WRA CH46

Chapter 46: Searching for His Wife

Zhou Sicheng picked up the hair clip from the ground and looked up toward the second-floor bedroom window.

For Xiang Zhen to breach the perimeter in a single second, the greatest possibility was jumping out the second-floor window and landing right in this patch of sunflowers.

The wrist holding the hair clip began to tremble. “Search thoroughly.”

Never had so many people crowded into this sunflower patch; for over a decade, only Uncle Zhang had walked among them.

Zhou Sicheng deeply treasured the legacy his mother had left behind, never permitting outsiders to trespass here.

Yet this principle wasn’t worth mentioning in front of Xiang Zhen.

The rain was heavy, knocking some sunflowers flat. To pass through, the bodyguards had to prop them up, leaving them leaning crookedly against one another.

Zhou Sicheng stood rooted in place, analyzing Xiang Zhen’s trajectory. If he hadn’t lost his memory—and he was certain he hadn’t—Xiang Zhen had vanished from the bedroom within two seconds.

Was that even possible?

If Xiang Zhen possessed such incredible agility, he wouldn’t still be in the sunflower grove; he would have long bolted past here, fleeing much farther away.

Shi Ting and Ye Yun checked the surveillance footage, completely unable to find any trace of Xiang Zhen in that crucial second of disappearance.

Even the night-vision infrared sensors had failed.

Shi Ting judged based on experience: “President Zhou, given Madam’s agility, he should have run quite far by now.”

Zhou Sicheng gave a soft “Mn,” muffled by the roar of the rain.

The butler, startled awake in the middle of the night, carried an umbrella. But the umbrella couldn’t fit into the two-meter-tall flower thicket, so he closed it and stepped onto the muddy black soil. “Young Master Zhou, searching like this won’t solve anything. We should head back and think about where Madam might have gone. Could he have gone to Mr. Dou’s place?”

Xiang Zhen’s head nodded along with the raindrops. Yes, exactly, hurry up and go inside! Catching a cold in the rain isn’t good!

His heart ached for his hubby in the torrential storm on one hand, and for the sunflowers in the downpour on the other.

This whole family gave this Yao far too much to worry about.

Zhou Sicheng closed his eyes. It felt as though his nose could still catch the lingering scent Xiang Zhen had left behind, which not even the pouring rain could wash away.

The butler said, “We should search along the roads by car.”

“President Zhou, nothing found.”

“President Zhou, he’s not here!”

Reports from the bodyguards came in from all around.

Zhou Sicheng finally spoke: “You all go search. I can’t drive right now. I’ll stand here a bit longer.”

Standing in the place where his wife was last seen made him feel slightly closer to him.

The butler: “Did Madam have shoes on when he left? Could he be running barefoot on the asphalt road?”

With his bare roots buried in the earth, Xiang Zhen thought: The butler really knows how to talk someone down!

Zhou Sicheng’s eyes shifted—Xiang Zhen hadn’t been wearing shoes. He pulled his legs from the deep mud. Before leaving, he stared fixedly at the spot where the hair clip had dropped and the sunflowers surrounding it—especially that one with the roundest flower head, which seemed completely impervious to the rain, glowing like Xiang Zhen’s golden hair.

When thunder roared and lightning flashed, that stalk seemed to tremble slightly more than the others.

It was as if he were hallucinating.

Zhou Sicheng bit down hard on the inside of his cheek until a metallic taste of blood filled his mouth, forcing himself to stay alert.

He yanked open the door of a car, climbed in, and said, “Let’s go.”

The bodyguards filed out of the sunflower patch, and quiet returned, leaving only the sound of rain washing over the earth.

Xiang Zhen slowly channeled a bit of sunlight power, gifting it to his kin sunflowers. Then, shrinking his body until he was shorter than Xiao Kui Bao, he darted through the thicket and raced out of the villa estate.

He couldn’t go to Dou Manning’s place, because Zhou Sicheng would head there. Nor could he return to Auntie Guihua’s, because his husband knew the address on his ID card.

Haicheng was a flat plain, so Xiang Zhen ran toward the mountains. Traveling through the soil didn’t take a Yao long at all.

…

There was a spare change of clothes in the car, and Zhou Sicheng changed into them. The thought of Xiang Zhen being out somewhere in the pouring rain sent sharp, needle-like pangs through the back of his skull.

Shi Ting: “President Zhou, would you like a piece of bread?”

Zhou Sicheng: “Can’t eat.”

His eyes remained glued to the roadside, desperate to spot a lone silhouette, while dialing Secretary Gao: “Check if Xiang Zhen has purchased any tickets back home.”

“Also, find some local personnel to stake out the train station, bus station, and the entrance to Xiang Zhen’s family home.”

Secretary Gao quickly entered the details provided by Zhou Sicheng. When his eyes caught Xiang Zhen’s registered home address, he gasped in surprise: “President Zhou, Madam and Dou Manning share the exact same household registration booklet!”

Zhou Sicheng had previously handed Dou Manning’s ID card to Secretary Gao to process the coffee shop’s business license.

Back then, the card had been wrapped in several layers of paper, and Zhou Sicheng hadn’t bothered to unwrap it, but Secretary Gao had committed the details to memory.

Zhou Sicheng froze. Were Dou Manning and Xiang Zhen biological brothers? Or half-brothers with the same mother? Hadn’t Xiang Zhen met Dou Manning at the construction site? Fan Hao had personally witnessed it that day.

The two hit it off immediately, carved from the same mold—their relationship truly wasn’t simple.

Then Dou Manning definitely had to know where Xiang Zhen went.

Zhou Sicheng paid a late-night visit. Shen Ku was deeply displeased, but hearing that his wife had fled, he let him in with a touch of sympathy.

Dou Manning was completely in the dark: “I don’t know where he’d go. He only ever mentioned wanting to return to the mountains.”

Zhou Sicheng: “Which mountains?”

Dou Manning: “The Greater Khingan Mountains.”

The Greater Khingan Mountains were vast; it would take Zhou Sicheng three to five years to comb through them.

Zhou Sicheng: “What else? You two share the same household booklet.”

Shen Ku asked in surprise: “You two are relatives?”

Dou Manning felt a brief pang of guilt. Ah, he found that out too?

“That’s our secret. No comment.”

Zhou Sicheng: “A secret? I am his husband. Even if you’re biological brothers, in the legal sense my priority is higher than yours. I have the right to know my wife’s secrets.”

Dou Manning was utterly bewildered by his onslaught. Is this how human society operates?

Shen Ku couldn’t bear to watch Zhou Sicheng’s aggressive bullying and retorted sarcastically, “In the legal sense, you two have no relationship whatsoever.”

Zhou Sicheng’s gaze was razor-sharp: “Mr. Shen, let me remind you: capitalists never disappear; they only shift form.”

Although Shen Ku was an engineer himself, his family was wealthy. Did not inheriting the family business mean he wasn’t a capitalist? The son of a capitalist was just as detestable.

Zhou Sicheng was practically acting out of sheer benevolence by not exposing Shen Ku for walking the exact same path he had.

The proletariat and the bourgeoisie were natural enemies—that was the very conclusion Dou Manning and Xiang Zhen had researched together.

He wanted to see just how loyal Dou Manning was to the proletariat.

Shen Ku: “…”

Shen Ku whispered to Dou Manning, “Manning, look at him, he’s about to go mad with worry. The two of them genuinely love each other. I believe he wouldn’t blab Xiang Zhen’s secrets, nor would he do anything to harm Xiang Zhen.”

With Shen Ku speaking up, Dou Manning wavered slightly. But! A Yao’s secret was the most important thing of all!

No matter how much Xiang Zhen loved his husband, he wouldn’t tell Zhou Sicheng that Dou Manning was a coffee Yao.

Dou Manning looked resolute: “I can only tell you that Zhenzhen’s identity is extraordinary. He won’t be in any danger out there.”

“Just go home and wait for his news. It’s only because he loves you so much that he went to find a way to resolve this problem.”

Zhou Sicheng had made a wasted trip.

Yet not entirely wasted; at least he knew Xiang Zhen was safe, and that Xiang Zhen wanted to go to the Greater Khingan Mountains.

The Greater Khingan Mountains… this location was not unfamiliar to him. Zheng Ai had brought back the sunflower seeds from there.

Could it be that Xiang Zhen read his Planting Diary, developed an interest in the Greater Khingan Mountains, and planned to visit that hazelnut grove blanketed in sunflowers to clear his mind?

Xiang Zhen’s love for sunflowers was obvious to all.

Yet in such boundless mountains, how would Xiang Zhen get there? How would he find him?

There were wild boars, wolves, and tigers out there… The mere thought of it kept Zhou Sicheng from sleeping.

He calmed down to analyze: first, Dou Manning said Xiang Zhen wouldn’t be in danger, and he showed zero worry about his brother’s safety, so that was passably trustworthy.

Second, Xiang Zhen had scoured his house for a month, and Zhou Sicheng had let him unlock the safe, which contained Zheng Ai’s expedition diaries—perhaps recording the route from all those years ago.

Right.

Zhou Sicheng immediately pulled out Zheng Ai’s diary and found the corresponding information.

It matched up.

“Gao Ou, book a flight to Oroqen,” Zhou Sicheng instructed. But in an instant, he changed his mind—Xiang Zhen probably wouldn’t take a flight, so he wouldn’t arrive that quickly. “I’ll visit Xiang Zhen’s hometown first.”

Meeting the parents for the first time shouldn’t happen like this, but Zhou Sicheng had no room to care anymore.

Zhou Sicheng searched the scientific expedition route online, discovering that over a decade ago, a lightning-sparked forest fire had destroyed the woods. After the fire, the local government seized the opportunity to develop the land, so it wasn’t pristine wilderness anymore; a winding road now transported lumber through it.

A sleepless night passed.

When full daylight broke, Zhou Sicheng rubbed his sore, bloodshot eyes.

He stepped out onto the balcony and looked down at the sunflowers.

After a storm, Uncle Zhang always arrived early to prop the sunflowers back up before the sun came out.

“President Zhou.” Uncle Zhang didn’t know what had happened yet. “Why are there so many footprints here?”

Zhou Sicheng: “Looking for a ring.”

His palm clutched Xiang Zhen’s hair clip. There was no ring; Xiang Zhen had taken the ring with him.

His wife still loved him.

Suddenly, something glinted on the ground. Zhou Sicheng lowered his gaze; a ring was lying quietly in the corner of the wall.

“…”

Uncle Zhang said, “With a downpour like this during the blooming period, I thought the sunflowers would be done for today, but they’re actually in pretty good shape.”

Zhou Sicheng said nothing, watching Uncle Zhang straighten the sunflowers one by one and secure them with wooden stakes.

Having fallen in all directions, Uncle Zhang muttered to himself, “Since they’ve pollinated and set seeds, I’ll stake you all facing southeast.”

Zhou Sicheng closed his eyes.

Once sunflowers set seeds, they no longer turn with the sun. Nobody turns around someone else for eternity; plants are like this, and Xiang Zhen was no different.

If he had known from the start he couldn’t keep Xiang Zhen, he should have stood farther away, letting Xiang Zhen spend his days peacefully and happily.

Ever since they met, he hadn’t given Xiang Zhen a single day of comfort.

He was too greedy.

Greed made him domineering and frantic, like capital expanding unchecked—bound to earn the disgust of his proletarian wife.

Zhou Sicheng realized with sudden horror that his terrifying controlling measures over this past period had been more than enough to make Xiang Zhen loathe him.

He suddenly didn’t know with what state of mind Xiang Zhen had left.

Could it be finality? He hadn’t even kept the ring.

Gao Ou arrived downstairs to take Zhou Sicheng to the high-speed rail station; heading to Xiang Zhen’s hometown, the bullet train was much more convenient.

Seeing President Zhou, he wondered if he hadn’t slept in days—why were his eyes so bloodshot?

Sneakily, Fan Hao also showed up at the gate—he had come to see if Zhou Sicheng had starved to death yet.

Judging by what he saw, Xiang Zhen probably wasn’t getting better anytime soon. Someone had to step up and slap some sense into this brother of his, provided Xiang Zhen permitted it.

Rubbing his hands together, Fan Hao was surprised to find Zhou Sicheng preparing to leave.

He jogged over and tapped the window: “Where are you going? The hospital? Bro, are you on your last legs?”

Fan Hao poked his head in to look at the backseat; sure enough, Zhou Sicheng’s face was completely pale.

Gao Ou: “Step aside please, we need to get to the bullet train station to find Madam at his hometown.”

Fan Hao was stunned: “Your wife ran away?! It’s only been two days and he already went back to his maternal family?!”

He asked: “Zhou Sicheng, are you going by yourself?”

Zhou Sicheng: “What? Are you that concerned too?”

Fan Hao rolled his eyes. Zhou Sicheng was like a startled predator, as if the entire world were trying to steal his wife; you absolutely couldn’t touch his reverse scales. He said breezily, “I’m just worried you’ll drop dead on the road.”

Zhou Sicheng let him into the car, fearing that in his panic, his own thoughts might derail, so he briefly explained what had happened last night.

When had Zhou Sicheng ever been this humble? Fan Hao felt that now that Zhou Sicheng’s wife had fled, his eyes looked startlingly clear.

Listening to the whole story, Fan Hao was dumbfounded: “What century is this? There’s actually a mother who doesn’t send either of her two sons to school, each more illiterate than the last? Compulsory education has village mobilization campaigns; to resist the Education Bureau, the village committee, and the Women’s Federation, she is an absolute outlaw!”

Zhou Sicheng paused, his impression of Li Guihua shifting from Xiang Zhen’s “countryside mom” to an outlaw.

There truly was something off here.

This trip couldn’t be delayed for a single second.

He suspected that both Xiang Zhen and Dou Manning had been trafficked by her, working in different places all along, which was why they didn’t recognize each other upon meeting. Perhaps this was the true trauma hidden deep in Xiang Zhen’s heart.

Fan Hao: “Take more men with you. In my experience, a rural woman who refuses to let her kids go to school so they can farm will be extraordinarily difficult to deal with, and completely incapable of accepting new things—like being gay. She’ll beat you out the door with a shovel!”

The storm cleared, yielding clear skies.

On a sunny afternoon.

An uninvited guest arrived at Yao Spirit Village.

When Auntie Guihua heard that a very handsome and wealthy-looking man was asking around for her house, she knew something was amiss.

She had experienced this once before in her youth.

It was nothing more than a Yao running away, and the human they entangled themselves with giving chase.

Li Guihua had experience: just play dumb, and if all else failed, flop straight onto the ground.

Spitting out a sunflower seed shell with a ptooey, she strolled back home.

The man standing in her courtyard turned around, incomparably masculine and handsome, though looking somewhat indisposed at the moment.

Uh-oh, uh-oh. This is totally Xiao Zhen’er’s type. He had only been out for two months, yet a man had already chased him all the way here.

Li Guihua: “Who are you looking for?”

Zhou Sicheng: “Auntie, I am Xiang Zhen’s friend.”

Li Guihua: “What are you looking for my son for?”

Zhou Sicheng: “He left without saying goodbye. I’m a bit worried about him.”

Li Guihua scanned him up and down. Just ‘a bit’? You look extraordinarily worried, young man.

“Oh, then he just went out to clear his head. The kid is grown, I can’t control him.”

Zhou Sicheng kept his cool: “You care far too little about Xiang Zhen.”

Li Guihua: “Not as much as you do, fine? If you don’t have anything else, leave. I’m going to play mahjong.”

Zhou Sicheng rarely dealt with characters like this. Li Guihua’s complete nonchalance had only two explanations: one, Xiang Zhen had contacted her; two, she wasn’t Xiang Zhen’s biological mother.

Before getting to the bottom of the truth, he maintained his respect: “Xiang Zhen was still sick when he left. I’m very worried about him.”

Li Guihua: “Hmm?”

Seeing that she finally showed a flicker of concern, Zhou Sicheng said, “He frequently feels like throwing up.”

“Throwing up?” Li Guihua’s eyes widened. A Yao couldn’t fall ill, but there was an exceptionally low probability of getting pregnant!