Urban Martial Saint

The orphanage here is quite large now. Plus, there are many construction projects underway in the area. Looking for a child here is no easy task.

After searching for a long time and still not finding Broom Star, Wu Yian anxiously paced around and said, ”Broom Star isn’t the kind of child to run around aimlessly. Where could he have gone this time?”

Ye Qing was well aware of Broom Star’s personality. He had a maturity and wisdom that were unusual for someone his age. Unlike the other children, Broom Star spent most of his time sitting quietly and thinking, not indulging in playful antics. Therefore, Ye Qing never believed that he wandered off on his own. A sense of unease crept into Ye Qing’s heart. If he hadn’t wandered off, then where had he gone, and what on earth had happened?

”Could he have left the orphanage?” Ye Qing whispered.

”I asked the security guard, and no child has left the orphanage today,” said a young man nearby. ”Plus, we generally don’t allow children here to leave the orphanage alone. Since the kids are so young, we’ve arranged for many guards and security staff to prevent them from getting lost. If a child leaves, the guards are certain to stop them.”

”Could it be that they didn’t leave through the main gate?” Li Lianshan inquired.

”That’s unlikely,” Wu Yian replied. ”The orphanage has a total of three main gates, each with excellent security. If someone were to leave, they wouldn’t go unnoticed.”

Li Lianshan added, ”What if they didn’t leave through the gate but climbed over the wall instead?”

”Impossible!” said the young man. ”The orphanage walls are about three meters high. Adults can’t get over them without help, not to mention small children.”

”Or maybe he didn’t leave on his own!” Zhao Chengshuang furrowed his brows tightly and glanced at Ye Qing, saying, ”Ye Zi, could it be that someone is targeting your orphanage? Broom Star was one of the first children you adopted, and he lived with you for a while. Could someone have taken him to get at you?”

Ye Qing, already anxious, frowned even more deeply upon hearing Zhao Chengshuang’s words.

Wu Yian also looked at Ye Qing, feeling mostly anxious. Being the head of the orphanage, he didn’t know how he would explain losing a child to Ye Qing.

”By the way, there’s surveillance at the entrance,” the young man suddenly said. ”If someone really took the child, the surveillance would have recorded it.”

”If someone took the child and didn’t leave through the gate, what could you possibly see?” Zhao Chengshuang asked.

”Just because they didn’t leave through the gate doesn’t mean they didn’t come in through it,” the young man replied. ”Checking the surveillance can at least help rule out suspects. Besides, the child might not have been stolen; he could have wandered off. We should watch the surveillance and continue searching rather than just waiting here doing nothing.”

Ye Qing nodded; the young man’s words resonated with him. He looked at the young man and said, ”Come with me to check the surveillance. Old Li, gather some brothers and start searching the area immediately. Cheng Shuang, stay here. If someone really took Broom Star, we’ll need the police surveillance to track their location.”

”Alright!” everyone replied in unison. Wu Yian, next to them, hurriedly asked, ”What about me? What should I do?”

Ye Qing didn’t want Wu Yian to worry, but he knew that until Broom Star was found, Wu Yian wouldn’t be able to calm down without something to do. So Ye Qing said directly, ”Old principal, you stay here and compile information from all sides. Keep in touch with us. Also, coordinate with the school’s staff and search inside the school carefully to see if there are any clues.”

Relieved by Ye Qing’s words, Wu Yian replied, ”Okay, I’ll arrange that right now. But you all need to hurry. It’s so cold outside this late at night, who knows what’s happened to the child!”

Worried about Broom Star’s situation, Ye Qing wasted no time and quickly went to the surveillance room with the young man. They checked all the surveillance footage. The young man brought some people along to observe the footage from the three gates, hoping to spot anything suspicious.

Ye Qing focused on the surveillance at the main gate. He watched carefully, skipping five seconds at a time from the morning and continuing past two o’clock in the afternoon without seeing anything unusual. Then, around three o’clock, a monk wearing a peculiar robe appeared on the screen.

This monk’s attire was very strange. Although it looked similar to a monk’s robe, it was different in some ways. Unlike the solid color of a typical monk’s robe, the monk’s robe had strange patterns on it. The pattern seemed to depict a deity but wasn’t any Buddha from Buddhism, which was quite odd. Needless to say, this must be a branch of the Buddhist sect that, although adhering to Buddhist teachings, also worshiped their own deities. Ye Qing recalled seeing similar Buddhists during his years serving at the border, who had some differences from real Buddhists.

Seeing the monk, Ye Qing immediately furrowed his brow. He had only seen such Buddhists a few times, and they rarely appeared inland. Seeing one here naturally caught Ye Qing’s attention. Truth be told, from the first glance, Ye Qing suspected this monk might be closely linked to Broom Star’s disappearance.

Ye Qing slowed down the video and watched the monk closely. The monk was standing in an alley opposite the orphanage, quietly observing the situation inside, as if studying the layout. After observing for over half an hour, the monk finally moved and slowly walked to the entrance of the orphanage. He stood by the wall and carefully inspected it, though Ye Qing couldn’t tell what he was looking at — it was quite puzzling.

This development made Ye Qing even more puzzled. Such a strange Buddhist engaged in this peculiar activity at the orphanage entrance was bound to arouse suspicion.

Just as Ye Qing was about to examine what exactly on the wall had caught the monk’s attention, another person appeared on the screen. Judging by the attire, it seemed to be a security guard from the orphanage. The guard said a few words to the monk, who then turned and left.

Seeing this, Ye Qing immediately stood up and said sternly to one of the people next to him, ”Keep watching, and pay special attention to the monk. Call me immediately if you see him again.”

Ye Qing already considered the monk the most suspicious person, so his focus remained on the monk. Having made his instructions clear, Ye Qing left the surveillance room and headed in the direction of the main gate.

The guard on duty was the same one from the afternoon. He was one of the first group of guards at the orphanage and knew Ye Qing as the owner of the orphanage. So, when he saw Ye Qing, he was quite friendly, and when Ye Qing asked questions, he was willing to share everything he knew.

When Ye Qing asked about the monk from the afternoon, the guard immediately said, ”Boss Ye, are you talking about that monk? To be honest, I’ve never seen such a strange monk. Plus, in the afternoon, he kept staring at the wall for a long time. I found it strange — what monk has that much free time? So I went over to ask him what he was doing. Surprisingly, the monk spoke with a weird accent; his Chinese was quite stiff, almost like a foreigner, and it was hard to communicate. But thankfully, he didn’t linger too long after a few words and just left. Boss Ye, has something happened?”

”Just a minor issue,” Ye Qing paused and said, ”Was there anything special about the place he was looking at this afternoon?”

”Nothing special at all. It’s just right here. Boss Ye, take a look yourself. There’s nothing special about it,” the guard replied, leading Ye Qing to the wall and pointing at it. ”Aside from the children’s graffiti, there’s nothing else. It’s just the orphanage kids being mischievous and drawing on the wall. Who would stare at these drawings?”

Ye Qing examined the drawings closely, and just as the guard said, they were indeed the random scribbles of children. The orphanage was full of kids, and they often drew on the walls with chalk when bored. Such graffiti-covered walls were not uncommon in the orphanage and didn’t seem special. Could it be the monk was attracted by something so trivial?

After a long moment of silence, Ye Qing suddenly asked, ”By the way, has Broom Star ever drawn anything here?”

”Broom Star?” the guard said, quickly recalling the child Ye Qing was referring to — he had worked at the orphanage for a long time. ”Oh, that peculiar child. He’s quite different from the others. He seldom plays with them and spends most of his time sitting alone, seemingly deep in thought. While the other kids enjoyed graffiti on this wall, he never participated.”

Ye Qing was somewhat surprised. He initially thought this might have something to do with Broom Star. But did he misjudge the situation after hearing what the guard said?

”However, Boss Ye, it turns out there is indeed something drawn by Broom Star on this wall,” the guard remarked, pointing to an extremely strange symbol on the wall. ”That was the last time Broom Star drew anything here. It’s the first and only time I’ve seen him do it, so I remember it very clearly. And come to think of it, Boss Ye, that monk seemed to be observing the same symbol that Broom Star drew.”