Chapter 2

The next day.

I didn't wake up until ten o'clock. President Li and Lao Liang were both drunk last night. In comparison, I was still relatively sober, so I had to take on the task of sending them home. By the time I got home, it was already past three in the morning.

There was no sound in the living room outside. I got dressed and went outside. Xiao Wu's room door was open. The quilt and the clothes he had taken off were all over the bed, and there were several pairs of smelly socks on the floor. The desktop computer hadn't even been turned off.

I frowned, walked into the room, and immediately opened the window. A gust of刺cold wind rushed into the room. A box of instant noodles was still on the computer desk, and the cigarette butts in the ashtray, mixed together, created a very unique smell. I wondered if he'd started taking care of himself or something. He even had a can of goji berries soaking, and he hadn't even bothered to screw the lid back on.

Looking at the scene in front of me, I dialed Xiao Wu's number. The sound that came through was very noisy. I asked him, "Did you go to the construction site?"

"Of course."

"You've made your room so dirty, how can anyone sleep in it?"

"I'll just have to make do. I don't have time to clean it up these days," Xiao Wu replied matter-of-factly.

I didn't even want to say anything about his attitude. Whether or not someone is clean is a matter of personal habit. If he doesn't have that awareness, there's no point in talking about it.

"I'm busy right now. I'm going to hang up if there's nothing else."

I didn't answer him. I ended the call before he could hang up. I noticed that I had several missed calls. I opened it up and saw that they were all from the same unknown number, and it was a landline. I was wondering if it was a scam call when the phone rang again. I instinctively pressed the reject button. In my experience, they either want you to buy stocks or sell you a house.

I turned around and went into the bathroom. The entire sink was just as messy. The toothpaste was squeezed out in a crooked line, the cap was thrown to the side, and there were water stains all over the floor. We were both men, but I was very unaccustomed to such a casual lifestyle.

I was brushing my teeth when the phone rang again. I spat out the toothpaste foam and answered the phone with a lot of anger, cursing, "Is it fun to keep making harassing calls? I'm a poor man. I don't have money to buy stocks, and I can't afford a house either. Don't fucking call me again."

After a burst of cursing, the other party didn't say anything. I thought I had guessed right, so they didn't dare to try to sell me anything anymore. Just as I was about to hang up, a familiar voice came through:

"My bag is missing."

I immediately recognized Pei Shi Yu's voice. Her bag was missing? I clearly saw her holding it tightly last night. What did she mean by calling me about her missing bag? Did she suspect that I had taken it?!

"What do you mean by telling me this?" I asked her, not understanding at all.

"Did you send me home last night?"

Pei Shi Yu's tone was very calm, so I patiently began to explain, "Yes, I saw you clutching your bag tightly when you got out of the taxi last night."

"My dad said that you called him. How did you unlock my phone?"

She analyzed it like a detective, and I was immediately speechless. I quickly recalled the details of last night in my mind...

After getting out of the car, I did take her phone out of her bag when I helped her, but I put it back after making the call. But now she was questioning how I unlocked her phone. Her tone seemed to imply that I shouldn't have done that.

"You were as drunk as a ghost. If I didn't use your phone to make a call, did you want to sleep on the street?"

"Answer my question first." Her tone was very insistent.

"I used your finger to press the fingerprint sensor. Did you really need to ask about such a simple thing?"

She suddenly exploded, "Who told you to touch my phone? Did you get my permission?"

"Damn it, if I had known you were this kind of person, I would have just left you alone..."

"Who asked you to bother?"

I quickly hung up the phone on such an unreasonable woman. I hadn't done anything wrong, so I didn't feel guilty.

But things weren't that simple. As soon as I drove the car out of the neighborhood, President Li called again. I felt particularly annoyed...

"Hello, President Li."

"Lin Che, what happened last night? Shi Yu said her bag is missing."

I immediately slammed on the brakes and pulled the car over to the side of the road...

"This is really fucked up. She fell asleep in the car last night. I did take her phone to call her dad. She had been holding her bag in her hand the whole time. Later, her dad came down and called a few security guards. I then went back by myself. Didn't I go see you again?"

"If you say that, is it possible that the security guards took the bag?"

"You can have her check the surveillance footage from last night, can't you?"

"I can't get away right now. I'm not at the company. Shi Yu's bag also has an important USB drive. The consequences would be disastrous if it were lost."

"Can't she just check it herself? I'm not free either." My temper suddenly flared up. Anyway, nothing good ever comes from meeting her.

"Go to her company and explain the whole story to her in detail. This concerns the project's data."

"I've already explained it to her."

"She just called me and said that your attitude was very bad and that you hung up on her. Give her a call. The bag must be found."

I knew the importance of the matter, but it really had nothing to do with me. At its root, it was her dad's fault for not taking good care of her. President Li gave me some instructions and then hung up the phone in a hurry, while I was left in a very awkward position, getting no thanks and bringing unnecessary trouble upon myself.

I stepped on the gas and drove directly toward her company as fast as I could. The journey normally takes thirty minutes, but I only drove for twenty minutes.

I stopped the car and called her...

"Come downstairs. I'm downstairs. Let's go check the surveillance footage together."

"Is it even useful to check?"

"Don't be so sarcastic. Do you think I took your bag or something?"

"Who knows!"

Her answer meant that if I didn't get to the bottom of this, I would really be taking the blame.

"Stop talking nonsense. I'm going to check the surveillance footage right now. Come over here yourself."

This time she hung up on me first. I was annoyed and drove back to her house. Meeting such a woman was really a stroke of bad luck. I've been having trouble ever since I met her.

The security guards at the neighborhood had changed today. After a lot of explaining, I found out that I wasn't qualified to check the surveillance footage. Only the homeowner could do that.

I had no choice but to go back to the car and wait for Pei Shi Yu. I casually lit a cigarette and looked around. The road was clean at this time, and there were no traces left at all, including at the entrance of the neighborhood.

I waited for half an hour and started to get a little impatient. Losing her phone meant that I had also lost her contact information, and I didn't have her phone number anyway. What else could I do but wait blindly!

It wasn't until another fifteen minutes had passed that I saw a taxi stop directly at the entrance of the neighborhood. It was Pei Shi Yu who got out. I didn't immediately go up to her, but just watched her back. A black coat wrapped around her slender figure, and her permed hair was tied up casually. Perhaps it was because of the alcohol, but when she turned her head, I saw that her face was a little pale.