Chapter 1475: Chapter 1524: One Hand
Li Yifei disappeared. Koboto Kobayashi led a frantic search for three days but found no trace of Li Yifei. Even after searching back and forth along the river where the car was found, they got the same result — no trace of Li Yifei.
They even extended the search to the villages and towns on both sides of the river, posted numerous notices, and offered a huge reward, yet there was not a single clue.
The rain that day was too heavy, so no one from the nearby villages passed by that area at that time.
The search fell into a predicament. It was rare to see the cooperation between the Yamaguchi Group and the police in Japan, joining forces to look for the missing person, but still, no one was found.
During those three days, Meng Xiaofei would cry for a while every day, but she would only cry secretly in the bathroom. At other times, she behaved extremely normally, helping to wipe Sophia’s face and hands, massage her feet, and assist the nurse in changing Sophia’s medication.
Every morning and evening, she would call Su Mengxin to report the day’s situation.
Yet still, there was no sign of Li Yifei. At home, the women who knew the situation, such as Xu Shanshan and Xu Yingying, started to feel restless and clamored to come to Japan, but Su Mengxin stopped them with just one sentence, causing them to quiet down.
Su Mengxin said, "Hundreds and thousands of people familiar with the terrain and language couldn’t find him, do you think you will? Right now, the Sun family’s business takeover is tense, you all stay at home, no one is allowed to leave."
The Li family was quite egalitarian, with no one having special privileges, but they still respected Su Mengxin and Xu Yingying. Xu Yingying simply nodded today, and Xu Shanshan, Jiang Ningxiang, along with He Fangqing and Ye Yunzhu, who were informed later, stopped speaking.
In three days, most of the Sun family’s major businesses were gone, and the once vast Sun family was removed from the Eight Great Clans in the provincial capital.
With the Sun family gone, some of the other clans were delighted, while others were secretly worried.
The Song Family, for example, suddenly became more anxious and didn’t dare to step outside their door, while the Lin family... everyone could tell, the Li family’s next step was the Lin family, and it was only a matter of time before they consumed the Lin family.
The women achieved a phased victory and one could even say the situation was very favorable now, but Chu Xiaoyao’s request for a celebration banquet was denied. After having dinner in the evening, everyone went home without saying anything further.
In Japan, Meng Xiaofei continued to wait for news of Li Yifei and took care of Sophia, as she did every day.
Aoki Ryota’s people never stopped searching, and Koboto Kobayashi hadn’t either. Over these few days, he even lost ten pounds, not knowing whether to thank Li Yifei or cry. In these days, to show his concern for Li Yifei, Koboto Kobayashi personally went to the scene to search for Li Yifei.
Li Yifei seemed to have vanished into thin air. Even with the search area expanded to hundreds of square kilometers, there was still no trace of Li Yifei, and even his car was gone. He couldn’t possibly have run over a hundred kilometers just on foot.
Koboto Kobayashi tilted his head back, smacked his lips, and his subordinate considerately handed over a bottle of water, which Koboto Kobayashi unscrewed and gulped down.
In these days of searching for Li Yifei, over on Motoharu’s side, he was recruiting soldiers and horses. The skirmish a few nights ago cost Motoharu some manpower, and with Koboto Kobayashi and the police’s involvement, Motoharu didn’t dare to mobilize a massive search for Li Yifei.
But as long as Li Yifei wasn’t dead, Motoharu felt uneasy. He couldn’t understand how Yanagio Inujiro was defeated, or how he died. Even though he dispatched people to the mountain where Yanagio Inujiro was to investigate, besides the straw hut being smashed, there were no traces. The bodies found there were all ninjas, not Yanagio Inujiro’s.
So where was Yanagio Inujiro? And who made that call? Motoharu tried calling back, only to find it was a dead number, as if it had never existed.
The current result was that Li Yifei was missing, Yanagio Inujiro was missing, and he could only choose to clash hard with Koboto Kobayashi for the Yamaguchi Group’s leadership, so while Koboto Kobayashi was searching for Li Yifei, Motoharu secretly sped up his preparations.
Six days later, Meng Xiaofei’s mood started to worsen in the past two days. On the first, second, and third days, she could still reassure herself that maybe Li Yifei ran too far and lost his way in the heavy rain, but when the search area expanded from 100 kilometers to 200 kilometers, and then to 300 kilometers without any news of Li Yifei, she really couldn’t remain still.
The women at home also started panicking. Like Chu Xiaoyao, who secretly made a few calls that were all answered by Meng Xiaofei, or simply not answered, she became very suspicious. Other women, being more perceptive than Chu Xiaoyao, knew it was impossible for Li Yifei not to contact them for so many days. Even if it was just to say a word or ask how they were, Li Yifei couldn’t possibly remain silent during such a critical time.
So, they couldn’t help but find Su Mengxin and Xu Yingying to ask about Li Yifei since only the two received phone calls from Li Yifei in recent days.
At this time, Meng Xiaofei and Aoki Reiko, under the protection of bodyguards, came to the stone bridge where the incident with Li Yifei occurred, and Meng Xiaofei stood at the spot where Li Yifei’s car flew out, quietly watching the river.
The river wasn’t deep, just around two meters. That day, after heavy rain, the river rose by more than a meter. At that time, the car was hard to find as it was wedged between a few rocks, so it hadn’t been swept downstream by the river.
Meng Xiaofei had been standing there for a long time, her eyes looking downstream. If Li Yifei had fallen into the river, then he would surely have been washed downstream, and in six days, Li Yifei could have already reached the sea, if he were still alive. If he had drowned... in six days, the body would already be decomposed.
But I know you’re still alive, Brother Li, you promised me, you’ll definitely be fine, you’ll definitely survive. So, hurry and appear. Meng Xiaofei stared blankly into the distance, calling out in her heart.
Aoki Reiko felt a bit of heartache, walked over, gently embraced Meng Xiaofei, and softly said, "Xiaofei, let’s go back. You’ve been standing here for almost an hour."
In the past few days, Meng Xiaofei would come every day, watching the river, gazing into the distance.
Meng Xiaofei sighed in her heart, thinking about many things these days. After going through this incident, Meng Xiaofei suddenly matured, and not just a little. Taking one last look at the river, as Meng Xiaofei turned around, she suddenly saw something move in the distance.
It was at the boundary between the riverbank and the cornfield by the river. Meng Xiaofei looked closely, confirming that it wasn’t the wind blowing the grass, but something truly moving.
Meng Xiaofei pointed to that place and said to Aoki Reiko, "Reiko, look over there, is something moving? Take a look quickly."
Aoki Reiko also looked over, blinked her big eyes hard, suddenly screamed, nodded vigorously, and said, "Something is really moving, should we go take a look?"
"Miss, maybe it’s a small animal..." The bodyguard walked over cautiously, saying.
With that, Aoki Reiko’s excitement diminished greatly. She gave an "oh" sound, but Meng Xiaofei kept watching there, as it was too far away and unclear. Meng Xiaofei had already stepped forward, walking towards that thing.
Her pace started slowly but gradually sped up, as if a voice was calling her from deep inside, urging her to go faster.
Meng Xiaofei walked over, and Aoki Reiko had no choice but to follow. A few bodyguards, uneasy, also followed along.
Less than a hundred meters, it was easy to walk over. The thing became clearer and looked quite different from what the bodyguard described as a small animal, rather it was... a hand!
In the last twenty or so meters, when Meng Xiaofei saw the thing clearly, she was not afraid at all; instead, she was extremely surprised in an instant. She shouted "Brother Li" and dashed forward without fear.
Aoki Reiko followed right behind, also running over. The bodyguards had to rush over quickly.
A hand drilled out from the ground, wagging back and forth, grabbing, a scene just like a horror movie, scaring everyone at first sight.
In the last few meters, everyone was sure it was a hand, and a moving one at that.
Meng Xiaofei knelt on the ground, digging hard with her hands. Aoki Reiko quickly joined in, and a few bodyguards hurriedly joined the effort as well.
The soil had dried for many days and was now very hard, hard to dig. The delicate hands of the two girls couldn’t bear the effort; nails broke after a few tries, fingers even bled with further digging. But the two women didn’t stop; they continued to dig.
"Quick, help dig, this is Brother Li’s hand, he’s underneath, woo woo, dig quickly!" Meng Xiaofei confirmed it was Li Yifei’s hand; his moving hand proved that Li Yifei underneath was alive and breathing.
At this time, of course, she wouldn’t open her mind to thoughts of zombies and the like; she was genuinely anxious for Li Yifei.
The group knelt on the ground, digging into the soil. After removing the surface dirt, the soil beneath became much softer and easier to dig.
Meng Xiaofei gripped that hand, seemingly transferring strength to Li Yifei, while her other hand kept digging hard, continuously calling out Li Yifei’s name with her mouth, telling Brother Li to hold on a little longer, as she was coming to save him.
A few minutes later, they used their hands to scratch out a large pit in the ground, simultaneously finding Li Yifei’s other hand, and two feet. His body would soon be exposed.
Li Yifei’s hand was cold, far below normal body temperature, but this detail was overlooked by Meng Xiaofei.
After dozens of seconds, the group unearthed Li Yifei’s head, cleared the soil around his mouth and nose. Meng Xiaofei, not minding the dirt, bent down to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for Li Yifei.
"Wait a minute!" Aoki Reiko stopped Meng Xiaofei, pursed her lips, and said, "If Feijun was buried for six days, could he still be alive? If not, why did the hand just move..."