“I’ll go and take a look then. You should rest for a while. How about you go out and have a seat? It’s a little stuffy in the study.”
“All right then.”
As the master and apprentice duo spoke, they walked out of the study one after another.
Yolanda was eating instant noodles in the living room when they came out.
While she was eating, she was watching videos on her phone. Upon seeing Sebastian and Winnie coming over, she turned off her phone.
“What’s the matter, Grandpa?” Yolanda asked Sebastian.
“Nothing. I just came out for a stroll. Are the instant noodles tasty?”
“It’s edible.” When Yolanda saw Winnie heading toward the guest room, she could not help but glance at her a few more times. “It’s better than the lunch at that restaurant anyway,” she added absent-mindedly.
Noticing that his granddaughter’s gaze kept following Winnie, Sebastian explained, “I thought I heard the voice of the daughter of the Zimmerman family just now and wasn’t sure if she’s awake or not, so I asked Nini to go over and take a look.”
Yolanda frowned upon hearing her grandfather’s words.
“Really? What did you hear? I’ve been in the living room all this time. Why didn’t I hear her?”
“You didn’t hear anything? I thought I heard her calling out ‘Daddy,’ but maybe I misheard it.”
Sebastian had no reason to lie, and since he did not hear anything else, Yolanda was able to set her mind at ease.
However, Winnie soon rushed out of the guest room.
“Master, Rachel is missing! I searched the entire room and couldn’t find her.”
“What?” Sebastian widened his eyes in shock. “How could this happen? What about the windows? Are they closed properly? It couldn’t be that she was mischievous and climbed out of it, right? That would be dangerous!”
“No. The windows are locked from the inside and haven’t been touched.”
Yolanda put up a show of placing the plastic fork in her hand down and questioned Winnie, “What about under the bed, behind the curtains, or behind the couch? Have you checked them all? I’ve been preparing my instant noodles outside the entire time, and I didn’t see her coming out of the room.”
“I’ve checked them all. No one can climb under the bed.”
“Then…” Yolanda directed the conversation to another possibility. “Do you remember the instance we heard the sound of a door opening and closing in the study earlier on? Could it be that Rachel had opened the door and ran out then?”
“That’s impossible!” Winnie furrowed her brows. “Xavier and Josiah rang the doorbell immediately after we heard the sound. If Rachel had opened the door herself and ran out at that time, they couldn’t have missed her.”
“Then let’s look elsewhere in this house,” Sebastian said. “Maybe she opened the door and went to another room. Let’s look everywhere.”
“Okay. I’ll have a look upstairs,” Winnie volunteered.
Yolanda did not remain idle either. “Sit and rest for a while, Grandpa. I’ll search this floor.”
Winnie looked around upstairs, but naturally, she did not see a single person.
Just as she was about to go downstairs, Yolanda suddenly shouted, “I’ve found Rachel!”
Winnie immediately went downstairs, and Sebastian also walked toward Yolanda.
“She’s asleep behind the couch in the office. She probably fell asleep there before Xavier went in, so we didn’t notice her. Since she’s sleeping soundly on the floor right now, should I wake her up?”
Sebastian replied, “Wake her up then. How can she sleep on the floor like that?”
Winnie walked over and heaved a sigh of relief upon confirming that Rachel was indeed behind the couch in the office.
She then glanced at her watch. Realizing that it was almost time for Xavier’s acupuncture session, she casually reminded Sebastian about it.
“All right. You shall try it this time. A small matter like removing the needles shouldn’t be difficult for you.”
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