Chapter 366

I waited in the car for nearly an hour.

A beautiful figure finally emerged from the campus gate.

I watched her, straining to see her clearly.

I could see her appearance and beauty, but I could never see through to her heart.

She came from privilege and possessed exceptional looks, yet worked harder than everyone else. She wanted a broader world.

Liang Yi was also beautiful and worked just as hard, but she came from poverty and a terrible family. All she wanted was to change her cruel fate.

The two young women shared many similarities, yet in other ways, they were worlds apart.

No matter how I examined it, they couldn’t possibly hate each other. Even establishing a connection between them seemed difficult.

An Yutong drew closer.

I lowered the window, leaned out, and greeted her.

She froze when she saw me. “You’re… Liang Yi’s cousin…”

I smiled. “Get in. I’ll take you home. No need to be polite.”

This time, she didn’t refuse, though she still thanked me before climbing in.

Perhaps because we had met yesterday, she sat directly in the passenger seat.

Once we started moving, she asked whether I had returned to the university to investigate Liang Yi’s whereabouts.

I said yes.

“Have you found any leads?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Society may look safe, but sunlight never reaches every corner. When an adult disappears, the chances of finding them are usually low.”

An Yutong sighed, then comforted me. “Don’t give up hope. There are cameras everywhere now. I’m sure the police will find Liang Yi.”

I ignored that and continued, “Every time I see you, I think of my cousin. Her family isn’t as wealthy as yours. She doesn’t even have parents as good as yours.”

“Your parents bought you a car to make your commute easier.”

“My cousin’s parents treat her terribly.”

An Yutong sighed. “How can parents not love their own child? Isn’t a child flesh from their own bodies…?”

I glanced at her and smiled bitterly. “Good question. Maybe they favor sons over daughters. Maybe they’re so poor they don’t have enough energy or affection for both children.”

“Life hasn’t been easy for Liang Yi. She had to kneel and kowtow to beg her parents to let her attend university.”

“She fought with everything she had just to change her fate. How could something like this happen to someone struggling so hard to live?”

We soon reached the complex.

Before she got out, I looked at her pleadingly. “If you remember anything or hear of any clue, please tell me.”

“I desperately want to find Liang Yi. I want her to come back safely.”

My words seemed to move An Yutong. After a moment of silence, she said, “All right. I’ll ask around at school. If I learn anything, I’ll let you know.”

She got out, and I drove away.

But I didn’t go far. At the next intersection, I made a U-turn, drove back along the opposite side of the street, and parked by the curb.

I watched the entrance across the road.

An Yutong hadn’t entered the complex. She stood outside, lost in thought.

She remained there for seven or eight full minutes before finally going in.

…

That night, I had a dream.

I was on a street. Ahead of me, a young woman walked alone, hugging herself in desolation.

I couldn’t see her face, yet somehow recognized her immediately as the missing Liang Yi.

Her back looked forlorn, like a little bird with broken wings.

I saw only one thing in her.

Loneliness.

Beyond that loneliness, she seemed out of place in the city, even in the entire world.

I wanted to catch up and bring her back, but I could never reach her.

An invisible barrier seemed to keep me from taking her hand.

Desperate, I could only call her name over and over from behind.

She couldn’t hear me. She never once looked back.

I couldn’t simply let her leave. I needed to know where she was going and what she intended to do, so I followed.

After a while, I heard her sobbing.

She seemed to be crying.

“Liang Yi, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

This time, she stopped.

I looked up and discovered that she had reached the entrance to An Yutong’s complex.

My eyes widened, and an inexplicable chill crept over me.

Why had she come here?

“Liang Yi, can you hear me?”

“Where have you been? Everyone is looking for you, do you know that?”

Her sobs abruptly turned into eerie laughter.

The sound filled me with unease.

I stepped back, certain Liang Yi had gone insane.

Then she spoke. “Looking for her? You’ll never find her. Hahaha…”

She laughed wildly.

My eyes widened. I retreated several steps as every hair on my body stood on end.

I had never heard Liang Yi’s voice.

But I had heard An Yutong’s!

“You’re An Yutong!”

At last, she turned.

The face was unmistakably An Yutong’s.

She stared at me with a cold smile. I couldn’t tell whether she was sneering or mocking me, but I sensed a trace of provocation.

She was challenging me.

“I know you aren’t Liang Yi’s cousin. You want to find her.”

“Unfortunately, you’ll never find her. Not just you. Nobody will ever find her.”

“Helpless, aren’t you?”

She laughed again. My scalp went numb, and I jolted awake in bed.

Morning had already come.

I was drenched in cold sweat from the dream.

I showered. By the time I came out, Meng Yifan was awake too. He had returned to the agency yesterday.

I might skip work again today, so I told him.

He didn’t object. There was no business anyway. The only reason everyone still showed up was that Meng Yifan didn’t want to pay three thousand yuan in base salary for nothing.

He didn’t seem as enthusiastic as before, so I asked whether he regretted switching careers to sell Stigmatized Properties.

“I asked Seventh Master about my financial luck,” Meng Yifan said. “He told me everyone’s wealth is predetermined. There’s no point rushing.”

“Look at Pan Xiaorou. No matter how hard I work, I won’t earn a fraction of what she does. Better to let nature take its course. Obsessing over money drives people to extremes and makes them anxious. I don’t want to spend every day acting like a bitter housewife.”

I froze. “What did you just say?”

Meng Yifan shaved as he looked at me. “I said I don’t want to act like a bitter housewife every day.”

“The two sentences before that!”

He thought. “Obsessing over money drives people to extremes…”