Back Then, I Adored You

One of the places was on the balcony of the Four Seasons Hotel, where Qin Zhi’ai was as she was speaking to Lu Bancheng, specifically on the top floor standing in front of Gu Yusheng’s rental room.

After ending her call with Lu Bancheng, Qin Zhi’ai walked to the emergency exit, pushed the door to the balcony open, and walked a few stairs down. She didn’t see anyone on the balcony.

Qin Zhi’ai explored a few other places Lu Bancheng had listed, but she didn’t find Gu Yusheng at any of them.

At one point, Qin Zhi’ai called Gu Yusheng again while standing in the middle of the road, but he still didn’t answer.

Suddenly she thought of Gu Yusheng’s parents when she was about to call him again.

Would he be at the cemetery? He must be thinking of his parents while his grandfather is so sick.

The more Qin Zhi’ai thought about it, the more she felt it was likely, so she grabbed a taxi and had the driver take her to the suburb where his parents’ cemetery was. Once there, she checked everywhere while the taxi driver waited. Again, Gu Yusheng could not be found.

Riding back to the city, Qin Zhi’ai found the drive to be much longer returning from than it had been going to the suburb. It was almost two in the afternoon by the time she got back to the city. It was then she began to feel waves of anxiety attacks because she could not find Gu Yusheng.

Even though the baby was just the size of a bean, she felt a tinge of pain in her stomach. She covered her lower belly with her hand, as her anxiousness increased.

When the driver was about to take a turn at the next intersection, Qin Zhi’ai thought of two other places Gu Yusheng could be. She immediately told the driver the addresses of both places.

The first place was the pedestrian street where Gu Yusheng and she had visited when she had been Liang Doukou’s body double. The other was the store where they had played the game of writing notes on paper money.

Gu Yusheng was not at either place.

Although it was slightly chilly in early spring in Beijing, Qin Zhi’ai had beads of sweat suddenly form on her back, and her hand holding her cell phone became sweaty and sticky.

She continued to call Gu Yusheng, and each time he didn’t answer she felt more tortured, until her breathing became irregular as a bad feeling crept all over her.

Has anything happened to him?

Qin Zhi’ai did not know why that idea flashed in her head, causing her hand to shake and drop the phone on the floor.

She noticed the corner of the screen had cracked as she picked it up, but she immediately called Lu Bancheng again. When he answered, she said before he could greet her, “Bro Bancheng, I’ve been looking for him everywhere, since we talked last, but I can’t find him. Can you think of anywhere else he could be?”

“Bro Sheng really doesn’t go to too many places, and if he’s alone he’s usually at home if not working. I don’t understand how we can’t find him…” Lu Bancheng murmured on the phone and fell into thinking.

Qin Zhi’ai’s hand holding the phone was shaking hard, as her head was spinning and her heart was racing.

As she felt her heart was going to jump out of her, she suddenly remembered he had gone to the wishing well at the plaza. Before she left Hui Shi, she had been worried about him one night and followed after him in a taxi when he went to see his old army pals. Lu Bancheng also had mentioned that wishing well at dinner last night.