Discovering Lin Xue’er’s diary was supposed to be a joyous occasion, so Xia Mengxi eagerly began reading from the first page with great anticipation.
But as she flipped through page after page, the expression on her face gradually faded, until she reached a blank page and could no longer hold back.
“This… this really is just a ‘diary’!”
The contents recorded in the notebook perfectly fit the definition of a diary-daily observations, mood descriptions influenced by the weather, interactions with classmates, and other such mundane trivialities.
To Xia Mengxi, these entries were utterly useless information, far from what she had hoped to find.
Had her expectations been too high, leading to this disappointment?
“No, something as significant as a change in emotional state—knowing Lin Xue’er, she would have definitely recorded it…”
Xia Mengxi wasn’t making baseless assumptions.
The reason for her confidence was the diary she had seen Lin Xue’er keep during her captivity.
That notebook had contained memories of precisely such emotional shifts.
Sure enough, upon closer inspection, she noticed something odd about the gaps when the notebook was closed.
“Huh? The first few pages and the ones before and after them all show signs of missing pages. That makes sense-Lin Xue’er must have torn out the parts she didn’t want to remember.”
Typical Lin Xue’er, going to such lengths to meticulously remove pages from her diary.
Why go through all that trouble instead of just throwing the whole thing away and buying a new one…
Xia Mengxi muttered a small complaint to herself, then felt disheartened by the absence of those three missing sections.
She had no idea how Lin Xue’er had disposed of those torn-out pages.
“Sigh… as important as this is, I don’t have time to waste on a dead end. Let’s check something else.”
Shifting her focus, Xia Mengxi left the desk and approached the bed.
She lay down on her stomach and peered underneath.
Nothing was visible in the darkness, so she raised her phone and used its flashlight to illuminate the space beneath the bed frame.
Still, she found nothing.
“Tch.”
Compared to the results from the previous rooms, Lin Xue’er’s room had yielded almost nothing from two search points in a row.
The sudden sense of disappointment.
In English, we might say “letdown” or “disappointment.”) made Xia Mengxi frown.
But she didn’t dwell too much on it.
After adjusting her mindset, she moved on to the third search point-the bookshelf.
The bookshelf was packed with a wide variety of books, nearly overflowing.
There was no time to flip through each one to check for hidden items, so Xia Mengxi focused on the most conspicuous layer—the bottom shelf, which held miscellaneous items.
Worried that moving things too roughly might scatter dust from above, she proceeded carefully, removing the items on top first before examining those underneath.
After opening the assorted wrapped boxes of various shapes, Xia Mengxi arrived at a vague collective term for these items: toys.
To describe it this way isn’t entirely accurate.
Among these items, some are indeed toys, while others, like the Go set taken out earlier, fall into the category of intellectual competitive games.
But from her perspective, from a child’s standpoint, they could all be considered toys.
“Strange… something’s off.”
Having toys in one’s room isn’t unusual, even if that person is Lin Xue’er.
Given that, why does Xia Mengxi feel a sense of puzzlement?
It’s because she’s noticed one common point among these toys-they all require two people to play.
“Judging by the dust accumulation, these must have been untouched for at least a year or two, possibly longer. So these toys have nothing to do with me, her so-called childhood friend.”
Combining this with a key piece of information obtained earlier from the storage room, it’s clear that the little girl Lin Xue’er resented must have once been very close to her.
After all, these two-player toys were obviously bought specifically for them to play together.
But for some reason, before they could play with these newly purchased toys, something happened that shattered their friendship.
The toys are still brand new, untouched, fresh out of the box.
There’s another odd thing—why would Lin Xue’er keep these toys related to the little girl in her own room?
The photos with the girl were stored in the storage room, and the diary pages containing memories of her were torn out and discarded.
Yet the toys remain here.
She doesn’t understand and can’t make sense of it.
“Sigh, it’s a shame the missing diary pages aren’t here. Otherwise, we could know the full story.”
Xia Mengxi sighed helplessly and carefully returned the toys to their original positions.
“Last one… please give me some useful information!”
Of the four highest-priority and most promising search points, only one remains.
Xia Mengxi has no choice but to pin her hopes on this display shelf of plush toys.
Just as she’s about to approach it, a sudden unease grips her heart, sending a chill down her spine that spreads throughout her body.
Wh-what’s going on? Why this sudden sense of foreboding??
The intense unease sharpens Xia Mengxi’s focus, making her instinctively glance toward the half-open door.
“Could Lin Xue’er be finishing her shower already?”
Based on Lin Xue’er’s habits during her previous captivity, there should still be three to four minutes left before she’s done.
Did the desperate measures to prolong Lin Xue’er’s bath time backfire, causing her to finish early?
Or do the habits of the normal Lin Xue’er differ from those of the darkened version?
Regardless, Xia Mengxi can’t ignore this sudden sense of danger.
Cautious as ever, she turns and lies down on the bed, closing her eyes to feign sleep.
After about two and a half minutes, Xia Mengxi hears footsteps approaching from the hallway.
They grow clearer with each step until she can sense Lin Xue’er reentering the room.
Close call! Thank goodness for her caution-otherwise, Lin Xue’er would surely have noticed something amiss!
But what was that feeling just now?
Come to think of it, she’d experienced it several times before, but never as strongly as this time.
Could it be… a girl’s sixth sense?
That would really come in handy!
For the first time since becoming a girl, Xia Mengxi felt happy about it.
After all, if she hadn’t given up on her investigation earlier and had to hastily cover up when Lin Xue’er’s footsteps approached, she was certain it would have aroused Lin Xue’er’s suspicions.
Although she’d narrowly avoided disaster, unfortunately, this investigation wasn’t perfect.
There was still one crucial piece of information she hadn’t obtained.
It seemed… she would have to find another opportunity to visit Lin Xue’er’s house.
As for when that next visit would be… she’d figure it out tomorrow.
Right now, she was exhausted and sleepy, and her willpower could no longer keep her going.
As her thoughts wandered, Xia Mengxi’s consciousness gradually faded.
When she felt Lin Xue’er lie down beside her, she could hold on no longer and slowly drifted off to sleep.