Five hours before the plane took off.
"Didn't we agree to stay a few more days?" Xing Jie held two glasses of champagne and handed one to the girl who was taking pictures seriously.
"Why are you in such a hurry? Are you leaving in a minute?"
Mu Yiran reluctantly turned her gaze away from the sapphire necklace in front of her. "Well, the study tour doesn't have a summer vacation."
Xing Jie raised an eyebrow and asked, "Still haven't found Bai Shengsheng's son?"
"Um……"
Mu Yiran lowered her gaze and fixed it on the bracelet on her left wrist. Besides that, there was another bracelet made of jade pendants.
This jade pendant wasn't the one Ms. Wen intended to give to Shi Youxi. Shi Youxi's jade pendant was a small ring, and Wen used the remaining jade in the middle to polish it into a new pendant for Mu Yiran.
While Lin Changxun was repairing the jade bracelet, he also turned this pendant into a bracelet and gave it to her along with the bracelet.
Mu Yiran still carries Shi Youxi's shirt with her.
She had been in the capital for almost half a month. The good news was that she had managed to enter Shimen and even bought a drug called "Drunken Life, Dreamlike Death" from there. The bad news was that even so, she still couldn't travel through time or get any information about Shi Youxi.
However, she did find news about Guan Shiyan, but Guan Yi's people said he went to H country, so Mu Yiran could only leave her contact information.
With the start of class drawing ever closer, Mu Yiran couldn't stay here any longer and planned to head to London after visiting Lac's fashion show.
Looking at the glittering gold-clad Gao Zhu beside her, Mu Yiran was glad she had come!
"You've been watching this a lot, you really like it?"
Xing Jie lightly tapped the bulletproof glass cabinet with champagne. Inside was a circular necklace pendant made of diamonds wrapped in the shape of Lacuna.
A round, sparkling diamond pendant should have surrounded a more dazzling piece of jewelry at the center.
But the designer simply left it blank.
Just like its name, "Lacuna"
The missing piece has been criticized by many designers as a defective product.
But Mu Yiran really liked it.
"It's no use liking it, that item is not for sale."
"Not for sale?" Mu Yiran knew this piece was designed by the designer at the beginning of the brand. Her eyes darted around, and she asked Xing Jie curiously:
"Uncle Xing, you haven't met Lack before?"
The founder and head designer of Lac, a genius with exceptional talent in both jewelry and fashion design.
"Never seen me before. Your uncle was just snatched away because I'm too outstanding."
Xing Jie raised an eyebrow and tugged at his newly permed bangs. "Besides, I'm rather introverted. I haven't even met many of my new colleagues yet, so how could I dare to meet the big boss?"
Mu Yiran: "...Really? I didn't realize you were so shy, Uncle Xing."
Xing Jie chuckled and led Mu Yiran to the rest area. "Even if I wanted to see him, I couldn't. I heard he travels all over the world all year round, I don't know if he's looking for design inspiration or just having fun, his whereabouts are unpredictable."
"I see..."
Seeing the girl replying to the real estate agent's message, Xing Jie thought of something and snapped his fingers, saying:
Are you looking for an apartment?
Mu Yiran nodded: "Mhm."
"No need to look anymore. There's a building in London that belongs to Lack. It's also Lack's workspace, and his designers can stay there if needed."
"Lac's workspace!" Mu Yiran's eyes lit up. "Then... can I stay there? I can pay! I won't stay for free!"
“Sure, I’ll talk to the housekeeper and have him clear out a room for you. Other designers sometimes stay there too. If you run into them, just say you’re my niece. The security there is good.”
“Even if you live in a nice apartment, it’s not very safe for a girl like you. At least there are people you know who can keep an eye on you.”
Mu Yiran would never refuse such a good thing!
So she came.
As soon as the plane landed, they went to the address Xing Jie had given them and arrived at a new 20-story apartment building next to the Thames River.
The thirteenth floor is a regular apartment building, while the eleventh and twelfth floors have been combined to form Lac's workspace, but one of the designers took the key to the workspace.
Mu Yiran could only lie by the door, her face flat and distorted like a pervert, frantically peering inside.
So big, so wide, so high-end!
Mu Yiran stared longingly for a while, then left dejectedly.
"...Local news, breaking news: We received a report from Bend University that a student went missing on campus on July 23 and has been confirmed dead today... Police investigations have revealed many similarities between this case and a series of murders that occurred five years ago on a rainy night... Five years later, the killer is still at large..."
The elevator reached a certain floor, and a blue-eyed boy entered, only to see Mu Yiran blocking her way.
"Hey? Is that you, Ran?"
The tall shadow fell down, and Mu Yiran shuddered, taking a step back instantly. She gripped her handbag tightly and glanced at the elevator's security camera.
"Are you calling me?"
"Yeah! Where have you been all these years?" The boy looked to be about 25 or 26 years old. He was a little excited and moved closer to her, gesturing wildly.
Mu Yiran quickly interrupted him: "You...you must have mistaken me for someone else?"
"Huh?" The boy was taken aback for a moment, then looked at the girl in front of him seriously. Seeing her guarded posture, he scratched his head embarrassedly. "Sorry, I mistook you for someone else."
The boy seemed to know that his behavior was inappropriate, so he stepped out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened and apologized again in broken Chinese.
Mu Yiran composed herself, smiled faintly, and shook her head.
Bridges is not far from the apartment; it's just across the Thames and down a small path.
But Mu Yiran didn't take that road; it was dark and winding, and she almost couldn't find her way out.
After navigating several bustling streets, Mu Yiran entered the bridge, but the weather turned against her; the summer rain kept coming in bursts, and within seconds Mu Yiran was soaked to the bone. She was about to run away.
"Snap—"
At the nearby garbage recycling station, a sanitation worker was also without an umbrella, and an old woman was pushing a garbage dump that had tilted to one side.
Mu Yiran glanced at the security booth just a few dozen meters away, then ran over and pushed the garbage truck up.
"Thank you!" The old woman, carrying a stack of cardboard-like items, pointed to a transparent umbrella next to the trash can, "Here's another umbrella."
Mu Yiran nodded and bent down to take it.
The girl, with her back to the streetlamp, saw the shadow of the hand raised high on the ground suddenly leap in front of her.
"Thump!"
The old woman looked at the unconscious girl on the ground, dragged her to the bushes nearby, and covered her with a pile of paper.
After cleaning the garbage truck, he ran back, shouting, "Quick! Bring the people up!"
The male security guard who was with him ran behind the bushes, skillfully peeled off the cardboard, and then froze on the spot, squatting down and digging at the empty grass.
"Where is the fack person?!"
...
A bar in South London in 2018.
Even after midnight, the bar remained noisy and boisterous, with deafening music providing a cathartic release for restless souls.
No one smelled the blood hidden beneath the alcohol and nicotine.
"Smack!"
"Ah—cough cough!"
The boy, sitting calmly in the corner, slowly finished reading the report in his hand, signed it, and remained completely unaffected by the beatings and the man's painful, hoarse wails.
It even made him feel very happy.
After casually putting his things away, Shi Youxi stood up and said:
"That's fine."
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