The little child tossed and turned inside the box for ages, but no one came to lift him out. His chubby face was panicked, and his milky little voice was nearly hoarse from shouting.
But no matter how much he yelled, no one came to check on him.
Meanwhile—
At Crown Prince Caesar's birthday banquet, the room designated for gifts was piled high with presents of all kinds, each wrapped more exquisitely than the last.
Ludwig also attended the celebration.
Noticing his son standing there with a tense little face, he walked over and asked in a low voice, "Caesar, why are you standing here?"
"Ningning isn't here yet."
At those words, Ludwig's brow furrowed slightly. Everyone knew that when it came to Caesar's birthday, no one was more eager than the little chubby child.
Over the past two years, the imperial royal family's official account had stopped posting videos of the little child, but this wasn't meant to snub him or treat him less favorably.
The imperial family simply wanted to keep him out of harm's way.
Seeing that the little child still hadn't arrived, Ludwig was about to call Zhan Xi to ask when Wagner rushed over to tip Caesar off.
"Caesar, hurry up and open your presents!"
Though Wagner hadn't come over earlier, he had known about the little child's plan from start to finish—and he wasn't the only one; other kids knew too.
Ningning was hiding inside one of the gift boxes!
With Wagner's urging, the imperial father and son exchanged a look and immediately understood where the little child was.
Caesar turned and strode toward the gift room.
Ludwig followed behind him, and after stepping inside, he calmly turned on the recording function on his device, ready to capture Caesar unboxing the presents.
"Ahem."
Standing amid the sea of gifts, Caesar cleared his throat. Instead of using a cutter, he simply tore the boxes open with his hands.
One box, two boxes, three boxes...
He opened one after another across the entire room, but none of them held the little chubby child.
With each box he opened, Caesar's mood sank a little further. Even Ludwig, who had been recording, set down his device and came over to help.
Neither father nor son spoke. After they opened the very last box, both wore the exact same cold, grim expression.
Without a moment's hesitation, Ludwig picked up his device again and called Zhan Xi.
The call went through.
Zhan Xi's voice came through, and from the background noise, he seemed busy: "Hello? Can you hear me? Why are you calling me at this hour? Did Ningning cause trouble over there?"
Suppressing his emotions, Ludwig asked in a steady, measured tone, "Zhan Xi, when did Ningning leave to come over?"
"Early this morning."
Zhan Xi laughed and said, "He was all mysterious, saying he wanted to prepare a gift for Xiao Lin and wouldn't let us see it. Oh, by the way, I'll come over tonight after I'm done here to check on Xiao Lin."
As he spoke, he seemed to be dealing with some clutter on his end.
The machinery rumbled loudly as Zhan Xi, too busy to stand still, raised his voice: "I'll stop here for now, I'm still swamped—"
"Zhan Xi, Ningning hasn't arrived yet."
Ludwig told him over the phone, "Caesar and I haven't seen Ningning at all so far."
Zhan Xi: "..."
Zhan Xi slammed the machine off.
With the deafening roar gone, Zhan Xi's voice came through the phone crystal clear this time, and it was trembling slightly.
"You're telling me you haven't seen Ningning?"
"We haven't seen him at all."
After the call ended, Zhan Xi grabbed Ling Qi and rushed out the door.
A regular customer who had come to sell scrap saw them about to leave and immediately stopped them: "What are you doing? We've already hauled our junk over here—how can you close up now?"
Zhan Xi had no time for damage control at the moment. He looked at the customer, who was a familiar face.
"I'm sorry."
He turned to the regular and apologized: "Our child is missing. We have to—"
"Ningning is missing?"
The regular was startled too. Regulars at this scrapyard were no strangers to the little chubby child—he often carried a fertilizer bag and sold scrap to his dad.
After selling the scrap, the little child would help his dad with work, and whenever someone came to sell scrap, he'd tilt his chubby little face up and greet them cheerfully.
The little child was polite and sweet-talking with everyone he met, and on top of that, he was adorable. Regulars would often bring him some candy when they came by.
After asking his question and seeing Zhan Xi nod, the regular grew anxious too: "Nothing is more important than your child. Just leave my junk here for now. Lock up and go—I don't want to cause you any more trouble."
With that, the customer stepped back out.
Zhan Xi's hands were shaking so badly as he locked the door that he nearly couldn't get it shut.
Ling Qi came over and took over the lock for him.
After locking up, the two hurried off toward the palace.
The regular customer watched their retreating figures and murmured to himself, "I hope it's just a scare. These days, you can't afford to lose a child."
If a child really went missing, a family would fall apart.
After muttering to himself, the regular turned and headed home. He needed to check on his own child too—his kid was glued to the TV and didn't like going out, but just to be safe, he still needed to sit down with him and remind him to be careful when playing outside.
On the road, Zhan Xi and Ling Qi called Ludwig again.
They went over the details once more.
The little child had left that morning with a few other kids, heading in the direction of the palace.
After that, no one knew what had happened next.
Zhan Xi and Ling Qi had never raised their child by keeping him cooped up inside. After school, the little child roamed the streets collecting scrap or ran around playing with other kids every day, and they had never stopped him.
They lived right on that street, and when the child played outside, he always ran into the neighbors.
Over the years, the little social butterfly had won over everyone on the block. Any neighbor who spotted him would stop to chat and play with him for a while.
So why—why couldn't they find him today of all days!
Zhan Xi had already contacted the parents of the other children, and each of them had hauled their kid over to the phone.
From the children's accounts, Zhan Xi pieced together what had happened that morning.
"Ningning hid inside a box, and we delivered the box to the palace! A grown-up put the box onto a truck and sent it to the palace."
The children said over the phone: "We didn't know the grown-up who loaded the box... he said he was in charge of moving the presents."
Not a single one of the children could describe what the person who moved the box looked like.
They racked their brains but could only offer: "He was tall, wore yellow clothes, had a beard! And glasses."
That vague description made Zhan Xi's heart sink.
Ludwig had already ordered all surveillance footage to be reviewed, and simultaneously placed the entire White Mist Planet under lockdown. Waves of royal guards were personally sent out to search.
Caesar's birthday party hadn't received the little child's surprise—only the shock of his disappearance.
The guests at the party also sensed that something was off.
They exchanged glances and whispered among themselves: "What's going on? I noticed Empress Ai Wei is gone too, and royal guards just went out earlier."
"No idea. Let's wait patiently—His Majesty the Emperor is here. What could possibly go wrong?"
In the hearts of the empire's citizens, wherever the Emperor was, it was the safest place to be.
In the banquet hall, only the butler Andre was still running around tending to things. Though he continued to attend to the guests, his smile was noticeably more perfunctory and distant than before—a clear shift from just moments earlier.
A guest who knew Andre well came over with a smile to probe: "Andre, has something happened at the palace? Is there any way I could help ease His Majesty's burden?"
"Nothing at all."
Andre smiled lightly and changed the subject: "How are the pastries today? Are they to your liking?"
Hearing this, the guest dropped any further attempt to pry. He knew that if Andre didn't want to reveal anything, no amount of effort would get another word out of him.
Andre was utterly loyal to the royal family.
By evening—
Under normal circumstances, the guests would have already left by now. But this time, they were not permitted to depart.
Andre gently urged a guest who wished to leave: "Please wait a little longer. We've prepared dinner for everyone here—you're welcome to stay and sample it."
The guest, who only wanted to go home, frowned at Andre standing before him.
Andre blocked the way, appearing agreeable on the surface but utterly unyielding underneath. Trying to force one's way out under his watch was simply impossible.
While Andre was holding off the guests, the surveillance team tracked down the "grown-up" the children had mentioned.
This adult had loaded the box containing the little child onto a vehicle.
He didn't enter the palace. Instead, after circling around, the vehicle drove off in the opposite direction from the palace.
Professionals were assigned to handle the case of the missing child.
Lin Xun, the youngest genius criminal investigator in the Imperial Police Department, had been granted the highest level of investigative authority by the Emperor. From this point on, every order he gave had to be unconditionally obeyed by all departments and personnel.
Seated right before the Emperor in the palace, Lin Xun stared intently at his computer screen, fully absorbed in examining every detail without missing a thing.
The surveillance around the palace gates and the surrounding area was comprehensive and covered every angle.
They had already spotted the suspect vehicle and the suspect.
The vehicle appeared to be of decent quality. It seemed to know what the little ones were planning—the driver spoke to the children, and after they nodded in response, they watched him load the box onto the vehicle.
The children saw the vehicle pass through the first gate of the palace with their own eyes.
Satisfied that it was the palace's dedicated gift-delivery vehicle, the children ran off to play.
What they didn't see was that shortly after they left, the vehicle with the box turned back and headed outward instead.
The vehicle traveled along the outer roads, stopping three times along the way. After the third stop, it drove onto a large bridge, then crashed straight into the railing and rolled into the great river below.
The adults watching this—and Caesar as well—could barely keep their composure.
Ludwig glanced to the side, and his confidant immediately made a call. A few minutes later, he came back to report: "The local police have already responded to the bridge crash, but they haven't pulled the vehicle out yet."
"I just sent more personnel to speed up the recovery."
