Chapter 133


    <h4>Missing</h4>


    At first, Li Yundong didn’t see anything wrong with Su Chan . She had stopped screaming at him and was now sobbing quietly into her hands . Li Yundong reached out with his hand, wanting to pat her head . "What’s the matter—"


    His hand stilled when he saw it . Spread across the mattress, under Su Chan’s folded legs, was a thick and bushy fox tail . "Oh my God . . . " Li Yundong whispered .


    Ruan Hongling’s words came rushing into his mind . The girl had mentioned something about Su Chan being a fox spirit earlier, but Li Yundong thought she was just trying to mess with his head back then .


    So it’s true . . .


    Su Chan was a fox spirit . Wow .


    Li Yundong reached out to touch Su Chan . She resisted him and tried to lean back, but Li Yundong managed to pry her hands away from her face after several attempts .


    Li Yundong cupped his hand under Su Chan’s chin . "Listen, there’s nothing to be—"


    "No!"


    A green sh blinded Li Yundong’s eyes . The next thing he knew, he was stumbling backwards and falling off the bed . There was a sharp click followed by a loud thud .


    Li Yundong’s eyes went wide as realization hit him . The sliding door...


    He sprang to his feet and looked towards the balcony .


    What he saw through the open sliding door filled his heart with horror .


    "Su Chan! No! Don’t!!"


    Li Yundong charged towards the balcony, but he was toote; Su Chan had leaped off the railing before Li Yundong could reach her .


    Li Yundong’s clutched the top of the railing with his fingers and peered out into the night . Su Chan’s tail fluttered in the night air as she floated away from the motel with great speed .


    "God damn it!"


    The railing trembled when Li Yundong pped it with his palm .


    Li Yundong pushed away from the railing and ran towards front door, grabbing his phone, keys, and wallet on the way out .


    While waiting for the elevator, Ruan Hongling’s words kept reying inside his mind: "She’s manipting you . . . She’ll drain your Yang Qi and leave you to die . . . "


    "Shut up, you bitch . . . Shut the hell up!" Li Yundong growled, shaking his head harshly . "I’m not going to listen to you . . . "


    Su Chan was a good person . A kind person . That would never change no matter what everyone else told him . He’d seen Su Chan’s goodness with his own eyes, damn it! Ruan Hongling and the Zhengyi School could go to hell .


    A loud ding signaled the elevator’s arrival . Li Yundong entered the elevator car and pressed the button for the ground floor, then began pping the elevator close button repeatedly .


    Once the doors slid shut, the elevator descended the building in a painfully slow manner . Li Yundong used the time topose himself and go through a list of possible ces that Su Chan might go .


    Su Chan’s piggy bank was still in the motel room, so she likely didn’t have any money with her . Which means she can’t take a cab . . .


    Li Yundong banged his head against the back of the elevator and huffed out in frustration . So what? Why would she need to take a cab when she could frigging fly?


    But at least she can’t check into another motel without cash . . .


    Damn it, how the heck was he supposed to find her? The city was so big . She could be anywhere by now . Hell, she could’ve gone back into the mountains for all he knew .


    Should he lodge a missing persons report? F*ck!


    A loud ding jolted him out of his frantic thoughts . He rushed out of the elevator the moment the doors slid open . Outside the motel, he came to a halt . A momentter, he gripped his hair with his hands and started pacing in front of the motel’s entrance—he had no idea where to even start the search .


    "Calm down, Li Yundong . . . Calm down . . . " he muttered . "Where would she go . . . Think!"


    Li Yundong took a deep breath and went over the facts . Su Chan didn’t know the city very well, so wherever she was heading towards had to be some ce she knew . Maybe it was a ce that they’d both been to before? The campus? McDonalds? Their old apartment? Li Yundong huffed out a breath and released his hair . But what if she didn’t even have a destination in mind? What if she was just flying around aimlessly? How the f*ck was he supposed to find her then?


    To hell with it . So what if he didn’t have a clue where she was going . He’d search the entire city if he had to . He owed it so Su Chan to at least try . He ran to the roadside and hailed a cab . "Tiannan University!" he shouted at the cabbie the moment he got in . "Step on it!"


    ***


    "Wait here! I’ll be back!" Li Yundong yelled at the cabbie before he got out of the cab and ran towards the campus gates . He went to the academic building first, where he checked every ssroom and every lecture hall inside . Then, he went to the library and study lounges, which were packed with students doing theirst minute cramming—the finals were still going on . He didn’t find Su Chan in any of those ces . He left the academic building and then headed towards the copse of trees on the right . He moved past the copse and came to a halt in front of the gazebo, which was empty except for the pieces of rubble left behind after he had smashed the stone table .


    "Damn it!" Li Yundong muttered, then turned around and headed back towards the gates .


    Where are you, Su Chan?


    Li Yundong slid back into the cab . "New Hongsheng District!"


    The cabbie, bless the man, seemed to have sensed the urgency in Li Yundong’s voice . He pulled away from the curb and drove off quickly . Hell, the guy even broke the speed limit .


    They arrived at New Hongsheng District in record time . Li Yundong thanked the cabbie and told the guy to wait for him in front of the gates—just in case Su Chan wasn’t in their apartment .


    Li Yundong unlocked the door of apartment 20A with trembling hands . Darkness greeted him inside . Halfway along the doorway, he stopped, too afraid to keep moving, too afraid to face the possibility that Su Chan might not be here after all .


    "Su Chan?!" he yelled .


    His voice echoed in the doorway, taunting him with its emptiness . Images shed across his mind, and at that moment, he remembered . He remembered every moment they had shared: the moments ofughter and joy; the moments of tears and arguments; even normal and routine stuff like bumping into each other in hallways during the mornings, or fighting for food across the dining table .


    He missed his princess . He missed Su Chan .


    He wanted his little chipmunk back .


    Li Yundong’s feet moved on his own . As he walked, shards of broken ss crunched beneath his shoes . Ten minutester, he slumped to the floor in the middle of the living room, utterly vanquished .


    Tears spilled from his eyes .


    "Where are you, you idiot . . . Where the hell are you . . . Why did you run? Why?"


    The truth was that it really didn’t f*cking matter that Su Chan was a fox spirit . He’d witnessed her kindness, her inherent goodness, her sincerity, and her selflessness . None of those things could be faked . Hell, she’d been so damned loyal to him . She had faith in him . Him, a pathetic and penniless loser with no real achievements to speak of . She could literally have any man she wanted, yet she picked him .


    Regret filled his chest, drowning him . This was all his fault . He should’ve made his feelings clearer, should’ve tried harder to convince her that he really didn’t care what other people called her . In hindsight, the signs of her insecurity were all there . How many times had she expressed her fear of him abandoning her? How many times had she cried when she thought he was leaving her? It was all there . He’d just been too blind to see it, too much of an idiot .


    Now she was gone, and he was sitting here crying like a loser .


    Li Yundong wiped his tears . There had to be something he was missing, some ce he hadn’t looked . Alright . . . think . . . Li Yundong exhaled . Where could she be? Where was thest time they had the most fun toge—


    "Holy shit..." Li Yundong whispered into the empty room .


    Secondster, he was up on his feet and out the front door .


    She had to be there . She must be .