“Oh, what a coincidence. I happen to feel nothing for you too. Brother Boyan, why don’t we shake hands?”
That was what Su Jianan had told Lu Boyan right to his face the night of their reunion after fourteen years.
Back then, she had thrown out those words callously and without a single hint of misgiving. As she blinked at him with her sharp and astute eyes, Lu Boyan had felt a pause in his heart, as though his heart had gone into a momentary hibernation. But relief came shortly after.
It was a good thing that Su Jianan felt nothing for him. That way, she would be able to turn and walk away from him when it was time for them to part. He would not have any reason at all to keep her either.
But it all turned out to be one big, fat lie.
She had always complained about him being a big liar who lied to her all the time. But look at her? Was she not a liar too?
Lu Boyan called Shen Yuechuan’s phone. “Ask w.a.n.g Yang to prepare for a flight to Z City tomorrow.”
“You’re going to look for Jianan, aren’t you?” Shen Yuechuan let out a chuckle. “Why, not going to go through with the divorce after all, eh?”
Divorce?
Lu Boyan hung up the phone. The corners of his lips lifted slightly.
Su Jianan would never be able to divorce him for the rest of her life.
If she really did have feelings for Jiang Shaokai, then Lu Boyan would at least have an excuse to let her go.
But the person for whom Su Jianan had feelings was Lu Boyan.
Knowing that, how could he let her go? How could he bear the thought of returning to that s.p.a.cious but empty house? How could he bring himself to sleep on that huge yet empty bed?
Su Jianan’s egress had returned the house to the way it had been in the past. But that did not change the fact that he now felt as if something in his life was missing, as if an important aspect of his life had been ripped away. Every corner of the house felt exceptionally empty. It was all he could do to numb himself with his work.
Otherwise, his yearning for Su Jianan would swallow his heart whole.
Since he now knew that Su Jianan had feelings for him, why should he subject himself to this kind of torture?
When he agreed to marry Su Jianan, he had thought that he could keep a lid on his own feelings as long as he treated her coldly throughout their marriage. That way, he would be able to let her go as if none of it mattered to him when it was time for their divorce.
But after they got married, he got to see the real Su Jianan, not the Su Jianan he used to see from surveillance photos. He got to see Su Jianan smiling, jumping and hopping around in front of him; he got to hear the word “honey” from her lips and in her soft, feminine voice; he got to experience what it felt like when she dove straight into his arms…
All those experiences had chipped away the tough sh.e.l.l which layered his heart. He had started to feel an uncontrollable desire to embrace her, to pull her into his arms, to kiss her, and even to do other things that went far beyond those.
In the end, he had decided to bring Su Jianan into his world. He had introduced her to his most important friends and had brought her to all the places that he knew she should be aware of.
The only thing he had yet to do was tell her those three words. He had planned to wait until she finally had feelings for him before he told her.
Everything had been going according his plan. Slowly, they were becoming more and more like a real married couple. But Kang Ruicheng’s return had ruined everything.
For the first time in his life, Lu Boyan felt fear; he feared that it would no longer be safe for her to remain by his side, he feared that keeping her around would only bring her more harm than good.
That was why he had deliberately treated Su Jianan coldly and had snapped at her for no reason at all. He tried to get her to hate him so that she would leave him on her own accord. He would not allow them to still act like a loving couple when Kang Ruicheng noticed her existence. If that were the case, he had no doubt in his mind that Kang Ruicheng would try to harm her.
Even his suspicion about her possible feelings for Jiang Shaokai had been by design.
If she confirmed his suspicion, then he would no longer have any reason to bind her to his side.
In the end, she did confirm it and had done so while crying. Then, she calmly demanded a divorce from him. Deep down, she must have been so disappointed in him.
“Jianan,” Lu Boyan said, tracing his fingers on the surface of Su Jianan’s photo. “I’m sorry.”
Sorry for being so clueless. Sorry for not knowing that she had feelings for him all along.
Perhaps he did notice it at certain times, just that he did not dare to believe it, so he had subconsciously ignored it.
Ever since the relapse of his gastric problems and his hospitalization, Su Jianan’s att.i.tude towards him had changed. She would no longer try pull away when he held her hand. Whenever he kissed her, she would stare back at him with a blush on her face. At times, she would even bury her blushing face against his chest, seeking his support freely.
In truth, these little details spoke volumes about Su Jianan’s feelings for him, and yet he had chosen to ignore them.
Had Su Yicheng not told him the truth, he never would have imagined that Su Jianan had harbored feelings for him for so many years.
All these years, she had been silently watching him from afar, uttering his name in a place he could not see.
Lu Boyan pulled out his phone and glanced at Su Jianan’s name in his contact list. In the end, he did not make the call.
He would look for her tomorrow. After that, he would tell her every single thing that he had been keeping secret from her.
That night, Lu Boyan had the best sleep since Su Jianan left.
The next day.
Lu Boyan had risen very early and had given out work instructions to Shen Yuechuan during breakfast. After that, he prapared to leave for the airport.
Just when he was about to leave the house, w.a.n.g Yang’s call came through. “We can’t go to Z City.”
Lu Boyan’s brows furrowed. “Why not?”
“A typhoon has. .h.i.t Z City. Level 8 beufort scale. All flights are affected. The earliest we can manage is tonight when everything goes back to normal,” w.a.n.g Yang said.
“No,” Lu Boyan said. “I must be at Z City before afternoon.” He could no longer bring himself to wait any longer.
w.a.n.g Yang decided right then that their only remaining option was to take a roundabout route. “How about this then,” w.a.n.g Yang said. “Why don’t you take a commercial flight to C City, and then from there, travel to Z City by car. After that, you can go to San Ching town. But the typhoon in Z City is really strong right now. The trip will come with certain risks. I must ask you to reconsider.”
There would be no reconsideration needed at all. Lu Boyan hung up the phone straight away and asked his secretary to book him a flight that would depart to C City in an hour. After that, he ordered Uncle Qian to drive him to the airport.
On the way to the airport, he suddenly thought about telecommunication issues; the entire telecommunication network of Z City might be affected due to the typhoon. He tried calling Su Jianan’s phone, and indeed, none of his calls got through.
A crease formed in Lu Boyan’s brows. For some reason, he had a bad feeling in his gut.
“Young Master, you don’t have to worry that much,” Uncle Qian said. “It’s normal for communications to be down during a typhoon. You can look for Young Madam straightaway when you get to San Ching town.”
Lu Boyan put his phone away. When he arrived at the airport, he realized that w.a.n.g Yang would be traveling together with him.
“I’ve made the arrangements. There’ll be a car waiting for us in C City,” w.a.n.g Yang said. “I’ll go with you and be your driver.”
All this felt miraculous to w.a.n.g Yang.
He was Lu Boyan’s personal pilot. Usually, when Lu Boyan had business trips or when he intended to travel somewhere, he would always inform w.a.n.g Yang beforehand so that w.a.n.g Yang could pick out a flight route and make other necessary arrangements. So far, there had only been two times when w.a.n.g Yang had been ordered to fly at moment’s notice.
The first time happened when Lu Boyan was on a business trip in the United States; Su Jianan had run into some trouble back in their home country, so Lu Boyan had abandoned a million-dollar contract just so he could return to save her. This time, it was also because of Su Jianan. But w.a.n.g Yang was unable to fulfill his role as Lu Boyan’s pilot due to poor weather conditions, so he decided to be his driver instead.
The flight from City A to City C took three and a half hours in total.
It was raining in City C by the time they left the airport. After checking the weather reports, w.a.n.g Yang told Lu Boyan, “The typhoon hasn’t subsided in Z City.”
“Where’s the car you’ve arranged?” Lu Boyan asked.
w.a.n.g Yang pulled open the door of a Land Rover. After Lu Boyan climbed in, w.a.n.g Yang got into the driver’s seat. The car sped along the airport freeway towards Z City.
The land rover left the borders of C City and was soon approaching Z City. The rain had gotten heavier during the journey, and w.a.n.g Yang had no choice but to crank up the wiper speed. For safety reasons, w.a.n.g Yang had decreased the car’s speed as well.
In the backseat, Lu Boyan kept glancing out the window.
Due to the heavy rain, nothing was actually visible through the window. It was foggy outside. Everything outside was shrouded by a ma.s.s of white and murky smog. The only sounds he could hear were the patter of raindrops against the car’s window.
The sounds of the rain had blocked out all other sounds outside the car. It was as if the rain was trying to isolate the people in the car from the rest of the world.
For some strange reason, Lu Boyan felt a surge of frustration. “w.a.n.g Yang, step on it.”
“We’ve already hit the speed limit. We can’t go any faster,” w.a.n.g Yang said, carefully manning the steering wheel. “It’ll be too dangerous if we go too fast.”
Lu Boyan’s frown deepened. All of a sudden, he felt a tightness in his chest; his hand went to his chest unconsciously. Then, his phone rang suddenly and without warning.
Perhaps it was too quiet and s.p.a.cious in the car, but the ringing of his phone sounded strangely desperate, almost like it was a distress signal.
Lu Boyan picked up the phone and heard Shen Yuechuan’s trembling voice. “Boyan, something’s happened.”
That feeling of tightness in his chest suddenly rammed into Lu Boyan’s heart. It was as if his eardrums had selectively tuned out every other sound in the outside world as Shen Yuechuan’s voice resonated in his ears, growing louder and louder.
“Jianan ran into trouble in San Ching town.”
It turned out that San Ching town was in fact where the center of the typhoon was.
Moments before the typhoon hit, someone had lodged a police report claiming the discovery of a female dead body in the mountains. The body belonged to a teenager about seventeen or eighteen years of age. The teenager had been raped first and then murdered. The circ.u.mstances of her death were gruesome and horrendous.
After getting a description from the person who made the report, the police confirmed that this was indeed the work of the murderer whom they had been hunting for the past few days. Captain Yan and the squad leader were both away at that time, leading their respective teams to carry out other tasks outside the police station. Other than a few people’s policemen, the only other person in the station was Su Jianan, the medical examiner who had come all the way from A City.
It was absolutely essential for a medical examiner to be at a crime scene as quickly as possible after the occurence of a crime. With that in mind, Su Jianan had packed her things and demanded the people’s police to bring her into the mountains.
The policeman glanced at the weather. “There’s a typhoon coming. Why don’t… why don’t we go after the typhoon subsides?”
“No,” Su Jianan said. “It will rain later. And the rain will wash everything away and compromise the crime scene. We’ll lose important evidence if we wait. In the previous cases, I wasn’t there at the crime scene quick enough. If I go this time, I will be able to uncover even more evidence.”
The policeman had no choice but to take Su Jianan into the mountains. Once he saw the body of the female victim on the ground, the policeman got the h.e.l.l out of there. The excuse he gave was that this was not in his job description. Besides, the typhoon was approaching soon, and it would be too dangerous to linger in the mountains.
That was how Su Jianan was left alone in the moutains together with a dead body.
An hour later, the typhoon gradually took form, and the rain became heavier and heavier. The squad leader and Captain Yan brought their teams back to the station. That was when they found out that Su Jianan was still in the mountains.
“s.h.i.t!” said the squad leader who was a local and who knew the mountains better than anyone else. “That isn’t some run-in-the-mill tourist mountain! It’s a friggin barren mountain! The path downhill is full of twists and turns with tons of smaller paths that lead deeper into the mountains. If Miss Su takes the wrong turn…”
“That’s not even the worst case,” said another squad member. “The roads will be slippery due to the rain. Miss Su might have an accident.”
Captain Yan was desperately calling Su Jianan’s phone, though none of his calls got through. That was the point he started to panic. “Squad leader, can you lend us two of your policemen who are familiar with the geographical features of the moutains. We’re going up there to look for her.”
“We’ll go with you,” said the squad leader. “We know that moutain very well. I’ll bring one team with me while you bring another. Then we’ll split up and take different entry paths. Oh, and stay on the comms.”
The typhoon hit the town in full force just as the team was about to leave the station to start the search. Every house in the entire town had their shutters sealed shut, and the streets were completely barren. Trees with narrower girths were bent out of shape under the strong wind’s a.s.sault.
Captain Yan and the team could barely leave the station let alone search for Su Jianan in the mountains.
“Captain Yan, what should we do?” Xiao Ying was anxious to the point of tears. “I don’t think Jianan made it down the mountains in time.”
Captain Yan gazed at the chalky smog and the tempest brewing outside. He forced himself to calm down. “Call Shaokai. Ask him to notify Jianan’s brother and Lu Boyan. We’re going to ask our superiors for help.”
The only problem was that the storm would render whatever help that their superiors might send over completely useless. Captain Yan and the rest were trapped inside the police station.