Dating Myself - Chapter 40

In the dead of night in Weicheng, the glamour had faded and silence reigned. No matter how the neon lights flashed, they couldn’t match the noise of the daytime. The city center was still lively, but the further west you went, the fewer cars and people there were, leaving only lonely strings of streetlights.

An Mu’s body was rigid as she repeatedly urged the taxi driver to hurry. She held her phone to her ear, but the receiver offered only a monotonous beeping sound. Neither Maomao nor Jian Yixi was answering.

Finally, the phone’s battery gave out and it automatically shut down.

It never rains but it pours. All the shops along the way were closed, leaving her no chance to buy a portable charger.

She regretted not going to Jian Yixi’s room first to grab her power bank. What did personal privacy matter at a time like this?

An Mu clutched the useless phone, unconsciously squeezing it tighter. Her fingertips turned whiter and whiter until, suddenly, there was a snap! Her little fingernail broke without warning!

It didn’t break off completely, still connected to the pale pink quick beneath, but blood immediately welled up.

An Mu glanced down. The piercing pain in her fingertip, which ran straight to her heart, slightly cooled her frantic anxiety. She pulled out a tissue and pressed it against the wound.

Maomao, Jian Yixi, and that fake boyfriend—three people together—there shouldn’t be a huge problem. Although Jinfang Road isn’t a good place, it’s not a den of iniquity, either. They shouldn’t be gone forever.

Relax, An Mu.

An Mu softly exhaled and leaned back against the seat, staring at the road ahead that seemed to stretch endlessly. The car’s heater was blasting, making her face flushed pink. Her tightly pressed red lips looked a little more delicate than usual.

The driver kept glancing at the rearview mirror. Going to Jinfang Road late at night, and with such an alluring girl, his voice couldn’t help but take on a hint of sleaze.

“Going so late, are you going to work? Or just for fun?”

Working meant she was a sex worker; going for fun meant she wasn’t a proper person, either.

An Mu ignored him. As the streetlights swept past, they illuminated her eyes, which were as deep as a cold pool. Her gaze was indescribably icy. A single indifferent look was enough to make the driver shiver.

However, it was only for that instant, and the driver quickly composed himself.

She’s just a ten-something-year-old girl. What’s there to be afraid of?

“Seeing how young you are, you must be going for fun, right? What’s your number? Tell your big brother, and the next time you take a ride, I won’t charge you.”

The old man, who was in his early forties, almost fifty, felt no shame in calling himself “big brother.” Seeing that she wouldn’t talk to him, he became even more emboldened to flirt.

“I’m telling you, don’t look down on me for driving a taxi. I’m actually just doing this for the experience. I have shares in the Kesheng Group in the Eastern District. I collect dividends every day and only drive when I’m too bored. I wouldn’t tell this truth to anyone else, but I think you’re nice. Come on, add my WeChat; Big Brother will send you a red envelope.”

An Mu indifferently glanced at the car charger he had casually left in the door pocket.

“I’m not yet an adult.”

“So what? What’s the harm in adding a WeChat?”

“My phone is dead.”

“Ah, that’s simple! Big Brother will charge it for you!”

Once the phone was charging, the driver’s mouth became even looser, and his words grew increasingly disgusting—things like “Little sister, you’re so fair” and “Little sister, are you still a virgin?” Fortunately, they arrived soon after.

An Mu opened the door and got out, handing over the fare. The driver didn’t take it. He unplugged her phone, powered it on, and smiled, shaking it at her.

“This ride is on Big Brother. Come on, tell me your password so I can add your WeChat.”

An Mu didn’t have time for his nonsense and threw the fare onto the seat.

“Give me the phone.”

The driver grinned mischievously. “If you don’t add me, I won’t give it to you.”

“Are you really not giving it to me?”

“No!”

An Mu unzipped her backpack and pulled out a black electric stun baton, about the thickness of a small wrist.

“A civilian stun baton is not illegal. If you don’t return it now, I will be acting in self-defense.”

“You… are you crazy?! Who carries that thing around?”

“How else can I defend myself against a scumbag like you?”

The driver’s face turned ugly. Anyone else he could handle, but if he was scared off by a little girl, was he still a man?

“You’re f*cking asking for it!”

The driver reached out to snatch the stun baton. An Mu didn’t hesitate and pressed it right against him.

Buzz!

A faint electric current sounded. The driver’s eyes widened. He convulsed and slumped into the driver’s seat, his phone falling into the seat crack.

An Mu withdrew the baton and reached in for her phone. Fortunately, it wasn’t broken. It hadn’t charged much, only about ten percent, but it was enough to last a little while.

She wrote down the license plate and the driver’s name. Before he could recover, she quickly turned and entered the alley, immediately dialing a number.

The call still went unanswered, and no one replied on WeChat. The phones weren’t off or disconnected; they simply weren’t being picked up no matter how many times she called.

If it were just one person, she could explain it as a lost phone, but how could she not worry when it was two people?

An Mu walked quickly down the empty alley. It was not quite 11 PM, so it wasn’t extremely late, and a few people were still moving around, but there was no sign of Jian Yixi anywhere.

She switched to calling 110 again. Reporting a disappearance after only a short time of being out of contact certainly wouldn’t meet the requirements for a missing person case, so the police wouldn’t accept it. She had to report something else.

An Mu reported the driver’s license plate and name, listing the verbal harassment she had suffered during the ride, the fact that she was a minor, and the driver’s suspected attempt to steal her personal property.

After hanging up, she scrolled through her contacts, her finger stopping before Uncle Zhao’s number.

Uncle Zhao was an acquaintance of An Mu’s uncle—the head of public security in Weicheng. It was mainly because of him that An Mu’s parents reluctantly agreed to let her stay in Weicheng alone.

Before coming to Weicheng, she had specifically told her uncle not to bother Uncle Zhao with calls to the school; she was just attending classes and didn’t need any special treatment. Otherwise, even Zhao Xudong wouldn’t have dared to act against her.

Uncle Zhao had told her to contact him anytime, which seemed sincere. But An Mu knew that contacting him meant incurring a favor—not one she owed, but one her uncle owed. She preferred not to contact him unless absolutely necessary, especially since letting others know about this connection could easily complicate simple matters.

It wasn’t yet an absolutely necessary moment. Jian Yixi and Maomao were only temporarily out of contact. Perhaps their location was too loud to hear the phone, or perhaps they were afraid to answer for fear that she would sense something was wrong. After all, there were three of them; the likelihood of something bad happening was small.

Besides, when the 110 police arrived, she could directly inform the attending officer of the situation, and they might be able to help.

Even though she knew all this perfectly well, An Mu still pressed Uncle Zhao’s number.

She couldn’t bear the consequence of her nightmare coming true. She didn’t want to be a useless person who couldn’t protect herself after being reborn, and she definitely didn’t want to hurt her adoptive parents.

She was frantic right now and just wanted to find Jian Yixi immediately!

Beep, beep, beep—

The phone was answered after only a few rings. It was Uncle Zhao’s kind voice on the other end.

An Mu didn’t bother with small talk. After a polite greeting, she cut straight to the point, describing the situation clearly, then added a request.

“I just called 110, but I didn’t report this case, mainly because I’m still not sure if she’s in trouble or not. I’d like to ask Uncle Zhao to speak to the attending officers and ask them to help me search thoroughly.”

After listening, Uncle Zhao readily agreed.

“110 usually dispatches officers from the nearest station. The officers going to that area should be from the West District Police Station. They are quite familiar with the people there, especially the few who are frequently brought in. I’ll have them contact them directly to see if anything is amiss. Don’t worry, generally, nothing will happen.”

“Thank you, Uncle Zhao.”

“Don’t be so formal with me. You wait by the alley entrance; I’ll contact them right away.”

How could a place like Jinfang Road not be on the police’s radar?

But they were like a chronic rash: aggressive crackdowns would help for a while, but the problem would recur as soon as surveillance eased. The operations were becoming increasingly secretive; on the surface, they looked like legitimate hair salons and billiard halls, but regulars knew what was really going on, severely increasing the difficulty of police enforcement.

An Mu had no patience to wait at the alley entrance. She thought for a moment and first went to the guesthouse she had been dragged into in her previous life. Without asking the owner, she went straight upstairs, pulled a server aside, slipped them a banknote, and showed them the photo on her phone, asking if they had seen the girl.

The server examined the photo carefully and shook their head.

An Mu breathed a sigh of relief.

Although she knew that the time had changed and many things were different, and even if the events of her past life recurred, it might not necessarily be in this guesthouse, finding no sign of them here still brought immense relief.

Leaving the guesthouse, she looked left and right. Diagonally opposite was a KTV, where screaming and howling sounds—even strong soundproofing couldn’t block them all.

Clutching her phone, she entered the KTV. She asked all the servers she could find, but they all said they hadn’t seen them.

The less people who had seen them, the more anxious she became. An Mu left the KTV and went to the billiard hall next door.

Still, no one had seen them.

She asked along the route until she reached the bar at the very end of the alley.

The bar’s entrance was narrow, and the interior was dark. A large number of motorcycles, electric bikes, and mountain bikes were haphazardly parked outside.

This was just an ordinary bar, not the “Night Colors” Maomao had mentioned. If they were going to a bar, they should have gone to Night Colors; there was no reason to travel so far from the city center to this place.

An Mu turned to walk back along the other side but stopped after two steps.

The bar environment was noisy. If the three of them had coincidentally seen this bar and gone in for fun, or if Maomao’s older brother was a regular here, it was indeed possible they wouldn’t notice a phone call.

Thinking this way, the bar’s possibility grew stronger.

An Mu gripped her phone, which had only six percent battery left, and stepped into the bar.

The moment she pushed open the heavy metal door, she was hit by a choking mix of nicotine and cheap perfume; the smell of alcohol was almost faint enough to be undetectable.

An Mu covered her nose and frowned as she entered. This whole area consisted of old buildings, and the bar was also shabby and cheap. Laser lights flashed distractingly, and a band on stage was singing rock music hoarsely. The dance floor was a chaotic mess of people. The closer they got to the suburbs, the more popular this type of bar became; it might not survive in the city center.

The bar wasn’t very big, and there weren’t too many people. An Mu wove through the crowd, searching everywhere. The dim light and deafening music only amplified her already frantic heart.

No.

They weren’t anywhere.

Where are you?!

She was usually so obedient and compliant, so why was she refusing to answer the phone at this exact moment?

Did she really not hear it? Or… or…

Just moments ago, she thought it was unlikely anything had happened, that she was overreacting, but now she felt uncertain again.

She knew herself well. No matter how much she wanted to have fun, she wouldn’t fail to explain herself and cause this worry, especially after so many calls. Even if Jian Yixi hadn’t seen them, Maomao should have.

Did something really happen?

A throbbing pain beat at her temples. The noisy environment, the glaring colored lights, and the suffocating stench made her feel increasingly unwell.

Distant memories continuously surged into her mind.

Disgusting faces, sinister laughter, the agonizing pain of falling from a building, the despair of being dragged… everything felt as if it had just happened…

An Mu’s face was pale as she hurried through the crowd, her brow furrowed, her expression blank. No one could tell her emotions were on the verge of collapsing.

She remembered her past life: the side of the road late at night, the warm corpse, the police car’s blood-red lights spinning. No matter how much she cried and screamed, her adoptive parents never responded.

She also remembered Maomao being pulled from the cold lake, her fists tightly clenched, her engagement ring still on her finger, but never getting the chance to wear the wedding dress she had dreamed of for ten years.

A fear she hadn’t felt in years suddenly welled up within her—an indescribable terror.

She had been lucky enough to escape by jumping out the window in her last life. What about this life?

Jian Yixi…

Why didn’t she stop her from leaving?!

She knew Jian Yixi’s purpose for going out was because of her, so why did she let her go?!

If something truly happened to Jian Yixi, what would she do? What would her adoptive parents do?

Was she reborn just to watch herself fail again and watch her adoptive parents be heartbroken?

Someone came over, laughing with a companion, and accidentally bumped her. The person turned and steadied her.

“Don’t touch me!”

An Mu’s body went taut. She slapped the person away in barely a second. The nervousness she had worked so hard to calm down since her rebirth immediately resurfaced.

The person rubbed their nose, let out a soft hmph, and walked away.

An Mu stood frozen in place, drenched in cold sweat. Her phone vibrated twice. A police officer from 110 was calling, but before she could answer, the phone died completely.

An Mu squeezed out of the bar and rushed to the alley entrance. From afar, she saw a police car parked by the roadside.

With the police involved, everything became much simpler.

Security retrieved the surveillance footage and quickly locked onto Jian Yixi’s figure. Jian Yixi and Xie Maomao entered the alley and walked all the way to a foot massage parlor. They went inside and never came out.

The police officer quickly led the group to the foot massage parlor. The boss was startled and quickly came forward to greet them.

The officer showed the boss a screenshot from the surveillance.

“Where are they?”

Before the officer could finish, Jian Yixi and Xie Maomao were seen sneaking down from upstairs, turning back to peek every so often.

The moment she saw An Mu, Jian Yixi froze, then instantly burst into a brilliant smile.