He'an is a coastal city, and the summer evening's fiery clouds are the most breathtaking, as if a giant paintbrush has rolled across the horizon, dyeing the sky into a magnificent oil painting.
The police station was quiet, with only Rao Shishi, the officer on duty, leaning over the inquiry desk, lifting her eyelids to glance at the clouds outside the window. Her mind wandered to the novel she had read the night before, and she couldn't help but grumble inwardly about the slow-paced serialized story, wondering if tonight's update would finally reveal the chapter where the male and female leads resolved their misunderstanding.
"Excuse me, is my father here?" A child's sweet, high-pitched voice echoed through the empty inquiry hall.
Rao Shishi straightened up, but she didn't see anyone. She leaned down and spotted a small figure standing in front of the inquiry desk, so short that they didn't even reach the height of the counter. It was unclear how the child had entered without making a sound.
"Little one, what can I do for you?"
The child's chubby hands gripped the edge of the inquiry desk as they stood on tiptoe. "I'm looking for my father."
"Who's your father?" Rao Shishi found it a bit odd that such a young child would say "father" instead of "dad."
"Zhong Jin," the child replied.
Rao Shishi blinked. "Zhong Jin? Director Zhong... Your father is Director Zhong Jin?" Her voice rose slightly, tinged with surprise. Director Zhong had been stationed in He'an for a year, but she had never heard that he had a daughter.
The child didn't respond, just stared at Rao Shishi with big, dark, glistening eyes.
Rao Shishi quickly walked out from behind the inquiry desk. Standing up, she realized just how small the child was—shorter than the golden retriever at the seafood noodle shop, likely only three or four years old.
Even if Director Zhong had a daughter, he wouldn't let her wander around alone, would he?
Rao Shishi crouched down and asked, "Little one, where are you from?"
"The Demon Palace," the child answered.
Rao Shishi was momentarily speechless. "...And what's your name?"
"Zhong Yuntong."
"Zhong Yuntong, do you remember your mom or dad's phone number?"
"What's a phone?"
Rao Shishi was at a loss.
Communicating with a child this young was nearly impossible. Rao Shishi settled the child onto a bench in the hall, handed over some snacks she had brought, and went to check the surveillance footage to see where the child had come from.
The footage revealed no trace of the child's movements, and no missing child reports had been filed at the station.
Rao Shishi returned to the child and crouched down again. "Let me ask you again, who is your father?"
The child, sucking on a lollipop, lowered their eyelids and swung their short legs back and forth. "Zhong Jin."
Rao Shishi pulled out her phone, found a solo ID photo of Director Zhong, and showed it to the child. "Is this him?"
Zhong Yuntong pulled the lollipop out of her mouth and loudly declared, "Yes."
Rao Shishi took a deep breath, opened her phone's camera, and snapped a photo of the child. She then sent the photo to Director Zhong along with a carefully worded message:
[Director Zhong, this child claims to be your daughter. She's currently at the police station. Please advise on how to proceed.]
The photo and message were sent, but there was no immediate response, as if they had vanished into thin air.
Rao Shishi gently patted the child's smooth hair. "Director Zhong is at a meeting at the municipal bureau today. It might take a while for him to reply. Can you wait patiently?"
"Okay," the little one sighed, then handed Rao Shishi a rice cracker to unwrap before stuffing it into her mouth.
Rao Shishi took a closer look at the child. She was quite pretty, with bright eyes and shiny black hair tied into adorable pigtails with ribbons. She wore a traditional Chinese-style jacket, resembling a doll from a New Year's painting.
Even if she wasn't Director Zhong's child, someone had clearly taken good care of her, likely from a wealthy family.
The child wasn't shy either. After finishing the rice cracker, she handed Rao Shishi a sour plum to unwrap. The sourness made her little round face scrunch up.
Seeing her reaction, Rao Shishi held out a trash can. "Spit it out here."
The child shook her head, cheeks puffed out, and bravely chewed and swallowed the plum.
Rao Shishi sighed. "At least spit out the pit."
The child stared with her dark eyes. "I already swallowed it."
Though Rao Shishi didn't have much experience with children, she remembered swallowing a plum pit herself as a child. Adults had scared her, saying a tree would grow out of her head, but nothing had happened. So she figured it would be fine for this child too.
Still, she confiscated the rest of the sour plums.
Zhong Yuntong sipped on yogurt, wondering if her Demon Lord father even remembered her.
She had originally been a Heavenly Cloud Demon Dog raised by the Demon Lord. While other spirit beasts fought alongside their masters, especially those of the demon clan, often wielding immense dark powers, mysterious and formidable, Zhong Yuntong was the opposite.
She had been pampered by her Demon Lord father since she was young, growing up sleek and shiny but without any remarkable skills. Her most notable talent was wrecking the palace, and her father would still praise her as a good girl.
Zhong Yuntong had been living as a troublemaker in the Demon Palace, unaware that the outside world had undergone drastic changes. Her father, the great Demon Lord, had been killed by the Immortal Clan. When the news reached the Demon Palace, Zhong Yuntong burst into tears.
She spread her massive silver-gray wings and flew out of the Demon Palace, following the scent to the human world, eventually pinpointing the He'an District Police Station, where her father's scent was strongest.
But her father had been reincarnated as a human and, by all logic, had no memory of his past life. He probably didn't remember her.
Thinking of this, Zhong Yuntong felt a pang of sadness. Her beloved father might have forgotten her.
Just then, Rao Shishi's phone rang. It was Director Zhong.
Rao Shishi answered, and Zhong Jin's cool voice came through. "The child is just making things up. Do your best to find her parents."
"Understood, Director Zhong," Rao Shishi replied, instinctively straightening her posture and speaking in a clear, loud voice.
Hearing her, Zhong Yuntong immediately slid off the chair and ran to the inquiry desk, standing on tiptoe to ask loudly, "Is that my father?"
After Zhong Jin hung up, Rao Shishi crouched down again. "Director Zhong says he's not your father. Who are your parents? Tell me the truth."
The child, unsure how to explain such a complicated situation, clenched her fists and repeated loudly, "He is my father."
*
That afternoon, Rao Shishi meticulously checked the nearby surveillance footage again and called her colleague Xiao Wang, who was out on patrol, to help contact nearby police stations to see if there were any reports of a missing child.
But the search turned up nothing. The child seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
Rao Shishi and Xiao Wang had no choice but to contact the forensic evidence center, asking them to work overtime to send a lost child for DNA sample comparison.
Extracting a DNA sample required drawing blood, but Zhong Yuntong was terrified of needles. As soon as she saw the syringe, she ran away, and the little one was surprisingly fast—three adults couldn't catch her.
Rao Shishi came up with a solution. She told the child, "Your dad doesn’t recognize you anymore, right? If we draw your blood, we can prove you’re his daughter, and then he’ll know you."
Hearing that this would help her find her father, Zhong Yuntong immediately complied. Summoning her courage, she stretched out her arm to the lady in the white coat.
"Be gentle, please."
"Of course, I’ll be very gentle. Don’t look, just count to 10 loudly, and it’ll be over," the forensic doctor reassured her patiently.
Zhong Yuntong grew even more nervous. "But I don’t know how to count to 10."
The doctor smiled warmly. "Oh, you haven’t started kindergarten yet? You’re so brave, wandering around outside at such a young age without being scared. You’re quite the little adventurer."
As they chatted, Zhong Yuntong’s attention was diverted, and the blood draw was completed smoothly.
The results of the DNA test would take two days. Rao Shishi didn’t dare disturb Zhong Jin again, so she called Deputy Director Mao Feixue to explain the situation and ask how to handle the child’s placement.
The department had dealt with similar cases before, and Mao Feixue had some experience. "There’s a private daycare center on Coastal West Road called Little Sun Daycare Center. The teachers there are very responsible. Let’s send her there for now. The fees will be covered by the department first, and we’ll have the parents reimburse us once they’re found."
After hanging up with Mao Feixue, Rao Shishi patted Xiao Wang on the shoulder. "Let’s head to Coastal West Road."
The child in Xiao Wang’s arms imitated Rao Shishi and patted Xiao Wang’s shoulder too. "I want to eat that."
Following Zhong Yuntong’s pointing finger, there was a small stall selling grilled sausages, surrounded by a group of chattering elementary school kids.
Rao Shishi asked, "How are you hungry again?"
Xiao Wang said, "Let her have one. What kid can resist the temptation of a starch sausage?"
Rao Shishi complained, "You have no idea how many snacks she’s eaten today. She emptied my snack box." But in reality, she indulged Zhong Yuntong and walked toward the snack stall.
When Rao Shishi and Xiao Wang, both in uniform, approached the stall, the vendor thought they were from the city management team and immediately started pushing his cart to flee.
Rao Shishi quickly stopped him. "Don’t worry, we’re just here to buy a sausage."
In the end, everyone had a grilled sausage. Rao Shishi and Xiao Wang each had one, while little Zhong Yuntong had two, holding one in each hand and taking bites alternately.
Worried about being seen in uniform, Rao Shishi and Xiao Wang hid behind a flower bed with Zhong Yuntong to eat.
Zhong Yuntong popped her head up. "I don’t want to hide here."
Xiao Wang reached out and gently pushed her head back down.
Rao Shishi urged, "Hurry up and eat. Director Zhong is at a meeting at the municipal bureau today. If he catches us eating sausages during work hours, we’re done for."
The municipal public security bureau and the forensic center were just across the street, so the risk of being caught was quite high.
"Right, right, let’s eat quickly," Xiao Wang agreed immediately.
Xiao Wang was most afraid of Director Zhong. In truth, the director rarely got angry and was usually quite approachable. But Xiao Wang couldn’t shake the feeling that he was deep and calculating, unlike Deputy Director Mao Feixue, who was much easier to get along with.
Xiao Wang finished his sausage in a few bites, jumped down from the flower bed, and prepared to carry Zhong Yuntong away. But when he looked to the side, the flower bed was empty.
"Where’s the kid?"
Rao Shishi panicked too. "She was just here. Where did she go?"
The two searched around the flower bed and even asked the snack vendor, but Zhong Yuntong was nowhere to be found—it was as if she had vanished into thin air.
