Running Away from Home

“I really troubled you this time. I’ll have to get a commemorative banner made for you no matter what.”

Only a day had passed, and Liu Xiaoxiao was once again driving Bai Hai back to this townhouse, which, in her eyes, had an academic atmosphere of at least three plus signs.

Faced with his joke, she just waved her hand lightly.

“No problem, it’s a police officer’s duty… but if you really want to give one, could you sign it with Dr. Jiang Yue’s name? The bonus should be bigger that way.”

Hearing this, Bai Hai almost fell out of the car.

He thought to himself, as expected of a girl whose mind was as solid as porcelain.

He thought she would refuse a little more, but she even made a request.

“…Alright.” Hearing Bai Hai’s definite answer, Liu Xiaoxiao immediately showed a brilliant smile.

However, just as she was about to leave this “academic holy land” that could probably increase one’s intelligence by ten points just by looking at it, a rough voice suddenly sounded from next door.

“Hey, are you the police Dr. Jiang Yue called to find her daughter, Xia Cheng?”

Liu Xiaoxiao and Bai Hai turned their heads together and saw a pot-bellied middle-aged man walking out of the neighboring villa, muttering, “Sigh, Dr. Jiang Yue too, her relationship with her daughter has always been so tense. This time she even alarmed the police. If this goes on for a long time, how…”

“Wait, wait, what do you mean?” Bai Hai interrupted the man’s muttering and asked with a frown, “What do you mean, called the police? Professor Jiang Yue is on a business trip right now, not in Xingchuan City.”

“Huh?” The middle-aged man showed a look of confusion and asked with some caution, “Then who are you?”

“My name is Bai Hai. I just arrived yesterday. I’m Xia Cheng’s older brother.”

“Oh, I’ve heard Professor Jiang Yue mention you. I thought you were a police officer too.” The middle-aged man nodded in understanding, then pointed at the house and said, “This afternoon, I heard Xia Cheng arguing with Professor Jiang Yue again. Not long after, when I came out for a walk, I saw her leaving alone with her bag, looking very angry. She hasn’t come back yet. I thought she had run away from home again and Dr. Jiang Yue had called the police—it’s happened before.”

“…Huh?” Bai Hai was taken aback by this.

He then ran into the house, opened the door, and saw a mess.

Pots, bowls, and pans were scattered all over the floor, and tables and chairs were overturned.

It was clear that Xia Cheng was really angry after they left.

Upon closer inspection, the wallpaper in the hallway was half-torn, which made Bai Hai’s trigeminal nerve ache.

‘I knew you were a brat, but I didn’t know you were this much of a brat!’

Liu Xiaoxiao followed him in and was also shocked by the scene before her.

Good grief, this place was only one corpse away from being a murder scene.

Bai Hai looked around and found a half-torn piece of homework paper on the coffee table, with something written on it.

He picked it up and saw it read: I’m going to stay at a friend’s house for a while. Don’t look for me.

“Little brat!”

After reading it, Bai Hai was completely numb.

He crumpled the note into a ball in exasperation and quickly went upstairs.

He pushed open the door and, as expected, saw that Xia Cheng’s room was also a mess.

She seemed to have packed a few clothes, and her schoolbag was also gone.

You have to know, she didn’t have to go to school during this period.

Her purpose for leaving with her bag couldn’t be clearer.

Running away from home.

Bai Hai finally couldn’t help but face-palm.

The person had run away from home on the first day he was entrusted with her.

Not only could he not explain this, but even if he found her this time, he would probably have a hard time in the future.

“Don’t worry. Think carefully about where your sister might go, like a friend’s house?” Liu Xiaoxiao was very familiar with the procedure for such cases of minors running away from home.

A case could be filed directly for a minor, but in most cases, they could be found at a friend’s house, so the family was usually advised to look for them first.

“Don’t worry, it’s daytime now, and there have just been a few Anomaly incidents in the past two days. This period should be very safe.”

Bai Hai glanced at the girl-less girlish bedroom and thought to himself that he wasn’t worried about Xia Cheng’s safety.

After all, as a magical girl, she definitely had the ability to protect herself.

There was still some time until the first of January, but he couldn’t just leave her out there like this.

If she couldn’t accept him, this cheap brother of hers, then even approaching her as a magical girl would be useless.

He had to find a way to make her at least listen to him… but the premise was to find her first.

“I know she has a friend, in the East District. She should be going there… can you take me there? I don’t have a car right now.”

“Don’t worry, it’s a police officer’s duty.” Liu Xiaoxiao nodded very readily.

Although she still had a strange suicide case to solve, first, it was already clear that it was not a murder, and second, she believed that the living were more important than the dead.

Although she had comforted Bai Hai like that, she also remembered the iron rule of Anomalies—Anomalies were always beyond human expectations.

A middle school girl out of control on the outside was clearly very dangerous.

And so, after reporting to the station, Liu Xiaoxiao drove Bai Hai towards the East District, to Pan Nannan’s house.
Jiang Yue had given Bai Hai the address.

Before she left, she had said, “If Xia Cheng suddenly runs away from home, she’s definitely going here. She only has one friend, Pan Nannan.”

A self-fulfilling prophecy.

On the way, Liu Xiaoxiao looked at Bai Hai’s uncertain expression and sighed several times in her heart.

They had talked a lot in the car before, and she had some understanding of Bai Hai’s current situation.

He had just reunited with his family, but as soon as his mother left, his sister rejected him and ran away from home.

This was a huge blow to anyone.

“Actually, it’s normal for kids to be mischievous at this age.” Liu Xiaoxiao was silent for a long time before she suddenly said, “My younger sister was also very mischievous in middle school.”

Bai Hai turned his head and listened attentively to Liu Xiaoxiao’s story.

“Running away from home and things like that were commonplace. The most annoying thing was that she hung out with a group of delinquent students. Every day, she would either skip class or get into fights. Sometimes, for the sake of so-called loyalty, she would often do foolish things and get caught by the police many times.”

“My parents are both police officers, but they were often notified by the station to pick her up and be criticized and educated because of my sister’s various troubles. They often said that their old faces had been completely disgraced.”

“But then one day, my father was stabbed in the abdomen with a knife by a criminal while on duty. The situation was very serious. The doctor even issued two critical condition notices, and he almost didn’t make it back. At that time, my sister cried in my mother’s arms in the hallway for several days. It was the first time I had ever seen her so sad.”

“After that, she completely changed. She took the initiative to transfer schools and studied hard in the new environment, abandoning all her bad habits. Although her final middle and high school entrance exam scores were not ideal, our whole family was happy for her. At least we no longer had to worry about her every day.”

“So don’t be too anxious. Everyone goes through such a period. Your sister has just met you, so it’s normal for her to be a little resistant. But I think one day she’ll be able to figure it out and accept you.”

After listening, Bai Hai was silent for a long time before he said, “Thank you for your comfort. I hope, as you said, that one day she can accept me…”

Although Bai Hai said so, in his heart, he didn’t care whether Xia Cheng accepted him or not.

What he cared about was how to prevent the prophecy from coming true on the first of January.

But for that, at least for this period, he needed Xia Cheng to be able to get along with him peacefully.

This story seemed to have some parts that he could learn from…

“By the way, how is your sister now? Has she graduated from university?” Bai Hai came back from his thoughts and asked casually.
However, what he got was a long silence.

He even felt that this always-energetic police officer beside him was… starting to tremble.

“My sister… she passed away.”

As Bai Hai looked at her in surprise, Liu Xiaoxiao said in a barely audible voice.

However, Bai Hai heard an even quieter sentence behind it:

“Probably…”

Bai Hai was a little stunned, not knowing what this meant.

But a hurried call from the radio attracted their attention.

“Help, this is the East City Police Department Autopsy Center… we need backup here! Help, we need backup!”

“The corpses… the reanimated corpses are attacking us…”

“They’ve turned into zombies!”

“Aaaah!!!”

And then, a piercing busy tone…