Chapter 73

As the plane descended through the clouds, the Chinese broadcast sounded, and Sui Shi's long-held anxiety finally eased from her throat into her stomach.

The trip to Switzerland had drained everyone's enthusiasm and energy.

After exiting the airport, they found a coffee shop and sat down, each wearing a worried expression and saying nothing.

Sui Shi's brow was furrowed the most. Shen Qiancheng was being held in Switzerland, and they were just going to pretend they didn't know anything?

Wang Shuai spoke first: "Sui Shi, what should we do next?"

His words drew everyone's attention to Sui Shi.

Sui Shi sighed. Shen Qiancheng was detained in Switzerland, so returning home was of no use.

But...

Sui Shi looked around; everyone's faces were furrowed and eyes wide. Without Shen Qiancheng as their anchor, what were they supposed to do?

"Alright," Sui Shi tried to steady her voice. With Shen Qiancheng gone, she had to hold everyone together. "Since Shen always told us to leave, she must have her own plan. What we need to do now is wait."

The intern, new to the workforce, was the most timid. Eyes wide and about to cry, they said: "Sui Jie, is Shen really okay in a foreign land? Could she..."

Everyone knew what followed, but no one dared say it.

Sui Shi cut off the intern's words. With the situation so grim, the team must not fall into chaos.

"She'll be fine," Sui Shi said, not believing it herself. "She'll be fine. Shen has fortune on her side. You all head back to the company and see if they have any news about Shen being detained."

Wang Shuai and the others nodded vigorously, followed Sui Shi's instructions, and got into a car back to the Shen Corporation building.

Meanwhile, Sui Shi stood in the airport terminal. People bustled around her, and even with central air conditioning blowing, she felt a cold chill spread through her limbs.

She turned off airplane mode on her phone and called Liao Xue.

A mechanical female voice answered—no one picked up.

Shen was detained, and Liao Xue wasn't answering her phone either!

Sui Shi's mind was a mess, as if filled with paste. She sent Liao Xue a text: "Call me when you see this."

In her mind, she recalled the scene at parting in Switzerland when Shen Qiancheng insisted she send word of her safety to Liao Xue.

Unable to let it go, Sui Shi skipped going home. Dragging her suitcase, she grabbed a cab to the apartment.

Throughout the ride, she never stopped calling Liao Xue, but the line stayed busy or off.

Where could she be?

When her phone died, Sui Shi stared blankly out the window, still urging the driver to go faster.

The cab entered the community. Sui Shi's left eyelid twitched. She threw down some cash, opened the door, and ran toward the building where the two lived.

The green security door was secured by a huge lock. No one was home.

At noon local time, and no one was home?

Sui Shi pressed her brow, her heart thumping. A nagging feeling told her Liao Xue might know something.

Across the hall, the door opened. A kindly old lady in a blouse and a floral sweater-vest looked out.

"Girl? What's your relationship to those sisters?"

Suspicion tinged her voice. Sui Shi realized she, a stranger rarely seen around here, had been standing by the door for so long, easily mistaken for something suspicious.

Sui Shi forced a smile and said: "Oh, I'm their cousin. I told them I'd come by to visit, but they're not home, which is odd."

The suspicion in the old lady's eyes faded. She opened the door wider: "They went on a business trip. Didn't they tell you?"

Sui Shi nodded: "My elder cousin did go on a business trip, said she'd be back today, and told me to come hang out. Maybe she's still on the way? And Xiao Xue? Isn't she home?"

The old lady gave Sui Shi a strange look: "Do you really know those sisters? I don't think you're a good person!"

Sui Shi panicked and tried to defend herself: "Their names are Chengcheng and Xiao Xue. I genuinely know them."

Bam—

The door slammed shut hard. If Sui Shi hadn't stepped back, she would've gotten her nose broken.

What a weird old woman!

Despite her travel fatigue, Sui Shi knocked on the neighbor's door again. The old lady yanked it open, but her stern face softened into a grin at a few red hundred-yuan bills.

"Four days ago, the younger sister left with a suitcase. Probably went on a trip to clear her head," the old lady said cheerfully.

A trip?

Sui Shi thought it over. Shen wasn't home, so Liao Xue going on a trip made sense.

Maybe she was on a plane and couldn't answer her phone.

Still, without finding Liao Xue, Sui Shi didn't dare leave. She borrowed a power bank from the convenience store downstairs and sat on the stairs, waiting for over two hours.

Finally, a phone rang. It was Wang Shuai: "Sui Jie, something big happened. Check the group chat!"

###

Switzerland, a sealed room.

The old wall clock ticked second by second. This was the third day Shen Qiancheng had been locked here.

Bland Swiss meals served at set times, surveillance cameras running day and night—she kept a calm facade, quietly waiting for her captor to appear.

During those three days, she racked her brain to figure out which deity she had offended to warrant such an elaborate setup.

Since returning home, she had restrained herself, no longer as flashy and fearless as before.

The list of recently offended people was short, easy to itemize.

Shi Jianren wouldn't be stupid enough to harm Shen Corporation, let alone himself, just to punish her for speaking out at a meeting.

Besides Shi Jianren, there was that bastard Su Zeye.

He wouldn't be foolish enough to damage his own family over Liao Xue.

Shen Qiancheng glanced at the all-English book in her hand, the sandwich on the table holding a dead, processed egg. Closing her eyes, she chewed absently and finished her dinner.

The man from the second floor she'd seen on day one was connected to the mob. She had only seen him once, and he hadn't reappeared since.

Three days. She had been completely cut off from the outside world.

She wondered if Sui Shi had managed to fool Liao Xue, if the Shen-Su project had gone bust, and what kind of scene Sui Shi and the others found when they returned to the company.

Not knowing anything, feeling everything spiral out of control—she hated it!

The lights on the second floor came on, and that man, who clearly had Turkish features, appeared again.

Shen Qiancheng squinted to adjust to the light, raised a hand to shield her eyes, and sneered: "Can I leave now?"

The man smiled slightly and said in awkward Mandarin: "Goodbye forever."

Out the door, Shen Qiancheng stood in the sunlight, as if all her strength had drained away.

The blazing sun was blinding; no one could stare straight into its glare.

Shen Qiancheng looked up, taking a deep look at the sun. She was someone who never let a slight go. That man had better hide his tail well. Once she found it...

If you don't kill me, I'll surely kill you.

The man at the door handed her phone back. Shen Qiancheng muttered a curse in Italian.

Sure enough, the man flared up, eyes bulging.

Shen Qiancheng glared back, spat in his face, and strode off.

With her phone at 12% battery, she hailed a cab and gave the airport address as soon as she got in.

Ding—

A WeChat message came in. Shen Qiancheng unlocked the phone.

[Study.]

The sender was Shi Jianren.

No doubt the project had failed, and Shi Jianren was going to use the whip in the study to prop up his crumbling, pathetic paternal authority.

She dialed Liao Xue, but no one answered. Converting the time difference, it was around dusk there, so Liao was probably out buying groceries and hadn't heard over the noisy market.

Looks like Sui Shi had managed to keep Liao Xue in the dark.

Relieved, Shen Qiancheng called Sui Shi.

Sui Shi picked up quickly, and the single word "Shen Zong" carried so much weight.

Shen Qiancheng said a faint "Mm," then pulled at her collar: "Why isn't Liao Xue answering my calls? Did you see her after returning?"

Sui Shi's voice trembled over the phone: "Miss Liao isn't home. The neighbor said she left with her suitcase four days ago."

What did she mean, left with a suitcase?

Shen Qiancheng's heart raced—

"Forget it, who gets it after you're married?"

"It's in the freezer; just reheat it in a pot before eating."

"You must eat breakfast in the morning, and remember to close the window when you sleep at night."

Those words surfaced vividly in her mind. The sadness and goodbye woven between the lines, after three days away, now read as guilt and reluctance in the listener's mind.

Her voice hoarse, Shen Qiancheng took a deep breath: "What's the situation at the company?"

Sui Shi's voice was tinged with tears: "Shen Zong, our project documents were lost and ended up in a competitor's hands... The Shen-Su drug project is a facade..."

Boom—a thunderclap exploded in her ears.

Shen Qiancheng stared numbly at the window. The sky had filled with dark clouds, and in the oppressive pressure, lightning flickered faintly, thunder rumbling in booming crashes, yet none of it struck as hard as Sui Shi's words.

...Project documents lost.

...The office keypad lock had only her and Liao Xue's fingerprints.

...Su Zeye wanted Liao Xue.

Everything connected into a line. No matter how she tried to suppress it, the truth stood stark before her.

Shen Qiancheng's head throbbed as if splitting. Her breathing grew ragged; every breath of air sent shivers she could barely control.

Liao Xue, Liao Xue, Liao Xue—what are you trying to do?

Would you help someone like Su Zeye?

Did you lie to me?

When the return flight landed, Shen Qiancheng wandered home in a daze, not knowing how she made it.

The lock on the security door was cold. She had no key.

Liao Xue used to always be home waiting, so she didn't need a key.

Liao Xue... Liao Xue... Liao Xue...

Each time she silently spoke the name, her heart clenched with pain.

So this is what it felt like to be betrayed by the one you trusted most.

Suffocating. Heartbreaking. Unwilling to accept.

Shen Qiancheng slumped to the ground in a daze. So this was what being deceived and abandoned felt like.

Her phone rang. She had little strength left; she lifted a hand, about to decline, but saw the caller was Shi Jianren. She stood and answered.

"Thirty minutes. My study." Shi Jianren didn't waste words, issuing orders curtly.

Her phone slipped from her hand. She got in her car and floored it, racing to the subway station.

Her head buzzed, vision blurred. She might have been crying.

"Shen Qiancheng, I saw your car. How does it feel to be abandoned? Do you still dare to make me your nanny?"

Liao Xue's thin figure stood in the wind, her eyes pitiful, as if her return was some kind of charity.

Shen Qiancheng closed her eyes. In her mind flashed Liao Xue's round, delicate eyes.

Twice.

I only abandoned you once, yet you dare abandon me a second time!

How could you betray me along with them?

Didn't you value me the most?

It was all lies!

How dare you lie to me!

Shen Qiancheng's chest heaved violently.

Liao Xue, where the hell are you?

I... I'm so worried about you...