On that day, when he heard Ji Bai talking about Qingmian's illness, his mind was filled with the details of his time with Jiang Zhirou in recent days.
He didn't have time to think about anything else. At that moment, the only thought in his mind was that Qingmian was already "gone", and he didn't have time to think about anything else.
"Brother Chi Yu, what on earth happened between you and Qingmian?"
Lu Wenxi's voice interrupted Chi Yu's train of thought.
Before he could speak, Lu Wenxi's face darkened. "Don't tell me you really made Qingmian leave in anger?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, a strange look flashed across Chi Yu's face.
Seeing his reaction, Lu Wenxi sprang up from the sofa and raised her voice. "You really made her leave in anger?!"
Chi Yu bit his lip, which was tantamount to an admission.
"Are you crazy?! Do you know that by doing this, she may never come back!"
Looking at Chi Yu at this moment, Lu Wenxi finally understood why Jiang Zhirou had said those things on the phone that day.
In Jiang Zhirou's mind, strictly speaking, they weren't really her friends, and Chi Yu wasn't really her boyfriend either.
So after Chi Yu drove her away, she didn't try to stay at all. She simply returned to Country A.
It wasn't that she didn't want to stay in the imperial capital. It was just that she had no reason to stay.
Looking at Chi Yu's bruised face, Lu Wenxi felt like punching him again.
Furious, she stepped forward and pulled Ji Bai up. "Stop cleaning his wounds. This beating was well-deserved! Let's go!"
Ji Bai was still holding the disinfectant tools in his hand when he was abruptly dragged out by Lu Wenxi.
A moment later, there was a loud "bang".
The sound of the door slamming shut echoed in the entrance hall.
The house fell silent again.
Downstairs in the basement parking lot.
Ji Bai held Lu Wenxi's hand and stopped her.
"Don't be angry. Chi Yu must have his own reasons."
"What reasons?!" Lu Wenxi shouted and shook off Ji Bai's hand.
"None of you men are good. When things are good, you're all lovey-dovey, but when things go bad, you just drive the girl away. What's that all about? Are we just toys that you can summon and dismiss at will?"
Ji Bai: ... He really was unlucky. He just wanted to comfort her, but now he'd drawn her fire.
He felt like slapping himself.
"Chi Yu really did the wrong thing this time!" Ji Bai quickly agreed. "No matter what, he shouldn't have driven her away. If there were problems, they should have been solved. What's the point of driving her away like this? Are we just toys that you can summon and dismiss at will?!"
Ji Bai repeated Lu Wenxi's words, looking even more indignant than her.
Lu Wenxi gave him a sidelong glance, her eyes lingering on him for a while. After a long time, she asked, "Do you really think so?"
Ji Bai nodded vigorously, looking serious. "Of course! Chi Yu really didn't think this through."
"Right! Driving her away like that really isn't like Brother Chi Yu."
Lu Wenxi frowned.
Seeing that her mood had softened a bit, Ji Bai continued.
"But we also need to think from Chi Yu's perspective." Ji Bai stopped walking, held Lu Wenxi's hand, and gently stroked the back of her hand. His expression was serious.
"If it were me, and one day you suddenly disappeared, but everything else remained the same. 'You' were still 'you' and still by my side, and we just lived our ordinary lives. But then one day, someone told me that you weren't really you anymore. I don't think I'd be able to stay calm and rational."
Lu Wenxi lowered her head and said nothing.
She understood these things, but she just couldn't accept them.
After all, Chi Yu was the one who loved Qingmian the most.
In her eyes, she stubbornly believed that Chi Yu would accept everything about Qingmian. But the truth was that he'd driven her away with his own hands.
The basement parking lot was very quiet.
After a long time, Lu Wenxi finally spoke.
"I just think Mianbao has had a really hard life..."
"If she hadn't come to the imperial capital back then, her life would have been very different..."
Lu Wenxi's nose felt sour, and her voice was tinged with a sob.
Whether it was Jiang Zhirou or Chen Qingmian, what she was afraid of wasn't that they would suddenly disappear one day. What she was afraid of was that she would completely lose this friend.
As if seeing through her thoughts, Ji Bai bent down slightly, stretched out his arm, and pulled her into his embrace. He gently patted her on the back and comforted her, "Give Qingmian some time, and give Chi Yu some time too. They'll be okay."
Lu Wenxi buried her head in Ji Bai's chest and let out a muffled "um".
...
On the other side.
"Sir... Miss's phone is unreachable..."
Tan Si, who was driving in the driver's seat, glanced at the rearview mirror and carefully spoke to the man in the back row.
The inside of the car was dim. Half of Chen Yu'an's face was hidden in the shadows, making it hard to see his expression.
Tan Si's palms, which were gripping the steering wheel, were sweating nervously.
The relationship between the two of them had just improved. If anything happened to the miss now, he didn't even dare to think about the consequences.
Hearing this, Chen Yu'an's face darkened.
Qingmian wasn't with Chi Yu.
And judging from Chi Yu's state just now, it seemed that Qingmian hadn't been back for several days.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through Chen Yu'an's mind.
"Check if she has any recent records of leaving the country."
"Yes!"
The car soon drove into the residential area.
After parking the car, Tan Si didn't dare to waste a single second. He quickly began to investigate Chen Qingmian's travel information.
When he saw the record of a flight from the imperial capital to Country A, Tan Si's hand holding the phone trembled slightly.
Why had she returned to Country A?
"Sir, the airline shows that the miss took a flight from the imperial capital to Country A a few days ago."
Chen Yu'an's expression changed slightly, and he immediately asked, "Which day exactly?"
Tan Si quickly checked. The moment he saw the date, his pupils dilated suddenly.
"Which day?"
Chen Yu'an's voice rang in his ear again.
"Th-the day she was drugged..." Tan Si stammered.
Chen Yu'an looked up at him. "Didn't you safely send her home? How did she end up at the airport?"
Tan Si quickly explained, "I-I saw the miss enter the house with my own eyes. I don't know why she ran out of the house in the middle of the night and went to the airport..."
"Got it."
Chen Yu'an frowned throughout, as if... he'd expected her sudden departure.
Tan Si didn't dare to say anything more. He silently closed the door and left the residential area soon after.
Chen Yu'an sat on the living room sofa, recalling his interactions with Qingmian in recent days.
After a while, he took out his phone, tapped on the screen, and dialed a number.