Lu Mingming turned back to continue bathing the cubs registered for Class A.
Aisha, an elephant who wasn't afraid of water, was the opposite of fearful and thoroughly enjoyed it.
During Lu Mingming's bathing of the little one, Aisha repeatedly inhaled large amounts of hot spring water and playfully splashed it onto her classmates, turning the pool into a scene of joyous revelry.
The little girl was very small, and as a rhinoceros, she had no excess fur, so a simple rinse with clean water was sufficient.
Following Aisha's instructions, Lu Mingming squeezed out the floral and herbal scented body wash, restoring the little girl's body to her favorite fragrance.
The bathing materials prepared according to quantity were all used up this time. The cubs who were hoping to sneak in for a bath when Lu Mingming was free sighed in disappointment, feeling both love and hate for the limited supply of bathing materials prepared by the noble academy.
Rhinos didn't need to go to the drying room. Lu Mingming wiped Aisha's body with a dry towel and then wrapped her in a warm outer robe.
"Aisha, after your bath, rest in your room for a while. Remember to drink plenty of water, you might feel a little warm after bathing."
Lu Mingming thoughtfully handed over the apple juice she had prepared.
Aisha nodded and was led back to the rest room by the staff with good manners.
Lu Mingming clapped her hands, took off her waterproof apron, and with a cheerful mood, carried two cups of refreshing mint drinks towards the drying room.
Snowball must have been dried after being blown for so long! Perhaps it was thirsty, and the mint drinks would be perfect to cool it down.
However, the moment she opened the door, Lu Mingming's expression drastically changed, her pupils visibly contracting to their smallest size—
It was gone.
Snowball was gone!
The entire room was empty!
Lu Mingming quickly placed the drinks in her hand on the cabinet and searched for a while in the rooms adjacent to the drying room, but unfortunately found no trace of her own cub.
Next, she used her optic device to dial the little one's contact number, waiting patiently, only to hear the mechanical voice from the optic device.
"Beep... beep... Hello, the optic device you have dialed is not being answered. Please try again later..."
Lu Mingming felt a buzzing sound in her head, as if countless mosquitoes were flying around her ears, gnawing at her heart, and words she couldn't speak were rolling in her throat.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she contacted the staff on duty that night.
Her voice was soft and thin, as if squeezed through her teeth, becoming incredibly difficult: "Hello, may I ask where the little cub who was in the drying room is? It's a white Samoyed."
Lu Mingming held onto a sliver of hope, which was quickly shattered by the staff's words.
The staff member shook his head: "I don't recall anything. I don't seem to have seen any cubs leaving just now."
How could this be?
How could a perfectly fine cub suddenly disappear?
Lu Mingming recalled Cheng Shiqin's instructions from noon and the provocative words of Hui Lan before he left. A spark of realization flashed in her mind.
Her fingernails dug fiercely into her palm, as if she felt no pain.
Lu Mingming rationally asked the staff:
"May I borrow your monitoring room? A Class A cub has gone missing here."
Lu Mingming concealed the identity of the little Samoyed being her own cub, deliberately leading the staff to believe it was the cub of a powerful noble family, so they would help more earnestly.
As expected, upon hearing that a Class A cub was missing, the staff's expressions changed drastically, and they hurried to escort Lu Mingming to the monitoring room.
No matter which cub from Class A was in trouble, it was not something these underlings could be responsible for!
The hundreds of screens in the surveillance camera room were neatly arranged, so many that they made one's eyes blur.
Seeing the staff leading a stranger in, the duty personnel in the monitoring room initially wanted to stop them. Upon receiving a look of suggestion from the staff, they immediately left the monitoring room to inform the manager of the situation and await their arrival to handle this sudden event.
Guided by the staff, Lu Mingming accurately found the surveillance footage of the drying room.
Her hand hovered over the button to control the surveillance feed, still trembling unconsciously.
As the set time rewound, Lu Mingming accurately fixed the surveillance screen to the moment she carried the little one into the drying room.
Within five minutes of Lu Mingming's departure, a thin man wearing staff clothing walked in.
As the man's back was facing the surveillance, it was difficult to discern the expression and actions on his face.
The people in the room on the surveillance screen heard the thin man say to the little Samoyed:
"Lu Mingming asked me to take you, this little cub, away. They just notified that the last cub's bathing appointment has been canceled, and now the cubs need to be taken to the resting area and back to school by the staff."
Upon hearing these words, the little Samoyed slowly opened its eyes with an unchanging expression, showing no excessive reaction.
It seemed that because it was "Lu Mingming," anything could be done.
The little cub appeared dull and傻傻 on the screen, as if it didn't know how to respond.
This was exactly what the man wanted.
Unexpectedly succeeding so easily, the short figure chuckled, reached out, and hugged the little Samoyed, his arm tightly gripping the little one's abdomen.
After the man carried the little Samoyed out of the drying room, Lu Mingming's gaze followed him closely to the next screen.
She saw the man carrying the little one to another hidden wall. Under the cover of the night and tree shadows, it was difficult to see that several bricks on top of that wall had been removed.
The other party was clearly well-prepared.
Standing in the shadow, the man respectfully replied to his optic device: "Young Master, please rest assured, I have taken away a Class A cub. Lu Mingming losing a cub during her bath tonight means she will become a sensation on the Star Network tomorrow!"
Within a few seconds, the optic device flickered frequently, showing the anxiety and excitement of the other party waiting.
Presumably having received the desired reply, the man clapped the dust off his hands and contemptuously tossed the little Samoyed forcefully.
A white arc slid through the air, and it fell heavily to the ground.
Seeing her cub suffer, Lu Mingming felt as if an invisible giant hand were clenching her heart, making it difficult to breathe.
How could this happen?
Snowball was usually very smart; why would it so easily agree to be taken away by someone else?
Lu Mingming desperately tried to calm herself and questioned the staff on duty.
"How did this cub trafficker get in here?"
The manager arrived late and happened to witness this scene, internally shouting, "This is bad!"
Seeing that the situation was not good, he immediately pretended to be angry at the surrounding staff, pushing his own responsibility aside first.
Lu Mingming remained silent, her trembling hands covering her eyes. After a long while, she slowly moved her hands away, each minute feeling like an entire spring, summer, autumn, and winter had passed.
Her mind raced, desperately seeking a solution to this problem.
The manager leaned in and said with a worried frown, "It's all because this cub trusted you too much. Look, a little deception and it was easily fooled."
In his words, there was a clear intention to shift all the blame onto Lu Mingming.
Lu Mingming's face was pale, but her eyes held an unprecedented resolve, a coldness that kept people at a distance.
"Manager, the cub went missing while your staff were on duty. Please acknowledge your mistake."
"Hey, why are you talking like that?!"
The manager mistakenly thought Lu Mingming was an easily bullied, weak girl. He didn't expect her to retort, and his face immediately lost its composure.
"I hope you will cooperate in searching for the cub. If even one cub gets lost, guess what the officials behind the other Class A cubs will think?"
Lu Mingming used the influence of the cubs' powerful backers for the first time, becoming the person she had once disdained the most.
The manager remained silent, his face looking grim, clearly already imagining how badly he would suffer.
Lu Mingming pressed on: "I request that you immediately close off all exits in this section and dispatch staff to find the lost cub. Otherwise, this matter will be very difficult to resolve."
After delivering a series of stern warnings, Lu Mingming strode out of the monitoring room.
She first sent a message to Cheng Shiqin, briefly explaining the disappearance of the little Samoyed from the hot spring pool, and received a swift reply from her friend offering to help.
A gentle breeze blew, rustling the yellow fallen leaves on the ground.
Braving the cool night air, Lu Mingming continued her search throughout the entire hot spring pool, not missing any opportunity.
Unfortunately, as time passed, not a single clue surfaced.
Looking at the lively atmosphere in the distant hot spring pool, Lu Mingming's heart grew as cold as the night wind.