Chapter 17 It's okay if we don't know each other now, we'll meet again someday...
Zhou Shiye began a frantic search.
The racetrack is winding and twisting, with one U-turn right next to an abandoned old dock.
However, it did not rush directly to the vicinity of the dock.
Zhou Shiye didn't understand why Wen Yu would appear near the old dock.
But since it has happened before, it means there is hope along this line.
Therefore, Zhou Shiye disregarded costs and used any means necessary, offering an exorbitant reward.
Just to catch any tiny clue about "young women falling into or being rescued in the old dock area".
The news quickly spread on the black market, and then, a flood of information, both true and false, poured in.
Zhou Shiye locked himself in his apartment and drew the curtains to block out the sunlight.
Only the light from the computer screen illuminated the man's increasingly gaunt, stubble-covered, and dark face.
Zhou Shiye personally screened every piece of information day and night.
Cross-referencing and analyzing time, location, and any detail of reasonableness in the description is scrutinized.
Zhou Shiye often sits for the entire night until his eyes are filled with alarming red blood vessels and sore that he can't open them. Only then is he forced to close his eyes and rest for half an hour before continuing.
And so, the hope brought by various clues was like fireflies in the darkness, faintly illuminating time and time again, only to be mercilessly extinguished again and again under Zhou Shiye's extremely rigorous verification.
Those mountains of clues, after being crossed out with red pen time and time again, turned into piles of waste paper.
For Zhou Shiye, who had personally turned hope into worthless paper, this was undoubtedly like rubbing salt into his wounds time and time again.
Zhou Shiye is on the verge of a breakdown.
He then used the vast network of connections accumulated by the Zhou family and the powerful network of relationships he had built in the legal profession to exert continuous pressure on the various departments and officials in charge of the case in an almost brutal manner.
He strongly demanded that the search area along the coast be expanded, more advanced search and rescue equipment be deployed, and special technical means be used to analyze the complex currents on the day of the accident and track all the ships of all sizes that had appeared in that sea area.
"Attorney Zhou, this is not in accordance with procedure..."
The person in charge was in a difficult position.
"program?"
Zhou Shiye gave a cold laugh: "What's the procedure? I only want the result."
He doesn't care what others think of him, or whether he has crossed any boundaries.
He was on his last breath, and he was willing to stake everything for a slim chance of an answer.
The rib injury had not fully healed, and breathing in cold air would cause a sharp pain in his lungs, but Zhou Shiye ignored it.
In the dead of winter, he opened the car window and, in an almost self-destructive manner, drove along the route where the car had gone out of control that day, again and again at the lowest possible speed.
He endured the pain, his face pale, and carefully examined every impact mark on the railing.
Ignoring all warnings, he repeatedly dived into the icy waters, searching aimlessly like a fish that had lost its way, trying to find any clues.
Unfortunately, each time Zhou Shiye surfaced, besides being frozen numb, all that remained on his pale face was despair.
But the obsession in his eyes was even more intense.
He completely gave up his work at the law firm and turned down all the cases that came to him because of his reputation.
That apartment, once filled with luxury and pleasure, has now become a messy war room.
The walls were covered with enlarged maps of the old dock area, marked with countless circles and arrows in different colors.
The desk and floor were piled high with analysis reports, as well as thick stacks of informant reports.
The air was filled with the smell of smoke, the stale coffee, and a lingering sense of oppression.
During this period, Zhou Shiye ate very little and often needed nutritional supplements to maintain his strength.
Sleep was a luxury for him. He would occasionally fall asleep due to exhaustion, only to be awakened by the same dream: Wen Yu's pale, blood-stained face, the look of fear and helplessness in her eyes when she last looked at him, and his own words echoing in his ears like a curse: "Be good, beg me."
Zhou Shiye woke up in a panic, covered in cold sweat, his heart pounding, and he couldn't fall back asleep.
Tang Mingzhen came to see her son.
Seeing her beloved youngest son so emaciated and unrecognizable, she felt heartbroken and tears streamed down her face.
"Shi Ye, I'm begging you, please stop torturing yourself, okay? Wen Yu, she might have already... If you keep going like this, your health will collapse."
Zhou Shiye listened expressionlessly, staring blankly out the window.
After Tang Mingzhen had cried enough and was tired of talking, he said in a hoarse voice with little emotion, "Mom, you should go back now."
And continue to bury yourself in that endless ocean of despair, made up of scattered pieces of information.
More than three months, more than a hundred days and nights, passed quietly in this constant struggle between hope and despair.
Spring has quietly arrived, and the bare trees outside the window are covered with new buds.
The early spring night was chilly.
Zhou Shiye stood alone in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the apartment, the whiskey glass in his hand already empty.
Outside the window, the city lights shimmered, neon signs flickered, and cars streamed by, yet none of them could illuminate the desolation in his eyes.
The ashtray on the coffee table was piled high with cigarette butts, much like his chaotic and lonely state of mind at that moment.
After standing for a while, Zhou Shiye turned around, went to the desk, and picked up the old dock area map that had been flipped through and was badly damaged.
His eyes scanned the map back and forth.
Before long, Zhou Shiye, with a nearly empty red marker, tremblingly drew a new, crooked mark in a downstream area where the latest calculation showed the probability to be extremely low.
At that moment, the phone screen on the sofa lit up and emitted a dull vibration.
Zhou Shiye walked over, picked up his phone, and found a message from someone he had arranged to be stationed along the coast of a neighboring province.
The message was brief, claiming that a strange girl had recently arrived in a remote fishing village more than 200 kilometers away from City A.
The girl was pretty, but seemed to be quiet and couldn't remember anything about her past. She was taken in by a fisherman's family and looked somewhat like the person in the photo he provided.
Zhou Shiye stared intently at the information in front of him.
He has received dozens, even hundreds, of similar "clues" over the past three months.
Zhou Shiye went there full of hope each time, but returned only with deeper exhaustion each time.
Reason told him that this was most likely another empty promise, a lie fabricated by those who were obsessed with money.
Zhou Shiye's fingers hovered above the screen, trembling slightly.
A moment later, he grabbed the car keys and stormed out.
.
Wen Yu regained consciousness amidst a sharp, dull pain.
She felt a sharp pain in her temples, as if she were being pricked with needles, and could faintly hear the beeping of medical equipment.
Wen Yu slowly opened her eyes with great effort.
After a while, my vision gradually cleared up from being blurry.
The first thing you see is a glaring incandescent light bulb, a snow-white ceiling, and a strong, unfamiliar smell of disinfectant in the air.
Where...where is this place?
Wen Yu tried to turn her stiff neck, and immediately, a wave of dizziness washed over her.
"woke up?"
As a gentle and restrained male voice reached his ears, a strikingly handsome and sunny man's face came into view.
The man was very tall and was leaning slightly down to look at Wen Yu.
He wore a pair of exquisite gold-rimmed glasses on his nose, and his eyes behind the lenses were deep, exuding a restrained gentleness.
The man wore a soft, light gray cashmere sweater, exuding a refined and elegant air.
He's just like the older brother next door, the kind who's aloof, reserved, yet approachable.
But when Wen Yu looked at him, her mind went blank; she had no recollection of his face.
"Who are you?"
Wen Yu's voice was dry and hoarse, and her throat burned as she spoke.
Upon hearing this, the man's expression froze.
Immediately, a subtle, complex emotion flashed in his gentle eyes, which was quickly replaced by an even deeper tenderness.
The man gently tugged at the corners of his mouth and carefully and tenderly gathered Wen Yu's hand, which was sticking out of the blanket, into his palm.
“Xiaoyu,”
The man's prominent Adam's apple bobbed, and his voice was very soft: "I am Shen Jinhuai, your... fiancé."
"Yes, I am your fiancé."
As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Jinhuai tensed up and stared intently at the girl on the hospital bed.
Wen Yu's pupils dilated slightly as she stared blankly at the man before her.
She tried to shake her head, but the movement aggravated the injury on her head, causing Wen Yu to gasp in pain.
The next moment, the man gently pressed his fingertips on both sides of Wen Yu's temples.
He gently massaged her with moderate force, trying to relieve Wen Yu's discomfort.
The man's fingertips were warm, and his movements were practiced and natural.
It felt like I'd done it a thousand times.
"It's okay if you don't remember,"
Shen Jinhuai's voice was tense yet gentle, filled with the relief of surviving a disaster: "We were on a trip when we were unfortunately involved in a car accident. The doctor said you suffered a head injury, which may cause temporary memory loss. Don't be afraid, the most important thing now is that you're awake. We'll take care of the rest later. I'll always be with you."
Hearing this, Wen Yu was even more confused.
travel?
Car accident?
Looking into the man's gentle, watery eyes, capturing the genuine concern in them, Wen Yu felt a strange, inexplicable sense of unease rising deep within her heart.
It felt empty, devoid of any emotional ripples towards this man.
fiancé?
Shen Jinhuai?
Wen Yu frowned, trying to search her blank memory for any information related to the man in front of her, but she couldn't remember anything.
My head hurts even more now.
Wen Yu frowned, closed her eyes, and her long eyelashes trembled uneasily.
Finally, she shook her head in confusion.
"Sorry, I don't know you."
Shen Jinhuai looked at Wen Yu's pale and fragile face, and his eyes behind his glasses darkened almost imperceptibly.
But the motion of massaging her temples remained unchanged.
"It's okay if we don't know each other now, we'll have a long future ahead of us. Now..."
Shen Jinhuai lowered his head and gently kissed the back of his hand that was massaging Wen Yu's temples before raising his eyes, his tone even softer: "Let me take good care of you, okay?"
"As for the rest, don't force yourself."
"You're awake now, and your body is slowly recovering, which is the best news."
Wen Yu looked at the man in front of her, opened her mouth as if to ask something, but found herself powerless.
The man's massage of her temples was gentle and comfortable, and she felt sleepy.
Finally, Wen Yu nodded wearily and closed her eyes again.
But even after falling asleep, Wen Yu was not at peace.
Her brows furrowed slightly; perhaps she had a dream she didn't like.
Shen Jinhuai raised his hand and gently massaged Wen Yu's brow.
"Go to sleep,"
The man's voice was gentle, but filled with barely suppressed heartache: "I'm here. From now on, no one will bully you again."
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