Chapter 59 Diner Property Manager Xiao Liu

The SOS call was made to her primary SIM card! But she usually uses a secondary SIM card for her stall and adding WeChat friends! The number of people who know her primary SIM card number is even smaller! Besides a few close relatives and old friends, it's just…

High school classmate? College classmate?

She tried desperately to recall, but so much time had passed that many memories had become blurred.

The more she thought about it, the more agitated she became. A sense of powerlessness and anxiety overwhelmed her, making her restless.

She suddenly stood up, irritably rubbed her hair, walked to the sofa in the living room, and lay down heavily.

My body sank into the soft sofa cushions, but I felt no relaxation at all.

She turned over in a daze, burying her face in the cushions, trying to dispel the chaotic thoughts.

Just as she turned around, she caught a glimpse of a photo frame on the low cabinet next to the sofa out of the corner of her eye.

Her movements suddenly stopped.

My gaze fixed on it, and then slowly, with a strange premonition, I moved it over there.

It was an old photo, the borders of which had turned slightly yellow.

The photo shows dozens of young men and women dressed in matching white Sanda training uniforms, surrounding several coaches, with a gymnasium in the background.

Above the photo is a line of small, gold-embossed text: Group photo taken during pre-competition training for the Municipal Youth Sanda Championship.

This photo was taken at the training base before she participated in a city-level competition during high school.

A long-buried, almost forgotten memory, like an ice cube that had sunk to the bottom of the water, suddenly surfaced.

Su Xiaonuan's body was a little stiff. She slowly sat up, reached out and took the photo frame, her fingertips even trembling slightly.

Her gaze, like a searchlight, swept across those youthful yet blurred faces.

Finally, the focus was fixed on a boy standing in the row behind her.

The boy had the trendy side-swept bangs that slightly covered his eyebrows and eyes, and his expression was somewhat gloomy, unlike the other team members who were all smiling.

He was tall and thin, and not particularly noticeable in a crowd, but Su Xiaonuan remembered him.

Because he was the strongest boy in the training team at the time, besides her, from the neighboring Class 2, and his name was Ji Xianjun.

The floodgates of memory burst open!

She remembered that Ji Xianjun was very introverted and aloof, rarely communicating with others, but he was exceptionally hardworking and even somewhat obsessive during training.

It seems he... has always regarded her as his strongest competitor and... imaginary enemy?

In several intra-team practice matches, he lost to her. The look in his eyes at that time... Su Xiaonuan now recalls that it wasn't just the resentment of losing the game, but also seemed to be mixed with a deeper kind of obsession that made her feel uncomfortable at the time.

Later, I heard that his family was poor, so he dropped out of school in the second semester of his senior year and left. After that, I heard nothing from him.

A boy who is withdrawn, obsessive, may have mixed feelings about her, comes from a poor family, and has the phone number of the main SIM card she left behind...

Then, considering what Zhao Liming said—that the kidnapper was a hacker—that someone who dropped out of school could very well become a hacker through self-taught skills and a stubborn personality!

The victim... resembled her...

A terrifying and clear thought flashed through Su Xiaonuan's mind like lightning, causing her blood to almost instantly reverse its flow!

It's him!

Ji Xianjun!

All the clues seemed to be connected by an invisible thread at this moment, pointing to a name that she had almost forgotten in the corner of her memory!

Just as Su Xiaonuan was so shocked by this astonishing discovery that her heart trembled and her breathing became rapid—

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

A series of knocks, not loud but unusually muffled, suddenly sounded without warning.

The sound was not loud, and even somewhat restrained, but in the quiet of the night, when Su Xiaonuan was on high alert, it exploded in her ears like a thunderclap!

Su Xiaonuan's thoughts were interrupted, and her heart skipped a beat, almost jumping out of her throat!

She frowned instantly, her muscles tensed instinctively, and she looked warily toward the door.

It's almost 8 PM now.

Who could it be?

Qin Haoran? Zhao Liming? They would probably call first if they needed anything.

Aunt? We just spoke on the phone; she won't suddenly come over.

Could it be... that accomplice who escaped? Or... Ji Xianjun?!

A chilling coldness swept over my body once again.

She gently put down the photo frame, stood up silently, tiptoed like a cat, held her breath, and slowly moved towards the door.

Zhao Liming's call for help and the news about the kidnappers felt like a block of ice in her heart. It was almost eight o'clock; who would be knocking on the door at this hour?

She instinctively gripped the long-handled umbrella she had grabbed from the entryway—though it was less effective than her fists in a real fight, it offered some psychological comfort.

She tiptoed and carefully peered through the peephole.

Standing outside the door was a somewhat familiar-looking man, wearing the dark blue uniform of the community property management, with a slightly embarrassed smile on his face. He was none other than Xiao Liu, a staff member of the property management.

Su Xiaonuan's tense nerves relaxed instantly, her palms slightly damp from the force she had used earlier.

She let out a long sigh, placed the umbrella against the wall, tidied her hair which had sticked up a bit from sleeping, and then opened the door.

"Master Liu? Is there anything I can help you with so late?" Su Xiaonuan opened the door a crack and asked, blinking her eyes.

Seeing that she had opened the door a crack, the property manager, Xiao Liu, quickly smiled apologetically and rubbed his hands together: "Oh dear, Ms. Su, I'm so sorry to bother you so early. It's like this..."

He paused, a mixture of embarrassment and longing on his face. "I heard... last time you had a stall downstairs in our neighborhood, selling those... lobster balls? Was that you?"

Su Xiaonuan was stunned for a moment, not expecting it to be this.

She recalled that she had indeed sold "juicy lobster balls" in the neighborhood for a while in order to lure the abusive man downstairs.

She nodded: "It's me, what's wrong, Master Liu?"

"Oh! I've finally found the right person!" Xiao Liu exclaimed excitedly. "Miss Su, to tell you the truth, I happened to buy some after get off work last time, and oh my god, the taste... it was absolutely amazing! I've been craving it day and night ever since! I don't have any other hobbies, just a love for food. I asked around for a long time before I finally found out you live here..."

As he spoke, his face was full of pleading smiles, "Miss Su, when... when will you set up your stall again? Or... could you do it again privately? I'll pay for it! I'll pay any price!"

Seeing how much trouble he was going through to get a bite to eat, Su Xiaonuan was both amused and exasperated, and the shock she had felt from the case dissipated considerably.