It was ten o'clock at night. Yu He didn't know if Chen Hao had rested, so she sent him a message instead of calling.
Yu He: [Brother Hao, Gu Yan is likely just a scapegoat.]
To her surprise, she received an instant reply.
Chen Hao: [Xiao He, you're awake? I suspected as much. I also just found a new clue. I'm on a mission right now. I'll come see you after it's over and explain everything in person. You should get some rest.]
Yu He stared at the words "new clue" for a long time. Remembering something, she reached for her pocket, only to realize she was wearing a hospital gown.
"Who changed my clothes? Where are my original clothes?" she asked, looking up.
"Brother Ting?" Lu Yiming was bewildered. Qin Beiting had brought her to the hospital, and he didn't know that. He looked at Qin Beiting, "Did you throw away the clothes?"
"!" Yu He's ears burned as she imagined Qin Beiting changing her clothes. Did that mean he had seen everything?
Her cheeks flushed, and she felt a surge of irritation.
But her rational mind quickly took over. What if he had seen everything? For Qin Beiting, seeing a woman's body was probably no different from a woman seeing another woman's body.
"A nurse changed them. The clothes were discarded," Qin Beiting said, unaware of her inner turmoil. Qi Nan had just finished bandaging his wound, and he stood up, walked over, and pulled a small bag from his pocket, handing it to her. "Is this what you were looking for?"
"..."
Yu He was struggling internally, and then Qin Beiting told her a nurse had changed her clothes?
She felt a knot of frustration. She wasn't like this before. Ever since she met Qin Beiting again, he could easily make her lose control of her emotions time and time again.
This feeling was terrible. Could it be that she had fallen for Qin Beiting?
The thought startled her.
She looked up at Qin Beiting. Of all people to fall for, why him, a homosexual?
Qin Beiting found her gaze, tinged with a hint of pity, peculiar. He glanced at the small transparent bag in his hand. "Isn't it?"
"Yes," Yu He snapped back to attention, taking the small transparent bag from him.
Qi Nan sensed a slight tension between them and said, "It's getting late. Brother Ting, Miss Yu, we won't disturb your rest. We'll be going now."
He then nudged Lu Yiming with his elbow, signaling him to leave.
"Good night, and sweet dreams," Lu Yiming waved. As he left, he remembered to close the door.
The room was left with just the two of them. Yu He checked her missed calls. There were four from Shi Ban, and the rest were from members of the Ye family, likely trying to reach her.
She opened WeChat and sent a message to the Ye family group chat, saying she had been out with friends for a few days and her phone had a bad signal, so she hadn't seen their calls.
Ye Qichen's call came through immediately.
"Sister, where are you? Are you really okay?"
Yu He checked her location and replied, "I'm playing in Nanshi. I'm fine."
"That's good to hear," Ye Qichen sighed with relief on the other end. "Gu Yan came to see me the day before yesterday and said some strange things before leaving. Then your phone was switched off, and I was very worried."
Gu Yan had visited Ye Qichen?
Yu He didn't want him to worry. "I went hiking with friends. The signal was bad on the mountain. What did she say?"
"Baby, have some water," Qin Beiting said, handing her a cup of water. There were a few pills in his palm.
On the phone, Ye Qichen heard Qin Beiting's voice and his brow furrowed. He asked, "You went with Qin Beiting?"
Yu He glanced at Qin Beiting, suspecting he was doing it on purpose. After obediently taking the medicine, she replied, "Yes."
Although Ye Qichen had reservations about Qin Beiting, he reasoned that if they were together, Qin Beiting could at least ensure Yu He's safety, so Gu Yan's words were probably not true.
"Do you want to talk to him?" Yu He asked, seeing Qin Beiting looking at the phone.
"Yes," Ye Qichen replied, thinking she was asking him.
Yu He: "..."
She handed the phone to Qin Beiting, feeling as though these two men might be getting involved behind her back.
Qin Beiting found it a bit strange but took the phone. "What is it?"
"Seventh Master Qin, if you dare do anything less than human to my sister, I'll ruin your reputation!" Ye Qichen warned through gritted teeth.
"Oh," Qin Beiting replied.
Ye Qichen on the other end was very displeased with his indifferent response. But then he realized the call had been hung up!
He considered redialing to question Qin Beiting's attitude, but then thought that such behavior would be too childish and would only make the Ye family seem easy to bully, leading Qin Beiting to push his luck further. He decided against it.
Seeing that Qin Beiting had hung up so quickly, Yu He glanced at him. What had the two men said to each other behind her back?
"Your brother asked me to take good care of you," Qin Beiting seemed to have read her mind. He returned the phone and explained proactively.
"Oh," Yu He mimicked his indifferent tone from earlier and replied.
No wonder she sounded so reluctant.
Qin Beiting: "..."
Yu He scrolled through her unread WeChat messages to pass the time, waiting for Qin Beiting to leave before contacting Shi Ban.
However, after waiting for a while, he showed no signs of leaving.
She turned her head, about to ask him to leave, when she noticed Qin Beiting staring intently at the black pearl earrings in the small bag she was fiddling with.
"Familiar?" Yu He asked.
"This was your Mother's Day gift to Aunt Yun'er that you made with your own hands when you were five," Qin Beiting said, snapping back to attention.
Yu He was taken aback. "You still remember?"
"Uh-huh. You even pricked your finger and cried so hard, you looked like a little kitten," Qin Beiting said, reaching out to hook her left index finger and rubbing her fingertip with his thumb. "It was right here."
Yu He's heart fluttered at his touch. She withdrew her hand, poured the earrings out of the transparent bag, and dangled them in front of him.
"It's such an ordinary black pearl, how can you be sure it's the one from back then?"
"You can try to open the bezel at the connection. Isn't there a small hole you accidentally made back then?" Qin Beiting said confidently.
Yu He immediately pried open the rusty bezel. Sure enough, there was a small hole underneath. This was truly her adoptive mother's earring!
She had been to that cave. What was inside?
Qin Meimei had imprisoned someone in the mountains of Lin County, not far from the cave in the deep mountains. Was there a connection between them? Or was it just a coincidence?
"Where did you find it?" Qin Beiting saw her anxious confirmation and realized it wasn't something she had kept with her all along, but rather something she had obtained recently.
"My grandmother gave it to me," Yu He said. She didn't want to tell him about the cave for now. She reassembled the bezel and put it back in the small bag.
Qin Beiting didn't ask further. Just then, his phone rang, and he got up and went to the restroom. Yu He took the opportunity to switch to her Crow account on WeChat and found "A Pig".
They had agreed that for urgent matters, they would send messages, and for particularly urgent matters, they would call. He had made four calls, indicating the situation was extremely urgent.
Indeed, as soon as she opened their chat, the latest message was: [Boss, you're wanted by Interpol!]