Chapter 100
The storm on the internet continued to rage, each entry like a sharp knife, repeatedly slicing at everyone associated with Ling Yao. Su Rui stared at the vicious comments and Ling Yao's "brother's" statement on the screen, her heart tightening as if by an invisible hand, making it nearly impossible to breathe.
After the shock, there was a wave of worry. He knew Ling Yao, knew the extreme vulnerability hidden beneath his arrogance, knew how deep his obsession with birth and recognition was. Such a devastating blow...what would happen to Ling Yao?
He immediately picked up his phone and dialed Ling Yao's number. "The user you are dialing is powered off." The cold system notification tone poured down like a bucket of cold water.
Undeterred, he called Ling Yao's assistant and manager again, but either the calls went unanswered or were hastily disconnected, leaving a chaotic background. A strong sense of foreboding, like a cold vine, instantly entwined his limbs.
Ling Yao has lost contact. At this time.
Su Rui barely hesitated. He stood up, grabbed his car keys and passport, and rushed out of the studio. As he hurried to the garage, he quickly booked the fastest flight to Country J on his phone. He remembered Ling Yao's schedule; he should be in Country J preparing for an important music performance.
His heart was in turmoil, and his mind kept flashing back to Ling Yao's past emotional breakdown and those eyes that were sometimes paranoid and sometimes fragile. He had to find him, immediately, right now.
However, just as Su Rui rushed to the airport in a panic, she flew to the wrong destination.
The real Ling Yao had quietly escaped everyone's attention in the initial chaos of the scandal. Like an injured animal instinctively seeking the safest nest, he returned to Nancheng, relying on an almost numb intuition.
South City, the city where they had secretly shared a brief and tender time. The lakeside apartment they had bought together, meticulously decorated, and imagined as their future wedding home.
He opened the door with the spare key. The room was dead silent, the air filled with the smell of dust and oblivion. Everything was still in its original state. Even a thin coat left by Su Rui the last time she came was thrown on the sofa, as if the owner was only out for a short time and would be back soon.
Ling Yao walked in slowly, his eyes scanning everything with a blank expression. This place had once held all his fantasies about "home" and life after "going public," but now it seemed like a magnificent tomb, a mockery of him.
He walked into the bathroom and turned on the faucet. Warm water poured into the white bathtub, and mist slowly spread, blurring the mirror and his vision.
He pulled out a well-worn, frayed red amulet from his pocket. It was a long time ago, when he was still an unknown trainee. Su Rui had gone to a temple and prayed for him after he fell ill. He said, "Ling Yao, you must be safe and make your debut."
Over the years, no matter how good or how hard the times were, he always kept this amulet with him, as if it carried Su Rui's original unconditional love and wishes.
He clutched the amulet tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force, as if it was the last and only rope connecting him to the world.
Then he slowly lay down in the bathtub filled with warm water and closed his eyes. The water swayed gently, covering his body.
Meanwhile, Ling Yao's agent, anxiously waiting to be picked up at the J-country airport, hadn't seen any sign of him. After trying every possible way to contact him to no avail, a surge of panic finally overwhelmed any hope of luck. With trembling hands, he decided to call the police.
Su Rui thought of a place
Soon, a police car drove silently into the residential complex and broke into the house.
The apartment was eerily quiet. The police searched cautiously and finally pushed open the door of the master bedroom bathroom.
The mist in the room completely dissipated. In the bathtub, the water was calm. A faded red amulet floated quietly above the surface, like a lonely, ultimately sinking piece of hope.
And underwater, the answers are something that can never be reached.
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