Vanished without a trace.

“Chief Wei, whose name are you calling out?” The neighbors around looked at him with puzzled expressions.

Wei Xunzhou casually grabbed hold of someone. “Have you seen Xia Mengge?” The person was taken aback and asked in confusion, “Who is Xia Mengge?” Wei Xunzhou’s grip tightened on his hand. Beside him, Wei Ming panicked, “Xia Mengge is my mother!”

“Oh my, whose little child is this?”

“Chief Wei, where did this child come from?” In the military housing compound, no children had been born for quite some time, so seeing this chubby little bundle sparked delight on everyone’s faces. They couldn’t help but reach out to pinch Wei Ming’s cheeks.

Wei Ming dodged their affectionate hands while quietly pleading to Wei Xunzhou, “Dad…” Hearing his son’s words, the crowd was full of astonishment.

“Chief Wei, aren’t you unmarried? How do you have a child?”

“Yeah, yeah,” everyone chimed in.

“Didn’t you say you were waiting for Comrade Li?”

The father and son grew more and more bewildered by the strange remarks from the crowd.

“What are you talking about? I’m already married. This is my child!” Wei Xunzhou insisted. But no one believed him; some said he must be joking, while others remarked on how much he loved Li Yuntang.

It was through the crowd’s words that Wei Xunzhou realized he was considered unmarried in their memories, and that all these years, he had been waiting for Li Yuntang.

Now that Li Yuntang’s husband had died in a car accident, his wish had come true—he was about to bring her back. As for this child, no one remembered him at all.

The father and son’s eyes grew more fearful, as if the years they had lived were all a lie.

---

Wei Ming finally couldn’t hold back. He pushed them away loudly, “He is my father! My dad has been married for a long time, and my mother is Xia Mengge!”

The crowd dismissed it as childish nonsense. “Chief Wei has turned down many matchmaking attempts these years for Comrade Li. How could he have married and had a child?” “Besides, he gives his entire monthly salary to Comrade Li. How could he possibly support a child your age?”

Hearing this, Wei Ming cried and crawled into Wei Xunzhou’s arms. Only then did Wei Xunzhou realize that in everyone’s memories, Xia Mengge simply did not exist! Naturally, no one believed he could be married and have a child. How could that be?

He and Xia Mengge had been married for seven years, and she got along well with their neighbors all this time. How could it have come to this?

Wei Xunzhou hurriedly pushed his son aside and walked into the house.

He wanted to prove to everyone that he was married, that his wife was Xia Mengge, by showing the marriage certificate. But when he opened the drawer where it was kept, his mind went blank—the drawer was empty, completely bare!

His fingers trembled uncontrollably, his heart pounding wildly. He slammed the drawer shut and rushed to search elsewhere. Even without the marriage certificate, he had other evidence proving Xia Mengge’s existence!

But the result was certain to disappoint him. Every single thing related to Xia Mengge had vanished from the entire house! If it was impossible for a living person to simply disappear, then why had everything connected to her disappeared as well?

Just earlier today, before coming to pick up Xia Mengge, he had seen these things with his own eyes.

Wei Xunzhou clutched his chest tightly and hurried toward the landline phone.

He still refused to believe Xia Mengge had vanished—after all, she loved him so much. So she must have been upset with him over the misunderstanding that sent her to prison.

In the past seven years, she had run away before, but always returned obediently. Thinking of this, he called his subordinates and the police station, asking them to help find Xia Mengge.

No matter how many calls he made, all he received were negative replies.

---

“Not to mention helping find Xia Mengge, there is no record of anyone named Xia Mengge in the identity database. How can they look for someone who doesn’t exist?”

A sudden buzz left Wei Xunzhou’s body stiffening as he staggered back onto the sofa. He could see nothing, hear nothing.

He sat there dumbfounded until Wei Ming ran over, “Daddy, I want Mommy, I want Mommy…”

Looking at his son, a wave of bitterness surged through Wei Xunzhou’s heart.

With no record of Xia Mengge anywhere, where else could he possibly find his son’s mother? Wei Xunzhou gave a bitter smile but found himself speechless.

But the child thought Xia Mengge had disappeared because of something bad he had done, and kept pulling on Wei Xunzhou’s hand, apologizing over and over.

Hearing his son, Wei Xunzhou’s pale face darkened instantly. He had always thought Li Yuntang’s accusations against Xia Mengge were unintentional. He never imagined they were deliberate.

“Aunt Yuntang said that if I helped her chase Mommy away, she would give me all the snacks Mommy wouldn’t let me have, and let me read all kinds of comics…” “But I don’t want snacks, and I don’t want to read comics anymore. I just want Mommy…” Wei Ming’s voice grew more distressed until he finally burst into tears.

This time, Wei Xunzhou didn’t try to comfort him like before; he just watched silently.

At that moment, Wei Xunzhou’s bodyguard knocked on the door from the entrance.