Chapter 628 - 643: Searching

An Ning was true to her word and left immediately. Zhou Xiaoshan wanted to go with her.

"No."

"Master, I’m worried about you."

"I’m your master. What are you worried about? Can you beat me in a fight? Are you better than me in any way?"

Zhou Xiaoshan was rendered speechless.

"Master, did you have to lay out the harsh truth like that?"

"A little pain is the only way to stop you."

Covered in mud and grime, An Ning left.

On her way out, she saw villagers stopping the PLA soldiers’ vehicles, desperate to give them something.

One side frantically refused while the other frantically insisted.

The scene was amusing, but the story behind it was even more moving.

In Huaxia, the bond between the people and the PLA was like family—it was never just an empty saying.

An Ning slipped away on a small scooter, riding along the edge of the road.

A sharp-eyed villager spotted An Ning right away.

"Stop her! She’s one of the rescuers!"

To the uninformed, it looked as if An Ning had committed some heinous crime. A crowd of men and women, young and old, had surrounded her.

"No, we’re all from the same town. I’m not running away. My home is here, I’m just going home."

An Ning hit the brakes and tried to explain, but the villagers didn’t disperse and continued to crowd around her.

"Look, my family owns Green Land in town. My surname is An, and my name is An Ning."

When she mentioned her name, An Ning, and Green Land, everyone started to believe her.

There were people in the crowd who recognized An Ning. Liu Yiyi, the manager of Green Land, and her daughter, Tangtang, both stepped forward to vouch for her.

An Ning pretended to be exhausted and said, "I haven’t been home in days. I’m just going to check on it."

The villagers finally let her pass. Though nothing more was said, everyone was resolute about where they would buy their groceries from now on.

The owner of Green Land had personally joined the rescue efforts; so many people had been saved by An Ning.

The supplies from Green Land were the first to arrive.

Disaster is cruel, but people are kind. Those who usually felt Green Land’s prices were a bit high suddenly realized they weren’t expensive at all.

After An Ning left, many people had a sudden thought.

Green Land itself was washed away, and its vegetable fields were flooded. How were they still able to donate supplies?

No one had an answer to that question, but the name Green Land was forever etched in their hearts.

But An Ning didn’t go home.

The An family’s house had been smashed to pieces. Not only was the roof gone, but almost everything inside had been washed away too.

Fortunately, her family had managed to get their important belongings out in time.

An Guoming had returned home a few days prior. He had taken his immediate family, his uncle’s family, Grandpa Jiang, and Master Tang and relocated them to the flood-free Linxian County, where they had settled down.

An Ning rode her scooter and headed north.

After reaching a county that was free of flooding and had open roads, she left her scooter at the local Green Land branch. Then, empty-handed, she boarded a train to the nearest airport.

Just as An Ning arrived at the airport, she received a call from Director Zhao.

"Any news?"

"We can’t get in touch with Jiang Xia. Our local comrades went to look for him, but the hotel said he and his team checked out three days ago."

Three days ago.

That meant he had been out of contact for three days.

An Ning’s heart grew restless. She asked Director Zhao to arrange the necessary paperwork for her to go there herself.

"Please don’t try to talk me out of it. To me, Jiang Xia is as important as my own life."

"I know. I wasn’t going to. Go. Everything will be arranged."

An Ning thanked him and hung up.

She boarded the earliest flight to Guang City in the south.

Once she got to Guang City, she would find another way forward.

On the plane, a Copper Coin flipped over and over in An Ning’s palm, but she couldn’t divine a thing.

The connection between her and Jiang Xia was too deep; she couldn’t get a reading.

’Jiang Xia had better be okay,’ An Ning thought. ’Otherwise, I don’t know what I might do.’

When the plane landed, a flight attendant personally escorted An Ning through a private channel. Someone met her with a passport and a detailed file. It contained a complete record of what Jiang Xia had been doing and where he had gone over the last few days.

"Thank you."

An Ning boarded a specially arranged plane for a direct flight to Southeast Asia.

On the plane, An Ning quickly washed up and changed into clean clothes.

Except for her face, which was still a bit dark with grime, she finally looked a little more normal.

On the plane, An Ning pored over Jiang Xia’s itinerary. At the same time, she studied a map of M City, zooming in and out. She cross-referenced his recorded movements against his planned route, searching for a place to begin looking.

Meanwhile, Director Zhao had also provided her with a wealth of local intelligence—information unavailable to the public.

And during An Ning’s flight, all the hidden assets in M City were activated for the sole purpose of finding Jiang Xia.

Finding one missing person might be difficult, but Jiang Xia’s entire team had disappeared. A target that large shouldn’t be so hard to find.

An Ning committed all the information to memory. After checking her phone’s battery and planning her search route, the plane finally arrived.

The moment she stepped off the plane, a wave of hot air washed over her. She was in a foreign land.

’Jiang Xia, where in the world are you?’

An Ning walked out of the airport, where many locals with darker complexions were calling out to potential customers in broken Chinese.

"Where to? Need a ride?"

"Need a ride? Which hotel?"

An Ning chose one of them and asked to be taken to the hotel where Jiang Xia had stayed.

Along the way, An Ning matched the streets she had memorized with the scenery before her eyes.

They arrived at the hotel.

The doorman at the entrance rushed over, enthusiastically preparing to help An Ning with her luggage.

But after looking around, he realized the pretty—albeit slightly grimy—girl in front of him didn’t seem to have any luggage.

An Ning gave a slight nod and walked toward the hotel. She found the front desk to check in.

While checking in, An Ning made several requests. Finally, after her various demands, she managed to get the room Jiang Xia had previously stayed in.

An Ning eagerly took the key and went upstairs. She knew Director Zhao’s people had already inspected the room, but she still wanted to see it for herself.

She went upstairs, walked down the hallway, and used the key to open the door.

Once inside, An Ning quickly shut the door. There was no time to wallow in sentimentality. She swept her spiritual power across the entire room, not missing a single corner.

Bedroom, balcony, living room...

’What’s that?’

An Ning had found something in a flowerpot in the living room.

An Ning took a few steps forward. There was a small depression in the soil of the flowerpot, and something was inside.

She dug it out. It was a button.

’Jiang Xia’s button!’

It was from a shirt they had bought together. An Ning remembered asking at the time why a white shirt had a black button.

An Ning clutched the black button in her palm, rubbing it with her fingers.

’Wait, there are scratches on it!’

She gently ran the pad of her finger over them, feeling them carefully.

’Tooth?’

An Ning felt the scratch resembled the character for "tooth," but it was written cursively and in a hurry, so she couldn’t be sure.

’Jiang Xia... tooth...’

An Ning suddenly recalled that Jiang Xia had a tooth pulled before he went abroad. But what was the connection between these two things?