Director-General Cheng stood up and asked, "Isn’t he at your table?"

"He sat for a bit but didn't eat a bite,” replied the officer. “I thought he had come around to propose a toast but it’s been more than half an hour since I last saw him and I can’t get through to his phone."

His words were like a bucket of cold water but I couldn’t resist clinging onto that bit of hope in my heart. With so many policemen here, nothing could happen, right?

Director-General Cheng stopped the festivities and instructed the officers to go around looking for Officer Ouyang. I spoke to the man sitting next to Officer Ouyang and asked if he showed any unusual behavior before leaving the table. 

"Not really,” recalled the officer. “He did hold his head all of a sudden. When I asked if he had a headache, he smiled and said it was nothing. I didn’t think much of it at the time!"

"A headache?" An inevitable sense of foreboding grew steadily.

We ran around looking for Officer...