Bill felt disgusted at the lecherous looks on their faces.
Now that he had used the depth of Crystal Lake as an excuse to dissuade Jin Lian Dai from going for a swim, Bill felt no regret, only pleasant surprise. This was exactly as he had hoped.
The young men and women then proceeded with their open-air barbecue by Crystal Lake. The ingredients for the barbecue were excellent. They enjoyed their meal immensely.
The day passed quickly, and night began to fall. The thick darkness enveloped the flowers, grass, and people on the ground. The chill of the mountain forest crept in. However, they had already set up camp with tents, so they were unaffected by the mountain chill.
Inside his tent, while playing on his phone, Jack suddenly heard a commotion outside. The noise was loud, as if many people were arguing.
"Seriously, what time is it? It's almost time to sleep, why are they still making noise?"
"What are they arguing about?"
"Have they gotten into a conflict?"
Jack frowned. Although these people were all classmates, they were merely a temporary gathering from a single club or circle. While some were good friends, many were not very close. Young people were often hot-headed, and while a conflict was less likely in this situation, it was not impossible.
Jack didn't want to get involved, but as the organizer of this event, he couldn't simply ignore it. So, he got up and went outside the tent, asking, "What's wrong? What happened?"
As soon as he spoke, Jack looked around and felt that something was amiss – the situation was not caused by someone getting drunk and starting an argument. A short-haired girl's reply made Jack's blood run cold.
"Bill's girlfriend, Jin Lian Dai, has disappeared."
"Everyone is looking for her, but after ten minutes, no one has seen her."
"We don't know where she went."
"Bill is very worried right now."
Gone. She was missing. This was far more terrifying than a typical conflict between young people. Jack could already imagine the punishment he would receive from the school as the organizer if Jin Lian Dai remained missing, likely expulsion. And how would he face Jin Lian Dai's parents?
Seeing Bill's distress, Jack knew the situation was serious. He quickly asked the short-haired girl.
"How did she disappear?"
Just as the short-haired girl was about to answer, Nade, standing nearby, said, "Bill said his girlfriend Jin Lian Dai needed to relieve herself and had to find a secluded spot."
"Bill was worried about a girl venturing off alone in the mountains this late at night... but he couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't exactly watch his girlfriend relieve herself."
"So, he let her go by herself."
"And then, she was never seen again."
Relieve herself. What did "relieve herself" mean? Jack couldn't immediately grasp the meaning. Why would she need to go to a secluded spot to relieve herself? In normal circumstances, with Jack's intelligence, he would have figured it out quickly. But with someone missing, Jack was flustered and couldn't think. It wasn't until Nade saw his confused expression and realized he was stuck on the meaning that he prompted him.
"It means going to the toilet."
Hearing this, Jack understood. A girl would naturally need to find a secluded spot to go to the toilet. And here, in the wilderness, there were no toilets, so she would have to move away from the group. And moving away from the group had led to this incident. She was missing.
Jack realized this was a tricky problem that he couldn't have avoided even if he had foreseen it. After all, nature calls, and in the wilderness, there were no proper toilets, so one inevitably had to move away from the group. However, Jack still couldn't understand why she would disappear, as there were unlikely to be any large animals around Crystal Lake.
"She must have just gotten lost."
Jack began to convince himself and others, trying to restore their confidence and prevent them from falling into unnecessary panic. He said to everyone, "This is a primeval forest. It's possible for a girl to get lost if she can't find her way."
"But there are no large predators here, so she couldn't have been killed by one for no reason."
"She's just lost."
"Don't worry, everyone. We'll split into teams and search. We'll definitely find her."
The others, seeing a living person suddenly disappear, were already extremely anxious. Hearing Jack's words, they felt as if they had found a pillar of support and calmed down slightly. Although Jack wasn't the most reliable person, there was no one else present who could serve as a leader in their minds. In this critical situation, they could only choose to follow Jack's instructions.
Then, Jack directed everyone to divide into teams, assigning specific areas for each team to search, making the arrangements clear and precise. Under Jack's command, everyone began their search. Compared to the previous disorganized search where areas were covered multiple times without any plan, this organized search was more comprehensive, and the efficiency of the search area was greatly amplified. The intensity of the search was incomparable to what it had been before. Jack had truly utilized his leadership skills to the fullest, making no wrong decisions throughout the process.
However, despite the loud shouts and strenuous efforts of everyone, after calling out multiple times and searching for an hour, Jin Lian Dai was still nowhere to be found. No one responded to their calls. This made everyone's sense of unease grow even stronger.
Bill almost collapsed to the ground. He covered his head, regretting immensely why he hadn't followed his girlfriend when she went to relieve herself. Even seeing her silhouette from afar would have confirmed her safety, which would have been better than this situation!
Jack's face grew paler. The situation was developing towards the worst possible outcome he had hoped to avoid. Life was at stake. If Jin Lian Dai disappeared, he, as the organizer, would not be able to escape responsibility. Legally, there might be no direct liability, but it was obvious he would face ostracism from the school and disapproval from Jin Lian Dai's parents. Moreover, was there truly no legal responsibility? Jack, his head already swimming, pondered this question, even considering searching for legal clauses on his phone. He didn't know how the law defined it. He had forgotten. He couldn't remember.