The first to realize that Zhong Yi was suddenly gone was Father Zhong.

As usual, when I got home from a round of golf, I opened the door and saw a note falling on the carpet in the hallway, which clearly read: Dad, Mom, I want to go out for a walk.

There was no signature, no date, just a simple sentence.

At first, Father Zhong thought it was a prank, but he didn't take it to heart, and casually threw the note into the trash can next to the shoe cabinet, until Ms. Zhong, who had participated in a classical music recital, came home, put down her bag, and asked casually: "What about Zhongyi?" ”

"It should be in the room." Father Zhong kept his eyes on the sports news section of the newspaper, and said without raising his head.

Zhong's mother looked at the national team obsessed with sports culture with some headaches, if a group of middle-aged athletes were recruited, Zhong's father would definitely be the first to sign up enthusiastically, and he could show the Olympic spirit in any venue.

"Old Zhong, Zhong is not in the room." Ten minutes later, Zhong's mother exited Zhongyi's room, looking at Zhong's father who was still looking at the newspaper with a worried expression, and frowned slightly: "Where did she go so late?" ”

"Hey, it's not a child again, I should have gone to Xin Rui's house to play." Father Zhong slowly flipped through another page of the newspaper, apparently forgetting all the notes he had seen in the hallway.

Mother Zhong's brows frowned even tighter, and she glanced at the leisurely Father Zhong, faintly worried: "Do you still need to pack your luggage when you go to Xin Rui's house?" The clothes in the closet are mostly empty...... How can you go to a friend's house to play and go with your luggage. And I can't get through my favorite phone, and it keeps prompting to turn off ......"

"Don't worry, call the Xin family to ask, maybe you like to play until your phone runs out of battery, so you can't get through." Father Zhong said with relief.

Mother Zhong nodded, and dialed the phone number of the Xin family with the landline at home, and after talking, Mother Zhong put down the phone as if she had no strength, and asked what to say in Father Zhong's eager eyes? Shaking her head: "Xin Rui said that she has been at home today, and Zhong did not go to her house, nor did she contact her." ”

"Call the compound again and ask ......"

The answer was always the same: I didn't come to the compound today, I didn't see her.

Father Zhong's expression was tight, he folded the newspaper in his hand and put it on the coffee table, the white light flashed in his mind, he remembered the note that he threw into the trash, and hurriedly got up from the sofa and walked to the entrance.

Seeing the trash can lying quietly next to the shoe cabinet unharmed, Father Zhong breathed a sigh of relief, the garbage inside had not been emptied, and the crumpled note was still inside.

"Wife, look." Father Zhong smoothed out the crumpled note with his hand, and his voice was solemn: "This was found in the entrance at about three or four o'clock in the afternoon, and I thought it was a prank of Zhongyi, so I didn't pay attention to it." ”

"It's the handwriting of Love, but what does it mean that she wants to 'want to go out for a walk'?"

Zhong Mu looked at the note, and her heart sank more and more, and she became more and more nervous and uneasy. She knows Zhongyi's temper best, no matter where she goes to play, she reports to her in person, and she is never a child who leaves home with just a note......

"I don't think I'm going to run away from home...... It must have been me sulking at her these days, which caused her psychological burden, so I couldn't stand it anymore and chose to run away from home. Zhong Mu's always elegant and quiet face is now only guilty and deeply blamed. If she hadn't communicated with Zhong Yi earlier, and told her earlier that her mother just didn't want you to be too far away from home, she wouldn't have caused the situation like today.

The note left alone is enough to prove that Zhong Zhong "ran away from home" was premeditated a long time ago, and he didn't want to tell them where she went, so she left secretly......

Father Zhong groaned, "Call the police." ”

…………

Zhong Yi, who had just gotten off the plane on the other side of the ocean, didn't know that the "graduation trip" she defined was tampered with by Zhong's father and mother as "running away from home", and it was developing towards something they didn't dare to imagine, and it tended to be quite serious.

According to the address of the B&B given by Ruan Ruan, Zhong Yi first got off the plane and found a phone booth nearby, called the landlord of the B&B, and told the "Miss Li" who had never met before that she was about to go over.

Before that, they had a transoceanic phone call, two messages. Zhong Yi called her "Miss Li" on the phone, with a gentle tone and a soft and glutinous voice from a southerner. They speak their native language, but sometimes Miss Li can't help but sandwich a sentence or two of English.

She said with a smile on the other end of the phone: It has been a long time since I have communicated with Chinese in my mother tongue, and Chinese people who come abroad, whether subconsciously or deliberately, will automatically ignore their mother tongue and use English when communicating with Chinese people. But I prefer to hear you speak your native language, which reminds me of my hometown.

After Zhong Yi arrived at Miss Li's residence with her suitcase, it was already two and a half hours later, and it was about half past six in the morning in Los Angeles, the time in Los Angeles, the United States, Miss Li, who received her, warmly prepared breakfast at home and invited her to dine together.

As Ruan Nguyen said, Miss Li is indeed a warm-hearted and beautiful Chinese.

Breakfast was simple, an omelette, two fried ham sausages, a sandwich and a glass of milk.

Sitting across the table, Ms. Li skillfully cuts the fried ham sausage with a knife and fork, smiling as she cuts, "After living in Los Angeles for so many years, I have only learned how to make omelettes and sandwiches, and occasionally try to cook Chinese food, but I am never used to burgers and fries." ”

"It's like the white people here, they come to China and don't get used to eating hot pot." I simply gave up the knife and cut the whole ham sausage piece by piece, and finally forked the whole ham sausage with a fork and ate it in small bites.

Lu Yuchuan once said that she can also eat spicy hot steaks in high-end steaks. It's like she is always unaccustomed to using a table knife, and she is not used to eating Western food.

Miss Lee is non-deniable. There was a crisp sound from the collision of the knife and the fork, and the ham sausage in front of her was divided into several pieces by her, and she took a sip of milk, "I don't think you seem to have much appetite, do you want to add food?" He stood up and left the table and walked towards the open kitchen.

After a few sips of milk and a few sips of milk, she put down her cup before taking a closer look at the house she was going to live in for almost a month—yes, she had enough visas and passports to keep her entertained until the start of college.

The apartment is a two-bedroom apartment, the living room space is very large, there is a large bookshelf on the west wall, on which are placed all kinds of books collected by Miss Li, the overall color of the wall is based on light blue and light gray, most of the wooden furniture is quite large, the carpet is bohemian style, light gray * tone.

The apartment is very comfortable, at a glance people like it very much, there is no loneliness and strangeness in a foreign land, like in your own home, as casually.

Miss Li held the prepared vegetable salad in front of Zhong Yi, Zhong Yi said "thank you", and then Miss Li sat down opposite her and continued to eat the ham sausage cut on the plate.

"April told me you're a photographer." The word "April" in Ms. Lee's mouth refers to Nguyen Nguyen, her English name when she was abroad.

Zhong Yi was still a little unfamiliar with Ruan Ruan's other name, and he was only stunned for two seconds, and his expression returned to normal. On the phone, she told Miss Li that she had come to Los Angeles for tourism, but she never told her about the other purpose of her trip. Zhong Yi raised his eyes slightly, glanced at Miss Li opposite, and said in English, "No." I just love photography. ”

"There are so many great spots in Los Angeles that are great for photography, so have fun."

After simply finishing breakfast, Miss Li didn't stay in the apartment for too long because she had to go to work, she handed over the apartment key to Zhongyi, and explained what a landlord should explain, and at the end, she patted Zhongyi's shoulder and said in the tone of an old friend: "There are ingredients in the refrigerator, you can cook your favorite food, and you don't have to force yourself to cater to the culture here." Let's have a hot pot together at another time. ”

Sending Miss Li away, I like to open the door of the master bedroom with a suitcase, which is different from the simple style of the living room, the bedroom is more inclined to have the style of the American last century, more retro and charming, as if I am in a fragment of a classic old movie, and feel the moving story that happened in that century.

Zhong Yi sat on the bay window, looking out the window at Los Angeles, his thoughts wandered with his eyes, and after a while, his eyelids began to become heavy, and finally he fell asleep.

When Zhong Yi woke up, it was past lunchtime, but his stomach didn't feel hungry at all. She barely had much rest on the plane, and after a short night's sleep, she was almost refreshed.

She raised her wrist to look at the time on her watch, and she didn't feel the time passing at all after sleeping for so long around a quarter past three in the afternoon.

Zhongyi took out her mobile phone from her travel bag and was ready to turn it on, but the phone was automatically turned off due to lack of power, she rummaged in the bag, but she didn't find the mobile phone charging cable, and even the suitcase was rummaged through by her, and there was still no trace of the charging cable.

Zhong Yi looked at the almost useless mobile phone in her hand that could be used as a defense, threw it into her travel bag with a depressed face, walked out of the bedroom, and opened the door of another room.

She pulled out the chair in front of the computer desk and sat down, skillfully pressed the power on button, and watched the computer screen gradually enter the boot page, and a few seconds later, the simple desktop appeared in front of Zhongyi's eyes.

The hand holding the mouse moved gently, clicked on the mailbox, entered her account and password to log in, the mouse quickly slid on the unread email, she didn't have the heart to click on the browsing information one by one, the joy and nervousness in her heart from her getting off the plane to the present, still lingering in her heart, she couldn't wait to share with Xu Huaisheng the homestay she lived in and met a very enthusiastic Chinese landlord.

Zhong Yi breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the words "the email was successfully sent" on the computer screen, his eyes moved from the screen to the scenery outside the window, and his stomach let out an inopportune protest sound, only to realize that he had been sitting at the computer desk for a full hour.

She got up and walked out of the study, walked to the open kitchen, opened the refrigerator door, and finally found a bag of quick-frozen dumplings in a pile of frozen food, and didn't care what the filling was, boiled water in the pot, and poured the dumplings directly into the pot.

Zhong Yi looked at the dumplings boiling in the pot, and suddenly thought that this should be the Chinese home-cooked food she ate on the first day she came to Los Angeles.