The elevator arrived at the designated floor, and accompanied by a clear and pleasant prompt sound, the security door slowly opened to both sides.
The five of them filed out, and Ichinose was the first to wave goodbye with a smile.
"Well, see you tomorrow, everyone."
"See you tomorrow."
"Goodbye~"
As if in response, her eyes swept across the faces of the other team members one by one. When Ichinose's gaze finally fell on Wu Yi's face, she paused noticeably, then revealed an exceptionally gentle smile.
"See you later, classmate Wu Yi."
"Well, see you later..."
Somehow, Wu Yi suddenly felt that what he said was a bit strange.
When Ichinose said "see you later", he separated the three words "see you later" into three parts, so it didn't feel anything.
When he said "see you later", the inexplicable sense of disobedience was suddenly magnified.
Because generally speaking, the three words "see you later" are said when you are about to meet someone soon or in a while, and it feels inappropriate to use them now no matter how you think about it.
Is it an illusion?
Before Wu Yi had time to think about this question, Ichinose turned and left.
At this point the group disbanded in front of the elevator.
Like everyone else, Wu Yi returned to his room, took a shower, lay down on the bed, set the alarm, and slowly closed his eyes.
However, just as it was half past five in the evening, the doorbell rang suddenly at the entrance of the room.
Ding Dong!
Wu Yi, who was lying on the bed, opened his eyes immediately.
He sat up from the bed, got up and walked to the entrance in his slippers.
When he opened the door, he saw several students from Class 2-C standing outside, and with them was Kito Hayabusa.
"What's wrong?" Wu Yi was a little confused.
One of the students in Class C began to explain haltingly, "Yes, it's like this... Our class had originally agreed to have dinner together at the lobby on the second floor of the hotel at dinner time today, as a closing ceremony for this school trip. This proposal was made by Ichinose-san, and the whole class unanimously approved it without any objection. We agreed to gather at five o'clock, but twenty minutes ago Ichinose-san..."
"Forget it, let me tell you."
Guitou interrupted the C-class student and spoke simply and clearly.
"Ichinose is missing."
Volume 498: Chapter I Found You
"Yes, that's it!"
After Guitou pointed out the key point, the students in Class C nodded quickly and continued to repeat what he had said before.
"We have been looking for Ichinose-san for 20 minutes, but we couldn't get through on the phone, and there was no response when we knocked on the door. We also asked other people and they all said they hadn't seen him. No matter how hard we looked, we couldn't find where he had gone..."
"Okay, I understand. It looks like Ichinose is indeed missing."
Wu Yi put on his shoes and interrupted the chattering students from Class C. The moment he came to the above conclusion, his first reaction was not "Did an accident happen?" but "This was intentional."
Everyone present knew that Ichinose was a very law-abiding and good student who never overstepped the boundaries. He would never do anything risky just to be lazy.
Moreover, when the group disbanded at the elevator door and returned to the room, all the team members basically went back together. There was no situation where someone left alone. If something really happened on the way, it should have been discovered at that time.
Furthermore, Ichinose's wording before leaving was also very strange. He even said to him alone, "See you later."
I had an appointment with my classmates tonight, and even if we were to meet again, it would be after dinner, and we might not meet each other. However, he acted as if he was sure that he would meet me again soon.
To sum up, Wu Yi believes that Ichinose’s sudden disappearance was not an accident, but was premeditated.
She had made an appointment with her classmates in advance that the whole class would have dinner together in the evening. In this way, if she still didn't show up at the time, the other students in Class C would definitely feel strange and look for her everywhere, and finally they would definitely find him in the same group to ask about her whereabouts.
At the same time, because enough hints had been given beforehand, almost to the point of being explicit, Ichinose was not worried that Wu Yi would not be able to find a clue after the incident.
This means that Ichinose is hiding somewhere, waiting for me to find him... Could it be?!
In an instant, a flash of inspiration flashed through Wu Yi's mind, and his eyes widened slightly.
The next second, he easily pushed away the crowd surrounding the door of his room with one hand and strode towards the elevator on the floor.
"Do you know where she is?" Guitou asked in a slightly higher voice.
"Probably, possibly, maybe. Because I'm not sure, I need to confirm it."
Wu Yi waved without even turning back.
"Okay, leave the rest to me, you don't have to worry about it. If someone asks you where I went, just say I had something to do."
"okay."
Guitou nodded subconsciously, but after two seconds he felt something was wrong and turned his head sharply towards the window at the end of the corridor where he could see outside.
At this time, heavy snow was dancing wildly outside the hotel, and the whistling wind blowing through the edges of the building was like the howling of evil spirits.
Wait, going out at this time???
The B class's armed forces officer was stunned.
Without any hesitation, as another ding sound rang out on the first floor of the hotel, Wu Yi did not wait for the elevator safety door to open completely, and almost squeezed out of it, then ran straight to the hotel lobby.
After all, if you have any questions in a hotel, the easiest and most effective way is to go directly to the front desk.
Although it was a bit strange to go to the front desk to find someone, Wu Yi was confident about it.
Ichinose arranged this series of events not to make it impossible for others to find her, but precisely to make it possible for herself to find her, so she must have left enough clues.
"Hello."
Arriving at the front desk, Wu Yi placed his hands on the stone table which was slightly warmed by the air flow from the air conditioner, and tapped it twice with his knuckles. The receptionist A, who was still busy with documents, immediately raised her head and got straight to the point.
"Excuse me, have you seen a girl with pink hair in the hall before? She's a high school student."
"The girl with pink hair..."
The receptionist who was being questioned hesitated for a moment, and moved her eyes slightly to the upper left, as if trying hard to recall something.
At the same time, another receptionist named B, who was also at a distance from the service counter, spoke up.
She picked up the hot coffee beside her and took a sip. "As for the girl with pink hair, I did see her. About twenty minutes ago, she was sitting on the sofa by the door."
"…Is there any?" Receptionist A looked confused.
"Yes, I have!"
The receptionist B looked serious, but soon she just said "oh".
"That's right. You were busy filling out forms at the time, so you didn't have time to care about these things. But I did see her. She was sitting over there where I just mentioned. Because she had pink hair, which was rare, I took a closer look and was quite impressed... Ah, it's a little strange to say."
"What's weird?"
"When I saw her before, she seemed to be wearing very thick clothes, and there was a big bag next to her, which looked like clothes or something."
"Maybe he just came back from outside?"
"No, no, no, it shouldn't be. I don't see any rain or snow on her."
"You're not going out in this weather, are you?"
"It should be... unlikely, right?"
Just when the two receptionists were about to start chatting with each other like the supporting actor and the funny guy, a cold wind, which had been mostly weakened by the heating in the hall, blew in and interrupted their conversation.
Looking up, there was no one in front of the stage, only the door was still shaking slightly, and soon returned to complete stillness.
On the other side, Wu Yi left the hotel and stepped into the snow. All he could see was a vast expanse of white. The biting cold immediately attacked him like a needle, penetrating every pore.
He was wearing very little. He left in such a hurry that he didn't even have time to put on his coat. He was only wearing two sweaters.
Wool sweaters are good at keeping warm, but the prerequisite is that you have to have something to protect you from the wind and rain.
Without the protection of the coat, and in such a blizzard, the defense provided by the two sweaters was almost non-existent.
His hands and feet quickly lost temperature and became cold and numb. Wu Yi sighed softly as if he was bothered, lowered his body slightly, and [Liberation] was instantly activated.
The next moment, he was like an arrow shot from a bow. With a bang, he kicked hard, creating a wave of snow as high as a person, and rushed towards the ski resort.
A few minutes later, at the foot of the beginner ski track, Wu Yi stopped and breathed slightly.
Looking around, he finally found a figure who was wrapped tightly in three layers of clothes but still huddled up and shivering in a corner sheltered from the wind outside the cable car control room, which had been temporarily shut down due to a snowstorm and all the staff had been evacuated.
Wu Yi walked over and squatted, covering the part that should be the hat with his hands that were almost numb from the cold and rubbed them gently.
"Sorry, I'm a little late for the appointment."
Volume 499: Chapter : Hug Ichinose!
"How is it, can you still stand up?"
Outside the door, Wu Yi helped Ichinose, who had been in the snow for at least ten minutes, to get up.
However, as soon as the girl stood up and took a step, her legs went weak and she staggered and was about to fall.
Wu Yi quickly picked him up and hugged him.
Yes, although I was wearing a lot of clothes and theoretically had taken enough protective measures, after all, I was in an outdoor environment of minus 20 to 30 degrees Celsius, and it was a blizzard. Even if I was indoors without heating, it would be enough to freeze me to death, let alone outdoors.
"Student Wu Yi, you're here. Sorry...ah, my legs seem to be a little numb..."
Ichinose raised his head, barely poking it out from under the layers of hats, and a weak yet slightly happy smile appeared on his little face, which was a little frozen due to the excessive low temperature.
It was almost impossible for the two of them to return to the hotel immediately in this state.
"Don't move, I'll carry you in."
Wu Yi lowered his head and said.
With one hand passing through the girl's armpits from behind, he leaned over with his other hand to lift her legs and picked her up like a princess. He climbed the three steps in the wind and snow, kicked open the door of the cable car control room with a bang, and walked straight in.
When we got indoors, the wind and snow suddenly decreased in intensity.
Wu Yi turned around and kicked the door back again. Although the damaged door lock could not be closed perfectly like before, it could still fit into the door frame, leaving only a very thin gap that allowed some cold wind to seep in occasionally, which was basically negligible.
"wait a second."
After finding a clean place and gently putting Ichinose down, Wu Yi gave some instructions and stood up and walked towards the control console not far away.
This control room was still in use until this afternoon, so the hygiene conditions inside were not that bad.
Maybe they were afraid that if no one was on duty and an electrical fire occurred, the whole thing would have been burned out by the time it was discovered the next day, so the power switch in the control room was turned off.
Wu Yi walked around and unplugged the surveillance wires separately, then turned on the power switch.
Once the power was detected, the lights on the dashboard in the control room lit up.
At this time, the sky outside had gradually darkened. The violent snowstorm obscured the last rays of sunset, and the control room was dim.
Wu Yi didn't turn on the lights, he only turned on the heater.
This place should be closed now, although theoretically no one would pass by at this time and in this weather, but what if... it would be funny if someone really saw the lights on in the cable car control room which is supposed to be closed.
The air conditioner is turned on and in heating mode. With a low rumbling sound, a stream of air with a little warmth slowly blows out from the blades of the air conditioner.
After doing all this, Wu Yi returned to the girl.
"It should be warmer soon... Come on, give me your hand."
He wanted to help Ichinose take off his coat.
No matter how windproof, rainproof and snowproof a jacket is, it cannot withstand such a severe snowstorm. The inside is already soaked and the outside is covered with frost. There is no point in continuing to wear it except to continue wasting calories.
Ichinose was also quite cooperative, and quickly took off the outermost coat that had almost turned into ice armor, and at the same time took off the second coat that was also soaked by ice and snow.
Even after taking off two coats in a row, she was still wearing the last coat plus three sweaters underneath. With this level of defense, she would definitely be frozen to death in the blizzard outside.
But now that we are indoors, although the heating has not been turned on, it is not too cold because there is no wind and snow. Instead, my body begins to warm up a little.
Ichinose cautiously asked, "Um, Wu Yi, are you cold like this? How about you also..."
"That's right."
Wu Yi looked down at herself.
When he came here just now, he had been running all the way, so his wool sweater was completely covered with snow. The heat generated by his body from the intense exercise melted the snow into water, which then condensed into ice again under the low temperature outside.
His wool sweater was now even colder than the coat that Ichinose had taken off. If you looked closely, you would find a few icicles hanging on it that were about to form, and the short-sleeved shirt underneath was also icy and wet.
