When Li Yunmo heard those few scattered words, tears were already streaming down her face as she asked, “What exactly happened?”

Zhang Jingchan gripped his phone, his entire body seeming to freeze in place.

He had always considered himself a cold-hearted person. After Fu Ming’s bankruptcy years ago, this coldness had seeped from his features and skin into his very blood and bones. Even toward his parents, he had become cold-hearted and cold-natured. Only after meeting Li Weiyi did this man who never smiled begin to laugh often. The wretched emotions buried deep in his heart and ignored for so long were gradually drawn out by her, bit by bit. Then she would just stand beside him with an unconcerned smile, as if saying to him: See, it’s really not such a big deal.

His heart warmed little by little, and he changed bit by bit. Having drifted through the business world for many years, mature beyond his twenty-something years, he began to banter and joke with her, began to be shameless, began to feel anxious and uncertain. All his awareness and emotions seemed to be guided by her, gradually awakening. He began to forgive his father through the years, to be lenient with his mother, even toward those who had cursed and pressured him. Through repeated rewrites, repeated approaches toward their goal, and repeated setbacks, his heart remained steadfast as he continued forward. He even fell in love with the feeling of wandering and traveling through time and space with her.

Until she cut him a plate of oranges.

He knew she was that kind of girl—either not giving at all, or giving wholeheartedly and freely. So in the previous life, when he learned she was with Xu Yi, he felt so devastated.

He began to desperately long for an outcome with her. When the loop ended, when everyone was safe and sound, he and she could be like ordinary people, remaining in linearly flowing time, day by day, moving straight forward. Their feelings could accumulate, memories would never change, and perhaps they would reach that natural culmination one day.

But now, someone was telling him she was dead, that she had left this world.

His barely-warmed girlfriend, their future that had just begun.

Zhang Jingchan lowered his head, his expression still dazed.

Li Yunmo shouted anxiously, “Brother Chan!”

Zhang Jingchan’s eyes reddened, deep and dark eyes brimming with moisture. He kept his head down, taking a deep breath, each word seeming to be excavated from the depths of his chest: “They saw the body?”

Li Xiaoyi answered through sobs, “I’m… with Zhong Yi right now.”

“Where?”

“The police station, the morgue.”

Zhang Jingchan asked hoarsely, “Weiyi is there too?”

Li Yunmo watched in alarm as tears rolled down Zhang Jingchan’s face.

Li Xiaoyi choked out, “Her body hasn’t been found yet. The police only found her shoe by the river, they’re still dredging…”

The taut energy throughout Zhang Jingchan’s body that seemed about to collapse suddenly relaxed, like a dying fish finally able to breathe.

Suddenly, a chorus of alarmed cries erupted from the other end of the phone.

Zhang Jingchan: “What happened? Li Xiaoyi!”

After a while, following a burst of chaotic sounds, someone picked up again. Li Xiaoyi’s father was crying on the other end, “Xiaoyi fainted. Ah Chan, please come back quickly…”

“Uncle, what exactly happened?”

“Zhong Yi and Weiyi just went downstairs to the nearby supermarket and ran into wanted criminals—criminals Zhong Yi had arrested during a previous operation, and they came for revenge! Right there on the street, they killed Zhong Yi, kidnapped Weiyi thinking she was Zhong Yi’s wife, and threw her in the river… I don’t know if my daughter suffered before she died, waaaah…”

Zhang Jingchan gripped his phone tighter, his brow furrowing deeper as he immediately seized on the key point: “How do you know Weiyi was thrown in the river? Were there eyewitnesses?”

Li’s father: “No… no. Those wanted criminals called the police anonymously and told them…”

Zhang Jingchan’s brow suddenly relaxed, his heartbeat instantly accelerating, like someone drowning who glimpsed a ray of light. He immediately asked, “How did Zhong Yi die? How many of them were there?”

“I heard there were four. Zhong Yi was shot to death by them.”

Zhang Jingchan leaned back in his chair, slowly repeating, “Guns?”

Actually using guns in the urban area—this was an incredibly serious major criminal case. For them to go this far showed they were obviously desperate.

Driven to desperation by Zhong Yi. Realizing this, the dull pain in Zhang Jingchan’s chest intensified.

His overly alert attitude also affected Li’s father, who hurriedly told him everything he’d heard about what happened in front of the supermarket and all the police findings so far.

“The car was stolen, with fake plates… Many police were dispatched. That… there’s a Captain Ding from the criminal investigation team who said they already have leads, and they’ll tell us as soon as they catch the criminals.”

After hanging up, Zhang Jingchan said, “Go even faster!”

Li Yunmo wiped away his tears and floored the accelerator. The car sped toward Xiang City.

——

When Li Weiyi woke up, she found herself lying in a completely unfamiliar room.

Beneath her was a large rosewood bed with exquisite, luxuriously understated silk embroidered bedding. She was still wearing her sweater and jeans, but someone had removed her coat. Her shoes were also gone—beside the bed was only a pair of dark red velvet slippers.

She put on the slippers, got off the bed, and looked around. Her heart began to race with an empty, panicked beat, her fingertips trembling.

The room was about forty-plus square meters, with walls covered in soft, delicate-textured wallpaper, a Chinese-style wooden suspended ceiling, and a crescent-shaped ambient ceiling light. Nearby was a large all-wood desk, a high-backed wooden chair, a row of bookcases—all clearly made from extremely precious wood, with deep, rich colors and a faint fragrance. There were also two open wardrobes with a small safe beneath them.

This room, from top to bottom, completely reflected someone’s taste and style.

Li Weiyi suddenly remembered Zhong Yi lying in a pool of blood after being shot, and immediately rushed toward the room’s only door. It was a heavy copper door, locked as expected, and she couldn’t budge it even slightly.

“Open the door! Open the door! Xu Yi!” She shouted with all her might, “Let me out! You bastard!”

The door remained motionless, with no response.

Li Weiyi’s tears fell as she spun around abruptly, searching everywhere for a window. But after looking around the entire room, she realized what kind of place Xu Yi had locked her in.

No windows. Forget windows—aside from that door, the walls of this room sounded like they were cast from solid metal when knocked on, without even a single seam.

Li Weiyi sat back on the bed dejectedly. A sealed room? Or an underground chamber?

Why would Xu Yi have such a place?

Had he prepared this long ago… knowing there would be a day when he’d lock her inside? Or was this his most secretive private domain?

She lifted her head and glanced at the safe beneath the wardrobe.

The door made a soft “click,” and Li Weiyi’s back instantly stiffened. She watched as Xu Yi walked in, casually closing the door behind him. Another “click,” and the door automatically locked.

He stood there, looking up at her.

Xu Yi looked almost exactly the same as always—a black suit of smooth, crisp material, white shirt without a tie, black leather shoes, hands in his pockets, tall and slender, with a calm expression. He looked just like the person who had rushed to see her every time in this life, and just like the person who had stayed by her side for so many years in the previous life.

Li Weiyi’s entire body began trembling imperceptibly.