Huo Shiqian had indeed spent a significant amount of time with the provincial city’s liberation army, so it was not surprising that he had soldiers stationed here.
"Hello, liberation army comrade," Xia Chuyi greeted him with unusual composure, then asked him to take her to Wang Xiaofang’s house.
Before coming here, she had already gotten the address of Wang Xiaofang’s home.
Upon arriving at the Wang Family’s residence,
Mrs. Wang was not home; it was Father Wang who received her.
"Aunty, she?" Xia Chuyi, out of politeness, inquired.
Father Wang furrowed his brows and said, "Xia, your arrival here means that my Xiao Fang didn’t go to Ling County."
That also implied that Wang Xiaofang was indeed missing.
Of course, where exactely she was at the moment and whether her circumstances were good or bad could not yet be confirmed.
But what could be confirmed was the fact that as long as a child remained unfound by a parent, each minute unseen rendered parents incredibly anxious.
With that, Father Wang said, "Xiao Fang’s mother went to argue with the people from the Song Family again."
"She wants to mobilize every possible help to find her."
Xia Chuyi nodded, showing understanding.
They exchanged information about the search—over at Ling County, the current situation was that Chuyi had not received any communications for two days, hence she suspected that Wang Xiaofang might not have gone to Ling County.
While on the provincial city side, the Wang Family had turned every possible location upside down and had so far found no trace of her.
After pondering, Xia Chuyi said, "Uncle Wang, have you considered that Sister Fang might have bought a ticket to go somewhere else?"
Father Wang replied, "We’ve thought about it, but what would she do elsewhere?"
"She only has you as a friend outside her hometown; she knows no one else."
Hearing this, Xia Chuyi’s brows tightened as she said, "Uncle Wang, may I have a photo of Sister Fang?"
"I’d like to ask around at the station."
Father Wang knew she sincerely wanted to find Xiao Fang, and right now every helping hand counted.
"Yes, that’s possible. Just a few days ago, we had a lot of her photos printed, planning to post missing person notices everywhere," Father Wang said.
Xia Chuyi nodded, understanding the actions of the Wang Family parents.
After getting Wang Xiaofang’s photo, she first went to the bus station.
Upon reaching the bus station, she didn’t go to ask the bus station staff or drivers.
Instead, she directly scouted the surroundings, first inquiring where food was usually sold and who often sold it—believing that someone like Wang Xiaofang, a food-lover, would definitely head to buy food wherever she went.
Thus, asking those who sold snacks seemed more likely to yield information about Wang Xiaofang.
After finding out, she took the photo and went to each snack vendor to ask.
"Hello comrade, have you seen the girl in this photo?"
The answers she got were all "don’t remember" or "haven’t seen her."
"Thank you." After thanking them, Xia Chuyi left the bus station.
She then headed to the train station, where her actions were no different.
She still inquired at snack shops and then went around showing the photo.
After asking, "Hello comrade, have you seen the girl in this photo?" many times and receiving numerous "don’t remember,"
Finally, a vendor selling roasted sweet potatoes said he had seen her.
"This comrade," the roasted sweet potato vendor said, "I’ve seen her. She left a deep impression on me."
"Because she seemed in a bad mood, she bought a lot of roasted sweet potatoes. After eating a few bites, her mood seemed to improve."
Saying this, the vendor himself laughed, adding, "She’s really an easygoing girl."