A three-nothing youth, dumped by his girlfriend, flees the city to open an inn in Dali.
As his business is difficult to develop, he experiences a pure love story of red and white roses, with ...
I gripped the postcard tightly. In that instant when the possibility arose, my body stiffened, but my blood flowed faster and my heart pounded. Chen Jin noticed my unusual behavior. He looked at the postcard in my hand and asked, "What's wrong?"
When did you get this thing?
"I don't remember the exact time, but it was around dusk. I had just returned to the office after finishing some business outside."
"Is the surveillance system installed in the commercial street? I'd like to check the footage."
"No, the equipment is still on its way and won't be installed until the day after tomorrow... What's going on?"
I placed the postcard on the coffee table. After looking at it carefully, he said, "It's just a postcard, isn't it? Was it sent to you by one of your good customers when you ran the Jiulongju Inn?"
"Impossible... Absolutely impossible... The town on this postcard is called Rickwell... It's a place Ye Zhi once visited, and it's a place she really liked. She said that when I have enough time, she would take me there to see it... Do you believe in such coincidences?"
Chen Jin subconsciously looked around, then sighed, "We're just ordinary people living in an ordinary world, can we not be so mystical?"
"It's not a mystery... She travels all over the world and has brought me a lot of trinkets with sentimental value from abroad... The contents of that bottle are probably river water or something else that she brought back from Rickwell."
As I spoke, I went back to my room, took out all the things Ye Zhi had given me, and displayed them to Chen Jin.
Chen Jin picked them up one by one and looked at them. He frowned and then said to me, "You mean... Ye Zhi survived that shipwreck... and she's back now?"
"I don't know... but looking at these things, I feel very close to her... even if it's not her, at least these things are related to her... it's like a hint... I can't explain it!"
Chen Jin was silent for a moment, then said to me, "I don't think so... As a normal person, I still can't understand why she wouldn't come to see you if she's still alive... Has there ever been a more difficult time in your life than this?... During the time she had her accident in Thailand, you almost ruined yourself. If she were still here, would she just stand by and watch you like that?"
Chen Jin's words pierced my heart with pain... If she truly loved me, how could she bear to see me like this?
I lit a cigarette and sat there, lost in thought...
Chen Jin remained silent for a long time before finally speaking to me, "Let's go and see what's going on... Although our commercial street hasn't installed surveillance equipment yet, some shops have already installed it on their own..."
I looked up, stunned...
Chen Jin added, "The security of Lu Jia Company's flagship store in our commercial street is very thorough. Cameras are installed on all the street-facing areas of the store. If someone enters from the main entrance, it is very likely that they will be captured on camera."
...
Late at night, we found the store manager and asked him to show us the surveillance footage... Chen Jin and I watched it intently the whole time... I don't know if it was fate, but the once deserted Jiulongju has become quite popular after our efforts. And the time when Chen Jin got the box happened to be during peak hours. People were crowding around inside, and these close-knit bodies created many blind spots in the surveillance footage, making it difficult to clearly distinguish a person's face, and everything was just a fleeting glimpse.
When we started playing the video a second time, Chen Jin asked me, "Do you think the person you're looking for is among this large group of people?"
"No... Maybe he/she came in through another entrance; or maybe it was just a passerby who was delivered there..."
Chen Jin sighed and said, "I still can't understand it. If this matter is really related to Ye Zhi, why would she do it this way? ... Or is it that someone is unwilling to let you and Lu Jia get too close, and then they did this incomprehensible thing? ... Think about it: Ye Zhi had such a big accident in Thailand, and she is a semi-public figure. If she wanted to return to China, wouldn't she need to go through the proper procedures? If she went through the proper procedures, the news should have been out long ago... So, it doesn't make sense logically... She simply doesn't have the conditions to return to China."
Chen Jin's words were reasonable and well-founded, and my mood instantly plummeted... I lit a cigarette and pondered whether there were any other possibilities.
I thought of Jian Zihan. She knows too much about Ye Zhi and me. Could these things have been sent by her to remind me not to forget Ye Zhi too easily?
Based on our previous conversations, the more I think about it, the more I feel she has such a motive, and as of yesterday, she was in Dali, so she had the time and the means to do this.
...
After figuring it out, I immediately dialed Jian Zihan's number, despite it being late at night. She answered after a moment and said to me, "Why are you calling me so late? Is there something you need?"
“I’ll get straight to the point… Yesterday, my friend received a box outside our studio with a note saying it was for me; but that’s not the point. The point is, what’s inside the box…”
"Go on."
“There’s a postcard in the box… The town on the postcard is called Rickwell… I don’t know if Ye Zhi has mentioned this place to you, but she has mentioned it to me… Do you think this is a coincidence? Someone suddenly sent me this postcard.”
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