Mystery: After the Child Disappeared

"Ms. Winston, come down quickly. Your student Daniel Murphy is lost!"

The large conference room suddenly fell silent, and then exploded.

I rushed from the third floor to the school's entrance, holding my breath. I was as fast as I could walk.

When the teacher on duty, Mr. Evans, saw me, he was happy on his face, wanting to come forward but not daring to break through the crowd of parents.

Daniel's Dad was already frantic with anxiety, with anxiety Mr. Evans like a raging lion.

"Where is my son? My son was fine this morning, and your school actually lost him?"

Daniel's Mom had already cried her eyes out, and the baby in her arms started crying too.

In an instant, my scalp went numb.

Because I also had two kids.

If my kids were lost...

I couldn't even think about it.

I hurriedly asked the situation and we had to hurry to find him.

Mr. Evans said that Daniel's Dad couldn't find the child in the team and was anxious at that time.

"Later, all the children in the campus were picked up, but Daniel was not seen. I know you guys are having a grade-level team meeting today and you definitely won't be keeping your child for tutoring, so..."

Mr. Evans bit his lip and didn't dare to finish his words.

But we were all a little panicked.

For first-grade children who had only been in school for two months, it was indeed unlikely that he would dare to break away from the class team and run around.

But we still needed to investigate.

The principal Mr. Klein and all the teachers immediately divided the work and conducted a carpet-style search, with each person assigned to the football field, basketball court, vegetable garden, and bicycle shed.

I stayed with Mr. Evans to comfort the parents.

"By the way, check the ping-pong table, the library, and every floor's classrooms again after unlocking them!"

When Daniel's Dad saw me, he slightly restrained his collapsing emotions and talked to me about the difficulties of raising Daniel.

"He is just a little kid. He needs to drink milk, read books, order school uniforms, and pay for meals... Ah, but now he's lost. Ms. Winston, can you imagine how worried I am?"

The child in Daniel's Mom's arms spat out the pacifier and then cried, as if to support his father's words.

My back was sweating but I forced myself to stay calm.

"Daniel's Dad, let's search the campus first. If we can't find him, we'll go to the nearby shops and ask. If we find any suspicious clues, we'll report to the Education Bureau and the police station immediately."

Looking at the time, it had been half an hour since school ended. Anything could have happened in thirty minutes.

Daniel's Mom finally managed to stop crying and came over, sobbing.

"Ms. Winston, we can't lose this child. He's the first grandson of the Murphy family. He's so precious!"

Of course, he was precious!

Whose children weren't precious?

As a teacher, it was okay for students to have poor grades. But if there were safety issues, I would be uneasy for the rest of my life!

The phone rang.

The intern teacher in charge of guarding the class this afternoon finally called back!

"Ms. Lopez, for the two classes this afternoon, is there anything unusual about Daniel, the child who wears glasses and sits in the second row, fourth seat from the entrance?"

Ms. Lopez was a graduate of the Normal University this year. I didn't know how she found me and came to our school for an internship. She said she wanted to study how quality education should be carried out in a school that was almost for children of migrant workers.

The principal didn't even finish listening to her thesis direction before asking the teachers to applaud and welcome the new member.

After all, we were seriously understaffed.

After helping her recall Daniel's appearance for a while, the teachers returned to the school entrance one after another.

The faces of disappointment and anxiety stabbed my heart.

Six-and-a-half-year-old Daniel disappeared in the campus like this!