Chapter 36: It Should Be By Ye Mo

Translator: Tim; Editor: Tehrn/Carolin

Xu Wei nodded. “Yeah, did Ye Mo tell you? Actually, I don’t even know your name.”

“I’m Ning Qingxue,” she said. “I wanted to ask if you know where Ye Mo went. Why hasn’t he come back today?” Ning Qingxue assumed Ye Mo and Xu Wei were living together; Xu Wei would surely know his whereabouts.

Xu Wei looked intrigued. “Ye Mo? I haven’t seen him in two days. Isn’t he with you?” She thought, Your boyfriend disappeared, and you’re asking me?

“With me?” Ning Qingxue echoed, equally surprised. Something felt wrong. She studied Xu Wei’s expression. “You’re his girlfriend, aren’t you? Doesn’t he live with you?”

Xu Wei blushed, slightly annoyed. However, Ning Qingxue’s beauty and refined demeanor intimidated her. She replied coldly, “Since when am I his girlfriend? This is ridiculous. You live with him, and you think I’m his girlfriend? That’s absurd.”

“What? Ye Mo doesn’t stay with you at night?” Ning Qingxue asked, surprised. Xu Wei, sensing Ning Qingxue's sincerity, replied, “I only rent the same house. We don’t know each other well. Wasn’t he living with you?”

Ning Qingxue realized her mistake. If he wasn't with her or Xu Wei, where was he? Probably the hotel; he had plenty of money now.

“Oh, he must be at a hotel. He just ran off somewhere today,” Ning Qingxue said, embarrassed by her misunderstanding.

“A hotel? No way. I wake up at 6 a.m., and every morning he’s in the backyard…” Xu Wei trailed off, realizing revealing Ning Qingxue’s living situation would be awkward, given Ning Qingxue’s reluctance to admit it.

Feeling awkward, Xu Wei said, “Maybe he is at a hotel. I have things to do; I’m going inside.” Ning Qingxue, understanding Xu Wei’s discomfort, hurried to her side, saying awkwardly, “Sorry, Xu Wei. I didn’t stay with him. But how could he be in the yard at 5 or 6 a.m. every morning?”

Xu Wei found the situation bizarre. Ning Qingxue seemed truthful, but the whole thing was absurd. A chill ran down her spine. Is Ye Mo…? She stopped herself from considering the implications.

Suddenly remembering something, Xu Wei said, “The landlord installed cameras, front and back. The control center is a computer in the storage room. I’ll show you.”

Ning Qingxue, eager to see the footage, followed Xu Wei to a dusty storage room in the corner of the living room—a room she hadn’t known existed. Inside was a dust-covered, powered-down surveillance computer.

They powered up the computer, revealing two surveillance windows: one facing the front door, the other the back. The landlord was thorough.

They reviewed the recent recordings. The front-door camera showed Ye Mo leaving early each morning, but never at night.

Switching to the back camera, they saw Ye Mo sitting under a tree all night, occasionally sleeping under a rain tarp on the stone floor for a few hours, but mostly resting on the tree itself.

“He slept in a tree?!” Ning Qingxue and Xu Wei exclaimed in unison.

Both women thought, What about rainy days? There was a downpour a week ago. They checked the footage from that day. To their shock, Ye Mo was still under the tree, seemingly protected by an invisible barrier. Initially thinking the camera malfunctioned, they realized an hour later he’d moved to the stone floor.

Xu Wei, emotional, felt disgusted with Ning Qingxue, pitying Ye Mo’s plight. Tears welled up. What a vixen! Wiping her tears, she glared at Ning Qingxue and left without a word.

Ning Qingxue sensed Xu Wei’s animosity. Yet, as she stared at Ye Mo sleeping on the stone floor, a pang of something akin to guilt, but not sadness like Xu Wei’s, struck her.

“He has so much money. Why didn’t he go to a hotel? Why sleep under a tree night after night? Even if he slept there, he should have sought shelter in the rain. And even if he wanted to share a room with me, I wouldn’t have minded. I was the one who moved in with him.”

Seeing Xu Wei cry made her feel a little guilty. She considered Ye Mo cheap. She thought, Even those we hate have their pitiful aspects. She wondered if he felt the same way about her. Was he so frugal because he was poor before? While she appreciated him giving up his room, she suspected it was more because of the $500,000 she’d given him.

The previous night’s footage showed Ye Mo under the tree until around 1 a.m., when he moved to the stone floor. Then, a shocking sight: Song Shaowen and two henchmen scaled the wall. Ning Qingxue remembered Li Mumei’s call. Wasn’t Song Shaowen dead? Why was he here last night?

Goosebumps erupted on her skin. The subsequent footage clarified the situation. Ye Mo briefly spoke with Song Shaowen and his men, then they left with him. The recording ended there.

She couldn’t hear their conversation, but understood they’d reached an agreement. Normally, Song Shaowen would have abducted her. What happened? How did he find this place? It was insane. She shuddered, imagining what would have happened without Ye Mo.

Song Shaowen’s car had gone over a cliff. What happened to Ye Mo? Overcome with worry, she called Li Mumei.

“Mumei, you said Song Shaowen and his men died. Was anyone else in the car?” This was paramount. Even though Ye Mo had taken her money, she couldn’t bear the thought of him dying because of it. He was innocent! The men were after her.

“No. Only the three of them. It’s been verified. The Song family is in turmoil. Qingxue, don’t worry. I’ll come see you tomorrow,” Li Mumei reassured her.

Still uneasy, Ning Qingxue copied the relevant video clips to a USB drive, then deleted them from the computer.

But another thought struck her. What if the Song family discovered Song Shaowen had been in Ning Hai? They could recover the footage. She was trapped, unsure what to do. She was certain Song Shaowen’s death was connected to Ye Mo, but the car crash on Feng Jin Highway shouldn't lead them here.