That evening, as the lights were just coming on.

After Zhang Moyun returned from the police station, he received a call from Ding Chenmo informing him that three arrest warrants had been issued and the covert search for Xu Yi had also begun.

However, those four people had already fled without a trace.

The higher-ups attached great importance to this case and had mobilized substantial police forces. Many more police officers appeared on every road in the city, major traffic routes out of the city were heavily guarded—the atmosphere was tense, with everyone on edge.

Ding Chenmo gave a few more quiet instructions before hanging up. Zhang Moyun sat in silence for a while, then picked up his cigarette pack and lighter and went downstairs.

Seeing he was going out, the police and bodyguards all stood up. Zhang Moyun waved his hand. “It’s stuffy inside. I’ll just smoke a cigarette by the front gate. Don’t follow.”

Zhang Moyun walked to the iron gate and indeed lit a cigarette, standing there motionless. The police and bodyguards occasionally glanced over but didn’t follow him out.

The night was as thick as fog, with a single streetlamp in the distance glowing dimly. On the road by the gate, besides him, there wasn’t another soul. Zhang Moyun held the cigarette between his fingers, smoking slowly while gazing at the starry sky and sighing.

Light, hurried footsteps approached. Zhang Moyun turned his head. A man in black clothes and pants wearing a baseball cap and face mask, head lowered, emerged quickly from around the corner. The cigarette in Zhang Moyun’s hand stopped in midair. Before he could react, the person’s body collided hard with his. Zhang Moyun caught sight of the knife sheath at his waist, his throat going dry. Just as he was about to make a sound, the police officer inside called out, “Zhang Dong?” Footsteps sounded.

The man in black turned and ran.

By the time the police officer ran out, the road was empty. The officer asked, “Was someone just here?”

Zhang Moyun gazed in the direction where the person had disappeared, his brow furrowed tightly.

——

The house Zhang Jingchan arranged for Li Weiyi was in an upscale residential complex in the city center—bustling transportation, comprehensive security, on the top floor with only one unit, requiring a card to access the elevator. It could be said to be very safe.

The two bodyguards stayed in the living room watching television. Li Weiyi chose a guest bedroom with a bathroom, went to take a shower, and when she came out, discovered she couldn’t find her phone.

She sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking all of Chen City, scratching her head and carefully trying to remember. When she left her own home, she had brought her phone. She hadn’t used it since then and had casually stuffed it in her pants pocket. She looked down at the shallow, wide pocket of her sweatpants and had a bad feeling.

Li Weiyi walked to the living room and said, “I dropped my phone. I need to go look for it.”

The bodyguard asked, “Where do you want to look?”

“Zhang Jingchan’s house, and also in the car you drove here.”

The two bodyguards exchanged glances, showing awkward expressions. “Miss Li, Young Master Zhang specifically instructed us that those criminals haven’t been caught yet—there’s a citywide manhunt. He asked you not to go out for now, otherwise it would be our serious dereliction of duty. We can look in the car, and we can also call to have someone else help look at the Zhang house. But please listen to Young Master Zhang’s instructions.”

Li Weiyi smiled. “Isn’t that a bit exaggerated? Aren’t you two following me? Xu Yi doesn’t have three heads and six arms.”

But the two bodyguards blocked her path, saying, “Young Master Zhang gave us very stern instructions repeatedly. Miss Li, please don’t make things difficult for us.”

Li Weiyi said, “You mean I can’t even go out now if I want to?”

The bodyguard said quietly, “Wait until the criminals are caught, or until Young Master Zhang comes over—you can talk to him directly?”

Li Weiyi turned and went back to her room, throwing herself heavily onto the bed. She thought perhaps it was because she’d been captured by Xu Yi that had frightened Zhang Jingchan. Thinking back to that evening when they’d traveled through time, in her house—his restraint and loss of control—seemed to explain his current forceful demands.

But the more Li Weiyi thought about it, the more restless and irritable she became. She always felt empty and unsettled somewhere in her heart. She pillowed her arms behind her head, gazing at the drifting clouds outside the window, commanding herself to calm down. From waking up this morning until now, she replayed every single thing in her mind, large and small.

She suddenly sat up from the bed and walked to the living room again. One bodyguard quickly said, “Miss Li, I already looked in the car—didn’t see your phone. I also called to have them look at the villa—nothing. Why don’t you think carefully again about where you dropped it?”

“I can’t figure it out. Lend me your phone—I need to call Zhang Jingchan.”

The bodyguard immediately handed her his phone. However, Li Weiyi called twice with no answer, remembering he might still be at the police station giving his statement.

Li Weiyi said, “I need to go cancel my SIM card and buy a new phone.”

The bodyguards fell silent.

“Still can’t go out?”

In the evening, the bodyguards ordered takeout. Li Weiyi ate in her room and didn’t come out.

A bodyguard came knocking at the door and handed her the phone. “Young Master Zhang.”

Li Weiyi took it and closed the door. Zhang Jingchan’s voice came through. “Are you angry?”

Li Weiyi was silent for a few seconds before answering. “A little… but it’s not that I can’t understand. It’s just really inconvenient not having a phone.”

He laughed and said, “Dad, Mom, and I just left the police station. We couldn’t have phones all afternoon. The telecommunications office is also closed now. First thing tomorrow morning I’ll come over and go with you, okay?”

“That’s more like it.”

He was silent for a few seconds, then said, “As long as you’re safe, I won’t be distracted.”

“I understand.”

——

Past midnight, the two bodyguards were fast asleep on the living room sofa when Li Weiyi’s bedroom door suddenly opened, the light on. Her painful moans came through. “Someone… come quickly…”

The two bodyguards jumped up alertly and rushed over to find Li Weiyi clutching her stomach, crouched on the floor, curled into a ball, her face flushed red with tears at the corners of her eyes. “My stomach… hurts so much… ah!”

She cried out several times, her body curling up even tighter, frightening both bodyguards. They tried to help her up, but she wouldn’t let them.

“What’s wrong? Did you eat something bad?” the bodyguard asked. “Or is it… that kind of pain?”

“It’s not that…” Li Weiyi sobbed. “It might be acute gastroenteritis. The food tonight wasn’t clean.”

“But we ate it and we’re fine…”

The other bodyguard gave his companion a reproachful look and said, “How can a young girl’s stomach be as tough as ours! Why don’t you drink some hot water first and see if you feel better?”

Li Weiyi shook her head. “I don’t want any! I just drank some and threw it up… I need to go to the hospital, wuu wuu! To the hospital! It hurts so much.”

She cried without stopping. The bodyguards were completely at a loss. One walked out the door and called Zhang Jingchan, but no one answered. The two looked at each other and made a decision. “To the hospital!”

If they delayed and something really happened to Li Weiyi, they couldn’t bear the responsibility.

One carried Li Weiyi on his back while the other attended to her. Li Weiyi said through her tears, “I need to call my sister and have her come stay with me.”

This wasn’t an unreasonable request. The bodyguard immediately gave her his phone.

Li Weiyi called Li Xiaoyi. “Sis, I woke up in the middle of the night with terrible stomach pain. It might be gastroenteritis. I need to go to the hospital—to the People’s Hospital emergency room. Can you come stay with me?”

Previously, Zhang Jingchan had Zhang Moyun explain to the Li family roughly about the protective arrangements for her over the next few days. The Li family also felt that professional bodyguards were safer.

Li Xiaoyi became anxious immediately. “I’m leaving right now.” Zhong Yi’s voice could also be heard on the phone. “Is that Weiyi?”