Chapter 85: I’ll Find Him

Chapter 85

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Jiang Li’s heart was beating so fast when he realized Luo Xin was ignoring him. She was the one person who had understood him, listened to him, and taken care of him since he was five years old. The thought of losing her attention, even for a moment, filled him with a restless unease he could not explain.

He couldn’t simply leave her like this.

"I’m just worried because Shen Mei is getting—"

He never finished.

A sudden, sharp pinch struck the side of his neck. Jiang Li frowned, lifting his hand instinctively to touch the spot. His fingertips came away stained with blood.

For a second, he simply stared at it.

Then the world shifted.

The ground seemed to sway beneath his feet, and the sounds around him became strangely distant. His vision blurred at the edges as an unfamiliar weakness spread rapidly through his limbs. His fingers became numb, and a strange heaviness settled over his body, making even the simple act of standing feel impossible.

Luo Xin.

He tried to call her name, but his throat refused to cooperate.

"Luo Xin!"

The scream existed only inside his mind.

His knees buckled, and just before he could collapse onto the ground, someone caught him.

Jiang Li never heard the footsteps approach.

The stranger had moved with frightening precision, taking advantage of the moment when Luo Xin’s attention was elsewhere. Jiang Li tried to fight back, but his arms felt useless, his body refusing to obey him. He could barely move his fingers, let alone push the person away.

The stranger lifted him easily into his arms.

From a distance, it looked almost innocent: a young man carrying his younger brother home.

No one paid attention.

No one realized Jiang Li was struggling weakly against the unfamiliar arms holding him. His eyelids felt heavier with every passing second, and the more he tried to force his body to respond, the more powerless he became.

The stranger carried him toward a waiting car and carefully placed him inside the back seat. The moment the door closed, Luo Xin finally turned around.

She had noticed the sudden silence.

"Jiang Li?"

Her eyes widened when she saw the empty space where he had been standing.

She hurried toward the spot, looking around in confusion. Her gaze swept over the pavement, the nearby shops, and the people passing along the street, but there was no sign of him.

Meanwhile, the stranger had already stepped away.

He blended into the crowd with practiced ease, behaving like any ordinary person heading toward the nearby shopping center. He even paused for several minutes, giving Luo Xin no reason to remember him.

Those minutes were enough.

Luo Xin was distracted by a phone call with Shen Mei, desperately trying to explain what had happened and asking if she knew where Jiang Li could have gone. While her attention remained fixed on the call, the stranger returned to the car.

The engine started.

By the time Luo Xin looked around again, the vehicle had disappeared into traffic.

She had no idea that Jiang Li was already gone.

---

Shen Yu was exhausted.

He had barely slept the previous night, and after spending hours buried beneath work, the fatigue had settled heavily over his body. The faint shadows beneath his eyes had become more noticeable, and even the coffee in his hand seemed incapable of keeping him awake.

He stepped out of the prosecution building, the cold afternoon air immediately brushing against his face. His mind was still occupied with unfinished cases and documents he would have to deal with tomorrow, but the familiar scent that reached him suddenly made every other thought disappear.

Lavender and chamomile.

Shen Mei.

His brows drew together as he turned toward the scent.

She was standing near the entrance with Luo Xin.

Something about the sight immediately felt wrong.

Shen Yu walked toward them, but before he could reach them, Shen Mei lifted her head. Her eyes widened the moment she saw him.

She looked terrified.

That alone made his exhaustion disappear.

"What’s wrong? Why are you both here?" Shen Yu asked.

He took another sip of his black coffee, but his attention remained completely fixed on his sister.

"Yu-ah... there’s..."

Shen Mei’s voice trembled, and her shoulders shook beneath the coat she wore.

Shen Yu’s expression tightened.

"Take a breath," he told her calmly. "Slowly. Just breathe first."

He then looked toward Luo Xin.

The female Alpha was staring at the ground as though she could barely process what had happened. Her hands were shaking, and she had bitten her lower lip hard enough to leave a faint mark.

"Hey," Shen Yu said softly.

Luo Xin finally looked up.

Her silver eyes were red around the edges.

Shen Yu held out his coffee.

"Can you hold this for me?"

She nodded silently and accepted the cup with both hands.

Shen Yu turned back toward his sister and placed both hands gently on her trembling shoulders. Without consciously thinking about it, he released a small amount of calming pheromones.

"Deep breaths, okay? Breathe slowly."

Shen Mei nodded and followed his instructions, inhaling shakily before slowly exhaling. She tried to steady herself, but the tears gathering in her eyes made it clear that whatever she was about to say was going to hurt him.

For several moments, nobody spoke.

The world around them continued as if nothing had happened. Cars passed along the street, their tires whispering over the pavement. Somewhere behind them, Shen Yu’s coworkers were talking as they left the building. A distant horn sounded, followed by the muted noise of traffic.

Yet Shen Yu heard none of it clearly.

His attention remained on Shen Mei.

Finally, she lowered her head.

"Shen Yu... I’m sorry."

Her voice was barely audible.

Shen Yu’s expression changed.

"For what?"

Shen Mei swallowed hard. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

"Jiang Li... he’s..."

The moment Jiang Li’s name left her lips, something inside Shen Yu tightened.

His hands gripped her shoulders more firmly.

"What happened to him?"

Shen Mei’s eyes filled with tears.

"Jiang Li is missing."

The words seemed to hang in the air.

For a moment, Shen Yu didn’t understand them.

Missing?

His mind seemed to reject the meaning entirely.

"He’s... missing," Luo Xin repeated, her voice shaking. "I think he was kidnapped, Shen Yu. I searched everywhere. I called the police. I checked the places he could have gone, but he just... disappeared."

Shen Yu froze.

For several seconds, he simply stared at her.

His expression became strangely blank.

"No."

The word left him quietly.

It was impossible.

Jiang Li had been fine that morning. His Jiang Li had sent him a message. Nothing had happened.

It couldn’t have.

He reached for his phone with unsteady fingers, almost dropping it as he unlocked the screen. He wanted to call Jiang Li immediately, to hear his voice and prove that this was some terrible misunderstanding.

Then he saw the message.

Sent at nine in the morning.

[Shen Yu... I’m going to the mall with my friends. I’ll buy you a surprise! I love you ＼(^o^)／]

There was a heart emoji beneath it.

Shen Yu stared at the words.

I love you.

Those three words seemed impossibly bright against the screen.

His thumb hovered over the keyboard.

[Please tell me you’re safe, LiLi.]

He sent the message.

Nothing happened.

No reply came.

The absence of that simple response suddenly felt more frightening than anything Luo Xin had said.

A notification suddenly sounded from Luo Xin’s pocket.

Shen Yu looked up.

Luo Xin slowly pulled out her phone and handed it to him.

The screen was still lit.

His message had arrived.

Shen Yu stared at it.

The words he had just sent seemed to blur before his eyes.

"I don’t know what to do, Shen Yu," Luo Xin whispered. "I searched everywhere. I told the police everything I knew. I tried everything I could think of, but I can’t find him."

Shen Yu remained silent.

His gaze dropped back to the message.

The screen became increasingly difficult to see.

Something warm slipped down his cheek.

He touched it absently.

He hadn’t realized he was crying.

Shen Yu had always believed that fear was something he could control. He had spent years learning how to keep his emotions beneath the surface, how to make his expression unreadable and his voice steady even when everything around him was falling apart.

But this was different.

This wasn’t a case.

This wasn’t another problem that could be solved by gathering evidence, following a trail, and waiting patiently for the truth.

This was Jiang Li.

The person who had somehow walked into the darkest parts of his life and filled them with warmth without ever asking permission.

The person who had followed him for months, annoyed him, frightened him, made him laugh, and somehow made the world feel less empty.

The person carrying his child.

His Jiang Li.

"What was the surprise?" he suddenly asked.

His voice was so quiet that Luo Xin almost didn’t hear him.

"What surprise did Jiang Li buy for me?"

Luo Xin stared at him.

The question was so painfully ordinary that it made her chest ache.

"A puppy," she answered softly.

Shen Yu’s fingers tightened around the phone.

"He bought you and him a puppy," Luo Xin continued, swallowing against the emotion in her throat. "He said you would both learn how to be good parents by taking care of it first."

Shen Yu lowered his eyes.

A puppy.

Something small Jiang Li had chosen because he had been thinking about their future.

Their future.

The thought struck him with a force that left him unable to breathe properly.

Only that morning, Jiang Li had been laughing somewhere in the city, probably imagining the surprise he was going to give him. He had been carrying their child and thinking about a future that Shen Yu had only recently allowed himself to imagine.

Now there was nothing.

No voice.

No footsteps.

No familiar scent.

Only an unanswered message glowing on a screen.

Shen Yu closed his eyes, and for the first time since Luo Xin had spoken, the controlled expression he wore so naturally began to fracture.

He pressed the phone against his palm until his knuckles whitened.

"I’ll find him," he said.

His voice was low, but there was something terrifyingly steady beneath it.

"I’ll find Jiang Li."

Luo Xin stared at him through her tears.

Shen Yu slowly lifted his head, his dark eyes no longer carrying the exhaustion that had been there moments earlier. Whatever fatigue had weighed down his body had been replaced by something colder and far more focused.

He looked down at the message again, at the words Jiang Li had sent him that morning.

I love you.

Shen Yu’s throat tightened.

He had spent too much of his life believing that the people he loved would eventually disappear from his reach. He had allowed himself to believe that perhaps this was simply what happened when he opened his heart.

But he refused to accept it this time.

Not Jiang Li.

Not his child.

Not after finally understanding how deeply he loved them.

His hand closed around the phone.

"Tell the police everything again," he said quietly. "Every detail. Where you last saw him, who was around you, every car you noticed, every person who spoke to you."

Luo Xin nodded quickly.

"And Shen Mei," he continued, turning toward his sister, "you stay with Luo Xin. Neither of you goes anywhere alone."

Shen Mei nodded through her tears.

Shen Yu looked toward the road where the traffic disappeared into the distance.

Somewhere beyond those streets, Jiang Li was waiting for him.

And Shen Yu intended to bring him home.