"Missing?" Lu Lingchen and Shen Nian exchanged glances, knowing that something serious must have happened just from hearing those two words.
"Are you sure she's really missing?"
Zhang Yueping was just an ordinary college student, and as Chen Bei said, she was from the countryside, not a rich kid, so how could she suddenly go missing?
"That's what they're saying publicly..."
Of course, there was something fishy about it.
"Yueping's parents noticed she hadn't come back for two days, so they immediately reported it to the police. However, they speculated that Yueping might have been emotionally unstable and probably encountered something that caused her to act recklessly and run away. They said... well, they made a lot of guesses, but they didn't think she had been taken by bad people."
"I don't know how they handled it specifically, I only know that Yueping was listed as a missing person, and then... there was no further update. I went to see Yueping's parents afterward, and they had already been driven insane."
The two elderly parents who had lost their daughter were raving mad, crying one moment and laughing the next. When they saw Chen Bei, they grabbed her hands excitedly and kept muttering.
"Yueping, you're still alive, you're okay, they didn't kill you..."
Repeating things like that over and over.
Chen Bei held a cup in her hand, head lowered, and said slowly, "Unless something unexpected happened, Yueping is gone, and... they're involved. After finding out that Yueping's parents had gone insane, I saw through it all. I'm just an ordinary person, there's no way I can stand up against them."
"My parents only have me as their daughter. I couldn't let them end up like Yueping's parents, so I sent the four elderly people back to their hometown, and I left Hai City too, far away from them."
She only wanted to live out the rest of her life in peace.
Zhang Yueping's parents remained raving mad, and the villagers all thought they had been driven insane by the shock of their daughter's disappearance, imagining every day that Zhang Yueping had been killed, which is why they had driven themselves insane.
The two old people often muttered about life and death, but no one paid much attention to that aspect.
"..." Lu Lingchen's expression was solemn.
He never expected that this time, they would uncover such a massive bombshell that had been hidden for so many years.
If they had really dared to silence people to cover it up back then, they would have been sentenced to death!
...
Lu Lingchen and Shen Nian brought Chen Bei back to Hai City and provided her with 24-hour protection.
They also informed lawyer Xu Xiping and Lu Lingchuan about Zhang Yueping's case, and both took it very seriously. Lu Lingchuan immediately dispatched people to investigate.
After returning to Hai City, Shen Nian's tense mental state finally loosened a bit.
At home, she wore casual clothes and walked slowly, step by step, holding onto furniture for support.
The ankle she had sprained while chasing Chen Bei still hadn't healed and had even swollen a bit more.
It took her a while to make her way to the sofa and sit down, then Lu Lingchen's call came through.
"Hello." Shen Nian answered, "What's up?"
"I've arranged accommodation for Chen Bei," Lu Lingchen said.
"Mm-hmm."
She bent over with difficulty and picked up a cup from the coffee table. "We've disrupted the peaceful life she had finally settled into. Ensuring her safety is our responsibility."
"Naturally," Lu Lingchen said. "Chen Bei has started sorting through the evidence she has. Once she has everything organized, she'll hand it all over to Lawyer Xu."
"Good."
"By the way," Lu Lingchen remembered something and asked Shen Nian, "How's your ankle?"
He had seen her injure her foot that day when he was coming downstairs from the seventh floor, and he had carried her down.
"It's fine," Shen Nian looked at her swollen ankle and replied.
"Although a sprained ankle isn't a big deal, you should still take care of it. I think yours looks pretty bad," Lu Lingchen knew her nature - she would endure any pain or discomfort, being too stubborn.
That's why he said that extra line.
Shen Nian curved her lips, "Got it."
Over all these years, Lu Lingchen had treated her decently. After Lu Lingrui passed away, Shen Nian saw him like a younger brother.
After hanging up, Shen Nian took a sip of water. On the coffee table was a small tray containing the pills she had just taken out.
One, two, three... too many to count.
Shen Nian cupped the pills in her palm and swallowed them in one go.
She drank a few more sips of water to wash them down.
After setting the cup back on the coffee table, Shen Nian remembered something and took out her high school graduation photo that she had hidden under the sofa cushion, staring at the image of herself standing side by side with Lu Lingrui.
Lu Lingrui's smile was as radiant as she remembered.
Shen Nian couldn't help but curve her lips into a smile, reaching out to gently caress Lu Lingrui's face with her fingertips.
The pills she had taken contained sedatives, and before long, Shen Nian grew drowsy.
She hadn't rested well during those last two days in Hai City.
When Lu Lingchuan returned, Shen Nian was sound asleep.
He had rushed over straight from the airport, travel-worn.
He opened the door and went directly to the bedroom, pushing open the door to see her sleeping peacefully.
Perhaps knowing that Chen Bei would help them point towards the truth about Wang Yong and Yang Hao had put Shen Nian's mind at ease, and her sleep had improved. It was rare to see her sleeping so calmly, her brow not furrowed.
Over the years, no matter how many big or small fights they had, no matter how much they quarreled, in that instant when he saw her face, his previously restless heart suddenly calmed.
He was still carrying a small bag, which he had picked up from the hospital on his way back.
When Lu Lingchen had called him, he had casually mentioned Shen Nian's sprained ankle. It was just a passing remark, but Lu Lingchuan had taken it to heart, and before he realized it, the passenger seat was filled with medicine.
Shen Nian was asleep, so his footsteps were light, making no sound on the floor.
He stopped at the foot of the bed.
This proud woman was now naturally kneeling on the carpet beside the bed, the bag placed by her feet. He gently lifted the thin blanket and easily identified which foot was injured.
The swelling was still quite severe.
Lu Lingchuan frowned, reaching out to gently touch the swollen area.
Even in her sleep, Shen Nian felt the pain, and her body reflexively pulled her leg back. Lu Lingchuan didn't dare touch it again.
He knelt there motionless, not forcibly pulling her leg, only after seeing that Shen Nian had calmed down did he carefully lift her foot again, this time deliberately avoiding the injury to prevent touching the painful area.
One hand supported the underside of her foot while the other searched through the pile of medicine and found a numbing spray.
He first carefully read the instructions to confirm that this was the right medication before opening the cap, keeping about ten centimeters from the injury, and aiming the nozzle at the swollen area. Then he pressed it once, and again, evenly spraying the medication over the wound.
Shen Nian was groggy, her eyes too heavy to open, but her mind had cleared slightly.
She clearly felt someone supporting her feet, which were icy cold, as if something had been sprayed on them.
