Ding Yun, having made up her mind, felt her initial anxiety vanish. She continued her usual routine of self-studying the second year of high school curriculum, learning as much as she could.
She couldn't let this distract her from important matters.
And so, the days passed by at an unhurried pace.
The family atmosphere even grew quieter due to Ding Yun's diligent studying. Wang Haiyan and her husband were hesitant to speak loudly at home, and they kept the television volume very low. Arguments were taken outside after just a couple of sentences, for fear of disturbing Ding Yun's studies.
Two days before the concert, Ding Yun had basically finished her second-year high school coursework. Her mother, Wang Haiyan, who had been slightly suspicious and uneasy, had finally, after observing her daughter for a while, started to believe that her daughter might have genuinely matured.
Instead of hiding something from her.
However, this trust didn't last long before Ding Yun shattered it. Two afternoons before the concert, Ding Yun made a hasty trip out and bought her train tickets.
Then, on the morning of the concert, she left home.
She packed her basic Poké Balls, or rather, stuffed everything she needed to take into her basic Poké Balls, and then, carrying the basic Poké Balls, headed to the station to depart.
Wang Haiyan and her husband, who were rushing to work, didn't think much of it, simply assuming their child was finally getting some fresh air. It was only when they returned from work at noon and found Ding Yun still not home that they became a little concerned.
First, they went downstairs to look, then they called.
In between, they even blamed each other for not buying their daughter a mobile phone, which would have made contact easier. Now that their daughter was gone, they didn't even know how to reach her.
They even started to suspect that something might have happened to her.
Perhaps she had been abducted when she went out earlier.
Fortunately, when Ding Yun left, she had tidied up her room and packed all the items that were clearly meant for an outing into her basic Poké Balls. So, when Wang Haiyan and her husband thought to check Ding Yun's room, they immediately realized that their daughter had likely planned her departure.
It was a premeditated departure, not a disappearance.
"Two sets of clothes are missing, and the money from her little piggy bank is gone too. It seems she's not missing, but left on her own with her belongings and money.
But where could this girl have gone?
Couldn't she have told us if she was going somewhere?"
"Isn't that obvious?
She must have gone somewhere we wouldn't allow her to go, or she's doing something we wouldn't allow her to do. And she's definitely going to be gone for quite some time.
If it were for a short period, I doubt she would have let us find out. This girl has decided to act first and inform us later. Wait, I said she wouldn't just sit there and study peacefully, she must have been hiding something from me. You insisted she wasn't, and now look.
She's gone wild, she's gone!
She's learned to run away from home!"
Comparing the situation in their daughter's room, the couple quickly deduced what had happened. Wang Haiyan felt her earlier intuition was correct and blamed her husband for preventing her from investigating further, thus failing to discover the truth.
And more importantly, failing to stop their child.
"I know, it's my fault.
But what's the use of blaming me now?
Let's first think about where she might have gone, and consider if she's in danger running off by herself."
"Where could she have gone?
Could the initial guess have been true..."
Wang Haiyan also knew that now was not the time for arguments, so she quickly began to consider where her daughter might have gone. As she thought, she realized that if her suspicion that her daughter was hiding something was correct, then could her suspicion about her daughter dating also be correct?
After all, intuition can sometimes be quite accurate.
At the same time, Liu Jianguo understood the implication in Wang Haiyan's words: "You mean, she's dating online?
It's quite possible. Wait, she's not going to meet an online friend, is she? This girl is trying to drive me crazy! There are so many news reports about people getting into trouble when meeting online friends. How can this girl be so reckless!"
"If she's really going to meet an online friend, it'll be a problem.
Nobody knows who this person she's dating online is, whether they're male or female, their age, or if they're good or bad. If she meets someone good, that's fine, but if she meets someone bad, oh heavens, I can't even imagine what she might encounter. Should we report it to the police!"
Thinking of the negative descriptions of meeting online friends in some social news, Wang Haiyan felt a shiver run down her spine, terrified that her daughter might encounter a bad online acquaintance.
She felt utterly panicked.
"Don't panic. Our daughter shouldn't be that unlucky. And she's not missing; she went to meet an online friend herself. It hasn't been too long, so reporting it might not be useful. Try to recall if you know any of your daughter's common online accounts. We can try to log in and check her browsing history.
If you don't know, contact her classmates.
I'll search her room now to see if I can find any clues or a diary. Let's split up and cooperate.
Quick, quick, don't waste any more time!"
Seeing his wife's panicked state, Liu Jianguo immediately reached out and held her, staring intently into her eyes and speaking sternly before getting busy.
Wang Haiyan also calmed down a bit and began to recall her daughter's friends, then called the teacher and asked for the phone numbers of her classmates' parents, contacting them to inquire about her daughter.
Meanwhile, Liu Jianguo was rummaging through Ding Yun's room, searching for things like diaries. They knew their daughter had a habit of writing a diary, but out of respect for her privacy, they had never secretly read it.
However, given the current situation, they had to find it quickly to understand their daughter's thoughts and emotions, hoping to figure out where she might have gone.
At this time, Ding Yun was still on the train.
And if she knew what her parents were doing, she would probably just feel speechless, because she had left very clear evidence for her parents to know where she had gone.
Hoping this would prevent them from panicking too much.
Her evidence was on the calendar in her room. If anyone looked closely at the calendar, they would clearly see that the twenty-seventh of the previous month had been specially circled by Ding Yun with a note about buying concert tickets. And on the twenty-fifth of this month, today, it was also circled with the words "Concert starts at 8 PM tonight, I must watch it."
The evidence was already so obvious.
Ding Yun could never have guessed that her parents had completely missed it.