Xia Yu smiled apologetically at the guests who noticed him, then walked out of the cafe.
He returned home first, calmly played video games the entire evening, and then slept.
He could understand Ning Qiuer’s fright; it was normal for her to run away. He himself had been a bit panicked initially, but after confirming that Ning Qiuer posed no threat, he relaxed.
Now, he would let Ning Qiuer calm down first.
In the morning, after waking up, brushing his teeth, and having breakfast, at exactly eight o’clock, Xia Yu sent a message to Ning Qiuer:
“I just want to know how you obtained that ‘Moonlight Sonata.’ I mean no harm.”
The message was like a stone sinking into the sea, receiving no reply.
By noon, Xia Yu called Ning Qiuer again, but the call was cut off.
When he dialed again, the voice from the receiver said the other party had turned off their phone.
Hasn’t she calmed down yet after such a long time?
Xia Yu felt that Ning Qiuer was even more immature than he had imagined.
A mature person would know that danger needs to be faced, explored, and resolved; escaping would only lead to more severe consequences.
Thus, he sent a message to Liu Manman, asking for Ning Qiuer’s address.
“Why do you need Qiuer’s address?” Liu Manman quickly replied.
“Night raid,” Xia Yu typed casually.
“Do you think I believe that?” Liu Manman had long seen through Xia Yu’s attitude toward Ning Qiuer, knowing the night raid was just a joke.
“I have something to discuss with her, regarding a piece of music. Yesterday, we met at a cafe to talk about this, but she ran off halfway through,” Xia Yu told the truth.
“Wait a minute, I’ll check,” after sending this message, Liu Manman went silent.
Five minutes later, she replied: “Her phone is off. Her assistant says she’s not home; she indeed came to Afang yesterday.”
“So can you tell me her address now?” Xia Yu asked again.
Liu Manman questioned again: “What exactly did you do to her? Why did she suddenly disappear?”
“Didn’t I just say?”
“Do you think I believe that? How could such a small matter make Qiuer suddenly disappear like this!” Liu Manman didn’t believe him.
Xia Yu sighed; the truth was always so distrusted.
Thinking for two seconds, he replied: “It was half a month ago, on a moonless, windy night. The moon outside the window was round and red, making one think of love, desire, and childbirth, so we let ourselves go.”
“Wait, when did Qiuer ever stay alone with you?” Liu Manman raised a question.
“You were watching TV and noticed nothing; by the time you finished watching, we were already done,” Xia Yu made up casually.
“And then? Did you two…? Did Qiuer ask you to take responsibility yesterday?” The flame of gossip burned fiercely in Liu Manman’s heart.
She actually believed it? Xia Yu was astonished.
Xia Yu thought for a moment; if he were Liu Manman and suddenly a friend called to tell him they had let themselves go under the influence of the moon with another friend, he would probably believe it too.
Well, getting the address was the priority now. If Ning Qiuer was indeed childish enough to run away, the longer she was left alone, the harder she would be to find.
He continued messaging: “Can you tell me Ning Qiuer’s address now? Yesterday, she was quite emotional; I’m worried about the consequences.”
Liu Manman immediately sent the address.
After informing You Xue, Xia Yu got into his car and headed to Nanming.
Then, he took a local taxi and provided the specific address.
The driver was a slightly overweight man who was very familiar with the roads and quickly drove the car to the entrance of Ning Qiuer’s residential compound.
It was an upscale villa community; entry was impossible without an invitation from a resident. Xia Yu thought about how he should get in while paying the fare.
Stepping out of the taxi, Xia Yu checked his phone and saw a message from Liu Manman.
“I got in touch with Qiuer, but when I asked her, she said nothing!”
Seeing this message, Xia Yu knew something was wrong. He looked toward the community gate and saw a white car driving out.
The white car was originally moving at a leisurely pace but suddenly accelerated, speeding away from Xia Yu.
Needless to say, Ning Qiuer was inside. She had learned of Xia Yu’s arrival from Liu Manman and thus fled by car. The sudden acceleration was because she had spotted him.
Inside the taxi, the fat driver, who had already slightly pressed the accelerator to prepare to leave after clipping the money into his bag, was surprised when the passenger who had just gotten out opened the door and got back in.
As he wondered whether the passenger had forgotten something, the voice came again:
“Driver, follow that white car ahead!”
Looking at the quickly departing white car, the fat driver wanted to refuse at first; tailing wasn’t within the scope of taxi services. However, the thick stack of hundred-dollar bills the passenger pulled out was too tempting.
Taking the money and stuffing it into his clothes, the fat driver’s expression turned serious: “Hold on tight!”
His determined eyes and skilled movements gave Xia Yu a sense of security.
Many film and television works have revealed that taxi drivers are all highly skilled, hidden tigers and crouching dragons. Chasing an ordinary car was nothing; even chasing criminals, robbers, or aliens was no problem.
The fat driver swiftly turned the steering wheel with one hand and shifted gears with the other, his feet rhythmically pressing the clutch, brake, and accelerator.
Xia Yu felt the car jolt suddenly, and a strong smell came his way.
But the taxi didn’t shoot forward; instead, it made a loud noise and stalled.
The scene was quiet for two seconds before the fat driver coughed and restarted the engine. Then, following the standard posture taught by the instructor at the driving school, he slowly started the car.
Just as they began to pick up speed, the fat driver politely let a pedestrian cross the road. By then, Ning Qiuer was already out of sight.
Xia Yu pressed his forehead, feeling he should have driven himself.
The fat driver also realized the awkwardness of the situation and coughed to comfort Xia Yu: “No need to panic; it’s just that we’ve temporarily lost the target. That’s absolutely not a problem.”
Xia Yu couldn’t accept the fat driver’s ineptness and attempts to shift responsibility. He extended his hand to get his money back.
“Really, losing the target now doesn’t mean we can’t catch up!” The fat driver parked the car on the other side of the road, opened the door, “According to my experience, that car is most likely heading to the street over there. As long as we cross here, we can intercept it!”
He pointed to a pedestrian street.
Feeling no malice but some kindness from the fat driver, Xia Yu believed him.
Together with him, Xia Yu crossed the pedestrian street, went through a park, and took a small boat across a river, successfully reaching the opposite road.
The fat driver was quite exhausted. While wiping sweat from his brow, he said to Xia Yu: “That road over there is long. As long as that white car comes this way, it will definitely be behind us.”
After waiting half a minute, Xia Yu indeed saw the familiar white car approaching.
Taking all the remaining money from his wallet, Xia Yu thanked the driver.
“Shall I help you stop it?” the fat driver asked.
“No need,” Xia Yu declined the offer and hid behind the trees by the roadside.
The trees blocked Ning Qiuer’s view, so she didn’t notice Xia Yu. As the car passed, Xia Yu sprang from behind the trees, opened the car door, and jumped in.
On the roadside, the fat driver was stunned watching Xia Yu’s operation.
Such a scene, he had only seen in movies, and even in movies, the protagonist’s actions weren’t as natural and effortless as Xia Yu’s.
In an instant, many words describing Xia Yu’s identity flashed through the fat driver’s mind: spy, assassin, robot, alien, superhero, martial arts expert…
Finally, it settled on the word “tycoon.”
Excitedly counting the money Xia Yu had given him, the fat driver happily walked back. Before entering the park, he glanced at the road once more, but the white car was already out of sight.
The car had already driven onto another road, and Ning Qiuer had yet to notice Xia Yu in the back seat.
Xia Yu remained silent too; speaking now might scare Ning Qiuer into causing an accident.
He would wait until the car stopped.
He had thought Ning Qiuer would stop soon, but to his surprise, the car kept driving out of Nanming’s urban area without stopping.
Outside, the sky had already completely darkened. Ning Qiuer turned on the headlights but not the interior lights, which allowed Xia Yu to move freely.
Ning Qiuer inserted a USB drive and played music.
It was country music, suitable for driving. The music was cheerful, and Ning Qiuer’s mood was equally cheerful.
After seeing Xia Yu yesterday, she had returned home immediately, afraid, and refused all of Xia Yu’s attempts to contact her, desperately thinking about what to do.
She hadn’t expected that Xia Yu would track her down to her home, and even fabricated such a despicable reason to extract her address from Liu Manman!
Fortunately, she ran quickly; if she had been a bit slower, she might have been caught!
After arriving at her destination, she would have to send a message to Liu Manman to clarify her innocence.
At eight in the evening, Ning Qiuer drove to a remote countryside area. She turned onto a secluded path and arrived by a lake.
There was a small vacation villa there, with no other people within a half-hour drive. Staying here would ensure she wouldn’t be discovered.
However, she needed to address the safety issues. She would call for two female bodyguards, along with a chef and a maid, later that night.
Arriving in front of the villa, Ning Qiuer parked the car.
She pointed the car’s front lights toward the house door and kept them on for illumination.
Using a card to open the door, Ning Qiuer turned on the living room light and comfortably lay on the sofa.
She stretched with a yawn and couldn’t help but laugh: “That guy must be furious watching me escape.”
Hearing this, Xia Yu, who had followed her into the house and was about to come out, frowned.
He had never been a magnanimous person; if mocked, he would always think of a way to retaliate.
Glancing at the lying Ning Qiuer, Xia Yu sneaked behind the sofa and stole her car keys.
Pressing the electronic key, Xia Yu made the car outside beep once.
Ning Qiuer looked puzzled toward the door and reached for the car keys on the coffee table but found nothing.
After searching on the floor, Ning Qiuer looked confused:
Where are my keys? Where is my big car key? It was here just now!
At that moment, the car outside beeped again.
The familiar sound, echoing across the quiet lake and mixed with the silence of the night, became somewhat eerie.
Ning Qiuer stood up to check but thought better of it. It was just a car, nothing serious.
She sat down again but suddenly fell to the ground.
Ignoring the pain, Ning Qiuer looked back in alarm; the sofa was two steps away from her.
But she had just stood up from the sofa and hadn’t taken a single step! How had she suddenly moved so far from the sofa?
Hastily getting up from the ground, she dared not go near the sofa again and reached for her phone on the coffee table to call for help.
Halfway through her reach, her body stiffened, and her pupils dilated.
The phone was gone too.
“Just enjoy the time slowly; don’t think too much about unfulfilled things.”
Suddenly, a familiar song rang out—it was her phone ringtone. Following the sound, Ning Qiuer looked toward the back of the sofa.
She swallowed hard and slowly walked toward the sofa.
She walked very slowly. When the ringing stopped after ten seconds, she had just reached the sofa.
Carefully moving sideways, Ning Qiuer arrived at a spot two meters away from the sofa and peeked behind it.
To her relief, only her phone and car keys were behind the sofa, nothing else.
Approaching the back of the sofa, Ning Qiuer first picked up her phone, then went for the car keys. At that moment, there was a sudden click, and the living room light went out.
Ning Qiuer quickly turned around and saw a pale, glowing face behind her.
“Ahhhh!” She screamed in terror and tried to run but chose the wrong direction and crashed into the wall.
Falling to the ground, she curled up in the corner, hugging her head and continuing to scream.
She saw that glowing face painfully cover their ears, and the glow from the face stopped.
It seemed to be the light from a phone flashlight.
Turning on her phone flashlight, Ning Qiuer illuminated Xia Yu’s figure.
She stopped screaming, and the room fell silent.
After locking eyes with Ning Qiuer for a couple of seconds, Xia Yu coughed and asked, “Where did you get that ‘Moonlight Sonata’?”
“Ahhhh!”
Ning Qiuer screamed again and quickly got up, running upstairs.
“???”
Xia Yu was puzzled: It was normal for her to scream when she only saw his face, as it looked like a floating face, but now that she had seen his whole body, why was she still so frightened?
Could there be something else that scared her?
He immediately turned the lights back on and scanned the surroundings.
Everything around was normal, but Ning Qiuer’s scream made Xia Yu, who had never been afraid before, feel a bit uneasy.
He had never been to such a remote place, alone with Ning Qiuer, which was somewhat frightening.
Grabbing his phone, he glanced at the contact list, selected An Siyao and Liu Manman as possible people to come over. Considering how remote the location was and how scary it felt, he ruled out An Siyao and called Liu Manman instead.
He told Liu Manman that Ning Qiuer was in trouble and to come quickly, bringing the female boxer maid.
Then, he went upstairs and knocked on Ning Qiuer’s door: “It’s me! I just want to know how you got the Moonlight Sonata!”
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