ring as he glanced at the tall man standing in the heat.
But this time, their hopes were dashed-the villagers hadn’t seen Lillian.
They had no choice but to get back in Evan’s car, cross over the mountain, and head to another place.
“We’ve only been stationed here for the past two years. Villages around here are spread out, and my family moved to the town years ago. Now, only old people live in the village,” Mike explained to them. “If there was any young, pretty woman, they’d know if you give them some money to ask around. We’ll have to ask one by one.”
“No problem, thanks for your help,” Conrad said.
Mike was flustered. “No, Conrad, please don’t say that. I’ll do my best to help.”
They kept asking around, and by noon the next day, they were all nearly sore from sitting for so long. Hogan had to get out of the car twice to throw up.
“Conrad, are you sure this is it?”
“Yeah, Ethan said it’s on this road. He met her here, but he doesn’t know which village she came from.”
“There’s only one village left ahead. I’ll go ask around again,” Mike said, this time not going to the previous few houses but instead taking a detour to the back.
The group decided to get out of the car and walk around the village.
“Hey, ma’am. Have you seen this woman?” Mike asked as a middle-aged woman walked out of a decently renovated house. He immediately approached her.
As soon as the woman saw the photo, her face changed dramatically, and she tried to hurry back inside the house.