Yin Feng also stood up, looking inseparable from her, and said: “This is also our analytical conclusion—according to Xu Yi’s profile, his most private possessions and the people he most wishes to control cannot tolerate even the slightest prying from others. If he believes the police have already noticed him, given his arrogance and caution, he will inevitably take countermeasures. Zhang Jingchan, you just wait for him to reveal his weakness.”

If Zhang Jingchan had still doubted their abilities before meeting them, he now realized that these two were exceptionally formidable.

Zhang Jingchan smiled: “Good, thank you for your hard work.”

You Mingxu asked: “We could have leads on her whereabouts as early as today. Do you want to come with us to the villa? You can wait for news on the perimeter.”

Zhang Jingchan answered: “I need to go handle something. I’ll meet up with you after I’m done.”

You Mingxu nodded indifferently, but a head once again thrust itself in front of Zhang Jingchan. Yin Feng stared at him and said: “You’re quite interesting. No, I should say, all three of you are very interesting.”

Zhang Jingchan looked at him.

You Mingxu paid him no mind. Yin Feng crossed his arms, tilted his head, and said with great interest: “You’ve got some skills. When we stated those conclusions, you were very calm, which shows many things were within your expectations. The fact that you decided overnight to mobilize Ding Chenmo to bring us here shows you’re very adaptable and quick to assess situations. Of course, seeing your haggard appearance now, I believe your feelings for Li Weiyi are also very deep. But when Xiao Xu invited you to the villa, you refused because you still have other matters to handle. You can set aside your girlfriend here and completely entrust her to us—this shows you’re very composed, very patient, you have strategies in your heart, and your will is firm. However…”

Yin Feng’s gaze turned a few degrees colder: “Aren’t you a vegetative patient who slept for eight years? You were only nineteen before you fell asleep, a sophomore. The mental acuity and methods you’re displaying now don’t seem like those of a youth. And then there are the other two parties involved. Why would Li Weiyi, who was only in her second year of high school back then, be devoted to a vegetative patient for eight years? And Xu Yi too—a mature businessman in the commercial world, deeply in love with a high school sophomore for many years? The behavior of all three of you doesn’t conform to common sense.” He scratched his hair, and those few degrees of blade-like coldness seemed to flash briefly in his eyes before being replaced by confusion: “These things I just can’t figure out.”

Ding Chenmo hurried to smooth things over: “When it comes to matters of the heart, who can say for sure? Love just comes so suddenly and inexplicably, haha.”

Yin Feng had an epiphany and quickly glanced at You Mingxu: “True.”

You Mingxu didn’t notice his furtive look. She glanced at Zhang Jingchan. Even though Yin Feng had directly exposed these secrets, Zhang Jingchan’s expression showed no change. You Mingxu realized this was a man whose depths were unfathomable compared to Yin Feng. So You Mingxu smiled and tugged at Yin Feng’s hand: “Alright, it’s none of our concern. Let’s go.”

Ding Chenmo nodded at Zhang Jingchan and also walked out the door. From the moment these two had started speaking, Li Yunmo had been stunned. Only now did he say quietly: “Holy crap, who are these two people… They seem really awesome… But that guy…”

Yin Feng, who was following behind You Mingxu like a little wife, called out without turning his head: “Hey, I can hear you!”

Li Yunmo immediately shut his mouth.

Zhang Jingchan also watched the figures of those two people, but his thoughts drifted astray. You Mingxu’s spine was straight as she strode ahead, while Yin Feng, clearly a man over one-point-eight meters tall, hunched over with lowered eyes and bowed back, leaning forward—the spitting image of her little tail.

Just like him and Li Weiyi in 2014. She had been even more playful and grinning than Yin Feng, bouncing around full of life.

Actually, he wasn’t as composed as Yin Feng said. He missed her, missed her so much. They’d only been apart for one day, yet it felt like he hadn’t seen her in ages.

Zhang Jingchan took a deep breath, swallowing all the bitterness, and said: “Let’s get moving too.”

Li Yunmo: “Where to?”

“A gas station.”

Li Yunmo: ???

——

Li Weiyi hadn’t expected that her escape journey would get stuck at the very first stage.

Yes, literally “stuck.”

She was stuck in the ventilation duct in the ceiling.

Half an hour earlier, Li Weiyi had rolled up her pant legs, taken off her shoes, wearing only a thin T-shirt, moved a chair onto the desk, and with tremendous effort climbed up into the ventilation duct.

In her previous three lifetimes, she had only been an accountant in the earliest one, and a painter in the two after that. She’d never done anything this thrilling and dangerous before—she had neither experience nor skill. At first she felt it was so narrow inside it made her short of breath. She crawled forward a few steps and felt it was manageable, so she persevered and kept crawling.

Then after crawling about a meter or so, she became completely stuck, right on top of another large ventilation panel. She couldn’t move forward, couldn’t retreat backward. The panel beneath her kept creaking as if it would break at any moment. This was three meters high! If she fell, it would hurt terribly.

She lay there on the verge of tears. Just thinking about how Xu Yi might come in at any moment and see this scene—how would she deal with it?

Speak of the devil. The door clicked softly and someone walked in. Li Weiyi pressed her face against the panel and didn’t move a muscle.

When Xu Yi walked in and looked around to see no one anywhere, he was truly shocked into a cold sweat. Then seeing the chair on the desk, the panel tossed aside, and the slight movement from the ceiling overhead, he understood.

This secret room had been designed by him personally. From the beginning, he’d considered the safety of the ventilation ducts—at that width, there was no way she could crawl out. He walked to below the ventilation panel where there was movement. Both amused and exasperated, he crossed his arms and looked up. Through the wooden grating, he could vaguely make out Li Weiyi’s form. He called out: “Xiao Yi, what are you doing up there?”

Li Weiyi didn’t make a sound. One foot angrily kicked the panel beneath her.

“Come back down,” Xu Yi said. “The width isn’t enough. You can’t get out.”

Li Weiyi answered through gritted teeth: “I’m stuck. Otherwise I would have come back down already.”

Xu Yi laughed out loud from below.

“How long have you been stuck?”

Li Weiyi didn’t answer.

Xu Yi laughed again: “Still planning to run away?”

“Absolutely not running away anymore.”

Xu Yi scoffed: “If your words counted for anything, the sun would rise in the west.”

“If you don’t believe me, why ask? Hurry up and figure out a way to get me down.”

Xu Yi said: “You’re only acting like this because you know I can’t bear to hurt you. Stay still and don’t move. I’ll go find someone.”

Li Weiyi’s heart stirred: Find someone? Just as she was thinking this, she suddenly heard the sound of the duct panel beneath her cracking. Her soul fled in terror as her body fell straight down.

Xu Yi had walked a few steps toward the door. Hearing the commotion, he spun around abruptly and lunged over, but it was still a step too late. Li Weiyi crashed to the ground and screamed in pain.

Xu Yi gathered her into his arms, his voice changing pitch: “Where did you hurt yourself? Who told you to climb up there? Does it hurt?”

Li Weiyi’s voice carried a crying tone, looking absolutely agonized: “It hurts so much! My whole body hurts. Did I break a bone?”

Xu Yi didn’t dare touch her legs. He carefully lifted her horizontally in his arms and walked toward the door, looking down at her and saying: “Are you satisfied now? On the second day you’ve already tormented yourself like this, forcing me to carry you out this door, hmm?”

Li Weiyi lowered her head and said nothing.

He actually opened the door. Li Weiyi quickly raised her head. It turned out that connected to this secret room was a bedroom with an extremely large floor area.