"It wasn't like this before? When did she start changing?" I asked.
"Not from freshman to junior year, but it seems like she changed after her senior year," a girl wearing glasses said.
The change only happened after her senior year. I wondered if she had gone through something that year that caused her personality to transform.
Perhaps Director Zhang would have some insight into this. I'd have to ask him properly later.
While I was thinking, Liu Yuning asked the girls more questions, but most of them yielded no clues. We had to leave temporarily. However, as we were leaving, we searched near Zhang Huihong's bed and found that she really liked reading role-playing books.
I flipped through a few pages of one of them. It contained terms like "robot girlfriend." The girlfriends in the book were extremely considerate, helping their masters cook, bathe, and rest with them. At that moment, an idea popped into my head: could Zhang Huihong have been taken and forced to become a maid?
However, considering her preference for such books, it seemed voluntary, and she might even have been quite interested in it!
That was a bit chilling to think about. No one would want to be completely controlled, I thought. We had already left the academy. When we returned to the provincial department, we heard that Director Zhang was in a meeting and couldn't be disturbed. I asked Xia Hou and the others to continue the investigation. If only Director Zhang's wife were still alive, we could have asked her. But we did manage to find her ex-wife's parents.
Upon learning that we were looking for them regarding Zhang Huihong's case, the old man said, "Alas, this granddaughter of ours is quite a good girl. We always thought highly of her. We don't know what happened, but she went missing. I heard she seemed to change completely later. If I'm not mistaken, she might have been led astray by some people. I didn't expect Director Zhang's daughter to be like this..."
"Please don't jump to conclusions, old sir. We have actually uncovered some clues. Before she disappeared, she was fond of reading role-playing books, and she changed after her senior year..." Liu Yuning deliberately revealed a few characteristics. The old man indeed seemed to recall something. A look of remembrance appeared in his eyes. "Yes, I even mentioned this to Director Zhang at the time, but he didn't seem to care much. He just told us that girls change as they grow up, and so on. Anyway, I felt he was being perfunctory. I never saw Director Zhang be so indifferent to his own daughter. Not to mention Huihong, I felt he had changed too. But we were visiting from our hometown, so we could only leave."
At this point, the old woman added, "Alas, I don't know what to say about their affairs. Since Xiao Luo passed away, we've actually had very little contact. Especially after Huihong disappeared. Something important is that she disappeared not long after her mother passed away. Could it be related to that?"
"Possibly. Did you notice at the time if she showed excessive grief over her mother's death?"
"For a while, yes. But later, she seemed to have gotten over it. Anyway, alas, that child really changed," the old man sighed.
We asked quite a few people, and their opinions were consistent. They all said that before Zhang Huihong disappeared, she was a different person. If we could get specific details from her roommates, it was role-playing.
I felt this point was very important. Perhaps some criminal organization had kidnapped many girls this way and forced them to become maids. This was a possibility I considered based on the role-playing books. But when I mentioned it to Liu Yuning, she found it a bit far-fetched, thinking that role-playing was just a coincidence.
I, however, did not agree. With our differing opinions, our investigation directions diverged. But that was also good. If I were wrong, at least there was Liu Yuning's side.
In the conference room, we sorted through the information we had found. Xia Hou spoke first, "Director Zhang will be back soon. After we question him thoroughly, we'll see how to proceed."
"I visited the old folks' hometown, but I know very little about Zhang Huihong. I estimate they rarely went back," Xiao Yuande replied.
At this moment, He Xin said again, "I've reviewed all the information I could find about her several times, but due to the lack of surveillance from the sky net and other systems, I can't determine her last known location when she disappeared. If we talk about the areas near her home or school, eyewitnesses were reportedly not found."
"Yes, I've searched almost all the places Zhang Huihong might have gone to before and asked the people nearby!" Ma Biao replied.
"After all these years, it will be quite difficult to uncover the details from back then. Hmm? Director Zhang is back!" Xia Hou said, looking towards the door of our conference room.
Our gazes all shifted over. Director Zhang waved his hand and walked over to us. "How's your investigation coming along?"
"Director Zhang, we have something we need to ask you about Zhang Huihong's senior year."
"I just returned to my hometown and found these."
Director Zhang took out an album. I took it and was surprised to see photos of Zhang Huihong with several girls. I asked Director Zhang who these girls were. He said they were neighbors from his old hometown. Now I realized Director Zhang was originally from Jiangxi.
He was from Yingtan City and only came to Guangdong six years ago, settling down in Guangming.
"My daughter used to be very close with these girls, but that's not important. What's important is that I found many addresses behind her photo album, and also this diary!"
I took over the items. Upon seeing the addresses, everyone was surprised.
The diary recorded many of Zhang Huihong's experiences.
Here is her self-narration:
January 2018. University life is indeed good, but I've recently grown tired of this life. I want to seek excitement. Where can I find it? One day, a guy took me somewhere, and it opened my eyes.
This place is like a dream. I experienced all sorts of different sensations.
February 2018. This month, I feel like I've become another person. I can even remember this feeling and record it. Perhaps I still have consciousness. Although it scares me a little, I'm also very excited.
March 2018. It's March now. Time passes so quickly. Since I went there and returned, my father seems to have noticed something. We argued about it, but he couldn't possibly know my secret.